Tata DoCoMo has launched GSM services in Himachal Pradesh, in the latest stage of its planned pan-Indian rollout.
The operator's network already covers 286 towns and 4,342 villages across the stake, Tata DoCoMo said. The coverage area also includes 604km of highways, 129km of rail routes, airports and tourist destinations.
Aditya Gupta, Tata DoCoMo's CEO for Himachal Pradesh, said the operator's coverage area is already larger than any other network in the state. “We are focusing on network superiority, coverage and service offerings,” he said.
The company – a JV between India's Tata group and Japan's NTT DoCoMo - now operates services in 17 of India's 22 telecom circles. And the company expects to complete its $2 billion nationwide rollout this year.
Tata DoCoMo kicked off in Himachal Pradesh with an aggressive pricing model, including one-second billing for each service using time-based charging. Voice calls will be billed at 1 paisa ($0.0002) for six seconds for local calls, and one paisa for two seconds for STD calls.
The operator is meanwhile charging 60 paisa for the first SMS sent anywhere in India during a day – but the next 200 messages sent that day are then free.
Tata DoCoMo boasted that the Tata group has led by monthly subscriber additions for the past six consecutive months, with this streak beginning two months after Tata DoCoMo services went live.