Hutch now in Chennai

Hutchison Essar has launched its cellular services in Chennai under the recently launched unified pan-India brand Hutch. With this Hutch completes its metro journey, thus becoming the first of the new round of licensees to launch its services in any metro. 

Coming with a single tariff plan called 'TalkFlexi', the customers will have to pay a rental of Rs 275 per month. The airtime rate for the incoming as well as the outgoing call will be the same and will depend on the airtime minutes used by a customer in a month. The flat rate will start at Rs 2.50 per minute and end at Rs 1.75. The more airtime a customer uses, the lower will be the applicable tariff rate, said Rajiv Sawhney, Chief Executive Officer, Hutchison Essar South Limited. 

Speaking during the launch, Asim Ghosh, Director of Hutchison Essar said, "Chennai promises to be one of the important markets for Hutch, as the company sees tremendous potential to expand the subscriber base. Currently, Chennai is the sixth largest cellular market in the country, with a subscriber base of 2.7 lakh. This is approximately 22.5 percent of the fixed lines in the city. In comparison, this figure stands at 46 percent in Mumbai. Hutch sees this as a significant market opportunity."

Hutch brings with it value added service like unified messaging service, 32K Intelligent SIM, voice response services, voice messaging and roaming facility. The company has installed 110 towers in Chennai and plans to set up further soon.