Videocon Telecom has announced that it has upgraded its network to 2.75G EDGE (Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution) by investing around Rs. 130 crores. This promises speeds of up to 473.6 Kbps, about 6 times the maximum speeds delivered by conventional 2G Network.
With this, the company aims to offer 3G like experience to its customers at 2G rates, that too on their existing 2G handsets, without upgrading their handsets. It has also rolled out marketing campaign around it, released a logo for 2.75G EDGE network and has branded it pauney teen G network to get customer attention. It plans to spend approximately Rs. 50 crore on marketing communication on this campaign in next few months.
Arvind Bali, Director & CEO, Videocon Telecom said:
Growing Mobile internet comes with a huge opportunity and challenges for a 2G player like us. With the growing smart phone penetration, customers are seeking faster data speeds, that too at very reasonable rates. With still approx 80% of mobile data users on 2G handsets, there is a very large audience that can be catered with a technology which is best of both worlds, i.e. enhanced speeds at 2G rates.
Our strategy is to cater to this 80% customers who are on 2G handsets and aspire for 3G like experience that too at affordable prices, and this is where we strategized to upgrade our network to 2.75G EDGE, and why just limit our reach to 2G handset customers, when all 3G handsets are 2G compatible by default.
We are already seeing a huge surge in our data consumption by over 51% already, data user penetration has grown by 3% to touch 40% and average data consumption per customer per day has gone up by 37% within a week of network upgrade. This is a testimony of our Customer experience with the upgrade, and the fact that our strategy has been apt.