Few takers for vanity landline No.
N. Arun Kumar | DC
Chennai: The state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and private telecom operators have received a lukewarm response to their offer of vanity landline telephone numbers. Industry analysts point out that the auction of such numbers will not yield the telecom companies much revenue as customers looked at the quality of service provided rather than a fancy number.
It was one of the call taxi companies in the city that created the craze for fancy phone numbers so that it would be easy for people to call them. Capitalising on the travel industry’s fad for vanity telephone numbers, BSNL auctioned a few vanity numbers in the landline sector, but only a few companies took part in the bidding.
“We had a few call taxi firms and a big travel operator who took part in the bid. A call taxi firm won the auction at Rs 35 lakh and a top bus operator too has bagged a vanity number for a lower amount.
An individual from Coimbatore had taken another vanity landline in the BSNL Tamil Nadu circle for Rs 50 lakh,” G. Vijaya, spokesperson for BSNL-Chennai Telephones said.
She pointed out that the response from individuals had been on the increase when it came to vanity cellphone numbers.
“Whenever we auction vanity cellphone numbers people buy it at a competitive price, which makes us look at auctioning more cellphone numbers,” the spokesperson said.
Sources in the telecom industry alleged that most of the companies that won the bids at higher prices either did not clinch the deal or bargain for a lower amount, which yielded no profit for the telecom service providers.
Next: From 4-5 firms about two years ago, Chennai has over 150 players as on date
From 4-5 firms about two years ago, Chennai has over 150 players as on date
K. Sreedevi | DC
Chennai: Rising fuel costs and an expanding city have resulted in a spurt in the number of cabs on the city roads. Chennai’s call taxi segment has witnessed a phenomenal growth in the last couple of years with over 150 players in the fray from both within and outside the state.
Real estate growth along the city peripherals is cited as the key reason for this surge. “Areas out of the main city limits are developing well in terms of real estate, but people finds it difficult to get public transport and prefer to take taxis to get back home,” said V. Balakrishna, president, TN Call Taxi Owners and Drivers Association.
ÂThe misconception that taxis are a costly proposition is slowly changing with affluent young corporates with offices on the suburbs now open to the idea of taking cabs to work and back, he added. However, even now only about 20% of the city’s population are using call taxi services, say industry players.
“On a daily basis, roughly about 20,000- 25,000 cab pick-ups happen in Chennai,” said K. Sathyanarayanakumar, CEO, Bharathi call taxi, one of the early birds to have entered the city’s call taxi business.
Though the growth is stagnant with a low base, the scene is getting competitive with more players in the fray. From a bunch of 4-5 service firms about two years ago, the Chennai cab scene has over 150 players as on date, owing to a huge influx of players from outside the state.
“It is easy to start a cab company these days as the entire set up runs on the attachment concept. All one needs is a PRI line with a fancy number from a telecom firm to handle incoming calls,” said Bharathi CEO.
“For minimum profit in the business, any cab company should have 150-200 vehicles running per day with a business of Rs 1,500-2.000 per vehicle per day,” said Balakrishna. But following acute shortage of drivers, the attachment model has gained ground which lets drivers with their own cars become associated with a cab firm for a monthly sum.
Despite paying a monthly rent of Rs 3500-4000 to the cab firm, drivers get to earn up to Rs 60,000 every month. “This has impelled many small car and sedan owners to attach themselves to cab firms and has led to the spurt,” said the Call Taxi Association president.
“Technically for us, it is about footprints in the city that have a genuine transport problem,” said Anand Subramanian, senior manager of Ola Cabs of Bengaluru who recently set up shop in Chennai.
“Things like quality and reliability etc were completely lacking in this mode of transport. When we got in concepts like GPS tracker and android mobile app facility, even investors were interested,” he added.
But the growing number of players feasting on the stagnant pie has pushed cab companies to the wall. “Extensive ads about cab services these days coupled with freebies are only to woo a minimum traffic,” said Sathya. With companies willing to spend up to Rs 1 crore/month on advertising and fancy numbers, it seems a boom time for advertising and telecom firms.
