Mobile phone service provider Aircel has upped the stakes in the market by launching the event GSM service in Delhi with tariff plans that outdo the other six operators. Among other things, it has moved to make long calls cheaper.

Its scheme offers lifetime validity for prepaid mobile customers, which will allow them to make local calls at Re1 for the first minute, 60 paise for the second minute, and 40p from the third minute onwards. The plan is available for Rs99.

It also offers international ISD calls at Rs1.75 per minute to USA and Canada, along with 300 free messages, as part of this scheme. Further, long-distance ISD calls would cost just 50p a minute, and the service would be free-of-cost for first three months.

Delhi already has six mobile operators - Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, MTNL, Tata Communications, and Reliance Communications. Aircel will be the seventh. Its entry may have much to do with the government's promise to introduce mobile number portability soon.

The ministry of telecommunications has already selected US firms Syniverse Technologies and Telcordia Technologies to run mobile number portability services in India. (See: Mobile number portability: Syniverse, Telecordia bag contracts)

Aircel-Maxis is a joint venture between Malaysia's Maxis Communications Bhd and Apollo Hospital Enterprises Ltd. Maxis holds the majority 74-per cent stake, while Apollo Hospitals owns the remaining 26 per cent.

Aircel has launched four different tariff plans targeting different consumer segments - business and corporate, youth and students, migrant population from North-East, Bengal, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh, as well as a standard package.

The company has a budget of $10 billion to expand its cellular network nationwide, of this $5 billion of this has already been invested, Sandip Das, chief executive of Aircel, told reporters in New Delhi.

Aircel has a pan-India licence and has also recently been allocated the required spectrum by the department of telecommunications. In the next phase, the company plans to introduce the service in Mumbai as well as the eastern and western parts of Uttar Pradesh.

Das said that in the next 24 months the company would cover all the 23 circles in the country. Currently active in 13 circles, Aircel is India's fifth largest GSM mobile service provider, with over 17 million users. Aircel intends to cover Delhi's satellite cities like Noida and Gurgaon in the next stage.

Aircel sponsors the Indian Premier League cricket team Chennai 'Super Kings', and has current India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni as its brand ambassador.