Mero Mobile @ One Paisa Articles / Dharan on News Date: Sep 20, 2005 - 10:20 AM Mero Mobile @ One Paisa Spice Nepal Private Limited (SNPL), the first private cell phone operator, has commercially launched its services from today in Kathmandu Valley. The company, which is launching its service under the brand name 'Mero Mobile', has stated that cost of calls made to and from Mero Mobile will cost one paisa per minute. "The tariff rate will be valid until December 31 2005 on both pre-paid and post-paid services," said Damir Karassayev, Chief Executive Officer of SNPL addressing a press meet organized in Kathmandu today. He also informed that Nepal Telecom (NT) and SNPL have principally agreed on tariff rates on interconnection of network, and clients of Mero Mobile would be able to receive and make calls to subscribers of NT and other telephone operators very soon. "We will inform our customers about the availability of inter-network service soon as the board of directors of NT endorse the decision," he said. "The tariff rates on calls made to NT from Mero Mobile will be slightly higher than our original tariff as it involves cost that has to be paid to the government owned telephone company, but it will be reasonable." He also refuted charges that introduction of Mero Mobile service would increase the cost of calls made from PSTN service distributed by NT. SNPL, which includes 75 percent shares of VISOR Holdings of Kazakhstan, 20 percent shares of local partners and five percent share of Spice Cell of India, has stated that it would distribute, unlimited pre-paid and post-paid lines, through 32 outlets located at various places inside the capital. "The number will increase upto 100 outlets within two months and hundreds of others will be set outside the valley by the end of the year 2005," CEO Karassayev said. "By the end of this year our service will also be extended to major cities which has population above 25,000, including Birgunj, Pokhara, Janakpur, Bhairahawa, Biratnagar, Butwal, Nepalgunj, Bharatpur, Hetauda, Banepa and Dharan." A press release distributed at the program states that apart from basic services, Mero Mobile also offers services such as call forwarding, call waiting, conference call and automatic customer care system. Other services such as voicemail, e-mail to SMS and Internet customer care system - which enables subscriber to manage their accounts, download bills over the Internet, are also available. "For the first time in Nepal we have introduced content based services through which customers can load ring tones and pictures," Karassayev said. "By November we plan to make GPRS based data services such as MMS, WAP, Web browsing available." Speaking on the occasion, Dr Upendra Mahato, President of Non-Resident Nepalis ICC Association and one of the partners of Mero Mobile project said that SNPL would continue to offer attractive service at competitive price. Chairman of SNPL Raj Bahadur Singh, Alman Chukin of VISOR Holdings, Director of SNPL Romeo Abolo Abolo, Vice President of Siemens Franz Bauman and Director of SNPL Ajeya Raj Sumargi were also present on the occasion. source: http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=52149 This article comes from My Dharan | Your Window to a Global Dharane Network http://www.mydharan.com/ The URL for this story is: http://www.mydharan.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=112