Sweet ringtone of the cash register

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NEW DELHI: It's not only the jewellery establishments and mithai shops who have made money this season. If numbers are any indication, then cellular firms too have also cashed in on the festive spirit.

Take Airtel, for instance. The Delhi circle alone saw 8.5 million SMSes been exchanged on Diwali day as against 5.5 million last year. "It's been a good Diwali this year," exudes K Srinivas, CEO of Airtel Mobile Services, Delhi.

At an average of Re 1 for a message, Airtel's gross revenue in the Capital on Diwali from SMS alone totalled Rs 85 lakh. On a normal day, between one and 1.3 million SMSes are exchanged in the Delhi region.

If this were not enough, the company had a host of other Diwali related value-add offerings ranging from ringtones, wallpapers, music messages to even standardised messages that were downloaded and sent to friends and relatives.

"We saw a six-fold increase in value-add service downloads on Diwali over a normal day," says Srinivas. Similarly, Hutch also saw a 'significant increase' in SMS exchange during Diwali, but refused to divulge numbers.



"We do see a spike in consumers sending SMS greetings during the festive season. For example, during Navratras, we saw a lot of ringtone and wallpaper downloads in Gujarat circle," says Naveen Chopra, V-P, Hutch. So even if there is a dip in business traffic on account of holidays, it gets more than compensated by the festive flow of messages.

Companies have left no stone unturned and have increased network capacities to meet the festive rush. "Unlike a phone call, where one has to see the convenience of both the caller and the receiver, a SMS can be sent anytime and responded at convenience.," says Chopra.

After Diwali, New Year will be the next big event that will see a spurt in mobile activity and cellular providers are gearing up for the same.