International travelers from India can heave a huge sigh of relief courtesy WorldSIM. The UK based global SIM card was launched in India yesterday in Chennai. Despite not being an international traveler, I cannot seem to stop my excitement at the new service.
While the local telecom market in India has come down to very competitive rates, international roaming is still a cause of concern with rates almost brutally attacking pockets of subscribers. According to Mr K. Vaidhyanathan, CEO, Hash10 Telcom Pvt Ltd, savings from the new service might be upto 85%. Hash10 is the exclusive distributor for WorldSIM in India
The card comes with a US and a UK mobile number and will feature multiple local numbers in the future. The pricing is attractive at Rs 2,750 which includes talk time of Rs 500. To top it up nicely, subscribers to the service can get free incoming calls from almost 80 countries and make calls to over 200.
WorldSIM’s launch in India might just pave the way for high quality international mobile services with competitive pricing to make a consolidated entry in the sufficiently lucrative market. Mr. Vaidyanathan summed up the potential neatly, “Nearly 45,000 people travel abroad daily but a single global roaming SIM card is not available”. This will definitely give WorldSIM a first mover advantage and other players looking at this sector should be making their move very soon.
