In an attempt to bring 1.5 million non resident Indians (NRIs) and students in Canada closer to their friends and families in India, Bharti Airtel Ltd. launched its virtual calling card service “Airtel CallHome” in Canada. Airtel has previously launched this calling card service in the US in the last quarter of 2006 and in UK and Singapore in August and September 2008, respectively.
The calls to India will cost 5.9 cents per minute. With Airtel’s inaugural offer of 50% free talk time the cost per minute will come further down to 3.9 cents. The “Airtel CallHome” service is offered for prepaid charges which will be accepted through a credit card on the Airtel Web portal through a secure payment gateway.
It was revealed that according to industry estimates, the total outgoing traffic to India from Canada is around 18 crore minutes per month, of which 6 crore minutes are utilized through calling cards.
David Nishball, President, Enterprise Services, Bharti Airtel Ltd., said, “We are excited to launch the Airtel CallHome service in Canada after our successful foray in three international markets. With the large NRI population, Canada is a strategic market for us and we see great potential here. With our world-class service standards we hope to increase the share of virtual calling cards here and make Airtel the preferred choice for the Indian community to connect with friends and family back in India.”
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