Dial 1901-33-1901 to get rid of queues

By Our Convergence Bureau | 26 Apr 2002

Mumbai: Just dial 1901-33-1901 and pay your bills through BillJunction (it's a local call from the telephone near to you).

BillJunction Payments Ltd, the pioneer in universal bill presentment and payment service in India, brings convenience at your fingertips: BillJunction Dial-n-Pay. You can pay your bills just by dialling 1901-33-1901.

The recurring bills of utilities such as telephone (MTNL, Kalyan Telecom), electricity (BEST, BSES, MSEB), insurance premium (LIC, ICICI Prudential, ING, Vysya, Max New York Life), mobile (Orange, BPL Mobile), credit card (ICICI Bank), paging (Mobilink), property tax (BMC, NMMC, TMC) and ISP renewals (Satyam Infoway, Roltanet, Now-India) can be paid any time of the day or week by using e-telephone.

Citizens across the city will now have the flexibility to pay their recurring bills either through telephone (by dialling 1901-33-1901) or the Internet (via www.billjunction.com). Dial-n-Pay has been launched in Mumbai in the first phase and this service will soon be offered in seven other cities - Delhi-NCR (national capital region), Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad - over the next couple of months.

“We shall also be offering this service in vernacular languages as well, which will provide complete convenience to our customers,“ says BillJunction Payments chief operating officer Bikramjit Sen.

Registered customers of BillJunction, after indicating their ID number and TPIN (telephone personal identification number) can hear their bill details and give the payment instructions on phone. Here, the customers can pay through their existing bank account and do not require credit card or charge card to make the payments.

The system also sends e-mail and SMS reminders to the customers to notify them about the status of their bills. The customers also have the option to pay their bills through Manual-Pay mode or Auto-Pay mode (standing instruction). Besides, the customers can hear the details of previous bills paid through this service.

With telephone penetration in India more than 12 times that of Internet penetration, BillJunction aims to target this service. While India's Internet penetration currently hovers around three per 100 persons, the rapidly improving telecom network boasts of nearly 37 connections per 1,000 persons. “With the facility to pay recurring bills through telephone, we plan to target a large section of people from urban and suburban areas - predominantly those who do not have ready access to the Internet at home or at office,“ says Sen.

BillJunction plans to boost its registered user-base three folds with the Dial-n-Pay service within next one year. With over 15 million bills paid each month across eight major metres, BillJunction is gearing up to tap this highly lucrative emerging market.

Since its inception in May 2000, BillJunction has grown to establish itself as the premier electronic bill presentment and payment service provider in India with its reach across eight major metres and through strong biller relationships with as many as 70 service providers. In a span of two years it has expanded its user-base to over 1 lakh across the eight metros. Besides the individual user, BillJunction also offers its bouquet of services to corporates and small and medium enterprises.

“It is our endeavour to bring you face to face with a never-before-known convenience with the help of technological advancements. We will continuously strive to add value to our current biller relationships by offering them products and services that will improve their efficiencies and performance as well,“ says Sen.

BillJunction Payments Ltd, a network company of ICICI Venture, introduced the universal bill presentment and payment service in India two years ago. Since then, it has used technology to develop service features that go a long way in offering convenience to its customers. In line with its vision to take away all the hassles from the bill payment process, BillJunction offers its customers the flexibility and convenience to pay bills through phone or the Internet.