Tata Teleservices to offer free voice minutes for viewing mobile ads

In a move aimed at tapping the mobile advertisement market, Tata Teleservices plans to soon start offering subscribers free voice minutes for viewing ads on their handsets before making calls.

The telco has tied up with a few companies to show their ads, a move expected to boost Tata Tele revenues. The service would be launched in partnership with mAdcall pvt Ltd, a sister concern of Astute systems, according to reports.

'GET', a mobile advertising application which is compatible with Android, Java, Symbian and Blackberry, would be available on both GSM and CDMA networks (Docomo and Indicom brands). The application would also be accessible over Wi-Fi and Tata Docomo internet.

Tata Tele counts over 63 million subscribers across India.

The application, which allows video advertising on mobile, also lets users choose when or where they wanted to view a video commercial on their phone.

According to a company official, users would be offered a free voice minute, per advertisement viewed on their Docomo data enabled handset, for both pre- and post- pay customers.

He added that mobile users opting for the service would not be charged for data while using Tata Docomo Internet.

The advertisement would play on the handset without buffering on 2G, 3G or CDMA network. The spokesman added that users would be instantly rewarded with one minute of local or national talk-time for each advertisement viewed.

Tata Teleservices was the first operator to launch this application on GSM and CDMA technology in India, he added.

A recent report, the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International on digital advertising, has estimated the ad spend on mobile ads in 2011-12 at Rs105 crore.

According to the report, the number of active mobile internet users had reached 48 million by March 2012 and as a result, advertisements placed on mobile phones and tablets were increasingly becoming commonplace.