MTS expands its reach in six new districts in West Bengal

MTS, the mobile telephony brand promoted by Sistema Shyam Teleservices, has launched mobile services in six new districts of North Bengal - Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Malda, Uttar Dinajpur and Dakshin Dinajpur.

Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL) is a joint venture between Sistema of Russia and Shyam Group of India.

It has also introduced a new Mcard 99 which offers calls at 30 paisa per minute for outgoing calls made to any mobile in Kolkata and West Bengal. This will be launched in  80 towns and 1,200 villages of the region, Sistemas Shyam said in a press rerlease. It said MTS's service coverage in West Bengal would be avilable in 10,000 towns and villages, across 18 districts, and across more than 25,000 retail outlets.

The company said it has crossed  the one-lakh subscriber milestone in Kolkata and West Bengal in less than 45 days of commencement of operations.

MTS yesterday announced crossing the global subscriber base of MTS had recently crossed 100 million. (See: MTS brand enrolls more than 100 million subscribers globally)

''We will soon be present in all four districts of Sikkim. Our inaugural scheme, Minute Millionaires, and the second lifetime offer received overwhelming response in Kolkata and other parts of West Bengal. We intend to replicate this success in the new service areas of North Bengal,'' said Keshhav Tiwary, COO, SSTL, Kolkata and West Bengal.

SSTL is also offering Mcard 499, that will offer subscribers up to one million minutes of talk time over a lifetime; Msaver 31, an SMS card offering 1,000 local and national SMS in a month; and Msaver 27, a STD card that will allow users to make calls at Re1/min.

SSTL had forayed into the Indian telecom sector with the launch of services in Rajasthan, rapidly expanded its presence to five more circles – Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Kolkata, West Bengal and Bihar in quick succession, serving over 1.35 million MTS customers.