Hutchison Telecom East Limited COO Sunil Sood (left) with MD Asim Ghosh in Calcutta on Monday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury.

Calcutta, Dec. 16: Hutchison Telecom East Limited (HTEL) announced the launch of the Hutch brand in Calcutta today. “The launch of Hutch in Calcutta is the next strategic step in our plan to create a unified national brand across all Hutchison-affiliated cellular circles,” said Asim Ghosh, head of Indian operations.

The Hutch brand is now present in six circles — Delhi, Chennai, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat and Calcutta. Hutch has a 20 per cent market share. The company claims to have a 45 per cent share of the new additions nationally.

“The introduction of Hutch is an opportunity to integrate operations and processes,” explained Ghosh. “There will be a brief thematic campaign to introduce the brand. Over the next few weeks, we will launch a number of new products and specific services that will provide users with a taste of international standards.”

The company has also launched its new scheme ‘Hutch Share’, which offers 50 per cent discounts on outgoing calls between two designated cellular numbers. The nominated Hutch user will also get 5 per cent of the primary user’s airtime amount free of cost.

The Hutch brand was launched in Gujarat on December 14 with a host of new products like a reduced tariff package, national and international roaming on pre-paid cards and missed call alert services.

Speaking on the competition offered by the entry of Reliance, Ghosh said: “WiLL is only a platform and not a technology. The cheaper tariffs have not been made possible by technology, but due to indiscriminate regulation.”