Ranchi, Feb. 25: Tata Teleservices, a part of the Tata Group, became the fourth cellular phone operator in Ranchi with the launch of its telecom services, Tata Indicom, here today.

The company has already launched its services in Jamshedpur.

Announcing the project, chief operating officer, eastern region, Rajesh Puri said the services would be extended to Hazaribagh, Ghatshila, Khunti, Dhanbad and Ramgarh within a month.

The company offers a wide range of services like mobile, fixed wireless, public telephone booths and other value added services.

Tata Indicom claims to use advanced network to provide good coverage and voice clarity. The network rides on state-of-the-art mobile switching centres from Ericsson and an intelligent network from Alcatel. There are about 20,000 subscribers in Jamshedpur.

The company has opened six exclusive True Value shops and over 400 retail outlets all over the capital. It has also set up 14 cell sites in Ranchi. While the company has begun its mobile services, the fixed wireless services will start in a week.

Under the pre-paid services called True Paid, a subscriber would get 1-second pulse and 100 per cent talk time.

The local call rate has been fixed at flat 3 paise per second, STD at 5 paise per second and ISD at 30 paise per second. However, the call charges for post-paid will be Rs 1.25 (local) and Rs 2.65 (STD). A monthly rental of Rs 199 will be charged for the services.