India 2.0

The punch line of Virgin Mobile — Think hatke (different) — has literally been put to practice by subscribers. They started thinking differently and Virgin seems to be in a soup. In a recent ad Virgin promoted an offer where a subscriber would get 10 paise for a minute of incoming calls. As Virgin is marketed by Tata Indicom, calls from Tata to Virgin are free.

Hatke-thinking subscribers with both connections put this deal to best use at night by calling their Virgin number from their Tata phone before going to sleep. The ‘call’ would continue throughout the night and add money to their Virgin connection.

At the rate of 10 paise per minute, a phone kept engaged for six hours would get a recharge value of Rs.36. Has Sir Richard Branson started thinking hatke?