f things work out as Pramod Saxena, former head of Motorola India, has planned, consumers may soon be able to recharge airtime for mobile phones in the comfort of their homes. This April, Saxena along with friend Sanjiv Lamba, floated India Prepaid Services (IPS), a 50:50 joint venture with the $1.5 billion The Pre-Paid Company, South Africa�s largest distributor of prepaid airtime. In July, IPS launched a virtual prepaid service, Oxigen, "for the electronic dispensation of prepaid airtime in a structured way".

The market for mobile recharge is estimated at Rs 10,000 crore currently. Of the 40 million mobile phone users in India, about 70 per cent are prepaid users. But the promise for Oxigen lies in the future. In another two years the total number of subscribers is expected to reach 100 million. If the recharge market continues to form 70-80 per cent of that, then the potential market for Oxigen is huge. ... more