Fascel's marketing strategy quite simply, was to target small traders -- and consciously stay away from wooing a corporate clientele. Pertinently, there was no dearth of such consumers in Gujarat, which is well known for its large and successful trading community.

The result? In a market where projections have gone awry for the biggest and best of cellular players, the non-metro cellular provider is managing to ring in fairly high amounts of calls a month-company officials claim that it is the highest in non-metro circles. Fascel has also managed to convert a whopping 50 per cent of its 50,000 subscriber base to the pre-paid category, which is today the latest buzzword for survival for the cellular industry.

``The business acumen of Gujrati traders isunquestionable. The traders see value in using a cellular phone as it translates into more business for them. Having identified the target audience we began servicing it through innovative schemes for them. One thing which went in our favour was the overwhelming usage of service from our subscribers,'' explains a top Fascel official.

``This is the one reason why we are the number one operator outside Mumbai and Delhi in terms of the number of subscribers and more importantly, in terms of the amount of airtime minutes and revenue per subscriber,'' he adds.According to the company, its average airtime per month per subscriber is 180-200 minutes-as against the industry average of 130 minutes. ``Our revenue per subscriber similarly is about Rs 1,600 per month, again one of the highest in the industry,'' said the official.

Given the target audience it has chosen for itself, Fascel decided to design its pre-paid options in such a fashion that they would appeal to the traders.

``Most small traders prefer touse cash and do not want to go through the hassles of paying bills. Hence, we designed several innovative products, so the subscriber can pick up a pre-paid card at Rs 900, Rs 1,500 or Rs 3,000. All the other facilities like STD etc are provided for with the card,'' said the official.

The company now claims to have about 26,000 subscribers on pre-paid cards-``possibly the highest in the industry,'' says the official. Unlike abroad, where a pre-paid card is meant more as a temporary-use service for a visitor to a city, in India, the pre-paid card has become a necessary marketing tool for cellular operators, due to the licensing regime prevalent here.

Cellular operators are required to pay about Rs 6,000 per subscriber per annum as license fee to the government. On the other hand, the rentals are a minuscule Rs 150 per month. Hence, it is imperative for an operator to have a subscriber base which uses the phone frequently.

It is for this reason that several operators are now more conscious about addingsubscribers who actually use the service-rather than just chase the numbers for a large subscriber base. On the flip side, a pre-paid card assures the cellular operator a fixed revenue in advance, regardless of whether the subscriber uses the facility or not.

While focussing on the small trader has served Fascel well, the brand is now considering new strategies for expanding the market. ``Apart from the north to south urban belt and a few parts of the state there is not much potential for cellular phones elsewhere in the state. We are therefore, looking at creating new backbones for extending the reach to other parts of the state,'' said the official. Once again, these could be small schemes-for big gain.