Tata Teleservices (TTSL) and retail major, the Future Group today unveiled a new business alliance branded as ‘T24’ which will offer mobile services under the GSM platform.

“This is a unique marketing alliance between a retailer and a telecom operator in India, and offers us direct access to millions of Future Group customers through its widespread retail presence across India,” Anil Sardana said.

“T24 stands for Talk 24, and is a natural choice of brand-name for us in this unique partnership, one that it will provide customers with a dual advantage all 24 hours of the day—‘Shop More, Talk More’ and ‘Talk More, Shop More’," he added.

The alliance will initially launch the services in South India.

“I am delighted at this partnership with Tata Teleservices Limited. The T24 service is a unique offering which is innovative yet simple and provides customers a powerful value proposition,” commented Kishore Biyani, Chief Executive Officer of Future Group.

Customers of Future Group stand to gain shopping benefits for talking and talk-time benefits for each time they shop.

The services will now be marketed across Future Group’s retail network.

For Tata Teleservices this marks the second such arrangement when the company has entered into an alliance to offer its mobile services in alliance with a partner. It partners Virgin Mobile to offer voice as well as VAS mainly targeted towards the youth segment. The new foray taps the retail segment and it appears that it will mainly bank on attracting subscribers from rival networks.

According to Mr.Sardana the alliance is not a disguise of MVNO-based services as it does not involves any bulk talktime buying by the alliance partner which is the normal convention in a MVNO model.