Lebanon reframes distribution policy and prices for prepaid cellular cards to combat black market sales
www.WirelessFederation,com/news: As the April approaches, the distribution of prepaid cellular cards in Lebanon will be rearranged and new prices will be launched in order to restrain from the black market sales. Minister Jibran Bassil has announced the new distribution policy of prepaid cellular cards at a press conference.
Bassil said that the step taken will bring stability to the Lebanese mobile market. He further said that the reorganised policy will benefit all the concerned parties, including primary and secondary distributors, the two network operators, the ministry and most importantly, the subscribers who will be able to receive quality service at a steady price throughout the nation.
Bassil said that each of the two operators should have 15 distributors across Lebanon, including one distributor in each district, ensuring better service. This policy would pave way to all those who have the necessary requirements – such as market experience, retail shops, and the technological know how etc. – to get into the distribution business and encourage available distributors to perform better.
This step is considered to be a decisive factor in times when the market is facing black market sales, which gives distributors a range of 2-20 percent share maximum.
Basil believes that the number of subscribers is expected to jump to 1.6 million and an additional 800,000 lines are expected to increase the market activity, which will benefit primary and secondary distributors.
According to the new distribution policy, the monthly subscriptions for the postpaid cellular cards will drop to $15 from the current $25, a drop of 40%. The per-minute rate of postpaid cards will also come down by 16% from the current $0.13 to $0.11.
Additionally, the price of a prepaid card, valid for one month will fall from the current $45 to $25, while the cost of a one-minute call will dip from the current $0.50 to $0.36.
The subscribers will also have an option of purchasing the prepaid cards with a validity of up to three months for $75.
