Idea Cellular cuts 3G tariffs by 70 percent (India)
Indian telecom operator Idea Cellular seems to be following Bharti Airtel’s footsteps by announcing a reduction of 70 percent in its 3G tariff plans. As per a company statement, Idea decided to cut 3G tariffs to widen the new-age offering by making it accessible to one and all.
The company said that under the new plan, Idea’s pre-paid and post-paid customers will pay $0.0005 for 10 kb of data, a reduction of 70 per cent from the earlier levels of $0.0018. Further, Idea said that 3G services are offered in 3,207 towns across the country and it has 2.7 million active users with an average usage of 330 MB per month.
Idea also said that it has introduced various packs such as sachet packs, regular packs and unlimited packs, priced in a way to accommodate users from different segments. The lowest of the sachets will be sold for $0.18 and offer 30 minutes of high speed internet surfing on 3G enabled handsets.
Mobile bill payment history to reflect credit worthiness (India)
Indian credit information bureau, Cibil, is planning to include an individual’s mobile and telephone bill payment history, when calculating their credit worthiness. According to a report by ET, Cibil has already begun working with Vodafone’s post-paid subscribers and is discussing a similar project with Bharti Airtel.
Arun Thukral, managing director, Cibil has said that their aim is to eventually link the telecom utility payment history to the banking and financial records of customers and make it available as a Cibil record to banks and other financial institutions. He added that the database can also be used by a telecom service provider when issuing a post-paid number to an individual. It will lower delinquencies and improve their quality of customers.
The implementation of this service may add to the list of verifications by a bank or financial institution to allow or deny a home or car loan. Further, even future credit cards and post-paid connections may be tougher for a customer with a poor credit rating.
Brazil ends Feb with 207.5 mn mobile subscribers
A research report from Antel has unveiled that Brazil ended February 2011 with over 207.5 million mobile phone subscribers.
Pre-paid phones accounted for 82.23 percent (170.7 million), while the remaining 17.77 percent were post-paid (36.9 million).
In February, the national mobile penetration rate stood at 106.91. The net addition of 2.43 million new phones in February represented a growth of 1.18 percent compared to January.
Totaling January and February figures, there were 4.6 million new additions in 2011, a growth of 2.28 percent compared to 2010. Also last month, mobile broadband terminals (3G) totaled 23.5 million (growth of 14.34% year-on- year).
Globe launches unlimited post- paid SMS service (Philippines)
Globe Telecom, Philippines’ telecommunications provider has introduced an unlimited SMS service for postpaid subscribers.
Dubbed The Globe MySuperTXT All add-on comes with a price tag of US$13.78 for 30 days and offers unlimited text messages to all mobile networks. The service is also available as a daily option for US$0.46. The add-on will be available until May 30 this year.
Vodafone Romania launches option for Chinese community
Vodafone Romania has launched an option for the Chinese community enabling customers to talk for 200 minutes on any Chinese network every month.
The offer is valid for both pre-paid and post-paid Vodafone accounts. The China option costs US$20.44 for the users of the Vodafone card pre-paid services, and US$25.35 in total for the Vodafone monthly subscribers and can be activated for free at *100#.
Vodafone Romania has 9.8 million clients, according to data at the end of 2010. Around 62% of these customers use pre-paid services, while the rest are post-paid users, paying a monthly subscription.
According to data from the company, Vodafone Romania has witnessed its average revenue per user (ARPU) drop to US$8.45 in the third quarter of last year, from US$10.36 in the same quarter of the previous year.
Zain Bahrain offers flexible postpaid data deals
A leading telecom service provider, Zain Bahrain is now offering its post-paid customers, affordable and flexible data bolt-on deals for their smartphones.
According to the company, the post-paid data bolt-on packages of Zain Bahrain are designed to help customers capitalize on the company’s mobile broadband technology at affordable prices.
The company added that the combination of sound technology and affordability is expected to make Zain’s post-paid customers push their data usage over their smartphones and get increasingly comfortable with using the cell phone and Internet service as an extension of everyday life. For maximum flexibility, Zain Bahrain is offering four data packages ranging from 600MB up to 15GB. Zain customers on Business Value and Hewar 990 will enjoy more value for money now.
According to Ammar Al Samia, Zain Bahrain’s mobile broadband specialist, post-paid customers are increasingly investing in smartphones and Zain Bahrain wanted to give them the convenience of matching two different technologies – smart phones and mobile broadband to be able to browse, surf the net, and satisfy their passion for social networking while on the move.
He added that by building in a crucial flexibility element, they have made the convenience of mobile broadband accessible to all post-paid customers riding the Smartphone wave. The company’s post-paid mobile data service is all about convenient data access on the move.
MTN’s 3G licence application denied (Swaziland)
The Swaziland Post and Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC) has reportedly declined to grant MTN Swaziland, the country’s sole mobile network operator, a 3G licence.
MTN was hoping to have received the concession at the end of last year, with CEO Ambrose Dlamini announcing that negotiations were at an ‘advanced’ stage. No explanation has yet been forthcoming from the regulator.
MTN Swaziland is believed to have carried out a month long pilot of four UMTS base stations last year. It was then granted a temporary 3G licence to cover several events including the Common Market for Eastern & Southern Africa (COMESA) summit, held last August.
The permit was valid from 16 August to 30 September, with 3G services allowed to be offered to post-paid customers only. At the end of September 2010 MTN Swaziland had 679,000 subscribers.
Vodafone Netherlands launches discount brand Hollandsnieuwe
Vodafone Netherlands has launched a new discount brand, ‘Hollandsnieuwe’, with mobile virtual network enabler (MVNE) Teleena responsible for billing, and sales conducted online only.
The new pre and post-paid brand aims to differentiate itself by ‘not offering call rates outside the bundle’, with monthly bundles and top-up call credit valid for three months.
Hollandsnieuwe aims to sign up more than 100,000 customers in 2011, while Vodafone states it wants to take 20% of the Dutch discount mobile subscriber market or more than one million customers within five years.
