'Incoming free for lifetime' is the latest mantra of telecom service providers in India. The launch of prepaid cards with lifetime validity for incoming calls is just another attempt to chain customers to a single service provider for life! In India, about 78 per cent of the mobile users are prepaid cardholders and this segment is growing at a very fast pace. And telecom operators are now wooing this segment with newer offers. According to operators, the advantage of this scheme is that a prepaid user can continue to receive incoming calls 'for life' even after the recharge period is over, as against the current system of restricted validity, based on the value of the recharge package.
But will the user actually get incoming calls 'free for life'? Or is there a catch?
Well, this move by the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) service providers is close on the heels of the 'Non-Stop Mobile' scheme launched by Tata Teleservices recently, which allows a customer to receive calls for two years without buying a recharge voucher. This scheme has turned out to be a big hit.
New users are often attracted to the longest validity period offers and these schemes aim to hook a good majority of new subscribers.
Meanwhile, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India officials have raised several doubts on the viability of these schemes. TRAI officials would be examining all the aspects of the schemes and would take necessary steps if required. TRAI has sought details on the lifetime validity schemes from all the service providers.
At a meeting held on January 12, TRAI said that lifetime validity tariff plans raise the following issues:
Long-term viability and sustainability of these plans.
Whether lifetime can exceed the balance license period of the operators and if not, would the plans vary in their validity duration.
What will happen to the plans if the traffic patterns and Interconnect User Charges regime changes substantially, and the matter of protection of interest of consumers who are subscribing to the lifetime tariff plan. TRAI expects the final decision in this regard would be taken by February 2006.
So what does 'incoming free for lifetime' actually mean?
First and foremost, it is not 'free for life' as all the service providers specify that the user must recharge every six months to stay mobile! And more importantly, every call you make will be more expensive than the normal prepaid call charge.
Verizon Wireless cellular service is inelastic because the products and services it offers makes them the dominant leader in the wireless industry; therefore, a 10% change in calling plan prices (monthly access fees) would not affect the quantity demanded. Verizon Wireless can depend on this inelasticity in their pricing model because of the strength of its brand and the wealth of products and services it offers. Verizon Wireless' competitive advantage comes from its ultra-low churn rate (the percentage of customers who disconnect their service is less than one percent of its 60 million customer base). This indicator suggests that customers are satisfied with the service Verizon Wireless offers and a slight price increase probably would not drive its customers to the competition. This data also suggests that customers probably stay with Verizon Wireless because of its continued expansion of new technologies and services such as its all-digital nationwide CDMA network, EVDO' or its advanced data network (used to wireless send and receive email and other data almost anywhere in the US), and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) that they use for their Push to Talk products. Verizon Wireless markets to a nearly all demographics nationwide and most of its services are offered in the smaller rural markets as a direct result of the one billion dollars per quarter it spends on improving its network as well as acquiring smaller wireless networks to make their nationwide network stronger and larger.
Ooma is a telecommunication company. We are going to change your attitude about the telephone. There are many new technologies that going to change telecommunication. Today, we have Skype or many others free program for calling people. Although, these companies will charge people every month for using this telecommunication. By the way, our company is not going to charge any phone bills, except, you need to pay $399 for the box, or hub. This box, Ooma's Hub, is a company's machine that uses to connect with a standard home phone or land lines. The box is smaller than a macaroni-and-cheese box, so it is kind of comfortable for us. As the head of this company, I will support this idea.
As regulations keep changing, it is important to note that consumer guarantees are only applicable for goods and services purchased on or after 1st January 2011. The laws that applied before 1st January 2011 might cover any purchases made before this time.
With an artificial end date in place the shift in priority from quality to time changes giving the end result a lesser out come as to what could have been achieved. This is yet another trade off that was incurred as the maintenance after the official opening date still needed to be completed costing the tax payers what seemed like a never ending cost (Refer 5.1).
Ring! Ring! Hello. Every second billions of cell phones calls occur across the globe. Cell phones have made it so that humans can communicate with each other at ease. Since the telephone’s invention in 1876, it has made human communication easier and added to the convenience of life. Being able to talk to a person that is hundreds, or even thousands of miles away has enhanced our forms of communication. However, when the invention of the first telephone came about, it was only for the elite and required enormous and heavy equipment in order for it to be operable, thus many did not own one. Telephones became major in the 1900s; and eventually a new innovation, the cellular phone, came about in 1973, but still a handful of people did not rely on them, or care for them. The first cell phone was of considerable size and was not available for everyone until around 1992. There are close to 6.8 billion cell phone subscriptions currently and most phones are considered smart phones, cell phones that integrate email, internet, and apps on a touch screen handheld device. The volume of subscriptions of phones are rapidly growing. With the
Phones have come a long way from their beginnings. When the first phone was developed, a mere phone call took up to ten minutes just to connect. The calls made on this phone would go through a system of connections where the caller would have to state who they were calling and where the person lived. It would be many years later that a telephone would be created that made use of a dial, which made calling easier. In 1963, the first pushbutton telephone was distributed by the company, Bell Telephone. In 1983, the first cellular device, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, was created, which took the world by storm. Soon later, miniature computers were being put in these devices, allowing the user to browse parts of the web while on their cellular device. Yet we wouldn’t see a product that allowed us to browse the web, communicate with others, and let us store music and run apps, until 2007. (ht...
To give customers more flexibility through decreasing the price of its handset, changing the length of the O2 contract and offering customers more options
Also, the rewards program is based off a point system and when one has earned a certain amount of points they send them a gift card to spend however they wish. Though, what the consumers don’t know is that by applying for their free rewards program, they are collecting data and constructing analysis to make them into loyal consumers.
Telecommunications gained mainstream attention in the early 90’s; however the initial key market was business men and women, who used their phones whilst being on the move and so allowing them to communicate with their companies with ease. Though in the modern era, telecommunication went through segmentation in the market trends, and now in this day and age it would be difficult to find someone who does not own some form of mobile technology. Many phone providers battle to provide the best service for their customers (Figure 1).
Skype has a solid commercial viability since it’s introduction into the market because of the free calls between its users. Skype`s is one of the most popular paid services for communication it givers member the ability to make regular landlines and mobile phones from anywhere in the world. Skype`s also has a target concentration in place which helps boots populate rate with the young adults who have a much better understanding
There is a slowdown in sales of mobile handsets, in some markets like the UK, as the mature part of the product lifecycle is reached. Customers are exposed to a barrage of different images and messages by mobile phone companies, as the competition gets tougher. Vodafone appeals to new customers and aims to keep its existing ones by emphasising the uniqueness of the brand.
This will give us the advantage of sending very large pieces of information over the phone line. The only thing that we do know about the telephone, is that it has come a long way since its first discovery by the inventor Alexander Graham Bell. A man who will always be remembered.
The. Sahel, Fluhr, Seibel, Nussbaum. Switching Plan for a Cellular Mobile Telephone System? New York: Penguin, 1973.
frequency carrier while the user is moving within a telephone service area. In addition to telephony, modern mobile phones support a variety of other services, such as text messaging, email, Internet access, short-range wireless communications, business applications, gaming, and photography. Cell Phones which offer these and more general computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones. Cell Phones are now a way of life in the generation we live in and call home today, and cell phones have changed and benefited our world. By means of texting , making calls, gaming applications, saving people’s lives , helping people while
Success Factors for Growth in the Indian Telecom Market. In India’s highly competitive market, Bharti must be mindful of how to keep its core competencies ahead as well as trying to develop new ones.