The Indian telcos are proceeding with some new scheme to boost their margins, where they’ll be cutting down on the freebies and talktime with discount vouchers used by prepaid users. Bothered with stagnating revenues, service providers are counting big time that these moves will help with better sales and revenue.
Of the 906 million Indian mobile subscribers, almost 96% are prepaid users. As per an Economic Times report, the special discount vouchers or tariffs used by many cash up approximately 70% of the operators’ revenue, and the figures have remained stagnant since the last three years. Over the last twenty days, various modifications in the discount vouchers could be witnessed- a move that includes operators like Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone India, Tata Teleservices, and Aircel. Reportedly, Bharti Airtel has cut down the validity period for discount vouchers (costing Rs. 28/-) from 90 days to 60 days in Delhi, Idea Cellular upped the prices of its voucher from Rs. 72/- to Rs. 97/-, while Vodafone has lowered the free minutes on the five day-valid voucher costing Rs. 22/- to 55 minutes from 65 minutes.
The operators’ latest move follows the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) report some two months ago which stated that the number of mobile subscribers have dipped from 934.09mn (June) to 913.49mn (July).
The Indian telcos are proceeding with some new scheme to boost their margins, where they’ll be cutting down on the freebies and talktime with discount vouchers used by prepaid users. Bothered with stagnating revenues, service providers are counting big time that these moves will help with better sales and revenue.
Of the 906 million Indian mobile subscribers, almost 96% are prepaid users. As per an Economic Times report, the special discount vouchers or tariffs used by many cash up approximately 70% of the operators’ revenue, and the figures have remained stagnant since the last three years. Over the last twenty days, various modifications in the discount vouchers could be witnessed- a move that includes operators like Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone India, Tata Teleservices, and Aircel. Reportedly, Bharti Airtel has cut down the validity period for discount vouchers (costing Rs. 28/-) from 90 days to 60 days in Delhi, Idea Cellular upped the prices of its voucher from Rs. 72/- to Rs. 97/-, while Vodafone has lowered the free minutes on the five day-valid voucher costing Rs. 22/- to 55 minutes from 65 minutes.
The operators’ latest move follows the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) report some two months ago which stated that the number of mobile subscribers have dipped from 934.09mn (June) to 913.49mn (July).