Rim's Pre-paid Offers May End Soon

[Greens 21]

RIM's pre-paid offers may end soon

AJOY K DAS

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SUNDAY, MARCH 21, 2004 11:45:41 PM ]

KOLKATA: A rapidly-growing subscriber base is likely to prompt Reliance Infocomm to soon change its bundled offer for Reliance India Mobile?s (RIM) prepaid service, reports Ajoy K Das in Kolkata.

In effect, days of the entry-level offer of Rs 3,500 along with Rs 3,240-worth of free recharge vouchers, may be numbered. Reliance Infocomm is currently working on several bundled packages.

The timing of their introduction in the market will be disclosed, as soon as the targetted critical mass of prepaid subscribers is achieved.

?The current scheme for RIM prepaid is an introductory offer and customers should avail of it while it is on. This offer will definitely come to an end as all schemes do. I cannot disclose the date, but its longevity will be linked to achieving a critical mass of prepaid subscribers,? SP Shukla, president, wireless products & services, Reliance Infocomm told ET. ?Nobody can continue an offer indefinitely.

The longevity of any scheme is governed by the critical mass or numbers that one has in mind. Also, over a period of time a scheme starts to give diminishing returns out of fatigue or competition comes out with a better offer,? Mr Shukla said.

?In our case, the third reason is ruled out because Infocomm is giving away, a value almost equal to the cost of handset, free. We are working on several bundled options to replace the introductory scheme. But any offer that we will come out with, will address the key concern of a customer, which is the entry-level barrier in terms of cost and recurring costs,? he added.

Though mum?s the word on the exact date when the new packages will be introduced, indications are that RIM prepaid, which was launched just over a month ago, is fast gaining on the number of subscribers and the targeted critical mass may be very near.

The free recharge voucher offer, worth Rs 3,240 along with the entry-level handset costing Rs 3,500, may come to an end sooner than expected.

According to Mr Shukla, it is still too premature to peg an estimate on the exact growth in the number of prepaid RIM subscribers, simply because apart from the major cities, the launch has not completed a full month in the 1,122 cities and towns where the service has been unrolled.

The second month would be the right time to assess the growth figures after all geographies have had a full month of prepaid service.