Once upon a time.... Paktel offered a Prepaid "Gold" package, where all calls to any paktel number were free from 11 PM to 7 AM if you paid Rs. 10 a day. Back then, it was an amazing offer, where other operators were charging more than Rs. 5 per call. They took it down a little while later, but those who resisted their CS reps for 'upgrading' their packages still retain that feature to this day.
Now, Instaphone, through its InstaExcite package, is offering the same service. Free calls to all instaphone numbers *all* night from 12 midnight to 7 AM and free sms to the instaphone network the whole day long.
The Catch: you get to pay Rs. 200 per month for the service.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Friday, August 18, 2006
How low will they go?
Lowering SMS rates has been the latest (and greatest?) move by service providers in the bid to get more customers on their service. Originally started by Telenor, with their Djuice offering, which took SMS rate down to 20 paisa's (to any network) from the prevailing rate of Rs. 1 (for local) and 1.5 (for other networks) in the market.
SMS (or Short Message Service) has taken the world by storm in recent years, after it was 'accidently' left in the network design by the original engineers of GSM network, because they had some bandwidth leftover. The original use of SMS was to transmit and recieve troubleshooting messages over the network, so as to provide better service to its users. However, as soon as it came into the hand of consumers, they exploited it as best as they could.
Following the move by Telenor, Paktel offered up its 10 paisa per SMS package to the public. The last to cash in(?) on this wave was Ufone, which has come up with a slightly different offering. Instead of introducing a new package, they now offer people to buy SMS bundles of Rs. 25 to 125 which allows them to send from a 100 to 1250 msgs in a month. The bundle expire in a month and any sms's sent in that duration, will be subtracted from the total bought, and not charged seperately.
So who's next now? Mobilink and Warid, both show no signs of offering up new SMS rates, as they're concentrating on voice calls and value added services to profit. They surely can, since these are the top two providers (# of consumer-wise) in the country.
SMS (or Short Message Service) has taken the world by storm in recent years, after it was 'accidently' left in the network design by the original engineers of GSM network, because they had some bandwidth leftover. The original use of SMS was to transmit and recieve troubleshooting messages over the network, so as to provide better service to its users. However, as soon as it came into the hand of consumers, they exploited it as best as they could.
Following the move by Telenor, Paktel offered up its 10 paisa per SMS package to the public. The last to cash in(?) on this wave was Ufone, which has come up with a slightly different offering. Instead of introducing a new package, they now offer people to buy SMS bundles of Rs. 25 to 125 which allows them to send from a 100 to 1250 msgs in a month. The bundle expire in a month and any sms's sent in that duration, will be subtracted from the total bought, and not charged seperately.
So who's next now? Mobilink and Warid, both show no signs of offering up new SMS rates, as they're concentrating on voice calls and value added services to profit. They surely can, since these are the top two providers (# of consumer-wise) in the country.
Zem Prepaid Rates
On the request of Umar, i've come up with a excel sheet of the call rates for different length of calls (from 15 seconds to 1 hour) for the various Pre-paid packages offered by Warid Telecom under the banner of Zem.
Click here to access the spreadsheet.
Warid telecom has taken the lead in providing call packages tailored to different types of users in Pakistan. Three packages are billing based, from per second billing, to 30 second and 1 minute billing cycles. In addition, they've introduced two new packages called Warid 321 and Warid 12 to 9. A move truly designed to capture the hearts and minds of people from all over the usage spectrum.
321 is geared for people who make "long" calls and is most beneficial to users who make regular hour long calls from their mobiles.. costing them only Rs. 80 for the entire call. On the flip side, this package does become more expensive to short calling users.
12 to 9 drops the rates quite a bit after midnight till 9 AM, giving maximum benefit to callers who make most calls at night.
Which package you choose, is now ultimately the choice of what is your cellphone usage, rather than what ur provider offers.
Click here to access the spreadsheet.
Warid telecom has taken the lead in providing call packages tailored to different types of users in Pakistan. Three packages are billing based, from per second billing, to 30 second and 1 minute billing cycles. In addition, they've introduced two new packages called Warid 321 and Warid 12 to 9. A move truly designed to capture the hearts and minds of people from all over the usage spectrum.
321 is geared for people who make "long" calls and is most beneficial to users who make regular hour long calls from their mobiles.. costing them only Rs. 80 for the entire call. On the flip side, this package does become more expensive to short calling users.
12 to 9 drops the rates quite a bit after midnight till 9 AM, giving maximum benefit to callers who make most calls at night.
Which package you choose, is now ultimately the choice of what is your cellphone usage, rather than what ur provider offers.
Ladies First
Much more than a polite way of letting girls pass you by... its the new targetted tariff package by Mobilink for ladies. It brings with it, two features. One is Value added services specially for women, such as recipies, beauty tips and what not... everything girls cant live without... as well as... reduced call charges at the time when they're most bored! 3 PM to 6 PM (after lunch till the hubby comes home?). The down side is, its only for other mobilink numbers, and calls charges to other networks (and PTCL) have gone up... way up! SMS to other networks have gone up too...
Not a half bad job Mobilink! Now, i just hope you guys start putting more effort into your urban area network (read:karachi) and you just might be what you claim.. Pakistans Favourite Cellular Service.
Tariff Details for Ladies First
Not a half bad job Mobilink! Now, i just hope you guys start putting more effort into your urban area network (read:karachi) and you just might be what you claim.. Pakistans Favourite Cellular Service.
Tariff Details for Ladies First
Tariff Details | |
| Details | Rates |
| Outgoing calls - Any Mobilink number(1st Minute) | Rs. 3.00 / min |
| Outgoing calls - Any Mobilink number(2nd minute onwards) | Rs. 1.50 / min |
| Outgoing calls - Any Mobilink number ( 3pm-6pm ) | Rs. 1.50 / min |
| Outgoing calls - To Landline numbers(inclusive of interconnect charges) | Rs. 3.35 / min |
| Outgoing calls - Other mobile networks(inclusive of interconnect charges) | Rs. 4.35 / min |
| SMS based Value Added Services Subscription | Rs. 30 / month |
| SMS (Push based Value Addes Services) | Rs. 2.00 / SMS |
| SMS - Any mobilink number | Rs. 1.00 / SMS |
| SMS - Any other network | Rs. 1.50 / SMS |
| ISD Calls (Zone 1 / Zone 2) | 3 + Zone Rates |
Monday, August 14, 2006
the beginnings of mCommerce
The day is not far when you'll be paying for stuff from your cellphone! Warid has just recently introduced a new way of purchasing internet hours! Through SMS!
You send an sms to either 1210 (for 1 hour), 1220 (for 2 hours) or 1230 (for 5.5 hours) and they'll send you an SMS with your userid and password. The amount will be deducted from your mobile phone balance!
Now THATS convenience! Like i keep on saying... WARID ROCKS!!
You send an sms to either 1210 (for 1 hour), 1220 (for 2 hours) or 1230 (for 5.5 hours) and they'll send you an SMS with your userid and password. The amount will be deducted from your mobile phone balance!
Now THATS convenience! Like i keep on saying... WARID ROCKS!!
The Friend and Family Culture
The friend and family numbers (FnF), a feature much sought after about two years ago, now almost everywhere, are a set of numbers which you dial frequently and which have a lower calling rate than your other calls. With the exception of Ufone (since its a subsidiary of PTCL?), which allows one PTCL number to be added as friend and family, all network operators allow you to set other subscribers on the same network as FnF and make more calls to them.
This service initially started on Mobilink, where usually a call would cost around Rs. 7 to 8 a minute on normal numbers, and about Rs. 2.33 a minute on FnF numbers. They would allow you to have only three FnF numbers though, and charge a subscription fee of Rs. 30 for each change. An amount which was well recovered in your first call. This service was also only available on numbers started with "9", which meant the very early ones, and was not even advertised. Slowly though, the news leaked out, and people started looking for "9" sims just to enjoy a lower call rate. The demand/supply was such at the time that one number could be sold for as much as Rs. 15,000/- (an actual number offered to me for my sim.. sadly though, i wanted to keep my number :@) where they normally cost 1/10th that amount. Later, mobilink started offering this service to other subscribers as well, and the demand/supply equalized. With the inception of the Octane package, the FnF on previous sims was quickly forgotten.
So why did FnF gain so much fame? Simple.. It allowed lovers as such to talk thoughout the day at almost 1/3 the normal cost of out going calls. I had friends who would use up a 625 card in one call.. and that too on a FnF number, and be extremely satisfied. Now, one thing to note here is, that at that time, having an affair was still pretty much taboo, and a mobile offered convenience and above all, security from the prying eyes of family.
Moving on to my 'favourite mobile company' (take THAT mobilink!!!), Warid offered, and still does offer, pretty good deals on FnF numbers. They were the ones that revived the culture, and 'enabled' (im being very polite here) mobilink to provide FnF to all subscribers, by bringing in their own FnF package. This one cost about Rs.1.5 in the day and about Rs.0.75 at nite, and above all, connected the call on the first go, and allowed you to talk without hassle as well (as opposed to Paktel, which i'll be covering later). Oh how have we used (and misused) this FnF service! The same friend, who used up the 625 card on Mobilink, got himself a seperate mobile with a warid sim and now spends the Rs. 250 card in one go. He's almost upped his talk time 3 times and cut down expenses by half. Ever wonder why warid reached 4 million users in such a short while? Wonder no more!!
That was the battle of the titans! So what have others been upto? Playing catch-up mostly. Somehow, their packages dont seem interesting enough to be taken seriously at all. Except, i guess, Paktel AMS service. They had a Gold package with Late Night Option. The beauty of it was, they charged you Rs. 10 a day, and offered FREE paktel to paktel calls (no, with no 15 minute restriction either) throughout the night (after 11 pm till 7 am). That has been used/misused quite well too. Now, paktel has this good thing of not discontinuing a package plan, or automatically changing it, when they lauch a new one. So the old one, though discontinued years ago, is still active on sets who havent changed it. The only problem is... it takes a HELLISHLY long time to connect, disconnects after every other half-hour, and gives horrible voice quality. But hey... its free isnt it. The latest to enter this market of FnF numbers is Telenor, with its Djuice Nights connection, where they've introduced 5 FnF numbers with a lower calling rate.
Now im wondering where i'll put the reason of why i started this post in the first place...?! Oh well.. this seems a good a place as any. In the previous Warid post-paid connections, you were allowed to have upto 20 FnF numbers, now, with the new packages, they've lowered that to 5. Not bad, since the increase in free minutes and lower dialing rates more than compensates for it. And plus, i didnt even put 3 numbers in my FnF list last time, so it doesnt bother me either.
This service initially started on Mobilink, where usually a call would cost around Rs. 7 to 8 a minute on normal numbers, and about Rs. 2.33 a minute on FnF numbers. They would allow you to have only three FnF numbers though, and charge a subscription fee of Rs. 30 for each change. An amount which was well recovered in your first call. This service was also only available on numbers started with "9", which meant the very early ones, and was not even advertised. Slowly though, the news leaked out, and people started looking for "9" sims just to enjoy a lower call rate. The demand/supply was such at the time that one number could be sold for as much as Rs. 15,000/- (an actual number offered to me for my sim.. sadly though, i wanted to keep my number :@) where they normally cost 1/10th that amount. Later, mobilink started offering this service to other subscribers as well, and the demand/supply equalized. With the inception of the Octane package, the FnF on previous sims was quickly forgotten.
So why did FnF gain so much fame? Simple.. It allowed lovers as such to talk thoughout the day at almost 1/3 the normal cost of out going calls. I had friends who would use up a 625 card in one call.. and that too on a FnF number, and be extremely satisfied. Now, one thing to note here is, that at that time, having an affair was still pretty much taboo, and a mobile offered convenience and above all, security from the prying eyes of family.
Moving on to my 'favourite mobile company' (take THAT mobilink!!!), Warid offered, and still does offer, pretty good deals on FnF numbers. They were the ones that revived the culture, and 'enabled' (im being very polite here) mobilink to provide FnF to all subscribers, by bringing in their own FnF package. This one cost about Rs.1.5 in the day and about Rs.0.75 at nite, and above all, connected the call on the first go, and allowed you to talk without hassle as well (as opposed to Paktel, which i'll be covering later). Oh how have we used (and misused) this FnF service! The same friend, who used up the 625 card on Mobilink, got himself a seperate mobile with a warid sim and now spends the Rs. 250 card in one go. He's almost upped his talk time 3 times and cut down expenses by half. Ever wonder why warid reached 4 million users in such a short while? Wonder no more!!
That was the battle of the titans! So what have others been upto? Playing catch-up mostly. Somehow, their packages dont seem interesting enough to be taken seriously at all. Except, i guess, Paktel AMS service. They had a Gold package with Late Night Option. The beauty of it was, they charged you Rs. 10 a day, and offered FREE paktel to paktel calls (no, with no 15 minute restriction either) throughout the night (after 11 pm till 7 am). That has been used/misused quite well too. Now, paktel has this good thing of not discontinuing a package plan, or automatically changing it, when they lauch a new one. So the old one, though discontinued years ago, is still active on sets who havent changed it. The only problem is... it takes a HELLISHLY long time to connect, disconnects after every other half-hour, and gives horrible voice quality. But hey... its free isnt it. The latest to enter this market of FnF numbers is Telenor, with its Djuice Nights connection, where they've introduced 5 FnF numbers with a lower calling rate.
Now im wondering where i'll put the reason of why i started this post in the first place...?! Oh well.. this seems a good a place as any. In the previous Warid post-paid connections, you were allowed to have upto 20 FnF numbers, now, with the new packages, they've lowered that to 5. Not bad, since the increase in free minutes and lower dialing rates more than compensates for it. And plus, i didnt even put 3 numbers in my FnF list last time, so it doesnt bother me either.
Zahi Postpaid rates
I came across this advert, giving the rates of the new zahi packages. These are the values i've used for the previous spreadsheet, so thought i'd publish this as well.
As you can guess.. im pretty much in love with Warid :D
As you can guess.. im pretty much in love with Warid :D
Warid Zahi Postpaid Rate Comparision
One of the tools i find very useful when selecting a package is the actual cost of the calls i make. Whether its from 2 to 10 minutes to an hour long call.. i wanna know how much will i be paying for it. Till now, it was pretty simple. Prepaid had a single rate (or just divided into 2 areas, Onnet and offnet rates) which could be multiplied by the number of minutes.
For the convenience of others, im sharing that matrix i developed online. It has call costs (from 15 second calls to 1 hour long calls) , categorized by destination (friend and family, on net, offnet-ptcl and offnet-mobile).
How do you use it? Simple, just select the destination where *most* of your calls go, select the average duration of your calls.. and that column will give you a comparision of how much the calls will cost.
Let me know what you think of it. Similar matrices for other networks may follow provided i have the time and sufficient motivation.
Link: http://www.geocities.com/mansoor_adenwala/warid_zahi_rate_comparer.xls
However, Warid's latest Zahi offering changed that scenario quite a bit. Like i mentioned earlier, warid has introduced six seperate packages with three billing options each. Thats like 18 packages to choose from! Suddenly, its now not so simple anymore. So my old fomula, now took the share of a spreadsheet, from which i deduced that my usage would be more suitable to getting Zahi1000 with a 60 second billing cycle.
For the convenience of others, im sharing that matrix i developed online. It has call costs (from 15 second calls to 1 hour long calls) , categorized by destination (friend and family, on net, offnet-ptcl and offnet-mobile).
How do you use it? Simple, just select the destination where *most* of your calls go, select the average duration of your calls.. and that column will give you a comparision of how much the calls will cost.
Let me know what you think of it. Similar matrices for other networks may follow provided i have the time and sufficient motivation.
Link: http://www.geocities.com/mansoor_adenwala/warid_zahi_rate_comparer.xls
Warid updates Zahi (Postpaid) packages
Im a warid user. All in all, i love their service. They do have their down points though, going through the usual teething problems of telecom operators when their growing in size, however, much of their service is still better than others. One major down point is the problem of connecting to warid through PTCL lines which makes me mad.... but only sometimes.
Anyway, two months ago, i shifted from Zem (prepaid) to Zahi (postpaid) plan, mainly because i was tired of loading a Rs. 100 or 250 card every day. Then i had it put on Direct Debit, where they automatically charge my credit card for the billed amount at the end of the month. Needless to say, im pretty happy with this arrangement as i dont even have to go to their franchise/service center to pay my bill. Plus the call rates are outstanding too.
Now, they've brought changes to both Zem and Zahi packages. I'll be covering this change pretty thoroughly over the next couple of days, (just because i want too). Today however, it's all about Zahi.
Instead of the five packages named from silver to diamond, they've introduced packages named Zahi150, Zahi500, Zahi1000, Zahi2500 and ZahiUnlimited. The salient feature of each of the package is..... its got as many free minutes as the line rent! Meaning, my new package (Zahi1000) has ONE THOUSAND free minutes on it. Pretty cool no? But there's a catch.... The free minutes are divided into which networks they're applicable to. 60% of the free minutes are applicable only for on-net (warid-warid) calls, 20% each to PTCL and other mobile networks. Still.. not a bad deal.
On top of that, each package has now got three billing options. Either per-second, per-half minute or per-minute, which makes them extremely flexible to whoevers using them. My initial calculations show that if you typically make
As far as the rates go, they've gone really down as well, almost 50% down against the previous rates. With (these are for zahi1000 only with per minute billing) on-net calls coming to 60 paisas per minute, and other mobile networks at 1.3 rs per minute only. Add to that the huge about of free minutes and what you've got is freedom!
SMS, MMS, Internet rates are still the same though.
Anyway, two months ago, i shifted from Zem (prepaid) to Zahi (postpaid) plan, mainly because i was tired of loading a Rs. 100 or 250 card every day. Then i had it put on Direct Debit, where they automatically charge my credit card for the billed amount at the end of the month. Needless to say, im pretty happy with this arrangement as i dont even have to go to their franchise/service center to pay my bill. Plus the call rates are outstanding too.
Now, they've brought changes to both Zem and Zahi packages. I'll be covering this change pretty thoroughly over the next couple of days, (just because i want too). Today however, it's all about Zahi.
Instead of the five packages named from silver to diamond, they've introduced packages named Zahi150, Zahi500, Zahi1000, Zahi2500 and ZahiUnlimited. The salient feature of each of the package is..... its got as many free minutes as the line rent! Meaning, my new package (Zahi1000) has ONE THOUSAND free minutes on it. Pretty cool no? But there's a catch.... The free minutes are divided into which networks they're applicable to. 60% of the free minutes are applicable only for on-net (warid-warid) calls, 20% each to PTCL and other mobile networks. Still.. not a bad deal.
On top of that, each package has now got three billing options. Either per-second, per-half minute or per-minute, which makes them extremely flexible to whoevers using them. My initial calculations show that if you typically make
- 1 to 2 minute calls, go for the per second billing
- 2 to 5 minute calls, go for the per 30 second billing
- 5 minutes upwards, go for the per minute billing
As far as the rates go, they've gone really down as well, almost 50% down against the previous rates. With (these are for zahi1000 only with per minute billing) on-net calls coming to 60 paisas per minute, and other mobile networks at 1.3 rs per minute only. Add to that the huge about of free minutes and what you've got is freedom!
SMS, MMS, Internet rates are still the same though.
Paktel changes TalkFree options
Yet another series i'll be starting in order to give some structure to this blog. Blogger does not allow categorizing posts sadly, so series will have to do. I'll do something about that pretty soon though. Anyway, here's on with the post.
So the other day, i was driving down from the office, hearing the radio, when Paktel's ad about their TalkFree package came on. Now i usually enjoy listening to it, and had it almost memorized, when something seemed amiss. They had changed their package settings...
Previously, it was like this. You pay Rs. 500 a month, and get free "15 minute" calls throughout the day on the Paktel network. After the 15th minute, you get charged 5 paisas or 3 paisas per second.
Now, they've bumped up the subscription to Rs. 700, and introduced new pricing mechanisms. They've made all calls (im not too sure since its a little vague) to the Paktel network free from 12 midnight to 6 PM, while charging 5 paisa per second from 6 PM to 10 PM and 3 paisa per second from 10 PM to 12 midnight.
Just called their customer service to confirm, and here's what i found out.
Under the new pricing mechanisms, the calls will be charged from the first minute out from 6 PM to 12 Midnight at their respective rates and for the rest of the day, the first 15 minutes will be free, after which they'll be charged at either 5 paisas or 3 paisas according to the time...
Hmm.... i wonder why they're trying to kill their package? The only good thing which remains about it is the SMS rates....
So the other day, i was driving down from the office, hearing the radio, when Paktel's ad about their TalkFree package came on. Now i usually enjoy listening to it, and had it almost memorized, when something seemed amiss. They had changed their package settings...
Previously, it was like this. You pay Rs. 500 a month, and get free "15 minute" calls throughout the day on the Paktel network. After the 15th minute, you get charged 5 paisas or 3 paisas per second.
Now, they've bumped up the subscription to Rs. 700, and introduced new pricing mechanisms. They've made all calls (im not too sure since its a little vague) to the Paktel network free from 12 midnight to 6 PM, while charging 5 paisa per second from 6 PM to 10 PM and 3 paisa per second from 10 PM to 12 midnight.
Just called their customer service to confirm, and here's what i found out.
Under the new pricing mechanisms, the calls will be charged from the first minute out from 6 PM to 12 Midnight at their respective rates and for the rest of the day, the first 15 minutes will be free, after which they'll be charged at either 5 paisas or 3 paisas according to the time...
Hmm.... i wonder why they're trying to kill their package? The only good thing which remains about it is the SMS rates....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)