It was wondered upon, by yours truly, when would warid succumb to market pressures, and offer a lower SMS rate, and more importantly, *how* would it bring it up.
The wait is now over, warid has just offered Zoom!!!! A SMS+MMS bundle for both zem and zahi customers. Here's what it does.
For a rate of Rs. 2/day (Rs. 60 a month), you get a "quota" of 20 SMS or MMS (which ever you want to send) for the entire day. That counts to 10 paisa's per message. They lapse at the end of each day. Afterwards, SMS and MMS are then charged at Rs. 1 each.
In another offering, for a flat rate of Rs. 5 a day (Rs. 150 a month), you can now send *unlimited* thats right.. *unlimited* mms, sms per day!
More interestingly... your allowed to 'switch' packages on and off whenever you like, making it much more convenient! Also, the rates are valid for messages to *all* networks within Pakistan.
Im so... so much more happier now :)
*on a side note... they've taken a departure from their normal naming strategy... i wonder why?
Showing posts with label postpaid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label postpaid. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Zahi :: Hidden *features*
There's always a catch in every package offered by every company. Warid, sadly, is no stranger now to offering such catch's!
I signed up for the Zem1000 account recently, which was bundled with 1000 free minutes, (600 Onnet, 200 Offnet mobile and 200 offnet ptcl). I noticed at the time, that there was no mention of free sms's or free mms's, but was assured by the CS staff that they were unchanged from previous offerings.
Damn CS staff!!!
Warid Zahi packages now no longer offer free sms's, rather they charge for each SMS made from day one! I for one, though, am not complaining! Why sms.. when you can call!!!
I signed up for the Zem1000 account recently, which was bundled with 1000 free minutes, (600 Onnet, 200 Offnet mobile and 200 offnet ptcl). I noticed at the time, that there was no mention of free sms's or free mms's, but was assured by the CS staff that they were unchanged from previous offerings.
Damn CS staff!!!
Warid Zahi packages now no longer offer free sms's, rather they charge for each SMS made from day one! I for one, though, am not complaining! Why sms.. when you can call!!!
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Reduced international call rates
When the telecom industry was being deregulated, i kept hearing stories of how it benefited other countries which had deregulated their telecom sectors. One such story which clung to my mind was that of Germany where international call rates became cheaper than local call rates. Ofcourse, that was for landline based operators and does not really tie in here.
VOIP has been slowly making its way into the cellular sector, marking a drastic reduction of call costs for the consumer. The first to enter this market was, ofcourse, Paktel (now that i write these things here, Paktel does seem to be the first mover in a lot of things). International dialing rates were slashed down dramatically w.r.t other providers who were still using the traditional systems.
Recently, Mobilink launched lower-rate internatioanl dialling for its postpaid (Indigo) customers and later, rolled out the same service for Prepaid (Jazz) customers. Dividing the world into five zones, they've structured the call rates from Rs. 2.35 to Rs. 20. I've yet to see what connectivity they're offering but it promises to be good.
Warid telecom (ofcourse, i just HAD to put something about them here too) also offered up a similar service by the name of Warid 111, though as yet, its only offered on Prepaid packages. International dialing on postpaid still goes through the old system. Warid's 111 rates are even lower than Jazz still starting from Rs. 0.99 (for Zem 60) for zone 1 countries to Rs. 15.99 for zone 4.
VOIP has been slowly making its way into the cellular sector, marking a drastic reduction of call costs for the consumer. The first to enter this market was, ofcourse, Paktel (now that i write these things here, Paktel does seem to be the first mover in a lot of things). International dialing rates were slashed down dramatically w.r.t other providers who were still using the traditional systems.
Recently, Mobilink launched lower-rate internatioanl dialling for its postpaid (Indigo) customers and later, rolled out the same service for Prepaid (Jazz) customers. Dividing the world into five zones, they've structured the call rates from Rs. 2.35 to Rs. 20. I've yet to see what connectivity they're offering but it promises to be good.
Warid telecom (ofcourse, i just HAD to put something about them here too) also offered up a similar service by the name of Warid 111, though as yet, its only offered on Prepaid packages. International dialing on postpaid still goes through the old system. Warid's 111 rates are even lower than Jazz still starting from Rs. 0.99 (for Zem 60) for zone 1 countries to Rs. 15.99 for zone 4.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Indigo -> Now more purple
Is it any wonder why mobilink continues to remain the market leader? With poor quality service, continuous problems, compromisations in the billing system, and what not, they still manage to pull the biggest weight around.
The answer to this mystery is surprisingly simple. Its their marketing machine which is responsible. They always have something new to offer, something to pull people in, some new to entice. Be it Octane, Ladies First, or the Jazz Icon search, there's something which keeps people going back to mobilink.
The latest in their strategy is pulling in (and keeping) postpaid customers. This i suspect came from the recent announcement of Warid's new postpaid packages. Their new offering is no where near warid's offer, but a lot better than its previous ones.
Here's the lowdown. They now charge a flat airtime rate for all calls everywhere. Then, they add Rs. 1.25 to all calls made to other mobile networks, and Rs. 0.52 to fixed line networks.What they've introduced now is weekend rates, which means that on Sunday's, call cost less.
Free minutes have increased (they claim that) but free minutes are valid only on airtime charges. So if you call other networks, you still get charged the interconnect rates (mentioned above). SMS is also more expensive than other operators at Rs. 1.
Now, remember i said Mobilink's the market leader because of their marketing? Now let me elaborate on that. They're the leader because they're marketing strategy involves hoodwinking the poor customer as much as they can!! They do offer calling rate as low as Rs. 0.40, but what they don't mention is that its only on sundays, only valid for other mobilink numbers and on their highest package. For other operators, add on the interconnect! SMS rates are more expensive than the rest, and even general airtime is more expensive that what any other operators give.
I've done a small comparison between the different packages offered here. Check out the complete worksheet here.
The answer to this mystery is surprisingly simple. Its their marketing machine which is responsible. They always have something new to offer, something to pull people in, some new to entice. Be it Octane, Ladies First, or the Jazz Icon search, there's something which keeps people going back to mobilink.
The latest in their strategy is pulling in (and keeping) postpaid customers. This i suspect came from the recent announcement of Warid's new postpaid packages. Their new offering is no where near warid's offer, but a lot better than its previous ones.
Here's the lowdown. They now charge a flat airtime rate for all calls everywhere. Then, they add Rs. 1.25 to all calls made to other mobile networks, and Rs. 0.52 to fixed line networks.What they've introduced now is weekend rates, which means that on Sunday's, call cost less.
Free minutes have increased (they claim that) but free minutes are valid only on airtime charges. So if you call other networks, you still get charged the interconnect rates (mentioned above). SMS is also more expensive than other operators at Rs. 1.
Now, remember i said Mobilink's the market leader because of their marketing? Now let me elaborate on that. They're the leader because they're marketing strategy involves hoodwinking the poor customer as much as they can!! They do offer calling rate as low as Rs. 0.40, but what they don't mention is that its only on sundays, only valid for other mobilink numbers and on their highest package. For other operators, add on the interconnect! SMS rates are more expensive than the rest, and even general airtime is more expensive that what any other operators give.
I've done a small comparison between the different packages offered here. Check out the complete worksheet here.
Monday, August 14, 2006
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 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.
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