Telecoms offering bundling schemes to woo customers

KATHMANDU, OCT 18 - 2013

 
Telecom companies have been going for service bundling schemes in a bid to attract customers and sell their products. Nepal Telecom (NT), Ncell and United Telecom Limited (UTL) have been offering their service by lumping it with different brands of cell phones. 

With mobile handsets supporting IP CDMA technology in short supply in the market, NT has been bundling its RUIM cards with Micromax, Alcatel and Lenovo handsets in order to sell mobile lines.

The cell phones cost from Rs 5,500 to Rs 20,500 depending on the brand, model and features. Customers buying this package also get voice and data service worth Rs 200 to Rs 500 free of charge each month as an incentive. 

Besides handsets, NT has been bundling its RUIM cards with USB dongles with an eye on data service. The bundling scheme is directed at selling RUIM cards for its Sky Pro service based on IP CDMA technology that supports both data and voice service. 

NT’s Deputy Managing Director Anoop Ranjan Bhattarai said that these bundling schemes had helped to increase their customer base when a shortage of IP CDMA technology-based handsets had been hindering growth of this segment. “We are also working to introduce this type of scheme for high-end handsets after a few months,” he added. 

Meanwhile, Ncell and UTL in the private sector have also launched bundling schemes under which customers can buy handsets and obtain voice and data services at cheaper rates. Under Ncell’s Ncell Load Festival offer which had been launched targeting Dashain shoppers, customers can acquire a Micromax set loaded with Ncell’s special service packs at low rates. 

A senior official at the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) said that such bundling schemes provide services at cheaper rates only within the telecom ’s home network. “The free calls and talk time values are normally applicable only within the home network which is the flip side of these offers,” he added.

For example, Ncell customers buying its service bundle with Micromax handsets will get an Ncell SIM card, 30 minutes of talk time and 30 free SMS within the Ncell network. In addition, customers will get data worth 10 MB, 40 MB and 100 MB free for 12 months, depending on the handset chosen and the monthly balance recharged.

Ncell said that customers could buy a Micromax X 085 handset loaded with Ncell services worth Rs 3,600 for Rs 1,449. Likewise, the Micromax X 267 pack worth Rs 4,451 can be acquired at Rs 2,219, while the Micromax Ninja A54 pack is available at Rs 6,399 compared to its normal price of Rs 9,987.

Similarly, UTL offers two types of service bundling schemes. It provides a fixed wireless phone for Rs 2,400 which comes bundled with talk time worth the same amount. Similarly, a customer buying a ZTE CDMA handset for Rs 1,500 gets talk time worth Rs 3,000, according to UTL.

Source: The Kathmandu Post

Two more telcos set to enter GSM segment

KATHMANDU, APR 12 - 2013

The country’s GSM mobile segment is set to see two more players—United Telecom Limited ( UTL ) and Smart Telecom . The government on Thursday decided to issue a unified licence to these companies, paving way for them to roll out nationwide GSM services.

Currently, Nepal Telecom and Ncell are dominating the GSM mobile service arena, the fastest growing and major revenue earner segment in the domestic telecom market, while these two players are set to face good competition from the new entrants.

“We will soon correspond with the UTL and Smart Telecom on clearing their dues if they have any, payment of the licence fee and the first installment of the licence renewal fee,” said member secretary of the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) board, Kailash Prasad Neupane.

According to the NTA, a board meeting of which decided to issue the unified licence, the decision was based on a study of the two companies’ capacity to roll out the services and field monitoring of their current services. Both the companies can now provide multiple telecom services—local telephone, domestic trunk, international long distance and cellular mobile—under the single licence.

Three telecom companies— UTL , Smart Telecom and STM Telecom Sanchar—had applied for the unified licence. However, the NTA board said it will issue the licence to STM Telecom Sanchar only after the later fulfills conditions set in its existing licence by the government.

With the entry of the UTL and Smart Telecom in the mobile segment, the telecom sector is set to witness more competition in tariff and quality, according to telecom experts.

It will also opens doors for the government to go for auctioning of 3G and 4G spectrums that will bring in new technology and also generate more revenue for the government.

“There will also be more investment in the telecom sector in the next five years,” said NTA director Ananda Raj Khanal. UTL has already showed interest in investing over Rs 10 billion, while Smart Telecom plans to invest around Rs 4.37 billion in the initial phase. Sources at both the companies say they will be targeting the GSM mobile segment for their service expansion. However, they did not say when they will roll out the GSM mobile services. Smart Telecom CEO Subash Bajracharya said their board will decide on the rollout plan soon.

The UTL and Smart Telecom have to pay a hefy sum of money as licence fee and licence renewal fee. The NTA has set the licence fee at Rs 357.50 million and the licence renewal fee at Rs 20.13 billion. UTL and Smart Telecom will have to pay Rs 50 million as the first installment of the licence renewal fee before obtaining the licence. To ensure renewal fee from the telecom companies, the NTA said that as per its board decision, the government could also seek “corporate guarantee or collateral” after seven years of service operation for collecting the remaining licence renewal fee.

Five months ago, the government had introduced the new spectrum policy with a focus on unified licence. It has set a provision to allocate a minimum of 6 MHz frequency for the licencee for service operation. However, due to a lack of spectrum on the 900 MHz band, in the initial phase, the NTA will provide only 5 MHz each to the two companies, according to the NTA.

For the past five years, the NTA had been planning to issue the unified licence by introducing rules to create competition in the market and help small operators expand their mobile segment services.

The government’s plan to issue the unified licences to small companies is being taken negatively by the NT, its trade union, Ncell and Nepal Satellite Telecom. NT trade unions have been saying that the unified licence regime will create an unhealthy competition and was introduced without following the set norms. Two separate cases have also been filed against the licence provision in the Supreme Court. However, the court is yet to give its final verdict.

Source: The Kathmandu Post