Uninor, the Indian unit of Norway’s Telenor ASA, the world’s fifth largest telecom firm, believes dynamic pricing of calls like the one it has started in India could find acceptance by rival telecom firms.
Uninor, the Indian unit of Norway’s Telenor ASA, the world’s fifth largest telecom firm, believes dynamic pricing of calls like the one it has started in India could find acceptance by rival telecom firms.
In the dynamic pricing scheme, a subscriber gets varying discounts on calls made. Besides, the caller also gets to see the discount on a call at a given point in time. Uninor’s discount on calls ranges between 5% and 60% based on the traffic handled by a base transceiver station (BTS), which routes the call.
On a 60% discount call, the caller pays 20 paise for a one-minute call.
“Dynamic pricing has helped us stand out in the market. This is going to be adopted like some of the earlier plans such as one-paisa-per-second and others. The one-paisa-per-second approach may not be the right scheme for a customer always. Moreover with dynamic pricing we get to utilise our BTS most optimally,” Stein-Erik Vellan, MD, Uninor told DNA Money before the launch of its GSM mobile services in five circles — Mumbai, Maharashtra and Goa, Gujarat, Kolkata and West Bengal.
“So when a BTS is handling more subscribers the discount will be less and when a BTS has less subscribers the discount will be more. This approach allows us to handle 50% more traffic per BTS, helping us delay the congestion of network,” he said.
Uninor has stayed away from bidding for 3G spectrum as it feels 3G does not make sense as the firm can offer similar services in the 2.5G GSM network since it has deployed enhanced EDGE network.
“As you know 90% of the traffic is for voice and this is going to continue for years. And we can offer all that is being said for 3G in our network as it is an advanced one,” said Vellan.
With the expansion, Uninor is now present in 13 of India’s 22 telecom zones.
The firm did not disclose investment on the launch of its services in those five circles. “It is a substantial number given that we have set up over 21,000 BTSes already,” said Vellan. The firm expects to increase the number of BTS to 40,000.
Stating that the firm will not get into a price war that may bleed the business, Vellan said, “We will adopt only those measures that make business sense and help us attain our objective of being Ebidta-positive in 3 years, operating cash positive in 5 years in India. Besides we aim a market share of 8% by 2018.”
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}