Smart Tariff Plans by Telecom operators Helps Retain User: True Balance Reports

The telecom sector went through major changes since Reliance Jio entered as a competitor. There were major changes made in tariff plans to appease the users and retain them from changing operators.

The survey conducted in November by True Balance shows that major telecom players like Airtel, Vodafone-Idea have introduced smart tariff plans 35, 65 and 95 instead of the regular top up plans of INR 10, 20, 30, 40 etc. Thereport by True Balance says that despite increasing the price of the packs, users have shifted to larger packs instead of switching operators. Surprisingly the change in tariffs did not affect the users because though the tariffs were higher, Smart Plans provided additional benefits such as more talktime, data, etc. compared to top up plans. Also, top up plans didn’t have expiry date, but smart plan does, so users feel the need to recharge once a month.

The analysis shows that with the introduction of INR 35 smart tariff plan in place of the standard top up plan of INR 20 & 30, the user ratio increased to 20% from 12%. Furthermore, the minimum prepaid recharge plan of Rs 65 and Rs 95 saw the user ratio jump up to 25% and 24% respectively.

Speaking on the analysis, True Balance Founder & CEO, Charlie Lee says, “Data consumption is on a steady rise in the urban as well as the rural areas. Industry reports state that an average Indian smartphone user spends 4X time on online activities. Telecom operators are trying to offer their subscribers the best value with these data packs. These new tariff plans has definitely helped these operators to retain their subscribers.”

India is now among one of the most efficient and largest data pack providers in the world with reasonable price. Internet penetration is increasing each day and there is a strong demand for using more data. The Smart Plans by the telecom operators are a strategic move by them to fight the competitive data packs provided by Reliance Jio.

True balance is a ‘One Stop Payment “solution for all utility bill payments and foresees to provide small loans for these services to its users. The Business is focused in providing financial services in India 2 and 3 wherein we look at providing “Finance for All”.  We are one of the first fin tech players, decided to reach out to India tier 2 and 3 to connect the last mile payment issue for the untouched population of India and we call them as the next billions.

Graphic represents percentage of Smart Plan users vs Top Up Plan users