Stay mobile for Rs 999

Posted on | December 24, 2005 |

Airtel has come out with a life-time validity plan for prepaid users, which could be availed by paying a one-time fee of Rs 999. So a pre-paid user can continue to receive incoming calls for life after a single recharge, as against the current system of restricted validity, based on the recharge package.

As per the scheme, local calls would be charged Rs 1.99 a minute and STD calls Rs 2.99 a minute. The company also offered full talktime on future recharge.

I think one of the biggest users of this could be business travellers who take a prepaid connection in the foreign city in order to make cheaper local calls. They can now take an Airtel card for Rs 999 and use it whenever they visit their oft travelled city. And now their foreign city number doesn’t even change everytime.

Companies can now actually give it to all their field staff who need to be reachable but don’t often need to make a call - drivers, courier boys, collection agents etc.

I can think of a husband making use of a spare handset by giving it to his wife for just-in-case times. There are lot of people who have a spare handset or don’t mind shelling out the one-time handset cost but are wary of the monthly recharge in order to keep the number active.

Monthly rentals are tending towards zero. When it started, minimum recharge on prepaid was Rs 500, which then settled at Rs 325 for a while and then reducing to Rs 200 around mid-2005. What it means for the users is that they can stay mobile (at least to receive calls) by paying Rs 999 once. With a Motorola C115 costing Rs 1700 - all it would cost one to become mobile for life is Rs 2699.

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