Problems with prepayment

The audience of consumers of cellular communication services in Russia is growing, and the number of subscribers to so-called “prepaid services” is growing much faster than expected. Oddly enough, this creates problems: inconvenience is experienced not only by users who buy a completely different mobile connection than they expected, but also by operators who have to solve a whole range of organizational, financial and technical problems on the go.

The demand for “Jeans”, “GSM-Lite” and “Bi+” tariffs is not surprising - after all, they are bought not only by those who save on communications, but also by wealthier users who, for example, are purchasing a second or third phone for the family and are tempted by advertising slogan "No monthly fee!"
And only then does it become clear that in reality this slogan is accompanied by a number of other, restrictive ones - “No roaming rights!” (“Jeans”), “Switching to another tariff plan is impossible!” (“GSM-Lite”) or “GPRS is not fully functional!” (“Bi+”). And even the notorious absence of a subscription fee is not entirely true, since you still have to pay a certain amount regularly (see table).
All these problems would not exist if mobile operators had treated prepaid consumers with due respect from the very beginning. However, they postponed this until later. After all, in the early days of mobile communications, such a service did not exist. Subscribers paid for the very fact of connecting to the network plus a guarantee fee - so that the operator, God forbid, would not be left at a loss. And only as the market expanded and competition intensified, operators began to offer a “boxed” product aimed at lower-income segments of the population.
Indeed, the idea is tempting: no contracts, no queues at the office, no monthly bills and guarantee fees - just buy and activate prepaid cards as you spend the money in your account. However, operators treated those who were tempted without due attention, since in conditions of fierce competition such subscribers were traditionally considered “disloyal” - due to the ease of switching to another operator. Although in fact, many users, as already mentioned, do not use prepaid services for reasons of economy: some are attracted by the comparative anonymity of the service, others by complete control over costs, and still others by the lack of hassle with contracts.
Only the growth in the number of prepaid subscribers, ahead of all plans, forced even the most conservative companies to reconsider their policies.
Meanwhile, the bottlenecks of prepaid technology were known from the very beginning. Its cornerstone is the operation of the system in real time. After all, by purchasing a prepaid card, the consumer pays for a strictly defined amount of basic and additional services. Thus, the operator is responsible for ensuring that the call time does not exceed the paid amount.
However, the problem is that conventional charging systems operate with delays; this does not matter in the case of issuing monthly bills, but is fraught with losses for the operator in the case of providing services to a prepaid subscriber. This is precisely what explains most of the existing inconveniences and restrictions for prepaid subscribers. The only way to avoid them is a special prepaid platform, which allows you to disconnect the connection after the prepayment amount has been exhausted, including when making calls outside the home network. Of course, this requires upgrading the hardware and software to meet Camel-2 standards.
Unfortunately, so far only one of the Russian operators has implemented such a system (from April 15, Bee+ subscribers may no longer care about having the coveted $20 threshold in their account when traveling around Russia). We can only hope that other Russian companies will follow this example. After all, the income received from prepaid subscribers allows this, and the savings on them are unfair, since the very term “prepaid services” has long lost its original meaning and today we are talking only about the method of connecting to the network and paying for mobile services.
SERGEY POTRESOV

Prepaid plans of Moscow telecom operators

Name (operator) Minimum monthly fee (upon activation of a prepaid card of the maximum denomination) Time of saving money in the account after the card expires (days) On-network roaming International roaming Possibility of switching to another tariff plan while maintaining the number

"Jeans"	$10.89 (8.71)*	0	There are with	No	Eat
(MTS)			some
			regions
"Bi+ GSM"	$7.82	180	Eat	Have but	Eat
("Bee Line")				turns off
				with remainder
				On account
				less than $20
"GSM-Light"	$10.17	90	No	No	No
("Megaphone")

* when using other methods of replenishment and a one-time fee of more than $120

Magazine "Kommersant Money" No. 15 dated 04/21/2003, p. 98