| Moscow Megafon has opened a new niche of subscribers The Megafon-Moscow network has launched a new tariff plan “One to One”, the distinctive feature of which is the lowest subscription fee in Moscow - $1. The company hopes that this tariff will become the golden mean between the tariffs of the pre-paid series (“ Simply", "O'Light", GSM-Light) and contract offers. But Megafon's competitors doubt that One to One will be in mass demand.
“One to One” is positioned as a replacement for the “Speak” tariff, compared to which it has two advantages: the subscription fee is $3 lower (all prices excluding VAT), incoming calls cost only $0.14 for the first minute conversation, and the subsequent time is not paid (in “Speak” the first two minutes were paid). The cost of outgoing calls remains the same - $0.14 per minute with per-second billing from the second minute. However, the new tariff does not include a discount on outgoing calls within the network, as well as a non-tariffed interval. But you can connect one “favorite number” for free, calls to which will cost only a quarter of the regular cost (the “favorite” can be either a landline number or numbers of any Moscow mobile operator).
“In the One to One tariff, we tried to take into account everything that cell phone owners in Moscow and beyond now need. Minimum costs, benefits for calls to family and friends, any additional services, the opportunity to save on roaming when traveling around the world. This is a very favorable tariff,” said Igor Parfenov, acting general director of Megafon-Moscow. As Mr. Parfenov’s advisor Roman Prokolov explained, “One to One has a symbolic subscription fee, so this tariff plan is actually a pre-paid tariff.” “But since it is implemented on a platform of contract tariffs, its users have access to full roaming (in Megafon, only intranet roaming is available to pre-paid users for now. - Ed. ). In this way, for example, we expect to lure pre-paid subscribers from other operators,” he said.
However, VimpelCom Public Relations Director Mikhail Umarov doubts the possibility of implementing such a plan: “A subscription fee of $1 is, of course, not enough, but it is still present, which is a sensitive factor for low-speaking subscribers. Therefore, they will still prefer pre-paid, which in principle has no subscription fee. In addition, in One to One, incoming calls are free only from Megafon phones, while you have to pay for incoming calls from phones of other mobile operators. But many subscribers are already accustomed to the fact that incoming calls from all mobile phones are free.”
“Megafon now has a large selection of tariff plans, which, as practice shows, confuses subscribers. At one time, we realized this and moved to a simpler and clearer line of tariffs,” notes Mr. Umarov. Meanwhile, Aton analyst Nadezhda Golubeva believes that since “the Moscow Megafon plays the role of catching up with MTS and Bee Line, it is forced to look for new niches for subscribers.” “So the large line of tariffs that have been temporarily built looks normal,” she said. Igor KOROLEV |
|
