Two lakh migrate to Reliance postpaid plans

Reliance Infocomm has said that it has managed to tackle billing issues in the post-paid category after announcing the migration plan for a limited period of about two months (August and September 2004). Nearly two lakh subscribers opted to shift from post-paid to pre-paid during this period in Karnataka.

Several people from the lower-income strata had opted post-paid connections after it was introduced with an entry barrier of just Rs 501. When Reliance began to encounter payment problems from these individuals, it introduced a migration plan to help people migrate to pre-paid.

Viney Singh, CEO-wireless business, Reliance Infocomm, Karnataka Circle, while outlining the above scenario, added that the company has seen a reduction in billing complaints following the completion of the migration plan.

But he did not quantify the reduction in the number of complaints and did not wish to comment on the loss incurred by the company as a result of non-payment of post-paid bills.

Currently, Reliance Infocomm has a customer base of 6.3 lakh in Karnataka. This includes nearly 38,000 fixed line subscribers. Interestingly, only about 30 per cent of its fixed line subscribers are corporates.

This figure is much higher among other telecom service providers where corporates constitute most of their fixed-line subscribers base.

To ensure that more corporates are encouraged to go in for fixed-line services, the company, on Friday, launched an "Unlimited Free Calling Plan with Reliance FWP (fixed wireless phone)".

This will allow making unlimited free calls to Reliance phones anywhere in India, for a fixed cost. It is available in both postpaid and prepaid FWP options.