Idea to deploy Nokia solution on network

As bigger operators like Hutch and Bharti continue to try to convert their prepaid customers into post-paid ones to increase their revenues, Idea Cellular, which has an even higher proportion of non-billing subscribers, is trying an alternate route to shore up its average revenue per user (ARPU).

Breaking away from established norms, Idea is all set to become the first GSM network in the country to offer high-end data services to its prepaid customers.

"We have realised that the purchasing power of the prepaid customer is no less than that of the post-paid customer," said company's vice-president (marketing) Nilanjan Mukherjee.

By the end of the month, subscribers to Idea's prepaid service will have access to premium services like high-speed Internet and video-game downloads over the operators GPRS and Edge networks in the eight circles where it has presence.

Currently, around 75 per cent of cellular subscribers in the country are in prepaid customers, up from around 40 per cent five years ago. Prepaid customers also have a much lower ARPU than the postpaid segment - a fact which has kept major networks from investing in data-services for prepaid users.

"Despite the best efforts of the operators, the ratio of prepaid to post-paid customers has only gone up over the last few years," pointed out an industry official, "So, when you can't beat them, better join them,"

The company is learnt to have put in place a real-time billing facility for pre-paid data-consumers, the only one in the country to do so. The facility, called Intelligent Content Delivery System (ICDS), will allow the operator to charge pre-paid customers according to the amount of data consumed by them, much in the same way as they are charged for their voice-usage.

"Till now, pre-paid customers were being billed on a per download basis for ringtones, wallpapers etc and on a flat rate for GPRS because companies had not put in place the infrastructure to do real-time billing for data consumption. Now with the new system we will not only be able to offer high-end non-voice applications like high-speed data over Edge, but also be bill our consumers exactly on amount of data transmitted and automatically terminate the connection when they run out of balance," Mukherjee pointed out.

The move marks a departure from established norm-that of converting most prepaid customers into post-paid-that all cellphone operators follow.

GSM operators have been loathe to invest in data delivery infrastructure for pre-paid customers. Going by traditional wisdom, prepaid customers are not likely on be heavy data users.

The move is also seen to be a reaction to the emergence of data services as money-spinners in the prepaid services offered by rival CDMA operators.