The youth segment has always been a lucrative and competitive segment for telco’s to target due to its sheer size and willingness to spend on network offers. 2013 marked the re-launch of all youth brands in the industry with most companies selling an integrated life style on the network as opposed to just cheap call or SMS rates. Network partners came in the form of famous eateries and retail outlets offering mega discounts provided you are a part of the selected network. However while this added incentive to remain loyal to a particular brand, student choices are still largely driven by rates, bundles and network quality.
In order to analyze the best network for students, we have broken the analysis into three parts: SMS Plans, Voice Bundles and Mobile Internet Tariff.
SMS Plans
All telco’s are providing similar bundles types ,usually divided into; daily, weekly and monthly plans for their consumers to choose from. While bigger bucket bundles do lower down the cost per SMS on each plan , students are more likely to analyze the marginal utility of each SMS and the cost associated with a potential upgrade.
Weekly bundles are the most competitively priced, indicative of high subscription rates for these plans. It is interesting to note that even mathematically subscribing to weekly bundles multiple times over the month is more economical than subscribing to monthly or fortnightly bundles on most networks.
There is a lot of fine print that needs to be read to understand how the pricing impacts monthly student budgets since while certain bundles may look cheaper, they require subscription to particular mega price plans for usage , in other cases they are time bound or administered under fair usage policy. Ufone’s 5 Star Offer is one to look out for which offers free SMS to a destination number post the first five SMS to that number. The offer is valid on both off-net and on-net numbers. Mobilink remains the pricier option where as Uth (Ufone) and Warid operate on the lower end of the rate spectrum however Telenor and Zong are not far behind.
Voice Plans:
We have chosen the most economical options available on the networks prepaid service for the purpose of analyzing the best plan for students across the country. There are multiple options to choose from and from one view point they indicate the flexibility being offered by the companies, however from another, the same flexibility and marginal difference in the plans may lead consumer to be extremely confused regarding the bucket purchase.
While analyzing call rates it is important to take a look at both, the standard on-net and off-net prices , along with the prices offered on the Friends and Family (FnF) groups. As far as standard on-net , off-net prices are concerned (between those who offer a direct tariff) Warid would be the cheapest option available at a call rate of PKR 1.98/Min. SMS charges on Mobilink remain the highest . Uth Student Package being the cheapest option at PKR 0.20/SMS followed by Warid at 0.45/ SMS. Interestingly Ufones remaining economical packages have a much higher competitive charge for SMS at PKR 1.55/SMS . Zong Voice Youth Packages come with 500 free SMS’s (price included in subscription charge) and hence becomes an attractive offer. The only issue with this offer is that student packages both on Zong Circle and Bundle provide free on-net minutes as opposed to lowest call price option . Hence making it evident that the full benefit of the bundle can only be reaped within the network or within the Zong Circle.
When it comes to FnF pricing, we are first taking a look at the FnF numbers allowed on each network. The lowest (10) and highest (99) limit on FnF exist on Warid. Mobilink and Telenor have a more realistic capping at 20 and 15 respectively. On-net rates on FnF are competitive, lurking around PKR 0.50/30Sec. Telenor is the cheapest off-net for FNF billing. The biggest incentive on FNF pricing comes on packages where there is per hour charge for FNF numbers ,irrespective of the total talk time. Uth Student Offer beats all others on this account with a price charge of PKR 0.75/Hour
Internet Bundles
3G Internet bundles have been analyzed previously here.
As far as student bundles are concerned, a key concern for data usage would focus around the cost associated with utilizing social media channels like Facebook(FB), Twitter and Whatsapp. Zong wins temporarily by offering its customers free browsing on all networks. Closely followed by Warid , who is charging PKR 0.99 per day for the service. Mobilink is a priciest option charging PKR 5 per day without Twitter or PKR 11.95 with FB , Whatsapp and Twitter.
Bundle Calculators:
A few telco’s also have bundle calculators available online that consumers can use to select the best packages and tariff based on their usage. This service is extremely helpful and helps one create a complete Voice, SMS and Mobile Internet Bucket at the lowest cost and highest utility. Here are quick links to Djuice’s and Zong’s calculators.
Verdict
Mobilink remains the relatively more expensive option for students where as Uth and Zong Circle are relatively a lot more student friendly when it comes to monthly budgets and tariff plans. Warid and Telenor lie in the in-between spectrum. Warid is likely to lose customers if its 4G LTE service cannot compete with 3G tariffs and if it delays entry into the 3G/4G market any further than they are current announced date.
