Every mobile operators in India are in a cash crisis situation, and Aircel is in much crisis after going after 3G spectrum in 13 circles and 4G spectrum in 8 circles. Aircel has already scaled down operations in certain circles to reduce operational expenditures.
But in an interesting move Aircel is going to shut down postpaid offerings in Kerala, as per official report with effect from 31st Decemeber 2012 Aircel’s postpaid mobile services will be no longer available. We are not sure how many postpaid customers Aircel has in Kerala circle, but we believe the number is too low to continue for Aircel.
Earlier we got several reports that Aircel’s recharges for prepaid customers are not available from the retailers but now it is known that Aircel is restructuring its business model in Kerala and for that the inconvenience has been happened. Aircel informed that online recharges are valid for Kerala’s Aircel numbers. We are not sure what kind of new business model is going to set up for Aircel. But it is expected that Aircel is going to integrate all of its services -2G, 3G and 4G under one roof. There is no concrete time or plans from Aircel regarding its BWA/4G/LTE-TDD launch.
From our sources we heard similar upcoming strategy from some other operators that they are also not very much interested in postpaid segment. Spending behind a postpaid customer is more than a prepaid customers, and most people prefer prepaid over postpaid. There is no sense of allotting special customer care, billing system, shipping cost of bills, unpaid bills and the hassle to collect unpaid bills. Newer operators like Stel & Cheers (both are now shut down), Videocon and Uninor has no postpaid offerings.
Story inputs: Tharun Jacob George
