Combos are the new packs available to consumers. Thanks to the new entrant for spurring a revolution in the Combo segment. For now, our incumbent operators already lost control on the pricing strategy in the market and all they just do is to follow a benchmark price point set by the competitor, fair or unfair in the market; a situation and fact that cannot be ignored.
Fair things aside, let us now have an overview of combo plans/ offerings made available to idea consumers across various circles and price points. These combos considered, all have a data benefit along with voice benefit as a minimum guarantee. Some combos considered also have roaming/SMS/TT benefits as well.
Starting from a minimum MRP segment value of 150 till a maximum MRP segment value of 1195, you can see Combos in almost 14 different price segments, offered and applicable across different circles with their benefits tabulated against them.
Plan Notes:
1. T&C may apply to any of the plans as provided by the cellular operator.
2. Unlimited SMS equals 100 Free L+N /Day as per TRAI Capping.
3. The same price tag may offer same or different benefits in different circles, the benefit differences if varied are considered while the same benefits are ignored.
4. Data benefit means overall 'DATA' benefit provided to a consumer irrespective of 2G/3G/4G differences. Based on the circle, the operator may provide DATA in any combination 2G/3G, 3G/4G or 4G/2G or 4G only benefit. Purposefully, the circle & Data Technology details are not presented in the article as it is out of the scope of this analysis.
5. Idea Cellular is also offering 5% of MRP as TT if the recharge is done on MyIdea App or Website for some or most of the packs.
6. MRP/Validity/Data Benefit are the three main parameters taken into consideration for any difference across circles to be used in the analysis.
7. Roaming benefit includes incoming as well outgoing, termed as per the T&C of the cellular operator.
8. Price segment is considered as per the nearest MRP of the pack and the MRP is rounded to the nearest value to segregate them into a price segment, this has nothing to do with the offering of the current operator.
9.The above pack information may also contain segmented, customized or specially for you offers as well along with open market offers.
Everything is fine, but just the basics failed: A Real-time example:
Like a reflex action, we can see some pack benefits being changed to cater the needs of various consumers every now and then. The offer benefit which is available today may not be available tomorrow at the same price point. Very good that our operators are trying their best to provide different benefits at different price points for various users. They are also very good at changing them every now and then without a proper change flow mechanism.
During this process of Market Rule change, our operators are just letting go the basics ignored.
1. Web Page Recharge Portal shows benefit A while a consumer gets benefit B applied to his account by the systems.
2. The Mobile App shows benefit A but after recharge, the customer gets intimated of benefit B via SMS.
3. Calling customer care is of no use, as the cc personnel will explain about a different and current benefit that is being shown to them on their screens. Any frustrated customer after all this will feel cheated and look out for various options(You know what I meant).
The MyIdea App shows MRP.19 gives Unlimited 4G/3G data for 1 Hour but after a recharge, the consumer gets notified of a different benefit applied on his number. How fair is this?
This is not just the case with this operator, but the rest of the major two operators as well(we will discuss them in the coming stories). Hope our operators just follow one 'Plan Information Update' service across all their portals/apps applicable via API or REST web services if they opt to continue offering a number of packs across circles.
Please check with cc in your circle or MyIdea App for information on any of the packs applicable to you.
Dear readers, let us know your thoughts on the plans discussed and also have you faced any issues with the outdated pack information made available to you? Let us know via comments or you can also tweet me @Srikapardhi.
Disclaimer: Manual work involved, may or may not contain errors. Information is taken from respective operators web resources and we do not guarantee the accuracy/correctness of this information. The web resources may or may not be updated to reflect the pack benefits as on date. Chances that we may also miss to consolidate some packs or information in this story. This information of combo packs put forward is just to have an understanding of the current market offerings from a particular operator. Any wrong information reported may or may not be corrected. Pack information as on Sept 14, 2017.
