Last year, a survey conducted by Nielsen pointed out that 97% of the Indian youth were using prepaid mobile connections till the end of 2010. The situation is almost the same, the majority of users in India are still using prepaid services despite the number of smartphones and tablets available in the market. Finally, I have noticed that there are a number of factors such as ease of acquisition, economic factors, freedom, flexibility, and ‘monitoring and control’ that are determining the use of prepaid cards in the country.
However, a sizable portion of Indians is still unsure about which is better: prepaid or postpaid. Students with a tight budget or inconsistent income are more likely to prefer prepaid connections over postpaid. To lure more customers, prepaid vendors offer some existing yet simple recharge cards along with coupons and discounts. In addition to these, there are lots of different ways to recharge prepaid services via net banking or online portals.
Who should use Postpaid?
I would recommend using a postpaid connection for those who have medium to high mobile phone usage. If you use more than 30 minutes of outgoing calls in a day, then the use of prepaid service is costlier for you. In this case, postpaid would be a better option than prepaid. Unlike prepaid, the outgoing call won’t get terminated as there is no maximum limit on a postpaid mobile connection. The postpaid connection is an advantage for those having extremely high mobile phone usage and those who are not worried to pay massive bills every month.
Nowadays, many mid-market mobile phone users demand services like broadband data, media content, and other value-added services. In India, the number of mobile users (those who want voice top-up) is shrinking day-over-day. At present, a significant number of mobile users are searching for comprehensive packages.
Just a few days before, I believed that the prepaid connection is a trend in emerging markets like India, where users prefer budget packages, but now, users of some matured markets including the U.S. are also willing to shift from postpaid to prepaid connections due to economic hardship and less committed to the monthly bill. In May of this year, it was the first time in the U.S. that seven major mobile operators together reported a loss of about 52,000 postpaid subscribers from Q4 of 2011 to Q1 of 2012.
Prepaid vs Postpaid connection: Which should you use?
Prepaid SIM cards with initial credit can easily be bought off the shelf due to ease of availability. On the contrary, mobile users need to cross a chain of procedures such as document submission, billing statements, and personal identification proof when they apply for postpaid services . The whole process takes more time compare to the prepaid application process. Sometimes legal permission, such as person under 18 years of age can not apply for any contracts, also put interruption; it means student under 18 years of age could not apply for postpaid connection.
Do you know the best reason why consumers prefer prepaid cards? They prefer prepaid cards due to better control of mobile usage. In the case of postpaid plans, users have fixed monthly bills, allowing users limited services depending on plan. The risk for postpaid plan is, if you unintentionally exceed the limit then there is a probability to pay more than expected. If you are unsatisfied with your present service operators, then you can easily switch to other network anytime in the case of prepaid connection, but it’s not possible for postpaid users.
