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Originally Posted by Motel75
Actually, my complaint about the prepaids is more basic than that. The amount of account activity you get per topup is not very generous, and only PTC allow account validity to accumulate (buy 50 Zl, it adds 3 months; buy another 50 and it goes up to 6 months), but only to a maximum of 1 year. Compare that to, say, 2/3 of Czech operators, where it lasts 1 year or 15 months, typical for most prepaid countries. I realize that the per-minute price, and some of the features, in Poland are very good (I've been a customer of all of them), but there has only been slight movement on this; PTC only introduced cumulative validity about a year ago.
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OK, but remeber that the only "sure" money operators make on prepaids are those for sold top-ups. No monthly fee, and no warranty that the SIM will be used at least for incoming calls....
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Originally Posted by Motel75
(And before Heyah came along, all the prepaid deals were poor value: 1.50 a minute, 60-second billing, and 3 months expiration for 50 Zl.
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Postpaids were that bad even longer :P
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Originally Posted by Motel75
The problem with the rapid expiration and non-cumulative credit is it discourages new users, who might not be willing to spend 200 Zl per year (at least not at first); in Germany the minimum spend per year is only 20 ?, in Italy as little as 3?, and in the UK and elsewhere basically nothing. Poland has a relatively low penetration rate (even so, nearly 80 percent), but elsewhere the slack has been taken up by prepaid.
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200 PLN is much money for many people here
but think about alternatives. Postpaid rates are >25 PLN/month expect for the 10 PLN Orange plan (in which no discount packets are available however). The cheapest landline plans also start from 25 PLN but they have horrible rates and no minutes included.
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Originally Posted by Motel75
Polish operators seed the market with super-cheap starter packs, but I'd be surprised if more than a small fraction turn into long-term customers, simply because of the overall cost and frequency of recharges necessary;
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Well, if you receive much more credit than you pay for a new SIM, what prevents you from applying use-and-dispose policy
. Last summer Jedna Idea na Karte SIMs were sold for half the price before rebranding to Orange. This spring first top-up in Tak Tak and Heyah was doubled. Now Mini Start POP gives 12 PLN for 10 PLN paid...
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Originally Posted by Motel75
I know a couple of older people who found it to be "too much trouble" before they had a chance to discover just how useful a mobile phone could be.
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The problem with older people and mobile phones is often "hardware one"
They need large keys and clear displays with large characters and good contrast even more then cheap rates...
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Originally Posted by Motel75
It's better than total account cancellation, but it's not very friendly, and this kind of pricing policy does little to retain users. Many people in Poland I know are on their fifth or sixth mobile number; there's a very high churn rate, not surprising when each account expires so quickly and long-term customership isn't rewarded. Considering how much operators elsewhere pay to retain customers, this is very surprising.
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Long term customership is rewarded. In Era Tak Tak after 4 months the national rate drops from 0.77 to 0.69 PLN/min and national sms from 0.22 to 0.16 PLN. After 8 months the national rate drops to 0.59 PLN/min. In Orange there's a more typical loyalty programme in which each 1 PLN spent on top-ups is rewarded by 1 point. Each 6 months is rewarded by 300 points. And points can be converted to top-ups at the rates 25 points=1 PLN.
I think that now Polish operators want to make millions of new "virtula" customers (=millions of activated SIMs in drawers or trashbin
) than to really keep them.
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Originally Posted by Motel75
Sami Swoi has a 7-month account activity for 80 Zl recharge, but again, it isn't cumulative (and their website has no useful features, and their software doesn't work properly, and they let you choose either GPRS or roaming but not both).
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Yes I agree but nothing's perfect
And, I like Sami Swoi website - I appreciate there's no much stupid graphics there and I like green colour
.