Reliance Mobile unique contest amidst ICC Trophy

Reliance Mobile, the ‘Global Partner’ for the ICC Champions Trophy South Africa 2009, today announced various consumer initiatives as part of its partnership for the tournament scheduled to begin next month.




These initiatives were announced during the Reliance Mobile Trophy Preview for the ICC Champions Trophy. This marked the beginning of Reliance Mobile’s Trophy Preview in India before the tournament commences in South Africa on September 22nd, 2009. The ICC Champions Trophy will be handed over to the winning team of the 2009 edition of the tournament.

The ICC Champions Trophy is even more exciting for cricket fans and
Reliance customers throughout India with this contest.

Commenting on Reliance Mobile’s association with ICC Champions Trophy, South Africa 2009, Akshay Kumar, Senior Executive Vice President, Reliance Communications said, “ We are initiating various
consumer-friendly promotions and initiatives for our customers and channel partners based on the ICC Champions Trophy, South Africa 2009.”




Leveraging its association with ICC to benefit customers, Reliance Mobile is planning to organize interactive contests on R-World as part of its ICC Champions Trophy South Africa 2009 initiative. The company plans to organize this contest across various platforms of R-World including CRBT, Voice Portal, SMS etc. Those wishing to participate in this unique contest will have the freedom to choose their platform as per their preference & ease of using a platform. The contest will be launched across both GSM and CDMA networks.

For instance, on Voice Portal, a subscriber will be able to dial a particular multimodal number, subscribe to the Cricket Score subscription services post which he will have to answer a skill- based question. Select winners of the contest could win a trip to South Africa.

Moreover, Reliance Mobile will go Live with all ICC Champions Trophy,South Africa 2009 matches through its R-World VAS platform. Reliance Mobile subscribers will be able to catch all the excitement of this tournament on their handsets. Reliance Mobile will also provide subscribers an option to have match scores and expert commentary on the matches as their caller-tune.

Effectively, it is in one location with two world-class venues at The Wanderers and Centurion. It is a short, sharp event with just the top eight-ranked ODI teams taking part in international competition. The event is all about prestige. It features the best players competing for a major ICC title with more prize money on offer than ever before with a total of US$4million at stake.

Airtel Special 5 Plan

This was surely coming from the countries largest mobile operator, Airtel. Ever since TATA Indicom was launched with all ‘first of its kind’ rates in India, other mobile operators should have been on their feet.




Airtel now announces ‘Special 5‘ offer where you can call any 5 Airtel numbers for incredible rates. This offer looks similar to the one which BSNL has for its customers. But it’s interesting to see Airtel jump into such offers, prior to which Airtel has seemingly high rates compared to other networks but was relying hugely on its Network quality.

Under this ‘Special 5′ offer you can not only call local Airtel numbers but also add any Airtel STD numbers. However, the charges for local and STD calls differ but are still far lower than any offer Airtel introduced ever so far.As the name may suggest that you can add up to 5 Airtel numbers in your ‘Special 5′ numbers list. Calls to local Airtel number in that list of 5 will be charged at 20 p/min and calls to STD numbers will be charged at 50 p/min.

This offer is all about giving you freedom to contact your friends and family. Previously in F & F offer, only local calls could be added but now you can even add STD numbers.And there will be a registration charges of Rs.5 per each number and a daily rental of Rs.1/each number (as per Airtel customer care) in majority of States in India like AP, WB, Assam, Bihar, North Eastern
States, UP, Punjab, Delhi, HP.

If you reside in Tamilnadu, you have even less rentals at only 20paise per number per day for local numbers and 50 paise per day per number for STD numbers. So in this case if you have 3 local number and 2 STD airtel numbers in your Special 5 Group, you need to pay a daily rental
of Rs.1.60.

All you have to do to activate this offer call 12141 and add your list
of ‘Special 5′ numbers.

Virgin Mobile Hybrid Plan is their Bread Butter

Sometimes more subscribers isn’t always better. The bad news for Virgin Mobile that they lost a net 269,000 subscribers in the second quarter. One would think it’s tough to find a silver lining in that, but it’s certainly there for them.




Beyond their acquisition by Sprint Nextel, Virgin saw a consumer shift to more profitable hybrid plans. This allowed their net income to rise while their operating revenue fell. So while Virgin is losing customers like its to-be parent company, at least Virgin is seeing those remaining customers migrate to plans which benefit the company.

It makes sense that hybrid plans — those which mimic contract plans by offering a set number of minutes for a fixed monthly price — would bring in more revenue. When balances run low, they’ll conserve, delaying the purchase of another top-up card. But with hybrid plans, the customer is already locked into a set amount monthly. That gives Virgin a steady income.

Over the next quarter, Virgin will likely focus on getting more customers on hybrid plans, even if it means losing subscribers overall. Perhaps this will be part of an industry-wide movement, where pay-as-you-go customers will move to a carrier like Net10, which specialized in pay-as-you-go, while hybrid customers will pick up Virgin or Boost Mobile.