Prepaid and Postpaid Mobile Connections Which is Better

Mobile phones have become one of the most important necessities for survival in the recent days. It is quite difficult to find a person without mobile phone because of its advantages and also the fact that there are a number of added features available through mobile phone for people.

S.No	Interesting facts about Indian Telecom Industry	Detailed Information
1	Total telecom subscribers in India	Over 900 Million
2	Mobile traffics in India	Second lowest in the world after Bangladesh
3	Prepaid SIM connection suited for	Minimum to Low Usage
4	Post-paid SIM connections suited for	Medium to High Usage
5	Pre-paid connections among Indian Youths	About 97% as per the stats released on end of 2010

Telecom operators are providing both data and voice services and also a number of add on services for users to make sure that they can get more features with their mobile phones and make their experience with their mobile phones to be the best one in all aspects.

Types of connections:

Basically, there are two ways through which mobile phone service providers are offering services for end users. One is the postpaid service and another one is the prepaid service. The postpaid service, as the name implies, it is the kind of service that users have to pay after usage which is similar to a typical landline phone where users have to pay for what they are using at the end of every month or the duration which they have been allotted the billing cycle by the respective telecom service providers.

The type of connection which many people prefer in common is the prepaid connection. The prepaid connection is the one where users can only speak to the limit that they have the credit balance or the amount they have recharged their account. It is typically used by most of the people in common as they feel that they have complete control over their account which is why they feel that it is safe to have one of them. The credit control can be done in a very simple way that if they are not recharging their mobile phone, then there is no chance of misuse of the phone.

Usage and requirement:

The typical users of prepaid connections will be those people who used to talk very less with their phone and very often make use of their phone to receive calls. The prepaid connections are usually having more reliability over the talk time and also the data that is being used as there is no scope of going beyond the limit that is being stipulated by the respective telecom firms. The credit control is more dynamic in prepaid account which makes it easy for people, but the corresponding usage is always restricted to the amount that people add to their credit.

On the other hand, if a person is using mobile phone very often throughout the day, then the most suitable kind of connection that people can prefer will be the postpaid connection. There is no restriction in the number of calls that can be made using the postpaid connection, however people can always have a control over their credits by setting up some limits within which they can able to make calls or use other services that are offered by the telecom operator.

Benefits and drawbacks of prepaid connections:

It can be observed that vast majority of people prefer prepaid connections mainly because of some of the following reasons:

There is no necessity for people to get afraid of the high amount of bill as in the case of telephone line or postpaid connections as they are always in firm control over their recharge limits
Even if there is requirement for any additional usage that is beyond the credit limit that they have invested, there is no necessity to fear as there are a number of possibilities are now available for recharging prepaid account
The prepaid account which is recharged once can last for a long period of time which is usually stipulated by the telecom company for different users based on their usage levels
As most of the telecom operators are now offering validity of the sim cards throughout lifetime, there is no necessity to get concerned about the deadline of using the account balance
There are lot more features now subscribers can use with the help of their prepaid account which is now very easy for people to manipulate what they want and how they have to pay

Because of these features, most people are feeling that taking a prepaid account is the most comfortable way to use mobile phone. These features can apply for only those people who are very well sure about how they are going to use their mobile phones. Even when people argue that prepaid is best, following are some of the drawbacks that people need to face with their prepaid account which is as follows:

If people are moving to a place where there is no option for recharge available, then people have to wait for a long time till they are finding a place where they can recharge their mobile
The customer care services for prepaid users are not that much user friendly as in the case of postpaid customer care services as per experience by some of the prepaid users
Even if people are having various options for recharging their prepaid account, it is still a problem for people to move to the recharge point again and again
Some of the services may get cut off immediately after the credit limit has exceeded, making it very difficult to resume back the services at earliest time

Benefits and drawbacks of postpaid connection:

As mentioned earlier, typical users of postpaid connection will be those people who are having high usage with their mobile phones. The benefits of postpaid connection are as follows:

There is no necessity for people to get concerned about the aspects of recharge as they will be charged continuously with their phones depending on the level of usage
As people can now speak with their mobile phones till their upper credit limit, there is no necessity to think about limits and they can just use their phones as they require
The upper credit limit of people will be revised in the postpaid connections automatically depending on how well people are using their mobile phones in the last month transaction
The usage fee will come in the form of simple bill like people receive bills for telephone connections which makes it very easy for people to pay their bill like they pay for their utilities
In a typical bill that comes for postpaid connections, a detailed history of various calls that has been made and services that has been utilized will be visible, making it very easy for the purpose of monitoring connection
Postpaid users will be given priority access to customer care services wherein the queries and concerns that are raised by the users will be resolved within a short span of time

On seeing these benefits, some people may think that postpaid connection is the most suitable one for mobile phone users, but below are some of the problems that postpaid users are facing in common:

As there is no restriction present in the postpaid connection, sometimes people end up using their phone for longer duration and end up paying for more amount during the end of their bill cycle
Some users often experience difficulties with their bills where they feel that they are being overcharged for some of the features that they are using
It is quite difficult for users to receive benefits and offers that are applicable for prepaid users as they are being treated with a number of benefits and offers during most times in a year
The scheme that postpaid users take at the time of joining the network will remain the same for a long period of time and they are usually not allowed to go back to the prepaid connection or change their postpaid scheme

Option of closed user group:

Another important benefit that postpaid users can receive is the option of closed user group. Typically when people buy postpaid connections to a certain number of lines, then they will be eligible to receive free closed user group subscription with which it is very easy for people to speak with others within the group free of cost. The policy will be applicable for most of the users who are working in a registered firm or user groups that are approved by the mobile operator. It is more useful for small and medium sized companies as they can allow their employee to speak with others free of cost.

There is no option of closed user group being given for prepaid users because of the fact that there is guarantee from each user that they will generate some revenue for the mobile network. The mobile operator cannot get anything in return from the prepaid users apart from the recharge that they do for their mobile phones. Even when prepaid users are made eligible for one of such scheme, then they have to pay some equivalent amount of money that postpaid users are paying for using the option of closed user group as mobile network cannot get any benefit from prepaid users with the scheme.

Offers and discounts:

In terms of offers and discounts, it is only the prepaid users given a lot of priorities and privileges. The main reason why most of the mobile networks are providing more options for prepaid users is because of the fact that they are in a necessity to retain back their customers within their own network. The option of mobile number portability is playing havoc in the field of mobile networking as users can now switchover from one network to another network with the help of portability option.

If mobile networks are following the same policy of recharge and offers for a long period of time, then there are more chances that users will be searching for best deals with other operators and change their network. This is the main reason why prepaid users are always given more priority in terms of offers and discounts. The same will not get applied for most of the postpaid connections as they will be already provided some set of services and discounts at the time when they are taking up a new connection and the same will follow for a long period of time.

Advantages of data usage for postpaid connections:

Data has become one of the most important things for mobile users in the recent days. It is quite difficult for some people to use their mobile phones if they are not having data enabled in their phones. When people are using data with their prepaid connection, then they have to pay a huge amount of money for purchasing data plan subscription. Once people have crossed the data usage limit, then they have to pay a large amount of money and do their recharge again to get the data speed that they want. It is one of the biggest drawback for users as they have to repeat doing things again and again.

Number of Telecom operators in India

9 in Total

1. Bharti Airtel

2. Vodafone India

3. Idea Cellular

4. Reliance Communications (RCom)

5. Reliance JIO (4G/LTE-only)

6. BSNL

7. Aircel (to be merged with RCom)

8. Tata DoCoMo

9. MTNL

State-owned Telecom networks in India

2 (BSNL, MTNL)

The top 3 telecom for market share and network coverage

· Vodafone – 19% market share

· Airtel – 24% market share

· !dea – 18% market share

When people subscribe for data with their postpaid connection, there is no necessity for people to get concerned about the data usage limits. The data services for postpaid users will not get disturbed at any point of time till their account usage reaches the limit of upper credit value. Till then, there is no necessity for people to get concerned about their usage limits.

For postpaid users, data usage limit is not set and also they are provided more data limit with their account which will get cycled during their bill cycle, making it reliable for people to pay optimum for their data usage which is not possible in the case of prepaid connection that requires users to recharge every time when the data limit has exceeded.

Conclusion:

Though, Indian people prefer pre-paid connection rather than post-connections, still corporate and medium scale business owners prefer postpaid connections for them and also for their employees. In facts, when compared with western countries where post-paid are highly attracts rather than pre-paid connection.

Other Articles