Published on May 13, 2005
Hutchison-CAT has introduced new prepaid and post-paid phone tariffs, looking to rapidly expand its subscription base.
The company’s executive vice president for marketing, Janjaree Thanma, yesterday said the tariffs were part of the company’s strategy to quickly bolster the Hutch community.
Hutch uses a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000 1-x broadband cellular network and has about 700,000 subscribers. The new prepaid tariff allows subscribers to make a free call within the Hutch network for five minutes and pay Bt0.25 per minute after that. Calling to different networks they will be charged Bt3 for the first minute and Bt0.25 thereafter. But can the company make money if some customers talk for only five minutes, hang up, then call again for five minutes? Hutch’s vice president for marketing strategy and planning Veena Ongcharit said despite that possibility, Hutch stood to gain from the new tariffs because subscribers still have to buy refill cards. Hutch refills feature retail prices of Bt50 for a card valid for three days, Bt100 for a card valid for 10 days, and Bt300 for one valid for 30 days. She said the free calls would also encourage Hutch users to talk their friends into signing up with Hutch. Hutch is currently posting average revenue per user per month of Bt300 for prepaid and Bt1,000 for post-paid subscribers. The company has also introduced new post-paid phone tariffs, featuring various monthly fee rates. Like the new prepaid phone tariff, it waives charges for the first five minutes within the Hutch network and charges Bt0.25 per minute thereafter. Hutch has also introduced new and subsidised handsets to tap into the country’s reserve of potential new customers. Hutch recently consolidated its marketing unit to cover all of its six key business units. It appointed Janjaree to lead the new department. Janjaree has more than 16 years’ experience leading the marketing divisions of a number of major companies. Her last posting was regional marketing director for the Asia-Pacific for Frito Lay. Sirivish Toomgum The Nation
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