“Dear customer, to maintain service standard, weekly Sms bundles will remain unavailable from 5 to 7 October. Thank you.” Warid sent out that message few days ago to its prepaid subscribers who are using weekly Sms bundles (the message has been translated here from Urdu).
After continually losing subscribers in recent years, Warid’s market share had fallen to 9.38 percent as of May 2014. But its remaining customers are said to be a loyal breed that has come to expect high-quality service from their longtime carrier. Some of them may have an issue with the above-mentioned message that seems simple and routine-affair.
Normally, such a communication wouldn’t raise eyebrows. But October 5-7 is a special period coming up. October 6-7 is when Eid-ul-Azha falls; October 5 is the Chand Raat. Pakistani cellular networks are said to experience major spikes in Sms during religious occasions, especially Eid. People are seen texting a good number of their contacts, for greetings, re-connecting, making plans, and more.
Put simply, because people are now used to sending many short Sms due to cheap bundles, it’s a serious turn-off when this facility is turned off and Sms have to be sent on costly flat rates. It is in large part due to cheap Sms bundles that Pakistan is among the heaviest-texting nations. About 316 billion Sms were sent in FY13, with an average of 214 Sms sent per subscriber per month. Despite the onslaught of OTT apps like WhatsApp, Viber, etc., Sms volume is expected to have grown in FY14.
For the Warid customers, whose prepaid Sms bundle subscriptions won’t be working in those three “special” days, they would obviously have to pay standard Sms tariff (Rs1.5 per Sms) or subscribe to monthly or daily Sms plans (both of which mean customers will have to spend more money). On an individual level, the differential will be in rupees, but the overall impact could be tens, if not hundreds of millions of rupees when the effect on millions of subscribers is taken into account.
Is that fair? Well, Warid has duly informed its subscribers about the suspension, which is sweet because there are very few things worse that an airtime robbery. And Warid, as a private business as no obligation to offer Sms bundles; also, may well have a genuine straightforward case here: it could be that their network really cannot take the Sms spike on this Eid, who knows, for whatever reason!
Yet, to “maintain service standards” on a special occasion, when people really need their carrier to not die on them, is a bad idea for a service provider. And it’s discomforting for users who may feel that a suspension that indirectly increases their cellular spend is resulting into a windfall for their beloved operator.
With latest data unavailable, one cannot say whether Warid’s uncertain prospects in 3G/4G market have taken a toll on its subscriber base. Loyal Warid customers hope that the financially-strapped operator will comply with regulatory provisions and come out soon with high-speed data services. But cutting corners like this betrays a sense of panic, which may cause some of its users to jump ship. Watch out, Warid!
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