One Second Billing

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darkhorse3

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#78584 4-Mar-2011 14:16

I am wondering if Vodafone / Vodafone / 2 Degrees has any plans to implement seconds based billing rather than charging the customers per minute. One of my Indian contacts mentioned that Tata Indicom (Indian Mobile Operator) took that first step to introduce one second billing which was a huge success and followed by others and eventually TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) mandating one second billing for all operators.
In NZ is it possible to introduce one second billing even with an operator wishes....any legal challenges.

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2degrees

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#445508 4-Mar-2011 14:20

Possible? Sure: the network reports back time down to tenths of a second. Planning to? No-one is going to come on here and discuss their future plans for billing, dude. :-)

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Starplay

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#445542 4-Mar-2011 15:32

SaltyNZ: No-one is going to come on here and discuss their future plans for billing, dude. :-)

This is where geekzone needs a like button!... Lol

NonprayingMantis

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#445559 4-Mar-2011 16:04

It would lose huge amounts of revenues and customers would mostly not realise the difference and perceive their pricing as being really expensive.

Simple example:
Lets say voda charged 50c for a minute, second+second, and telecom charged 40c per minute, but billed min+min.
Lets imagine a customer makes 50 calls each month, with 40 of them lasting 30 seconds and the other 10 lasting 1min30 seconds.

A voda customer would only pay about $17 per month whereas the telecom customer would pay about $24.

But when a potential customer goes to compare rates all he sees is 50c vs 40c and, on that basis, would pick telecom every time.

You are probably aware that telecom prepay is min+sec but voda prepay is min+min, but I bet you anything you like that the vast majority of prepay customers do not know that, and even if they did it would be too hard to work out which is better.

nate

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#445565 4-Mar-2011 16:15

When we were in the VoIP game, I had clients who got second by second billing. They were a call centre doing thousands of minutes a month, and they fought hard to get it.

Getting second by second for consumers? Doubt it.

sbiddle

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#445639 4-Mar-2011 19:34

Current MTR rates between Vodafone/Telecom/landline are minute+second so it'snot possible as every operator pays that minute minimum cost.

2degrees pay per second with their agreement with Vodafone but this couldn't work either because not all calls are billed at this.

Expect the ComCom to have second+second billing when they finally regulate prices. Whether any telco does this is a bit unknown but I'd doubt it.

darkhorse3

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#445661 4-Mar-2011 21:05

NonprayingMantis: I agree, but this is about customer perception which can be surely superseded with better marketing....also, people are very good at their math and can figure out the advantage of seconds billing. May be Commerce Commission can have a say on One Second Billing.

SaltyNZ

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#445669 4-Mar-2011 21:53

darkhorse3: also, people are very good at their math and can figure out

You've never dealt with people, have you?

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darkhorse3

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#445695 4-Mar-2011 23:30

Yes I have...but not with dumb ones...

SaltyNZ

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#445723 5-Mar-2011 09:15

darkhorse3: Yes I have...but not with dumb ones...

Statistically speaking, I guess it has to happen to someone. Tell me: what's it like? :)

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These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.

PenultimateHop

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#445731 5-Mar-2011 10:04

darkhorse3: I am wondering if Vodafone / Vodafone / 2 Degrees has any plans to implement seconds based billing rather than charging the customers per minute. One of my Indian contacts mentioned that Tata Indicom (Indian Mobile Operator) took that first step to introduce one second billing which was a huge success and followed by others and eventually TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) mandating one second billing for all operators.
In NZ is it possible to introduce one second billing even with an operator wishes....any legal challenges.

I wouldn't use the Indian telecommunications market and especially not their regulatory environment as a benchmark.

Success can be defined in many ways, but recent movements (such as per-second billing, when the per-minute rates were already extraordinarily low) in India have been a massive loser for the telcos in India, to the point where network expansion is very, very hard to fund due to the significant drop in revenue and margin. Not to mention the nightmare in billing platform changes - IBM loved it1

PH
(worked for an Indian cell co for a while...)

NonprayingMantis

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#445748 5-Mar-2011 11:01

darkhorse3: NonprayingMantis: I agree, but this is about customer perception which can be surely superseded with better marketing....also, people are very good at their math and can figure out the advantage of seconds billing. May be Commerce Commission can have a say on One Second Billing.

most people are terrible at math, and those who aren't mostly don't care enough about the intricate details of telco billing to bother working out the difference.

webwat

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#446262 7-Mar-2011 12:52

darkhorse3: NonprayingMantis: I agree, but this is about customer perception which can be surely superseded with better marketing....also, people are very good at their math and can figure out the advantage of seconds billing. May be Commerce Commission can have a say on One Second Billing.

I'm ok at maths but will never be able to accurately predict whether the number of calls at less than 1 min will be sufficient to offset the number of unexpected 15 min calls in any future month, because it hasn't happened yet and I don't even have the time/energy to go through previous bills and work out what network I should be on. I just pick the network that makes sense, including flexibility of their plans and whether they pissed me off already. Currently 2 Degrees is the only mobile provider meeting that criteria...

Time to find a new industry!

Cyris

121 posts

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#446271 7-Mar-2011 13:02

A couple of years ago, we had Vodacom in South Africa introduce per second billing to us, it was a major success and before you knew it, everyone changed over to Vodacom. It's really not a bad idea.

NonprayingMantis

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#446278 7-Mar-2011 13:10

Cyris: A couple of years ago, we had Vodacom in South Africa introduce per second billing to us, it was a major success and before you knew it, everyone changed over to Vodacom. It's really not a bad idea.

what do you mean by 'everyone'.. Vodacom has less than 60% market share in SA and has been in decline.

nakedmolerat

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#446284 7-Mar-2011 13:22

NonprayingMantis:
Cyris: A couple of years ago, we had Vodacom in South Africa introduce per second billing to us, it was a major success and before you knew it, everyone changed over to Vodacom. It's really not a bad idea.

what do you mean by 'everyone'.. Vodacom has less than 60% market share in SA and has been in decline.

i think he meant most people that he know move to Vodacom

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