Idea's thrust to push post paid subscribers

PUNE: Idea Cellular, the mobile service operator in 11 circles across the country, has launched an easier system to pay bills for its post-paid service. The service, launched simultaneously in all 11 circles, is expected to give a greater push to its post paid service in non-metro locations.
"The Pay Easy service allows the customer to retain control over billing details, which s/he loses in the case of an electronic clearing system (ECS)," Nilanjan Mukherjee, vice president, corporate marketing, Idea Cellular Ltd, said.He added that the introduction of the service will double the number of locations where post paid subscribers can pay their bills. Nationally, Idea has over 1500 drop boxes for this segment of its subscribers.
Besides using the existing retail channel of the pre-paid segment, Idea has devised two other routes for post-paid subscribers to pay their bills. They can either use the bank’s ATM where the bank will accept the mobile number and payment amount or pay via an SMS. To use this facility, the subscriber will have to be registered with a bank where s/he can then SMS with the key word and payment amount.
Citing the case of Maharashtra, where Idea is the leading cellular service provider, Mukherjee said that they are present in 250 towns. Of these, as many as 40 have no banking facilities, hence there are no post paid subscribers. Of its 14 lakh subscriber base in the Maharashtra telecom circle (including Goa excluding Mumbai), 4.5 lakh are post paid.
"With the introduction of Pay Easy, we expect better synergies since we will be using the same network as the pre-paid. And we will be able to offer post paid services even where there are no banks," he said.