Telenor Invents a New Way of Minting Money

When businesses go unchecked by authority and making money becomes the only goal, companies will do any possible thing to empty the pockets of customers, without considering the long term consequences of their deeds. One such example is SMS based trivia quizzes, which every telecom company is now playing with.

Going to next level, Telenor Pakistan is sending text messages to its customers to win as much as half kilogram of gold for FREE in its “Sonay ki Jeet” contest, which could potentially mislead customers by not communicating the actual terms.

Text message received by Telenor customer claims that participation (shirkat) in the contest is free, which is untrue.

Before going into further details, let’s have a look at the SMS:

Text message is in roman Urdu, which would translate into English as following:

Free participation for 3445433332!

Telenor has selected your number for free participation for a prize of Half Kilogram gold. Send FREE to 8999 now

Rs. 0 this SMS

What a customer will get from this message is apparent, i.e. participation in contest is free. He/she will immediately send a reply back to this message assuming that he/she will qualify for the prize. Which doesn’t happen in reality.

In real, participation in “Sonay ki Jeet” contest requires at least one reply to short-code 7775, which costs Rs. 10 plus tax.

When we asked Telenor’s viewpoint on it, Telenor said that SMS from 8999 is not misleading. It argued that customer is given an opportunity to enter into the competition by sending a free SMS to 8999. Once that is done, customer then receives questions for the Sonay Ki Jeet competition to which the customer responds to, at 7775. Telenor said that Messages from 7775 informs customers that sending SMS to 7775 will be charged at Rs10+tax.

Obviously participation isn’t free, which Telenor admitted to us, unlike it claimed in text messages sent to customers (shown above).

Almost all cellular companies use tactics to trigger customers for action, but Telenor’s this action of claiming the participation as free is unique and new.

No words on PTA’s role; they are so good at showing deaf ears to things where customers suffer. Just imagine the number of customers (especially from rural areas) who will washout their credits just because of a twist Telenor invented to earn more money. Millions of Rupees will change pockets, on which Telenor deserves a bravo; and so does PTA.

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Sybrid’s Contact Center Go Online

Lakson Group subsidiary Sybrid (Pvt.) Ltd., a Business Process Outsourcing company, has completed a state-of-the-art contact center which it will manage for Telenor Pakistan.

The new center – which will create jobs for 500 talented Pakistani individuals – will allow for process handling to meet growing customer needs.

The collaboration has led to an investment of Rs. 100 million by Lakson Group to build the supporting infrastructure.

To mark the completion, an inauguration ceremony was held which was attended by senior officials of Lakson Group, Sybrid and Telenor Pakistan.

Iqbal Ali Lakhani, Chairman, Lakson Group and CEO Sybrid speaking at the inauguration said: “We are proud to have completed the project well before the stipulated deadline. This is the first step Sybrid has taken to providing Telenor Pakistan a holistic customer services package, and we look forward to allowing them to enjoy sustained cost and efficiency advantages through this partnership.”

Lars Christian Iuel, CEO Telenor Pakistan in his comments said: “Telenor Pakistan is committed to building a stronger customer-centric organization. Our partnership with Sybrid is a step in that direction and we hope our customers will benefit from Sybrid’s expertise in customer handling. In addition, we are excited to offer Lakson Group the Easypaisa platform to enable them to disburse salaries of their workers efficiently. The partnership is an excellent example of mutually beneficial synergies created by both organizations.”

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Telenor Premier League 2012 Concludes

CEO Telenor Pakistan Lars Christian Iuel handing over the Telenor Premier League Cup 2012 to Waqas Amanullah, captain of Region Central-1, the winning team of the tournament.

Telenor Premier League is Telenor Pakistan’s highly anticipated annual T-20 cricket tournament, now in its fifth year.

The aim of the tournament is to encourage a spirit of healthy competition among the seven regions of the company.

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Telenor Starts Charging Postpaid Customers for Helpline Calls

Telenor has done it again; it has once again become the first operator in industry to impose charges on postpaid customers for calling helpline (correct me if I am wrong here).

Telenor, without notifying customers – even with an SMS notification (something they keep sending their customers every day but for promotions only) – imposed Rs. 2 plus tax for every call made to helpline.

Though a prompt message is being played during helpline calls – explaining that postpaid customers will be charged Rs. 2 plus tax for talking to CSR.

Prepaid customers were already paying charges plus taxes for seeking help from cellular operators.

Postpaid customers are usually considered premier due to high paying tariffs they bear. It merits mentioning here that ARPU (Average Revenue per User) for postpaid customers forTelenor in Q4 2011 was Rs. 771 as compared to Rs. 236 for prepaid customers.

Additional charges are something cellular customers in Pakistan are facing every other day now. Telco’s claim offering of lowest call rates in region seems more of just a catch line now. I am wondering when will they stop justifying low ARPUs because of low calling rates, as low calling tariffs are supported by humongous additional charges.

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Telenor to Deploy New Unified Billing System in 3 Countries

Telenor Group today announced that it is going to deploy a new, cross-border unified billing platform in three countries covering 60 million subscribers.

To be built and maintained by Huawei this new common solution for billing and charging will be deployed for three business units in Telenor Group, Telenor Pakistan, DiGi (Malaysia) and DTAC (Thailand).

A Telenor official told ProPakistani that billing and charging solutions for all Telenor subsidiaries were independent and outsourced by different vendors before this newly announced implementation.

Earlier the billing systems were built while keeping different regulatory environments in mind and specifically tailored for one single market. However, this new solution will incorporate all regulatory frameworks for different regions, minifying cost and bringing ease in adaptability. “It will help standardize the work procedures”, he added.

“This is innovation at the very core of a telecommunications company. It’s a strategic requirement to build flexible systems for billing and charging in an environment where business models are constantly changing. In the future, operators will need to find inventive ways of packaging the new data-based services in a way that consumers find attractive. Our ability to quickly adapt to changing customer needs and find ways to leverage on our cross-border competencies and size deliver direct competitive advantage,” says Hilde Tonne, Executive Vice President, Group Industrial Development, Telenor Group.

Telenor Group, for implementation of this system signed a global frame agreement with Huawei.  In some markets, the implementation phase will be conducted by a third-party system integrator.

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Telenor Starts Charging Postpaid Customers for Helpline Calls

Telenor has done it again; it has once again become the first operator in industry to impose charges on postpaid customers for calling helpline (correct me if I am wrong here).

Telenor, without notifying customers – even with an SMS notification (something they keep sending their customers every day but for promotions only) – imposed Rs. 2 plus tax for every call made to helpline.

Though a prompt message is being played during helpline calls – explaining that postpaid customers will be charged Rs. 2 plus tax for talking to CSR.

Prepaid customers were already paying charges plus taxes for seeking help from cellular operators.

Postpaid customers are usually considered premier due to high paying tariffs they bear. It merits mentioning here that ARPU (Average Revenue per User) for postpaid customers forTelenor in Q4 2011 was Rs. 771 as compared to Rs. 236 for prepaid customers.

Additional charges are something cellular customers in Pakistan are facing every other day now. Telco’s claim offering of lowest call rates in region seems more of just a catch line now. I am wondering when will they stop justifying low ARPUs because of low calling rates, as low calling tariffs are supported by humongous additional charges.

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Telenor, Your Website’s URL Structuring Breaks Links

Telenor Pakistan’s official website needs an urgent fix for its URL structuring. The problem is that links don’t work If not typed “www” with the main URL.

For instance, type telenor.com.pk (not www.telenor.com.pk) and then try to open any link, yes any link – it won’t work.

Following is what you are likely to get:

I suppose not many internet users type www along with URLs, especially if its .PK domain. I am saying this because a shortcut Ctrl+Enter is largely used with domain names to automatically type www + .com with the domain – but that’s for top level domain. For instance, type Yahoo in your address bar and hit Ctrl+Enter.

We first noticed this when Telenor Pakistan revamped their website last year. But didn’t point it out – just because we thought that they are working on it and might get things straight.

I remember our friend Saad Hamid once mentioning @TelenorPakistan of this flaw over Twitter, but appears they have given up looking at their website (and Twitter account). This is probably why “Blog” section on Telenor’s website is  displaying “Coming Soon” for months.

Update

Okay, it appears Telenor has fixed the issue now:) Thanks 

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Telenor to Further Increase Tariff for Poora Pakistan Offer

Pakistan is, yet again, going to increase daily charges for for Poora Pakistan offer, in addition to adding call setup charges.

When introduced, Poora Pakistan was offered at a daily charges of Rs. 7.99 plus tax, later charges were doubled to Rs. 15 plus tax per day and then increased to Rs. 20 plus tax.

New Rates:

Now Telenor has posted a message on its website revealing that from March 1st, daily charges for Poora Pakistan offer will be increased to Rs. 25 plus tax per day or Rs. 29.87 including tax.

Not only this, a call setup fee of Rs. 1.00 (plus tax) per call will also be charged – excluding 9pm to 10pm.

Subscription, Charges and Validity:

Dial *345*000# USSD to subscribe
Subscription price (After March 1st): Rs.25+tax
Call setup charges of Rs.1.00+tax will be applicable all day excluding 9pm-10pm
Validity: Customers can make Free Calls on day of subscription – till 12am (offer not valid between 6pm-9pm)
Offer is for Talkshawk 24 Hrs Subscribers Only
Terms and conditions

Offer mechanics and price are subject to change at any time
Talkshawk reserves the right to withdraw the offer at any time
Effective 1st March 2012, Offer Subscription price will be Rs.25+tax
Effective 1st March 2012, Call setup charges of Rs.1.00+tax will be applicable all day excluding 9pm-10pm
Effective 1st March 2012, Customers can make free calls on day of subscription – till 12am (Offer not valid between 6pm-10pm)

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