Story of three rivals rather four: Who grabs the top spot?? PART- I

Not long before mobile phones were considered to be a toy for the elite now it's a necessity for every individual in the society regardless of age or social class. The shift of cellular companies attention to youth and offering increasing services while reducing charges to cater to the youth indicates clearly that the strategy is to bank on increasing market share from this segment of the society as youngsters are more likely to avail value added services and other perks being offered like Sms packages and late night calls other then internet packages lately being offered at dirt cheap rates.


 Keeping aside the debate of what's ethical and whats not we are here today to analyze what is being offered by the cellular companies & which one is offering the most comprehensive value to the end customer which includes 5 factors which we discuss further below.


When we sat down to analyze the complexities of prepaid tariffs , we initially had three brands in mind that catered to youth from the three big wigs namely Mobilink , Telenor and Ufone , big wigs in terms of their market share. But we realized that it would be unfair not to include the fourth brand, Warid . Hence we decided to make it a comparison between four brands rather then three to be fair and just in evaluating what's best . Pardon us for not including Zong. The main reason behind this was the fact that there is currently no package from zong which is designed especially for the youngsters market so we will be focusing on the packages being offered for the youth.


We have a clear understanding that currently Mobilink is offering the Jazz Octane designed for this young segment. Telenor has the long established Djuice package , Warid launched the Glow brand amidst much marketing and lately Ufone has jumped in with its new production ; Uth package. Although Ufone has had a youth centered package called UROCK it was only sold through Universities and was not available at franchises or retail shops. We don't know whether UROCK is being sold now after the launch of Uth package. Any how our focus would be Jazz Octane , Djuice , Glow and Uth package.

Jazz Octane vs Djuice vs Glow vs Uth package:


We will compare the basic 3 things that every youngster or target of this particular segment will want namely,

• Tariff {F&F,on-net and off-net}
• Sms Packages
• Internet Packages

Score Method
For each Category 


Winner gets: 3 Points
Runner up gets: 2 points
Lagger gets {3rd position} : 1 point.
Loser gets : 0.!!
In case of a tie 1 point will be given to each package.







Tariff Comparison (as of 12-October-2010)
 {Friends and Family Numbers}


Jazz Octane 0.45+tax/30 sec on 3 F&F numbers.


Djuice 0.50/30 sec and free after ten minute from 8am-5pm. Otherwise 0.50/30sec from 5pm-10pm.From 10pm to 8am 4rs/hour.. {so easy .. yeah??}


Uth Package: 0.45/30sec from 5pm-12am. and from 12am-5pm 2.99/hour.


Glow : 0.45/30 sec during peak 8am-11pm and 2.99+tax/hour during 11pm-8am. {10 F&F}


On F&F numbers Jazz Octane,Djuice,Glow & Uth are all charging roughly the same during Peak hours that is in the time slot of 5pm-12am . Jazz charging the lowest 0.45 {including tax }/30 sec whereas Uth charging 0.45/30 sec, Glow 0.45/30 sec and Djuice charging 0.50/30 sec but the call is free after 10 minutes though from 8am to 5pm. i.e call is charged at 10rs/hour.


 Although its worth mentioning that Djuice 4rs/Hour rate starts from 10pm while Uth Package's time starts from 12am but nevertheless Uth Package Hourly rate ends at 5pm. Which means you get Per hour rate from Djuice for 10 hours from 10pm to 8am. Where-as Uth Gives 16 Hours from 12am to 5pm. Glow is offering similar rates to Uth i.e 2.99/hour but the talk time given is from 11pm to 8 am which makes 9 hours.
For Peak hours Glow offers 2.99/hour rate during weekends for 24 hours.


The Result for F&F calls:


During Off-Peak hours (arguably we see off peak hours as midnight to early morning and during afternoons)


Winner: Uth Package, cheapest with 16 hours of talk time for 2.99/hour.
Runner Up: Tie between Djuice and Glow. Djuice offering 10 hours off peak for 4rs/hour whereas Glow offering  hours off-peak but at cheaper rates at 2.99/hour.


Points:
Uth Package : 3points
Djuice: 1 point
Glow: 1 point
Jazz Octane : 0


During Peak hours:
Winner :Djuice 0.50/30sec & peak hours ending sooner then other packages at 10pm which is beneficial for the users and offering 0.50/30sec ie10rs/hour rate between 8am-5pm.
Runner up : Glow for offering 2.99/hour during peak timings at weekends and 0.45/30 sec otherwise
Lagger: Tie between Jazz Octane 0.45/30 sec {including tax} and Uth package 0.45/30 sec {excluding tax}


Points:
Winner: Djuice 3 points
Runner Up : Glow 2 points.
Lagger: Jazz Octane 1 point. Uth Package 1 point.


Tariff comparison for ON-NET calls:


Jazz Octane 1.00/30 sec. & Late night 12am-7pm 0.40/30 sec.
Djuice : 1.25/30 sec & from 12am-8am 0.50/30 sec.
Glow: 0.69 During off-peak hours and 0.79 for peak hours during weekdays and 0.69 for weekends. 
Uth Package:  1.00/30 sec & from 12am-9am free call after 2 minutes.


Result: for On net calls


During off-Peak hours
Winner : Uth Package for free calls after 2 minutes that means after 1.00/30 sec for 2 minutes { 4rs+tax/hour} we get free calls on all on-net numbers.
Runner Up: Jazz Octane offering 0.40 paisa /30 sec.
Lagger: Glow (0.69/30 sec)
Loser: Djuice (1.25/30 sec from 10pm-12am and 0.50/30 sec from 12am to 8am)


Points :
Winner:Uth Package 3 points
Runner up:Jazz Octane 2 points
Lagger: Glow 1 point.
Loser: Djuice 0 point


During Peak hours
Winner: Glow (0.79/30 sec weekdays and 0.69/30 sec weekends)
Runner up: Tie between Uth and Jazz Octane (1.00/30 sec)
Loser: Djuice (1.25/30 sec)


Points:
Warid Glow = 3 points - Winner
Jazz Octane = 1 point - Runner Up
Uth package = 1 point. -Runner Up
Djuce = 0 point. Loser.




Tariff Comparison for Off-Net calls:


Jazz Octane : 1.25/30 sec anytime. 
Djuice: 1.25/30 sec anytime.
Uth Package : 1.25/30 sec anytime.
Glow : 0.89/30 sec anytime .


Result:
Warid Glow is the clear winner here.
As the rest three are charging the same rate see it as a tie and we  grant 1 point each to every package.


Points:
Glow : 3 points - Winner
Jazz octane : 1 point - Runner up
Djuice: 1 point - Runner up
Uth : 1 point. - Runner up.


Grand Result {For Voice calls F&F , On-net and Off-net Calls}




Winner:
Glow : 10 points
Uth Package : 9 points.
Jazz Octane: 5 points.
Djuice : 5 points


Total Possible Points 15.


Its worth mentioning here that Djuice is offering 2 other variants of Djuice package namely Djuice Jaagtey Raho and Djuice Din Raat . However we selected Djuice simple or Djuice basic package as we wanted to compare the  offerings on equal grounds. Djuice Simple , Jazz Octane and Uth Package charge 1rs daily where as Djuice Jaagte raho and Din raat versions charge 4rs and 1.99rs + tax respectively. Glow Basic was also selected for the same reason although Glow 2.0 also charges the same 1rs + tax but we chose the package which was launched first to keep things simple.


End of Part - I .
Read PART - II
Read PART - III
Read PART - IV


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