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Mobile customers in the country should expect to see competition heat up this year as mobile players set out plans to continue to provide cheaper and better customer services.
The latter is Vodafone’s reduction of call and txt charges by 44 per cent and 50 per cent, respectively, for three months to March this year.
Peak rates for Vodafone “on-net” calls have been decreased from 27 cents a unit to 15 cents a unit or 30 cents a minute compared to 54 cents previously. Off peak rates have been cut from18 cents a unit to 12 cents a unit or 24 cents a minute.
Text message charges have been reduced by 50 per cent to 10 cents per txt compared to 20 cents previously.
The rate reduction is on top of the double up promotion currently on for Vodafone prepay customers.
While it is said that this drop in rates seems like a strategy to ensure Digicel continues to struggle to gain market share, Digicel Fiji still maintains it still provides the best value.
“We are very pleased to see that Vodafone is finally recognising that competition is here, and that is reflected in their introduction of prepaid promotional discounted prices for a three month period in an attempt to match the better value being offered by Digicel in Fiji,” Digicel Pacific marketing director Niamh Bryne said.
However, she said the good news for Digicel customers was that Digicel billed customers only for the seconds they use and not by the 30 second unit, thus providing the best value.
“Using a 35 second prepaid peak call on net (Digicel to Digicel and Vodafone to Vodafone) as an example, a Digicel 35 second call costs 0.23 cents where as using the new promotional Vodafone rate, a 35 second call would cost 0.30 cents,” Bryne said.
“Our rates are not promotional, they are our quoted prices. We are committed to providing the people of Fiji with the best value, choice and network coverage, and you will continue to see new promotions and innovative products from Digicel throughout the coming months and years,” she said.
On the other hand, Vodafone Fiji manager corporate affairs Shailendra Prasad said the new promotional tariffs meant on net calls and SMS rates were now the lowest in the market.
“Our new rates have been a buzz since we announced with significant increase in our call and txt traffic,” Prasad said.
“We have always offered our consumers great deals and this is the first shot in the armour to kick start 2009 with many more great deals lined up for our loyal customers,” he said.
“We review our call charges from time to time. However, our call charges are very competitive and comparable and if not better in our part of the world,” he added.
