Mobile telephony was introduced to Sri Lanka by Celltel Lanka limited in 1989 and Sri Lanka was the first country in south Asia to introduce this service. However due to the higher price of mobile hand sets, call charges, lack of service availability mobile communication was limited to a small class of the community until about year 2002. Before Dialog GSM enter Sri Lankan mobile phone market with lots of innovative marketing strategies, Celltel was a key player in the market. But with the superb service provided by Dialog GSM, Celltel began to loose their customer base gradually and most of new customers also choosed Dialog.Last year Celltel was re branded to Tigo after their new investments and also introduced per second billing for the first time in Sri Lankan mobile history. It seems that this per second billing system has been able to attract some more subscribers to Tigo. Tigo has started another strategy to recapture their lost customers by giving chance to reconnect old Celltel sims without any additional charge. All you have to do is put a reload to you old disconnected sim and it will be ready to use and the best thing is you will get a bonus of 50% of the reload also. But if you have lost you old Celltell or Tigo sim you will need to contact Tigo customer care.
How ever it seems Mobitel and Dialog also in a process of recapturing their lost customers. Mobitel now offers a new sim for just Rs 100 for lost ones. Dialog is also struggling to prevent loosing their customers by giving incentives to them by what they call "Magic SMS". It is a known fact that giant Dialog customer base has been cracked with the competitiveness which has created by Mobitel and Tigo. Nowadays most of the new customers are tend to by Mobitel or Tigo sims than Dialog because of the less expensiveness of them.
Just after few weeks of Dialog introducing Kit Double which gives outgoing calls at Rs 1/= per minute to another Dialog KIT number, Mobitel also has introduced the same service with a broader options. In Mobitel "M Friend" (brand name of this service) you have the option to nominate any other Mobitel pre paid or post paid number not like in KIT double which needs to have both connections under same owner. Even you can buy two new Mobitel sims at Rs 300(for both sims).
As things goes in this way customers are the fraction who are going to be benefited most.
I'm a new Tigo subscriber too. but despite all this competitiveness etc. the outgoing charges in all the networks are quite high. the same goes with fixed lined. I hope they'll reduce that than give us more option we really don't want.
ReplyDeletebtw this is a good analysis of the mobile industry in SL.
Yes I agree with you.But however tigo has introduced a package which gives outgoing to any other network at Rs 3. This is a good sign of more competition..isn't it?
ReplyDeleteThe best marketing strategy against dialog would be attack against their crappy billing system. Lots of my friends have had billing errors on Dialog and below are my most recent experience.
ReplyDeleteIn January 2008 Dialog disconnected both my numbers (one super 500, one 100. 100 pkg is coupled with 500) while I was well within my credit limits. In fact the 100 package had a negative outstanding balance. When reported they were clueless and reconnected both numbers in a hurry.
In my February 2008 bills they have overcharged some of my calls between the coupled numbers. When reported they took 3 days saying still investigating. Finally said they will give me a waiver within next 2 billing cycles.
I STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT EVERY ONE WHO GETS A DETAIL BILL TO GO THROUGH IT. YOU MIGHT FIND THAT DIALOG HAS BEEN OVER CHARGING YOU FOR A WHILE
The best marketing strategy against dialog would be attack against their crappy billing system. Lots of my friends have had billing errors on Dialog and below are my most recent experience.
ReplyDeleteIn January 2008 Dialog disconnected both my numbers (one super 500, one 100. 100 pkg is coupled with 500) while I was well within my credit limits. In fact the 100 package had a negative outstanding balance. When reported they were clueless and reconnected both numbers in a hurry.
In my February 2008 bills they have overcharged some of my calls between the coupled numbers. When reported they took 3 days saying still investigating. Finally said they will give me a waiver within next 2 billing cycles.
I STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT EVERY ONE WHO GETS A DETAIL BILL TO GO THROUGH IT. YOU MIGHT FIND THAT DIALOG HAS BEEN OVER CHARGING YOU FOR A WHILE
Tigo has introduced totally incoming free, and tigos customer service is the best out of all gsm networks in Sri Lanka. even the calls charges are reletivey cheap than other GSM netowrks. and i beleive thats all that matters.
ReplyDeletelooks like mobitel "upahara" is a major threat to other mobile phone companies isn't it
ReplyDeletehi im a tigo user.. does anyone know their customer care hotline? im having trouble deactivating a call tune i dowloaded..
ReplyDeleteWith the Airtel arrival,the competition is very high. however, i feel dialog will lead the market share and sustain customers due to new marketing strategies and high scores in the coverage. Dialog has the very latest technology interms of mobile and broadband.
ReplyDeleteIm looking how Airtel attack Dialog ...........
I think reregistration - trip to singapore- by Mobitel really works in getting old customers back.
ReplyDeleteThe winners list is out on their informative website at http://mobitel.lk/about/registration.html
can anybody plz provide me the market share of tigo 2009.........
ReplyDelete