M1 Offers Usage-Based Payment to Cell Phone Customers
--From AOL News-- Cooters
Singapore, Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- MobileOne Asia Pte., the smaller of two mobile phone companies in Singapore, said it will offer some customers a usage-based payment plan, doing away with monthly subscriptions.
The offer to M1's customers using its code-division multiple access, or CDMA, technology drops an S$18 fixed charge and instead charge 28 cents a minute for the first hour and 10 cents a minute thereafter, the company said. M1 has 37,000 CDMA customers, or 7 percent of its subscriber base.
``This plan offers flexibility and will appeal to customers who do not wish to be tied down by monthly subscriptions or handset contracts,' said Neil Montefiore, M1's chief executive officer.
The new plan is yet another salvo fired between the island- state's two mobile phone providers, M1 and former phone monopoly Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. Both have engaged in price cuts and promotions, with SingTel recently giving away a year of cell phone service for three months paid in advance.
Competition is expected to further heat up when a third player, Starhub Pte., enters the market in April and as the government fully opens the phone market by that time.
M1, which controls 35 percent of the island's mobile phone market, has 537,000 users. The CDMA offer also comes with a surge in pre-paid customers in another network, where users buy stored-value cards for their cell phone calls instead of signing up for monthly plans. These add up to 60,000 users or 11 percent of customers.
In 1999, M1 had a fourfold gain in pretax profit as it signed more customers, according to numbers provided by a shareholder. Its pretax profit rose to S$28.6 million ($16.9 million) from S$7.1 million, and the firm is expected to see even stronger earnings in 2000.
Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation Ltd. and Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. each have a 35 percent stake in M1, with the remaining 30 percent held by Cable & Wireless Plc and its Hong Kong unit. Keppel said earlier it wants to sell shares in M1, without providing details.
Feb/16/2000 21:17 |
