I am not sure if the title is appropriate but let me first alert you, at this point, there may not be any type of selling going around this blog, and let me also give you first hand information that, I may be selling something related to mobile prepaid services in the future. Please also note that it may or may not happen in the future. It depends, there are so many things in life that I am focusing on and selling mobile prepaid could one of the last thing of my 'to do' list.
Why bother telling if no selling? Well, people may got to this blog looking for some kind of make money selling mobile prepaid scam so, it is better to save my butt from all the trouble. I may be promoting something related to mobile prepaid but not necessarily I am going to sell it. Sharing is the main point here instead of selling, but selling may be later part of it. It's paradox eh! Well, if you like my ranting, go on reading. If not, please go and search for something better like, Selena Gomez instead, if you must!
About selling prepaid, few years back, selling mobile prepaid online is one of the greatest source of income for some people. It's all started when people find it difficult to buy the prepaid card in the time of need, like for example, in the middle of the night where you need to urgently call your girlfriend just to say 'good night, sweet dreams dear'. So, some genius who in their mind only thinking of how to be innovative got this idea of online prepaid. But hey, what in the world is this mobile prepaid at first place? Read on, I will shed some lights.
In South-East Asia, when the mobile phone was first introduced, it came with the package only meant for the post paid users. Once you bought a mobile phone (big size, very thick back then), you would need to register with the network provider of your choice. The registration process was quite tedious as they (network provider) required some kind of documents for verification purposes, for example, copy of Identification Card for nationality verification and copy of utility bills for residential address verification. After making some deposit payment, the process may take up to a week before you are verified to use the network. Basically, even if you have paid for the phone, you may only able to make & receive calls after a week or two. Should there was any problem in verifying your details, you ay want to consider selling back your brand new phone to the dealer. So, post paid refers to use the service first (once verified), and pay at the end of month's cycle.
The rate of charges back then was expensive as there are many types of different charges imposed. There are network charge, rental charge (heck!), even different charges of calls made from either an adjacent area or non-adjacent area (heck!). But no one made a fuss back then as they presumed that owning a mobile phone was like an exclusive rights, so, why bother about the charges! Please note that those charges only related to calls made as back then, sending and receiving text were still under research & development.
Prepaid was introduced to make sure the network provider did not shut down their businesses since people regards that it was so damn expensive to pay for the charges. Some even abused by using the mobile phone to make calls way beyond the amount they could afford to pay, then just leave the network line after it has been barred (no more calls allowed). But on the early stage of introduction to the prepaid services, since it was monopolized by few giant telecommunication (telco) companies, the package introduced were also didn't make any sense. For example, the prepaid would normally expires in 30 days. In order to use the service, there were separate set of payment activation required, say one fixed amount just to activate the network and another amount to enable to make calls (heck!). Should one was not able to pay to activate the network for, say 3 months, then the network will be deactivated and new set of prepaid package had to be bought. However, comparing to post paid, the introduction of prepaid service has brought new level to owning a mobile phone ( as they promoting it) so, more and more people buying mobile phones with the prepaid package. And I was one of them. LOL.
When telco providers were open for competition, different telco companies started to introduced various types of prepaid packages. The different sets of payment of activation and payment to make calls were abolished. But to some extent, rate charges for adjacent and non-adjacent areas were still applicable. This refers to which centers your calls were made, say, different rates applicable if you made call from the southern part to a number in the nothern part of the country compared to making calls to another number of southern part. At one point, people got confused on the rate of charges imposed, for example, the charges for making calls from the southern part to other number in northern part was much cheaper just because the number who made the call was originally bought in the northen part. Nobody seemed to bother very much about it, because there is an attitude of, 'hey! I can afford to use mobile phone so I can pay for it. Besides, it's prepaid, it's cheaper'.
Nowadays, it is a different ball game for the prepaid service provider. Yes, the competition, as always, is stiff, but it is never been a concern for the users. The main reason is that, a very well indirect collaboration between the telco providers with the mobile phone producers have eliminate users concern on the charges. People are now more focus on the types of mobile phone they own. What features offered by different models of the mobile phones are the main priorities. Who cares about the charges? No one. Not until they realized how frequent they buy the prepaid or 'top up' as it is known at this side of the world.
I told you, no selling involve, just yet.
