JAKARTA, Indonesia-Economic factors coupled with customers’ general habits have driven most Southeast Asian customers to choose the most appropriate payment method for their mobile-phone plans.
In developed countries like Singapore, the number of postpaid subscribers compared with prepaid subscribers is roughly a 3:1 ratio. SingTel, for instance, recorded 73 percent of its mobile subscribers are postpaid subscribers, and they generated about 90 percent of total mobile revenue as of end-September this year.
In Indonesia, the figure is vice versa.
However, a significant proportion of postpaid subscribers in its local market has not driven SingTel to focus as heavily on postpaid users in its mobile subsidiaries overseas.
Adrienne Tho Meng Choo, SingTel’s spokeswoman, said prepaid is a great segment in its regional joint ventures like Telkomsel (Indonesia) and Globe (Philippines). It is essential for profitable growth in low-spend and less-credit-worthy segments.
She added that SingTel has learned through Globe’s leadership in the prepaid market and applied it to other markets. For example, in Thailand, SingTel is applying its knowledge and experience with prepaid in packaging short message service (SMS) products and developing techniques to grow the prepaid market.
Regarding the payment method, Rudiantara, head of Indonesia’s cellular association and director of Excelcom, the third-largest mobile operator in Indonesia, said operators prefer prepaid because they get cash in advance and do not need additional investments for billing systems.
