miffed
3rd April 2005, 03:45 PM
Orange rolls out pre-pay incentive - www.telegraph.co.uk
By Dominic White (Filed: 28/03/2005)
Orange is to offer its 9m pre-pay customers £5 of free calls and texts per week if they have already spent £10 as part of a plan to refresh its brand.
The mobile operator wants to attract and retain higher spending pay-as-you-go customers, who it says have been treated as "second class citizens" by the networks, including itself.
Alexis Dormandy, Orange's chief marketing officer, said: "Many high spenders stay on pre-pay because they like the flexibility it offers. But if you've been paying £20, £30 or £40 a month on pre-pay, you've been paying too much. These customers have effectively been subsidising everyone else in the market."
Pre-pay users are charged more for handsets than contract customers and tend to pay more for calls and texts because networks offer discounts to secure users on 12- or 18-month contracts. Pay-as-you-go customers still account for 65pc of all mobile users, and while many are low spenders, Orange says at least a third of its pre-pay users will benefit.
Its offer, which starts on April 1, is available to new customers and to existing users who register online or through an Orange call centre. The offer runs from Sundays to Sundays, and users must use up all their free credit before the seven days are up.
The move provides further evidence of fierce competition in the pre-pay sector, where the past weeks have seen a price war break out between easyMobile and Carphone Warehouse's Fresh division. As the UK mobile market reaches saturation point, operators are under increasing pressure to prevent subscribers leaving to join cheaper rivals.
Mr Dormandy, who joined Orange last year and helped to launch Virgin Mobile, plans a new customer initiative every two months over the next 18 months in a bid to revive Orange's image.
By Dominic White (Filed: 28/03/2005)
Orange is to offer its 9m pre-pay customers £5 of free calls and texts per week if they have already spent £10 as part of a plan to refresh its brand.
The mobile operator wants to attract and retain higher spending pay-as-you-go customers, who it says have been treated as "second class citizens" by the networks, including itself.
Alexis Dormandy, Orange's chief marketing officer, said: "Many high spenders stay on pre-pay because they like the flexibility it offers. But if you've been paying £20, £30 or £40 a month on pre-pay, you've been paying too much. These customers have effectively been subsidising everyone else in the market."
Pre-pay users are charged more for handsets than contract customers and tend to pay more for calls and texts because networks offer discounts to secure users on 12- or 18-month contracts. Pay-as-you-go customers still account for 65pc of all mobile users, and while many are low spenders, Orange says at least a third of its pre-pay users will benefit.
Its offer, which starts on April 1, is available to new customers and to existing users who register online or through an Orange call centre. The offer runs from Sundays to Sundays, and users must use up all their free credit before the seven days are up.
The move provides further evidence of fierce competition in the pre-pay sector, where the past weeks have seen a price war break out between easyMobile and Carphone Warehouse's Fresh division. As the UK mobile market reaches saturation point, operators are under increasing pressure to prevent subscribers leaving to join cheaper rivals.
Mr Dormandy, who joined Orange last year and helped to launch Virgin Mobile, plans a new customer initiative every two months over the next 18 months in a bid to revive Orange's image.