One of India’s emerging telecom operator Uninor is moving out of data plans, but moving in to Internet. Simplifying it, Uninor is shifting its focus from volume based Internet offerings (MB and GB data plans) to service based Internet offerings. The telecom operator has struck partnership with Facebook and Whatsapp to offer Sabse Sasta Facebook at just 50 p for an hour and Sabse Sasta Whatsapp for Rs 1 for a day.
With the new service based mobile internet plans, Uninor’s customers can get truly unlimited access to these services at one fixed charge for a period ranging from 1 hour to 1 month. Thus subscribers can use Facebook and Whatsapp when they needed without worrying about MBs and GBs.
Under the Sabse Sasta Facebook plan, subscribers can get unlimited Facebook usage for 1 hour at 50 pasia, 1 day for Rs 1, 1 week for Rs 5 and 1 month for Rs 15. Under the Sabse Sasta WhatsApp plan, subscribers can get unlimited Whatsapp usage for 1 day at Rs 1, 1 week for Rs 5 and 1 month for Rs 15.
The new service based internet plans are available to customers in Gujarat and Maharashtra and Goa telecom circles. These are also the two circles where Uninor has seen the highest Internet consumption over the past year. In Gujarat, Uninor’s Internet revenue has grown by 88% in 2013 where as in Maharashtra, every fourth Uninor subscriber is an active Internet user. According to Uninor 50% of India’s mobile Internet users are active on Facebook and Whatsapp.
Uninor has also started a major upgradation of technology and infrastructure to get the network ready for the expected surge in Internet traffic. This includes enhancement of packet core nodes, creation of dedicated resources only for these services and enhancing transmission and compression mechanisms.
“For us to deliver hourly, daily, weekly and monthly offerings for unlimited Facebook at a single fixed charge, Uninor has had to map as many as 10 distinct entry points through which a subscriber enters Facebook. Each has been mapped and integrated into the system such that the subscribers get these cheapest tariffs, no matter how they enter Facebook. This extensive work took over 2 months with teams from Uninor and Facebook working together,” said Amaresh Kumar, Chief Product Officer of Uninor.