SIM play

How many of you own more than one SIM? I can bet that all of you have raised your hands. We are very opportunist, specifically regarding using cellphone. Whenever a telco company is offering a bit lower rate or some special night tariff, we switch on its SIM and jam the network. As a mobile phone user, most of us are not very loyal. No matter how much Thank You Bonus GP offers, we still switch on our BL Desh because its rate is low. This switching tendency mostly prevails among us, the so-called young generation and also the financial constraint segment. Its simple - for the FC segment, saving a penny is like saving a part of life and to many of the young generation, saving a penny is like saving a part of love! :p And, the mobile operators have been playing with this "saving" game since BanglaLink has come into play. Until then, Grameenphone was happy in its own kingdom. There was hardly any game of tariff. Everyone said, "tariff" is not a competitive factor. BL proved everyone wrong. It is the main factor in Bangladesh. We are VERY much tariff sensitive. We are VERY much money sensitive.

Warid has also given the signal of joining this "tariff playing" competition. Remember their press ad repenting they should have joined earlier in this downward tariff trend? People have been really counting hours and days since then hoping they will offer everything almost free! There have been many kinds of rumours around. The rumours were about almost zero tariff, free SIMS, handsets at unbelievably low price bundled with their SIM, 3G technology and related services, Warid's allying with some other operator .. bla bla .. and what not! But no sign of Warid launching.

Warid has been really playing with our patience for long. We have been waiting for its launching, God knows since when. Our anticipation started last year. Then the Independence day went, the Pohela Boishakh went - still no sign of Warid launching apart from the TV commercial which says nothing about its launching date. However, I just happened to find and go through the official web site of Waridtel in Bangladesh yesterday. And it seemed pretty complete! The website covers almost everything except for individual tariff and package details for their two packages - Zem Prepaid and Zahi Postpaid. They have kept the product names similar to the ones they have in Pakistan. Going through the website, I had the feeling that finally perhaps the waiting game is going to be over.

I happened to go through the blog of a junior mate from IBA, Tanvir. He wrote this post on Warid which must be the most popular blog post ever regarding Warid with more than 1200 comments!! This post proves how much Warid has been able to affect the consumers here and also to grow a hope in them. People are expecting better service at lower rate from them. Even the whole mobile market has turned a little stagnant as people have stopped buying handsets anticipating Warid will offer attractive packages with handsets at a reasonable or even unbelievably low price.

Looks like we don't have to really wait much to know what they really are planning to offer. However, it can be said without any doubt that they have been able to create a hype in the market. I am sure all the operators have taken the launching of Warid quite seriously and like everyone else, I am also waiting to see the upcoming competition in the market. Hopefully, the mobile phone users will benefit from that.

So who's buying another SIM soon? :)

P.S.: This blog was only on the basis of my observation. So please do not consider it as an expert's opinion. :)