Research and Markets Offers Report: Pricing Promotions by Mobile Operators Worldwide 2011.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Pricing Promotions by Mobile Operators Worldwide 2011" report to their offering.

In a release, Research and Markets noted that report highlights include:

Just under 150 mobile operators promotions running in 74 countries

The report entitled Pricing Promotions by Mobile Operators Worldwide - 2011 is a survey of the main trends taking place for mobile pricing promotions around the globe.

The survey includes just under 300 promotions offered by some 150 mobile operators across 80 countries.

The aim of this report is to provide as comprehensive overview of the main trends in the promotion of mobile services in both mature and so-called developing markets. In the report the emphasis is on price-based mobile promotions, but TCL also examines the role of non-priced based functions such as the provision of additional features, applications or services by the mobile operator.

This report considers both PrePay and Pay Monthly service promotions and the different types of offer that are evolving for calls, SMS, mobile data (for smartphone use) and mobile broadband using a USB flash modem.

Furthermore, a brief overview features main trends in promotion based on the introduction of new services. In particular the focus is on promotions geared around the introduction of new types of smartphone handset and new value added services such as Mobile Broadband services.

The report includes a commentary on the main trends that are taking place in the market for mobile promotions and identifies the most common and the most innovative forms of promotion that are now appearing.

New research from TCL finds that promotions aimed at the prepaid market are more common and account for 68 per cent of all promotions.

Mobile promotions are being used by operators in both emerging and developing markets with PrePay promotions still being the most common with more aim now being given to promotions for Mobile Broadband and Smartphone devices.

The author assesses the importance of mobile promotions in a study published. Called Pricing Promotions by mobile operators worldwide - 2011 the new report evaluates the mobile promotions of 150 operators in 80 countries worldwide and includes details of just under 300 mobile promotions in total.

The report finds that the PrePay customer segment accounts for 68 per cent of all promotions TCL surveyed with the most common type being a Top Up bonus. A recharge bonus can vary from 10 percent to 100 percent in addition to the customer value of the top followed by discounted calls. A range of promotional call discounts are available including free calls for an hour after a 2 or 3 minutes charged at the standard rate as well as discounts to selected international destinations.

For the Pay Monthly customer segment mobile promotions are often being tied into an existing loyalty programme, with both smartphone and USB modem devices being offered at a discounted or free price for a promotional period in return for the customer committing to a long term contract. The most common promotion for Pay Monthly services is a discount in monthly rental with operators experimenting with free rental periods from 1 to 3 months and discounts at up to 50 per cent - for up to a 12-month period.

"Mobile promotions are a critical tool in the operators' armoury to attract new customers and also to bring dormant SIM cards back into use," said Margrit Sessions, Managing Director of TCL. "The average duration of the mobile promotion is also being extended, with our research showing an average of 35 days with promotions running for as little as one day or as long as 90 days or even for an indefinite period depending on demand."

For many countries, mobile promotions have now become a permanent feature of the telecoms landscape. In the developing markets of India and Pakistan a wide range of mobile promotion call discounts are available with the focus on stimulating off-peak usage and on-net calling within friends and family to favourite on-net numbers at very low rates. In Africa and South America operators are developing SMS-based lottery promotions to encourage users to Top Up their accounts more frequently with the incentive being to win large prizes such as cash, a car or simply more airtime.

One new development is the use of mobile promotions to stimulate the take up of smartphones for the mobile internet and USB modems for Mobile Broadband. Across the world operators are seeking to raise their ARPU by encouraging the use of data services. PrePay data services are also being introduced into the market with one operator in the report offering preloaded data of 2.5GB - on a USB modem (the modem is free if the user takes the initial 2.5GB allowance).

Mobile Broadband price promotions are mainly associated with Pay Monthly services with the most common promotion being either a discount in the monthly fee (of up to 50 percent) or a free rental period (which ranges from a 1-month period to a 6-month period).

Additionally with the deployment of new 3G networks in Turkey and South America operators are offering promotions for new PrePay Mobile Broadband customers, with reduced purchase costs or bonus recharge amounts.

Although European operators do focus on Pay Monthly price reductions as their main promotional activity, PrePay mobile promotions are being used in Europe and other developed markets as incumbent mobile operators use short term campaigns to build network traffic and avoid the high cost of handset subsidy. Mobile promotions are a useful way of stimulating short term new network traffic and PrePay users onto a network without the operator incurring a high cost of price reductions for existing users or for handset subsidy.

Report information:

http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/93d2cf/pricing_promotions.

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