3's New Tariff Option

I have to admit. Hutchison's 3 intrigues me. It has been since the day one.

I've been using 3 since the day I went back to office after my holiday in Australia. It's one of the benefits of being a PR consultant, what's with Hutchison CP Telecommunications being IndoPacific's client.

Being a "beta" tester of 3, i was "equipped" with loads of vouchers, free calls, cheap smses, and other things. Signal coverage was (and still is) flaky at best. But it's bearable.

Soon after the launch, my number was converted into a "normal" number. I no longer had the luxury of free calls, but I got to receive the 3X benefits. This scheme is somewhat confusing. If we buy a voucher worths, let's say, Rp 50,000, we'll get Rp 150,000 worth of credits. Sounds amazing, isn't it? It reminds me of Vodafone Australia's Cap scheme. But if Vodafone's Maxi Cap will get you AUD 310 for AUD 49, and you can use all those credits for whatever calls and SMSes you do (including Internationals), 3's 3X will confuse you a bit. You see, taking the Rp 50,000 example above, it will get you Rp 150,000. Yes, but it's divided into Rp 50,000 "main credit", Rp 75,000 "3 Bonus credit", and Rp 25,000 "General Bonus credit". The "3 Bonus credit" is applicable for all calls and SMSes to other 3 users. "General Bonus credit" is applicable for calls and SMSes to other operators' users. If these bonuses run out, the "main credit" will be used. Costs for other activities such as VAS, GPRS, and Premium SMS will be deducted your "main credit" directly.

Now, if you have lots of relatives, friends, colleagues, and whoever using 3, you'll get tremendous benefits. But since 3 is so new, and there's been lots of negative publicity about it, you'll mostly have to contend with the "General Bonus" and main credits. Which will leave you with a significant amount of "3 Bonus credit".

But even though 3 hasn't yet reached out to lots of users, it has certainly "reached out" to other operators. Take Excelcom, for example. It began cutting its tariffs quite significantly, and is now offering a Rp 1/second call to other XL users. UPDATE: As per my post above, XL hasn't been entirely honest regarding this scheme. I'm disappointed.

Not to be outdone, 3 now offers the "1/2" (Half) tariff scheme. With this option, calls among 3 users are now just Rp 75/minute, local calls to other operators users are now Rp 500/minute, and long-distance calls to other operators users are now Rp 1000/minute. Exactly the half of 3's already cheap tariffs. This scheme puts 3's tariffs to be the 2nd cheapest among Indonesia's GSM operators. It's even competitive enough with the CDMA operators. To enjoy this option, we just need to write "reg stgh" and send to 123. Simple, right?

Unfortunately, there's a catch. We MUST choose between 3X and 1/2. So, if you opt for the 1/2 option, you'll no longer eligible for the 3X bonuses. All your top-ups will just be "main credit". Sucks, isn't it? So, you'll just have to revert back to 3x, you think? *By writing "reg 3x" and send to 123, by the way* Not that simple. You see, when you convert to 1/2, the credits transfered are all the main credit, and just Rp 10,000 of the 3 Bonus credit. That's it. I learned it the hard way, and lost Rp 10,000something in the process.

Of course, this was implemented to prevent people from exploiting. Ie. topping-up under the 3X then changing to 1/2. Then changing back to 3X when it's time to top-up again. Quite smart move on Hutchison's part, I'd say. After all, this is Indonesia, and most of us are known for our sneakiness.

But there's a loophole. And I'm quite sure this will be used by most. Right now I'm back under the 3X option. But when I use up all my General Bonus credit and have less than Rp 10,000 3 Bonus credit, I'll switch to 1/2. By the time I need to top-up again, I'll revert back to 3X. Sneaky, eh? Not really. It's just the logical thing to do. Unless 3 implements some kind of limit on changing to 3X from 1/2 and vice versa. UPDATE: we can only change to 3X and/or 1/2 3 times. If you need more, you'll have to go to a 3Store. Smart move, Hutch!

That being said, my hat's off to 3. Thanks to them, cellular users are enjoying competitive tariffs. And they prove that cellular calls can be cheap enough.

Nokia: The Technology That Makes Us Lazy?

To this day, I'm still somewhat puzzled by the claim of nokia mobile phones being the easiest to use, the most user-friendly. I don't think it's true. During the early days of GSM phones, yes, maybe it was true. After all, with competitions like Ericsson, Siemens, and Motorola, Nokia really was the "child's play", what's with the others being "technology rich, yet arrongantly thought the users would take the time to learn and understand their products." Nokia, on the other hand, correctly calculated that the users at that time would be quite blind to the technologies available to them, and were willing to buy mobile phones that were easy to use from the first go, regardless of the price. Or, in short: Nokia thought the users were all stupid and lazy.

Now, this may be a bold claim from my part. But I'm sure it's true. People would (and still will, even) choose user-friendliness over price-friendliness. Because they don't want to learn. Manual? What manual? "I don't need no steenking manual!" stance can still be found among us, even more so today.

But it would be wrong to only blame Nokia for this. The other companies should be held responsible as well. If their products were a little bit more "down to earth", Nokia wouldn't have the position they're enjoying now. And remember, at that time, the other products had comparatively lower price compared to Nokias. But since the Nokias were more user-friendly, the mindset have been cast. Nokia is just reaping the benefits of others' miscalculated strategies now.

Nokia's stategy of throwing everything but the kitchen sink (or maybe they do now?!?!) at the market also makes a contribution. Not satisfied of having series of number (from 1 to 9, excluding 4 due to superstitious), Nokia now have "N" and "E" series as well. They even have to resort of reusing model number (6110 comes to mind).

Now let's see at what they're offering. If we talk about features, those found in the N and E series can already be found in the PDA-phones of O2, Dopod, HP, and the likes. Are Nokia phones really the most advanced mobile phones? Not by a longshot. Most mobile phones now are as user-friendly as Nokia. But the users are already convinced that Nokia phones are very easy to use, they turn a deaf ear to others.

How about the "Symbian" Nokias? They're not really the easiest to use. If they were, users wouldn't have to go to "Roxy" and the likes to install applications and games (not to mention that it's actually illegal to do so). They would do that themselves! If they were really intutive, we wouldn't hear any news about virus infecting them. And if they were really sophisticated, we would be able to easily sync them with our computers. Or maybe that's the reason Nokia now promotes their latest phones as "computers"? We have become lazy!

Since users would buy any models Nokia is throwing at them, it doesn't matter that no Nokia phone is complete in terms of features. Nope. Not even the Almighty E90 is complete, by any means. Yet, we're still willing to spend so much money to buy one.

Now, don't get me wrong here. I'm not a Nokia basher. I use Nokia phones. My CDMA phones are all Nokia, and I still use N-Gage (even though it's breaking up now *sigh*). What irritates me is that now whenever people ask for my opinion on mobile phones, I would "judge" them based on what I think of their "tech-savviness". If they're sophisticated enough, I'd recommend Sony Ericssons. But if I think otherwise, I'd recommend Nokias. See, now I'm dividing the smart people from the less-fortunate one.

But that's how the things are now. I think it's cast in stone. We can't go back. Nokia is the undisputed ruler of the world of mobile communications. Me, I'm still content with my Sony Ericssons. Go figure.