How do Mobile / Wireless Tariff Work in India – Beginners Guide

In India, different type of prepaid vouchers are available and 95% of the Indian Mobile / Cellular Market is Pre-Paid. We’d like to discuss on the Various types of vouchers in India and How Telecom Tariffs Work ?

What is New Sim card + first recharge (FRC)
New sim card sales provide a customer with a new sim card, a new mobile number. This pack generally provides some talktime and a
basic headline tariff structure valid over a given period.

What is Plan Voucher
After the initial validity is over, the customer uses the plan voucher to enrol in a tariff plan for a certain validity. It does not provide any monetary value.

What are Top-Ups ?
Top-ups only offer monetary value to customer’s account and do not change the tariff plans or validity.

What are Combo Plans
Combo Plans alters one or more items in the tariff plan of the consumer and adds monetary value to the prepaid account of the subscriber; over a certain validity. In short it combines top-ups and STVs in one voucher

What are Special Tariff Vouchers (STV)
STV are below-the-line discount vouchers offered on a localised level. For a fixed (usually monthly) fee these vouchers offer attractive discounts in the form of free calls, discounted call rates, free data etc. Most of the plans depicted in the tables in this report are STVs.

Examples of STVS – SMS Packs – SMS Packs give a certain number of free SMS or a reduced rate of SMS over a given period of time, in return for a fixed upfront payment.

Or – STD Packs – STD Packs give a certain number of free STD mins or a reduced rate of STD calls over a given period of time, in return for a fixed upfront payment.