Business

Saturday August 8, 2009

Crossing the borders

By YEOW POOI LING


DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd sees the family as a high potential market segment for its future products and services, says head of postpaid Moharmustaqeem Mohammed.

He says the family is an attractive segment, not only in revenue but also the deployment of bigger packages of services.

“It’s a discerning group because of the mix, as the youngest consumer is as young as 10 while the parents are either in their 20s or 30s onwards,” he tells StarBizWeek.

Capitalising on the wide age group range in the family unit, DiGi can explore further the opportunity to offer more types of services and drive the segment to use beyond basic services like voice and text messages.

It was with this in mind that DiGi launched its postpaid DG Family last month, which merges the postpaid and prepaid users within the same family into one plan, allowing them to call and send text or multimedia messages to each other for free.

Moharmustaqeem Mohammed (left) and Albern Murthy say that with the DG Family plan, customers will find it easy to use and convenient to make payments.

Up to six supplementary postpaid and prepaid users can sign up under a postpaid account.

Moharmustaqeem says parents are typically postpaid users and their children prepaid ones. By merging the two types into one account, parents will have a better control over the credit limit of their children’s prepaid accounts.

Head of products and segment Albern Murthy says the idea of DG Family came about when the telco found many of the young families, which are its existing customers, wanting the convenience of payment among the family members.

“DG Family is a clear differentiation from our competitors because now postpaid and prepaid users are in one account. The value preposition is simple – it’s easy to use and relevant to our customers’ needs,” he says.

On whether merging the two would blur the line in terms of segmentation, Murthy says prepaid and postpaid accounts are merely modes of payment.

“The prepaid rates are almost as good as any postpaid plans. It’s a matter of preference how customers want to pay and this depends on the lifestyle they choose,” he says.

Moharmustaqeem adds that the family package is about bringing convenience to the parents while maintaining high accessibility for their children.

“The family plan is made even more relevant with the additional elements of insurance and family finder tool. Protection for the family and knowing where the children are located are high on parents’ concern list,” he says.

As for DiGi dealers, the new product range is “a breath of fresh air” as they no longer just shout on price although pricing remains competitive, Moharmustaqeem adds.

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