|
|
Prepaid Cell
Phone New Zealand |
 |
Prepaid refers to services paid for in advance. Some examples
include gift cards, preloaded credit cards, tolls, and cell
phone usage credit, among other items.
Prepaid services and goods are sometimes targeted to marginal
customers by retailers. Prepaid options can have substantial
cost reductions over postpaid counterparts because they allow
customers to monitor and budget usage in advance.
Unlike postpaid or contract based services, prepaid accounts can
be obtained with cash. As a result, they can be established by
people who have minimal identification or poor credit ratings.
Minors, immigrants, students, defaulters, and those on low
incomes are typical prepaid customers.
Recent statistics (OECD Communications Outlook 2005) indicate
that 40% of the total mobile phone market in the OECD region
consists of prepaid accounts. This service was invented by
Portuguese provider TMN, while researching for a means to
increase penetration of mobile technology by allowing anyone to
buy a fully working (usually requiring a quick and simple
activation process) mobile phone on any supermarket or
electronics store. By removing the complications inherent to the
contract system, this allowed the mobile communications userbase
to grow incredibly fast. In many countries this type of service
became the predominant one, shortly after introduction, by
providing both consumers and service providers with considerable
advantages over the traditional method. In some countries, such
as Italy or Mexico, market share of prepaid can be as high as
90%. In other countries, such as Finland or South Korea, the
figure drops to about 2%.
The pseudonymity enabled by prepaid services has recently become
a concern with law enforcement agencies that consider it a safe
haven for criminals and terrorists. As a result, a number of
countries including Australia, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Norway,
Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, and Thailand have passed
laws to require that all prepaid customers register their
personal information with their mobile carrier.
In some countries the law requires that customers notify their
mobile carrier when transferring ownership of a prepaid phone or
SIM card.
In Australia, the prepaid registration policy is part of a
larger law enforcement initiative that includes the creation and
maintenance of an Integrated Public Number Database. |
|
|
|
