Teleset-Service might minimize losses through price increase
4 July 2008 (08:31)
Yekaterinburg’s Internet provider services market kept getting redistributed among a number of major players throughout last year. Companies that could offer their customers unlimited Internet access, high speed connection and good service keep getting increasingly more subscribers, partly at the expense of the ‘traditional’ providers who have been operating on the market for quite a while but found themselves unable to adjust to the new market opportunities in time. Besides, the number of customers who switch from one operator to another or use several Internet providers at once is on the rise as well.
This could be one of the reasons why companies that keep losing their customers might try to make up for their losses by getting more money from those customers that hardly use their services at all.
Teleset-Service (Kabinet), a Yekaterinburg-based Internet provider, is charging customers who don’t actually use their services. Even the tariff schemes without a monthly fee (with money charged only for the traffic the customer has actually used) have been fitted with the so-called minimum payment that a subscriber has to make regardless of whether the connection has been used at all. Moreover, even though this payment is not indicated in the tariff terms and conditions, it keeps going up on a regular basis. Prior to May 2008, a monthly payment used to come to 50 RUR but soared to 100 RUR a month in May 2008. This is the payment the subscriber has to make even though he or she does not get any products or services, and this sum is actually comparable with the price of unlimited Internet access some other local providers offer.
In addition, Kabinet has been reported to charge its customers for viewing statistical details. The service used to be free of charge, but now it costs 50 RUR, or 10% of the city’s average monthly fee for unlimited Internet access (that is, 500 to 600 RUR).
This increase in prices could mean that Teleset-Service is trying to minimize it losses brought about by leaving subscribers. This might actually result in the remaining customers’ mass refusal to do business with the provider any longer.
This could be one of the reasons why companies that keep losing their customers might try to make up for their losses by getting more money from those customers that hardly use their services at all.
Teleset-Service (Kabinet), a Yekaterinburg-based Internet provider, is charging customers who don’t actually use their services. Even the tariff schemes without a monthly fee (with money charged only for the traffic the customer has actually used) have been fitted with the so-called minimum payment that a subscriber has to make regardless of whether the connection has been used at all. Moreover, even though this payment is not indicated in the tariff terms and conditions, it keeps going up on a regular basis. Prior to May 2008, a monthly payment used to come to 50 RUR but soared to 100 RUR a month in May 2008. This is the payment the subscriber has to make even though he or she does not get any products or services, and this sum is actually comparable with the price of unlimited Internet access some other local providers offer.
In addition, Kabinet has been reported to charge its customers for viewing statistical details. The service used to be free of charge, but now it costs 50 RUR, or 10% of the city’s average monthly fee for unlimited Internet access (that is, 500 to 600 RUR).
This increase in prices could mean that Teleset-Service is trying to minimize it losses brought about by leaving subscribers. This might actually result in the remaining customers’ mass refusal to do business with the provider any longer.
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