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Prepaid mobile phone By 2003 the number of prepaid accounts grew past contract accounts, and by 2007, two thirds of all mobile phone accounts worldwide were prepaid accounts.
History
The history of the prepaid mobile phone begins in the 1990s when larger markets were being sought after by the mobile phone operators. Before this date, all mobile phone services were offered on a post paid basis, which excluded people with a poor credit rating.
Disadvantages of prepaid
Sometimes, pay-as-you-go customers pay more for their calls and SMS messages, and in some cases they are limited in what they can do with their phone calls to international or premium rate numbers may be blocked, and they may not be able to roam. These limitations are often due to the complexity of managing the credit system for high price calls, or when users are not on their home network.
Churn
As described above, prepaid accounts require that a subscriber have funds in the account to make outgoing calls (except emergency calls which are always allowed). In the US incoming calls are also barred. In some other countries, a prepaid mobile with zero balance may still receive calls and texts. This results in an "on/off" or "all or nothing" proposition for the prepaid service providers and their clients (that is, the account either has enough credit to use the phone, or it does not). Some operators (for example Orange) allow their pre-pay customers to have a small negative balance to allow short calls or texts when the customers credit has been completely used. This is then deducted when the customer next adds more credit. The time most likely for a prepaid customer to switch to a different service provider is when the prepaid account reaches a "zero credit balance". Like other service providers, mobile service providers losing a mobile account call it "churn."
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] http:/ / www. zanaco. co. zm/ Retail%20Banking%20-%20airtime24%20topup. htm http:/ / www. wind. com. gr/ Left-Menu/ Mobile/ For-Individual/ Tariff-Plans/ Hybrid/ Airtime-Recharge/ Airtime-Renewal-ATM. aspx https:/ / www. fnb. co. za/ cellphone-services/ prepaid-airtime-frequently-asked-questions. html http:/ / www. virginmobile. com/ vm/ genericContent. do?contentId=pay. as. you. go. howdoi. sm378#top up at a cash machine http:/ / www. thefreelibrary. com/ Euronet+ Worldwide+ Launches+ ATM+ Recharge+ Services+ for+ Hungary's. . . -a082524845 "" (http:/ / www. sfu. ca/ cprost/ prepaid/ docs/ Gow-PrivacyRightsAndPrepaidCommunicationServices. pdf). .
License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported //creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/