On why the lower denomination cards, the release we received from Telecel says “the card is intended for those who need to manage their expenditure carefully.” Yes, you and me!
Further, Telecel explains that the baby Juice cards are for those who want to make short calls. Like the mega juice promotion, the bonus airtime is only valid for 24 hours until 5AM the next day. It has to be used by 5am and will disappear if unused.
A Telecel spokesperson added that the card was expected to be useful for those who send airtime to relatives in rural areas:
Instead of sending them a one dollar standard card or a one dollar Mega Juice Card they can now send them a 50 cents Baby Juice Card. If they send them two Baby Juice Cards this will give them the same air time as a single Mega Juice Card. However, they will only need to load 50 cents worth of airtime at a time,
Lately, Telecel has been introducing new services and promotions to boost subscriber numbers in a bid to catch up with Zimbabwe’s mobile giant, Econet. Last week Telecel added 15 more countries to the list of countries which they can call at the same cost as a local call. It also introduced the call-me-back facility, the missed call alert and a World Cup promotion where mobile lines carrying a dollar worth of airtime are sold for just a dollar (in other words, free).
The doubling of subscribers to a million in just under a year clearly shows this is working, but shareholding politics might slow the growth down a bit.
The leader, Econet in the meanwhile is not just seated watching. Last week Econet announced a partnership with Ericsson to expand the network and increase subscriber capacity to 5 million by August. The number of subscribers on the Econet network hit the 4 million mark in April this year.
UPDATE: An important clarification we just got from Telecel. We inquired if the Baby Juice Card’s ordinary 50c airtime expires and the response was this:
The ordinary 50 cents airtime is valid for 24 hours after it has been loaded. The bonus 50 cents is valid until 5am.
So if, for instance, the airtime was loaded at 9am today, the ordinary 50 cents would be usable up until 9 am tomorrow. However, the bonus 50 cents would only be available up until 5am tomorrow.
There you have it, You really have to need to make a call to buy the Baby Juice Card. And if that call fails, you just gotta find someone else to call within that 24hrs or your precious 50 cents vanishes.
One response