There are two basic types of accounts for a telecom service whether it is a landline or mobile or internet. The two such accounts are prepaid and postpaid. There is also a hybrid account that is still not operational in most countries. The name itself is self-explanatory, which differs whether you pay for the service instantly or after some time. In prepaid, people have some balance in their account which will be instantly cut for the usage of the telecom service. Whereas in Postpaid, the usage will be accounted at the end of a month or similar period. After reading this post, prepaid vs postpaid, please let us know your preference and the reason behind it.
Table of contents
Coming to the point, prepaid vs postpaid. As the landline phones and some fixed internet services are mostly postpaid only, we will now keep the discussion focused on mobile. Operators provide both mobile services to their customers.
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Prepaid Vs Postpaid
For prepaid, you only need to have some balance in your account and then recharge after it is used up. For postpaid, you need to commit to some fixed plan during the subscription and have some deposit in your account. The same plan will recur every month in the postpaid SIM card with the payable amount also called monthly rental.
In prepaid, you cannot use the telecom service after using all of your balance. But in postpaid, you can still use telecom service (till some credits) for extra charges which will be added to the bill at the end of the billing cycle.
Who prefers Prepaid?
Prepaid is mostly preferred by the people like students, laborers, or those who do not care about upgrading to postpaid. For normal people, the first SIM is always prepaid. Unless they feel about switching to postpaid for some features or showup their status, they will keep it to prepaid. Also, the mobile number may resist some switching to postpaid.
As customers don’t have to commit some fixed (usually higher) amount for network usage, tourists/visitors also use prepaid. The advantage with prepaid is you only pay for the number of calls that you use or data volume/pack and pay on the go. So, you have complete control over your mobile expenses. Read more about Ntc prepaid SIM.
Who prefers Postpaid?
Postpaid is mostly preferred by business personnel, celebrities, and those who use mobile networks excessively. There are some who even feel like owning a postpaid number, makes their social status higher.
The first SIM for professionals, businessperson is always postpaid. But passed-out students when they enter into their professional career, are also found to be switching to postpaid for new features and low cost with high paying.
The advantage of postpaid is for the people who use the network excessively, and they can get a low cost per call and data. Even if you exceed the committed amount for a month, you can still use the network and pay the excess in the billing invoice at the end of the month. You don’t have to rush for instant recharge. Find the billing information of the NTC postpaid SIM card.
Now you can get eSIM in place of physical SIM for both Ntc and Ncell. Read details about Ntc eSIM & Ncell eSIM along with the process to activate.
Prepaid vs Postpaid
We have found several cases when people question operators for preferring postpaid over prepaid. In our country, prepaid users are higher than postpaid which is averse to that of several other countries where people prefer a contract plan.
Usage
In southeast Asia, prepaid mobiles are around 80 to 90 percent of total mobile subscribers. Whereas in developed countries or in the west, postpaid or contract plan subscription is way high.
There, several handsets are either found free or some minimal registration but need to pay some committed price regularly for some years. In Nepal, operators have started collaborating with phone companies for some years to sell the phones together with free data packages. But, still, it is not taking to a level as expected and the handset bundling is not subsidized as per people’s expectations.
Rental or no commitment
Most people here prefer prepaid as they can use the service whenever they want without any commitment for some fixed amount per month (rental). The monthly rental of NTC GSM postpaid is Rs 300, providing calls/data worth the price of Rs 300.
Price and plans
The price of NTC postpaid SIM is also high, Rs 500 as compared to that of Rs 90 of prepaid. Ntc postpaid packs now include voice, data, and SMS, which can be bought from the Rental amount as well.
Prepaid SIMs are more readily available anywhere in the local shops whereas for postpaid you need to visit their counters. Similarly, Ncell also has postpaid plans named pro plans for individuals. The Ncell postpaid plans in the name of Biz plan start from Rs 499 to Rs 1949 with data, voice, SMS bundled with digital services.
You need to be aware of the timeline for SIM cards frozen or terminated state, for which you can check the lifecycle of Nepal Telecom prepaid and postpaid SIM card.
What do operators prefer: Prepaid or Postpaid?
Operators prefer postpaid because they are the users who increase their average revenue per month (ARPU). Especially in Ntc, some services are only available to postpaid users and the cost of the service is still less than prepaid.
As 98510 number is also thought of premium, so it is preferred by professionals, business/corporate users. People having NTC postpaid are still believed as the upper class in society. That’s why some people still prefer the 98510 number range, instead of 98511 or 98512 or 98513 or 98514. However, with the Supreme court order to stop recycling old used numbers, you cannot get 98510 number now, as it already used before. But the demand of 98510 number is quite high and people also sell it on their own at a high price.
The CUG service in Ntc was first available for GSM postpaid only, with unlimited internal calls. And later prepaid sim owners could also get the CUG service.
The price of the voice call in Ntc postpaid is Rs 1 per minute whereas in prepaid, it is Rs 1.5 per minute. NTC also launched its 4G service in Kathmandu and Pokhara with postpaid only at first. Later it was available to all customers. The international roaming for NTC was also available only for GSM postpaid but recently available in prepaid also.
Later when Nepal introduces Mobile number portability (MNP), there will be no such distinguishing number range for prepaid and postpaid. People can use the same postpaid number for using prepaid. Or people can keep their number to make it postpaid.
Tell us, which one do you prefer or feel is better: Prepaid vs Postpaid and why?
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