For, all of you who have been wondering whether to go fr Prepaid OR Postpaid, here is some interesting calculations considering that you phone locally only:
Prepaid:
Rs. 324 Card: - Rs. 200 Talk Time + Rs. 100 RIL Fees + Rs. 24 (8% Service Tax)
Considering @ Rs. 2.49 per minute (current rates for mobile calls) within 50 Kms this gives you approx. 80 minutes of talktime
Remarks: Free CLIP Service
Postpaid:
Rs. 149 Budget Plan: - Rs. 0 Talk Time + Rs. 149 RIL Fees + Rs. 0 (8% Service Tax)
Considering 80 minutes of mobile call rates you pay @ Rs. 1.49 per minute x 80 minutes = Rs. 119. Hence you total bill is Rs. 149 + Rs. 119 = Rs. 268. Add Rs. 25 pm for CLIP this becomes Rs. 293. Now add 8% Service Tax on this and wow this becomes Rs. 316
Remarks: You have to still pay Rs. 100 pm additional towards handset cost in addition to the bill mentioned above + Rs. 3350 initial payment for handset
Hence the cost diffence is only Rs. 8 but you are fixed with RIL for some months / years.
Conclusion: Prepaid is Better than Postpaid since there is hardly any difference and you can control the numbers of Rechrage Cards bought every month.
Continuing further, if on an average you spend Rs. 400 every month on talktime only, i.e. 2 Recharge Cards of Rs. 324 each, you would require 2 x 12 months = 24 recharge cards per year.
Now if you see the latest prepaid ads, if makes sense to you for going into prepaid because for Rs. 6500 you would get 20 recharge cards and free Nokia Phone with it. That’s worth a CATCH !!