Last fall, Indian carrier Tata Indicom announced some innovative pricing plans for texting, and are now following up with an interesting new plan for BlackBerry users – prepaid weekly. The weekly service is busted up into messaging and data options, available in 85 and 250 Rs bundles respectively, but are also available for 299 and 900 Rs in a monthly format. The messaging bundle includes all of the basic stuff, like e-mail and IM, while the internet bundle adds unlimited browsing on top of that.
This plan really is about as convenient as you can get for travelers who need service for a business trip without paying exorbitant roaming charges from their home carrier. RIM has openly said that they’re going to be targeting prepaid customers more aggressively, but prepaid BlackBerry data, let alone weekly prepaid, is something that has yet to really take off (Indonesia is the only market that immediately comes to mind). To be fair, the prepaid market isn’t nearly as lucrative as standard postpaid subscriptions, but the flexibility and convenience it offers to end-users is palpable. Two years ago, Tata Indicom had a significant stake bought out by Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo – perhaps we can expect this plan to find its way eastwards…?
As far as hardware goes, Tata Indicom offers the BlackBerry 9703e, Curve 8330, World Edition 8830, and Tour 9630. If you happen to be in the area, you can check out Tata Indicom’s prepaid plans here.
[via IndiaPRWire]