Emtel and Orange Post-Pay Schemes
Most Mauritians tend to opt for Emtel and Orange's respective pay-as-you go schemes, i.e. when their credit runs out, they top up their accounts with a Kwepe or Complis scratch card (or now use ATM refills or e-transfer). This payment scheme is undeniably more convenient than receiving a monthly bill, particularly when you want to monitor your spendings closely. However, it is worth taking note of the 'postpaid system' that has been introduced by both Emtel and Orange and which proves to be more economic than the 'prepaid/pay-as-you-go' scheme.
What is the post-pay scheme?
Basically, Emtel and Orange have packages that offer you a certain number of voice, text and data usage for a fixed monthly subscription. It usually entails signing a contract for 12 or 24 months. Both networks (Emtel and Orange) offer 3 packages to choose from, as given in the tables below.
Source: http://www.emtel-ltd.com
Source: http://www.orange.mu/mobile
For example, if you choose the Emtel 'Liberté' package at Rs.140/month, you are entitled to about 291 minutes of talk time or 280 text messages in that month. If you exceed this allowance, you will be charged at the normal rates (e.g. 60cents per text), if not cheaper depending on the packages and the network.
Advantages of the post-paid scheme:
- Calls and text messages are definitely cheaper. For example, sending an SMS costs 50cents instead of 60cents across all packages offered by the two networks. This means that if you subscribe to a Rs.125/monthly package, you will be able to send 250 SMS whereas if you top-up your account by Rs.125 or buy a scratch card of Rs.125, you will only be able to send 208 SMS. The reality is that by subscribing to a monthly package, you are able to send 42 more SMS than if you use the pre-paid system. The same observation can be made regarding calls. For example, the tariff for a normal Emtel-to-Emtel call is 2 cents per second, whereas the same call would be charged at 0.8 cent per second on the 'Liberté' package: this means that you can save Rs3.60 on a 5-minute conversation.
- No need to recharge your accounts every now and then.
- You can also subscribe to data plans to use applications such as WAP, internet, MMS, browsing and email (check the respective network's websites for tariffs).
Disadvantages of the post-pay scheme:
- If you do not use up your allowed talk time or text messages, you will still have to pay the full amount for which you signed up. For example, if you only used Rs.100 worth of calls but you had signed up for a Rs.125/month package, you will still have to pay the Rs.125 (+VAT) for that month. You cannot bring forward the remaining credit to the next month.
- The network may ask you for a guarantor and/or may require your national ID number to perform a credit check. This should not normally constitute any problem, although it means that it may take a few days before your subscription is approved.
So how do I know if the post-pay scheme is suitable for me?
Our advice is that if you use at least Rs.125 (+VAT) worth of credit on calls and text messages monthly, then the post-pay scheme is most likely to be a cost-cutting measure that you should adopt.
Data plans, on the other hand, are only worth considering if you want to make full use of some of your phone's data applications like WAP, internet, MMS, browsing and email.
April 28th, 2010 - 12:40
Hello there, I’d like to point out that the information you provided about Emtel post-paid services is totally incorrect. I have been a user of the Emtel post-paid service for over 5 years now and they don’t have any packaged price plans. The Rs125, Rs140 and Rs500 per month prices are the rental prices. You have to pay that each month, regardless of the use. What you didn’t mention is that they have a price-cap limit for the usage. E.g if you subscribe to Liberte package, you can set your limit to Rs1700 (you can specify this to any amount you want, depending on conditions). Each month you pay Rs140 + the amount you used. However, if you go over that limit of Rs1700 then it automatically disconnects your service until payment is made. You never have to pay more than Rs 0.50 per SMS at any time. These prices are fixed depending on the package chosen.
I cannot comment on the information you posted concerning Orange but I’m pretty sure they are similar to the scheme provided by Emtel.
In my opinion, the best package to use from Emtel is the Liberte pack since you get SMS at Rs 0.50 and calls billed at Rs 0.48 per minute! That’s twice cheaper than Orange and nearly 3 times cheaper than Emtel pre-paid.
Hope you take this comment into account and modify your post accordingly.
Cheers,
Arvind
June 13th, 2010 - 09:39
WHy bother about plans of orange or kwepe, when u have a fixed rental of Rs250 at MTML, and u enjoy unlimited free sms to any local network, unlimited free calls to MTML network, and reduced cost of calls to orange/kwepe!
Now thats called a freedom plan