Dennise Williams, Staff Reporter
Craig McBurnett (right), chief executive officer of MiPhone and Alex Hill (left), chief marketing officer. - RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
THE CELLULAR phone market may have been dubbed 'mature' by the two dominant cellular service providers, but MiPhone has found a way to infuse it with some youthful vitality.
When the company officially launched its MiCircle product with a big advertising campaign last week, not only were hundreds of new accounts opened the first day, but at least two MiPhone dealers ran out of handsets.
First introduced in a soft launch recently, the MiCircle calling plan has convinced at least 2,500 Jamaicans to switch onto the new service.
"We test marketed the product for six weeks before our major launch last week Wednesday," said Alex Hill, vice president for sales and marketing. "We found that people will keep one of the competitor's phones plus the MiPhone product as well."
MICIRCLE PLAN
The MiCircle calling plan allows a defined user group unlimited talk time to speak to one another for a monthly fee.
The plan can encompass groups from as small as two persons up to 100 persons. Additionally, there is a 60 per cent discount on a land line number.
With Jamaica having a cellular phone market of over one million persons, dominated by Cable and Wireless and Digicel, having over 2000 new subscribers in six weeks might not seem like an overwhelming achievement.
But this is vital for MiPhone with 100,000 subscribers coming in at a distant third behind the two major players. The company has repeatedly stressed that their business plan calls for innovation to drive revenue growth.
"During our soft launch period of six weeks, we toured the island with the jamaica social Development Commission during their Community Connect fairs," Mr. Hill said. "We learned that Jamaicans wanted something different."
Typically, people buy a pre-paid phone card and get a rate of, on average of $10 per minute, he said. A $100 phone card lasts just 10 minutes.
"We realised that our MiBiz calling plan could be adapted for the consumer market," Mr. Hill said. "In that plan, businesses sign on and get a flat rate of $1000 per month."
The goal was to find a way to give consumers the same ability to control their phone costs. The result was the three-tiered MiCircle calling plan.
And so far, executives at MiPhone are pleased with the response. "We have had a lot of interest. Besides the new accounts, we have at least 1,500 calls per day about MiCircle."
One of the major concerns consumers have is to determine whether or not the programme is a gimmick.
"It is not too good to be true," Mr. Hill said. "We have operated our corporate package for two years now ... We are here to stay. MiCircle is a permanent fixture of MiPhone."
