Recently, a number of netizens on the C114 forum broke the news that domestic operators have quietly moved and will no longer allow the transfer of the removed packages.
Considering that C114 is a well-known communications industry website in China, and a large number of forum users are industry insiders, the credibility of this revelation is very high. Prior to this, C114 had accurately revealed the news that the 19 yuan king card would be removed from the shelves and replaced by the new 29 yuan king card.
Operators have always allowed users to transfer mobile phone numbers, packages and broadband services in the form of transfers, and now this measure is undoubtedly a wave of attacks on the other side in the game with consumers.
Out-of-print packages are non-transferable
According to the news of C114 netizens, the restrictions adopted by operators in some areas are mainly required to cancel the original package and handle the new package on sale when transferring the number card, and the explanation given is basically "the original package has been discontinued". That is to say, in the official caliber of the operator, it does not directly deprive the user of the right to transfer the number card, but only requires the transfer and at the same time requires the cancellation of the old package that has been removed.
However, for ordinary consumers, there are usually two main reasons for directly applying for a new number or a new package, and we transfer the number. One is that the transferred number itself has a certain scarcity, which cannot be obtained through the operator's official channels or the official channel cost is higher; the other is that the package used by the number is scarce, usually an out-of-print package that has been discontinued, and has more advantages in terms of tariffs.
With the gradual maturity of the mobile Internet, the role played by mobile phone numbers in the current social life is becoming weaker and weaker, and the presence of social applications such as WeChat is much stronger. In this case, users who still buy number cards and packages through transfers are more likely to come to out-of-print packages. Therefore, the new policy introduced by operators is undoubtedly a heavy blow to reduce the free liquidity of the number card package.
To put it bluntly, it is still a sharp word
After the previous analysis, the motivation for the transfer of the operator's restriction number card has been very clear. After entering the 5G era, we can clearly feel that the package tariff is quietly rising, and Xiao Lei himself and his relatives and friends around him have been harassed by operators to upgrade the 5G package marketing calls.
At the same time, operators are also gradually removing and cleaning up low-monthly packages, and many of the Internet packages that were popular in the past have become out-of-print packages, such as 5 yuan monthly rice noodle cards, 19 yuan king cards with hundreds of millions of users, etc. At present, the number card packages sold by major operators are few and far between the monthly fees of less than 20 yuan, and the so-called preferential 5G package prices are often fifty or sixty or even hundreds of yuan.
However, according to the convention and the previous user agreement, the package purchased and handled by the user can be used for a long time, as long as the account is not cancelled, the original low prices and discounts can be enjoyed. Considering that operators have been publicizing and selling Internet packages with great fanfare and full force, the stock of this part of the low-cost package users should be very large. However, in the past, these users may have been the helpers of operators to attack the city and expand market share, and now they have become the "culprits" that pull down profit margins and revenues.
In general, operators have several means, first remove low-cost packages to eliminate the growth of the corresponding number of users; then through various marketing means, induce users to upgrade higher-priced packages; and then, as now, set limits on the transfer policy to limit the flow of out-of-print packages between different users. With a few measures, the number of users of low-cost packages can be significantly controlled, or even gradually reduced.
Of course, in the view of the operators themselves, on the one hand, as a commercial company, it is necessary to achieve business and profit growth; on the other hand, the continuous investment in the construction of 5G requires a lot of money. In the case of China Unicom, the weakest domestic operator, the data released in the first half of 2021 financial report shows that the half-year net profit is about 10 billion yuan, and the investment in 5G has exceeded this number.
In terms of ARPU (average revenue per user) that operators pay close attention to, in terms of data for the first half of 2021, mobile mobile users ARPU is 52.2 yuan, China Unicom is 44.4 yuan, and Telecom is 45.7 yuan. Higher ARPU usually means that the operator is more profitable. In an environment where value-added services are strictly regulated and the unit price of traffic is low, the most effective way to improve ARPU is to increase the monthly rent.
(Image source C114)
There is very little we can do
Xiao Lei noted that in the comments on the operator's policy of restricting user transfers, many people interpreted it as a crackdown on "card trafficking". Here is also a brief explanation of the "card seller", they can understand the JS with the help of number card transfer to profit. Unlike ordinary users, they usually hold a large number of mobile phone number cards, including beautiful numbers, out-of-print packages, etc., and these scarce products will be sold through various channels and charged a certain fee in the transfer process.
Xiao Lei noted that the low-cost packages that operators "want to get rid of quickly" have many local packages in addition to the Internet packages that have fought price wars in previous years. Although traffic and voice are no longer distinguished between local, provincial and national, and there is no concept of roaming, there is still the concept of provincial and municipal branches in the enterprise architecture of operators. Many provincial and municipal operators have a certain degree of right to formulate packages. Many packages with extremely low monthly fees but unlimited traffic and unlimited speed are usually the product of many local operator branches rushing KPIs. And JS, who has formed an industrial chain, naturally will not let go of these opportunities, and many of the "god cards" they collect include them.
But frankly, the negative impact of card seller JS on ordinary consumers is actually not large. Even, because they have allowed many people to buy out-of-print packages that have long been removed from official channels, some users may be happy to see the existence of this industrial chain. Even if operators hate them and want to introduce policy crackdowns, there are many other means that can be used compared to restricting transfers, such as using more stringent identity real-name information authentication, limiting the number of number cards under a single person, etc., which can effectively combat card dealers and avoid accidentally injuring ordinary users.
However, in the current situation, ordinary consumers can not do much, after all, whether the operator transfer can limit the original package is not clearly stipulated, in a vague area. And what we can do is to stick to the low-cost packages we use, and upgrade the high-priced packages without exceeding the demand.