Mobile operator CDMA Uzbekistan, under the Perfectum Mobile brand, has introduced to its customers a new tariff called “10,000.” It offers 10,000 minutes and 10,000 SMS to all Uzbekistan mobile networks and a 10 GB mobile data bundle for a monthly subscription of UZS 100,000 (US $11.86). The tariff is available for both consumer and corporate subscribers of the operator.

Off-net calls within the country are charged at UZS 125.00 (US $0.01) per minute after the limit is reached, while extra on-net calls cost UZS 80.00 (US $0.009) per minute. The mobile data rate is UZS 420.00 (US $0.05) per MB during the day and UZS 210.00 (US $0.02) per MB at night.

Tarifica’s Take

We find this offer interesting in that CDMA Uzbekistan has chosen not to offer its customers unlimited voice and SMS but instead places the very high number of 10,000 on these services as a limit.

Unlimited voice and text offers are very common, and operators are well aware that in today’s data-centric marketplaces, users are likely to emphasize consuming data (including for OTT messaging services) rather than voice minutes and SMS. Offering unlimited voice and texts is good for the brand because of the appearance of generosity, and operators in many cases realize that subscribers will not actually use very large amounts of minutes and texts.

However, Uzbekistan may be one of those markets in which voice and SMS are still very important to users and are in fact consumed in large quantities. Therefore, truly unlimited offers may not be economical for operators, while a very high upper limit such as this one could give the operator protection while at the same time acting as an inducement for customers to sign up and giving them assurance that the operator is prioritizing their needs. Not every market prefers data to voice, even in 2019.