Italian operator Wind has doubled the data included in several of its mobile plans for the holiday period. Anyone signing up for the All Inclusive Unlimited plan for €12.00 (US $14.30) per month will have unlimited calls, 1,000 SMS and 10 GB of mobile data for six months, while Wind Magnum subscribers will have 20 GB of data to be shared among two SIM cards for €14.90 (US $17.76) per month, going up to 40 GB at €19.90 (US $23.72) per month for SMBs and freelancers. In addition, subscribers to All Inclusive Unlimited, Wind Magnum and Wind Magnum who acquire a Samsung Galaxy smartphone will have their bundled data doubled for 12 months.
Tarifica’s Take
Seasonal and holiday promotions are a very popular strategy among mobile operators, and offers of free extra data are among the most popular and appealing of promotion concepts. This one from Wind is generous, offering from 5 GB to 20 GB extra data per month, depending on the plan and subscriber type, and the duration of the data, six months, is long enough to have a significant impact on users. Allowing the data to be spread over two SIMs by Wind Magnum subscribers sweetens the deal, as does setting aside even more data for business clients. We expect that the promotion will be successful at motivating customers to sign up for these plans, thus driving subscriber acquisition for the operator, as well as helping with retention in the case of existing subscribers of the operator who switch to the All Inclusive and Magnum plans.
As we have written before, offerings of extra data have other long-terms effects, in terms of fostering data usage habits among subscribers. Free data promotes the use of greater quantities of data over time, leading customers to upgrade to more data-rich plans after promotional periods are over. The fact that Wind is yoking this promotion to a device promotion (with a Samsung Galaxy purchase causing the six-month period to be extended to a full year) strengthens it in terms of long-term potential impact on customer habits—in addition, of course, to bringing in some device revenue.
Wind is Italy’s leading operator, having merged recently with 3 Italia—a move that went along with a requirement from Italian regulators that a new MNO enter the market. At the beginning of 2018 France’s Iliad will launch a fourth operator on the Italian market, to compete with Wind, TIM and Vodafone. For Wind, being number one, with or without a new entrant challenging it, is no reason not to be aggressive about winning, keeping and cultivating subscribers.