Globacom Ghana lowers call rates with 6Gp/minute on ‘Glo Gista’
Glo Ghana has launched a new tariff plan dubbed ‘Glo Gista’ to enable subscribers to make both on-net and off-net calls for only 6Gp per minutes and also a enjoy loads of freebies and discounts.
This offer, which is not a promo but a long-term tariff plan, raises the bar of the telecoms tariff war to another level, as it is the first to reduce both on-net and off-net tariffs to as low as 6Gp.
Tigo offers a default on-net tariff of 3Gp (Tigo to Tigo), but standard off-net rate is 8.4Gp; MTN Zone also offers some lower tariffs, but that is not regular; while Vodafone’s 138 also offers some irregular lower rates.
The Glo Gista tariff plan comes to add to the ‘Good Day Ghana’ launch package in which Glo Ghana customers, who still prefer that to Gista, would continue to enjoy 20Gp free credit every morning as a default package, plus all the other benefits Glo announced at its commercial launch.
But those interested in Glo Gista would have to dial *200*1*1# to register and start enjoying 6Gp per minute of calls to both Glo numbers and numbers on all the other local networks after the first minute of call upon registration.
The package also include up to 100% recharge bonus, free registration of five family and friend group, to whom the customer could make calls and send messages at 2Gp per minute, and per SMS.
Customers on Glo Gista also get free SMS to any number the whole day after paying for the first two SMSs in the day, and a bonus of one minute free after receiving three minutes of calls from another number.
The package also offers 100 minutes of free night calls to Glo numbers from midnight to 5am every night, plus free 100Megabytes of data capacity for browsing free overnight.
Free night browsing on Glo Gista is a novelty as it is the first time in Ghana for any mobile network to offer customer free night browsing.
Head of Commercial at Glo Mobile Ghana, Augustine Mamuro told journalists at a press launch that the introduction of Glo Gista in Ghana was in fulfillment of a promise at the launch of Glo in Ghana, to bring the popular and most successful Glo Gista package from its other markets to Ghana.
He said the term ‘Gista’ was a coinage from the English word ‘gist’, which happens to be the freestyle parlance among the youth for chit-chat, and free talk, adding that Gista was therefore inspired by the desire to give Ghanaians “the license and freedom to talk and talk again on the Glo network without any inhibition.
Theophelus Agbeko is the Head of Non-Voice Business at Glo Ghana, and he told journalists that the Gista offer has given relevance to Ghana’s one pesewa and five pesewas coins, adding that it also defeats the reason for owning more than one SIM or phone.
“Six pesewas per minute is lower than what some telcos even charge for their on-net calls and so when you use your Glo handset there is no need thinking twice about whether you are calling an on-net or off-net number because the rate is the same – 6Gp and it is the lowest you can get on the market,” he said.
“We want to change the wide-spread culture of owning two phones in Ghana to using just one phone,” he said.
Apart from Tigo, which has 3Gp for on-net calls, MTN standard on-net rate is 9Gp, but can get lower on MTN Zone; Vodafone standard rate is 14.4Gp, but some packages also offer 8Gp standard, and lower based on some complex conditions; Airtel on-net is 8.4Gp, and Expresso is 9.5Gp.
When journalists queried the sustainability of the Glo Gista tariff plan, given that interconnectivity rate is up to 4.5Gp per minute, which leaves Glo with only 1.5Gp per minute for all off-net calls, the officials said the offer is to bond with Ghanaians and to show love to the teaming subscribers.
Glo has been on the Ghanaian market for four months, and has already raked in an estimated 1.3 million subscribers, and gained some 4.2% market share.
It is already chipping away some of the market share of competition, and Glo Gista threatens to do more damage to the revenue margins of competition, which is a concern expressed by some telco bosses long before Glo started commercial service in Ghana.
By Samuel Nii Narku Dowuona