Prepaid users-who already outnumber their postpaid counterparts by some distance-are set to grow further as a segment in the mobile consumer market as more people opt for the payment method. Operators have begun to improve their offerings to prepaid users in the realisation that these people value the control that prepayment affords them and are reluctant to move to full contract tariffs, according to a new report from Informa Telecoms & Media: Global Mobile Prepaid Strategies. At the end of the first half of last year, 58 per cent of the global mobile subscriber base was on a prepaid tariff. But in the 12 months to end June 2005, 80 per cent of all net additions were prepaid. An ITM survey revealed that half the world's operators estimated that their subscriber base would be 85 -100 per cent prepaid by 2010. Over 30 per cent, meanwhile, estimated the figure would be between 70 and 85 per cent. Overall, ITM predicts, prepaid will account for 65 per cent of subscribers globally by 2010.
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