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Brick-and-mortar telecom companies’ distributors and agents in urban and rural areas are passé. You wouldn’t need to wait much for your mobile phone, SIM card or data card’s delivery. Just register online or click an app and be ready with cash at home: the delivery men would come equipped with the desired phone, SIM or data card and/or dongle, get your e-KYC done instantly and have it activated within hours.
India’s only telecom aggregator platform, 10digi, launched some of these services in December 2016 in the Delhi-NCR region and plans to expand to around 130 towns and cities by March 2018. “We have already hired 500 ‘mobile retailers’ or MRs (delivery men) in Delhi and plan to enroll another 10,000 across India to deliver the products and services at the customer’s doorsteps,” Ozair Yasin, Co-Founder and Managing Director, 10digi, told BusinessLine . 10digi will commence delivery of mobile phones also in March 2017.
About 10digi’s business model, he said it gets revenues from telecom operators just like the existing brick-and-mortar distributors and agents. “We are only replacing these existing ones with our mobile retailers.”
The company’s delivery men will be paid a minimum guaranteed salary plus a commission per activation.
He said 10digi is a one-of-its kind platform to allow consumers to compare, evaluate and choose the various plans offered by different vendors without the hassle of calling each telecom provider separately. The platform has incorporated e-KYC in its delivery system to ease the process of SIM activation. The e-commerce platform works with ‘mobile retailers’ who facilitate door-step delivery of SIMs and other devices.
Owned by SoftAge, 10Digi has already collaborated with telecom operators including Tata, Idea, Vodafone and MTNL in Delhi to home-deliver their SIM and data cards to customers. Talks are in the final stages with Airtel, Aircel and R-Com for partnership to deliver their SIM cards.
Yasin said a subscriber would also be able to avail of mobile number portability (MNP) and other services offered by various telecom companies on his platform.
The emergence of 10digi that provides free doorstep delivery, spot verification, MNP and recharge services would make operators provide more offers for opting for such services from an aggregator.
This single descriptive aggregator platform aims to accelerate delivery and activation of SIMs within 1-4 hours as compared to the recent process that takes anywhere between 8 and 48 hours.
He said once a subscriber requests for a connection online through the app, the nearest MR will be at his doorstep at the desired time to collect or copy the required documents and deliver SIMs and other products.
Yasin clarified that 10digi ensures instant SIM activation for e-KYC subscribers. For paper-KYC subscribers, the SIM is activated within 4 hours for prepaid connections, and within 8 hours for postpaid ones. 10digi will also facilitate services such as photocopies of identity and address proofs and photographs required for such connections at residence for a nominal charge.
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