This is a well-known fact that mobile operators consider messaging apps as their direct competitors, and sometimes they even treat them as enemies. This is no surprise – paid calls and SMS can be easily substituted with free messages, voice calls and even video calls in apps. Therefore, the statement Mikhail Slobodin, VimpelCom (a brand of Beeline, one of Russia’s biggest telecom operators) CEO, made on his Facebook profile page yesterday astonished most users. Slobodin said that from now on Beeline would provide its subscribers with unrestricted access to WhatsApp messenger.
He particularly said that telecom operators have always viewed all sort of messaging apps as competitors that take a large part of income away. VimpelCom decided to take another point of view. As of 26 October 2015, Beeline users will be able to access WhatsApp on free and unlimited basis as part of Beeline’s new rates “VSE” (Rus. “all included”). According to Slobodin, Beeline is proud that their clients in particular will be able to benefit from this offer.
WhatsApp was chosen for obvious reasons – according to App Annie data collection service, it had taken the first place in Russia in the list of top frequently used messaging apps in Q3 2015.
New opportunities of limitless communication will be offered to users within “VSE” range of rates. This innovation is only temporary, though, and the limitless use does not allow voice calls – the latter are partly charged.
While Beeline top management is calling its innovation a ‘historical move’, sceptics are taking their best guesses about the true reasons for that: whether it is a desire to keep up with the times or Beeline is following the ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’ principle. We would just like to recall that this is not an original idea at all – a Ukrainian telecom operator “life:)” has already done a similar thing before – it provided a free use of social networks through 3G rates.
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