Top-up cards vanish in age of high speed internet

Hyderabad: There was a time when top-up cards were dominating the mobile communications market. The ease of online recharge has dipped down to cent percent. The communication store owners now rely completely on selling mobile accessories or repairing them.

Store vendors have either shifted their business models to substitutes or end up being unemployed, for most of them it was an additional business which is lost forever. For a long time, the business was run by easy recharges, thereafter people started using prepaid recharge cards and now it has shifted to online recharge.

“My additional business has gone, I used to make good revenue by selling top-up cards however the margin was very low so we used to charge one rupee extra on recharge cards. But sales were good, the sales have reduced drastically since high speed internet and free service providers like Jio came up,” said a tobacconist at Masab Tank.

A communication store owner in Mehdipatnam, Syed Ibrahim said, “My business was booming for a decade and with mobile and TV recharge solutions and now there is a substantial decline. “I started my business with a Public Call Office (PCO) which was soon replaced by coin boxes, then came mobile phones, with it came easy recharge, which was slowly replaced by top-up cards and now do it yourself online recharge. Paytm, and online banking services are eating away our business.”

Computer science student from Vasavi Engineering College, Niranjan Reddy said, “The digital currency is taking over cash, which initially could be beneficial for people but in long-term they pose problems. Paytm opened my bank account without asking for my permission.”