Retailers are creating artificial shortage of prepaid cards
The state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) is facing a new predicament. On one hand its market share of cellular services under CellOne is steadily growing, while on the other its brand value is being eroded thanks to a flourishing blackmarket in rural India.
The corporation, which planned to capture 50 per cent of the cellular market when it launched its pre-paid cellular services, ExCell, across 17 states, has lately been receiving complains of massive black marketing from small towns and villages.
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The modus operandi for black marketeers is simple: create an artificial scarcity of SIM cards and demand a high premium, sometimes as high as Rs 50 for a SIM card.
A few retailers are even charging for supplying SIM cards under