Hi everyone,
I'm curious about what kind of re-charge plans everyone's using for
their projects, and what kind of experience you'd had with monthly
recharges vs. data plans.
In our pilots, we used a range of recharges, usually all very small,
based on the project scope. A small monthly recharge is possible
especially in the set-up of 1CHW:1Village and up to two types of
patients (mother and child, for example).
In India though, we've experienced problems with talktime being sucked
up by value add services that CHWs sign up for by accident. About a
year ago, the problem was almost always services signed up for by
accident via incoming SMS or USSD type alerts/services that
mysteriously ate up credit. Now with DND services, we're seeing less
of this via text, and an increase in soliciting voice calls.
This can cause balances to deplete balance quickly at the cost of CHWs
not being able to send forms, higher risk of loss of data if the
application gets deleted before forms get sent.
I'm thinking as cost of data drops, perhaps better to move to using
data plans instead? For projects with lower expected submissions the
data plan may not justify, but for longer term security, it may be
worth it. For assistance, CHWs stick to making 'missed calls'
anyway...
Eager to hear what other implementers have to say.
Thanks again!
Mohini Bhavsar
Dimagi India