Alright guys, today’s the last day to enter yourself in Tele Gyaan’s Vodafone Magic Box contest. The contest ends tonight at 23:59 IST. More details here.
Final Reminder: Vodafone Magic Box Contest
Archives for August 2008
Customer Speak: Spice Postpaid 175
It’s Saturday and we are proud to have another TeleGyaan reader to have his plan reviewed. This week it is Madhav S from Karnataka reviewing his Spice Postpaid 175 Plan. The basic reason to choose this plan was the low rental with free calls and SMS’s. As such the benefits that one gets are more than the rent paid for this plan.
The rental is Rs.200 per month, including Rs. 25 as CLIP charges. The benefits that you get are:
- 200 mins of free calling to Local Spice numbers
- 100 mins of free calling to Local mobile phones
- 50 local SMS’s free
The calling rates are 50paise, 80 paise and Rs.1.5 to Spice, other networks and Fixed lines respectively. SMS charges are a bit of a problem with local SMS being charged at Re.1. But one can always use the add-on packs and get 1000 free SMS by paying Rs.99. Overall the Plan works out just fine for Madhav and with 300 minutes of free calling he does not have to be shocked by heavy bills. He gives it a rating of 4 on 5.
BPL Mobile brings Blackberry Connect software
BPL Mobile have announced the support of BlackBerry Connect software for select Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Asus phones. With the BlackBerry Connect software, users will be able to access BlackBerry services like BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Internet Service without the need for owning a Blackberry device. The list of phones is not huge but BPL Mobile makes sure they have covered the widely used business phones.
Click here for a complete list of handsets supported.
Virgin Mobile’s Fab Offer
Virgin Mobile’s another bait for new customers. With every Virgin Mobile handset purchase, the csutomer will get:
- Free Prepaid Connection
- Free Lifetime Validity
- Free Talktime Worth Rs. 100
- Free 500 SMS
We say: Virgin mobile is trying to lure customer by offering such freebies, but somehow it doesn’t seem to be working for them. They need to bring in some new, mid and high-end handsets to attract today’s young generation.
RCom Business Jaadu 135
Reliance Communications is extending its Jaadu Pack to Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) customers in Tamil Nadu. The new edition of the pack will be called as Business Jaadu 135. It will cost Rs. 135 and offer validity for a month. The benefits for the customer are unlimited Reliance calls within the state and other local calls will be charged at 49 paise/minute. RCom reckons a user can save up to 35% on their monthly bills.
The pack will be subsequently rolled out in other circles.
India’s 3G market to boom by 2013
3G services are still to go commercial and we are getting predictions about the subscriber base of this next generation wireless service. Research agency Strategy Analytics has predicted that India could be the largest 3G market among emerging countries with 270 million subscribers within the next 5 years.
They even said that 3G subscribers would constitute more than one third of the total wireless users in India. The subscribers would initially come from metro and ‘A’ category cities, and enterprises and business customers would make the largest chunk of it followed by tech-savvy young generation who would drive this market.
PTI
Idea ties up with Nokia to offer N96
Idea Cellular have tied up with the world’s largest mobile handset maker, Nokia to take on Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar. Idea cellular and Nokia will together bring in the Nseries flagship phone, N96 which is considered the biggest competition to the Apple iPhone. iPhone as many of us are aware is available exclusively on Airtel and Vodafone networks.
N96 will be available on Idea network from September. The dual slider handset has a 2.8 inch screen and comes with 16 GB storage space, expandable to 24GB. User can store up to 18,000 songs and over 20,000 images at 5 mega pixel, 20 full-length movies or nearly 60 hours of video.
Idea’s partnership with Nokia also extends to other mid and high-end handsets from the Finnish giant’s stable besides the Nseries. Idea plans to introduce attractive offers and new tariff plans, on various devices, starting with the N96.
Vodafone Talk 1year 799 (Gujarat)
Vodafone is trying their hand to make prepaid pricing model to work for postpaid. And thus, they launch a 1year rent scheme in Gujarat. Forget monthly rents as you’ll payRs. 799 as rent for one whole year. But there’s a flipside to it. Here is how:
- Monthly Rent: Nil
- CLIP charges: Rs.50
- Incoming calls are Free
- All local calls to cellphones: Re.1
- Local calls to Fixed Line: Rs.2
- STD calls: Rs.2.4
- Local SMS: Re.1
- National SMS: Rs.2
We say: The adage ‘you get what you pay for’ goes well for this plan. Vodafone cannot milk in the cash with the monthly rent so they jack up calling rates. We think it is justified too. However, with call charges stooping as low as 10paise, one rupee for a call seems expensive and so are call rates to landlines. Though you pay about Rs.66 as rent every month, you aren’t saving anything.
PS: Same Plan is also available at Rs.1099 for 2 Years.
Spice Postpaid 650 Plan for Karnataka
This plan comes from Spice Telecom and it is named Postpaid 650 Plan. This is recommended for the heavy users, which you will notice below:
- Monthly Rental: Rs.650
- Local calls to Spice: 30paise
- Local calls to other networks: 50paise
- Local calls to Fixed lines: 99paise
- Local and National SMS: 50 paise
- STD calls: Rs.1.3
- 650 minutes of free calling to local Spice numbers
- 650 minutes of free calling to local cellphones
- 650 local SMS to all networks free
We say: The last three lines make the whole plan look great, but the rent seems unrealistic. Though it is providing benefits, the basic bill would be a minimum of Rs.650. The local calls have been priced well and this might be a positive for the plan.
Idea brings in Double Value 299 for Mumbai
Idea is definitely making its presence felt in Mumbai. We came across this plan, called the Double Value 299 plan. The details of this plan are:
- Monthly Rental: Rs 299
- CLIP: Free
- Monthly free usage: 400 mins calls free (All Local), 200 SMS Free (All Local)
- Local calls to Idea mobile: 30 paise/min
- Local calls to other mobile: 50 paise/min
- Local calls to fixed phones: Re 1/min
- Local/National SMS: 50 paise/SMS
We say: This plan isn’t ‘double value’ in real terms. Idea has increased local free minutes by 100 but limited the total monthly SMSes to 200. The benefit is the same of a full value plan but this one is more call centric. If your local calls clock around 400 – 550 minutes, this plan can save some of your green paper.