India’s telecom market has been increasing by leaps and bounds adding around 8 million customers every month. And because of this growth, TRAI started keeping a tab on the level of congestion at the Point of Interconnection (POI) between the service providers.

The result may not be surprising because the two largest operators in India face the congestion problem. Bharti Airtel from the GSM front leads the pack followed by CDMA giant, RCom. The most congested circles are Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, North East and Himachal Pradesh.

Note: POI signifies the ease with which a customer of one network is able to communicate with a customer of another network. This parameter also reflects as to how effective is the interconnection between two networks.

Vodafone is sending out SMS to its postpaid customers luring them to use the Direct Debit facility. This facility would allow users to directly transfer the amount from the bank to pay their monthly dues. The benefit you get is a discount of Rs.50 on your bill for the first six months and less late payments, bad debts and peace of mind for Vodafone.

It’s your time to win Vodafone Magic box with FM Radio. It’s simple and easy. Click here to know more or hit the link below.

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We try and get all the best plans to you, most of the “best” ones go under the corporate belt. Here is another great one being offered to Godrej employees. This one doesn’t have a name but anyway, here are the details:

• Monthly Rent: Rs.125
• Local calling to Vodafone: 10paise
• Local calls to other numbers: 30paise
• Local calling within group: Free
• Local SMS: 50paise
• 100 Local minutes to Vodafone numbers free
• 200 Local SMS free

We say: This plan is easy to get if you have someone woking for Godrej. As such you can get free calling if you manage to get the Plan for people you talk most often. The free calling and SMS is lower than expected, given the low rent. Calling to Vodafone numbers is extremely cheap and adds to the plan’s strengths.

PS: If you work in a company and use a cool corporate plan then surely let us know. Hit an e-mail to any of us. E-mail info here.

Here’s another full value plan but this time it’s from Tata Indicom for its Gujarat circle customers. There have a few Full Value 199’s and 299’s from different operators but this is the first time we came across a Full Value 399 plan.

Plan Details:

• Monthly Rental: Rs 399
• CLIP: Rs 25 (optional)
• Monthly commitment: Rs 424 (399 + 25)
• Free calls: 425 local calls to any number
• All Local calls and SMS’s to Tata numbers: 50 paise
• All Local calls to others: Rs 1.75
• All Local SMS to others: Re 1
• STD calls to Tata Numbers: Rs 2
• STD calls to others: Rs 2.65

We say: Although the plan seems to be targeted towards Full Value seekers, there are no signs of free SMSes which other full value plans offer. Also once you are done with the freebies offered along with it, the plan becomes pricey for calls and SMSes to other networks.

Karan Rawat is currently using the BPL Loop 299 Plan. With the plan working for him, he wanted to share his experience with the other readers. The basic reason for him choosing the Plan was the low calling and SMS rates. With Karan making calls to all networks, calls at 40 paise worked well. Also the 300 minutes of free calling and SMS to BPL numbers always came handy.

Karan thinks that the lowest calling rate in the circle (10 paise to BPL users) was one of the best deals one could get. Even the SMS costs are quite low. Moving on to the Customer Care and Gallery Services, this BPL user has no problems. He only voices some problems of bad network sometimes.

Overall, Karan is quite satisfied with the performance of the Plan and recommends it to people who are existing BPL users. He rates it 4 on 5.

BPL Mobile users can activate 10 ka Gang service to enjoy cheap calling rates within their set of 10 BPL numbers. Users can use this scheme right away by recharging their prepaid account with a e-topup of Rs. 249. A successful recharge will then allow the user to send 300 free SMSes every month to his gang members as well as calling them will cost 10 paise a minute. Rates outside the gang will be charged at:

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Idea made its grand entry into Mumbai on Thursday and the operator was all over the place. Here is one of the plans that would be available to users in Mumbai. This one is called Value Plus 199 and the components are as follows:

• Monthly Rent: Rs.199
• CLIP charges: Free for 6 months, Rs.50 after that
• Local calls to Idea numbers: 30paise
• Local calls to other cellphones: 50paise
• Local calls to Fixed Lines: Re.1
• Local and National SMS: 50paise
• Free 300 mins of Local calls to all numbers
• Free 200 Local SMS Free to all numbers

Additional Details: To start off users would have to pay Rs. 200 (Converted to Security deposit after 6 Months) as plan enrollment and Rs.99 as activation charges.

We say: This plan is more or less the same when you compare it other full value plans. Here they give you an extra 100 mins of free calling which is then compensated with the CLIP charges which you’ll pay after 6 months. Let’s do a quick math for the remaining 100 free local mins. Effectively, Idea isn’t losing much if you call on mobiles but will suffer if the calls are made on fixed lines (Re. 1 X 100 = Rs. 100).

As per the recent amendment made by the telecom regulator TRAI, mobile users will now have the freedom to choose any operator for making long distance calls, whether domestic (STD) or international (ISD) irrespective of their subscription to a particular service provider.

So, suppose you are a Vodafone subscriber and you find out that Airtel is offering the cheapest long distance tariffs, you can simply buy a prepaid long distance pack from Airtel for a specific time duration, punch in numbers mentioned on the pack, get on to the Airtel network and make your long distance call.

This whole thing of using virtual calling cards to make long distance calls works out in three simple steps:

1. Buy a prepaid virtual calling card of your desired operator
2. Punch in the calling card code on your mobile handset
   
3. Use STD/ISD services of the new operator

Indian telecom users enjoy the cheapest call rates. And with a new move from TRAI, it is bound to get more cheaper. They have allowed ISPs to carry out unrestricted internet telephony. This means cellular operators can provide long distance telephony services at lower cost and in turn reduced rates for the consumers. Cheap rates for Voice over IP (VoIP) is also in the offing.

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