Another odd corporate plan from Airtel that we came across. This one is called Airtel Deal 199 Plan + 25 Package for Mumbai. The name of this plan itself is very weird; the details are:

• Monthly rental: Rs 224
• CLIP: Free
• Monthly freebies: 200 local calls to Airtel numbers; 100 local SMS’s to any mobile
• Call charge to local Airtel numbers: 15p/min
• Call charge to all other local mobile: 25p/min
• Call charge to local landline: Re 1/min
• Local and National SMS: 50p/SMS
• STD call charge to all numbers: Rs 1.50/min

We Say: We would go for a Good Value 199 Plan which is in fact better than this Corporate plan and is available to all its customers.

TRAI has released the official subscriber figures for the month of August which makes the wireless subscriber count to pass the 300 million mark. This feat was possible because of the 9.16 million wireless subscribers which were added during the month.

Every player managed add an adequate number of subscribers but Bharti Airtel managed to cram up more than 2 million subscribers which makes it the leader of the wireless segment.

Russian telecom giant Sistema’s Indian subsidiary Shyam Telecom was the few new telecom operators to get the Pan-India license to start their services in both GSM and CDMA space.

The word has it that they will be initiating their services in Rajasthan followed by some southern states in the next 2-3 months. The company has already set-up 800 plus towers in Rajasthan to start its services. They will first go by the CDMA route trying to give some competition to major players like RCom and Tata Teleservices. Let us wait and see how it goes.

Bharti Airtel has tied up with smartphone maker i-mate to offer its subscribers their Windows mobile phone JAMA 101. The i-mate JAMA 101 is powered by a Samsung CPU at 300MHz with 64MB of RAM. The other details are:

• 128MB ROM – extendable by microSD
• Supports EDGE, Bluetooth
• Display – TFT touchscreen, 65k colors at 320 x 240 pixels
• 2 MP camera with Autofocus and Flash

The i-mate JAMA 101 costs Rs 12,900 and will be available all across India through i-mate and Airtel stores. Another feature is that, users will get 50MB/month of data download at Rs 99/month on Airtel.

With the festive season coming up, BPL Mobile has come up with festive benefits to woo new users. This one is called the Utsav Card and has been rolled out for people joining the BPL family. Here are the details:

• Cost: Rs.201
• 3 year validity 
• Calls to BPL mobiles: 20paise 
• Calls to other lines: 70paise 
• STD calls: Rs.1.25
• Local and National SMS: 30paise 
• Night calling to BPL: 10paise 
• Night calling to others: 40paise 
• STD calls: 90paise 
• Local and National SMS: 15paise 

BPL Mobile

Reliance GSM which planned to enter the Mumbai circle might just be planning out for its grand launch. GSM users in Mumbai are seeing a new network added to the list of available networks. This one is called IND15. There are news about Reliance GSM testing its networks in Mumbai and this might just be a semi-official confirmation. 

With already new players entering the circle, this would add one more to the count. Let’s see if the rookies can face the biggie in India’s busiest and the most profitable circle. 

Just search network manually to find it. The IND 799 is the Idea network and the IND15 is the mysterious one.

This is one exceptionally good inter-circle calling plan from Idea that we came across. It is called the New Talk Free 275 plan and is available for Delhi – NCR circle subscribers. The plan details are:

• Monthly Rental: Rs. 275
• CLIP: Free
• Monthly freebie: 5000 mins local calling (Idea to Idea)
• Calling charge to all other local numbers: 50p/min
• Local SMS: Re 1/SMS
• STD calling charge to all numbers: Rs 1.50/min

We say

The whopping 5000 mins free for local Idea to Idea calling makes this plan a clear winner for the Idea subscribers. Monthly commitment of Rs. 275 makes the local calling rate to all Idea numbers come down at approximately 18 p/min.

Airtel’s strategic partnership with Singapore-based SingTel can prove a boon to Airtel users if they happen to visit Singapore this weekend. To commemorate the Inaugural of 2008 Formula 1 SingTel Grand Prix, Airtel users visiting Singapore from September 25 to September 29, 2008 will be able to enjoy free incoming calls in Singapore. Users need to manually set their roaming network to SingTel to avail this offer.

Currently the existing international roaming tariff for all incoming calls on the SingTel network is Rs. 52/- per minute for Postpaid customers and Rs. 50/- per minute for Prepaid customers.

Indian telcos always boast about their plans to penetrate into the villages and provide full network out there. They also consider these regions as the future of the Indian telecom market as the major chunk of users hail from these areas. But the real scenario seems a contrast to their claims. Read on to know what Mr. Mohan has gone through.

Hello sir, I am Mohan in Tamil Nadu, Erode district, Gobi Taluk, Getticheviyur. Pin no:638110. My mobile no:9#########. We have problems in NETWORK COVERAGE in my village other than airtel towers are there. I give complaints many more times by customer care. But still no steps are to be taken. The call is disconnected because network problems. One point only in my mobile. Here 75 customers. please put TOWER in our village. We agree that you take steps immediately. Kindly response our complaint.
Thank you.

We are not here to judge the grammatical errors this person may have done but the crux of the matter is that companies are not fulfilling their boasted claims. Operators need to step up and be proactive rather than playing the waiting game. After all, rural area customers are what every operator is eyeing on.

Recently, BPL Mobile users in Mumbai have been facing strange problems in sending SMSes. There have been complaints about the messages not reaching the person on the other end and also cases of the sender receiveing the delivery report without it being sent. Some users have been complaining about messages reaching them in bulk i.e. the messages that were sent to them during the day are recieved together in the night.

With BPL always being associated with bad network, the new problem has left the users quite harassed. As per one subscriber, their problems are not being addressed by the authorities, who claim about the absence of any problems. We would request you to come forward and let us know if you have faced such problems.

Source

[Thanks Sanjay]