Tata Teleservices Limited extended its telecom service in the Assam circle by introducing a range of products. It includes prepaid and postpaid mobile services, Photon a high-speed internet access, fixed wireless telephony under the brand name Walky Talky and many other value-added services.

To introduce its brand to the Assamese locals, Tata Indicom is offering the North East Corridor Starter Pack for Rs. 199/- wherein subscribers in this region can make long distance calls across Assam for 50 paise per min.

Tata Indicom’s products and services will be available at exclusive Tata Indicom showrooms and several other retail stores across the state. As a part of their first phase, they have already installed over 134 cell sites in 31 different towns.

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Public operator BSNL has announced its move to slash call rates to SAARC countries by 15-30%in the days to come. Currently, calling to these countries is charged around Rs. 10-12, which would be reduced to Rs. 9-10 once the plan is implemented. BSNL also plans to slash calling rates to Middle East countries as well.

Call rates among the SAARC countries were among the highest in the world and this move would make calling more affordable. Some specifics of the new plan are:

• Talk Plan you need to avail the reduced rates: PostPaid Plan 720
• Landline users can call at Rs.9.60 per minute
• Mobile users can call at Rs.9 per minute
• Reduced rates available on calls to: Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Bhutan

We Say: Though the reduction in the call rates is around 20%, we wouldn’t see a spectacular increase in calling to SAARC countries. Considering the fat price tag it comes with, some free calling minutes could help make it more attractive.

RCom signed up a deal recently with HTC to sell the CDMA version of the Touch Diamond (P3051) phone. It might be good news for some people but with the price tag it carries, it surely is way out of budget for majority of the RCom users. They are selling it for freakin 40K or Rs. 39,900 to be precise. Agreed its got all the goodness of TouchFLO 3D on a 2.8-inch VGA screen, 4GB memory, Windows 6.1 OS, 3.2-megapixel camera and much more but paying 13K premium over the GSM version of Airtel doesn’t look justified to me. Ok, you argue that CDMA radio gives good voice clarity and better data rate transfers but paying 13K more for that is not a viable decision for me. Don’t you think?

Tata Indicom recently launched a couple of SMS packs for everyone to enjoy except the consumers from Maharashtra and Goa.

• SMS All India Pack 100: Pay Rs.25 for a month and get 100 SMS’s (local and national) to any number
• SMS All India Pack 1000: Pay Rs.50 for a month and get 1000 SMS’s (local and national) to any number

We say: The second one is definitely the preferred one, as it provides 10 times the number of SMS’s at two times the price. This is exactly how the operator is expecting the users to think and thus opt for the second one.

Tata Indicomis making the Indian telecom scene quite competitive by introducing plans which raise the bar, by lowering prices. This one is for the Postpaid users who feel the need to make STD calls frequently. The pack, which costs Rs. 75 would provide STD calling to selected zones at 50paise. Here are the details:

• Western Zone:Mumbai, Maharashtra, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Chhatisgarh
• South Zone: Andhra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala
• North Zone:Himachal, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan and UP.
• East Zone:Kolkatta, Bihar, Orissa and rest of West Bengal

These are the zones one can choose from and avail STD calling at low cost. According to us, one must weigh the approximate number of minutes he/she would call and then check whether it would really benefit them. This pack works for people using STD quite frequently.

MTNL Mumbai gives its users another reason to rejoice. With the biggest festival coming up, MTNL users will be able to send and receive unlimited free MMSes. This offer is applicable to all its prepaid as well as postpaid users and will last till October 31, 2008. To activate GPRS/MMS service, a user can dial 1503 or send a SMS by typing ACT GPRS to 444 (prepaid) or GPRS4 to 555 (postpaid).

It is not difficult to find similar plans offered by both Airtel and Vodafone under different names. We recently came across ‘Vodafone Talk 249 Bumper Plan’ and ‘Airtel Jackpot 249 Plan’ which are exactly the same plans offered offered to subscribers in Delhi and NCR circle. The details are:

Monthly Rental: Rs 249
CLIP: Free
Free: 500 minutes Mobile-to-Mobile local calls
Calling charge to all other local mobile: 30p/min
Calling charge to all other local numbers: 50p/min
Local SMS: 50p/SMS
STD calling charge to Vodafone numbers: Re 1/min
STD calling charge to all other numbers: Rs 1.50/min

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.

Tata Teleservices is the latest entrant in the Indian telecom market to offer Blackberry services. Their first Blackberry device is CDMA-based BlackBerry 8830 World Edition which also offers international roaming capability on GSM/GPRS networks. The phone is an ideal Blackberry handset with a nice QWERTY keyboard, GPS and the topping of a dual band network support. The phone will be available with a standard voice plan along with three options of data services – Gold, Platinum and Titanium.

Tata Blackberry