Indianomics!

I am experiencing constant network problems with Airtel of late. Ever since I have lost my Reliance data card, I have had to relay on Airtel to keep writing blogs. Airtel works best at night most of the time. In the day, the connection keeps breaking near about 700 KB of data transfer.

The browsing speed is very pathetic. I hardly get 4 to 5 KB/S download speed on Flash Get where as on Reliance, I used to get atleast 15 to 25 KB/S.

Airtel depresses me

My place also do not have any broadband connection I can get. Even the cyber cafe near my building runs the same Reliance Data Card for access internet.

Of late, Airtel network gets completely blacked out. 3 days before and yesterday, I was able to see the network strengh as 100%, however when I try calling or browsing, it simply does not work. I tried calling from a Vodafone and Virgin to my Airtel but it says my phone is switched off. Its network is going so poor that users are facing the pinch. To top it all, the amount which is deducted everyday for GPRS gets deducted regularly but when these kind of issues come Airtel should not charge us for their mistake. I am owl kinds who get time to work for personal stuff in the night. And the whole day I dont use the connection at all. When I discover that in the night the connection is not working, how am I supposed to communicate / work on Internet.

If this is a one off event, I can understand that. But this happens several times a month.

Airtel is becoming pathetic day by day. My other Airtel postpaid is in the limelight for not having paid the bill in the month of January.

I got close to 17 calls with regards to the same. I have been telling each of these that I have made the payment well in time before my due date of 11th and also gave them the reciept number and  reference number. Some how, the payment is not updated with them and those who are calling me do not care to update.

Registering a complaint with Customer Care also does not help. I enquired about my complaint status and what I was told shook me. The executive told me that the complaint department has already spoken to me and I have agreed that the issue is solved where I have not got a single call!

Thats rubbish and insane. Airtel scores a big big Zero for me.

Update (as of 19th February, 2009): After my complaint for non updation of my bill payment did not got me the desired results, I sent the mail to the Nodal Officer of Airtel. The nodal officer did revert on the mail, informing me about the updation of the bill amount with Airtel. However he did not revert on the late payment charges which were levied on the next month’s bill. Also, the amount mentioned by Airtel’s Nodal officer were wrong in the email. Though it was only some paise difference, I objected.

I do not expect the nodal officer asking me to pay more than the billed amount (obviously after deducting the unreal INR 50 late payment charges) that I owe to Airtel for using its services. This happened a week back, and I am yet to get a revert from the Nodal Officer.

Google has launched an yet another first in India. Search via SMS.

In a first of its kind service, this 10 Digit number does not fall under the “Special Numbers” category which enables the mobile service provider to change you anything between 3 to 10 Rupees of your hard earned money. Now, if you need to do some searching, then use this service.

I costs you the same cost as your normal SMS. Also, if you have a free SMS Pack, you not even need to worry about cost et all.

The most commonly used “Cricket Score” is now available from Google for a cheaper rate. This surely will eat into the mobile service provider’s earnings who have been banking on Value added services to cover the costs elsewhere. 

A complete list of services are available at Google’s website.

The Airtels and the Vodafones of India may cry foul on this just because this may eat into their earnings. I think at the end of the day, it is the customers who will benefit from this service. We would all do the best to promote this service.

The Guys at IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), Chennai, and the IISc (Indian Institute of Science), Bangalore overshadowed the guys at MIT. These techies have just removed a 0 (which India had invented) from the $100 what MIT had specified, from the cost of the Super Cheap Nano Computer at barely $10. This upcoming and not yet named device would break all the records of the cheapest mobile computer till date.

As reported in DNA Newspaper (Mumbai) today, India’s Human Resource Minister Mr. Arjun Singh will launch the device. The details are very skeptical as of now about what will be configuration, except that it would contain a DVD drive. One thing however is very clear that it would be based on Linux. I believe the a lot of Opensource technologies would have been applied to achieve the cost.

What remains to be seen is how the Hardware challenges would be met. The Indian Government would be subsiding rate to make it affordable. The Ministry will provide these devices to Institutions at cheaper rates which will help students to access tailor made courses which would be made available.

Putting a super cheap computer means volumes would be utmost necessary. Is this cost inclusive of taxes and other royalties? I dont think so. As Tata Nano’s standard cost sticks around INR 1 Lakh, the on road price goes up to 1.4 Lakhs.

The actual price I would expect is around INR 1000 which seems a good price point. Also, the guys who have developed these should use eco friendly technologies, just because the volumes would be so large. At that given price point, Almost every Indian who can afford a Rs. 2000 phone can buy a Nano Computer.

Update

The $10 laptop turned out to be  a hype. It is mearly a storage device which will help the students to access and take along the educational content. I feel I was made a fool, which is an understatement. No body from the MHRD confirmed nither denied that it is a laptop. If they would have done that, atleast we would not have felt cheated. The whole world was looking at this event and after the announcement was made, it turned out to be a Storage Device.

Tata Tele is also planning of launching its own GSM services in late January or Mid February.

Reliance has already mopped up a huge crowd for its own GSM service, with a pathetic network [Read Reliance GSM Network Quality (Review) ]

Lets see what Tata’s  come up with.  It would interesting to see how all these would add up for Customer. The Customer would be confused with so many players to choose from. The total tally for Mumbai would be 7. These are Reliance, BPL, Vodafone, MTNL, Airtel, Idea, Tata. As for CDMA, TATA (including Virgin) and Reliance are the only service providers. No new service provider are in for CDMA.

The most important parameter I would rate any service provider is a combination of Service Quality with decent staff and Price at which they provide the service.

So, here is the survey to find out the Best of Mumbai’s (Maharashtra) Telecom Companies’ Services.

Vodafone

Vodafone scores high on the Customer service front, though its on the decline from earlier when they were Orange and Hutch. However, in cost, it would score low and their network is only best of the rest. Network congestion has been a problem area for Vodafone for some time now, and call drops increasing by the day.

Airtel

Airtel offers a great combination of packages with cheap offers. Its probably best used for GPRS which they offer @ Rs. 15 per day. But the customer service is the worst I have faced. To top it all, a week network makes it the most offensive. The recent survey tells that Airtel does not meet the service quality benchmark set by TRAI this year, citing huge number of call drops.

MTNL

MTNL on the contrary offers a good mixture of both, but does not supersede any private player on either fronts. Network remains a good point, but coverage in most areas not too good.

Idea

Idea has good customer service, and average plans for customers. Network remains a sore point for Idea. Abhishek has failed to entice users to Idea in Mumbai. They need to grow their network coverage.

BPL

The fate of this company, once with the best network in Mumbai, remains to be in doldrums. BPL today is very shabby, ultra cheap and a bad customer care. It still has the good network they had always but it is now time to increase coverage area. Call drops have been few. They have enticed the young with a young image and probably are living up to their expectations to an extent. But the traditional users of BPL have been the oldies who had a strong brand recall for BPL as they had for Sony.

Tata & Virgin

This is a company which is backed by a trusted brand. Tata has been on the move, and slowly and surely, they have moved up the ladder. They are not in for a dog fight. Their fares are low, and offer a superior customer services in Virgin guise, over and above what Vodafone offers. Network is good and call drops are few. Definitely, my choice of  service provider. Only let down, the handsets offered are cheap and basic. Need to have a vast collection of handsets, like Reliance does.

Reliance CDMA and GSM

Reliance CDMA offers the best network in CDMA, betters Vodafone by a good margin. The availability of multiple handset choice with below average (if not worse) customer service is what its all about. Reliance plans and packages are good. The free calling between Reliance to Reliance is an awesome scheme. Every other operator has failed to put up such an alternative, of course which comes at a cost or 799 INR recharge. Good network coverage across India, and good packages for Data cards.

Tata Indicom CDMA

Perhaps, the best bet of all, this is a real tough call to make. Reliance has already triumphed on most parameters, but when it comes to Trust and Quality, Tata Indicom leaves Reliance behind by a whisker. Sure, network of Reliance is better than Tata’s, call drops on Tata network more or less as same as that of Reliance. If you are a traveler across India frequently, you should think twice going for a Tata. The corporate choice for Data cards, Tata offers the best data card packages around.

Summing it up

So, in the end it all boils down to who we should trust our money with! A provider can be chosen on basis your needs. If you a need a no nonsense, affordable service provider, TATA in Virgin guise has to be your choice. It gives you your basic communication needs a full satisfaction. It also tops on the charts of the Service Quality benchmark set by TRAI

For more than basic use of a mobile, trust Reliance in CDMA, And in GSM, Vodafone. Here goes the order.

Tata’s have truly lived up their hype, trust people put into.

1. Virgin Mobile (Tata CDMA)
2. Tata Indicom CDMA
3. Reliance CDMA

In GSM

1. Vodafone
2. MTNL
3. BPL
4. Reliance & Airtel
5. Idea

Overall, Tatas emerge winner. Virgin is the brand you need to look for. If you need some thing more than virgin, go for Tata Indicom or Reliance. This stands true for both the GSM & CDMA. It seems CDMA is winning the race for quality and cost.

Good luck for your choice. Share your exprience with me. Post a comment here.

Well, if you are wondering that I have written this post quite late, then I would completely agree. I was so busy reading stories that I did not wish to write one. In this post, I am only writing what I feel ideally it should be.

S A T Y A M
M A Y T A S

Read it from right or left, you would read Satyam and Maytas. That’s how inclined were the Raju family with the name Satyam. The land greedy Raju’s original face finally came out for every one to see. That, in itself was so surprising that the stock market went crashing day after day. The Satyam share plunged to an all time low of Rs. 11 before hovering around 30 today.

I think this is more or less a breach of trust than acutal theft. Ramalinga Raju inflated accounts to get cheaper loans and put Satyam with a strong Balance Sheet to compete against the gaints of the IT. Satyam was included in the reference of BIG4 of the India’s IT industry space. Before the confession came in, the whole IT faternity was clear that no body can challenge the company’s place in the BIG4.

Ask the same people today, and listen to their change in tone. Obviously natural, no one was aware of the storm that was to sweep the things at stake here. One of the most important thing to observe was the prompt reaction from the government which is really rare to happen.

I assume, and purely in my mind only, was the government thinking of the 50k employees or something else in the whole Satyam fiasco. No offence please, but after all its human mind and it tend to think in all angles possible.

Hope the country emerges sucessfull in clearing this mess out. Best of Luck!