Consumer Blog » Telecom India

SMS cost is now 1 paise! RCOM gift to Mobile users

Pegu — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:46:04 +0000

Recently RCOM has announced SMS cost to be 1 paise only! This is the most logical pricing for SMS, according to me, as SMS does not use up any channel allocated for voice channels.

Reliance Mobile customers can avail of two revolutionary SMS tariff plans:
o One Paise per SMS with subscription fees of Rs. 11 a month.
o Unlimited SMS’s @ Re. 1 per day
The new SMS tariff plans are add-on plans and are applicable for all Reliance Mobile customers irrespective of CDMA or GSM network as well as prepaid and postpaid customers.

I hope, other operators too follow suit. This will be very helpful to users for exchanging messages.

Here is the news :

NEW DELHI: Reliance Communications (RCOM) on Friday cut texting (SMS) charges to 1 paise per message, upping the ante in an ongoing tariff war that has eaten into the revenues and profits of all telecom service providers. Subscribers of the country’s second-largest telecom firm can now text at 1 paise per SMS on buying a Rs 11 monthly voucher, or by opting for an unlimited SMS plan by paying Re 1 a day, RCOM’s president Mahesh Prasad said in a conference call with reporters. The scheme is available to the company’s subscribers on both GSM and CDMA platforms. Source.

Telecom ombudsman for customer grievance ruled out

Pegu — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 17:29:47 +0000

Replying to a question in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Telecom Sachin Pilot has ruled out setting up ombudsman for telecom sector in India in line with banking ombudsman.

Most probably, this time Indian government has come under pressure from mobile operators and refused to set up an ombudsman for redress of customer grievances. Mobile operators charges fully to customer with full monthly rental along with taxes, surcharges etc. even if their network is down for few days, whatever the reason.

I hope, banks do not start demanding scrapping for banking ombudsman in line with refusal to setting up of telecom ombudsman.

Here is the news about ruling out of setting up telecom ombudsman :-

NEW DELHI: Government on Thursday ruled out setting up an ombudsman to redress complaints of poor mobile telephony services like call drops saying state-run BSNL/MTNL were taking effective steps to upgrade technology. Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Telecom Sachin Pilot said while the telecom revolution has led to India having one of the world’s cheapest call rates, it has also led to congestion in networkleading to call drops. Source.

Highspeed internet on your mobile phone

Pegu — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:33:53 +0000

Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL) plans to integrate its voice service with the internet. They plan to introduce new smart phones along with other mobile phone manufacturers like ZTE, Fly, Samsung, Huawei. These phones will be configured specially to carry high speed data.

According to the news, SSTL has upgraded their BTS ( Base Transmission Station) to enable to achieve 3.1mbps download speed on handsets. They hope to increase their ARPU ( Average Revenue Per user) by this kind of integrated service.

KOLKATA: At a time when the continuing tariff war is slated to hit revenues and bottomlines of telecom companies, Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL) plans to integrate its voice service with the internet to drive average revenue per user (ARPU). The company, which operates CDMA telecom services under the MTS brand, plans to offer mobile broadband services on cellphones and a host of services around it. Source.

This is an interesting development. Most probably, we will get an indication how 3G charges and schemes would be offered by other GSM players when they start 3G services in India.

BSNL – the lone ranger

myvoice — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:35:47 +0000

Have you thought about Indian Telecom industry and BSNL ? You will realise, in this growth of Telecom subscriber and addition of new Telecom operator, BSNL is one telecom operator in India, which is losing subscriber on monthly basis as well as market share! It is the only one telecom company in India who is swimming against the tide – a lone ranger!

It started with bang in Indian mobile phone industry with biggest network, lowest tariff rates, it fizzled out soon! It has started 3G services almost everywhere in India, but failed to excite any one. One of my friend got one 3G connection, he went to BSNL office to get it activated and learn how to use! He ended up teaching the BSNL DGM about 3G, its usage. He read out the 3G tariff plans to BSNL officials, explained them and realised that BSNL 3G is one of the stupidest tariff plan possible which would not allow any sensible person to opt for BSNL 3G services! He killed his 3G then and their. His 3G phone, N90, is now used for browsing net on GPRS.

Many people say many things about the downfall of BSNL, only 3G operator in India. Major reason could be its failure to add capacities in its network. The other biggest reason is, lack of sense of customer care. If you try to get help from BSNL customer care, you will realise how different they are from other private mobile operators.

Recently, even PM Dr. Manmohan Singh may meet top BSNL officials for plummeting revenue ad customer base.

NEW DELHI: Concerned over BSNL’s falling revenues, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to meet the top brass of the telecom PSU and Communication and IT Minister A Raja to look into causes and find ways to improve performance. A senior BSNL official said that the Department of Telecom has asked BSNL to be prepared for such a meeting with the Prime Minister. Source.

Meeting of no meeting, if BSNL does not change, very soon it will find itself without any subscriber, for sure.

Systema offers per-second plan

myvoice — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:53:18 +0000

TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has come out with another consumer friendly suggestion for Telecom companies in India. In its recent recommendation, it has asked telecom companies to charge user per second basis. In this new charging scheme, mobile user will be charged per second basis instead of existing pulse basis. Presently, telecom companies charge pulse basis and 60 seconds s considered one pulse. Even if a mobile user talks for hardly 20 seconds, he is charged one unit, for 60 seconds. It has been a revenue earner for telecom company, but it was unfair to mobile users.

Taking cue from TRAI, Systema, which has launched its telecom service recently in Delhi, has started charging user per second basis.

DELHI : Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL) has launched its telecom services in Delhi on Thursday under the MTS brand.
SSTL, a 74:26 JV between Sistema of Russia and the Shyam Group of India, is offering a per-second billing tariff plan. It has positioned itself on data platform with its launch in Delhi.
New telecom licencee MTS launched its high-speed wireless internet services under the brand name, MBlaze offering speeds of up to 3.1 mbps. Sistema Shyam is expecting to source a significant share of revenues from its data transfer services.

The operator is present in six out of the total 22 telecom circles and plans to launch its services in Karnataka and Mumbai by the year-end.

Source : Economic Times.

MNP : Mobile Number Portability

myvoice — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 06:58:37 +0000

What is Mobile Number Portability ?

Mobile Number portability is changing your mobile operator but having the same number! Sounds great ? Indian Telecom is coming of age. This seems to be a great Telecom News India!

What do subscribers gain from Mobile Number Portability ?

The benefit of Mobile Number Portability looks immense to mobile subscribers India! That is what I feel. It will now keep Mobile Operators on tow to keep its subscribers happy, else subscriber will switch operators! Subscriber stands to lose nothing as his number remains the same. With switching operators changing the number was main reason why people don’t change Mobile Operators, else many people whoever facing some problem would have shifted to another Mobile Operator in a flash!

It will be interesting to see what will be the price and how it will be implemented. Hope this improves the custmer satisfaction from their operators! Indian Mobile Subscriber will be really benefited in terms of service provided by Telecom Service Providers.