Himanshu Singh

it seems operators have now realised that our hand set screens could be one more cheap way of advertising their crap..

Vodafone is offering a very good post paid plan through its outlets in Delhi. This plan is not well advertised either on its web site or otherwise. It offers 649 mins of calling to local or STD mobiles for a monthly rent of Rs.499 and also offers 499 sms free. All local calls cost 60 paise while STD calls cost Re.1

Well this discussion did not start with any comparison. you did it. and even if you talk of all india plans, tata is much better with its plans, sms packs and a host of other value added packs. my post was for the information of those who were using gsm and especially vodafone. i never started by claiming that this is a better plan that some other plan. when you boasted that reliance plan was much better so i responded in my own way. the utility of any plan is dependent on the usage pattern of a customer and it varies from person to person. thats also a reason why i suggested that to avail of 50 paise std calling one can opt from a number of corridor packs like east west north south which costs 75 only. people who make std calls to particular regions wil find tata always better. and finally i made this comparison because you started it.

Why will a gsm customer take reliance plan? and if someone indeed wants a cdma connection with 50 paisa calling he would be better advised to opt for tata and take the regional pack for std which costs 75 only.also for sms tata is better than rcom anyday.

Idea has increased the cost of std voucher which offers all india long distance calls at one rupee from 31 to 34.

If you take Reliance 375 plan with the pack 249 your rental is Rs.624 and you get 750 free mins. Whereas if you take vodafone's 499 plan you get 649 mins for a rent of Rs.499. Which means with reliance you pay Rs.125 more for 101 more free mins.So for a moderate user Vodafone plan might be less expensive as it comes for lesser minimum commitment.

Idea is offering a talktime of 89 on top up of 100. It should be noted that recently Idea had increased the talk time on top up of 100 from Rs.74 to Rs.87. Its the highest in Delhi circle alongwith mtnl trump which also offers the same benefit.

Thats the beauty of prepaid cos validity is no longer an issue especially in idea. In some other post i had shared with friends how my gang validity was increased by one year without any recharge as some offer.Airtel is the biggest thug. Think of it- it doesnt even allow more than one special recharge on a number. Airtel will never offer freebies to its customers.

I think validity comes at about Re.1/day for Idea. For example in Delhi: 1.If you recharge with Rs.150 you get 3 months validity and Rs 45 TT. That means for Rs 150-45=Rs.105 you get 90 days' validity. This means Rs105/90days= Re.1.16/day 2. If you recharge with Rs.248 you get 6 months validity and Rs.50 TT. That means for Rs.248-50=Rs.198 you get 180 days' validity. This means Rs.198/180 days=Re.1.1/day 3. If you recharge with Rs.365 you get 1 year validity and Rs.25TT.That means for Rs.365-25=Rs.340 you get 365 days' validity.This means Rs.340/365days=Re.0.93/day. The above offers are regular offers from Idea. At most of the times you would get more TT than quoted above especially when your validity is about to expire soon.This brings the per day cost of the validity even lower.In no case the cost of validity is more than Re 1.16.But if you want to pay more you could get 1 month's validity for Rs.97 which is a stupid thing to do in any case if you have to continue with the same operator and number. This is precisely what I posted above in post 8

MTNL has reported a 15 pc increase in quarterly profits. its profit increased to 115 crores.

getting full talk time means you pay only for usage as per your tariff and no service tax or other charges. for instance if your std tariff is re.1 per min you pay only re.1 per min but in post paid you end up paying re.1.1236 besides the monthly rental which is always over charged as compared to pre paid. so always go for full talktime recharges.

In Delhi one can get full talktime of 222 on a paper recharge of 222 while the same benefit is offered on erecharge on select days only. similarly one gets talktime of 333plus 33 mins idea to idea with topup of 333, talktime of 555 plus 110 mins idea to idea on 555 recharge,talktime of 777 on 777 recharge,talktime of 889 plus 889 mins idea to idea on 999 recharge.

The Hindu reports: Reliance Globacom, a division of Reliance Communications, on Tuesday said it had signed an alliance with internet solutions provider Internap Network Services Corporation to provide an enhanced online user experience in India. "Reliance Globacom's strategic alliance with Internap enables us to bring world-class content and application delivery network services to underserved and emerging market in India," Reliance Globacom's Chief Executive Officer Punit Garg was quoted as saying in a company release here. The alliance with Internap would empower media and entertainment companies, online gaming communities and social media websites to deliver a superior user experience, the release said.

The Hindu reports: Tata Communications on wednesday reported the first quarter net profit at Rs 98.34 crore, a 24.14 per cent decline over the corresponding period last year. The company, formerly VSNL, had a net profit of Rs 129.65 crore in Q1 of FY'08, Tata Communications said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. The total income rose 3.78 per cent to Rs 921.29 crore in the June quarter, from Rs 887.72 crore in the same period previous fiscal. During the quarter, the company had entered into an agreement with South African state-owned enterprises, Eskom and Transnet, to acquire their 30 per cent stake in Neotel. However, the company did not disclose the financial details of the transaction. After the closure of this transaction, the company along with Tata Africa Holdings would hold 56 per cent stake in Neotel, the filing added. Further, during the quarter the telecom solutions provider had entered into an equity joint venture agreement to acquire 50 per cent stake in China Enterprise Communications (CEC) subject to Chinese government and regulatory approvals. Last month Tata Communications International Pvt, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Communications, had signed the equity joint venture agreement with the shareholders of CEC for acquiring the stake in the company. Shares of Tata Communications touched an intra-day high of Rs 461.85 and were later trading at Rs 453, up 11.88 per cent in the afternoon trade on the BSE. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vodafone resellers have ended their boycot now.

i am not sure other operators are also offering the same talk time. i request users to share their operators' offer on 100 top up.

MTNL Delhi is all set to cut the National roaming charges wef July 28, 2008. The revised rate while roaming would be: Local calls@1/min STD calls@1.50/min Incoming calls@1/min SMS outgoing rates as per the tariff plan which means 25paise/local sms and Re.1/national sms in normal plan and 50paise/local sms and Rs.1.50/national sms in lifetime plans. (And just for information sake Idea and Vodafone charge Rs.3.45/sms in roaming.)

Lifetime postpaid is good in ORISSA.

Intelligent ones do.

ok

Novatium Ties Up With Mtnl For $100 PC TOI reports: They grabbed international headlines when they launched their $100 (around Rs 4200) Net PC in January this year. It was touted to be one of the cheapest Net PCs anywhere in the world. So much so that Novatium Solutions, the Chennai-based company that was incubated at IIT Chennai went on to be featured by Newsweek as their cover story some months ago. Six months later, after tasting success with their pilot project in collaboration with MTNL in Delhi, the company is now drawing up expansion plans. This month Novatium is signing a commercial deal with MTNL to provide the PC and computing services with all MTNL boradband plans. "In the pilot project, MTNL included it in their Rs 399 broadband plan. Under the revenue sharing agreement, MTNL kept Rs 100 for the net connectivity while Novatium got Rs 299 for computing services per user," says Jaideep Kohli, COO, Novatium Solutions. Under the new deal, MTNL will provide Net PCs with all their broadband plans. Of course, the customer can chose if they want to take the PC. As for revenue sharing, it will continue like before. Kohli says, "they have a target of selling 1 lakh Net PCs by the year end in India. Meanwhile, they are also in talks with other service providers across the country to launch the PC in other cities." "Mumbai will be launched next month. Within this financial year, we will spread out to top 10 Indian metros," Kohli adds. As for maintaining the $100 tag, they plan to continue subsidising it at their end to keep the price stable. The company has just signed a deal with Mauritius Telecom (MT), the leading broadband providers of Mauritius, to provide the PC. Under the deal, Novatium will charge MT $2 per user per month. Kohli feels the $100 price tag will help Novatium increase PC penetration to 1,00,000 households by 2012. The company is also in talks with telecom providers in Thailand and Dubai to take the NetPC there. So what exactly is the NetPC? Novatium has tried to redesign the computer, by slashing costs while keeping the form and functions similar to a top-end PC. Based on cheap cell-phone chips, it comes without a hard disk, pre-packaged software and extensive memory. Once it's set up, it doesn't look very different from a conventional PC. What's more, the device works with any network server without requiring major modifications. It uses proprietary software from Microsoft or Sun, or free open source software from Linux. In fact, Microsoft is participating in the Chennai pilot programme because Novatium's subscription-based payment system could generate profit in markets where most users run pirated versions of Microsoft products. Network server giant Sun Microsystems too has inked a deal to market the NetPC to enterprises and schools in India beginning this year.

UNI reports: After the successful launch of Free Welcome Tunes Station, Tata Indicom today announced their plan to extend this facility to each of their subscribers. Tata Indicom 'Free Welcome Tunes Station' was unique of its kind, a company statement said said here today. Both post-paid and pre-paid subscribers could access the service by dialing 12855 from their mobile or walky phones across all circles, the statement added. Charges to avail the service would be Rs 6 per minute. Subscribers could at any point download a maximum of five free songs into their personal library. There was an option to choose from a bouquet of Bollywood, regional, devotional, ghazals, remixes and other categories. This free song is valid for 30 days only and can be deleted at any time. Post 30 days, each song will be charged at Rs ten for 90 days and will be auto-renewed. Non-subscribers of Welcome Tune will have to subscribe to the service to enjoy download of five free songs. '' We have taken this initiative to meet the increasing demand of Welcome Tunes amongst our subscribers, '' said Mr Sanjiv Sinha, Regional Head, East, and COO, Kolkata Circle, Tata Teleservices Limited.

Idea network has gone very bad in the part of S.Del where I put up.The signals keep on fluctuating continuously while making or receiving calls. There are more than normal cases of call drops due to poor network as a result of this.I wrote to Idea callular and someone called back and admitted there is some major issue with their netowork in certain parts of Delhi.A chance conversation with Idea's local distributor here confirmed the same. Has any one using Idea also faced similar problems related to the network issue?

Idea has relaunched Mygang in Delhi with increased validity of 1year. It also offers 600 local sms free valid for 2 months. I think with the reduced call rates its the best prepaid tariff plan in Delhi.

The Full details are: Happy Hours also called Gang Hours 0000 Hrs to 1700 Hrs and 2200 Hrs to 2359 Hrs Local Call Tariff during Gang Hours: Gang to Gang@0.10/min for first 500 mins and thereafter@0.50/min Gang to Idea@0.50/min Gang to Other mobiles@0.50/min Gang to Landlines@0.50/min STD Call Tariff during Gang Hours: Idea to Idea@1/min Idea to All@1.50/min Peak Hours 1700 Hrs to 2200 Hrs: Local Call Tariff during Peak Hours: Gang to Gang@1/min Gang to Idea@1/min Gang to Other mobiles@1/min Gang to Landlines@1/min STD Call Tariff during Peak Hours: Idea to Idea@1/min Idea to All@1.50/min. SMS tariff: Local and National SMS@0.10 during Gang Hours Local and National SMS@0.25 during Peak Hours Rs.31 Recharge reduces All STD calls@1/min for 24 hours