Himanshu Singh

Happy surprise for Airtel customers who are not used to being given freebies by Airtel...

Empowering India’s 500 million plus mobile users, the country’s telecom regulator has decided to set up an online customer redressal mechanism, providing a platform for dissatisfied consumers to express their complaints against their service providers....... Its a good move. Put simply, any customer can log on to this web-based system, that will be maintained by Trai, to register complaints, violations or any other grievance against their mobile operator. This independent platform will work on a real-time basis, implying that the operator in question will immediately get the complaint, a top Trai official told ET. This official also added that this system would enable Trai to monitor if customer grievances were being addressed. “We can then see as to what per cent of customer complaints are addressed,” the Trai official explained. When pointed out that only a fourth of the country’s mobile subscribers had access to the internet, the Trai official said that the regulator was trying to expand the scope of the platform to include SMS-based complaints. “We are looking at different technologies to explore if SMS or voice calls can also be made part of the online customer redressal platform,” the Trai official added.... Brilliant thinking here too. Trai has decided to go in for this online model, as it is not empowered to handle individual consumer complaints against service providers. The regulator will begin the process next month, and after consultations with all stakeholders, it plans to have the platform working from the beginning of next fiscal (April 1, 2010). Trai is also of the view that despite all operators having directed a three-tier redressal structure, which includes call centres, area-wise nodal officers and appallette authorities, most grievances went unaddressed. Currently, the only other option that a consumer has is to take the operator to court. Meanwhile, the telecoms regulator will also meet the two telecom industry bodies next week — Cellular Operators Association of India and the Association of Unified Service Providers of India — over a demand by the industry that they be allowed to charge subscribers for calls made to customer care outlets. At present, all calls made to the customer care are free.... What the duck is this? “Operators have told us that a significant majority of calls that mobile users make to customer care are for enquiry purposes, and not related to grievances. Since running these call centres and offering customer care involves a huge cost, they want consumers to pay for this service,” the Trai official quoted above said. ET spoke to mobile service providers, who confirmed that the industry had jointly sought Trai’s approval to charge consumers for calls to the customer care, if they were not related to grievances/complaints. But Trai officials are divided on the demand by telcos. “We do not have any mechanism to determine if a call to the customer is for a complaint, enquiry or for other purpose. Interpretations can vary. We want to give telcos a hearing on this issue,” another Trai official added. In another consumer-related move, the Trai is also planning to junk the Do-Not-Call (DNC) registry, as this has failed its purpose of ensuring that telemarketers do not make unsolicited calls or send SMSs to those enlisted in the DNC. Instead, the regulator plans to explore the option of setting up a ‘Do-Call’ registry, where only registered users would be called by telemarketing firms.

Whats the current charges for unlimited net for prepaid cdma mobile?

Good morning friends..Nicer way to loot us..

Friends, does LG 2670 supports net connect?

Why are there 2 PPC flexi recharges shown on website?..One for Rs.62(TT of Rs.54) and the other for Rs.106(TT of Rs.94) and there seems to be no difference between the two...

Well I am not too sure if Rcomm is offering it at Rs.99 only..If thats the case then MTS' offer is certainly not the cheapest.. And about the MTS customer base I have no idea..In fact such schemes are meant to drive up the customer base..Case in point is Rcomm since its inception.. I shared this info for benefit of MTS users in Delhi as this information is not well circulated..

RCOM finds few takers for FLAG network REUTERS, 3 February 2010, 01:13am IST More than a month after putting its biggest global assets up for sale, Reliance Communications (RCOM) has found few callers for a package that includes its prized FLAG undersea cable network. Sources close to the deal said RCOM had already extended an initial deadline of late-January for submissions once, but had still attracted little interest for the deal seeking $3 billion. One source said Singapore Technologies Telemedia — which owns stakes in Singapore's StarHub and undersea cable operator Global Crossing — is planning a bid. A spokeswoman for Singapore Technologies Telemedia, a fully-owned unit of state investor Temasek, declined to comment. The source added that another company said to have expressed interest was NTT, though an NTT spokesman said the company was not considering a bid. Sources said complaints surrounding the deal, being shopped by Deutsche Bank, include a dearth of financial information, concerns about debt and over-abundance of the kinds of assets and services being offered. "It is no longer something which is in short supply," said Arun Kejriwal of Mumbai-based investment advisory firm KRIS. "Earlier you thought you cannot do without a cable system of your own. But now it's not the case. You can hire whatever you want." In a statement to Reuters, RCOM denied it was trying to sell any assets from its global unit, Reliance Globalcom, but said a total of $3.2 billion worth of investment has gone in the global business through December 2009. Sources and documents obtained by Reuters show the assets are up for sale. In a statement, the company had said FLAG, the undersea cable network operator, spans 65,000 kilometres and described it as the world's largest private undersea cable system. Three of the main assets in the sale package are FLAG, which RCOM bought for $207 million in 2003; Yipes, a California-based ethernet service provider purchased in $300 million in 2007; and Vanco, a British Telecom's services provider purchased for $77 million in 2008. All three were struggling when RCOM bought them, with FLAG purchased directly out of bankruptcy and Yipes acquired from a third party that took it over out of bankruptcy. A source said many potential buyers were scratching their heads at RCOM's asking price, said to be around $3 billion, for assets it purchased over the last seven years for less than $600 million combined.

I figured out from CC that for Delhi they are offering FTT on Rs.55/75/100/120 too other than the extra TT offers of Re.200/300/500.

I think Nokia was left with no choice..

MTS Delhi is offering Rs.123 worth TT on e-recharge of Rs.123.. Rs.111 in core balance and rest Rs.12 to be credited in 4 hours... Following needs to be noted: 1. TT can be used for all purposes. 2. TT has no validity of its own..It is valid till the number is active. Good to see MTS going the Rcomm way in FTT.

I think its high time to start a uniform licensing fee..The maths done in the column clearly show who is making the most of the present policies..Ever since the Pramod Mahajan days there has been going on a bias in whatever is done with the policies.. Whether the question of limited mobility to full mobility or the question of dual-platform.. No wonder one company can offer sms@1paise and extra extra talktime and the other 10 local mins@Re.1

Rcomm keeps extending the dates of FTT...I have been seeing this for close to 3 years now.. The dates are extended by one month at a time..

Anil Ambani Group company Reliance Communications today said its consolidated net profit declined by 19.34 per cent to Rs 1,164.82 crore for the third quarter of 2009-10. The company had a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,444.17 crore for the same quarter last fiscal. "As an integrated and converged telecommunications service provider, we are better placed to withstand the present highly competitive environment," RCom Chairman Anil Ambani said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. "Despite the sharp fall in tariffs, we have demonstrated stability in wireless revenues and margins and are confident to emerge even stronger in the future," he said. Consolidated net income from operations decreased to Rs 5,283.67 crore for the quarter under review from Rs 5,671.82 crore for the same period previous fiscal. The company said that it decided not to recognise any marked-to-market gains in respect of any outstanding derivative contracts related to loans, liabilities and assets expressed in foreign currency. However, the company provided for marked-to-market losses in respect of derivative contracts, as required by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, it said. "The company has not recognised a gain of Rs 19,524 lakh on mark-to-market valuation of derivative contracts outstanding as at the end of the quarter. "If the company had not made this change in the policy, net profit would have been higher by the amount of Rs 19,524 lakh for the quarter," it added. Is it the biggest drop for any cellular operator?

In UP there can either be 'Maya' raj or 'Mulayam' raj.. Both ways we all suffer.

HT reports that a total of 190 towers have now been seized...And they have been made non-functional..There are problems of connectivity being faced by the hapless users who are suffering for no fault of theirs..Someone should take all these norm-flouting companies to task..

It came on www/wwww quite late as compared to tv channels....So anyone who tried to search it on Friday would have got nothing.

Recharge with Rs.91 and get 1000 local/national sms free daily for 30 days..Effective sms cost@0.033...It beats all other GSM offers in Delhi bringing some cheer for Idea customers at last.. But I wonder who would need 1000 sms /day!!! Also Idea is offering TT of Rs.22 on a recharge of Rs.22 valid for 2 days, which is similar to their Rs.55/110 TT offer.

TV news, Tej.. Not everything is found on www.

Go to a Reliance store, buy an LG 3510 for Rs.999 and your problem will be taken care of by the people there.

The scarcity of spectrum in Delhi is a bad thing for users here... They dont have much options against Airtel/Idea/Vodafone. RGSM is super flop and Aircel is trying to find its feet...We could have done better with DoCoMo atleast.

Recharge with Rs.5 and get Rs.4.5 TT....All local and national calls and sms@0.50 for that day till midnight....TT valid till midnight. Not a bad deal for low end users.

We all knew that!!... Thanks for the info though.

Shopkeeper dint refuse me for this recharge..In fact he was displaying the pamphlets at his store... I guess if someone does a daily recharge(low end users mostly) for a month he spends Rs.150 and over all gets Rs.135 which is not bad given the call rates are very low.. These are indeed desperate times for telecom operators.

I dont find any GSM operator coming to Delhi for quite some time now.