sougatadc

Is this available with prepaid option also? No. Plug2Surf is available under postpaid plans only.

I Think its quite fair coz comparing BSNL, Tata and Reliance.. This airtel plan is most cost effective Best option is always BSNL's broadband. Considering speed (2mbps) vis-a-vis tariff, it is the cheapest one.

BSNL doesn't have seamless roaming for the whole nation for data connection. I was a user of EDGE enabled internet connectivity on my BSNL GSM postpaid with unlimited internet (Eastern region) but setting up of the configuration could not be done when I was in Hyderabad. And it is totally impossible to access data when one roam into MTNL networks of Mumbai or Delhi. This is ridiculous. People find no difficulty in voice roaming, hence no one is pointing out. On the other hand, this type of problem is not there with TATA's Plug2Surf.

BSNL offers this WLL service where it is not economical to provide wirelined bFone. One cannot opt for WLL in place of a landline connection and enjoy unlimited dialup internet if he is from a place where BSNL's underground cable is nearby. But, in inaccessible places, where landline bFone is not available, this WLL phone is offered. There is very limited number of subscribers for dialup internet through WLL. On the contrary, BSNL doesn't offer this unlimited Rs250 plan in bFone. Here lies the paradox. MTNL, being the sibling of PSU, lacks innovative and challanging offers. So, it might be a distant dream to think about very attractive dialup offer from MTNL for city dwellers. Regards..

MTNL has now revised their call rates for postpaid Dolphin and prepaid Trump. Here is the rate chart MTNL.pdf

I am also having the same opinion, the handsets don't look great.

Following article of today's Economic Times tells us that customisation of handsets with goodies will be possible in near future. People will be seen with 'made-to-order' phones in hand. Go mobile, with custom toppings: THIS is one made-to-order device that everyone will love to have: the cellphone. If you are a music lover, why not have a phone which can hold more songs rather than heavy graphics. Alternatively, if you want a better camera on a handset, why settle for just a 2-megapixel one? Soon, you will be able to order a mobile phone built to your specifications, much like you can assemble a computer or order a custom-made one from Dell or any other PC vendor. It will carry a premium, but will definitely set you apart from the people who use the mass market product. A mobile phone is a combination of various parts — memory, processor, camera, MP3 music player, other applications, number of SIM card slots et al. Now, you’ll be able to dial up a vendor and buy parts off the shelf, and put together your own cellphone. This will completely overhaul the mobile phone business, which is currently dependent on selling whatever the cellphone maker wants to market rather than what you want to buy. Also, when mobile phone makers like to call their devices as computers, why can’t they custom-build them? That’s the problem the Chinese company, zzzPhone, is planning to solve. Their factory in China will custom-build a phone to your specifications — like the number of SIM card slots, applications accessibility, memory capacity etc. Made-to-order phone pretty feasible IT WILL look like any other regular handset. The difference will be inside: you can choose to have (or not have) GPS, 7-megapixel camera, 4GB internal memory, stereo speakers and Windows Mobile (or equivalent) operating system, processor upgrade or anything else. It even has two SIM card slots so you can keep your work and play in the same phone. Right now, prices are variable, starting at $149 for a 3-megapixel version with Windows Mobile and a 3-inch VGA display. The company claims to deliver orders within six weeks. Technical and marketing experts in India argue that while this is practical, the miniature mobile parts do pose a challenge in terms of how far you can go. Says Nokia India marketing director Devinder Kishore: “Custom-building can be incorporated. But Nokia already offers 40 new models each year, catering to the needs of a whole spectrum of users.” While a range of models in the market ensures that people have a choice, it does not satiate the desires of consumers who are looking for top-end exclusivity and here’s where the custom-built phone will score. Explains Hewlett-Packard India (personal systems group), president, Ravi Swaminathan: “Technically, it is possible. If you are willing to pay the price, anything can be custom-built, much like top-end cars. But I believe that a wide range is available in the market and meets the needs of over 90% of the market.” The miniature mobile components pose a challenge to custommake the gadget. But for people willing to shell out a premium, it won’t be a problem to choose between having, say, a global positioning system on the phone or a 10-megapixel camera. ARM (a chipmaker for cell phones) managing director Anil Gupta adds: “It’s possible to get to a point where we can buy a phone with more, or less memory. Also, in future, most mobiles will have USB ports to allow connecting to a ‘sister’ device. Even the idea of a ‘single-use’ mobile phone is not far-fetched (similar to the useand-throw cameras). Such phones could be useful when you are travelling to a new destination: you keep your regular phone, but use the single-use unit while at the new location, throwing it away when you are ready to leave.” Whatever the technical challenges, a made-to-order phone is pretty much feasible and soon, you will be able to ask for one with your own specifications.

BSNL is quite old in bundled offer business, not a new entrant. The same is true for MTNL in their CDMA wing (Garuda). BSNL offered touch screen PocketPC mobile in their postpaid segment some time back, bundled NOKIA sets in prepaid segment and in CDMA service (Tarang mobile and WLL sets of LG), they bundle hansets. What happened in Karnataka circle is nothing new, only the tariff structure may be more attractive.

Sunil Mittal's prediction is an unwarranted proposition in view of the ensuing open market with lots of goodies for the subscribers, thanks to Reliance's GSM and new entrants' competitive offers. How come Mr. Mittal be so sure about this totally unpredictable arena where the scenario changes with days. The Department of telecom (DoT) is planning to allow new telecom operators, who do not have spectrum, to buy talktime at wholesale rates from existing firms and then sell it under their own brand. In industry parlance, this system is known as the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) model. Existing operators usually have excess talktime on a daily basis —below-average use of talktime is usually more than above-average use, in aggregate. By leveraging the excess talktime, a mobile virtual network operator can offer services without actually owning spectrum or infrastructure such as telecom tower and transmission equipment. Officials of the DoT said the nine letter-of-intent holders who were yet to be granted telecom licences and start-up spectrum could be considered for an MVNO licence. Those who do not have a mobile licence can enter the business but will have to go through a waiting period, be subject to background checks and have to pay a separate fee. New telecom players who have a licence but no spectrum will not have to pay any separate fee. A number of international companies such as British Telecom and Virgin Mobile are planning to enter through the MVNO route. Even existing Indian players who want to expand are interested in the system as it is cheaper and faster than rolling out a network. Developed countries such as the US and the UK have an MVNO regime. However, this system needs permission from the government. Through an MVNO model, the same amount of spectrum — which is a scarce resource — can be used to increase competition in the market.

Ya, read it in Delhi edition of Hindustan Times at epaper.hindustantimes.com

My Dear Arun, I use BSNL's Home 500C+ BB. On that day, some sites, specially from US and Russia were not opening at all, or were quite slow. But during night it became okay. I have automated downloading from 2:01AM to 7:59AM by making the computer to reboot at 2:01AM (to be safe from being billed) and through a batch file which connects the internet and the downloads start for the files which I queue up beforehand in my download accelerator. By this way, I have used almost 12GB data in three days of February 08. On 1st Feb night, my downloads were for more than 3GB, on the 2nd, it was almost 4GB and last night it was touching 5GB. I am attaching the snapshots of the DataOne bandwidth calculator. So, BSNL is fine at my place. Regards... Feb08_Chart.pdf Feb08_Summary.pdf

Still no question of competing with Vodafone or AirTel. Reliance's 'Smart' GSM is a no-frill service, without any GPRS/EDGE, no call conferencing, no post-paid connection, no MMS, no value added services like using the phone as credit card, news alerts, stock ticker etc. Without all these, Reliance GSM is still a competitor of no-frill service providers like Aircel. One cannot use PocketPC or smartphone for mobile browsing internet or cannot MMS a pic taken by 2MP camera of the phone. So, let us wait and watch whether the service becomes at par with RIM or lags behind. Increasing the subscriber base only will not suffice to be a market leader. Regards.

Is Reliance going to give more importance to GSM? With the new spectrum alloted to them will they launch new lines in the brand name RIM or a la their already available GSM sibling 'Smart'? Till now, Reliance used to give more importance to its CDMA service. Before the partition of Ambani brothers, the CDMA was in the hand of Mukesh and the GSM was Anil's. After Anil got the both, he continued the same pattern of business, only changed the logo and signature colours. And 'Smart' continued to be silent partner. The relianceinfo.com carried all details of RIM but was not that transparent about 'Smart'. The recharge cards of 'Smart' were used to be introduced or withdrawn arbitrarily without much fanfare. There is no GPRS in 'Smart' even after so many years of its introduction (it was the first mobile service provider in West Bengal circle), and customers are happy with the limited facility. They don't even bother with the dismal quality of its signal. So, with the new spectrum, will this 'Smart' become a little bit smarter? With Arun's post, it appears that the next expansion in Reliance's mobile telephone services will target GSM only. Will there be 3G, EDGE? Except these facilities, using of high-end handsets and PocketPCs are useless. Regards...

Are you talking about SIM cloning?

Currently TATA's M-L tariff stand at 1.50. I sincerely hope that TATA will regain its supremacy with better tariff. The plan I use on TATA is Business Silver, which has 50p/min for any local mobile,Re1/min for any Landline. It has rent of Rs.224 in which it offers free talk value of Rs150. So, if I make mobile calls only, I can call upto 300mins or 5hrs in a month to local mobile subscribers. I use Rs.75 addon, which makes my local TATA calls (both mobile and Walky) totally free. This makes my Rs 150 balance usable to make calls to subscribers of other operators (we have 6 others here- RIM,Reliance Smart,BSNL,Vodafone,AirTel & Aircel) without any worry for the bill.

But, My dear friend, Post-paid subscribers enjoy some goodies which the prepaid customers don't get. Like call conferencing and international roaming. Prepaid customers can do wap only while the postpaid customers can use their phone for full internet access on mobile and /or PC. Postpaid customers can have every details of the calls they make and also send SMS through web. When you are abroad, send SMS through web and receive reply on phone for free. By this way one can save much.

Yes, you have correctly pointed out that the font size is very small. This is mainly because the display resolution is very high. Also for no reason the ear piece volume is low which you cannot do anything about. Also another annoying point is its vibration is less compared to other NOKIA models. Its battery consumption is much more compared to 6255 which also uses the same battery. Here also you are helpless. But don't compare with NOKIA's GSM siblings. GSM handsets consume much less power. The handset does get hot when you talk for some time on CDMA sets.This drains power. But I do not agree with you on the count that this phoe has complicated and non-friendly menus. Another drawback is its small keys. You cannot type with ease. Anyways, this is a great phone with lots of goodies like memory expandability to 2GB, 2MP camera, good FM etc. Regards...

Can't help Hetal! After going through your posts on PPC, specially about HTC Mogul and Touch, I tried to contact you, sent PM, posted querries about their availability, also about possibility of having TataZone programmed on Mogul (I am a Tata subscriber). You seem too busy to post even a single reply. Regards..

^^^ My Dear Honest, You have not correctly said. The answer is not a big 'NO', but in the contrary. I have registered a number of Tata Indicom prepaid numbers of myself and my friends over the internet and details of last 10 incoming /outgoing calls with duration and their cost, details of last few sms and their cost along with balance can be viewed. For this you have to enter your mobile number along with e-mail id. A confirmatory sms gives you a 4digit password for initial login at www.tataindicom.com/myaccount.aspx with 'prepaid mobile' option. After that you will be required to change your password. That's it. You are through then for the above mentioned facilities. Through this registration, one can also subscribe to"Do Not Disturb" or "DND" service through internet and stop pesky calls. I don't know whether this facilities are available for RIM also. Regards, Sougata

That's is a great news. But will it manufacture for Reliance only? I am a TATA subscriber. I will love to have it on Tata platform. Regards.

That is awesome, Man! I use BSNL BB - 500Home Plus connection which has 2AM to 8AM free. It has decent speed. But I don't have any other BB like Airtel or Tata or Sify at my place, so I cannot compare. Anyways, your amount of download in one day is simply big. Hope, you have TeraGB Hard disks to store and millions of blank CD/DVDs to write what you download daily. Regards.

That is for postpaid only, Man!

smscaster is a software for bulk sms sending. Connect the phone to PC and send bulk sms through the software. It also allows receiving of sms on the phone and viewing it on the PC while connected. Doesn't seem that when the phone is not connected, a received sms in that condition will not be loaded into the computer when subsequently connected to PC. Moreover, the link you sent leads to the site where the software can be downloaded a tried. It is not a full version. The full version is not free.

The best option to go for wireless Skype Phones. You can buy it directly from here , at Skype's own site or from Amazon. Price will vary from Rs. 6000 to Rs.9000 plus customs duty. Regards...

What do you mean by `Micro SMS Pack'? Tata indicom offers various sms packs ranging from Rs 25 to Rs 50 for postpaid. The Rs.50 pack is the most attractive one. With this monthly charge, one can send 3000 P2P sms both LOCAL and NATIONAL, ANY NETWORK! Considering an sms to compose and send taking around a minute, to exhaust the 3000 sms balance one will have to spend 100 minutes a day. Reading the replies will add more. Who are not using PocketPC, composing sms in that large numbers by repeated tapping of keys will definitely cause Carpal Tunnel syndrome. Regards.