shrik

iirc (area code)-44444121 is an alternative airtel customer care number you can dial from other phones.

I was going through the US patent complaint of Samsung vs Apple, and feel that some of these patents seem to be for mundane tasks that one takes for granted. eg:

3 Mega Pixel Camera 4x Digital Zoom Single Shot / Multi Shot / Mosaic Shot / Frame Shot (Gray, Negative, Sepia, Emboss, Sketch, Antique, Moonlight, Fog) Photo Effects White Balance: AWB / Daylight / Incandescent / Fluorescent / Cloudy 240 x 320 pixels, 256K colors, 2.8 inches Yes Dual sim active Samsung Duos B5722 Rs 7190 on Flipkart

Available on Flipkart for Rs. 7549 Must say quite a rapid drop in price within a week! It's now the third cheapest Android phone on the site, after Micromax A60 and Dell XCD28.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/telemarketing-calls-what-killed-the-do-not-call-registry/articleshow/8067980.cms

A new arrow will need to be added to this diagram from Oct 2010 This post from appleinsider claims the dates in the "LOL@Apple" graphic are wrong, and that Samsung unvieled the F700 a month after the iPhone.

Perhaps they want people to switch for two reasons: Free up capacity on CDMA for higher paying Netconnect+ customers. Fill up underutilized RGSM capacity. So overall a logical move by Rcom. But whether you should choose it depends on your particular usage pattern. If you're intent on switching to GSM, also consider other GSM operators. As far as coverage goes - Cellone, Idea and Vodafone have the best highway/rural coverage in Maharashtra in my experience. But if you intend to spend most time inside cities then Uninor and Docomo could be good (cheap) alternatives.

This link compares AMR and AMR-WB. Unfortunately, EVRC is not compared

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/idea-bsnl-etisalat-subscribers-face-maximum-call-drops-govt/articleshow/7718916.cms

Worldwide, different brands under the same operator have helped to address different customer segments and thus actually increased revenue of the operator. MTS is not a Tata brand, it belongs to Sistema Shyam. As for Virgin and T24, I suspect once MVNOs are allowed in India they will evolve into MVNOs, having got a headstart in branding.

This is a good plan, what's it called? I don't see it on their website.

One way to compare networks and operators in a particular circle is the VLR ratio. This is the proportion of active users to total IMSIs issued by the operator. Although not exact, this ratio can give an indication of people who have taken a connection but are not using it for various reasons, including not getting network coverage or tariff plan not being competitive. For Delhi, the TRAI figures show Peak VLR Ratio for Vodafone as 94.43% and for Aircel as 53.63%. Thus higher proportion of Vodafone SIMs are actually on the network as compared to Aircel.

In statistics, there is the concept of "selection bias", in which there is an error in choosing the individuals or groups to take part in a scientific study. Before you rush to claim that there is a "the chaos and confusion in the process, the large number of rejection of applications etc", what numbers are we looking at, statistically? According to TRAI, more than 1.7 million subscribers have successfully done porting. Compared to that number, the number of complaints you find on this board is miniscule. Since very few people are likely to report a successful port, but most people will make some sort of noise over an unsuccessful port, a selection bias comes into play. It would be interesting if we could get some official figures on the number of complaints lodged on MNP and compare that against the total number of successful hassle-free ports as a percentage before we pass judgment on orderliness of the system and scale of rejection.

I could make outgoing calls from my RCDMA phone for a week after porting out to TGSM. During this time, all incoming calls came to my TGSM phone. I look at the above article in a positive way - we have seen that outgoing calls and SMSes can be made from two networks with the same number. Thus, if the security aspect can be solved, MNP V2.0 can involve the facility of a subscriber keeping his number across multiple service providers. This has many benefits - if I am subscribed to two service providers with the same number, and am in an area where one service provider has network but not another, I can still make calls and my recipients don't have to store multiple/frequently-changing numbers. People are already used to carrying multiple phones / SIMs, why not consolidate them into a single number? The MNP process can ask the subscriber to set their preferred network for incoming calls. Taking it a step further, MNP V3.0 could involve assigning network priority to incoming calls too?

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/reports-of-calls-from-sims-after-mnp-stir-concern/articleshow/7491461.cms KOLKATA: The telecom department has detected numerous instances across the country where people are making calls on their officially deactivated SIMs even after availing of mobile number portability (MNP), raising concerns of abuse and possible security risks . The department’s vigilance wing has found that possible software glitches at the operator’s end have enabled customers on both prepaid and postpaid platforms to make outgoing calls from their old SIMs. It has also asked all telecom firms to ensure that mobile phone SIMs are deactivated as soon as a customer ports out. A director in the telecom department’s legal wing confirmed this and said it was “illegal and a breach of licence conditions” . Under present licence conditions , once somebody ports out, there is a twohour window for deactivating the old SIM and re-activating the new one on the network he migrates to. “But if the old SIM remains active, it opens up possibilities for serious abuse at the user end and monitoring challenges since a single number would be active on two mobile networks,” the official quoted above added. “The potential challenges of tracing calls made from the old SIM after a number migrates to a new mobile network were discussed at a recent meeting in the telecom department. Operators have promised to fix all software glitches that may have triggered such aberrations,” said a senior executive mobile phone company who attended the meet. “If a person, whose mobile number is being tapped, happens to port out to a new network and discovers that his old SIM works, he can make calls using the old SIM and skirt surveillance. Under the present phone tapping system , once porting happens, a mobile number under surveillance will be under observation only on the new network,” said A Ghosh, director general in DoT’s vigilance wing.

Me too. Though I can still make outgoing calls from my RCDMA. The UCS service requests on myservices are still "Solving" and Reliance 198 has no idea when it will be resolved. I hope Reliance doesn't bill me for this overlap period.

There's a link on their website to find out if a number is on their network: http://tatadocomo.com/ValidateTataDocomoNumber.aspx

The welcome call agent specified early bird offer valid for 2 months. I pointed out that 6 months validity is mentioned on the website, she created a service request for the same. I presume it's been taken care of. I'm still in dual-phone mode, calls from Reliance network are coming to my Reliance phone, and messages from any network to either of the phones randomly. I guess this will sort itself out in a few days, till then I have to carry both phones around.

I have PORTED my existing Reliance CDMA postpaid number 93701XXXXX to Tata DOCOMO GSM Reasons for Porting - Quality of Reliance network at my residence dropped drastically in last 1 year, perhaps due to some new buildings being constructed nearby. I experienced frequent call drops and blank calls while my callers typically found my number unreachable. (I must note that I used to have excellent network earlier, and had recommended Reliance to a lot of people) Grievances with existing Service provider - All the above could have been forgiven IF Reliance allowed call divert to any landline. Unfortunately Reliance does not allow call divert from CDMA to landline phones run by some rival operators Benefits that I see of the new service provider - Much better network at home, yet to try out at other places. Porting Experience - 30th Jan 2pm: Applied for and got porting request code immediately, Request_Service_Port_Out_SMS UCS request appears on myservices website. 31st Jan: Submitted Docomo form, got call from Reliance asking about my port-out request and offering to send someone to check the network. I refused since I had complained to them in the past but nothing had happened. 1 Feb 11pm: Got sms from Docomo saying port in request has been forwarded to service provider 1-5 Feb: Got 3 calls from Reliance asking what they could do to help. Two of those calls got dropped as I was at home 5 Feb 7pm: Got sms and automated call from Docomo saying number would be ported at 10:30pm that same night. 6 Feb 1am: Got sms "Welcome to TATA Docomo family"... on my Reliance phone 6 Feb 7am: Reliance number still active, Docomo sim still dead. Incoming calls and sms on Reliance. 6 Feb: Sometime during the day, incoming calls and sms switched to Docomo. Request_Service_Port_Out_Request UCS request appears on myservices website. Reliance sim still active, I can make calls and send sms with it Any other important comment - I was on PPS 199 plan of Reliance and now on FV 149 plan of Docomo, thus saving at least Rs 50 every month for the same amount of talktime. Though I will have to change my handset, it was an entry level one anyways and I'll get a new entry level GSM handset since I just use my phone for calls and sms. I earlier loved Reliance roaming experience, hope Docomo can match it!