shrik

You may be surprised to know that whitening toothpastes do not have any special "whitening" chemical, but clean via abrasion. In that sense, they are like regular toothpaste with extra rough particles in them. Ref: http://www.dental-picture-show.com/teeth-whitening/a7-best-tooth-whitening-toothpaste.html

The processor of xt800 is too slow to ever likely get an OS upgrade. For Gingerbread dual-sim CDMA+GSM, look at the Samsung i589.

I was looking at the latest phone to be launched by Idea - the ID 918, which seems to be a rebranded and unlocked Alcatel OT-918D. This phone is available on ebay for as low as Rs 5,250. Using ebay's 10% coupon, this becomes Rs 4,725. Doing a Rs 260 recharge on the handset gives 10 minutes of free calls every day for 90 days (worth Rs 396 say using Idea's alternative STVs) and 2GB of data each month for 3 months (worth Rs 1350) So for someone who talks more than 10 minutes daily and uses 3G data, the net cost of the phone is Rs 3,239 which I feel is fantastic value for a handset whose specs compare well with the HTC Explorer. Even otherwise, Rs 4,725 is quite good for the specs on offer.

Very interesting phone. Even if it doesn't charge completely, it will help in extending the talk time and standby time of the phone. I'm interested to know that if one uses this phone as any other phone (charging via electricity socket), what percent boost does the solar cell add to the battery life?

Won't that solve the concerns that are prompting the deactivation desire?

Are these handsets locked to Idea?

Reminds me of the technology used to create wi-fi networks such as Fon. The concept is that you share your (wired) broadband connection via wi-fi and in turn can use other shared wi-fi networks for free. This has caught on in a big way in UK through a partnership with BT. So whenever free wi-fi is available, your phone can switch to that and save on cellular talktime and data charges.

+1 to Rajan. Also, you forgot to mention -> while using Tor, make sure the IP address shown is within the US, by going to for eg http://whatismyipaddress.com/

http://www.technolog...n/energy/38531/

But then, the best way to cure this "nightmare" is to abolish the concept of roaming itself. Hope they fast track the "one nation, one circle" vision in the interest of sound sleep for security agencies

Wonder what happens to Virgin Mobile India?

http://www.domain-b.com/companies/companies_b/Bharat_Sanchaar_Nigam/20111017_broadband_licence_oneView.html

^^ Same here, looks like it was an unannounced one-day bug/offer.

I have ported my number (again! First port eight months back) existing Tata DOCOMO postpaid number to Idea prepaid Reasons for Porting - Moving to an area where TD does not have network coverage. Grievances with existing Service provider - None. Where TD has network, I found the call quality very good. Their customer service is also intelligent and responsive. Unfortunately, TD does not have good network coverage outside cities. Benefits that I see of the new service provider - Better network coverage (so far) Lower cost (thanks to postpaid -> prepaid service tax avoidance) Porting experience - Very smooth. Sent port request on Day 1 and got UPC immediately. Bought Idea sim and filled their form only on Day 13, number was ported on Night 18. Total dead time between services: about 10 minutes. Any other important comment - Idea really surprised me with their MNP tariff plan. I chose Idea because that is the only network available in my future location, but now it looks like I'll save money too Taking a look at their prepaid product details (attached) I really appreciate TD's "keep it simple" policy. Even Idea's website gives a terrible user experience, and the two customer service reps I met at their showroom gave different views on what FRCs and tariff plans are available for MNP customers. I decided to take it one step at a time and call their customer service once the number's activated. The MNP sim costs Rs 20, and I was surprised to discover it came loaded with Rs 5 of talktime - the customer service I called then told me the FRC was already done and I didn't need to do any First Recharge, or Value Voucher recharge etc. The pre-activated tariff is: 1p/2s for Idea-Idea, and 1p/s for all other calls local/national/mobile/landline, 50p sms. Wonder why Idea doesn't advertise this - couldn't find it on their website or showroom leaflets. What's also funny is that existing or new Idea customers do not get this tariff

^^ More likely, they were scared looking at the 4S impressive booking numbers , and didn't want to give opportunity for comparison.

More

Isn't this topic in the wrong forum?

Website still not updated.

What's interesting is that Speedtest still considers you Grade A+ Makes one wonder what plans 99% of IN are on?

This is very location-dependent so suggest you borrow data cards of different companies from friends or sales people to check their performance at the sites you will be using the internet, before you buy one for yourself.

http://www.technologyreview.in/communications/37877/ In Kenya, price of IDEOS is $80 = Rs 3,600. Why not India?

In the Indian scenario where a lot of users have multiple mobile connections, I wonder if any per-user metric makes sense. Maybe globally it does, because most subscribers there are postpaid and expenses related to bill generation, dispatch, collection etc scale with number of users. But in India where prepaid dominates, this is not very relevant. In my opinion, to better compare telcos, one should give the user number lesser importance and instead look at numbers like total minutes of usage, revenue per minute, minutes per base station, etc.

In Postpaid, attractive advance rental plans exist (at least on the website) ARP 899 says effective monthly rental of Rs 150, with 800 local mins free => effectively 1p / 3sec The tariff is a little confusing though, since they mention 4 toppings, and a topping is "250 Local & STD mins" so it could even be 1000 local + STD minutes in Rs 150 Can anyone confirm this?

Top MNP loser RCom OK with loss; to focus on value, not nos I wonder if they'll disclose the ARPU of port-out vs port-in customers?

I have had a very good experience with pgportal. I had terminated my Reliance FWP as well as BB connection from one location. FWP had security deposit and BB had excess paid amount which was supposed to be refunded within 60 days as per assurance printed on last bill. However, despite several calls and emails to Customer Care, this was not done. I escalated to Nodal and appellate authorities but no acknowledgment of emails even. Finally after ~200 days, I lodged complaints on pgportal detailing my experience and things started moving really fast! I got refund cheques from Reliance within a month of posting. Have posted "thank you" feedbacks on pgportal +1. I suggest to follow the procedure detailed in rcom customer care site ie. give nodal officer 10 days and appellate 3 months and then only approach pgportal.