Idea Cellular Rocks!

[raccoon 53]

Completed 1 year with Idea this week... so they made me an offer - Rs. 199 recharge, 1 year validity and Rs. 100 talk time!! And this on my I-card active plan. Damn cool... works out to just Rs. 8.25 per month!

And they have reduced STD charges on this plan to Rs. 1.3 too!

Offers, tariffs, network, service... Idea rox!

[Honest 836]

^^^

MY dear friend you are rocking with your Idea connection.

The offer is really cool. So enjoy it.

"Sir Ji, What an IDEA, Sir Ji".

Enjoy.

[KumaarShah 143]

AFAIK, all others are also offering similar offers, so how is !dea diff?

[CUPIDON 0]

When my Idea Sim was about to expire in march this year I got 2 offers via SMS

1. Recharge with RS. 198/- get Rs. 100 talk time validity life time, all calls At Rs. 1/- for life time

2. Recharge with Rs. 199/- get Rs. 100 talktime validty 2 years

I opted for the second one as, I was not sure whether Value Vouchers would work on the life time option to bring call rates down, further this was my second phone and Iam not sure how long I will continue with it.

[raccoon 53]

At least I am not aware of any other operators offering similar schemes. And definitely not Airtel. They have never given me ANY offer in almost a year that I'v been with them (as a 2nd ph). RCom never gave any "significant" offers either (when I was with them).

Cupidon, it seems you got a much better offer... with a 2 year validity! How old was your connection with you got that offer? As for value vouchers, AFAIK, they do work on Idea... not 100% sure though... as I'v never had a lifetime connection.

[manishag 17]

idea always have best plans like there new post paid plan Talk 275 which has Idea to Idea 5000 mins free and other local calls 50p per min

[Honest 836]

My dear friends, In simple words I have to say that IDEA ROCKS.

Regards

[Himanshu Singh 19]

I am using Idea ever since I left Reliance.And its a common knowledge in Delhi and NCR that Idea does offer such attractive schemes to its subscribers who go in grace period.

I had an Idea number whose validity expired on Dec.31, 2007. It went in the grace period. When after 2 months I put the sim in my cell I received an sms which offered me this:

Recharge with Rs.100 today and get Rs.74 TT +100 mins Idea to Idea local calls free+1 year validity.

In fact some of my friends too have had such offers at different times.

Talking of tariff I had once posted here that the best prepaid tariff available in prepaid is the New MyGang.

I would just like to give the tariff details for the uninitiated:

From 10pm to 5 pm the next day(gang hour)

Gang to gang@0.10

All Local Calls including to landline@0.50

All SMS@0.10(including national sms)

All STD@ 1.30

From 5pm to 10pm the same day(peak hour)

All Local Calls@1.00

All STD Calls@1.30

All SMS@0.25

All this at a daily deduction of Re.1.

Re.31 recharge reduces the STD calls to Re.1/min for 24 hours!

Free I mins recharges are applicable in various denominations.

.

Recently Idea revised its talktime on all the recharges starting from Rs.10.

It now offers Rs.7.90 on Rs.10 recharge instead of Rs5.90 earlier.

It offers Rs.20.25 on Rs.25 recharge instead of Rs.19.25 earlier.

It offers Rs.73.15 on Rs.85 recharge.

It offers Rs. 87 on recharge of Rs.100 instead of Rs.74 earlier.

Full Talktime applicable with Rs.222,333,555,777

Now I must admit that I am yet to face such issues like:

promotional sms/calls

poor signals

voice breaking.

The customer care is accesible in 60 seconds flat unlike other operators who take close to 5 mins to let you through to an executive.

Now heres a thought:

Post paid plan 444 offers std calling@1.Similarly it offers local calling@0.50.

Consider a caller making 300 std calls a month and 300 local calls month.

Also consider that out of his 444 free mins, his 300 calls are std while the next 144 calls are local.

His STD bill

usage=300 mins

free=300 mins

chargeable=0 mins

std bill=0

His local bill

usage=300mins

free=144mins

chargable=156mins

local bill=156*0.50=78

local+std=78

monthly rent=444

bill before tax=522

bill after tax=586.51

Consider a Gang caller who times his calls properly.

He recharged with Rs555 and got Rs.555and Idea also offers 110 mins of Idea to Idea TT with this recharge.

He recharged with Rs.31 to reduce std to Re.1/min.

So total recharge value= Rs.586

For 300 std calls he pays Rs.300 at the rate of Re.1/min

For 300 local calls he pays Rs.150 at the rate of Re.0.50

total balance untilized=Rs300+Rs150=Rs450

Total balance left after 30 days=555-Rs.450=Rs105

There is a daily deduction of Rs. 1 so minus 30 from Rs 105.

Rs105-Rs30=Rs.75

Now someone might say that the caller might have to make local calls in the evening where he pays not Re.0.50 but Re.1.The remaining Rs.75 and the 110 mins of Idea to Idea would take care of it.

Which one looks better? With IDEA prepaid theres the advantage of packs like on net calling packs and sms packs which i am not sure is available with 444 plans.

AND lastly with postpaid even if you dint use 444 mins every month you have to pay the minimum of Rs.500 as rental inclusive of the taxes.

But with prepaid if you recharged with 555 and could not use it in one month the balance can be carried forward.

So guys look in for the finer details before jumping onto the postpaid wagon.

Edited June 20, 2008 by sachinrocks

[raccoon 53]

Sachinrocks... thats seems to be a cool plan... but is the gang plan stated by you specific for Delhi circle? As far as I can remember, the Gang plan for Maharashtra & Goa stated on Ideas site seems to have some different structure. But then Idea's site is unfortunately one of the worst, with some wrong info even on the plan Im using (I-card active).

The only gripe I have against this my plan now is the Re. 1/min tariff to other local mobiles and to Idea phones in non-happy hours. I was told that I cannot use value vouchers of any kind to reduce this tariff to 50 paise... and thats the only thing that sux!

And the main thing I dont like about the Gang plan is that you can make 10p calls only to other gang users. And nobody I know is on the Gang plan (as its v new). Whereas in my plan, I can call ANY local Idea number for 10p in happy hours.

[Himanshu Singh 19]

This tariff was for delhi only.

I am told the tariffis not as good for other states.

[KumaarShah 143]

@himanshu,

Sorry for OT,

AFAIK, you were the one who was supporting RCOM the most sometime back. It is nice to see that you have also jumped the fence to the other side. RCOM is the worst as far as SMS is concerned, while its biggest plus as yet is their voice clarity. However even GM offers fairly decent voice clarity. The other advantage RCOM has is its data speeds.

[CUPIDON 0]

Cupidon, it seems you got a much better offer... with a 2 year validity! How old was your connection with you got that offer? As for value vouchers, AFAIK, they do work on Idea... not 100% sure though... as I'v never had a lifetime connection.

When I had bought the sim the validity was for one year, after about 11 months I started getting these offers on a daily basis, I also got these via recorded voice messages.

My friend who uses Reliance, too got similar offer when his sim was about to expire, He recharged With Rs. 199/- got talk time of Rs. 150/- R2R and validity life time, but the taltime was only for a period of about 15 days, he had hardly used it and one fine day the promotional talk time suddenly dissapeared

Edited June 21, 2008 by CUPIDON

[Himanshu Singh 19]

@himanshu,

Sorry for OT,

AFAIK, you were the one who was supporting RCOM the most sometime back. It is nice to see that you have also jumped the fence to the other side. RCOM is the worst as far as SMS is concerned, while its biggest plus as yet is their voice clarity. However even GM offers fairly decent voice clarity. The other advantage RCOM has is its data speeds.

Dude i still use reliance. i only meant that i have also been using idea and mtnl prepaid and postpaid and out of all gsm operators i have found idea to be the best in terms of tariff, fair trade practices, signal strength,customer care support and value for money. reliance is still way ahead and i am waiting for reliance gsm in delhi.the only reason i opted for gsm connections was the poor battery of handset with reliance. and talking of sms reliance is offering 500 local sms for 25 rupees while idea and vodafone charge 35 rupees for 300 sms in delhi.

[raccoon 53]

Cupidon, it seems you got a much better offer... with a 2 year validity! How old was your connection with you got that offer? As for value vouchers, AFAIK, they do work on Idea... not 100% sure though... as I'v never had a lifetime connection.

When I had bought the sim the validity was for one year, after about 11 months I started getting these offers on a daily basis, I also got these via recorded voice messages.

My friend who uses Reliance, too got similar offer when his sim was about to expire, He recharged With Rs. 199/- got talk time of Rs. 150/- R2R and validity life time, but the taltime was only for a period of about 15 days, he had hardly used it and one fine day the promotional talk time suddenly dissapeared

Hmm... didn't quite happen that way with me. I started getting SMSes in the last week of my validity. And I got Rs. 100 general talk-time (& 1 yr validity)... so no validity limitations on the talk-time.

And btw, I know someone who is using value vouchers on Idea lifetime conx. In fact again a nice 6 month offer which works out cheaper than the monthly recharge thingy. Cant recall the exact amount right now though.

When I stopped recharging my Reliance, they called me up few times... and even made my connection active for few days so that I could get incoming calls... but they never made me any special offer. They just pestered me to recharge using the vouchers available in the market. I told them bluntly I'm so pissed, I wont spend a single buck to recharge that way... and amongst other things, their tariff was not at all competitive. They finally disconnected the conx after one of their reps (possibly the retention dept.) made a last attempt call... he also asked me the reason why I wasn't recharging.

Worst was Airtel... just sent me 1 SMS reminding me to recharge. No special offers and nothing else... no calls even... just the worst network for voice, I'v ever used!

Edited June 21, 2008 by raccoon

[Himanshu Singh 19]

I got an offer from Reliance today on one of my numbers whose validity has expired in april but i am still getting incoming calls. They asked me to recharge with Rs.26 for 6 months validity and Rs25 on net talktime.

[Kunal Hemrajani 1]

Yup..Idea rocks..mayb now.. lik alwayz RCL is followin Idea(by wat sachin mentioned)..

On my gang sim wen the validity was bout to b expired..they offered me a 90rs recharge in wich they offered 90rs TT n 1yr validity..kewl..

IDEA Rocks !!

[raccoon 53]

Shucks! Now it seems Idea has given better offers to everyone here... except me!

But then, I guess they give different offers in different circles...

[Honest 836]

^^^

Yes my dear Raccoon. Nearly all operators offer differently in different circles. Vodafone too provide different offers to the customers from different cirles. So as your IDEA too.

Regards.

[rbdhoot 11]

I got SMS for my RIM prepaid no. to recharge with Rs.95/- Got Lifetime validity & Rs. 83 talktime

[Himanshu Singh 19]

guys idea delhi is extending the validity of its loyal subscribers without any re charge. for example my gang card validity was till august 26 2008. but yesterday when i checked my balance my validity was shown expiring on october 31 2009. i called up the cc and on asking about it they told me its being done in case of subscribers who have been using idea for at least a year or so. hence idea rocks.

[KumaarShah 143]

After reading all posts, I have come to the conclusion that when your validity is nearing the end, or has ended already, DO NOT RECHARGE - WAIT FOR OFFERS FROM THE OPERATOR. THE MORE YOU WAIT, THE BETTER THE OFFER. AND IN ANY CASE, ALL OPERATORS ARE ALLOWING INCOMING CALLS. THEY DARE NOT LOSE THE TERMINATION CHARGES ON INCOMING CALLS.

[raccoon 53]

Ditto!