Docomo Vs Rel Simple Vs Rcom Per Second Vs Reliance 1re/3mins

[vvinayakpai 26]

The Indian Telecom Industry is on the growth trajectory since many quarters with more and more operatirs joining the bandwagon of existing operators to make a mark for themselves. The consumers have never been spoilt for choice earlier. There are at least 8-10 players in each and every telecom circle offering umpteen number of schemes and the customer is at liberty to choose the best plan that suits his indiviual needs.

The latest in the telecom industry is "transparency" and "unconditional" plans. Tata Docomo has definitely changed the way people get billed for their calls by introducing "pay per second" tariff wherein the customer pays only for what he uses unlike in per minute billing where the customer has to pay for unutilised seconds as well rounded off to the nearest minute. And in unconditional plans we have the simple plan from Reliance offering local, STD, roaming and sms at 50ps/min for lifetime without any conditions.

It can be said that these would be the base tariff plans for now and any scheme that is evolved would only bear resemblance to these schemes as these are the best schemes in their own category. Many existing operators have jumped onto the per second billing basis, definitely with some modifications. This has confused the Indian consumer even more. Should they opt for "transparency" or "unconditional offers"

I have decided to compare the best tariffs in the market, the Tata Docomo per second billing and Reliance Simple Plan for a month (almost). I have attached a file denoting the kind of usage and the charges incurred on Simple and the Docomo style of billing.

The inference I have been able to draw is that the longer the duration, Simple works out to be the cheapest, and on the contrary shorter the call duration Docomo is the best.

Have a look at the sheet yourself and do let me know your valuable suggestions, complaints, criticisms and I would be glad to accept them with humility and try and do a better job the next time

RCOM.xls

Edited November 4, 2009 by vvinayakpai

[M.S.Rao 64]

Mr.Vinayak Pai, Very Very nice workout. Hattsoff to your calculation. Anyone who observes will

get a clear picture of reducing their mobile expenses according to their usage.

A mynute mistake in calculations. Difference of total 'D' & 'E' coloums must tally with the

total of 'F'coloum. Having only Rs1/- difference. This arised in Item No:50, 'F' value comes to

Rs. +0.31 instead of Rs. -0.69. So the total difference is Rs1/- and the actual total of

coloum 'F' comes to Rs.44.41

In the scianario of "CONFUSE AND GET MORE FROM CUSTOMER" of Service providers, your calcualation

is very useful. One must appreciate the time you have spent. People like you keeping the main

motto of this forum. K E E P I T U P.

[pasumark 51]

So after adding pack cost, Reliance is costlier than Docomo?

[KumaarShah 143]

LP80 means 200 local minutes free @ 40ps and not local minutes at 40ps extra. So Rs 80 need not be added to the cost. The total cost of 128 under RCOM actually means you will pay 80 upfront and 48 only from your main balance. It is not like the other GSM gangsters' rate cutters, though lately they have also copied RCOMs ideas.

So RCOM is still cheaper. Also you have to factor in the SMS (Local/STD/Roaming/etc) costs too. Similarly, other VAS costs also may be costlier. And RCOM offers full TT for 100 to 500 RC. Maybe Tata DoCoMo gives even more TT.

@vinayakpai,

I cannot understand why you have shown 41 as STD pack? What is that for? Or should it be 48 (the one time cost?) And what about DoCoMo's initial costs? I am sure it is also around Rs 50 (Not too sure, though) It is best to leave the startup cost from this calculations because more or less everyone offers the same startup cost give or take a few rupees here and there.

PPS billing is only useful if you complete your calls in under 40 or 50 secs, beyond that it is surely expensive. The average time taken by an average user for local calls is 53 secs. (Maybe because it is a PPM pulse, we talk for upto 53 secs average?) And RCOM has already stated that they will compete very aggressively in the wake of the remaining 3 new operators who are coming in by this year end (Etisalat, Uninor and Videocon).

I personally feel that RCOM also will introduce PPS a-la Airtel and Voda and charge the same for PPS. The subscribers will have one more choice plan. Thats all.

Finally, I feel that PPS is very useful for those people who used to give missed calls and not for conversationalists. (This view was already expressed earlier by another member here)

Edited November 2, 2009 by KumaarShah

[me_saket 73]

So after adding pack cost, Reliance is costlier than Docomo?

i was knowing this before calculation itself.

[ramtech 47]

The Indian Telecom Industry is on the growth trajectory since many quarters with more and more operatirs joining the bandwagon of existing operators to make a mark for themselves. The consumers have never been spoilt for choice earlier. There are at least 8-10 players in each and every telecom circle offering umpteen number of schemes and the customer is at liberty to choose the best plan that suits his indiviual needs.

The latest in the telecom industry is "transparency" and "unconditional" plans. Tata Docomo has definitely changed the way people get billed for their calls by introducing "pay per second" tariff wherein the customer pays only for what he uses unlike in per minute billing where the customer has to pay for unutilised seconds as well rounded off to the nearest minute. And in unconditional plans we have the simple plan from Reliance offering local, STD, roaming and sms at 50ps/min for lifetime without any conditions.

It can be said that these would be the base tariff plans for now and any scheme that is evolved would only bear resemblance to these schemes as these are the best schemes in their own category. Many existing operators have jumped onto the per second billing basis, definitely with some modifications. This has confused the Indian consumer even more. Should they opt for "transparency" or "unconditional offers"

I have decided to compare the best tariffs in the market, the Tata Docomo per second billing and Reliance Simple Plan for a month (almost). I have attached a file denoting the kind of usage and the charges incurred on Simple and the Docomo style of billing.

The inference I have been able to draw is that the longer the duration, Simple works out to be the cheapest, and on the contrary shorter the call duration Docomo is the best.

Have a look at the sheet yourself and do let me know your valuable suggestions, complaints, criticisms and I would be glad to accept them with humility and try and do a better job the next time

Excellent job and thanks a lot for the info

[vvinayakpai 26]

@KumaarShaah

Thanks for going through my post and giving me your vauable feedback. I appreciate it!

Rs. 41 is the cost incurred for STD calls. 82 mins is the total STD usage and Rs. 41 is the cost incurred.

Also, for Docomo no packs are necessary. I have eliminated the initial costs for both the connections and calculated only on call basis. I decided not to include cost of sim card etc.

Edited November 3, 2009 by vvinayakpai

[vvinayakpai 26]

So after adding pack cost, Reliance is costlier than Docomo?

i was knowing this before calculation itself.

I agree that i have not added the Reliance Simple tariff cost to the calculation. But it cannot be added for a single month. It will be added over the period of time. For eg if i use simple tariff for 12 months, the total cost for reliance simple plan would be 48/12 and if i continue using it for 24 months, the cost would be 48/24. Thats the reason I have not taken it as a cost.

[vvinayakpai 26]

@nlr2334481

Thanks for the detail scrutiny of the post. I appreciate your feedback. I have gone ahead and made the necessary changed and reloaded the file.

[pasumark 51]

LP80 means 200 local minutes free @ 40ps and not local minutes at 40ps extra. So Rs 80 need not be added to the cost.

ya understood. Thanks for the clarification

[FEVIN-RAJ 61]

east or west rcom is the best

[igloo 1]

Better if you compare it with 50paise local call rate and not confuse the normal user. As docomo also have addon pack of 1p/2sec in some states so better to avoid calculating it with any pack.

[KumaarShah 143]

@vinayakpai,

Using your data, I have summarised the various types of calls using Filters. Any which way one sees it, RCOM' PPM is better than DoCoMo's PPS. Your file has been uploaded after the edit.

RCOM.xls

[vvinayakpai 26]

Better if you compare it with 50paise local call rate and not confuse the normal user. As docomo also have addon pack of 1p/2sec in some states so better to avoid calculating it with any pack.

I agree that docomo has packs which reduce local calling rates upto 30ps/minute (1ps/2 secs). But that requires purchase of packs, which to the best of knowledge cost Rs. 45 with 30 day validity.

In RCOM Rs. 80 pack gives 200 local minutes which is 40ps/min. It is not a cost, in fact you can call it a free add on.

[vvinayakpai 26]

Now that Reliance has come up with two more schemes I have decided to include it in my comparison.

The new schemes included are RCOM pay per second plan and, the Reliance scheme where they charge 1re for 3 mins irrespective of mobile,landline, STD,local, roaming etc. Please view the attached file and give me your valuable feedback

RCOMMODIFIED.xls

Edited November 4, 2009 by vvinayakpai

[abkumar 11]

Thanks! Good work Vinayak

[adforsaj 0]

but we have to wait for 5 November.

[vvinayakpai 26]

but we have to wait for 5 November.

Dont have to wait. The cc informed that the plans are avaiable immediately.

RCOM per second plan comes at a price of Rs. 58, and a tariff validity of 1 year.

And the Re1 for 3 minutes plan comes for Rs. 38 carrying tariff validity of lifetime.

The above information has been obtained from the cc. request all of you to confirm the same before going ahead and recharging fo r the schemes.

[Saurav 22]

^^

The plans are available for Prepaid for postpaid you need to wait.

[KanagaDeepan 1,084]

No doubt... Simply reliance is the best tariff plan in India, atleast for now...

I feel very sorry for the upcoming 3 new operators... :'( Oh NO.... How can they survive???? It is better they gave up now itself and giving back the Spectrum allotted to them....

Or else they should come with some ridiculous tariff plans such as Rs100/month unlimited local calls (incl offnet) FREE... or 10p onnet, 30p offnet local/STD or 0.5p/sec local/STD on/offnet... :'(

[vvinayakpai 26]

Reliance has introduced killer tariffs. Never expected Reliance to go for the kill in this fashion. And if Simple was not enough Reliance has gone two steps ahead to introduce per second billing (and even in romaing) and the Re. 1 for 3 minutes.

Amazing I must say. Full marks to Reliance and they have got their act together at the right time.

I was actually wondering if Tata's pay per call tariff could be bettered. But reliance has proved me wrong. The best part about Reliance scheme is that there is no FUP on these tariff plans, that means you can talk unlimited, any tome of the day or night wihtout any conditions whatsoever, unlike TATA

[FEVIN-RAJ 61]

Coverage of TATA DOCOMO very poor

In my home town, retailer goes to 4 storied building's roof to activate the DOCOMO connection ...

One should consider the coverage also

Edited November 5, 2009 by FEVIN-RAJ

[kshah 452]

Reliance has been offering very simple, non complicated plans since its inception. Its GSM lobby which really makes things complicated. Reliance is complicated in data though.

[ravi_patent 28]

@ fevin

"Nobody worries abt the coverage of TATA DOCOMO"

thats the power of hype,and docomo has succeeded by beating earlier hype creator Airtel