Best Handset For Msn Messenger, Email

[minds 0]

Guys, hi. I have been a member since some time but not visited often. I looked around now for a thread that might have discussions regarding my requirement but couldnt locate one, hence this thread. Sorry if I am duplicating, please correct me.

Presently I have an LG2030, which has mostly served me well the past three years, despite Reliance's interference at all levels. Since past month and half the R-World feature has been shut down by Reliance for this phone. Getting through to the customer care was a massive excercise as the automatic system would put me on hold telling me customers are very important to them and their executive would attend to me shortly and then immediately cutting me off. On the five or six occasions (of about 100 attempts at ALL times round the clock over one and a half months) that I could finally reach a live person at the other end, I was told each time they could not register my complaint as they were having an upgrade. There was no change of anwer over one and a half months. Finally, one kind hearted fellow offered the information that among some others, my particular model of handset was having an R-World problem over most of the network and they had no idea when it would be resolved. So for now, no RWorld and no outgoing SMS. I enquired if they were still deducting my monthly RWorld membership. He checked and said yes they were. I requested him to deregister my membership and refund me the fees they had charged for the period which RWorld was not working. He said sorry, they could not deregister me now as they are being upgraded, nor could they refund what they have already charged. Also, the thing about it not being possible to register my complaint was still true. To date they still cant register my official complaint.

I have considered seriously what to do next. Does the common man really have an alternative, or a real grevience resolution option when a service provider quite obstinately and nakedly refuses to bother ?

I thought about it and realised that I ddidnt stand a snowflake's chance in the desert sun against the might of ADAG should it come to any kind of a showdown. I did shout at the poor customer care person a bit but I dont dare flex my muscles any further, for fear I will end up socking myself on the nose.

Should I switch to GSM? To TATA, to BSNL, to Hutch, Airtel, Idea ....... I really dont know if they will consider me any more important as a customer than Reliance did. Is taking on another devil better than to stick with the old one? These serious, philosophical and practical questions apart, for the moment I am still thinking of exlporing the possibility of making the best of a lousy deal.

So this is still all about sticking with Reliance.

Now to my requirements; I hope to have your inputs to help me choose my next handset.

My needs are few. I dont call much or receive many calls either. What I do a lot though, is emailing.

The RD2030 was ok for that as I could manage to hook it up to my dataone eamail account and email all I wanted. For some reason the fastmail email option had stopped working over the past year. I also need MSN Messenger access, which i didnt have with my RD2030 but I understand I could have it with a better phone model. The access, even if not through official webmessenger, if possible through any of the other third party connectivity options like emessenger etc, would be ok.

A camera is not essential but would be ok.. but only if I could send the pics I snap through email. I really dont do much SMS or MMS.

I am not bothered about mobile based games etc.

If there is option for playing MP3, thats a bonus, as also expandable memory to store mp3, pics snapped with camera etc.

I dont want a very high end phone. Preferably something well within 10k. I am willing to leave out the camera or music functionality but email and msn connectivity is what is vital.

Thanks for reading a rather long and rambling message. Your inputs will be gratefully received.

[kshah 452]

If Nokia 2865 supports WAP than I think you should think of it as it may serve your requirement of both e mailing using flurry mail or such clients and messanger services too. However I will always say that becareful with CDMA operators as everything is in their control and they can always leave you clueless when they stop services. For reliable availability of services choose GSM.

BTW I dont know pricing, but if you spend too much on e mail charges (I mean reliance is charging) then you can try BSNL, they offer unlimited GPRS for Rs. 199 and then going for symbian base phone, cheapest I think is 6600 can be great option. Because you do not require good browsing speed.

Edited November 20, 2006 by kshah

[minds 0]

If Nokia 2865 supports WAP than I think you should think of it as it may serve your requirement of both e mailing using flurry mail or such clients and messanger services too. However I will always say that becareful with CDMA operators as everything is in their control and they can always leave you clueless when they stop services. For reliable availability of services choose GSM.

BTW I dont know pricing, but if you spend too much on e mail charges (I mean reliance is charging) then you can try BSNL, they offer unlimited GPRS for Rs. 199 and then going for symbian base phone, cheapest I think is 6600 can be great option. Because you do not require good browsing speed.

Thanks kshah,

I have no idea about phone models really, but will look up nokia 2865 and see what it says. And you are right; emailing on reliance is proving to be rather expensive. If one logs in thrice a day that comes to Rs12/- i.e Rs 360/- a month!!

That thing about their arbitrarily stopping services is right, as I have learnt to my sorrow. And with a CDMA phone one is stuck with the service provider whereas with a GSM one has the option to look elsewhere. More minus points to Reliance for that.

Are there any msn messenger connectivity options on symbian phones? Could you, or someone, suggest such a GSM Symbian OS phone model keeping in mind my requirements?

[tanveer 59]

I haven beenable to use msn messenger on wap till now.

yahoo yes but msn no. found a n application on getjar but it does not work

[minds 0]

I haven beenable to use msn messenger on wap till now.

yahoo yes but msn no. found a n application on getjar but it does not work

Thats not good news at all. Is that so across all wap enabled cellphone models? Any inputs on that from others?

And tanveer, do you mean you have tried non microsoft wap sites that offer msn connectivity?

[rajeevjee 0]

I am using LG2130. Works smoothly with Yahoo messenger and emails after the software upgrade. I suggest that you get the software upgrade done in your 2030 first from LG Service centre. All your R World probs would be solved. Will cost you less than Rs. 100.

If you go in for a new NOKIA phone, the only danger is that (GOD forbid) if anything happens to the phone, there are hardly any service centres available, and if one is available, it will keep your phone for 20 days (officially) and more (unofficially). So beware !!

[tanveer 59]

Ok

I am able to access MSN messenger after all using ebuddy service. I am not sure how safe it would be since it requires giving the password to a third party.

You can also access Yahoo Messenger through it as well.

as for sites, you can virually access any site on opera Mini browser, so accessing sites is never a problem.

[kshah 452]

Frankly speaking after my wap disaster on 6155 (though I use VX 6600 right now and has no issue) I am really bugged with CDMA carriers. I am still stuck to reliance because of my heavy e mail usage and cheaper call rates while roaming.

If one is not roaming too much and e mails are just plain text, then I believe GSM is the best because GPRS speed is good for such applications.

Also you are not at mercy of operators becoz of handset.

Pitty is even low cost handset like motorola SLIM has built in e mail client, which can be easily configured to any POP / SMTP server, which is still a dream in CDMA even high end phones like 6265

If Nokia 2865 supports WAP than I think you should think of it as it may serve your requirement of both e mailing using flurry mail or such clients and messanger services too. However I will always say that becareful with CDMA operators as everything is in their control and they can always leave you clueless when they stop services. For reliable availability of services choose GSM.

BTW I dont know pricing, but if you spend too much on e mail charges (I mean reliance is charging) then you can try BSNL, they offer unlimited GPRS for Rs. 199 and then going for symbian base phone, cheapest I think is 6600 can be great option. Because you do not require good browsing speed.

Thanks kshah,

I have no idea about phone models really, but will look up nokia 2865 and see what it says. And you are right; emailing on reliance is proving to be rather expensive. If one logs in thrice a day that comes to Rs12/- i.e Rs 360/- a month!!

That thing about their arbitrarily stopping services is right, as I have learnt to my sorrow. And with a CDMA phone one is stuck with the service provider whereas with a GSM one has the option to look elsewhere. More minus points to Reliance for that.

Are there any msn messenger connectivity options on symbian phones? Could you, or someone, suggest such a GSM Symbian OS phone model keeping in mind my requirements?

And cost, GPRS cost little as compare to RWORLD. BSNL offers unlimited GPRS for 199, which my brother is using very happily on his nokia 6600.

[minds 0]

Some interesting inputs there. This is a great site and you guys are really active and helpful.

Tanveer, that ebuddy works fine with msn and yahoo is good news, I have previously googled them and looked at reviews and they seem to be a safe site. What handset are you talking about, since it obviously isnt the RD2030.

Rajeevjee, thanks for the information from your end. The version info for my handset says RD203F15 PRL:1. As I havent upgraded the software since purchase three years ago, I suppose there will be an update and if that helps that would be terrific. Will find out tomorrow about that.

Kshah, I had been speculating about BSNL and the unlimited GPRS package and your inputs have only served to push me into looking at that seriously. The main issue there is whether I can find a reasonable handset within my budget (under 10K) that will give me msn as well as email. Your earlier suggestion of Nokia 6600 is under consideration and I have been browsing for tech details as well as user reviews on usage under BSNL GPRS. A cursory look at ebay seems to suggest it might fall within my price preferences as well.

I was using Reliance email heavily as well, staying logged in for hours in order to avoid repeated login charges. That was a pain since mostly that would show my handset as engaged if someone called during that time. With GPRS that can be avoided.

Plus points to GSM GPRS at the moment.

By the way, what is the position of BSNL regarding GPRS usage during roaming? Can anyone enlighten me about that?

[minds 0]

One very interesting byline to this discusson. I simply must share this with you all because it is quite a surprise. R-World has started working on my cellphone again, all by itself, from around 8pm onwards ... or maybe a little before... because last I checked it was 6 pm and it was still not working.

I wonder if it was because of the complaint I finally lodged on their website last week, or because some concerned person has been reading this thread and thought it fit to look into my problem, or because Reliance finally solved their compatibility problem today, or because someone up there somwhere now has started loving me..... but it does work.. RWorld is back in all its old glory ..but looking almost unfamiliar after one and half months. Email worked. I havent checked out anything else yet.

Just one thing... I hope this is not a flash in the pan and it will keep working.

....er.... until their next blowout at least.

What this does is gives me some breathing space. The desperate urge to just run out and buy some / any cellphone and subscribe to just some / any service and get my connectivity back has been replaced by the serenity of restored connection.

The thread remains open, as far as I am concerned, because I still want to go in for another handset.... and a better option, hardware and service-wise, for my requirements.

Just for the record, I am feeling so thankful for restored connection that I am not feeling as abusive about Reliance now as I was at the beginning of the thread.

[kunwarbir 0]

I haven beenable to use msn messenger on wap till now.

yahoo yes but msn no. found a n application on getjar but it does not work

i am not able to use Yahoo mesngr on my nokia 2865. it says no access.

i havent tried MSN.

has reliance blocked it

[anujit 0]

Dudes,

Does any PDA/Smartphone support room chat or video or audio on yahoo messenger or msn?