What happens when one of the best telecom service providers in the world tie up with a large Indian Corporate house with absolutely no experience in Service. An amalgamation of good and bad.
Having used the Birla AT&T cellular service for over two years across Maharashtra, I can claim to have some know how on the service provider and the service provided.
Any review on a telecom service provider would need to answer question on the service provider, the service, the Customer support and the bill plans and the billing. This review is no different
Service Provider
AT&T was launched in January 1997 in Gujrat and March 1997 in Maharashtra and Goa (excluding Mumbai). AT&T incidentally was the inventor of cellular technology way back in the 1940ies. The other group in the tie up is the Aditya Birla Group, a well-known business house in India having a presence across various sectors including cement, viscose staple fibre, engineering, textiles, power, industrial chemicals, petroleum and financial services.
Birla AT&T has now merged with Tata Telecom, the cellular service provider in Andhra Pradesh to form one of the largest cellular service companies in the countries. They have also bought over RPG Cellular in Madhya Pradesh.
The Service
Birla AT&T cover the cellular telecom circles of Gujrat, Maharashtra & Goa (Excluding Mumbai). Currently, AT&T offers 1200 km of highway coverage across 13 cities & 32 towns in Maharashtra. Most major towns and highways across sate of Gujrat are also covered. The coverage is a missed bag. The highways are covered pretty well, except a 20k.m. stretch on the Pune – Kolhapur highway, a few blind spots on the Pune - Nasik highway and the newly constructed Mumbai – Pune super express highway. The coverage falters in the interiors of most cities in Maharashtra. The Peth areas in Pune, interiors of Sangli, Satara, Nagpur, Bhiwandi and Ulhasnagar are nightmares for a cellular phone user. Covering a huge circle like Maharashtra, the organisation has probably fallen for the temptation to cover as much of the state as possible in the soonest possible time. Quality sacrificed in the race for network space. Gujrat is much better in terms of network in cities though not all highways are covered. The network especially stood true to the test during the recent Gujrat earthquake.
Bill Plans
AT&T prides itself on being a premium service provider. Keeping with it s policy across the world, It charge at a premium when compared to its competitors in the two circles. What subscribers expect from a premium service provider is excellent service and innovative, customer friendly billing plans and structures. The service leaves a lot to be desired in terms of network. As far as bill plans go, AT&T is content on copying the competitors bill plans. This has probably left a lot of subscribers cold.
The airtime rates vary between a high of Rs. 6.50/- for an outgoing call to a low of Rs. 1.60/- for an incoming call. Rentals can vary between Rs. 540/- to Rs. 300/- depending upon the pricing plan opted for. Nothing much to harp about.
AT&T also has an indirect interest through Media One in BPL Cellular Limited, Its competitor in Maharashtra. Wonder if this is the reason AT&T copies BPL’s pricing plans. A Win – Win situation, what do you think?
Value Added Services.
As value added services (Call Management services) AT&T offers WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), Voice Mail, Network Circle Coverage and SMS in addition to regular features like CLIP, Call hold, Call Waiting, Call Conferencing, Call divert and Call Barring. The rates for these features vary, depending upon the Bill Plan opted for. A frustrating thing for a customer who would prefer a simple pricing structure. Of these there are two features that really get my goose.
WAP: Wireless Application Protocol, enables a customer to surf the Internet from his phone. The concept has limited advantages with the technology not supporting graphics and the fact that not all websites are WAP compatible. In addition to this a good WAP handset is not really easy on the pocket. Compared to BPL’s mobile-email service, WAP pales in comparison. The reason being that it is a more expensive, less user-friendly option. Lets face it; the basic premise behind cellular technology and its supportive technologies is to enable effective communication. An Email suits this purpose much better than surfing the Internet with limited options. WAP is available at a one-time activation fee of Rs.900/-, a monthly fee of Rs.50/- and Airtime charges Rs.2/- per minute.
Network Circle Coverage: This feature enables a cellular phone user make an intercity call (i.e. Pune to Goa, Ahmednagar to Nasik etc.) within the network circle at local charges and save on STD charges. A subscriber pays Rs. 60/-, Rs. 80/- or Rs. 125 for this feature depending on what other Call Management services he opts for along with this feature. However we go back a couple of years AT&T used to offer the same intercity calls, at no additional cost. Calls from Pune to Goa, or for that matter any city within the network circle, are routed on their own backbone. Since intercity connectivity is not through an STD backbone, the STD component should never get into the picture. However the threat of an STD component surely gets AT&T an additional Rs. 125/- from a poor fleeced customer. I wonder if these policies will stand the test of time, especially now that there is threat of more service provider per network circle.
Customer Service and Billing
Internationally AT&T is considered on of the most customer friendly companies in the world. In India however, the customer care concept probably slipped down in their list of priorities. One does not have to wait hours to get thought o their customer care call center, like it happens with Orange. Unfortunately once you get though to a customer service person, you want the IVR back. The ladies and gentlemen at the other end behave as if helping the customer is a favor on both, the customer and the organization. Though most of the queries are answered and problem solved, the customer care (?) people are curt and very often downright rude. Don’t be surprised if you have a customer care person screaming at you, though you are the one supposed to be Irate. Incidentally, a year back AT&T had probably one of the best customer care divisions, when compared to its competitors and other cellular service providers.
The billing is usually accurate. Other than an occasional problem, which is taken care of, promptly and of course rudely, billing errors don’t normally happen at AT&T. The Bill itself has one of the simplest formats as compared to the bills of the other cellular service providers in the country.
Overall, AT&T is not really bad when compared to other service providers. But the scope for improvement is huge, especially in areas of Customer Service, Billing Plans and Transparent tariffs. The merger with Tata Telecom hopefully should change for the better, Lets wait and watch.