“Like begets like!”
Well, this isn’t an appraisal of Mendel’s Law of Inheritance but after using Tata Indicom Mobile in the past year, it does remind one of the laws of genetics. TATA like Reliance India Mobile does it again!! When one wondered who could flummox the masses with masquerading and camouflaged costs and claims other than Ambani and Co. in broad daylight, our very own Tata came to the threshold; and boy, they didn’t disappoint. The self-proclaimed “Best Cellular service in India” edicts did mighty little to bamboozle the Indian magpies and now it’s merely a firm battling to please it paltry customers and illustrate a somewhat passable façade to the populace.
It sounds callous, but believe me it’s the truth. One of the biggest flaws, if not the biggest is that it failed to compete with the marketing of RIM, its supercilious and solitary rivals in the CDMA pool. The timing of the product launch was as inappropriate as one could possible imagine. Reliance, with its gimmicks and obscuring veneer was highly successful in magnetizing the Indian ‘wise-spenders’. They trusted Reliance, possibly for the last time, as it was later perceived. Hence, with the plethora of people owning Reliance handsets already, Tata principally never had any chance of earning their own stake in the bazaar.
And for all those who, in fact, purchased Tata fancied that they had not. Just like all cellular services, costs are indicated with an asterisk, which declares that it may be subject to change at a later point in time. The impatient consumer ignores this and blindly makes the acquisition. Believe me, that’s what happened to me. It turned out that free SMS is only for 3 months. Talk time pulse costs have doubled in the last 6 months. They have now begun charging for Caller ID; call waiting, conference facility etc. that initially was kept in the dark from consumers. No hidden costs my foot!! Nevertheless, I must confess, the more pricey schemes are of great benefit to people who may use the phone extensively. Getting 15-20 hours worth of talk time at a 1000 rupees does jingle alluringly.
The Nokia handset is quite decent. It has all the basic features a cell needs and has a good standby shelf life. Normally, I charge it once every 2-3 days. But a patchy consumer may even be able to last a charged set for up to a week! It supports polyphonic ring tones and has quite a good manifestation. The Kyocera colour screen cell is nothing special just an added ‘feel good factor’ to Tata’s customers.
Audio reception is pretty clear, though not all that great. It does get sporadic and haphazard quite easily in a closed room or a theatre. Sometimes, callers do not find it easy to get through to the cell if it’s even slightly beyond range or not catching its full signal. Their toll-free help lines are open 24/7 and are quite easily accessible. Their Indianized medium of instruction is Hindi, and Marathi (at least in Mumbai) which does make the average consumer a tad uncomfortable.
The billing pattern is dismal. They send bills at their expediency. Occasionally, they may even ask you to pay the forthcoming months bills right away. There is a cornucopia of bill payment centers all over so paying them at your convenience is their precedence which is all very good.
In conclusion, Tata Indicom is not the best product money can buy. Even with a mean bill of about 500 a month (at best, the cheapest); a mundane Orange prepaid connection works out much cheaper and profitable to the consumer.