We are not very heavy users of cell phones - yet need two
phones for time-critical information exchange everyday to
manage home/work/daycare for kid.
Have been Airtel customers for 2 years now. No problems with
billing etc yet. Since we have two ’dependent’ phones, calls
between these two are free and that helps. Have also got
roaming on one phone and out on the highway - their network’s
quite decent. Also they did settle the security deposits
against the bills when converted the connection from a personal
to a corporate one.
Cribs:
Their customer care people are not too sure of how things
work or even their products. I’ve got very different replies
from different people. Also - no effective way of giving
feedback on service/pricing. The call centre ppl are not
empowered enough. I mean 50/- for detailed billing is quite
absurd, as is 100/- for roaming ’rental’ - charge me the
airtime.
Given the hot topic - CDMA vs GSM - I have no technical
reasons to abandon GSM and costs wise - given how large the
Bharti network is I’m positive they’ll have smart bundles
comprising their landlines, cell, and internet products soon
at rates to match anyone. After all - a Bangalore to Delhi
call can be routed easily thru Airtel/Touchtel networks
alone and they should be able to give cheap connects.
The gripes are really more to do with the way the cellular
industry charges for stuff:
- 250onwards rentals for what ? The phone is mine, I’m paying
for airtime and there are no free calls!
- 100/- for enabling roaming every month is steep. At least
do it only when I use it (auto on/off)
- detailed billing + CLI should probably be a common feature.
Worst case charge me 25/- for both. 75/- is criminal.
- When I call STD over ur network - make my airtime free -
u’re earning enuf from the call anyway. This will boost
ur long distance business like crazy.
Problem with the entire industry - not just cell people.
- calls shouls be charged uniformly across networks - really
now i’ll have to think of whom I’m calling, calling thru,
and calling from! They should worry about splitting profits
transparently to the user.