I am a prepaid service user of Airtel. I have been using this service for past 6-7 months. Though undoubtedly the quality of Airtel service is one of the best among all the mobile service providers but the call tariffs of Airtel will leave hardly a penny in ones pocket. Especially for the middle class or the people who can’t afford much expense of their monthly mobile bills. They are simply using smart marketing skills to earn their profit.
I am using this title for airtel because, as I have mentioned above the Airtel people are providing good services at the cost of their high tariffs. Here I’m stating few reasons in support of my allegations:
1) The call pulse is of 1 minute as compared to 15sec. for bsnl post paid & 30sec. for bsnl prepaid.
2) Another big Flaw in the service is that the call is being charged even if it is of 1sec. ie. While in comparison in Bsnl the call charges are not cut even for a 3sec. call. This is really very strict on part of airtel people & a very common problem being faced by the Airtel users.
For instance I would like to tell u that I have really waisted 100’s of rupees due to this, while making ISD calls and getting nothing in return.
3) Also the roaming charges of Airtel are costliest among all service providers.
4) The rates of SMS is also the costliest being 1Rs for local SMS, 2 Rs. for national SMS and 5Rs for International SMS.
5) SMS to service numbers like 8888, 550etc.. are being charged at Rs 3, which is again costlier then other service providers.
6) And last but not the least, Airtel provides the lowest talktime value on its prepaid card as compared to all other services.
So, what I feel that having so many cons just for providing good service will not help Airtel. As it is clear from present market scenario a large number of Airtel users are unsubscribing themselves from Airtel.
I think this should be a matter of concern for Airtel authorities and they should come up with some new user friendly plans to keep a hold in market in near future.