Hm.... well thats what ppl used to say about BSNL and even in some quarters they changed it to Bhagwan Se bhi Nahi Lagega :-) .. but au contra to the popular belief I found that services of excel are parallel to any other service provider.
Let us discuss the few points...
1 Entry mode- there was intially some problems related with acquiring new sim connection in many parts of india but now the conditions have improved and I found no difficulty in obtaining one sim for me
2 Coverage area- in my part ( Rajasthan) the converage is phenomenal and alomst every where you will find Cellone tower
3 Call charges- here I strongly recommend BSNL coz unlike other cell providers they are not going to cheat you . ( many will agree as I suffered a lot of Airtel, Hutch and Reliance) , there are practically no hidden charges and the call rate is very economic..
4 customer care- here I frankly admit some pitfalls from BSNL ..
5 connectivity- my friends will notice that there are some problem related with call drops or connectivity.esp between 5 pm to 8 pm its very difficult to connect with other phones but I think that this problem is due to the large pool of customers of bsnl who extensively use the network. the remedy is only to increase towers in urban areas. I request bsnl people to take care of this problem. this is the only grave problem where bsnl needs certain improvement.
overall I experience with cell one is excellent and I recommend it to the users of mouthshut forum.