About me,
I use two mobile phones, a CDMA (RIM) phone and a GSM (Hutch) phone. Hence I am in a position to comment on both the technologies and their intricacies. I have also used BSNL- Cellone, Airtel and Ushafone and thus possess a unique insight on these telecos.
Reliance India Mobile (RIM)- A telecom company, which stopped at nothing short of revolutionizing the Indian Telecom sector. I still remember the time when we had to shell out obnoxious amount of money for local calls. That all did change, but nothing short of a revolution could have made the transition so swift and so overwhelming. Today from the age of paying for incoming calls we are in the age where distance is no longer a yardstick for pricing calls; the network which one uses is. Today we have one of the cheapest rates for Telecommunications in the world (The irony here is that, data- Internet is still very expensive when compared with the likes of South Korea, Malaysia etc.).
RIM, since its very outset has been embroiled in controversies, but like its parent company it has managed to brave them, and come out even stronger.
The main advantages that RIM had were
1) Reliance entered the Telecom market rather late compared to its contemporaries and was saved from large investments into outdated technology. It therefore was not forced to recover the cost of such expensive equipment. This is the main argument the GSM providers give for their high call rates.
2) CDMA, the technology in itself is far superior from GSM technology. The entire RIM infrastructure was built to take on Brobdingnagian and gigantic amounts of data. Hence their ability to take on so many subscribers in so little time so effortlessly.
3) Initially with the DAPO offer, when people had to deposit post-dated cheques, the response which it got was abysmal and I dare say, deserved. But since then the prices have dropped several notches, to the level that they gave out mobile phones at Rs. 500/- But, the real genius was the person who thought of financing the sets in such a clever and subtle manner. This approach is what won them customers in the first place. Once the wall of the GSM ‘fort’ the great Indian Middle class was breached, the rest was to follow inevitably.
4) Now that the company has been established, has experienced fabulous growth and has been recognised as the “common man’s phone”, it has launched several schemes, where they, like their GSM counterparts have enabled the customer to buy old set or sets from third party vendors.
5) Street smarts, more than anything helped the company sell its products. The entire 40p scam was sheer brilliance despite of the fact it was a gimmick. But in an industry where dirty and bogus marketing gimmicks had long been the modus operandi, this offer which actually did have a shred of truth was almost angelic and grabbed the attention of the masses.
6) Digital Phone- At a time when the likes of Nokia 3300 ruled the roost, RIM gave the general public what GSM providers couldn’t even dream of. Their phones were small, handy, had features that the GSM phone thrice its price would tend to offer. Never before had the public seen anything as remarkable as R- World, which for long had been absolutely free.
7) Pricing- India, despite of all the hoopla about the rising incomes of people is still an immensely price sensitive market. Pricing here is of paramount importance. RIM, was a little late in understanding this, but when it did, it did well and was smart enough to strategise all its future plans around the pricing pivot.
I can go on listing what advantages Reliance had, but the fact is that RIM had converted all their disadvantages into advantages, and anyone who does that is bound to succeed.