I am a loyal Orange subscriber.I cannot imagine a service provider without the similar Orange and black face and child like voices in the advertisements.A long time of good service has made this trust possible.However, I have to shift to Pune for further studies.There is no Orange here, so my only choices in the GSM sector were AirTel, Idea and BSNL.BSNL was obviously out, AirTel was disqualified after some thinking because of their bad service I experienced in Mumbai.Idea looked like a good idea, but soon I was to realize my folly!
COST OF ACTIVATION:
The Pre-Paid pack comes in a blue colour with a smiling lady who looks like she’s flying.The SIM Card cost me INR 249.The documentation process was absolutely hassle free, as only a copy of my driving license and photograph was given.No troubles regarding documentation after that.I bought a Recharge Voucher of INR 1080, in which I got INR 875 of talk-time and INR 100 free as I was a new user.I was pretty impressed with this.
CALL COSTS:
INR 2.49 to any local GSM phone in home circle(PUNE CITY)
INR 2.99 to any local landline/CDMA phone in home circle(PUNE CITY)
INR 3.49 to any GSM phone outside home circle(PUNE CITY)
INR 3.99 to any landline/CDMA phone outside home circle(PUNE CITY)
INR 1.00 for any local SMS in home circle(PUNE CITY)
INR 2.00 for any SMS outside home circle(you know by now which city)
INR 5.00 for all international SMS.
INR 1.00(not sure) for Customer Care Helpline(4444)-this is atrocious, no service provider I know nowadays charges for their customer care.
NETWORK PERFORMANCE AND COVERAGE:
Idea has a good coverage in Pune City.I got full signal almost anywhere I went:Koregaon Park, Camp Area, Cantonment, Karve Road, Tilak Road, Kothrud, Bund Garden and so on.Sometimes when dialling a call, only a hiss was heard, which is bad in today’s high end advanced networks.No problems otherwise in the Network section
VALUE ADDED SERVICES:
This is where Idea is beaten badly, and loses out to all services providers.In todays world, almost every 2nd person has a colour screen phone supporting GPRS and all that.Taking this into consideration, Idea should have launched some multimedia services.It is frustruating for Idea users to see their AirTel counterparts download cool Polyphonic tunes and wallpapers.All Idea users can do is try new ideas to get Idea Cellular to launch GPRS.To add to the frustration, Idea does not even provide CALL WAITING or CALL DIVERTING.Which is really ancient.Any provider atleast has this.Due to lack of these features, I have missed a hell lot of calls, as I talk a long time and so many people did not get through me.Ironic, since their motto is something that says ’’Stay Connected..Always’’.Idea try to make up all this by offering shopping via phone, ringtone download and a highly failed M-Card service.These services were launched ages back by everyone else, so it is not something that will excite anyone.
BOTTOMLINE:
At the end of the day, I would have to say that Idea is a good provider only for those people using outdated handsets, which are also dissapearing fast and with them, if they dont improve, Idea will too.Idea should atleast start Call Waiting and Divert features, GPRS can wait as it has not caught on all that in India.Lets hope they get new Ideas very, very soon!