Date: 5 August 2004
People wishing to purchase a mobile phone for the first time face some questions (like I did). So many options/plans and claim of all operators that their service is the best make things more difficult. People have different paying capacity and different usage of phone, so no one service can essily be decided as good for all. Besides, at a particular city, there are many things in favour of one and against other operators. So I would narrate my search for a best mobile phone.
I expect my outgoing calls would be minimum, so I prefer a plan with low minimum monthly bill. For the same reason I did not mind high call rate.
I know once I use a connection for some months and my nunber is circulated among my friends/contsct, it would not be easy to change. Your relationship with phone company has to be long lasting.
I know more and more features are being introduced for mobile phone and I wanted to use SMS, e-mail, Web Browser, PC Connectivity, etc in my phone.
In the beginning the business of ’talk time’ and minimum recharge per month, etc looked confusing to me. After studying various options I concluded that CDMA/WLL is going to be the technology of tomorrow. I also concluded that private players believe in luring customers with dreams of lowest bill but later customers find their bills to be much higher than they expected. I guessed a public sector player like MTNL would not lie when they say ’transperancy makes us different’ but feared their support would be poor.
Most CDMA connections are available with company-programmed phone and it is difficult to find a CDMA handset in the open market for sale. At that time MTNL was out of stock of handsets and asked customers to purchase their own handsets from market (which was difficult, besides fear of incompatibility of features and high price due to lack of competition). After long search I concluded that no manufacturer/dealer sells CDMA phones directly, except Nokia offering 1-2 modles).
From friends I got report that MTNL’s CDMA (Garuda 1x) service is very poor because network signals is week in many parts of the city and connecting a call to/from it is difficult.
Yet I chose this connection (on 20 August 2004) despite all the negative reports and apathy of the people at the counter about specifications/availability of handset to be purchased -- hoping that the problems, if any, would be rectified in due course. All this while their website was silent about this non-availability of handsets; you discover it when you go to their counter. I chose a cheapest plan -- Rs. 200/- monthly rental plus call charges. There was no security deposit (I did not chose STD) and I got the connection at zero cost on my own handset. Call charges are very low on this connection due to pulse of 12 seconds and charges of 10/12/14 paise (WLL/GSM/Fixed phones) per pulse.
SMS charges are lowest (50 paisefor local) all phone pulse services (CLI, voice box, call divert, call waiting, etc) are free. Internet access is available and charges are only for airtime. They honestly charged the fixed rental for part of the month I took their connection. I was happy witht the bill. For any problem they have round the clock helpdisk with toll free numbers.
Sounds good! But it did not to me, because soon I discovered the reports of poor network were true. My contacts always complained that it was difficult to connect to my number and it was embarassing for me. I tried to divert calls to voicemail while phone was not reasonable, but many people could not record their message properly, besides it was inconvenient to check the voicebox frequently and call back the numbers. And voice box is no mobile phone, sometimes it is worse than landline when someone want to cotact you immediately. I also discovered that the SMS I sent were going in the black hole.
Neither I could receive any SMS. The web browser in the handset was not working. After some search I connected the handset to my PC through IR port, but download speed was very slow. Due to week network the battrey was exhausting faster (I read that CDMA technology make battrey last longer -- the handset manual says standby time is 15 days!).
Sure, free helpdesk was there but they won’t tell anything what is already documented on website/product brochure, etc. Nokia’s help was good but they said all features are controlled by service provider and there is no defect in the handset. After a few dozen call/complaints on the helpdesk I found out fax/phone number of ther General Manager (Customer Services) and (Operations-CDMA) and wrote down the whole story to them. Despite several calls I could not get any response from them besides ’the complaint is in boss’s folder’ or ’it has been forwarded to concerned person’. I also tried contact some personally but the people I could meet were equally ignorant about the functions of the phone.
At present the phone is of a limited use for me and I can’t rely on it that my contacts will be able to connect to me any time. I still believe that the service would be improved sooner or later, but I have no idea by when; and presently the serviceis very unsatisfactory for me. I concluded that I can not make them act unless they come up with a scheme to rectify the defects in their network on their own.
I gathered that they are planning for expansion of their CDMA network with 4 lakh lines and the unfunctional features would start become functional them. I also read that MTNL and BSNL are to be merged and after the merger roaming would be available on Garuda 1x. About call rates and technology I am assured that with MTNL they will be best at all times.
Recently they started again supplying pre-programmed handsets at reduced rates after receiving stock from Kyocera. At an exhibition this new handset was on display. I discovered that the SMS and web browser features were not functioning on their handset also. The person at the counter was ignorant about it. I do not know whether I am a happy customer or an unhappy one.
-- Naresh Kumar Saini (Delhi)