TATA DOCOMO launched its GSM service inHyderabad on 16 July 2009. Having been one of their earliest customers using one of the 1st 100 numbers in their’90300’ series since a week of launch, I am sharing this review with you.
ACTIVATION PROCESS - Much better than AIRCEL 9which took 6 days for activation), the DOCOMO number was activated in 2 days flat. was on Roaming in Chennai when the service started. however could not log into DOCOMO TAMIL NADU and had to use AIRCEL TAMILNADU & IDEA TAMILNADU.
VERIFICATION - The verification went off very smoothly with my home being verified, even though I was unavailable not in Hyderabad at the time. Seems this is just a formality and the Address Verification(AV) is just for their records!
CREDIT LIMIT - CL assigned was worse than AIRCEL(who gave me Rs 1500) - here I have been given Rs 800. However with a one paise second charging this is more than sufficient for me!
NETWORK: COVERAGE - They have the best coverage at time of launch — 612 towns & 1, 149 villages in Andhra Pradesh. With my experience too no omplaints here, in fact for a new operator they seem to have covered both HYDERABAD & SECUNDERABAD pretty well! Guess this is the advantage they have as DOCOMO(Tata GSM) is sharing INDICOM(Tata CDMA) infrastructure.
NETWORK: CONNECTIVITY - No issues, and calls get connected to localAndhra Pradesh numbers of AIRTEL, VODAFONE and IDEA - the three major operators - without any hassles or having to dial a second time.
VALUE ADDED SERVICES - Lots of freebies here and this is the best part of TATA DOCOMO:
- PER SECOND BILLING - charges 1p/second for ALL LOCAL & STD calls, mobile or any landline across Andhra Pradesh & India
- "CALL ME TUNES" - the ring back tone service is also charged per second: 1st 30 seconds free and then @ 5p/second with a Rs30/month subscription charge
GPRS/EDGE - the exclusive services include TATA I Channel, Drive in WAP, Social networking, MMS etc are included in GRPS section with no national monthly rental charges, free browsing while in home network & Tata DoCoMo networks while roaming nationally. Charges are reasonable @ 10P/10KB while using non-Docomo networks, and Rs 5.50/10KB on International Roaming.
SMS SERVICES - one can get updated on latest News, Cricketing Action, Jokes, Astro Alerts and much more by just Typing’Menu’ and sending it to 54321(Toll Free)
- TIMED SMS SERVICE - allows one to send an SMS at your desired date and time.
- MISSED CALL ALERTS - totally pre-activated and free of cost