Think out of box, Think Hatke... Jab Life De Jhatke, Soch Thoda Hatke! Mumbai, March 2 Sir Richard Branson on Sunday launched the Virgin Mobile brand in India through a franchise arrangement with Tata Teleservices. Remember the days when we used to pay for incoming calls on our mobiles.
Mobile telephony has taken a complete U turn now. And guess what we got paid for receiving incoming calls. That you all are very well aware of thanks to the ostentatious advertisements by Virgin.
I am using Virgin Mobile Connection for past 40 days or so. Coming straight to the point what are the advantages and disadvantages of this service.
The Goods:- Virgin people pay 1 paissa for every 6 seconds of incoming from any network be it Mobile or Landline or WLL or any XYZ. ISD, STD or Local, the same rule is applicable for all. Those who are getting more incoming calls they can go with this.As they have to recharge with only Validity coupons and rest of the talk time comes when they receive the calls. Network connectivity is as good as Tata Indicom as it is using the same Tata Network. Mobile handsets are all good except the fact that none is bluetooth enabled. Vkewl which is infact Huawei C5330 is a real good handset with excellent value for money proposition. It has 1.3 MP camera, MP3, FM, et al..all except Bluetooth. Vbling also looks great with mirror finish. Finally the best thing is the cool advertisements making inroads into our TV sets. They are just mind boggling.
Anyways, we are talking about services here not advertisements. But Traffic Police ad will remain in memory of Indian masses for long period. The Bads:- SMS Pack....... RS 26 ..sms local r @ 20p for 30dys Rs 25 Recharge talktime say its Rs21 so wat u get @ Rs 51 , local sms 105 Airtel Rs 51 ...500local sms for 30days Tata Rs 30 ....1000local sms for 30days STD Pack...... Rs. 59..STD@re 1 in Virgin with 0/- talktime Rs 71..STD@re 1 in Airtel with 30/- talk time STD Rates without STD Pack Rs. 2.40....S*cks big time; One of the highest in the country Local Call Charges for first 2 minutes For the first 2 minutes in a day the local call charges are re 1 after that it is re 0.50/- minute. CONCLUSION Virgin really is okayish ....except you are a call receiver (I got a maximum of Rs. 16.05 in a day; not bad)..
But still kudos to the innovative incoming paying scheme as well as bringing class advertisements for us. Seriously I don’t see any reason switching to Virgin except if you are in heavy call receiving business. Even for girlfriend/boyfriend kinda setup there are better schemes as some providers do provide free calling in their own networks.