arijitmitter
Newbie
If I go back to 2003 (about July), Reliance Infocomm rolled out CDMA service and came out with Nokia 2280 a CDMA version of the GSM bestseller Nokia 3310/15. The phone was priced at Rs 10,800 to be paid in 36 instalments of Rs 300.
Call rates were about Re 1/min, unheard of at that time. They added millions of customers who paid Rs 500 down payment and took home a phone. The impact was immediate. Cell phone companies operating on the GSM spectrum drastically reduced their call charges. Cellphone makers realized the untapped market and launched far cheaper phones - by Dec 2003 Nokia 1100 cost Rs 4,000 and Samsung C100 with 65K color screen and polyphonic ringtone (cutting edge tech at that time) was selling for Rs 8,000.
Within 3 months this
cost about Rs 3,000 less than this !!
People dumped the R-Com Nokia 2280, refused to pay the remaining instalments and switched to GSM because of the ease with which one could buy new cheap handsets with more features. Reliance countered with Motorola C131 handsets priced at Rs 3,000.
If I look back at Nokia 2280 fiasco (many like my sister paid the entire Rs 10,800 over 3 years and swore never to buy Reliance again) should I wait for other companies waiting to dump Rs 4,000 LTE phones in the market or come up with a system like the US where handsets are subsidized (there are Rs 4,000 LTE phones now but they are very basic and have bad battery backup).
Does it make sense to buy 4G phone / home wifi device / dongle now or wait six months (unless one already owns one). What I am trying to say is, in 2003 the game changed very fast .. in six months the entire mobile scenario was different .. completely new handsets and mobile plans appeared out of thin air at very cheap prices. While in January 2003 executives carried a brick phone and paid Rs 8 for outgoing, by 2004 end everyone (including the local sabziwalla) had a sleek mobile.
P.S - all dates and amounts are from memory; any error is unintentional and regretted
P.P.S - this is posted in R-Jio section because any valuable contribution on this point can only be made by those visiting broadbandforum and directly clicking R-Jio subsection link. Those who are not interested in 4G are not visiting R-Jio subsection and hence cannot answer (if this is posted elsewhere on the forum).
Call rates were about Re 1/min, unheard of at that time. They added millions of customers who paid Rs 500 down payment and took home a phone. The impact was immediate. Cell phone companies operating on the GSM spectrum drastically reduced their call charges. Cellphone makers realized the untapped market and launched far cheaper phones - by Dec 2003 Nokia 1100 cost Rs 4,000 and Samsung C100 with 65K color screen and polyphonic ringtone (cutting edge tech at that time) was selling for Rs 8,000.
Within 3 months this
cost about Rs 3,000 less than this !!
People dumped the R-Com Nokia 2280, refused to pay the remaining instalments and switched to GSM because of the ease with which one could buy new cheap handsets with more features. Reliance countered with Motorola C131 handsets priced at Rs 3,000.
If I look back at Nokia 2280 fiasco (many like my sister paid the entire Rs 10,800 over 3 years and swore never to buy Reliance again) should I wait for other companies waiting to dump Rs 4,000 LTE phones in the market or come up with a system like the US where handsets are subsidized (there are Rs 4,000 LTE phones now but they are very basic and have bad battery backup).
Does it make sense to buy 4G phone / home wifi device / dongle now or wait six months (unless one already owns one). What I am trying to say is, in 2003 the game changed very fast .. in six months the entire mobile scenario was different .. completely new handsets and mobile plans appeared out of thin air at very cheap prices. While in January 2003 executives carried a brick phone and paid Rs 8 for outgoing, by 2004 end everyone (including the local sabziwalla) had a sleek mobile.
P.S - all dates and amounts are from memory; any error is unintentional and regretted
P.P.S - this is posted in R-Jio section because any valuable contribution on this point can only be made by those visiting broadbandforum and directly clicking R-Jio subsection link. Those who are not interested in 4G are not visiting R-Jio subsection and hence cannot answer (if this is posted elsewhere on the forum).
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