And why are we comparing NZ with India
Oranges and apples can't be compared this is ridiculously hilarious
I can buy a Voda connection on prepaid for 2 dollars in the south PAC and go international roaming with incoming SMS free
We can't do this in
India
Moral of the story - it's an incorrect comparison
I'm comparing NZ with India because I happen to know the wholesale costs of bandwidth in both countries, as well as the cost of infrastructure since they are both using the same manufacturers equipment, and believe it or not, they're approximately the same in both instances. Even the cost per customer for the 3G spectrum license works out to be within a few-cents per customer per year.
So I would call that a pretty fair comparison.
As for Vodafone in the South Pacific, where on earth can you get a prepaid SIM for $2? Here it costs $30. And incoming SMS while roaming isn't free. In India I got my SIM for what... Rs99 or so and my incoming SMSes have been free whereever I've been all over the world, so how can you say that you can't do that in India?
---------- Post added at 10:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:30 AM ----------
u are right mr NZ . soon HSPA+ usb doungle and handset flood the market ,
as per investment about docomo 3g network , they are right about 500Million dollar, because , there GSM network is already 3G ready, so i think they need just bts to start their service , all other back hull things like fiber optics and
microwave has already up to date
Tata's network would have been 3G ready from day 1 because it's a fairly new network - they would have only started building it in 2008, so I'd suspect that they already have a completely 3G capable network, and they are rolling it out in bits to ensure that the network doesn't "fall over" due to newly increased load (and also will tell them where they might need to upgrade backbone or interconnecting links) - as a service provider I can fully understand this move, but from the consumer side it looks a bit half arsed.
As for the fiber and whatnot, that's all around NZ as well, and I don't think Vodafone owns any of it's own (just it's towers) - there is a huge amount of publicly accessable fiber around, and for it's landline/broadband services it uses the same last-mile copper as everyone else, thanks to the unbundled loop.
The point I'm trying to make is that despite a significantly larger population and coverage areas, they're *ONLY* spending $500mn on their network - that's only about 2500Cr, and considering their Fiber Network *in Mumbai alone* cost something like Rs240Cr this really... isn't that much.
---------- Post added at 10:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:40 AM ----------
Hey guys this is a talk with tata customer care inquiring about 3G
I would suggest that, despite the press releases saying that the network is capable of 21mbit/s, because the consumer hardware isn't around to utilize that kind of speed - and even the 7.2mbit/s devices being few and far between, he's covering their arse by suggesting what real-world speeds you should get, as such, 2.4mbit/s on most devices.
---------- Post added at 10:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:42 AM ----------
Tata Docomo is a useless company..IMHO. I can confirm that even though my city was listed for 3G launch, they have not been able to offer me a "free trial". There was no mention of 100 MB as the "limit" (not on their crappy web site) but I had a great time ripping them apart
(
Tata Docomo 3G: Failed start? « Broadband Blog). They haven't upgraded it as yet. The morons in customer care ( I think after vodafone, they get the prize), are still unable to provide any details on 3G. Worse still, if the usage limits are in force in "Free trial", I can well imagine what their expected rates are going to be. The only reason I took up Docomo here is because of it's relatively clutter free GPRS which is an acceptable alternative in case BSNL is down and at least all my mails are streamed in on my mobile.
Take this up with the TRAI. If they are advertising a free trial and they don't mention this limit, this is against the regulations. Take a screenshot for proof.
---------- Post added at 10:54 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:43 AM ----------
I strongly disagree. Partly because they are a bunch of incompetent idiots ( I wonder who is reading this; this is my own personal opinion) or at least they would not have bothered with a botched up start...Worse still, with even worse "trial offers".
The organization ought to reflect competency and urgency of purpose. I can understand that nothing is perfect but at least the company should come out clean (and clearly) about the issues at hand and follow this up with a strong dedicated after sales efforts. Trust me, that by itself would help a lot.
None of the companies (and Tatas included) have their official email id's listed, no way to contact them for any complaint escalation, there seems to be no commitment to resolve issues at the earliest etc etc. Even if I am a prepaid customer, I am paying my hard earned money to avail the services. For the same reason, having a Twitter presence is of no use if Tatas cannot ensure proper services in time.
No one, in their right mind, would care to abuse anyone if their grievances were handled carefully, gently and with a commitment of purpose. You are setting up a company and all the "pre-sales"goodwill would vanish in thin air if the customer care representative doesn't care two hoots about any complaints being escalated. Interestingly, I found Airtel to be brilliant for after sales (as far as I was concerned) because there was a strong commitment from them. At least in my area.
Competent or not, I'm merely defending their right to put a 100MB limit on their free trial. If they didn't, can you imagine how inundated their network would become in a matter of MINUTES if people are downloading as much as possible at 2, 3 even 6mbit/s (assuming they have the right hardware)?
I too have found Tata to have some serious communication issues within their organization even at the wholesale level, but on the whole, customer service seems to be something that isn't taken particularly seriously by almost any company in India - consumercomplaints.in would suggest that Telcos and ISPs are among the worst offenders.
As for my company, my sales and support people should know our products inside and out. I hire based on enthusiasm and general competence. I still have the 6 CVs of my sales team in a folder in my suitcase which I haven't read, because I hired those I liked and who were able to give me good, straight answers - and the rest went home.
My teams will also spend half a day per week catching up and/or reading the latest news & training about the products, offerings etc, and unlike Airtel and so forth, I have no plans to have a retention department because I would like for our service to be so good that it would be unnecessary.
We also will have ONLY which plans are published - if/when a plan changes, we notify all customers and they have 30 days to decide if the change is acceptable. This way we don't get any of those "I'm getting 5mbit/s for 2499 but he's getting it for 1999... WTF I"M GETTING RIPPED OFF!!!!1!!11!" kind of situations.
But that's just me.
---------- Post added at 11:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:54 AM ----------
Whatever you said, I agree with you.
And whatever you said, might have sounded umm pleasing if I was earning enough to afford 2Mbps standard internet connection for my personal computer.
Then I would have a less mental issue to accept that "50MB for $6 " is fair :rofl:
We don't have any other choice but to expect from these companies. We can't take 3G just for our lil mobile based activities, it means more than that for us ...
I'm using 3G with my phone tethered to my
laptop at the moment because the DSL connection where I am SUCKS - 64kbit/s after the fair usage policy woohoo! And you guys bitch about 256k
Expensive internet services and weird behavior of our Indian Government in this matter makes everything frustrating for a normal middle class consumer like me.
So instead of just yelling that we people are ungrateful, I guess, mhm you should suggest [and work as you are a director of some company already :imbored:] how to make things better.
Otherwise, let us complain angrez babu :madness:
That's what I'm doing. Unfortunately I don't have a 3G license yet so I can't help in the mobile market at this stage, but let's face it - griping about a free offer does show ungratefulness.
I do see the point of view that it's not mentioned that the limit is 100MB and thus you might feel a bit annoyed (especially had you already gone over that limit and were being charged per MB), but from the service providers perspective, as I've mentioned, can you imagine what it would be like to actually try and use the network if it was a free-for-all for 7 days?
I can predict what would happen for you now: everything would stop working and EVERYONE would be unable to access it and Tata would have an even bigger image problem on it's hands.
