December 27 2005
Talk, talk for life at just Rs. 999!!
The competition in cell service providers has reached a new height. Thanks to Tata Indicom for starting it 
Their new scheme costing 2500 gave 2 years’ validity and consequently incoming calls for 2 years without recharging. This caused panic within other CDMA/GSM cell operators and windfall for Tata. It increased its market share manifold (although it still remains quite low comparatively).
Reliance came up with its own schemes 
. Orange (now Hutch) in Mumbai came with a recharge of Rs. 999/- that gave 1 year’s validity (so incoming calls for 1 year) and talktime of Rs. 500/-. Thats pretty reasonable. But there still was some scope of reductions and Airtel came up with a life time validity package for Rs. 999/-. (Note: No details or direct links from Airtel site is available at present. The site seems to be under upgrade )
Hutch in a span of few days matched it with Hutch chalta rahe. Only thing that one needs to do is rechrge it once in 6 months, even if it is with as low recharge as Rs. 10 in case of Hutch.
I am pretty impressed. Chrages in India is one of lowest in the world and we are still experiencing further reduction!! This is what competition can do. Now once someone spends Rs. 999/- he can remain mobile by spending only Rs. 20/- in a year! Is there any more scope for reduction? Only time will tell. But the new regime of CPP (Calling Party Pays, i.e. free incoming) that was introduced some years ago has done wonders for the cell penetration. Today, I saw a BMC sweeper on the road talking on his cell! The telecom revoultion seems to have arrived 
Hmm.. Those lifetime validity offers are just another way to fool customers .. Just look at the call charges .. Its flat Rs. 1.8 flat per minute .. Compare this to my Reliance’ Re 0.8 per minute ..
And you cannot avail of any special offer on lifetime package too… Its only good for those who use mobile for incoming calls only ..
Yes of course they are for people who get more incoming calls than outgoing ones. For outgoing calls, there are hundreds of PCOs around.
Per call rates in Reliance may be cheaper, but what about the fixed monthly charges? How much are they? How many calls do I need to make it in a month @ 0.8 to be at an advantage over calls @ 1.8?
And think about the people who don’t have a phone (not even a landline). For example, I have now given a cell to our driver. It makes it so damn convenient for me! I don’t care whether he gets to make any calls or not. All that matters is that now I can contact him anytime from anywhere! Even his family is happy. They can simply go to a PCO and speak to him! In my opinion, these new schemes have increased connectivity and convenience.
All this stuff started with Tata Indicom offering 2yrs incomin, then all operators came together with lifetime incomin’ n all.
But my Cellone rocks! It has the cheapest rates than any operator in INDIA.
Jai Cellone
True. It was all started by Tata Indicom as I have also mentioned. Cellone is by BSNL. Its step-brother MTNL is also providing services, but only in Mumbai and Delhi. Don’t know about Delhi, but in Mumbai, their service is pathetic!!
Even if your cell phone shows full signal strength, the caller may get a message of the user being out of covering area 
I tried it for a month recently and gave it up. It was way too sub-standard!