GPRS rates of 1 paise/kb; call rates of 1 paise/second – Just some of the cool features India’s latest mobile operator Tata Docomo is bringing. The GSM service is a joint venture between India’s very own Tata Tele Services and Japan’s predominant network NTT Docomo. Tata’s CDMA service Indicom hasn’t been all that good, but the attractive tariffs enough should be able to woo people to the new service. Considering number portability is just around the corner, prices shoud be dropping even more as the operators would be ready to do anything to prevent customers from jumping ship.
At the moment I’m using Vodafone. The service is pretty decent and most of my friends are using it too. But the feature that I’ve been attracted to the most has obviously been its super-good Internet services. 10 p/10 kb at zero rental is music to the ears of any net-savvy person. It has hepled me to keep in touch with Facebook and Twitter. But now that Docomo has gone one step further in charging users for every 1 kb rather than 10 kb, it will only make net on the go even more cheaper. Btw Airtel’s internet sucks simply because it has no zero rental GPRS plans. I don’t really talk on the phone but that may just change with Docomo’s 1 sec pulse. But even this may change with Docomo’s arrival. This is even better than the 10 paise per call offers on Vodafone and other networks. On the flipside it lacks enough SMS offers. This could affect its popularuty among the text-crazy teens and the youth.
The government had said Mobile Number Portability would be ready by mid-2009. This is especially helpful when you are unhappy about your service provider, and not being able to switch to another provider because you don’t want to lose your current cell phone number. But now, you may as well say good-bye to such fears as you can switch to a different operator while retaining your old number. This means increased competetion and ultimately it is the consumer who gets to smile. Docomo’s launch is thus very well timed.
I have to admit that Vodafone is definitely in danger of losing at least one happy and loyal customer, Moi. But whether that happens or not is in their hands. The customer’s motto is simple –Gimme More.
Cogito Ergo Sum 