[the article says my personal experience - i did not follow any database. rather try to follow the recent trend of market . ]
1st let me straight point out who are operating mobile telephony in Kolkata, Vodafone, Airtel, BSNL, Reliance (CDMA & GSM) , Aircel , Tata Indicom (cdma), Virgin Mobile (cdma), MTS India (cdma) are here.
here, vodafone owns maximum customers, USP of Vodafone is good netwrk and moderate tariff. Second is Airtel , offers services just like Vodafone; just 5-10 rupees plus minus ! but both of them r on best mobile netwrk and at the same time costlier than other !!
Aircel is getting good no. of customers coz of its Ratecutters, Aircel2Aircel calls@10p ! Oops netwrk often jammed up !
Reliance cdma & tata indicom is under risk ! Reliance cdma's jaadu pack for all loc @50p for onetime 555 and 60p all loc for Rs 444 was a big flop ! virgin is another flop story along wth indicom, here people understand what means 1st 3 calls charged and then reduced call rate - a daily rental on consumer !
Reliance Smart GSM service - hw bad its ntwrk u cant guess if u dnt use it !! it rolled out services in kolkata before aircel came in town, and still its too bad for customers, well Smart's 35p all local for a starter kit worth Rs 50 worked out, but people are moving out as soon as the offer goes offline after 1st 6months !
BSNL - another loser in landlines , airtel n tata walky worked well in PCO business ! bsnl landlines are still the best one one can have even work under powe failure. and u need bsnl broadband u need landlines, as bsnl broadband is on dsl technolgy. watever bsnl broardband is still best in kolkata & suburban as airtel/tata/reliance do not penetrate the whole kolkata pincode area. well bsnl mobile sucks in a lot of way, sms delivery, high default call rate (Rs1.40) for liftime customers, need 2 recharge a 200 recharge to maintain lifetime and withdrawal of sms pack and then reintroducing it, but retails often dnt know bsnl's offers ! and netwrk congestion is there ofcourse.
now come to latest entrant in kolkata- that's MTS India, a joint venture between Russia's Sistema & India' Shyam Gr. MTS's offers are unmatched and attractive ! they have two offers to lure kolkatans - Rs 499 & Rs 99 ! most people are attrctd to MSaver99 as it's one-time power card to offer you calls to all local mobiles(MTS, nonMTS) at just 30p/min! this is awesome offer and as days go people taking this scheme, and come to MSaver 499, this is also one-time power card to offer 100000 mins free MTS-2-MTS, as 150min/day along with 10 sms/day to all local numbers. THis 499 card is bettr than any Gang/Club offer ! if u calculate u will find upto 2027 mid u can use this talkvalue, that means MTS 2 MTS is for almost lifelong ! .... and as cdma operator they brings cheaper handsets.
MTS network on kolkata is good enough for a new operator and its customer care is also good, as per my personal experiences ! ... however there is a problem with SMS sending & receiving, may be coz of its cdma and can send 160 characters at one throw ! negative point: no data usage scheme from MTS still !!
**lowest tariff in kolkata from aircel, STV 47, offers 25p/min to all loc calls after 1st 2 min (1st min - Rs1, 2nd min 50p) everyday; it means u need to spend [47+{(.75+.25)x30}] =Rs 97 per month to get local calls at 25p/min ! so you see who is cheaper. MTS is clear winner here.
a lot of people is now using MTS along with old operator, if MTS offers stay till MNP comes in, all will be burnt out !
Now look at the future : tata docomo,gsm venture of tatas is coming soon, probbaly in august and b4 puja season in kolkata idea cellular is planned to have a grand launch here, coming december Unitech may be here !! i feel after MTS, all r late . tata docomo's USP is per second pulse, i.e. 60p/min , MTS is better here too!
there r certains rules for new operators
> cheaper tariff for 1st 2/3/6/12 months
> cheaper tariff is applicable on own &other ntwrk !
MTS follws both rules ! and if sky is the limit, MTS reaches the limit !
soon we will find docomo & idea's business strategy to beat MTS , let MNP come, tariff will b more attractive , remember 30p = $ 0.00625.
have nice calling.....
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