My Hands-On With All GSM Data Services in Kolkata

With two 3G modems at hand – ZTE MF190 and Huawei E1550 I tried all available GSM players available at Kolkata circle. Both the dongles support 3G though ZTE MF190 supports upto 7.2Mbps, while Huawei E1550 supports upoto 3.6Mbps downlink speed. I did experimenting with their 2G packs and come to an conclusion that Uninor & BSNL is best at my home place, Barrackpore. I did not try my hands with 3G players, as they are costly and beyond the reach of most users.

Disclaimer: This view is absolutely of mine, and based upon

MVNO in India - Are Virgin & T24 Really MVNO?

MVNO [Read more on Wikipedia] in India is not active. Though often we mistook Virgin Mobile India & T24 as MVNO on TTSL's CDMA & GSM network.

Actually that's not true, pan India MVNO license is priced Rs 85crore. Neither VMI & T24 is taken this license.
Rather both of them are products from Tata Teleservices (TTSL).

VMI (www.virginmobile.in) is TTSL's youth focused brand, here TTSL uses Virgin brand name for its own product.
T24 or Talk24 (www.t24mobile.com) is also TTSL's product specially for Future grp customers. T24 is a kind of royality program from Future Grp.

Virgin Mobile India - My report

Status confirmed: Virgin going to ring GSM arena! 

  well it's old news, i just take extra time to make it my own report and analysis ..

Virgin Mobile, well known all over world for their MVNO policy for providing mobile/telephony services and attractive and innovative offers to end users, launched its services in India on March 2, 2008, a year back. But they added just around 10% customers  w.r.t. Tata's new customers. 

is ViMo failed in India??

After talking to a no. of people I find some comments, follow them and you will understand why Virgin Mobile did not get enough response from youth, though it targets youth sector of customers. 

"I already have 2 SIMs."  
"I have a 10K GSM handset!" 
"If it's GSM I could try it"  
"I don’t want to take 2 handsets with me - it’s awkward!"  
“Oh! In my area Tata network sucks! Why I take Virgin!!"  
'I don’t find a virgin mobile shop in my area'  
'Well if I bought a virgin from Kolkata, how can I recharge in suburban'  
'I have an unlocked CDMA set, but they are not selling only the SIM’ 
'Can I use VM with my Nokia N70?' 
‘I need a service provider offering free talktime in own network’
‘Virgin ads are awesome and kewl !’
'only mobile store selling it, and only with handset ! '
"i visited VM usa/canada sites.and here handsets are just bogus!! "

before analyzing these comments, let's go straight to Virgin Mobile's joint venture with SingTel in Singapure. there ViMo totally kicked out due to Saturated market. Well its India, and market is not saturated still. 

ViMo targets youth. and they started with some entry level CDMA handsets which makes them most unattractive, at the same time when VM ads rock young minds and their 10p incoming credit (which is now 5p/1min) offer just make them super launched. all my friends knew about it! 

Virgin made its campaigning in colleges (i saw them on presidency college also) , but powered with CDMA tech from Tata. they can't make a new customer for just a mere Rs 50 like R-com GSM launch offer. VM requires atleast Rs 1800(price of handset) to make a new customer. To make it worst, TMS (the mobile store) chain was selling VM sim cards along with handsets. FYI Virgin is partner in TMS venture with Essar. that's a bad move. 

but VM has scope! 'coz till MVNO is not accepted in India, if it's soon allowed after election Virgin will be more powerful. so at this moment entering in GSM arena in time could be useful for them. launching calling cards for night/weekend/full day unlimited plans would be useful. even they can offer sms @ 10p/5p as per users' choice , say u can have local SMS 100 and its multiples @ Rs. 10,20, 30 ..etc . and i like they launch handsets which they offer in USA, Canada, Australia . Well they just launched some good models of Samsung. but most of all they need proper marketing - all they did to target metros specially, but they forget youths of suburbans ..

& i got news that Japan's NTT Docomo telecom will be partner in Tata's GSM service ,so we can hope this new operator will be a powerhouse and so will be Virgin Mobile India.

that's done .... wishing all the best !!