airtel has got a new mobile customer!

I have to admit that airtel was the first mobile service I used. That was long time ago in Chandigarh.

Since then I have tried a lot other options including Hutch, Tata Indicom and even Aircel.

Now, I am back to airtel. And it took a lot of effort on my part. I have waited for Mobile Number Portability forever… it still has not arrived. airtel stores in my regions turned out to be awful. They are out of prepaid sim cards pretty much all the time. I had to get airtel customer to do something about it.

And when I went to the airtel store to get the sim card recharged, they were incidentally out of prepaid recharge (amazing! Huh?). Anyways… I am now using an airtel prepaid number with their pretty nice data package that costs 100 bucks for 2GB. And it works on roaming!

Data on roaming was the primary reason for my switch to airtel this time around. Of course, they are one of the four options I have here in Gurgaon for 3G services whenever they are launched. But I am not very optimistic about that. I can only hope that their existing 2G plan would remain available and the company would not temper with its speeds in the future.

Tata DOCOMO is being accused by a lot of folks that they have made their 2G speeds so slow now that they have launched 3G.

airtel is the new annoying Koffee with Karan

If you are watching television for the last 2-3 days, you would have seen the new airtel ads.

They are everywhere. In the newspapers, on the radio and on television.

In fact, they have now become as annoying as the ads for Koffee with Karan on Star World.

airtel needs to slow down. Their new ads are focused on video calling feature on 3G. They have not even launched 3G officially in the market. Majority of 3G device owners are not even going to use video calling (software compatibility, devices lacking front facing cameras and so on).

It is just getting freaking annoying.

Broadband revolution in India by Airtel?

Airtel has an interesting tweet on their official account. It goes like this:


Bharti Airtel to unleash Broadband Revolution in India – To launch 3G in 2010. for more info: http://bit.ly/dv7R2vless than a minute ago via web

The company claims that the launch of 3G on their network would bring about a broadband revolution in the country.

The same company has utterly failed to do anything with their wired broadband services. 256Kbps is what they believe broadband is.

3G is not going to change anything. Prices are going to be high. Unlimited plans are likely to be out of reach for most of us. And they are likely to feature the famous Airtel Fair Usage Policy.

This PR bullshit is getting crazy. Airtel would do good by fixing the mess they have created on their ‘actual’ broadband services. Get rid of FUP. Launch some exciting pure unlimited plans at competitive prices. Get some shit done. Please.

3G license for Gurgaon?

Last time I checked Tata DOCOMO, Idea and Vodafone had 3G licenses for Haryana.

I assumed that applied to Gurgaon too.

But this tweet from the Tata DOCOMO team is rather mmm surprising.


@Sushubh Yes, we DO have the licence 4 Haryana, but not for Gurgaon! #3GLifeless than a minute ago via web

Gurgaon is considered part of Delhi NCR above Haryana?

That means Airtel, Reliance and Vodafone are going to serve in Gurgaon?