Though Vodafone is trying to provide the most attractive and competitive 3G Tariff packs, seems Vodafone is showing a bad eye towards GPRS users in AP circle.
A recent change in the 2GB for 98Rs – 4 Weeks pack showed a sudden sign of disappointment to its users. The DATA benefit suddenly showed a sign of decline to 1.5 GB for 4 weeks instead of 2 GB with same validity and price. A whooping 0.5GB of DATA benefit cut for the same price and validity.
Also if you have observed carefully Vodafone is trying to bring out a different strategy on Validity of benefits by cutting off 2 days from default validity period of a month / 30 days an usual followed by all operators and adding 2 days to its profit gain.
Instead of 30 Days Default validity it started a 4 weeks or 28 days Validity benefit to its special packs.What ever be it negative or positive,we have a good indication on promoting the latest 3G Technologies for affordable prices but this should not add any disadvantage to EDGE/GPRS phone users.
I have also tweeted the same on twitter to @VodafoneIN and got interesting replies.
How Do yo look at this move from Vodafone?
jigar June 26, 2012 at 11:24 pm
In Gujarat BSNL gives 2GB DATA ON RECHARGE OF (2G PACK) 98Rs.with validity of 30 days,But it gives 3gspeed upto 3.6 mbps on manually 3g network selection in 3g handset & also in 3g data card…
Upesh June 23, 2012 at 8:05 pm
@Saurabh Your are correct ,i agree, but should know that nonstandradized equipment is not a big problem. you can order to company to make things as per your needs, because you are not going to buy a mango which you cannot order to seller in a non standardized taste. So this is not a problem. BSNL is in problem because bsnl is not deciding to compete with private operators. BSNL is only doing a formal duty of feeding his employee by a formal GSM service and other services like a good broadband (but as soon as someone will decide to lauch a similar broadband then bsnl will be wiped from broadband service also). I urges to all BSNL employees from top to bottom level that bsnl is psu , ok, but it is not an ARMY or HP, BP, Indian oil or something like these where govt always put money but not expect a profit. bsnl is a income source of govt. like other PSus even govt could sell BSNL to any private opertors then in this case bsnl employee will beg to govt to save bsnl (remember maruti udyog ltd.) so give a best output to customers of bsnl and dont behave like a babus. bsnl should adopt and give tough compition to private operators. so start 4G as soon as possible.
Saurabh June 23, 2012 at 1:47 pm
I know this very well that BSNL is a PSU. But it doesn’t mean they don’t have to pay for spectrum. Let me make some points clear to you-
1. BSNL returned spectrum to reduce debt burden on the company which is mounting every day, month and year from 2010.
2. The band in which BSNL got BWA spectrum was a non-standardized band and no company make or supply telecom equipment for that band. It is useless even for private companies. In future BSNL will introduce 4G only if they will be able to reduce debt on their books which is a distant dream as Babus will not let it happen.
BSNL which once had 40,000 crores as cash reserves and was enjoying heavy interest on deposits from banks has now roughly 30 crores cash reserve and with this it will not be easy for company to take 4G spectrum.
The loot by Babus has brought BSNL to such a worst situation otherwise BSNL would have been at the top position if they had put that money for network expansion and network maintenance.
A bigger part of revenues and profit go in paying salary to huge number of employees and some of those are these to sit idle and enjoy benefits from Govt.
Govt has to divest stake in BSNL by listing it on stock exchange but market conditions are not favorable these days and also employee union of BSNL is opposing this from long time. Oohh, so much mess.
Upesh June 22, 2012 at 11:23 pm
@Saurabh BSNL is not a private company its an undertaken by govt., this is to always remember.returning license does not means BSNL will not start $g in future.actually temp govt. will hold BSNL license with them and will sold to private firm only if it needed too much by people due to proper reason or govt need money or BSNL want to start 4G – according to my understandings.
Saurabh June 22, 2012 at 8:32 am
In case of Airtel, ZTE has implemented 4G network in Kolkata and Huawei in Banglore.
BSNL is not going to start 4G services because of non-standardized band and have already returned spectrum in 17 circles. For 2G/3G network expansion, ZTE not Huawei is the front runner as they are the lowest bidder for 15.36 million lines. As per the contract rules, other bidders had to match the one with lowest bid but Huawei, NSN and Alcatel-Lucent denied to match ZTE’s bid as it was too low at $45/line and whole contract will be awarded to ZTE now. Before it was in 60:40 ratio..
Saurabh June 22, 2012 at 8:30 am
In case of Airtel, ZTE has implemented 4G network in Kolkata and Huawei in Banglore.
BSNL is not going to start 4G services because of non-standardized band and have already returned spectrum in 17 circles. For 2G/3G network expansion, ZTE not Huawei is the front runner as they are the lowest bidder for 15.36 million lines. As per the contract rules, other bidders had to match the one with lowest bid but Huawei, NSN and Alcatel-Lucent denied to match ZTE’s bid as it was too low at $45/line and whole contract will be awarded to ZTE now. Before it was in 60:40 ratio.
Upesh June 21, 2012 at 10:41 pm
@Abhijith airtel have choose ZTE for 4G infrastructure. and BSNL is about to choose huawei.
atanu June 21, 2012 at 6:52 pm
Here in orissa vodafone already hiked his gprs 1gb for 98rs
chandra June 21, 2012 at 5:40 pm
In West Bengal Tata Docomo giving 4 GB for Rs.102 and 8 GB for Rs.149 with good speed too.
ravin June 21, 2012 at 4:37 pm
Good move. I have already done so. I am really enjoying the power of 3G.
Khasim June 21, 2012 at 11:44 am
Even for me also.. its showing full signal but Net is not connecting.. This situation is at Hitec city main area.. Very bad.. wanna move to aircel.. It has RC 128 with 500MB 3G data.. after that unlimited 2G data for 30 days validity.
Rajesh June 21, 2012 at 9:49 am
Here in chennai, they give only 1GB, thats why i changed to idea
Dilip June 21, 2012 at 9:49 am
the gprs service of vodafone was very bad. we dont even get calls and messages during net browsing.
Arora June 21, 2012 at 8:35 am
Switch to Docomo RC70-2.5GB Best network coverage in mumbai…
Abhijith June 21, 2012 at 7:16 am
@Upesh
Airtel’s network is with alcatel ,nokia siemens,ericsson . . Not with zte . . And computer hardware,software maintenance is with IBM . . . Voice support customer care is with hinduja global and ibm. .
novicefreak1 June 20, 2012 at 10:03 pm
Upesh June 20, 2012 at 10:01 pm
yes all operators in india are looting consumers, same is case with multinational vodafone. when vodafone was launched(actually aquired hutch) we were hoping a good service from them but after a year they started behaving like looters and hence as a result i left many numbers from airtel, voda, idea, reliance, and now stopped at Bsnl. Hutch was very good they were first operators who provided negative balance. Also our consumer forum is very bad ,nobody fears them, and operators known about these conditions hence they are rude to constumers.I am sure that our native companies like airtel reliance idea cannot provide a world class service specially in mansoon weather. consider airtel they are expanding in BPL countries like bangaldesh and africa. I am also sure that not a single operator from india could compete with orange, AT and T, sprint , verizon, Also our operator are setting up infrastrusture with a chinese companies like ZTE and Huawei but not choosing Alcatel, Ericsson, Nokia-siemens for their network infrastrusture, why?
CHANDRA SEKHAR June 20, 2012 at 9:28 pm
Its not bad, because airtel and idea is giving only 1 GB SINCE 2 YEARS the same price. Pls check other operators….. and one more offer in 2G, recharge with 155/- you will get 3 GB DATA, So no change in tariff 50/- charged per 1 GB.
Abhijith June 20, 2012 at 8:14 pm
Wow . . . I am so happy . . Already I throw out vodafone . . They are cheaters than any other telecom operators in india . . .
Sudhakar June 20, 2012 at 7:48 pm
To all :
Cool. Better port out to some other operator.
aditya iyer June 20, 2012 at 7:37 pm
well whether 1.5 or 2 gb… edge is too slow to make any diff….qos sucks and theres throttling there too…
ravin June 20, 2012 at 6:51 pm
In Hyderabad, even if Vodafone gives only 500MB, we cannot use it in four weeks, as speed is very low in range of 40-50 kbps, that too in main areas like Tarnaka (just 100 yards from the main road and flyover). I don’t know whether the reduction is deliberate or technical inability. Vodafone used to give 200 kbps earlier, but suddenly its speed plummeted by one third. They think customers unorganised, can do nothing except raving and ranting on forums like this. No accountability or standardised service on the part of these operators though they compete to raise tariffs, irrespective of their service.
Sudeep June 20, 2012 at 4:56 pm
Its not just AP.
Couple of months back, it was 4gb for 1 month on a recharge of Rs 95. They had made it to 1 gb a month for Rs 95.
Vrij June 20, 2012 at 4:43 pm
Everyone is cutting down 2G data and providing more affordable 3G options. Thats the only way they are gonna recover the megabucks they paid for 3G spectrum, and expecting to pay for the upcoming 2G auctions!
Saurabh June 20, 2012 at 4:36 pm
I thought they reduced it to 500MB in 98 after reading the headline as Vodafone is providing 1GB in 98 from 10 months in most of the circles. 1.5GB is still good though not the best.
As far as 28 days or 4 weeks validity is concerned, it is a TRAI rule which asked operators to provide validity period on weekly basis. Tata and Reliance are both providing 4 weeks validity in Haryana in all their Voice, Data and Internet packs. Soon others will also follow. Airtel is also providing 28/56 days validity in their SMS packs. Same with Vodafone.
TRAI which shows that they work for people actually works in hands of operators as every single rule they come-up with becomes anti-consumer like the maximum 90 days validity for rate-cutters.
Amit Deb Biswas June 20, 2012 at 4:26 pm
for 98 we get 1GB only!!!!!!!
Manjunatha M June 20, 2012 at 3:59 pm
It’s a Chore saale.
anubhav11 June 20, 2012 at 3:58 pm
This type of validity is being implemented in Himachal Pradesh for more than 6 months. Airtel,Idea & Reliance till now are the only operators which give 4weeks/28 days validity on all STV’s except all data plans, where validity is 30 days.
Whereas Vodafone,Bsnl, Aircel provide 30 days validity on all STV.
novicefreak1 June 20, 2012 at 3:55 pm
Vodafone is unfair and unethical in practices, though QoS is satisfactory,
4 weeks?????introspect deeply, if an offer starts mid of a week wat happens?
VB June 20, 2012 at 3:53 pm
Vodafone is nothing but the piece of shit!. asshole crap theif looter cheater bloody british bulldog! Fuck off vodafone frm our india!