Sep 30, 2004 03:19 PM
5973 Views
(Updated Sep 30, 2004 04:49 PM)
I went to Mumbai for a year in October, 2002. That is when MTNL started mobile services Dolphin and Trump. First I was thinking that I couldn't tolerate the govt set of mind, their services and hassles. Their were around 15 people who had come in my project, mostly from North (Delhi, Chandigarh) etc. They took all sorts of cards - Hutch, BPL and Trump - all prepaid as we were not sure of our duration of stay. We found that Trump services were good and much economical than others.
One more thing came into our notice - that was a billing error or a service by MTNL we don't know but one thing is sure - it was never advertised. It was that whenever we used to call Chandigarh or Delhi after 11:30 PM from Trump, the bill came to around Rs3/- to Rs7/-(max) no matter how long we used to talk (we talked to a max of 22 minutes to Chandigarh landline with a deduction of Rs3.60/-). This became a good enough reason for me to buy Trump Card and we enjoyed the service for next 6 months after which it was stopped (I think the billing error was rectified, Ha Ha). Still the services were good and economical.
One day I received an Orange Card and recharge coupon of Rs360/-(I don't remember the denomination exactly) free in my mail. I started using the free service. I enjoyed the ringtones I could download in this (Rs7/- per ringtone), but once I got it recharged I came to know what was the cost of same services by Orange - I immediately switched back to Trump.
I never go in for post paid and get trapped for milking by these service providers - private players are bigger cheats than the govt one. One of my friends was once providing service to Airtel-Delhi and told me that they used to cheat people by converting 29-30 seconds of usage into 31 seconds and charging for 2 pulses!!! As the losses in Mobile Services are around 4 % all over the world, they used to cover those losses using this method and same is true for other Service providers also.
In September 2003 I moved to Delhi and first thing I bought Trump Card. Services were not as good as in Mumbai but acceptable, now the services have become better. My wife teaches in an Engineering College which is around 20 Kms from Gurgaon (but comes in NCR). No private service providers signals reach that place. Only MTNL is the one.
Seeing the economy of Trump, many of my friends have shifted to it. One of my friends observed that the signals of Trump are not received on Karnal Bypass till Delhi border though being a part of Delhi whereas BSNL signal reach there but the service is still acceptable to him as he doesn't live in that area.
Once in all these days in Delhi I happen to take Idea Card due to non-availability of Trump Card and using both. Idea is no match to Trump in any way and their bills are far too higher and value on recharge is also highest in Trump.
So economy is one thing you get for sure in Trump. If you are looking for talking and sending SMS, Trump is a good bet.
