Mar 26, 2003 05:29 PM
3210 Views
(Updated Mar 26, 2003 05:29 PM)
Hey guys I exactly did't want to write this review but you know with so many people writting a review on this topic so being a Telecom Management graduate I think its my responsibility to write a review on this product.
first of all I want to make it clear that technology wise CDMA is better technology then GSM. and reliance is on cdma
but the regulatory issues in india are making the use of cdma restricted and no company can use the full potential of cdma.
about reliance mobile the basic assumptions which the company has taken are wrong first of all they are looking for a very big customer base so that reliance to reliance calls which are at 40p per minute can be useful( mind you their claim of 40p per minute is only on their network otherwise it is on same rates.) but getting that big a customer base in too short a time is unlikely. so to talk cheap you have to ask your friends and family to buy reliance. the company is trying to drive others out of the market and want to establish a monoply instead of increasing the market.
about SMS being free this can be free but again the downside is that GSM operators won't allow SMS from reliance free. so you can't send sms to and fro gsm which has a very large penetration and you will be literally cut of from 10 million people gsm mobile holders.
cdma is only active in USA and S.Korea so world roaming is not possible as the most of the overseas networks are GSM only and having a gsm phone will get you autoroam on most of the networks.
the concept of free incoming calls will also be gone as from april 1 2003 all incoming calls will be free on GSM phones also so no advantage.
about the price
reliance is charging 3000+600 p m
this 600 is 100 as cost of financing the handset, 160 as the cost of 400 minutes of free talktime and 240 as the rental.so in fact that makes these 400 minutes actually 125p per minute is you don't use more than that.and if your usage goes up it will be charged as normal rates.
if you returm the service before three years 40 rupees for ever month will be cut so reliance has secured its subscription for three years but has't provided anything if the company is not succesful and want to withdraw the service before 3 years.
one major downside is that as reliance is telling that it will offer roaming in 20 cities <./b> even this is not free 20 rupees per city will be charged moreover there is no concensus over that issue in the TRAI AND TDSAT so that may or may not be done
morover the reliance set is java enabled so once a reliance customer always a reliance customres
the handsets does't work while travelling making roaming impossible
you have to give the set back to reliance if you withdraw before 3 years.
the set I don't know how can cost 10500 because with its agreement with qualcomm reliance wanted to make the set in 2500 so its making a cool 8000 by its own calculations and its not even allowing the customer to buy its own set.
so with that many shortcoming I don't think reliance is a good option
the only upside is that if you talk to same person in some other city again and again so you can buy 2 sets and decrease your expenses
so in toto reliance is a big monoply trying to deceive the customer and we as rational people should be aware of that and should look for the pros and cons of everything before doing anything.
good luck to reliance lets see whether reliance or we as people of india are more intelligent.
