Tag Archives: Airtel

Gadgets, Mobile

Airtel vs Aircel for iPhone 4

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Airtel and Aircel, both have launched the much awaited iPhone 4 in India after 11 months of its launch in the US.

The phone is priced at 34500 INR for 16 GB and 40900 INR for 32 GB model by both the service providers.

What matters here is the rentals and the other charges that would come along with your iPhone 4 for a period of two year contract.

Both the service providers are trying to lure the customer by giving the rental discounts and showing up savings of upto INR 41040 in the 2 year contract period.

Here are snapshots for two very close plans from Airtel and Aircel, just for comparision. ( There are other plans too )

In the INR 1200 plan Airtel gives a discount of 600 and 800 MB of data at 3G along with 1050 local minutes and 1250 sms. This will be good for a caller whose major calls are local. The STD user will definitely suffer as the local minutes will be of no use. 800 MB of 3G data is good but the user will never know when the 800 MB got over and would be charged heavily for more data that point onwards.

 

Aircel has almost the same plan at INR 1119, with a monthly discount of INR 720 with 1250 free local minutes and 500 sms plus 350 MB of 3G data.

The data is less compared to Airtel and also the sms that the user gets per month is less then half of what Airtel is offering.

At this point Airtel definitely looks like a better deal, but the table turner can be the *conditions apply which will be different for both service providers.

Details about all other plans can be found here :- Airtel , Aircel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gadgets

iPhone 4 to arrive in India by May 27

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After various announcements, the last of which was more than a month and a half ago, operators Airtel and Aircel are finally making good on their claims of bringing the iPhone 4 to India. The duo will be launching it by May 27, or Friday, almost a year after it was launched in the United States, last June. So far, only Aircel has revealed pricing, and as expected, it has a slight premium attached.

The 16GB Apple iPhone 4 will retail for Rs. 34,500, and, the 32GB version will retail for Rs. 40,900. A requisite bumper, to avoid the ‘death grip’, will be charged for separately. This news fortunately is not too confusing for potential customers, as at that price, there are plenty of other phones with better specs, including the just-launched Samsung Galaxy S II, available for around Rs. 33,000.

Customers opting for a new connection will get a micro SIM for the device, and we expect some provision from the operators to help cut SIM cards for existing customers. We were hoping the iPhone 4 would launch with some sort of contract, enabling customers to buy it at a lower price. Aircel has come up with some plans, but we aren’t too sure they will entice customers.

Aircel postpaid customers will be able to get the phone for “free” in the Premium Money Back plan, by paying up front, and then availing voice and data plans that are equal to the phone’s value, valid for 24 months. The Advantage Money Back plan is the same thing, at half the phone’s value and for one year validity. Let us hope Airtel comes up with better plans.

http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/iphone4-seam%281%29.jpg

Internet

Facebook now from any phone

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A new service started by Bharti Airtel will allow any mobile phone user to access Facebook for just a rupee a day. The beauty of this service is that it works on virtually any GSM mobile phone, even if it is not internet-enabled.

This new service makes use of USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) service, which is a protocol used by GSM to communicate with service provider s computers. Those who have had mobile phones for over a decade, may remember that USSD had been in use in the form of WAP-over-SMS to access mobile internet in phones not supporting any form of internet connectivity.

Due to the limitations of the technology, the interactivity is also limited to status updates, “friend” requests and posting text on walls. While Facebook is the dominant social networking website globally, it is still in second place in India behind Google’s Orkut, which is still in leading comfortably. But Facebook is fast gaining popularity and moves like these may only serve to its advantage.

Currently, only Bharti Airtel offers a service such as this, but we may soon find other GSM service providers follow suit.

Reviews

Yet another snag in Airtel service

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I had flown over to Hyderabad first time for the last weekend, Hyderabad is nice city just like my home town Lucknow and the last thing that I want to be without in an unknown city with a phone with data connection.

Being a big fan of GPS and how it has helped me find/locate places in the past, it becomes very difficult for me to keep calling people and asking how to reach where. At times the way told by people you meet en route are different. And that is where GPS comes in handy.

The moment I landed, I was surprised to see my cell phone without GPRS icon. I tried everything I could to get back on data.

Later in the day I called up 121 (Airtel customer care) just to be told, yet another time, that my connection is outside Hyderabad Connection so I should call up Mumbai. I did call up Mumbai and they tell me that I am in Hyderabad and my data is having issues so I should call 12118. I called up yet another time being optimistic but to my dismay they just hung up the call after understanding what I wanted to say. I was being told that the agent will call up the required support team and conference my call to that team which never happened.

Airtel better learn from some good service providers like Vodafone.

I know loosing a customer here and there will not hamper Airtel in any sense but O’ mightly Airtel thou might never know when the tipping point comes.

General

Airtel’s gift to its cricket fan customers

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Bharti Airtel, one of Asia’s leading integrated telecom service providers, today announced that it is the official Broadband Sponsor of Cricket on YouTube for IPL 2010. For the entire duration of the IPL, cricket enthusiasts enjoying the action on YouTube on an Airtel Broadband connection, will have a free upgrade to a speed of 2mbps. Airtel broadband customers will therefore be able to enjoy a ‘buffer-free’ live cricket viewing experience on www.youtube.com/ipl from 12th March – 25th April.

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