TTSL (Tata Teleservices) in association with Japanese telecom giant NTT DoCoMo has launched its all new GSM service….TATA DoCoMo. The service currently being offered in 9 circles (Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, the rest of Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Mumbai, the rest of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh) has already created quite a flutter in the fiercely competitive telecom market. The company sets out to change the game of mobile tariffing from the outset with the introduction of per second billing concept. The current scheme of 1 paise/sec across India (yeah that includes your STD calls) that too in lifetime prepaid sims (no need of any extra bonus cards) is surely a couple of notches cheaper than any other tariff offers across the GSM bandwagon in India.
We bought a TATA DoCoMo(@tatadocomo) connection (A lifetime prepaid sim costs 99 bucks and gives 48 bucks talktime) and made a couple of STD calls to our friends.
- The 1st call got disconnected in 26 secs due to network problem which cost 26 paise. The 2nd call lasted for 1 min 14 sec which cost 74 paise which makes the total cost of the 2 calls as Re 1.
- Typically any other GSM player will give you at best Re1/min tariff for STD calls (assuming a prepaid plan with no bonus cards or monthly rentals). In our scenario that would have meant Re 1 for 1st call (1-pulse…remember all other GSM operators charge u at a per minute pulse rate) and Rs. 2 for 2nd call (2-pulses) which makes the total cost of the 2 calls as Rs. 3 (3X more than what DoCoMo costs…amazing).
- Though the savings would not be as huge for longer duration calls still at 1paise/sec i.e. 60paise/min will surely save you more than a few pennies in a month….not bad in these recessionary times.
- Thats not all what TATA DoCoMo is offering. It gives you free wap access on mobiles i.e. internet is free on your mobile phones. What it means is that u can download unlimited ringtones, wallpapers, music, chat with your friends, check your e-mails, be active on facebook/orkut all for free on your cellphone….yeah we did it and the connectivity speeds are pretty decent. However net is not free if u wish to connect your cell to ur pc/laptop, it costs you 1paise/Kb with no fixed rentals (...still pretty costly for surfing net which is quite data intensive on PC…. mind u a vodafone prepaid SIM offers the same service for 10paise/Kb…10X still costlier).
- The service is also 3G* ready and with the government all set to allocate 3G spectrum by this october end that adds to its lure. (For readers info NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan is a pioneer in 3G and cutting edge mobile technology).
Many tier-II towns and rural areas are witnessing serpentine queues for Tata DoCoMo Lifetime SIM cards with even stampede reported at some places (Courtesy – The Times of India)….infact even we had to wait for 45 mins to get a SIM from a local TATA Indicom Store in Malad, Mumbai. It almost gives you a sense of deja-vu of old BSNL times.
With TATA DoCoMo looking forward to a pan India launch by this Diwali its all set to become one of the biggest brand launches of this year. We recommend buy 1 SIM of TATA DoCoMo right away and as the tagline of this brand suggests…. Do the new!!
We received a tweet from Docomo about their plans and it says “@microreviewsorg ..For post paid plans visit: http://bit.ly/2Czew and for Prepaid plans visit: http://bit.ly/VngD2 …hope this helps!“
You can follow us at http://twitter.com/microreviewsorg and Tata Docomo at http://twitter.com/tatadocomo
24th Aug:
1 : We tracked some customer complaints about Tata Docomo at 1 and 2
Update 2: Kolkata Launch before Durga Puja. Check here.
Update 3 : Black of Docomo Sims.
25th Aug:
Serious service problems for some people. Check it out here
Blackberry services to be launched soon. Check it out here
1 paisa/2 sec for tata to tata calling. Check out here
Update 3:
26th Aug 2009: Unconfirmed iphone settings for Tata Docomo
*3G is 3rd generation mobile technology which provides a platform for wireless high speed broadband data transfer required for video conferencing, mobile TV viewing and other data intensive applications on mobile.
Related posts: