One nation, one rate

In a step that will revolutionize the voice market in the country, Aircel, one of India’s leading telecom players, pioneered a revolutionary product ‘One Nation, One Rate’. The product offers one rate for Voice, SMS and Data in home circles and on roaming on Aircel network. The product is an industry first, and will redefine the user experience and consumption of voice services in the country. The product does not only do away with roaming charges but also provides lucrative voice, SMS and data tariffs.

Bridging the digital divide

The internet and broadband segment is yet to gain momentum despite the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) efforts to push the uptake of these services. According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the country’s broadband user base stood at 13.79 million, as compared to 919.17 million wireless users.

The government is pulling out all the stops to drive the uptake of these services. For example, DoT is focusing on increasing internet penetration in rural areas by providing improved connectivity to public institutions like village panchayats, primary health centers and schools.

Reliance Infotel trouble tale

As per the preliminary suggestions made by committee set-up by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) Reliance Industries owned Infotel Broadband may have to pay additional charges if it wants to offer voice services to customers in addition to broadband services.

Earlier, DoT had set-up an internal committee to look into issues related to the proposed unified licensing regime. The committee is likely to suggest imposing an entry fee on internet service providers (ISP) for migrating to the new licensing scheme.

How can I reduce my Mobile bill?

Below are few tips to reduce your mobile expenses:

• If you are a frequent roamer to a particular place then it’s better to have a local number of that area, because in roaming incoming as well as outgoing call charges are very high. So you can use the local number for making outgoing calls. This will reduce your roaming bill substantially.  But to use this strategy you need to either keep two mobile handsets or a dual SIM phone as you won’t like your regular number switched off. Lifetime validity prepaid SIMs are available at a very low cost so you can keep SIMs of circles where you roam and can use while visiting a circle.
• Do not subscribe to per second billing plan if you make large number of long duration local calls. Per second billing is good for large number of small duration calls.
• Use Bonus coupons: Bonus coupons allow reduced call/SMS rates for a particular type of calls. For example coupon for local calling, STD calling or for free SMS.
• Subscribe to My group, Friends family, or unlimited calling plan depending on your need: If you need to call more to select few numbers like family members or friends, then it is good to subscribe to group calling plan as it gives discounted calling rates for few numbers. Almost every operator has such plan. Tata docomo’s buddy net, Airtel’s friends and family pack are examples.
• Disable push mail if you do not have urgent need, if you do not have unlimited data download plan then to reduce data bill it’s better not to activate push mail functionality unless very necessary.
• Use Skype /Nimbuzz, VoIP call for ISD calls: If you have PC/laptop with internet connection then it’s better to make ISD calls through Skype. Through this Skype to Skype calls are free and Skype to landline and mobile is chargeable. Conference calls to are possible with Skype. Skype can be downloaded on Mobile phones too and can be used for making Skype calls through Mobile phones.Similarly Nimbuzz to allows VoIP calls,which can be used for making ISD calls.
• If you are fond of social networking , checking emails or surf internet on mobile, then go for suitable plans which give you free usage and data download rates as per your usage.For 2G customers it’s better to go for unlimited download plans which are very popular these days and comes in below Rs.100/month.
• Go through the website of your mobile operator to know the most suitable and economical plan as per your usage pattern.Periodically analyze your usage pattern and choose the best available plan from the telecom operators in your circle/area.

Give your phone an e-mail address

Rapidly growing communication technologies like 3G data services enabled being connected 24X7 through our mobile phones, tablets etc. We are now accustomed to receive social media updates, tweets, emails etc in real time. What if we get our emails in the form SMS text messages. MailBliss is one such service which facilitates its users to receive email as text messages and that too free of cost.

MailBliss is a free email service that allows you to get an email address for your phone. Any emails sent to your new mailbliss email address will be forwarded to your phone as a text message.

Tips to save on International Roaming

Below are some dos and don'ts to save more while roaming internationally....

DO:

• Turn on your mobile phone when you arrive in a new destination. (This is free)
• Receiving of SMS is thankfully free.
• Remember to add “+91” in front of the number when you call your friends and family in India. The easiest way is to add this in front of the numbers in your mobile phone address book.
• Calling to a local number in the visited country will work with and without the countrycode.
• It is often 50% cheaper to receive a call than to make a call home to India.
• Many applications in your smart phones automatically access data services. These include emails, twitter, maps and others. Make sure you turn automatic data download off, if you don’t need it, while travelling abroad.
• Turn on your mobile phone when you are back in India to register in your home operator’s network.

DO NOT:

• Remember that you pay for receiving calls so don’t expect this to be free as it is in India.
• Remember that calling international Free Toll Numbers has a local charge which you will be paying for.
• Data packages do not include data services abroad. This will be charged separately and it is advised to be careful when using data services as consumption in MB is difficult to measure.
• Don’t forget mobile charger device and possibly an adapter.

Uninor suspends services in Mumbai

One of the leading telecom operators Uninor closed down its operations in Mumbai after midnight on February 16 after the Supreme Court on Friday ordered all operators that did not win spectrum in the previous auctions to close down services immediately.

“Uninor is bound by law to comply with the order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court and will therefore have to close down its mobile network immediately. The company hereby advises all its customers and business partners that for now the Uninor network in Mumbai will not be available after midnight on February 16, 2013”, the company said in a statement.