Nov 14, 2008 03:49 AM
2465 Views
This review is on behalf of my dad. A couple of months ago, I got him the new Blackberry Bold 9000 that's just been released in the US and Canada. I got him an unlocked unit of course so he could use it in India. My parents have been long-time Vodafone users but decided to switch to Airtel for this service as they have the most experience with Blackberries. The only con my dad experienced was that the set-up was VERY problematic. As he was a new Airtel customer, they said they would have to come to the house to verify the address, etc. For 2 days no one showed up, until my parents had to go in to the Airtel office in Fort to complain and then also spoke to some senior customer service guys in Mumbai. Then, someone came to the house and verified the address and they were able to set it up.
Then, another problem - the first SIM card they supplied didn't work! They said that was because the Blackberry Bold is a very advanced smartphone and their SIM cards are not set up for that - in spite of the fact that Airtel themselves offer this Blackberry for sale! Absurd, huh? My dad was so disgusted, he was going to return the SIM card and go back to Vodafone. Then they got scared and they gave him a fresh SIM card that they said was very high-powered and kept only for senior Airtel executives. And voila! the new card worked fine and there were no problems! The whole experience lasted 10 days! I find it ridiculous that it should take so long to set up a device that Airtel already sells and that my parents had to go through such a rigmarole.
However, on the plus side, the Blackberry Bold is now working beautifully on Airtel's network. It runs on EDGE only as India doesn't yet have 3G, but Airtel's EDGE is pretty fast. The Airtel guys set up my dad's email without a problem, web browsing is fast, and the voice network(at least in Mumbai) is very good, no dropped calls, etc. Best of all, Airtel's rates are very affordable. It's only Rs. 1, 099 per month for unlimited data, plus voice for around Rs. 300 which is a fraction of what I pay for Blackberry service in the U.S. They also have very cheap international calling to the US - Rs. 6 per minute! And of course, global roaming, ISD, STD, all that good stuff.
So in conclusion, I would say that if you have a Blackberry, go with Airtel. They are very knowledgeable about the device, and their network and pricing is excellent. Once it's up and running, you'll be fine. However, do be prepared for a big drama at the initial set-up and lots of days wasted!:-)
