Jul 11, 2008 01:10 PM
3458 Views
(Updated Jul 11, 2008 02:20 PM)
Idea Cellular is one operator which has a very radical history. Once it was Birla & AT&T venture. Then it become an equal three way joint venture between Tata's, Birla's & AT&T. Then Tata's thought of coming out with their own brand(Tata Indicom); so they sold their shares back to Birla(at an unreasonably high price) and so came the entity Aditya Birla's Idea Cellular.
Recently it was in news for acquiring Spice Telecom. This gave Idea an entry into Punjab and Kerala circle with an established customer base. Additionally it got a license to become a pan India operator.It now stands as fourth largest GSM operator in the country.Comparing to their earlier partners Tata's Idea is doing exceptionally well considering the fact that currently Tata has a presence in 21 circles while Idea has it only in 11 circles; still Idea has nearly the same number of customers as Tata. **This itself is commendable and makes Idea the fastest growing telecom operator in India with an yearly growth of 306%.
Leaving aside the figures part and coming to services, I must say Idea is as good(or bad) as others. Talking about Delhi NCR region Idea is a tremendously popular. Let us take and compare the things one by one.
Network Coverage:- Network coverage of Idea in Delhi/NCR is better than Vodafone but less than Airtel.
So, Airtel>Idea>Vodafone is my take in Delhi but again it also depends on the particular regions in the city too. At least in East Delhi I can say so.
Call Quality:-Again the call quality is the best in Airtel for GSM connections followed by Idea and Vodafone. In the interiors, both Vodafone and Idea call drops but Airtel rocks.
Call Plans:-This is the area where Idea beats all the challangers comprehensively. The Prepaid connection of Idea rocks big time. 1000 minutes Idea-Idea local calls for Rs. 149/-. 1 year validity for Rs 99/-, etc are just two of the numerous promotional schemes of Idea. No wonder in Prepaid connections(Delhi), Idea is the most economical if not the best.
Useless Calls:- **Idea is the king of useless calls coming during odd hours. Idea sucked my blood a lot until I logged on their website and registered for Do No Disturb(DND) registry. No more useless calls now from Idea. Here I want to mention about Airtel. I tried to register for DND using Airtel's website but everytime the site popped some ridiculous error message thus rendering the whole exercise futile. Idea website is a breeze in this regard.
Customer Care:-Customer care of Idea sucks big time. But then whose customer care is good. I think apart from Virgin customer care, every other operator is just having a customer care for name's sake only.
Stores:-The physical Idea Stores are a waste. Only good stores are maintained by Vodafone; truely world class. The Vodafone Stores are brilliant. Idea stores have ill mannered, poorly educated executives who don't have the slightest idea of customer service and to the top of it they are insolent and indifferent.
GPRS/EDGE:-GPRS connectivity is good. I used an Idea connection with imate PDAL which is a Windows based device and the GPRS settings were picked up instaneously by the phone. The speed is good but the connectivity is somewhat unreliable. Sometimes you may get connected easily sometimes not so easily and sometimes no matter how much you try no avail. Also the charges for using net on phone are inconsistent. Sometimes you get charged too much sometimes not much. Also, they use to deduct more just after the usage and then redeem some money back to your balance. Overall the speed is good though when you are connected, much better than Vodafone.I haven't tried Airtel GPRS though.
Brand Ambassador/TV Ads/Idea Tune:- Abhishek Bachchan is the Brand Ambassador of Idea. But he is not as impressive as he was in Motorola compaign. MotoRokr E6 ad was one of the best ad compaigns in India. Moto E8 is again lousy at its best. The number becoming the identity of persons was a good idea but the execution was far from perfect. About the tunes I personally like the tunes of all three majors. Airtel being composed by A.R.Rehman is undoubtedly the best of the lot. But Idea's theme is cool too. About Vodafone I liked the visuals along with You and I theme which was originally Hutch's theme.My take for the tune theme is Airtel>Idea>Vodafone
Still I will say having an Idea is a good idea in Delhi if your pockets aren't too deep.
