The RIM Prepaid saga. Review on Reliance Mobile Operator

When I lost my GSM mobile 4 months ago, I switched to RIM prepaid since it had the lowest entry costs. I was also under the impression that Reliance is offers services at rates considerably lower than those offered by GSM players. As it turned out, this was far from the truth.

My starter pack came for INR 3000, comprising a Nokia 2280 and talktime worth INR 200. Signal reception has been pretty impressive; I could remain mobile for most of my train journey from Chennai to Kolkata. Connectivity, however, was lacking.

I've had several contacts tell me that they've been unable to call my Reliance number. I've been unable to send messages to subscribers of certain service providers (CellOne-chennai, for one). Call charges are far from competitive.

My RIM recharge coupon costing INR 330, gives me a talktime of INR 150. Since GSM mobiles still constitute the majority of cell users (atleast in urban areas), the low Reliance-to-Reliance charges are of little use. The majority of my calls being Reliance-to-GSM (as would be the case with most users), I end up paying the highest call charges prevalent in the industry.

Also, while Hutch gave me several recharge options to suit my changing needs (The INR 1024 card with a talktime worth INR 800 was very useful during high-usage periods), the lack of choice in RIM (any RIM outlet I go to, I only get INR 330 recharge cards with INR 150 talk value) makes it a very expensive option. Every now and then, Hutch would announce special offers such as an INR 2400 card with full talktime and validity for a year. I haven't come across any comparable offers from RIM in the 4 months I've used it.

The lack of choices is pervasive throughout RIM's services. My non-mobile friends could message me via MSN messenger/web/email/Yahoo! messenger when I was on Hutch. They could message me via web/email/Yahoo! messenger when I was on Airtel. My RIM prepaid affords no such options.

I am a heavy SMS user, and rarely make voice calls. I had a lot of ''low-cost SMS, higher voice call charges'' options when I was Hutch/Airtel. After switching to RIM, SMS has suddenly become very expensive. I've had to make do with messaging my contacts via the web, which is possible given I have very few Reliance contacts.

In essence, my RIM prepaid has turned out to be a high cost, low/no choices, poor connectivity service, which I am stuck to for the only reason that I cannot switch to any other service provider (even CDMA) with this handset (another avatar of the lack of choices). I am therefore discontented, and would discourage anyone I know from switching to Reliance. This is probably the case with most RIM prepaid users.

Reliance Infocomm would probably justify the higher tariffs for their prepaid users with the argument that we get handsets at highly subsidised rates. While this may be true, Bharti and Orange have offered Sony Ericcson models with INR 1000 talktime for INR 4000. The functionality of my Nokia 2280 Reliance handset is not significantly better than the handset that was offered by the GSM players.

It probably cost Reliance a lot to get custom-made handsets, but it would be unreasonable to expect end-users to bear the brunt of that cost. Further, given that the Reliance handset can be used only with RIM prepaid, it would be expected that such lack of choice be offset with lower charges or greater options than those offered by other mobile service providers, including GSM players.

The opposite is clearly evident. Reliance Infocomm may argue that they provide a suite of services under R-world. Here again is the lack of choice. I do not have any use for R-world services (they're pretty slow anyway), but cannot have them revoked in return for lower call chargers/greater talk value.

Unless Reliance Infocomm introduces more choices into RIM prepaid and makes it more competitive with the other mobile players, it wont be long before disgruntled users start switching to GSM despite the high sunk cost of their Reliance handset.