First I got this message from AIRTEL (while I was in Mumbai) on my prepaid AIRTEL phone with home base in Ahmedabad Gujarat:
QUOTE:
"SPECIAL OFFER FOR GUJARAT CUSTOMER WHILE ROAMING ANYWHERE ACROSS INDIA, RECHARGE WITH Rs111, GET FULL TALK TIME OF RS 111 OR RECHARGE WITH RS 500 GET RS500 TT"
SENT BY AIRTEL, MESSAGE CENTRE 919898051914, 13-06 AT 17:52:55
UNQUOTE
The message had no validity defined and one is entitled to assume the validity applied while one was still roaming.
I then recharged the phone for Rs111 on 18-06 morning in Mumbai and got the following message:
QUOTE:
RECHARGE SUCCESSFUL ON 18-06 AT 11:00AM. TALKTIME RS1.00. MRP RS.111.00 TRANSID 2086265587. RS20&GET FULL TALKTIME. VALIDITY 1DAY.
UNQUOTE:
Now one wonders why would one get only One Rupee credit and pay Rs111 MRP for transaction to do that? If I get one rupee credit for Rs111, that is a 11100% profit on a transaction. This is ridiculous in any language, for any company in any jurisdiction.
It makes a mockery of India's toothless tiger TRAI - its telecommunications regulatory agency, of Mr Mittal's cry for fair go on 3G spectrum pricing so as to assist his company, the whole cakewalk that Mr Mittal is having in taking over telecommunciations in India and Africa and finally the weak telecommunications regime around the whole world.
This is not the way the world is going to benefit from telecommunciations and we need to see better regulation and better managements of telecom companies. There is a massive gap created and I would not be surprised why Mr M Ambani plus Mr A Ambani may just succeed where everyone else failed.
I further believe that any company, unlike AIRTEL, who gives customer a toll free number to discuss recharge and fix recharge problems has an upper hand in understanding how to keep cash flows going. Would you charge your prepaid customer left with no credit to talk to you to discuss recharge or fix a recharge problem? Well, AIRTEL does!
Dilip Jadeja
Sydney Australia.
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