Wisetechie Blog : Ctrl your Tech Life

Tata Indicom was my first mobile service provider , i switched services as the CDMA was getting too expensive. But these days the company is gaining popularity once again. tata indicom users can talk about the services, features, tariff plans etc. on this particular forum link. Tata Indicom also offers broadband services and the immensely popular Walky service (which uses the WLL technology and offers mobile phone features at landline rates). The forum is also a good place for prospective Tata Indicom subscribers who would like some neutral feedback before actually taking the plunge and paying your first installment to Tata.
This post is brought to you by indiabroadband.net.

The SMS revolution in India brought with it a lot of mobile phone tariff plans. The favorite among students and grownups alike is the discount top up. It allows pre-paid customers to send their SMSes at rates as low as Rs.0 to about 20p. But the mobile phone carriers saw the loophole. Lakhs of rupees of revenue was now being lost due to the fact that habitual SMS senders were now enjoying lower rates especially during the holiday season.

To counter this drop in revenue, mobile phone operators devised a plan. They earmarked the days of the year when the SMS traffic is maximum, namely

Republic Day , Independence Day , Diwali , Holi , New Year

And they changed their policies, so that SMSes sent on these days would be charged as per the normal non-subsidized tariffs. Till now its OK, but the fact is that many customers were not told about this and in this way the great Indian Mobile phone robbery was pulled off.

Well good news for all you open source fans out there. Are you proud to be using Ubuntu Linux, want to flaunt it. Now you can get free ‘Powered By Ubuntu Stickers’ courtesy System76.com. All you got to do is send a self addressed pre-stamped envelope to the address given on their website and they will send you your free powered by Ubuntu Sticker. Valid in India also for Indian Linux fans.

Get your free Ubuntu Stickers from here

The rumours kept on coming, everyone anticipated it and its finally happened. You can Register on google and sign up. Gmail can be credited with starting the era of Invite based systems , but finally with an announcement on Google’s official blog, Gmail went public. You can sign up simply by clicking on Sign up at www.gmail.com.

Gmail was the first email service to give 1GB of space, exhorbant at that time, the limited invite system meant that only people with contacts could sign up for the Gmail service. Gmail has a great spam filter and also the ability to channelise your mails and add tags to them. Gmail also offers the ability to get emails by feed, has integrated Gmail Talk. You can also download attachments as zip files and…..

The list is endless, one of the BEST email services out there.

The special Doodles from Google and Orkut on Valentine’s day. Google looks more like Googe, wheres the ‘l’ ?

It seems Tata’s customer care finally understood what DVR means after i wrote a paragraph explaining it to them. Their official response was that they are working on it and it will be communicated when its released.

I received an alert on sunday afternoon from Tata Sky that there will be a contest exclusively for Tata Sky customers during the show Koffee with Karan. I was happy, finally an advantage, surely i watched the show, during the show the Press Red button marker appeared and i did press it and i was asked an easy question which i answered correctly. Then to my shock the idiots tell me to SMS a code to 7827 (star’s premium SMS portal). Tata Sky cant even provide proper service to its customers and expects them to pay premium SMS charges to participate in a contest meant exclusively for its esteemed subscribers.

If you get The Times of India , its very much possible you have read the reader’s offer. It offers everything from bags to PDAs at ’supposedly’ LOWEST prices. And i pretty much agree, the only place you might get them lower is the grey market. But wait, this is the grey market. The PDAs sold by Indiatimes through that offer are nothing but unlocked mobile phones from the USA. How much legal it is, i am not sure. But 1 thing is certain that there is absolutely NO warranty on these from the company’s side. These mobiles come packed in cheap chinese boxes and with 3rd grade battery chargers , the manual is included on a cheap CD. And the ad blissfully doesnt mention any of this.

It shocks me that a respected publishing house like TOI is associated with this kind of non-sense.

Their customer service could also use a revamp, they all have different versions for everything. If you have been cheated by indiatimes.com , write in the comments below your experience , it might help in resolving it.

Skype has asked the Indian Govt. to remove rigid application licensing requirements for ISPs and to replace them with more regulatory measures instead. It has also een reccomended that ISPs be able to offer better VoIP services and less restrictions be put on Internet Telephony.

In Skype’s view (Skype is owned by Ebay who own bazee.com)Â , the revenue losses will be easily compensated by the additional income generated through the widespread use of internet telephony all across India.
In our view its high time the govt. cuts the red tape once and for all , technology centered services need less regulation, restrictions on these stiffle our economy and in turn suffocate the progress and development of our country.