Airtel and Sunil Bharti Mittal – Untold Story
by Abhishek on February 20, 2005
Airtel and Sunil Bharti Mittal – Untold Story
Sunil Bharti Mittal must be a happy man by now. Hailing from a small town in Punjab, Ludhiana, he has achieved in life what some people dream of. He was a push button telephone manufacturer until recently. It was the winds of change in the telecom sector, which really propelled him in the national limelight. However, Airtel has its own share of bloopers, which are clearly not in the public domain. I shall try and lay out a case as to why their practices are not in the national interest.
There was a cover page in Business World magazine recently whose title said “The man who gave up his network away”. It was clearly unprecedented step in the telecom sector anywhere in the world. Network is one thing that is sacrosanct to any owner. However, in a smart and clever move he did that which could fetch him a lot of savings. I am not going in the details of the dealings or the pros and cons. This is clearly a business move, which he knows best. My only concern is the overwhelming presence of the multinational corporations in the sector and such crucial as this one.
There are two main issues here. In my earlier post here, I had mentioned as to why FDI has not really changed the telecom scenario. More money for expansion invariably comes at the cost of risk to other operators. I shall go in that detail a little later. The overriding concern is the technology that would be used for the switches and telecom equipment. I read in Rediff article recently that low cost equipment is feasible as of now. If we talk of partnership between the academia and the industry, then this would have been a golden opportunity to reclaim our investments in IITs across the country. I am sure that spurred on by the demand they would have come out with some solution. Thus, save the precious foreign exchange. It is clear that overwhelming presence of the MNCs in the sector would clearly benefit their host nations. A poorly thought of strategy indeed, to increase the FDI.
The second crucial aspect is the security. I have a reason to believe that Singapore based companies are actually a front for the Chinese government. Thus, surreptitiously they are entering this sector. Why the mandarins sitting high up haven’t really thought of this at all? This is beyond any logical conclusion. I have opposed FDI on this very ground because these are ill prescribed prescriptions of the donor agencies. The so-called security measures announced were good enough to keep the Left shut up their mouths. Not that these people are not nationalists. The very idea or the foundation of their beliefs is flawed and outdated.
However, the biggest beneficiary has been Airtel after the increase in the FDI. They have realized, although belatedly, that value added services is the way to go. There was one major flaw in the roll out of the subscribers. To ramp up the numbers they concentrated mainly on the prepaid subscribers. The health of any telecom network is determined by the number of post-paid subscribers it has. To correct this they have started resorting to monopolistic tactics. The GPRS subscribers on the prepaid networks can only access the Airtel Live portal. In case they wish to download anything, a hefty charge of Rs 10 is charged per request. This is clearly anti competitive and goes against the established logic. Of course, a better way could have been to introduce a recharge voucher for a fixed monthly fee in case one wishes to access the GPRS and thence Internet. This forces the people to shift to post paid segment where the ownership costs are much higher.
Airtel has invested heavily in building up its brand. However, despite the greatest cricketer of our times, their advertising pitch does not enamor me. I believe that Airtel had consistently fallen behind the TRAI’s parameters in terms of quality of offerings barring a few circles. Hence, the newer ad pitches of “stronger and clearer” network.
The fixed line business is imperative for growth. As I had mentioned, increased funding would now mean that it needs to acquire operators with fixed line business. One that comes to my mind is Connect from HFCL in Punjab. After a relative lull in the roll out of services, it has suddenly woke up to ramp up subscribers. I was surprised to see their advertisement banners recently. Perhaps it could be because of entry of TATA in the Punjab circle. I have a feeling that HFCL wants to ramp up numbers and sell out. As it is, they have a lousy service and customer support in the after sales services. Airtel would want to pick up this stake for good because it does not make any business sense to duplicate the entire infrastructure. In any case, there is not room enough for another fixed line operator given the fact that Punjab has BSNL and Connect offering their services.
It is interesting to note the recent news that was reported in the media. On the announcement of the unified licensing regime, any operator who wanted to have a fixed line license was allowed to pay the migration fee. Airtel slapped a notice on the government asking it refund the same after the second round of policy changes were announced. It was clearly pointed out that fixed line license was voluntary. Airtel could have waited for the same or forego this amount. Is Mr. Bharti keeping his idle legal department busy? I am looking forward for the judgment.
Before I end this post, as the events have unfolded I have a hunch that Mr. Bharti would want to sell out his stake in Airtel. That explains his recent diversification in selling vegetables. It is clearly an untapped market and would go a long way to improve the best agricultural practices. I wish him all the best. The main reason is that despite all his ills, his was the first network that got the mobile network in India. How he pulled it off is another story.
63 comments
Airtel is the Best.
by Achal Kapoor on 02nd Mar 2007 at 10:08 am. #
Dear Sunil Mittal Hello! My Mobile No. 9871412947.
i)I am facing hardship due to insesitivity of your customercare since Nov. 2006 when I detected that my annual prepaid subscription was converted to lifetime scheme without my knowledge.I deposited Rs.2040 approx through local AIRTEL dealer to get my prepaid validity extended by a year,when told that my mobile got converted to lifetime mode in Oct.06. Then I had still over Rs.500 in my account and needed only validity extension and I was charged Rs.100. I am suffering a lot because of this.
Sinve then, I contacted your Customercare several times to get it rectified,but it’s of no avail.
ii)Also, I deposited address proof, photo, etc on 12Mar06 to AIRTEL, please release incoming calls immediately.
Hope you care for the customers and do the needful.
Thanks, R. Singh 9/162-III Rajeder Ngr,Sahibabad,Ghaziabad
by Prof.(Dr) Risal Singh on 13th Mar 2007 at 03:40 pm. #
Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal
I have in need and lodge a complain about your Bharti Airtel Limited STAFF and Procedure of contacts.
Can you want to support me ?
If yes please let me know your email ID at my email address.
Ramesh Balani
Raipur
by Ramesh Balani on 13th Mar 2007 at 09:19 pm. #
My wife was gifted with Airtel connection (9815195023) nearly two or more years ago before he left for abroad. Few days back She got a message that she should deposit her proof of identity. I went to the office of Airtel prepaid at Friend Airtel railway road, opposite Vatinery Hospital and we clearly told a Lady sitting there that it was gifted number and on whose number it was purchased we don’t remember on which the lady told us that my wife should give a copy of ration card and snap. Which we gave to her. On or around 16 or 17 march 07 Airtel barred all the calls of my wife and when I contacted Airtel Customer care we were told to deposit the proof of identity again. Again on or around 19 march. I along with my wife once again filled the necessary form and again deposited the copy of ration card and gave snap to the same person in same office. On 21 march again my wife calls were barred. and when i contacted the Airtel pre paid customer care number one Mr. Vinod (at about 12:20 am 22nd march) told me that nothing doing and I should again go and deposit the proof and when I asked that how many times I should deposit the proof the reply that came back from Mr. Vinod was till the proof doest reach the concerned office, and when I told him that I might approach Honble consumer forum the reply from Mr. Vinod was that he was not afraid of consumer forum and I was free to do anything. Is this what we are paying for.
Anuj
by Anuj Anand on 22nd Mar 2007 at 01:18 am. #
Dear Sunil,if you remember me please reply. thanks AGHIL-TEHRAN
by AGHIL ASHRAFI on 01st May 2007 at 05:38 pm. #
Dear Mr. Mittal,
I wish to put on record the unfortunate date when I opted for Airtel Life Time Card. Unfortunately, from the day 1 we faced the problem.
Calls to your call centers, where you have unprofessional team without any team leader who are always busy in meeting or are not available.
Mails to your department is not responded. Copy of my mail send on 1st May 2007 is yet to be responded except for auto reply.
Hope you will look into
Regards
Ashraf A. Hashmani
(Mail which was send)
Hi,
I have gone for Airtel Lift Time Card with Cell No. 9867864275.
From the day 1, I have problems with the scheme. Recently, I had refilled the same with a refill of Rs. 60/- and noticed that every day about Rs. 1.25 was deducted from my balance.
I called up your call center no . 9892098920, who informed me that I have opted for scheme where the charges are 49 p, the deduction are done. Since I never activated the scheme, I told her to give me the date of activation, which she failed. Finally, she told me to deactivate the same by sending an sms.
I did the same on 17th April 2007 evening and within a few minutes I got a sms message which stated ” Dear Subscriber, Your service will be deactivated in 48 hrs”. From : 1515 at 08.06 pm on 27-Apr-07.
Since the same was not deactivated, I again called up on 29th April and spoke to Ms. Preeti who said that it will take 48 working hours, when refuted that the message stated 48 hrs and not 48 working hrs (which is equivalent to one week) she disconnected the line. Again I called up, this time Mr. Deepak 77748 was on line and ihe apologize for the inconvenience and promised that the same shall be done within 24 hours.
In the meantime, the money is deducted from my bills on daily basis.
Today, at 12.20 pm again I called up to check the status and to my HORROR Mr. Mahavir, informed me that there is no request of deactivation from my side as per his record. When I informed him that I have a confirmation message of deactivation, he also refuted and sugested me to again do SMS for deactivating the scheme.
Since the call center people are not able to address my issue, I am forced to write this mail which is very unfortunate, that the problem was not solved on phone and customer have to visit the net to register a complaint on a small issue of this nature.
I THINK I DID A MISTAKE OF MY LIFE BY OPTING FOR YOUR LIFE TIME PLAN.
Since I have provided with date and time of my reply which was sent to me by your system, can somebody look into and resolve the issue, or I will have no option but to register a complain in TRAI.
Hope to get a positive and quick reply and solution.
Regards
Ashraf A. Hashmani
by Ashraf A. Hashmani on 06th May 2007 at 08:56 pm. #
Letter
Vinay Surana
E-27 1st floor,
Phase-I, Ashok Vihar,
New Delhi- 110052.
May 08, 2007.
The Comm. officer
Airtel India Limited.
Delhi.
Sub: – letter regarding unsatisfactory service provided by billing department.
Respected Sir,
I am Vinay Surana an Airtel Delhi subscriber. My Customer account no: 12297910 and telephone no being 47032527. I had taken an Airtel & broadband (DSL Combo 250) connection in the month of September 2006.
I am writing this letter mainly to bring to your kind notice the unsatisfactory service provided by the billing department to us. Our telephone bill dated 24/04/2007 is showing Rs 2638/.
On taking a landline connection I was offered a special scheme of Super 3 wherein I was avail one local, one STD and one ISD number where I can call up on that particular number at a discounted rate of 66% for next six months. My super 3 offer got expired in the month of March. So I spoke to a customer Executive of Airtel Department to avail the offer again, she said it going to get activated within next 3 days.
Our Super 3 Numbers given are as follow
1. ISD -00447709093151
2. STD 09820633903
3. PCO 43036212
My bill is showing that on 18/04/2007 my broadband usage was 233903k bytes for Rs 274.12.
There was no one at my residence on 18th of last month as we went for a wedding on 17th night and came back on 19th afternoon. So there was no chance of using the broadband on 18/04/2007.
I want an explanation for not availing me the Super 3 offer in this month bill & unnecessarily charging me for my broadband usage.
I have been using airtel mobile (I have 2 connection of airtel by the same address 9910138090, 9871422477 ) from last 3 years but did not have any such kind of problems. In the past also I haven’t had such kind of problems with my landline. I am very much satisfied with the service. I have been very particular about the payment too, I have made all the pays before due date prescribed by the airtel. I have spoken to the Airtel customer executive but they don’t have any answer for the same.
As soon as I receive a revived bill, I will make the payment for the same. If I fail to get any reply, I will get the landline disconnected.
So I request you to look into the matter immediately and take necessary action required.
Yours truly,
Vinay Surana
email: aurum_zenith@rediffmail.com
by vinay surana on 08th May 2007 at 05:40 pm. #
Well, seems like there are lots of complaints with respect to Airtel which is contradictory to my personal experience. I am a German who used to live in India for two years and I was really amazed by the quality of the Airtel customer service. Compared to my Indian call center experience – which was a real nightmare – I always thought that Airtel was polite, well-organized and quick to respond to my requests. And compared to other Indian telecom operators such as Hutch (poor reception) and Tata-Indicom-VSNL (pure incompetency!), I’d say it’s the best India has and comparable to international service levels.
by AH on 14th Jun 2007 at 11:28 pm. #
Hi
I have a mobile prepaid connection from Airtel. I have recharged through ICICI online recharge. Monet is debited from my account but no recharge is done yet. I have registered numbers of complaints regarding that to the customer care executive. but no update has beed recieved yet.
They people are befooling me sayin tht we need some more hours to update that. Its more than enough. I have no chance of getting my money back. can you please help me in that.
My Phone no is 9818465696 and the transaction report is
03/11/2007 BIL/000044917347/0101/919818465696 DR INR 100.00
Thanks
Regards
by Atul Tyagi on 09th Nov 2007 at 01:54 pm. #
Air tel people are a bunch of THUGS. Aur SUNIL BHARTI MITTAL ka naam kharab kar rahe hain. Kaam karte nahi hai.. Aur free ki salary lete hain. Sab sale chor hain. 1 week se pareshaan hu mein…
I have a mobile prepaid connection from Airtel. I have recharged through ICICI online recharge. Monet is debited from my account but no recharge is done yet. I have registered numbers of complaints regarding that to the customer care executive. but no update has beed recieved yet.
They people are befooling me sayin tht we need some more hours to update that. Its more than enough. I have no chance of getting my money back. can you please help me in that.
My Phone no is 9818465696 and the transaction report is
03/11/2007 BIL/000044917347/0101/919818465696 DR INR 100.00
Thanks
Regards
by Atul Tyagi on 09th Nov 2007 at 01:56 pm. #
DEAR SIR,
I HAD PURCHASED AN AIRTEL CONNECTION WITH NO. 9897474785 WORTH Rs. 700 WITH A 2 YEAR VALIDITY AND Rs.2500 AIRTEL TO AIRTEL BALANCE.AS I M FROM DELHI AND NOW STUDYING FROM DEHRADUN SO I PURCHASED THE SIM FROM DEHRADUN AS I LIVE IN THE HOSTEL OF MY COLLEGE SO I SUBMITTED THE ADDRESS PROOF OF HOSTEL IN MY ID CARD OF COLLEGE WITH A BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE FROM COLLEGE.THE SIM WAS FINE FOR 2 MONTHS BEFORE I CAME TO DELHI FOR CELEBRATING DIWALI WHERE MY OUTGOING AND INCOMING CALLS GET BLOCKED WITHOUT ANY INFORMATION.WHEN I CAME BACK TO DEHRADUN I ASKED ABOUT IT TO THE AIRTEL OFFICE NEAR CHICH CHOCOLATE,CLOCKTOWER THEY TOLD ME TO SUBMIT THE DOCUMENTS ONCE MORE SO I DID THE SAME BUT NOW MY NUMBER IS DELETED OR DEACTIVATED COMPLETELY. AND NOW EVEN THE AIRTEL AREA MANAGER IS REFUSING ME ABT IT SAYING THAT MY ADDRESS VERIFICATION HAS FAILED.THEY HAD WASTED A LOT OF MY TIME AND MONEY
SO, PLEASE IF YOU HAVE READ THIS TAKE A VERY STRICT ACTION AGAINST THEM AS POSSIBLE
MANISH PUNDORA
UTTARANCHAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
HOSTEL
ARCADIA GRANT, PO CHANDANWARI
PREMNAGAR , DEHRADUN
UTTARANCHAL
PHONE NO.::09899419968(DELHI)
sim no. 8991970307040993559
by manish pundora on 03rd Dec 2007 at 04:44 pm. #
The way Airtel has grown from a just GSM Service Provider to a complete Global Telco is remarkable.I see Airtel as a complete Telecom Company(TELCO) of Future.If you see the Current Telecom Market ,Bharti Airtel , VSNL & Reliance Infocomm are the Major Players.VSNL earlier being Public Sector Undertaking had immense Capital to pump in their Business hence a market Leader ,In case of Reliance ,it was just like removing money from one Pocket and putting it to another .But in case of Airtel that was not the Case the Company has Grown Year on Year and the only Company who has evolved over a period of time in a very big way .Its Definitely will evolve over a period of Time as most trusted Brand & No1 TELCO in India ahead of everybody.
Kudos to team Airtel for Building such a powerful Brand !!!!
by Nikhil on 10th Mar 2008 at 04:21 pm. #
I Wonder, how writing here solves the problem but have the last hope for it. I have a very small problem but just to solve that small problem i have to dedicate 15 minutes “EVERYDAY” call your Hotline and getting updates on the complaint lodged.
The problem goes like this; I am a prepaid customer and i have never ever activated any scheme on my cell no. In spite of this Rs.25 was deducted on 17th of January 2008 (Which was later told me that Friends and Family scheme was activated on my cell no). I have recharged my cell for Rs.200 on 15th of January. Now when i called Airtel Customer Support and complaint about it they immediately apologies for the same and unsubscribed me from that scheme and assured me that the Rs.25 which was deducted will be credited to my number within the next 24 hours. There was no problem till here. I was happy and actually appreciated the work.
The mess started from this point onwards.
48 hours was over, as i was least bother about the refund as Customer support have assured me for that. Just to have an update on this, I called Customer Care and spoke to the executive. He apologies for the delay and again assured me that the refund will be credited to my number in next 24 hours. i have now kept an eye on the watch and called again after 24 hours. It will be hard to believe but i have called almost everyday and surprisingly got the same answer.
The complaint number and whom I have spoken to are written below:
Complaint Numbers:
020629234900
0204046410
0201224808
0125165998
67926400 and many more. The sad part for this is every call i called to customer care, one new Complaint number was generated and that too it was never updated.
Following are the Executive which i have spoken to:
Suraj
Raj
Williams
Jaya
Ibrahim
Namreen
Indrajeet and many more… The last executive Namreen she was very sad about what was happening with me and she too like other executive, assured me that the amount will get credited in less than 6 hours. I was assured. But like others this time also I was ditched. I have now stopped calling and just waiting for this to get resolved. The worst part was that one fine day when i called Customer Care and asked to speak to the Floor Manager “ALL” executive whom I called, dint allow me to speak to the FM, but i was assured that one of the senior person will be calling me on my cell number the next day. But this was highly expected this time and no had one called me till now and even my problem lies untouched.
If this suggestion is directly red by the top management i think, this is the best way of communicating with the Management and one will be assured for the redressal.
by Rafik on 24th Mar 2008 at 01:18 pm. #