I am posting an interesting presentation by Rajesh Jain on the present mobile scenario in India and the emerging ideas thereof. He is the person behind Novatium; an amazing concept of having a thin client based computing system serviced by broadband networks.

I choose to highlight the ideas which don’t have a “commercial angle”. Even though, I am well aware of Rajesh’s short code sms service called as “my today” (or something like that), I find his ideas in tune with the present day realities. Please feel free to critique and present your ideas.

I finally managed to win the battle against Vodafone after relentless hammering and emailing and bringing TRAI in the loop. In the process I realised that the dice is heavily loaded against the customer. It takes a lot of effort to make this happen.

I had a problem of poor network coverage inside the premises where I work; the solution had to be an in building one. After calling up the customer care, the usual response was that the “concern” was noted down and that the “survey” is being carried out. Emailing them drew no response. Yet, I persisted and escalated the mail to Nodal Officer which did elicit a reply without any firm commitment.

It was then, I realised, that there were various provisions of TRAI that had been violated. I emailed to TRAI as well as to Vodafone; it shook them from their slumber and for the first time, I got an acknowledgement that it would be looked into. Still not getting respite, I managed to get the number of a person who was dealing with TRAI regarding customer complaints. I laid down the entire case, talked to the network head on a conference call with nodal officer in tow. It was a free for all; for the first time, they admitted that there was a network glitch and that needed to be rectified.

Finally, after some more persistence, emailing and cajoling them; I was after the life of the network head; that moron had it from me on different occasions. He finally conceded and went ahead with the installation of the in building solution for persistent problem that most of the employees faced.

I learnt that the easiest solution out for the companies is to “battle” it out in the court because they have a fancy retinue of lawyers on payroll. Given the delay in the legal system, it’s the easiest thing to get a date for the next hearing and postpone the matters. In any case, even if the judgement is delivered in your favour (remote chances given the fact that you have no clue about the technical nature of the complaint), it becomes a herculean task to have it implemented at the earliest to your relief.

I chose not to go to court but push them to their own work. It took a lot of patience and gritting of my teeth but managed to do it.

Alls well that ends well.

I have always been advocating the use of per second pulse; for one simple reason. The present per minute is a pure rip off.

I have complained to the various heads and raised my voice on various columns; I haven’t been heard. Ironically, it took the entry of DoCoMo in alliance with Tata’s who decided to chuck the “industry trend”; in other words, didnot agree to the idea of joining the cabal.

The recent reduction in the price calls for long distance has also happened with everyone doing their bit. It isn’t to boost numbers but with the “me too” service, each operator wants to retain it’s customers without getting churned out of business with the imminent launch of mobile number portability.

It isnt any “exciting time” for the customers. It’s just that some sense has dawned on the operators to appear more consumer friendly.