Poor idiots! They had to sell to DoCoMo, a leader in the 3G services. With the policy as announced, the duds had it in them. They had to sell out to the highest bidder. Very soon, the whole landscape of the Indian telecom would change. We would not have homegrown company like Airtel but instead this would be a battle ground for the big global majors to fight it out for customers.

The size of the deal is pegged at $1.5 billion (about Rs 6,700 crore), translating into a $6-billion (Rs 26,000 crore) valuation for the company that runs networks across the country and is planning to expand into GSM mobile services in the near future. Tata Teleservices is a loss-making company. Between 2005 and 2007, its cumulative losses stood at Rs 5,604 crore

This India story has been done to death many a times. There is no real addition of the 8-9 million customers per month. It is simply not possible. Most of the metros have choked and jammed. It is saturated. In order to expand into tier B and tier C cities, telcos need funds and assured returns. For all practical purposes, I dont forsee the market “hot and happening”; although the 3G services would assure monetised returns and would ride on the value added services.

It is no secret that Tatas claim their superiority of services based on some abstract benchmarks. There are people who would swear to God not to ever think of Tatas as their service provider. Frankly, TRAI has been unable to implement its own customer friendly norms; trying to get anything out of the useless idiots manning the customer service is a herculean task in itself.

Tata is a weathered story. They have lost it and the writing on the wall is as clear as the sunlight illuminating the dark dungeons of their minds. Telecom is a failed venture and they ought to accept defeat and ship out of business.

Tags: 3G, Airtel, CDMA, GSM, Idiots, India, Mobile, Rediff, Tata, Tata Communications, Tata Indicom, Tata sucks, Tata Teleservices, Tatas, Telecommunications India, Telecommunications India, TRAI, Value Added Services

Why would a company choose it’s name as “Virgin”; I have no clue. The unholy alliance between Tatas and Virgin came through and got a sanction from Department of Telecom. They are legally bound to stay together; unless Virgin decides to act funny and kick Tatas below the belt, literally.

I am opposed to the deal because it means that the telecom companies are entering the country via “brand tie ups”. What avoids AT&T or for that matter any other company buying undisclosed stock and shares and entering in the country in the name of brand building?

I have never liked the limeys and been always fearful of their intentions. This is reverse colonisation in the garb of globalisation. Instead of hailing this as the next big thing in Telecom industry, Tatas ought to be ashamed to have sold their “assets” for a fistful of pounds.

Virgin sucks. Their PR disasters are well known. They have not been able to issue a denial nor actively court the media. It wouldn’t be out of place to mention that unless they actively engage the bloggers (who are potential customers), they wouldn’t get their dues. Further, most of the Gen X generation would probably search Internet before they settle in for this service.

A company that cannot clarify it’s intentions before the launch cannot be relied on providing decent after sales service.

Tags: Department of Telecom, Funny, Globalisation, India, Internet, Media, Mobile, Tata, Tata Teleservices, Tatas, Telecommunications India, Virgin, Virgin India, Virgin India Mobile, Virgin India sucks, Virgin Sucks

Virgin Mobile was deflowered by Department of Telecom for not complying with licence norms. For those who have come late, Virgin Mobile is a mobile virtual network operator. They tied up with Tatas and wee about to start off their services here in India.

I fired an email to their PR division. Their comments came in an attachment; not a good PR strategy in my opinion. They should have sent a seperate email or should have had a logo prominently displayed.

Here is the exact copy. My comments appear in italics in paranthesis.

1) Is Virgin a Mobile Virtual Network Operator independently acting in India?
Virgin Mobile services are being offered to consumers by Tata Teleservices through a brand franchise with the Virgin Group. This means that Virgin Mobile is a brand of Tata Teleservices. This brand franchise is within the permitted norms of license agreement of Tata Teleservices (Confused statements. Nevertheless, the supposed licence agreements have been invalidated by Department of Telecom in their wisdom. The email from the PR division came in before this happened).

2) Do you have a tie up with Tata Teleservices?

Virgin Mobile India is an equitable partnership (then what is the brand frachise?)between Virgin Group and Tata Teleservices. Virgin Mobile India will provide Tata Teleservices with experience and expertise in designing, marketing, and servicing Virgin Mobile branded products for the youth segment.

3) Who has designed your website?
Need inputs (Ha! They don’t know the name of their web designer!!! This has been prominently displayed on their home page. At first, I realised the futility of the question AFTER I had sent the email. However, even I was not prepared for their answer. Anyone with the right brains could have easily figured that out. Despite all the flash, it is choked of coding errors- a common refrain of most of the websites not designed to comply with web standards).

4) Why do you make service guarantees for network availability? Are you 100% sure that your network would not fail as compared to other service providers?
Virgin Mobile places huge importance on ensuring that we deliver a high quality service to customers. This philosophy pervades in everything that we do- quality of network, range of handsets, value added services on offer, customer care etc. We chose Tata Teleservices because we believe it has the best quality network in India (Who decides that?). According to published reports (where?), Tata Teleservices has the lowest dropped call rates and one of the lowest blocking rates in the industry(how?). This means that ‘Virgin Mobile’ branded customers will reliably be able to enjoy clear calls, a fast connection and low dropped-call rates(Low dropped call rates? Despite the network, customers would still experience call drops! Even though, they may be low by industry standards!!!).

5) Why did you choose to go ahead with Virgin?
Virgin brings extensive experience and expertise in targeting the youth market across 7 countries over the last 8 years. It is this experience, service innovation and ability to catch the pulse on the youth market that makes Virgin a perfect partner for our ‘youth’ brand.

All in all, it remains a perfect example of PR crap. Tata seriously needs a reality check. They have honest intentions; they need to tap the youth market. Their perception in the market is jaded and also ran; which is different from say Hutch. Most of the companies are aspiring for “youth tag” and hope that it would add “zing” to the company.

Why youth? They aspire for a better lifestyle and if a brand fits in their perceptions of being the “right one”, they would splurge on it. It remains true for the metros as well as the smaller towns and cities. However, Virgin Mobile would need massive advertising money to cause a “brand recall”, just like they have associated a dog with Hutch. For the same reason, having Shah Rukh Khan for Airtel has not worked well because he endorses many other brands. Further, Airtel’s marketing division is pits.

I feel that the PR divisions needs a better infusion of brains than the current crop of retards that presently infest them. They need to tone up their language primarily because flowery English doesnt work. Unless someone is looking at impressing some starry eyed nut.

By the way, their website designer is bcwebwise. It speaks very highly of it’s boss who is an ex journo and has ventured in web designing. It has jarring colours and as usual coding errors Not a very comforting thought to pay dollops of money to those who cant even ensure compliance to web standards.

Update: I got an email from their PR agency saying that the attachment was sent by mistake. They wanted to send a further email from their PR agency regarding the new development of licence norms. They wanted my telephone number in order to speak to me and clarify issues.

Incidentally, Virgin India came with front page advertisement on 10/03/2008 in Delhi edition of Times of India. They are paying the customers to recieve incoming calls. In my opinion, this is basically a gimmick to lure in customers initally; their call rates are almost similar as that of other operators.

I shall keep this post updated as and when newer developments happen.

Tags: Advertisement, Advertising, Airtel, Department of Telecom, handsets, Hutch, India, Mobile, Opera, Shah Rukh Khan, Tata, Tata Teleservices, Tatas, Telecommunications India, Times of India, Value Added Services, Virgin, Virgin India, Virgin India Mobile, virgin mobile, web standards