[VeluM]

People crying over telecom charges seem to forget that the rates in India are the lowest in the world, and unsustainable - even for Jio.

Telecom companies are businesses, and even those like Jio with deep pockets are waiting to start making a profit. All of Jios so called profits till date have been debt restructuring exercises.

The GoI failed to check what would otherwise have been flagged as monopolistic practices when Jio launched in 2016. If any other product is sold below cost just to destroy competition, it would be called dumping.

There are proven irregularities in assessing AGR, which the Supreme Court seems to be unwilling to address, and then government is only now realising that a duopoly will be worse for the consumer than a competitive market space.

I’ve seen comments on social media about how these companies fleeced Indians, made hay while the sun shone, or the like. The 2G scam is forgotten apparently, which saddled those operators with huge debt. Ultimately we have paid either in public money lost in the scam, or through higher tariffs.

Expect to pay more for your connection regardless of whether Vi remains or folds - that’s just a fact.

[som9729]

Originally Posted by srikanthmadhava

Unfortunately, this is not the scenario where telcos will charge you for each SMS. This is the case where outgoing SMS is completely disabled unless you opt for an sms plan or for one of their unlimited plans. You cannot send an sms even after having 100 Rupees balance in your account.

VI is in the verge of bankruptcy.
Port to airtel/Jio. Simple

[nettooran]

Originally Posted by AZT

This is why we need competition, monopoly's always end up bad for the consumer. I hate to say this but BSNL will be the only one with budget plans which our labour class uses monthly.

Maybe I am one of the rare "satisfied" BSNL customer. I have a postpaid plan which is rather cheap that I have been using for more than a decade and have had no issues till date. The biggest advantage of BSNL is the connectivity range it offers. For somebody who travels beyond the civilization there is only one option and that is BSNL. The only sad part is the lack of 4G. Its an open secret that the Govt does not want BSNL to roll out 4G so that their friends have one less competition to worry about. Sadly I have to use Jio as a secondary SIM just for internet. The day BSNL launches full fledged 4G, I am going back to Single Sim mode.

[Totoro11]

Originally Posted by VeluM

People crying over telecom charges seem to forget that the rates in India are the lowest in the world, and unsustainable - even for Jio.

I don't think higher rates are a problem here. Yes, it may seem like you have to pay a little bit extra and most of the people here won't mind that.

However, the manner in which telcos are doing this leaves a bad taste. It is a simple matter of consumers not having a choice to send sms when they are already paying a higher tariff (Rs79 instead of Rs 49). And why single out sms to block, they could have reduced the talk time offered and still given few outgoing sms in the plan. It looks to be a way of telling low ARPU customers that they are no longer welcome.

Moving on, does Jio have a basic plan with outgoing sms?

[vredesbyrd]

Well, I for one have no issues with them raising tariffs because they're already making peanuts thanks to the government's policies and various other factors.

What I want is to stop junk messages once and for all. I had a new number for work and I haven't used it anywhere at all. Few people have it. I started getting loan messages out of the blue, which just means that it is Airtel who's selling our numbers out to the cancer of marketing.

That aside, I think TRAI should ban banks from spamming people about a thousand times a day but I wish TRAI was not an imaginary body but a real one which acted on DND and spam

[maheshm619]

Originally Posted by srikanthmadhava

Customer care told me that it is same with all the companies and I have to take the 128/129 plan if I want to send an SMS.
Looks like it will be BSNL for the immediate future. Thinking of moving back to single sim experience too.

This happened to me last week.Recharged my wife's phone for ~49 rs pack and tried to send PORT sms.After failing multiple times recharged for 129 again ,after reaching out to customer care.

Shot a MNP sms immediately and became a BSNL customer after 4 days.

[VeluM]

All telcos have made this move. The industry is bleeding, and not a charity. Money has to come from somewhere.

https://www.businesstoday.in/technol...908-2021-07-30

Originally Posted by maheshm619

Recharged my wife's phone for ~49 rs pack and tried to send PORT sms.After failing multiple times recharged for 129 again ,after reaching out to customer care.

Shot a MNP sms immediately and became a BSNL customer after 4 days.

So you spent 178₹ Just to port?

Pre-Paid is not a priority for most telcos, because they are extremely volatile - as you’ve demonstrated - and is sold below cost of service. Post-paid customers are more “sticky”, move valued, and are above cost of service, and hence cannot be squeezed unnecessarily.

Pre-paid customers however make up the majority of Telcos customers, so a small change can have a big impact.

[xway]

This is robbery, no doubt.

In the past had experience many telecom companies doing such gimmicks like
starting a service which you never subscribed and deducting from balance automatically, which elderly people dont even know about.

Many times agents calling and asking for new schemes and activating it inspite of saying no and auto deduction from balances.

I understand that telecom companies are winding up due to Government charging hefty amounts as license fees both under and over the table.

What I dont understand is why the telecom companies want to charge people who do not use their services much, instead the focus should be to maximize revenue from companies agents and brokers who use their services in bulk.

- Charge for new Sim - We know how marketing and spamming companies buy sims in bulk and throw it away once their numbers are reported or blocked.

- Charge for Messages - On one end users hardly send any sms, but operators and brokers keep on spamming by sending crores of messages everyday. You will be pleased to learn that while a message costs Rs. 1 for Local and Rs. 2 for National (yes std/isd exists for messages even to this day), the spammers cost for sms is not even Rs 0.01.

- Charge for Calls - All of us receive so many unwanted marketing calls for credit cards, loans, demat, even fraud calls, the cost for these calls is negligible, while for normal users the call rates are 1.2p/sec for unlimited they are just Rs. 199 or even lesser.

As you can see this all freebie and unlimited plans are the culprit resulting in revenue losses, recovering from non users is worst thing to do, rather the companies should focus on mass users and charge for the usage.

Remove the unlimited plans and start charging on use basis and all companies will start doing well.

Also because of cost the mass marketing and spamming companies will think twice before wasting time and money on unwanted messages and calls.

This will also reduce wastage of the Nations time which is wasted on making and attending to waste calls and messages.

[Totoro11]

Originally Posted by vredesbyrd

I had a new number for work and I haven't used it anywhere at all. Few people have it. I started getting loan messages out of the blue, which just means that it is Airtel who's selling our numbers out to the cancer of marketing.

Airtel or other telcos would normally not do that, though the possibility cannot be ruled out. More likely it could be one of your contacts using Truecaller like screening services. These services typically work by building a database of contacts that were stored on a users phone (along with names) and running algorithms on top, kind of like crowdsourcing names to build a phonebook on cloud.

Originally Posted by xway

This is robbery, no doubt.
- Charge for new Sim - We know how marketing and spamming companies buy sims in bulk and throw it away once their numbers are reported or blocked.

- Charge for Messages - On one end users hardly send any sms, but operators and brokers keep on spamming by sending crores of messages everyday. You will be pleased to learn that while a message costs Rs. 1 for Local and Rs. 2 for National (yes std/isd exists for messages even to this day), the spammers cost for sms is not even Rs 0.01.

- Charge for Calls - All of us receive so many unwanted marketing calls for credit cards, loans, demat, even fraud calls, the cost for these calls is negligible, while for normal users the call rates are 1.2p/sec for unlimited they are just Rs. 199 or even lesser.

Remove the unlimited plans and start charging on use basis and all companies will start doing well.

Also because of cost the mass marketing and spamming companies will think twice before wasting time and money on unwanted messages and calls.

This will also reduce wastage of the Nations time which is wasted on making and attending to waste calls and messages.

Very valid points, completely agree. Every app these days asks us to agree for sharing data with 3rd parties. More and more services are moving to apps and we dont have a choice but to let go of our information.

[pandabear]

Originally Posted by nettooran

Its an open secret that the Govt does not want BSNL to roll out 4G so that their friends have one less competition to worry about.

That is absolutely not true, this is just a smoke screen made by spin masters. BSNL has to bid for airways like any other telco, why should it get more priority. BSNL has its own share of problems like unions, over staffing, inefficiency etc which they need to fix to improve their revenue. They do have 4G rolled out in some places. Also the unified licensing scheme delinks spectrum from future licenses. They are free to offer their services.

Originally Posted by VeluM

People crying over telecom charges seem to forget that the rates in India are the lowest in the world, and unsustainable - even for Jio.

Telecom companies are businesses, and even those like Jio with deep pockets are waiting to start making a profit. All of Jios so called profits till date have been debt restructuring exercises.

The GoI failed to check what would otherwise have been flagged as monopolistic practices when Jio launched in 2016. If any other product is sold below cost just to destroy competition, it would be called dumping.

There are proven irregularities in assessing AGR, which the Supreme Court seems to be unwilling to address, and then government is only now realising that a duopoly will be worse for the consumer than a competitive market space.

I’ve seen comments on social media about how these companies fleeced Indians, made hay while the sun shone, or the like. The 2G scam is forgotten apparently, which saddled those operators with huge debt. Ultimately we have paid either in public money lost in the scam, or through higher tariffs.

Expect to pay more for your connection regardless of whether Vi remains or folds - that’s just a fact.

Summed up pretty well. Also in the telco infra space, Lucent Motorola Siemens etc have all folded up, Huawei/ZTE, Ericsson and NSN are only available, through Trump has given a lifeline to NSN and Ericsson. Lower competition in telco vendor space is also not making things easier. Jio comes without the baggage of 2G 3G. The whole scenario is pretty complex and operators will be forced to move to 5G as soon as Jio shifts gears. They are developing their own 5G system, people with inside information can comment on the progress.

[AltoLXI]

Could not link bank account to GPay as I mentioned here (The Cashless Transactions Thread (apps, wallets etc.)). Recharged Airtel with 129/- just to send SMS. Time to port to other provider has arrived I guess.

[gischethans]

Thanks to a complaint from Jio, TRAI has now ordered telcos to allow subscribers to be able to port out to another telecom operator irrespective of their prepaid or postpaid tariff plans. Henceforth, the SMS sent to short code 1900 is to be treated as an ordinary SMS for the purpose of charging and the rate shall not exceed the tariff applicable for ordinary SMS under the tariff plan opted by the subscriber.

Source

[theredliner]

^^Thousands of people had complained to TRAI regarding this in the last few months, but they just chose to sleep over it and now sprung into action after a word from Mr.A's company. Really shows who runs this country. Anyway, good that it has happened at least after a complaint from one of the oligarchs.