iPhone3G India

Welcome back!

Ok again my sincere apologies for not posting and since I am starting again, let me choose a topic which is being widely discussed among people which is the sorry state of iPhone in India.

Last year when I started this blog, iPhone 3G was about to get launched and everyone(Apple+Airtel+Vodafone) was thinking that even though the prices were absurd, people will go ahead and buy it nonetheless. Which never happened and all the dreams of Apple making iPhone a big thing in India came crashing down. I don’t remember the source but I read somewhere that in one year only 20,000 iPhone 3G were sold by Vodafone and Airtel combined, in the same period grey market sold around 80,000 piece which clearly points out that price factor played a very big role here. Ofcourse lack of proper 3G network didn’t help either.

Apple seem to be taking this debacle on heart as in US they are boasting about selling millions of iPhone’s in weeks and here in India with more then billion people, they were only able to sell only 20k.

Hence my friends iPhone 3GS is nowhere to be seen, no one is talking about it, Apple don’t care, Airtel and Vodafone are least bothered. They are busy selling their 50p per minute plans and fighting with each other. Also our great politicians keep delaying the 3G auction, probably they are not able to get their proper “cut” from companies who are bidding on it.

So, all fans of iPhone in India including me and left wondering what should we do to get a proper iPhone experience like being enjoyed by people in other parts of world. Well friends there is no solution in the current situation, if you want to get iPhone 3GS give a call to your friends, family in US, get it unlocked and use it. Why because whenever 3GS gets launched they will keep the same damn high prices. And for 3G, well we have to wait there seem to be a auction coming next month or so, hopefully it won’t get postponed AGAIN.

As currently only BSNL is having its hands on 3G spectrum in India, Department of Telecom (DoT) has planned 3G spectrum auction in Dec 09 so that private players like Airtel, Vodafone can also bid for their share of 3G.

I should also mentioned that 3G auction talks has been going for long and its been delayed quite number of times. But atleast this time DOT seems serious and we can see 3G services in private telecom providers as well, which means iPhone 3G owners on Airtel and Vodafone networks will finally be able to use their iPhone to its full potential.

New gen iPhone is coming but we are having hard time figuring out that will it be launched in India as well. After the very disappointing sales of iPhone 3G’s in India, will Apple will be taking so much trouble to release the new iPhone again in Indian markets where there is not much of response expected unlike in US and European markets where Apple sold millions of iPhone.

Its not like that people weren’t excited about the iPhone in India, they were very much, all the mobile forums, blogs and websites were buzzing with iPhone news. The only major blow to the iPhone failure in India was their stupid price tag around 32k for 8GB and around 36k for 16GB, which came down 1-2k down afterwards.

Apple still has long way to understand the Indian mobile market, if it really wants to see some success in iPhone sales in India they need to do something about their astronomical prices for each product sell. And this is why mobile companies like Nokia and Samsung are making a killing in India, they know the market nerve.

Hope Apple learns this time and tries to do something about it.

If you are looking for BSNL 3G plans and tariffs, you can check it out at the BSNL Tariff for 3G mobile services.

Don’t forget to read the notes listed below the pricing details :

i) For migration from a particular 3G plan to other 3G plan under prepaid service, the activation voucher of the desired plan shall be used for migration.

ii) For all the Data plans, the above mentioned Voice and SMS charges would be levied.

iii) Free SMS shall be provided for local SMS only.

iv) BSNL Portal browsing will be free to customers

v) The pulse rate for data usage shall be of 1 MB under all post/prepaid plans.

vi) On-net means Own Network (Mobile/Basic/WLL/CDMA), Off-net means Other Network (Mobile/Basic/WLL/CDMA)

vii) ISD tariffs for Voice calls will be as per 2G GSM.

viii) ISD Video calls are not available at present.

ix) The above Voice plans are applicable to both 2G and 3G customers, as no specific 3G voice tariff is possible at present.

x) The rates for all other items not covered above shall be as per 2G tariff.

xi) Existing Top-up vouchers and flexi top-up shall be allowed to the 3G voice and data prepaid plan also.

xii) The grace period GP1 and GP 2 for voice and data plans shall be as per prepaid 2G GSM.

Today Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) commercially launched its 3G mobile services in 11 cities simultaneously.

The cities where the launch took place are :

• Agra
• Ambala
• Dehradun
• Durgapur
• Jalandhar
• Jaipur
• Jammu
• Lucknow
• Ranchi
• Haldia
• Patna

For More Details About BSNL 3G please check out their FAQ On 3G Mobile Service .

Following the launch of MTNL 3G launch in Delhi, BSNL launched 3G services in Chennai today.

A big ad was put up in the TOI today which you can check out below:

BSNL listed that through its 3G network it will be providing features :

Video call/Conferencing

Mobile TV

Richer Multimedia Experience

Video On Demand

Faster Video Streaming and Online Gaming

High Speed Internet With Speeds Up To 2 Mbps

Pretty impressive feature list, there is still not much info available on the pricing, we will let you once some news comes up on that.

On the other hand there is no news that when private operators like Airtel or Vodafone will be launching their services, which is really disappointing as they are the ones distributing iPhone 3G in India.

Airtel just issued a warning on their website, which is alerting users from a sms scam running around in the networks.

Here is the warning message from Airtel:

“Unsolicited fraudulent SMS’s are being sent to various subscribers informing them that they have won a prize and need to call an international number to collect their prize. When calls are made to the number in the text message the subscribers are billed a high amount (upto Rs 500 per minute).Subscribers are cautioned not to respond to such SMS’s”

So play safe and ignore if you get any such messages.

MTNL 3G network just went into trouble after getting launched. MTNL is crying foul and reporting to Department of Telecom (DOT) that some other network is using its spectrum for its test purposes, which is causing disturbance in its network.

Names are not out on which network is exactly is causing the problems, but one thing is getting pretty sure that by this year end India will have a decent 3G network( atleast we hope).

[Via:Engadget]