Reliance Infocomm - are they really capable?

by **peeping tom** » Sun Jan 19, 2003 4:26 pm

So many advertisements, so many shouts that they will overthrow even BSNL. Is it really possible? I think this venture will not be as successful as they expect. Anyway, my best wishes for them.

by **vivek of the mavericks** » Mon Jan 20, 2003 11:51 am

There is a funda behind it. Firstly take it straight that they are not running a temple to do charity work. Its apurely a profit oriented venture where they plan to breakeven in 18 months flat! but for a chage its promoted as a scheme envisioned by Dirubhai himself. I have lots to say here which i will do soon. The idea was to keep a long distance call cheaper that a postcard. The govt. reviews the postcard rates in every union budget and ends up increasing it. So would reliance, but keeping it cheaper than postcard!. Reliance plans to review the pricing every 3 months from the day of operations. The 3 year locking period, limited mobiilty and monthly subscription charges might just addup to a cost which would just be slightly cheaper than the conventional roaming GSM service providers. Like i said in one my previous boards about RIL, please read the fine prints. Its not that transparent a case as it appears to be.More on this soon.

by **peeping torn** » Mon Jan 20, 2003 2:08 pm

I am telling this because people are strongly beleiving this also.

by **Shaad-Aabaad** » Mon Jan 20, 2003 2:17 pm

Well, Vivek, everybody is out to make money..no one runs a charity here! And some do it openly while some have hidden agendas..as a consumer, our outlook should be to choose the service that gives us the best VFM( value for money) alogwith great service. And it\'s too early to say anything now. One thing i know for sure---the other players ins the sector will now have to definitely pull up their socks!!!

by **peeping torn** » Mon Jan 20, 2003 2:33 pm

for MEANING of \"pull up their socks\" please go to .....http://thesaurus.reference.com/search?q ... ir%20socks

by **vivek of themavericks** » Mon Jan 20, 2003 2:37 pm

They have already pulled up their socks by cutting airtime costs and making incoming free. The fact remains to be seen is whether consumers select the product with more value proposition then to the pricing associated with it. CDMA is capable of offerring roaming, but its now a legal issue of restricting the full utilisation of CDMA technology to protect the investments made by the GSM providers. This is the core issue being battled in TDAST. Its justified. You can\'t have a new technology to punture the rs24,000 Crore investment made and allow it make looses of Rs6000Crore annualy and also expect the consumers to benifit. Reliance would make use of the advantage of the confusion amongst take stakeholders and consumers

by **vivek of themavericks** » Mon Jan 20, 2003 2:40 pm

This venture would be a reasonable success in the urban localities, but if promoted well. It would really bridge the comunication gap existing in 70% of India which forms the rural sector.

by **Shaad-Aabaad** » Mon Jan 20, 2003 3:39 pm

Well yes thats true and that is why TRAI had clamped down on Reliance and asked it to redesign its pricing structure...The loss..is it that big? Well, Reliance is all set to crash the market then...Well, we hold Reliance stocks since the last 15 years...that why the biased opinion! All in all lets hope its good times ahead for us telecom users....

by **vivek of themavericks** » Mon Jan 20, 2003 4:29 pm

RIL is a great stock to hold, its a stable stock and does not confuse the investors. Infact Ambanis ae known to have been so accomodative that, any investor with even one share of RIL can walkinto ambani\'s chambe for claifications in the balance sheet. Reliance infocomm is a great strategy to put telecomunication costs at the lowest and its heading towads a ruthless pricewar where the consumer would be the final beneficiary. Contrary to popular notion, its not all the difficult to know whats going to happen to their telecom business. They would capture a largest market share considering even the untapped rural sector. They strategy is of making their presense so wide, that procuring a reliance handset for local calls would become almost mandatory just like the case of having email Ids in rediff, yahoo etc. People with official email IDs still maintain an email Id in these webbased email service providers. CDMA would not replace GSM service providers untill TRAI keeps a check.

by **Shaad Aabaad** » Mon Jan 20, 2003 4:55 pm

Thanks for some very interesting and enlightening insights!

by **Satan Claus** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 8:29 pm

ahemm.....*cough cough*...It isn\'t all as rosy as it seems.First of all, NO, the mobile phone isn\'t free.Its a hidden cost and a BIG one. Second, you pay a hefty Rs. 3,000 as Club Membership fees, which entitle you to receive privileged services like game downloads, ringtones, and a more of such freebies. A marketing booklet with discount coupons worth Rs. 1 Lac also comes along (come on Reliance, a deccan chronicle newspaper does a better job at giving us free coupons....LEwWZERZz).Third, all the billing money for three years has to be pledged to Reliance in the form of post dated cheques... or full upfront payment, and no, there isn\'t a trial period for the service. If you choose to exit the plan in the first year, no matter what the reason might be, you stand to lose the mobile phone, club membership charge...and Rs. 100 from each of your post dated cheques. Fourth, all seemingly free services like Voice Mail, Call Divert, Call Conferencing and Data Connectivity (Internet Services) are billed to you at regular talktime rates according to Reliance\'s Website!!!(hmmmm...). Reliance bills at Rs. 1,800 per quarter, and the club membership of Rs. 3,000 is compulsory and non refundable. That makes a total of Rs. 24,600 for three years. [3000 security + (1800 x 4 quarters x 3 years)].In return you get 400 minutes of talktime free each month i.e. 14,400 minutes for 3 years. Divide the two and you will realise that each minute within plan limits ends up costing you around Rs. 1.71 or Rs. 5.13 for a three minute standard call . And once the plan\'s call time is up, you pay standard landline fees. This implies that every call you make is getting you closer to bearing the cost of owning the mobile phone...Though cheaper than other mobile phone services, it is still costlier than a landline. This, despite the fact that setting up a CDMA2000x1 network costs less than landline based solutions, and the TRAI is offering Reliance a good deal via free interconnect with BSNL/MTNL.The quality and features, Reliance has been harping on will be seen in time. But, some basic misconceptions which give the deal a greater than god image can be cleared right away. The SMS facility on Reliance phones is limited to sending and receiving messages to Reliance phones only. It isn\'t possible to send or receive SMS messages to/from standard GSM mobile phones. So SMS being free isn\'t too good an option unless Reliance is a monopoly, which, if and when it becomes one, will make them charge for it. The low-cost STD calls too are for Reliance-to-Reliance phones only. If you wish to call up a standard land line, you pay standard MTNL/BSNL charges ( wow...will wonders never cease !!)Its better to sit back and watch the playing field level up, and then pick the tried and tested option that has proven its performance.Amen.

by **Shaad-Aabaad** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 10:30 pm

Thank you kind sir for being so concerned about my use of the English language. However, in your enthusiasm to point out and highlight my fault--not once but twice over in this thread---you seem to have completely overlooked the fact that \"pull up your socks\" is a phrase or an idiom. Hence looking it up in a thesauras or dictionary would be rather futile. Instead you should check out this link:
<br>http://home.t-online.de/home/toni.goeller/idiom_wm/idioms486.html

by **vivek of themavericks** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 11:55 pm

In short - See the fine print and use your common sense. When reliance publicly said that we might breakeven in 18 months flat, thats the first clue!

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