TATA Indicom

TATA, a well known name in the Indian business circuit came up with its indigenous telecom service TATA Indicom few years back and has since then made a noticeable mark in the telecom sector, although it’s still far behind the leading rivals. Tata Indicom, the brand name of Tata teleservices, uses the CDMA 3G1x technology for its wireless network. Tata Indicom is operating in more than 20 circles in India and has a customer base well above 2.5 million. The plugtosurf service of Tata indicom is another feather to its cap and this has been acknowledged with open arms in major cities of the country.

The first thing that a person would be concerned of, especially in a country like India is the network coverage of the cellular service. In this area, Tata fails to be good. With the exceptions of few major places of major cities and towns, it has a pathetic network coverage rendering the mobile phone useless! The network coverage maybe great in some lucky places or maybe better than other service providers in major places but it simply hasn’t got a wide reach. No, we don’t expect good range in dense forests, but at least in a city like it should have good connectivity.

The tariff plans of Tata are average. They aren’t exceptionally good and you always have to lose out on something or the other to fit it in your budget. Don’t be misguided by the ads, the ‘true value’ plan isn’t completely true. But maybe there is a plan wherein what is lost is actually what you didn’t want! Try it out and figure it yourself. The value added services offered adds no much of value either. Some of the basic needs like call-diverting or retaining the same number while switching over to postpaid from prepaid etc isn’t given a thought by the TATA’s.

Customer service is just like the typical customer service. Below average is how it can be rated, which in the trends seen these days is considered to be ‘good’! Waiting for the call to get connected to the customer care, waiting for the people to understand your problems and then again waiting to get a solution back (or rather a statement that there is no solution!) has become the new-age norm for telecom services in India.

The internet facility offered is considerably good and one of the main reasons for it is the usage of CDMA technology. One of the tech-oriented magazines rates the internet service of TATA as the best one. CDMA fares better than GSM in many aspects like cost reduction, network capacity, call maintenance, call security and voice quality. Perhaps that’s where the advertisement is actually true- the CDMA service that gives you an enhanced experience.

TATA is expected to launch itself in the GSM foray too. Hopefully, in the coming age some improvements will be seen in the services offered like the improvements in TATA’s other businesses other than the telecom sector.