• MTNL 3G Jadoo Services: Anticipated FAQ

    MTNL 3G Jadoo Services: Anticipated FAQ

    Pankhuri Bajaj, May 15, 2009 2208 hrs IST

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If you're one of those who thought MTNL wouldn't cast its spell of Jadoo on Mumbai in this century, you were obviously delusional. Bite your tongue ladies and gentlemen, because the state-owned telecom operator has today launched its 3G services in the city under the brand name 'Jadoo'! MTNL Jadoo 3G services will be up for grabs June 1 onwards.

After years of suffering on the MTNL network - courtesy the innumerable call drops and having to deal with their erratic consumer care folks, MTNL loyalists like me will finally get to experience quality voice calls, high speed broadband internet on smart phones and notebooks (384Kbps on UMTS and 3.6Mbps via HSDPA), video calling, live TV channels on mobile, and other value added services (VAS).

Moving on, Techtree spoke to RSP Sinha, MTNL's chief managing director (CMD) and J. Gopalan, MTNL Mumbai's executive director, to get some insight on issues related to the newly launched 3G services, MTNL's website, customer care, as well as network issues. Ahead, you will find excerpts from this conversation, but first -- some basics.

Service Availability, Tariff

-- 3G Jadoo services will be first made available in south and central Mumbai, followed by other parts of the city, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan and Dombivali.

-- Fixed monthly charges for the post-paid packages vary from Rs. 250 to Rs. 2,500. Interestingly, when compared to the MTNL Delhi's tariff for 3G services, Mumbaikars will end up paying lesser for the same service! Read about the tariff details here.

So, can one now hope to exploit the iPhone's 3G potential with Jadoo in the near future?

-- While nothing can be commented about MTNL's collaboration with Apple, Nokia sure has things working out with MTNL. The two companies have collaborated to offer MTNL Jadoo subscribers attractive deals on Nokia handsets as well as value added services. However, no specific announcements, other than the partnership, have been made.

Anticipating the 3G services launch in the city, last month Research In Motion (RIM) too announced its alliance with MTNL to offer BlackBerry smartphones with MTNL's 3G connection.

Anyhow, if you've already invested in a 3G-enabled smartphone toy, now's the time to see the real works with the Jadoo services!

Is it necessary to be an existing MTNL subscriber to be able to subscribe to the company's 3G services?

No, MTNL is offering Jadoo 3G services to existing as well as new customers.

To decide whether to opt for Jadoo, I want to learn more about 3G and even get hands-on experience of the service.

Sure you can! For just Rs. 99, you can use the '3G Trial Pack' for 15 days and then decide whether you want to go ahead for a prepaid or postpaid connection. Although do note that you have download limit of up to 50MB of data. Any excess data usage beyond this will cost Rs. 3 per MB.

Further, CMD announced making a week of free access to the Jadoo 3G services to existing subscribers. Yay.

How do I get started?

For info on Jadoo, you can call the toll-free number 1503 from an MTNL phone; the MTNL website does not show any signs of updated information as of right now. When we called 1503, a friendly customer care executive told us that there will be someone from the company (the next link to the final destination, hopefully) calling us to explain the 'how to' procure a 3G connection.

OK, I loved the Jadoo trial service and got me a connection. But I don't know who to make those video calls to!

Well, this is where you might start losing your faith, but then hold that thought. The service will certainly take time to take off as people do not know about it. If you like the service, you can recommend it to friends and family, and soon you might have people to make video calls to! In the mean time, you can utilize other services like high speed internet, mobile TV, etc on your smartphone.

MTNL's official website sucks - no two ways about it. Will it ever transform into something more pleasing to the eye and more importantly, legible?

MTNL is aware about the pathetic state of its website, with the piercing colors, boxes and more boxes, layout, and the jumbled up 'Informations' available on it.





MTNL's CMD RSP Sinha has promised that the website will be transformed, but refused to put a date on it. We'll update you on this in the coming months.

Some other stuff you may, may not care about:

MTNL has invested around 250 crore to get the 3G services rolling in Mumbai alone. The company hopes to rope-in a lakh subscribers by March 2010. Interestingly, MTNL has a capacity to serve up to 7.5 lakh subscribers in Delhi and Mumbai, but a spectrum restriction of 5 MHz bandwidth capacity could compel it to limit 3G services to around 4 lakh customers.

MTNL's first mover advantage: Is it really an advantage?

There seem to be pros and cons for being the first and only telecom operators to offer 3G services. Firstly, it's great to be a initiator of a service, however in this case, the state owned telecom service provider(s) will have to bear the cost of familiarizing the masses with the capabilities of 3G and finally getting them hooked to it.

Finally, when the private players will arrive and if MTNL/BSNL have not made a mark in the 3G services space, they will see their customers shifting to other private players' networks.

Although, by the time the private players jump in to the 3G game, number portability would have come into the picture - so hopping from one operator to another should not be a big up much issues.

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Related Links
MTNL Opens Discount Season
MTNL to Commercially Launch 3G Services this Month
Free Increased Download for MTNL Triband Users
Tag keywords
MTNL 3G Jadoo MTNL 3g MTNL 3G in June



Discussion Board
(6) Comments
dilip
,mumbai, on Jan 19, 2010 06:37 PM
hello my last message has mobile no. 9757022139 , just note the corection for video call...welcome..
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dilip
,mumbai, on Jan 19, 2010 06:34 PM
coreection pl.note no. 9757022139 give me avideo call
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dilp
,mumbai, on Jan 18, 2010 11:58 PM
hello, i have 3g jadoo connection , but no one to give avideo call, pl. call 97570222139 secondly the download at 5/1mb is too high for any one to use freely the ,managementshould think and reduce the charges for internet download
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PARALKAR PRACHI
,MUMBAI, on Dec 27, 2009 05:10 PM
i have activated 3g jadoo on my N82 cell fone. but cant get thru ur service plz help me.have also reported ur helpline several times.didnt got perfect solution,i have been useing trump since 2003,should i switch over to other network?my cell no is 9869382973 plz reply.
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Frustrated indi
,Mumbai, on May 17, 2009 10:41 AM
Well, am a loyal user of MTNL too. I know their services are erratic, network coverage is still quite poor, the helpline isnt great shakes, the calls drop frequently at some places, the network is sometimes down for all day long. Still I stick to being with MTNL, inspite of all the other private companies. Why? a. Nothing hidden, evertythings transpaprent. You pay for what is written down, nothing more. b. Airtel had a great grps mobile grps scheme. They had unlimited downloads for Rs. 7/- per day at great speeds, thats roughly 225/- per month including taxes. I too was thinking of shifting from MTNL grps at Rs. 399/- per month unlimited. But then Airtel increased it from 7/- to 15/- a day, and then to 25/- a day, and now some bloke says its gonna beincreased to Rs. 40/- a day. At Rs. 25/- a day, it works to Rs. 825/- a month including taxes, roughly double my MTNL connection. Besides, with increasing prices, my friends with Airtel connection are cribbing of the awfully slow speeds of their GPRS / EDGE connections, sometimes as los as 2 Kbps. c. Some private companies have started Unlimited Broadband, with a limit on downloads. now whats that? Limited unlimited downloads. Thats pure shit. Why doesnt the TRAI do something about it. d. I live in a place in Mumbai, where there is a single Dolphin tower covering some 4 sq. kms. The network isnt great ,so as to allow me speak sitting in the comfort of my home. But even thern, where ever I might be, in our area, the single point network alerts me to atleast someones call, so that i can walk out in the open or my balcony and complete my call. Whereas Vodafone has some 12 towers in this area, still my friend has absolutely no network in some areas, especially indoors. Now how come 1 tower is better than 12. Beats me. Got any technical answers for that, Techtree? e. Both Airtel and Reliance coomunications, I dont know of the others, are know to fudge revenue figures, so as to show lower revenues in areas where there are more taxes, and higher revenues in areas where there are lower taxes. Isnt that plain cheating??? Everyone cries about the government officials being corrupt, but aren't the private companies equally so or much higher. Everyone knows how the Reliance group operates, right. We crib about corruption, so shouldn't our conscience crib about the corruption by private companies too. f. No billing problems with MTNL. Complete peace of mind. Have seen my friends curse and shout at the call centre dimwits of private companies, fighting regarding unncessary charges in their bills, and trying to get them waived off. The private companies know that not everybody checks out their bills in details, and even if they do, and then complain, its easy to put out dimwits out there at the call centres, who will thrawt every effort of yours to try and make them understand their excessive billing practices, making you fret and rant at your own efforts, and you know its impossible to make that dimwit on the other side understand your problem, and you think its wise to pay the excess amount rather than go through the hassles of making your bill reduced, and in the process stress yourselves out. Its make me sure, why the western world thinks lowly of us. Anyone of us who has gone through a call centre agent would know how dumb our fellow Indians are, and when we ourselves think lowly of them, its easy to udnerstand why the westerners consider us uneducated lowly folks. I think both Airtel and Reliance win top honours in the most dumb call centre agents. I havent tried out the newer companies though. I would rather stick with MTNL and have my peace of mind, rather than dealing with private companies.
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manish
,vadadora, on May 16, 2009 07:32 AM
hihellooooooooo
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