A college-mate had come to Chennai from the US on vacation. Since it was years since we
had seen each other, we decided to go out for dinner and spend some time catching up on
old times, current lives, future plans etc.
Ofcourse with the all-pervasive presence of mobile phones, it was tough keeping the conversation on track. Every now and then he or his wife would get a call on their mobile
and till they were done talking to who ever was calling, the conversation would cease. By
the time they finished the call, we were not even sure where we had left off.
Having come to Chennai after a long time, there were many friends / relatives that wanted
to meet them or talk to them. So, they could be excused for letting the cellphone be an interruption in a meeting between friends.
However, what I found surprising was that the cellphone conversations were not really
smooth. My friend found it tough to hear the other party and there were lots of "Hello.
Hello. Can you hear me ?" kind of talk thrown in every few seconds.
Given that we had atleast 5 mobile operators in Chennai and the fact that we were in the
heart of the city, I was wondering why the reception was not good. I was curious to know
which mobile operator they were attached to, and asked them.
His wife replied that they were using the pre-paid card of SuryaCell.
I was like, "Who the heck is SuryaCell ?"
I know of Aircel, Airtel, Hutch, BSNL and Reliance operating here. But never heard of any provider called SuryaCell.
Seeing the blank expression on my face, she clarified.
"Its Aircell, which is endorsed by Surya (Tamil cine actor) and billboards of which are all over the city. I am a big fan of Surya and since he endorses Aircel, I prefer to call it as SuryaCell".
She said that when they had to choose a pre-paid card from the 5 available service providers, she did not even give it a thought and straightaway chose Aircel. Only because it was endorsed by her favourite movie star.
Hmmm. Looks like its money well spent by Aircell on Surya. They can atleast bank on his female fans (for all I know, even male fans) to plump for their service. Bad reception or other service issues be damned.
Not just Surya cell, there can be 100 more operators in that crowded city of Chennai. Lately, I am keen to see the cell phone usage of Indian citizens. I also can see the cell phone abuses that cause road accidents, confusions, identity thefts, stalking, junk calls, etc., to the extent of people getting rid of the land lines. There is no way of controlling this unless the device is tied to the SIM and the SIM is registered to person with some kind of identity. Since they are cheap, affordable and you don’t need an identity or a bank account to buy one, the calls are ending up with poor service of dropped signals and make you say “Can you hear me now” each and every second.
ReplyDeleteThere should be a perfect balance between demand and supply to make things work smoothly.
rajesh,
ReplyDeletewhile i agree with cellphone abuse and issues due to that, we do have a strict requirement in India of showing ID for getting a cellphone. You cant just walk into a shop and get a SIM card, like it was some years ago.
-BlackCat