INPUI: Hmar News & Info

New Delhi, Nov 20 (Deccan Herald): Tired of your existing cell phone service provider? Just dump it by paying Rs 19 and go for a new service provider without changing your number under the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) scheme.

The MNP, which allows cell phone holders to change their service provider without changing the number is coming into effect from December 31.

Telecom watch dog Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday fixed the reference rate for portability fee at Rs 19. “The per port transaction charge will be Rs 19 and the subscriber will not be charged more than that. However, operators are free to levy any amount less than or equal to this charge”, TRAI said in a statement. 

Accordingly, the MNP service is likely to be available in metros — Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, and circle A service areas like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in the first phase (December 31) and in the second phase it will be available in other parts of the country by March 20.

The government expects that the MNP would ultimately benefit the customers as it would trigger severe competition with the companies possibly announcing sops, including lowering call and SMS rates, to retain their subscribers.

The government also hopes the companies may improve their services.
Guidelines
As per the guidelines to MNP, the TRAI says customers who wish to change the service provider have to give a written undertaking to their existing service provider that he/she is switching to a new operator.

Within five days of this, there should be mandatory subscriber identity verification. After completing this process, it would be forwarded within two days to the MNP service provider who in turn allows the change of the service provider.  The regulator has clarified that the portability facility will be available only within a given licensed service area.

The operators must telephonically inform the customer of the exact date and time the porting will happen. Post-paid customers have to clear all outstanding payments before they can change their operator, said the guidelines.

The regulator has said that the new operator that takes on the ported customers is not bound to repay any deposits made by the customer to his original service provider.

For more News: Visit- Deccan Herald

[By Lalmalsawm Sungte]

Docomo mobile service has been in the news for months now, but the actual rolling out of the new GSM service in Karnataka and rest of India began only in recent weeks. In Bangalore, Docomo is selling like hot cakes. Yesterday (Sept 13, 2009), we went out to get one for a 'see-it-for-myself' testing. The first retailer we went to told us that there was no more SIM card!

Our next stop was at a small mobile repairing shop which was also registering Docomo customers. We had to literally make a queue to get the SIM form. It felt like those days when BSNL was the sole GSM mobile service provider in Shillong... we had to wait for months to get a SIM card and activation would take another 2-3 weeks.

When it was our turn, we filled up the form and handed over Rs 50 to the shady retailer ('shady retailer' because my instinct tells me right from the start that he was up to no good and was thinking of making the 'mullah' while the going was good). Instead of gladly taking the 50 rupees he asked for Rs 120, which we were not ready to pay him. The reason he gave me was that the SIM card costs Rs 49 (Out of this you get Rs 5 talktime) and Rs 70 for activation charges.(Mind it...There's no activation charge, that's what the company website says)

If we had not come prepared after visiting Docomo's website www.tatadocomo.com, we would have fallen into this greedy man's trap. To keep it short, we argued for a while and after someone intervened, they finally said, "Sir, You have to pay Rs 120 now and tomorrow after activation you'll get Rs 50 talktime..." We knew this was not the deal Docomo offered, but sensing the futility of arguing any further we paid Rs 120 for the connection plus for the recharge.

The next day, the Docomo number got activated, but it came with just Rs 5 talktime instead of Rs 50. We waited till evening. But the promised-Rs 50 never came. So, on my way to the office i went to inquire the retailer why we have not received the recharged amount. This man, i could tell from his face, was least expecting to see me again; but he did and after some 10 minutes or so he punched Rs 51 instead of Rs 70. I got Rs 51 talktime for that... Being the godly man i'm :) i have to forgive him for stealing my 20 rupees right under my nose.

Lessons learned: (0+3= 3)
0. Never buy things from small-crocked retailers of any items or goods. Go to authorized store.
1. Man is greedy by nature and will exploit any opportunity to get even what is not his.
2. It's sometimes better to stay away from greedy men or even women.
3. Consult company's websites or customer care about the goods before parting with your money. Once the money is in the hands of the retailer or even the authorised dealers they'll find thousand of ways to never return/refund your money.

Following are the reasons why we're trying out DOCOMO:
* 1p/second - Anywhere In India (This is true)
* No daily/monthly rental (No daily rental: True Monthly rental: we're just two days old)
* Savings Alert After every Outgoing call (Sometimes it comes, sometimes not)
* ISD calls on 1 second charging (No number to call up, so we haven't test this feature)
* Reasonable SMS rates (Good. In Karnataka you get Free 100 SMS-National& Local- after sending the first SMS)
* Pre activated STD, ISD and National Roaming without rental (Yet to try. Maybe during the next trip)
* Anywhere in India Recharge (Yet to try)
* Strong signal (We have verified this, it's good here in Bangalore. But, Airtel is still better by 10%)

SIM CARD (You pocket could be thinner by...)
Price of Pack (Rs.)============ Rs.49
Validity====================Lifetime
Free Airtime on Pack (Rs.)====== Rs 5

Other Key Details
Incoming Calls (Rs.) Free while in home network
TATA DOCOMO---------- 1*
Tata CDMA--------------- 1*
Other GSM--------------- 1*
Landline/CDMA----------1*

STD Rates
TATA DOCOMO-----2*
Tata CDMA----------2*
Other GSM----------2*
Landline/CDMA-----2*

SMS
Local---------------Rs.0.60*
National----------- Rs 1.20*
International------ Rs.5.00*

*All in seconds.
**You can recharge any value from Rs 10-100000

To see more tariff details visit: Docomo

What can you do if your mobile phone was stolen? Usually, you will just sit back and even if you do file a complaint chances are you will never get it back (blame the poorly IT educated police for this). The least you can do is buy a new one!. Now, here's a trick that will show you how to block your phone from being used by any other person. Also, with this trick you can also (with the help of the service providers) track down the person trying to use your stolen mobile and then take the help of the police to get it back.
Here's How To Do It: (from our partner source: solidblogger.com)
IMEI stands for International Mobile Equipment Identification. All mobile handsets are assigned unique IMEI numbers and no two mobile handsets share the same IMEI number, even by mistake! You can find your mobile handset’s IMEI number by typing *#06# on your mobile. Since this number is unique, it will help us in locating your lost or stolen mobile handset. For now, note down this IMEI number and keep in a safe place. You can also find your mobile IMEI number on your mobile handset packet cover.

How to block your lost or stolen mobile handset using IMEI number
When you switch on our mobile phone, your mobile SIM card tries to connect with any available network. Once it finds a supported network it tries to build a network connection between your mobile handset and the nearest tower. During this connection negotiation, your SIM transfers some internal information to the network operator such as your mobile IMEI number, mobile model, version etc. This means your mobile operator keeps the record of your mobile handset number each time you try to switch on your mobile handset and use their service

Now if you have lost your mobile handset or your phone has been stolen, you can contact your network provider to block your IMEI number. They might ask you to get a Police FIR copy first, do as they say and finally ask them to block your IMEI number. Mobile network providers use a shared hosting service for blocking IMEI numbers, which means if you have asked network ‘Airtel’ to block your mobile handset, it automatically gets blocked by network ‘VodaFone’, ‘Reliance’, ‘Idea Cellular’ and so on.

Now when that thief will switch on your mobile handset, no service providers will allow it to build any connection with them. It does not matter if he changes the mobile SIM card, since SIM card requests for the service with IMEI number and a blocked IMEI number handset will be ignored and the mobile will become an useless toy.

If you know someone from any mobile network, you can also ask him to find out the mobile number that’s being used that IMEI number. In that way you will get the mobile number that thief is using on your handset Take help of mobile number tracker to track any mobile number in India.

You can find more information about your mobile handset by entering your mobile IMEI no. Go to IMEI Number Analysis and know more about your handset model, manufacturing date and some internal informations for free.