Reader Speaks: Uninor Ignores 2G Data Services

I am Ranadeep from Kolkata using Uninor for around 1 year. I am a student and since Uninor is providing cheap onnet calls, affordable SMS packs I chose it over other operators.

I am following Telecomtalk very closely for a long time; recently I came across an article – ‘Can Uninor Sustain in India?’ saying Uninor is not concentrating on data business.

When it was published I was not very much bothered about data services by Uninor. Two weeks back I bought Samsung Galaxy Smartphone and recharged with Rs 90 for 6GB GPRS data.

Since I recharged this GPRS pack valid for 30 days, I find several problems with Uninor GPRS/EDGE.

1. Uninor website does not mention daily cap of 200 MB. In spite of that Uninor website mentions 6GB/1.4GB on STV90/STV24. This simply misleads users.

2. Uninor GPRS is too slow all the time. I heard from one of my friends who is still a Uninor customer, Uninor earlier used to offer great GPRS/EDGE speed (30kBps+), and now for some unknown reason Uninor EDGE is now totally gone crazy (5-12kBps).

3. Frequent disconnection at evening hours: In most of days I find that there is frequent disconnection during and after this session of connection and disconnection there remains a session while internet connection will be established but no data is transferred.

Ranadeep

4. With Opera Mini Next I can not use Uninor EDGE, though network diagnostic saying internet connection is there, no page was loaded by Opera Mini Next. I tried with Tata Docomo GSM and Virgin Mobile GSM – both cases Opera Mini Next was able to load pages in jiffy.

5. This is not related to Uninor GPRS, but it proves worthlessness of Uninor customer care. Uninor shows off VAS offers as flash messages, it is a trap where you can fell prey by just selecting ‘Ok’ by mistake. It happened with me, and I tried to call customer care and resolve, but the person over phone told me that the balance deduction was due to a phone call made from my mobile no. at a rate of Rs16/min.

Well now the point is now I am thinking to use another operator for 2G data (3G data is costly for me) and keep Uninor as a connection to make onnet calls and send SMS.

Telecomtalk’s Take: We told earlier Uninor cannot just be poor man’s connection to make calls only. Demand of data is going high and high, and still Telenor has not expressed wish to become a part of India’s interenet revolution – it does not sound good for Uninor. Right now users like to do their doings on the move at an affordable rate, but services should be usable one.