Reliance 3G package - tariff details!

Reliance 3G package - tariff details!

---------- Post added at 01:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:53 PM ----------

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B9mZzOslGRzWODM4YWRmYzgtNDMxMS00ZDlkLThiOWMtMzVkNzhlZjRiOTli&hl=en&authkey=CLv1u-sH

---------- Post added at 01:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:09 PM ----------

Reliance 3G package details revealed

---------- Post added at 01:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:10 PM ----------

dammit. embedly is not working for some weird reason. 😕

I'm not impressed with their 3G data pricing. 2100 INR for 21 GB at 21 Mbps doesn't sound that bad. I say it's good.

it's better than tata docomo at least.

so there is no Unlimited in RELIANCE like BSNL do

Bah! Stop whining about no unlimited 3G. In my view, this is a GOOD thing because Wireless/3G is simply not going to handle the loads that "unlimited" plans would cause, which would cause problems for everyone on the network. Just look at how many BSNL users are reporting really slow speeds on 3G compared to those getting half-decent speeds (2+mbit/s).

With regards to pricing, you have it pretty sweet in India - I would jump for joy at these prices if they were available here - anything 3GB and above is quite good value as compared to some of the data-plans with your ADSL providers, and even compared to the likes of some wireless providers such as Tikona.

Comparing the cheapest network in NZ, we pay minimum NZ$20/GB (if we're in the right city), otherwise rest of the country that network piggybacks on Vodafone, which takes the price to NZ$6/50MB (so NZ$120/GB).

Currently, NZD$1 = Rs34, so we're looking at:
50MB = Rs204
which puts the price of 1GB = Rs4080 (on this network if you are not in their "broadband zone"). Within their "broadband zone", 1GB = Rs680 (where available)

That said, depending on how you buy, 4GB can be had for "as little as" NZ$72/Rs2500 on Vodafone (using USB stick). Mobile plans are atrocious - a plan with 1GB runs at about Rs8500 per month, although they're starting to offer some deals on data now - seems to have come about since I called them out on their pricing in the NZ media about a month ago, but I can't take credit for that.

My point is... we've had nationwide 3G in NZ on both major networks (Telecom NZ and Vodafone) for over 5 years already and we're still getting milked dry! If consumers here could get 21GB of data - whether on 3G or on landline - for Rs2100 (NZ$62) we would be absolutely delighted.

---------- Post added at 03:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:38 PM ----------

And to make things worse - the wholesale prices are about the same as India (potentially even a little cheaper) and the cost of the spectrum per subscriber was about half compared to India.

The main difference between here and India is our mobile termination rates - but that applies only to voice, not to data.

I know how much Vodafone NZ pays per GB, yet they still charge these outrageous fees for delivery - it's more expensive to get data on wireless (3G or otherwise) than wired, but even that's pretty outrageous (largest ISP here has 10GB plan for something like NZ$60/Rs2000 per month and after that amount, speed drops to 64k, which renders it unusable!!)

It may sound ridiculous, but if I don't manage to do it myself, I'd like to see Airtel/Reliance/Tata come to NZ and significantly undercut the competition.

I totally second mgcarley. I'm not in favor at all of cheap no-cap unlimited plans on 3G

unlimited should be expected only from the BWA services that will be launched next year(may be) using LTE & Wimax by various operator. But again they can't offer unlimited data on very high speeds becoz that will eventually lead to congestion & other problems.Unlimted plans should rather be offered on wired broadband, the wireless should be provided with high GB limits rather than totally unlimted. Here in India people want unlimited 3G plans like BSNl 3G just becoz they don't have any other option which provides them 1mbps or above speeds without any FUP. The 3G plans should be providing higher data limits than what is offered at present by pvt. operators & one other thing they can do is reduce the price/MB post the qouta completion, so they customer is willing to pay a little bit more.

unlimited should be expected only from the BWA services that will be launched next year(may be) using LTE & Wimax by various operator. But again they can't offer unlimited data on very high speeds becoz that will eventually lead to congestion & other problems.

Exactly - not just congestion, but performance under medium-to-heavy load - even if just 1 or 2 users have torrents running which are opening 500 connections or something like that, performance will suffer.

Conversely, if 10 people are all watching 480 or 720p youtube videos and consuming roughly the same amount of bandwidth, performance should still be very good.

Unlimted plans should rather be offered on wired broadband, the wireless should be provided with high GB limits rather than totally unlimted. Here in India people want unlimited 3G plans like BSNl 3G just becoz they don't have any other option which provides them 1mbps or above speeds without any FUP. The 3G plans should be providing higher data limits than what is offered at present by pvt. operators & one other thing they can do is reduce the price/MB post the qouta completion, so they customer is willing to pay a little bit more.

That sounds reasonable, and pretty much in line with our plans.

Bah! Stop whining about no unlimited 3G. In my view, this is a GOOD thing because Wireless/3G is simply not going to handle the loads that "unlimited" plans would cause, which would cause problems for everyone on the network. Just look at how many BSNL users are reporting really slow speeds on 3G compared to those getting half-decent speeds (2+mbit/s)..........


I appreciate your in depth explanation about the pricing elsewhere and do realize that every ISP paid a fortune to acquire that 3g spectrum but India as a country is a lot bigger than NZ etc & hence a lot more subscribers(additional opportunity) + cheap labor also adds to this. But either ways what is more important is the earning capability of an average Indian - i assume this is a lot lesser than NZ. NZ's can afford to pay that much for every other service but not many Indians can.

P.S: I'm not trying to start a debate but rather trying to understand if it's really a fair pricing. But otherwise i still find 21gb for around Rs. 2000 is a good and agreeable deal for mobile broadband - used on phone 🙂

This is cheaper then att and verizon un the US. Also it is cheaper then what I currently pay for 3kb/s on loop

I appreciate your in depth explanation about the pricing elsewhere and do realize that every ISP paid a fortune to acquire that 3g spectrum but India as a country is a lot bigger than NZ etc & hence a lot more subscribers(additional opportunity) + cheap labor also adds to this. But either ways what is more important is the earning capability of an average Indian - i assume this is a lot lesser than NZ. NZ's can afford to pay that much for every other service but not many Indians can.

P.S: I'm not trying to start a debate but rather trying to understand if it's really a fair pricing. But otherwise i still find 21gb for around Rs. 2000 is a good and agreeable deal for mobile broadband - used on phone 🙂

Clearly you've never been here. New Zealand, while a "westernized" country, is one of the poorer ones in the OECD.

Yes, I understand that India is a much larger country, but this is why I'm talking about per subscriber costs, which make the actual volume basically irrelevent - you don't build a network capable of handling 100 million people if you only have a subscriber-base of 2 million in a country with 5 million.

The price-per-GB at the wholesale level is about the same, the spectrum cost per subscriber in NZ is less (about NZ$1.30 per month per subscriber versus something like NZ$2 in India). Things like cell towers cost basically the same worldwide and if Vodafone customer service reps are earning on average 3 lakhs per annum, then the per customer cost in NZ is only about 3 times as much - yet we're paying about 20 times as much for the services.

Furthermore, the network has been operational for 5+ years now, so much of their capital expenditure costs have been amortized already and it's just upgrades/maintainence mode now. Vodafone NZ made $211 million profit last year - good for them, but that's over $200 per subscriber - which doesn't sound like much until you read just how padded they had to make their expenditures. They've been paying $60 million a year to their own spectrum holding company - for spectrum which costed under $30 million for 20 years - this means every year, VF NZ's spectrum holding company makes some 4000% profit year on year (40x the spend). If they were paying "themselves" $5 million or $10 million, this might not be such an issue.

I worked out all of the costs in a spreadsheet - costs of leases, towers, retail stores, spectrum, software, cabling personnel based on publicly available information and came to a total network value of about $1b, which works out to about $20/subscriber/month over 5 years (minimum top-up on prepay here is $20 anyway, and on prepay that would get you about 20 minutes of talk time + 1000 smses). Vodafone went on to tell me my numbers were "way off", claiming values of $3b - but then of course being a public company I got the chance to get ahold of their financial statements for last year which said the value of the network is... $1.1b.

Anyway, what this boils down to is, despite the approximate CPC (cost-per-customer) for providing services in India versus NZ being roughly the same (excepting mobile termination rates), NZ customers are forced to pay many multiples what you do - $60-100 per GB is not affordable here - what I was trying to highlight is the price disparity that shouldn't exist because pretty much all else is equal. Rs600/NZ$20 per GB can be done in NZ, as is being proven by the only new player to have it's own towers - 2Degrees - but VF and Telecom NZ are still charging on average $60/GB, keeping their ARPU (average revenue per user) what seems artificially high - and this is what makes my blood boil.

Besides, the whole volume argument doesn't explain why countries like Norway, Sweden, Finland, Singapore and Hong Kong (all subscriber bases of

@ mgcarley: As i already mentioned "i still find 21gb for around Rs. 2000 is a good and agreeable deal for mobile broadband" - Yes i have never been to NZ but was only trying to understand the differences in Indian & NZ economy - My questions were answered. Thank you

@ mgcarley: As i already mentioned "i still find 21gb for around Rs. 2000 is a good and agreeable deal for mobile broadband" - Yes i have never been to NZ but was only trying to understand the differences in Indian & NZ economy - My questions were answered. Thank you

I'm in agreement that 21GB for Rs2100 isn't too bad (all things considered) - I just wish I could get 21GB for the same NZD equivalent - alas, that would cost me over NZD$300 (if I lived in Auckland or Wellington) or $thousands anywhere else in the country... Call it jealousy 😉

I'm in agreement that 21GB for Rs2100 isn't too bad (all things considered) - I just wish I could get 21GB for the same NZD equivalent - alas, that would cost me over NZD$300 (if I lived in Auckland or Wellington) or $thousands anywhere else in the country... Call it jealousy 😉
No use comparing rates of AUS or NZ; they are remote or poorly connected parts of the world, in terms of internet & transit costs are huge.

Compare indian rates with PAK or Srilanka or even China.

No use comparing rates of AUS or NZ; they are remote or poorly connected parts of the world, in terms of internet & transit costs are huge.

Compare indian rates with PAK or Srilanka or even China.

Being that I'm running companies in both countries and know the wholesale rates I've been given thus far, I can tell you now that the cost of bandwidth in both India and NZ is different only within about Re1 per GB, or less than US$6 per mbit, and Australia's connectivity to the US and South-East Asia (Singapore/HK/Tokyo) is roughly equivalent in terms of capacity - so no, transit costs aren't hugely different between India and NZ or even India and Australia.

There are significant differences in the cost of local transit (more expensive in India) and local peering (significantly more expensive in India - in NZ I pay fractions of a rupee per GB, in India, I pay more for peering per GB than I do for international capacity per GB).

Pakistan and Sri Lanka are poorly connected compared to India, yet cheaper or even similarly priced - Pakistan basically only has SMW4, Sri Lanka only has SMW3 and a BSNL cable to southern India (I forget the name of the city).

China, however, is significantly cheaper than India for International capacity, even if the availability isn't too different in terms of volume, much more of the capacity on China-US cables are actually lit up, and it's policies are are more advanced than India's in terms of nearly everything, which has resulted in 480 million plus internet users in that country (compared to India's "paltry" 85 million) - even if content is more heavily regulated.

As a result, in Chinese cities, higher speed connections are available for less cost with fewer restrictions - 20Mbit/s can be had in Beijing for 190RMB which works out to be about Rs1300, or 35mbit/s for 300RMB or about Rs2000, though a ~2mbit/s ADSL connection can be had for around RMB100 or Rs650, and for small increments in price you can get up to 8mbit/s - though I'm told the ADSL services do suck pretty badly from either of the major players.