Ever since it has introduced the new 512k unlimited plans (much to my delight), I was struck by the stupidity of the dimwits that Airtel has hired. Airtel has a fantastic infrastructure because it was not weighed in by the legacy initiatives of the older sloths, MTNL and BSNL. It introduced 8 Mbps broadband speeds with download limits that anyone would piss on. It would find some eager beavers to taste the “speeds” but it remains useless to ponder on that.
I feel that the “top up” thingy should be declared illegal because you have two plans running concurrently offering the same speeds. They should migrate the existing customers to the present price plan because it makes no sense to pay higher prices for something that doesnt cost much. No one is willing to look into this because the company and the regulator seem to share the same relationship as a client and a prostitute. As long as the right money comes in, the whore mongering goes on with everyone looking at the other way. Unfortunate.
Either way, I have been arguing that the current prices donot reflect the existing price slabs across the world. Most of the major telcos in the developing world have shifted away from the 256k plans and have focussed on higher bandwidth options. Further, the prices across the spectrum are way to expensive in terms of purchasing parity; which effectively means that there is an open loot going on.
Airtel can easily slash down the prices for access; offer unlimited plans with bundling of voice calls and along with that create demand to cater to the new customers. Airtel still advertises mobiles as a lifestyle product; it should be placed as something utilatarian instead of being aspirational. Thats the whole irony of it. Dimwits have access to bucket loads of cash to burn.
