It’s a pain. I meant the phone cards. There are good ones and then there are bad ones. Some steal money and some steal minutes. Either way, you stand to loose those precious quarters and cents. If you are a desi, you would have succumbed to the diabolic world of phone cards. It’s only through a phone card you might communicate, Amma Sowkiyama, Appa Bankla Check pottaachaa, Ammamma eppidi irukka in a single breath to reduce your the minutes running out of a phone card. When you do this a phone card would stay for longer days, allowing you to say more Sowkiyamas for 10 days. There are also cards with which you call up on a sunday and talk all the 45 minutes in one full stretch. I prefer the former. The later might carry a potential problem. You would have nothing to talk for more than 20 minutes and just to evaporate the remaining minutes, you even ask for, What happened to Mettiyoli’s Bose mama ? or gossip about Pakkath aathu Gaachu aunty. That’s boring.
Starting from 5c a minute or less there are all types of phone cards which rarely connect, usually disconnects abruptly and would round-off for 6 minutes making to blink with jaws wide open. Whatsoever, you just can get out of the clutches of these rectangular credit card sized telephone cards which have flashy colors and a rani-mukherjee-on-her-mobile-phone picture on the corner.
When someone told me Reliance Infocomm has a pre-paid option to India, I discounted it thinking about the state of Reliance telephones in India. Reliance in India has become junta’s mobilephone. And you know what happens when you go-public. The rich and the poor buy it while the middle-class fearing misuse is still hanging around with Aircel/tel/whatever types. While Reliance’s market is so huge the customer service is pathetic. They have definitely improved their billing system but it might take a few years to reach corporates and upper-middle class.
While I was busy typing a toll-free, a pin number and an Indian telephone number before I could hear someone say Hello, my friends were calling India without too much hassle using Reliance Call India. I set to try out Reliance. Reliance India Call really rocks, I should say. After tons of bitter experiences with the 10c phone cards, Reliance charging 12c a minute just doesn’t matter. They don’t eat minutes, steal money in the name of rounding-off or make you embarassed by disconnecting on the middle of the call with your In-laws. All you do is sign-up, give your plastic money details and then just register you US home/mobile number. Pickup a $5 card option or whatever that suits of your talking capacity!! From the registered phone, call up the toll-free Reliance number, it automatically recognizes your number and you just dial-up the India number. Vrooooom. Before you could lift you fingers from the number pad, Amma says, Ennada Kanna Saaptaacha. I love it.
Same is the case with the fone cards in UK until Telestunt & Just Dial came our way… they rock!
No pre-paying business… just cool.
Posted by:Hey Geek,
Reliance has just introduced the Easy Dial option, where u can have a simple code for frequently dialed numbers. Just came across it yesterday….haven’t tried it…but I’m sure it’ll be cool….no more dialing the long numbers….Inspite of 12.9c, I am a gr8 reliance fan too….Have Fun!
Posted by:Yes. The Easy Dial is a cool option where I store India numbers as 111,222,333……works great for me.
Posted by:lol…u don’t talk with the wife??…..or is she with youin Seattle?
Posted by:LG, totally agree with you! Reliance phone cards rock!
Posted by:I see, you have gone Home sick already !
Posted by:Geek
Posted by:I use reliance as well and it is god. There used to something called bigzoo which was much much more convenient and they gave you a ton of minutes. Unfortuantely the company decided to stop its international calling facilities :-(
Nilu, She is with me. I don’t see a case for lol. BTW, lol !!
Keerthi, Not homesick, I’ve been here before and I know how it feels like. I have just tried to capture all that happened with phone cards. I’m probably kollywood sick.
Pretty/Prabhu, Whats the easydial about. Will probably use it and see how it fares ?
Posted by:True. Reliance is one service where there are no missing minutes and sudden drop in your balance.
Posted by:Whoa!…….What do you tell her when you go to check out a strip club??
man……I never imagined you had “company” ;)
Posted by:You should check out buying Skype-Out (www.skype.com) credit - you can call land lines from your laptop. I have heard good things about it and it is very cheap - prob cheaper than reliance.
Posted by:“Companys” are pseudo phantasmagoric hallucination characterised by a reversely hypocritical souls in a lonely world filled with delusions of persecution that in turn gives a finger to the greatest theories advocated in the superme advaita.
I am telling you, get married NILU.
Posted by:I have been using Reliance for the last 4 months. I like the service.
Posted by:Off Topic. But important. Guys !!!
Posted by:Mumbai Express Music is Out (of course the MP3)!!
Yow… ph number kudu ya.. :D
Posted by:Yes.
Posted by:Reliance India Call is very good.
I mean, if you call from a land line phne, its as if you are talking from next door.
Crystal clear, and almost no latency.
I am still using mine for about 8 months now - I keep recharging it!!
Rams, Skype out is expensive.. Its close to 20 cents a minute. Heck, I can call India directly from a Cingular phone (they charge jus 35cents per minute, as compared to $4 or so with Sprint and T-Mobile).
Posted by:Guru, I guess with all this talk of India calling, I was reminded about your planning to call me sometime. If you feel you have an expensive option before you (even for the intra-US call), let me know your number and I’ll call you over the weekend. Let me know to my gmail either way. Thx.
Posted by:I guess Reliance got into trouble by routing some of these International Long Distance calls without paying the interconnect fee to the relevant government authorities in India. Dayanidhi Maran is trying to fine Reliance on similar grounds.
Posted by:Hi LG,
Sapitacha. really meant a lot that to from your point that is leaving every one here & settling down in a far downtown. hmm. it pains. When read from your post that Our again our reliance offering this .. feeling good.
Posted by:check out easy dial feature of reliance. awesome
Posted by:i been using http://www.lotsofminutes.com for many months now. great quality and lots of features. also got $5.00 free on sign up. you guys can give it a try. i like it as i mainly call to hyd. its 8 cents and no other charges.
i hope india levels the series with pakistan. cannot wait to watch the game.
Posted by:I did not have a good experience with Reliance at all. The numbers I registered with them were repeatedly called “to confirm”. To confirm what? This was an annoyance to some who did not expect to get such a call asking for me and to confirm anything. Even when Reliance was asked to not call again, they persisted. I cancelled the account.
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