AV's Blog

I have been a user of BPL Mobile's GPRS Service since a little over a year now. And a subscriber of BPL Mobile since about 4 and a half years now. This company was indeed the first to introduce GPRS Services in India. But since the time they have introduced GPRS, they havent learnt ! While on GPRS if I get an incoming call, or a message or even a delivery report, the GPRS service goes "On Hold". Thats the status it shows on my Nokia 7610. and then it never comes back to "Connected". GPRS doesnt work till I disconnect or at times reboot the phone. Though rebooting is not a mandatory thing.. thankfully. The friendly folk at 800 customer support initially gave me a lot of settings to try, from changing the IP and port upto even naming my connection. Geez ! Finally, after almost a year of me following up with them on and off they told me that their services need to be upgraded and they are in the process of doing the same. This was last month. There was unofficial information that the upgradation would happen in October 2005. Its November 2005 now and still no sign.

The irony is that when I roam on Hutch, I get GPRS on roaming and that too without the "On Hold" problem. When I am on GPRS, if I make/get a call or a message, my GPRS icon shows a G slash, goes "On Hold" momentarily and comes back to "Connected" as soon as I end the call or the message gets sent. And my MSN Messenger or any browser connection on phone as well as laptop behaves as if nothing happened. The folks at 800 dont seem to know about GPRS and roaming since they told me "we are so sorry sir, GPRS is not available while roaming". By the way, all Hutch and Orange users get GPRS while roaming at no extra cost. I believe even Airtel offers GPRS while roaming at no extra cost. Outside the Mumbai circle, theres no GPRS from BPL Mobile. So when I go to Goa or anywhere in Maharashtra theres no GPRS. With BPL Mobile now an Essar Company, I hope this nagging issue gets resolved. I dont intend waiting for too long. The trade off is that I'll have to give up my almost 5 year old cell no. but if I get a good deal from another provider, I might just give up my faith in BPL Mobile.