"Service unavailable"

A Story by Om

A report into the disarray of India's major mobile network operators

This is the message (or indication) I & many other Delhites encounter daily on both the major networks, namely Bharti Airtel & Vodafone IN...

Even the communications & IT minister Sm Ravi Shankar Prasad's repeated requests to the concerned parties has only resulted in their denial.

As far as Airtel's 4G coverage is concerned, putting it very politely...don't run before you've mastered walking. Arthad - please ensure basic 2G coverage for calls & SMS before boasting about superfast internet connectivity...even the 3G reception often drops...not to mention 2G calls halfway through a conversation!

Many say Vodafone is superior to Airtel in this respect...well there are common deadspots in central Delhi.

I conducted a controlled experiment. This involved:
1. making/receiving a call
2. sending/receiving an SMS
3. sending/receiving an email
4. uploading/downloading (watching) a short (2min) video clip onto YouTube
5. Making & receiving a call + sending/receiving a message, both via what's app
6. Refreshing my status (with a new photo) on social media (namely Flickr)
7. ...and finally setting a route using current location on Google maps

These are the results (it's embarrassing as I chose 2 major spots - Karol Bagh metro station & Rajiv Chowk (both outside at the same precise location). To make things fair, I stood away from the metro bridge at Karol Bagh, to avoid diffraction (destructive interference). Some physics comes in handy...

I controlled the dependent variables namely the battery charge level each time at 50%; the distance between my head & the handset set at 50cm; the handset (I chose five different brands & their respective models to ensure complete transparency). These were the Samsung Galaxy S6 (4/3/2G) ; Sony Xperia m4 aqua (4/3/2G); Nokia Lumia 535 (3/2G); Micromax F145 (to check 2G only); Nokia 3310 (yes, I know - v.old school antique but again just to check the 2G coverage).

I thought having a mix of export & home brands, old & new technologically capable handsets (after all the 3310 here is the only monochrome phone) will really eliminate any bias in individual circumstances such as quality of antenna, etc. Two different Airtel SIMs (both latest, 4G enabled) & Vodafone (3G compatible). This is to exclude any SIM fault, as 2 SIMs work on marginally different bands of the frequency spectrum...so in all, every possible aspect which the everyday regular customer can control, has been covered. But really, who bothers with all this?

5 mobiles tested with each SIM (4 in total, remember?) means 5 X 4 = 20 sets of tests. This was undertaken over a period during the month of December. I undertook this on every day of the week (Monday to Sunday), meaning 7 days worth of data. In total, there are 7 X 20 = 140 results.

Of course, during the course of the week, the weather conditions varied - at 10AM everyday. The temperature varied by ±5°C, humidity was around 80%, mildly overcast & calm.

I will spare boring all you readers (BTW thanks for bearing with me on this so far)...the average daily result was (yes or no are discrete variables which will be expressed as the frequency of successful connections, etc.)

And here are the most anticipated results:

1. 100 of 140 calls made were successful. Only 80/140 calls were received.
2. 120 of 140 SMS sent actually went through (although annoyingly & deceptively all were charged for - greedy companies charging for services not delivered!) Only 100/140 were received.
3. 20 of 140 emails were sent (the rest never materialised as connecting to the server failed). Surprisingly, I received 42/140 emails...but these are still poor stats...
4. Uploads were never possible - that's right...believe it or not. Downloads with jittering & interruption...only 8/140. Miserable figures.
5. Calls never materialised either way...we managed 11 outgoing but only received 7 messages...
6. 22 successful (out of 140)
7. Couldn't connect to Google maps at all...I am not joking!

All the aforementioned technical aspects do make a difference, so I took them into account. Networks need to strengthen their signal, use other bands, find landowners willing to allow more masts & micro cell sites to be installed. I should mention that often the call quality was disturbed & nearly a fifth of successful connections were dropped. But that's something all you guys are already overly familiar with anyway, right?

Only then will our infrastructure improve in line with technology. What's the point of 4G smartphones in the Indian market when in practice, even in central Delhi you cannot sustain or capture a decent 3G signal? The anticipated launch & trial of 4G service on Vodafone will be interesting to see, however again likely to disappoint in light of the poor 2/3G coverage. Update - Vodafone's 4G is marginally better...however there's an absence of any coverage in some areas, rendering even calling or texting someone impossible...which on balance is kind of worse. Before addressing the basic issue, everyone is jumping the gun.

In light of all this pathetic situation (calling or writing to customer care even at the site only resulted in being ignored for both networks, although the figures of Vodafone are marginally better - about 5%), I kindly propose...

That at least a significant minority (let's say around 1000 Airtel & Vodafone customers) go on strike for half a day. Meaning, refrain from making any chargeable calls, sending SMS or using data.

Consider it like having a relief from the modern stress of our beloved mobiles...just like the 15day car ban operating as we speak, imposed by Delhi sarkar...using other smaller networks such as TATA DoCoMo, Reliance & Idea for any unavoidable calls is a suggested alternative. Obviously any urgent calls will lead to breaking the "fast". Only then will these companies begin realising with an albeit marginal drop in their daily revenue that we customers are serious & mean business!

Please let me know your thoughts...we are paying a fair amount (if not overly inflated charges) as it is...especially for data services. The least we deserve is a dependable product, right? Let's all improve this situation for each other & everyone. Who's really with me on this?