Blank out

Murphy’s Law states that if there’s anything that can go wrong,it will go wrong. Well,Sunita Mehra unwittingly proved it when she bought a new sim card of a leading provider. “It would work perfectly except where it really mattered – at office and at home,” she recalls. “After a while,I was forced to change my service provider.”

And so the struggle to find a service provider with a good coverage area continues. Pallavi Ghosh,an IT professional,has had a sim card provided by the company. “All my business calls are to be made using this number,but sometimes it gets quite humiliating for me when,in the middle of an important call,the phone disconnects,” she fumes. “My office has pockets of good network and bad network areas. Sometimes,the phone disconnects if I move to get myself a glass of water,or to get some files! In fact,once the call got disconnected when I merely shifted in my chair!”

A technician for one of the mobile service companies says that for a good network coverage,cell phone towers should ideally be placed on high rises. “In cities like Mumbai and Delhi,there is a good network from all service providers because the cell phone towers on high rises have a further reach. However,in Pune,there are very few high rises,and cellphone towers are usually just placed on two or three storied buildings. The presence of hills nearby also causes problems,” he says.

Some networks just act up in a weird way. For example,Smitha Nair says that as far as she is concerned,the network within the city limits is terrible,and when she makes or receives a call,the voice of the person on the other end often crackles. But,“The minute I am out of the city limits,the network is brilliant,and the voice of the person on the other end,crystal clear!”

Consumers are,at times,forced to use innovative (read comical) ways to get connectivity on their phones. Illustrates Shweta Chahal,an event manager,“I get almost no connectivity in my room,so sometimes I have to literally hang out of the window while talking on the phone.” However,she is amazed that somehow,the SMS facility is not affected.

A few of the network providers have now started becoming more consumer friendly.One of them,for example,has a map of its network coverage available on the internet,so that prospective costumers can,before going in for the connection,judge for themselves how well their area is supported.

Areas with poor or no connectivity
Warje
Fatima Nagar
Pune-Mumbai Expressway
Katraj
Aundh