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Cell phones for us
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It's great to own a mobile, but who wants to pay for a number of gimmicks that no one ever makes use of? Here's the lowdown on affordable handsets without all the pricey extras.
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THE MOBILE phone also known as the cellular phone, is rapidly becoming a "must have" tool for the middle class Indian — that's you and me — promising to keep us in touch with our family and friends, even when we are on the move. As the number of mobiles sold in India grows, (the survey showed 13.5 million in May), so seemingly do the cost and the gimmickry.
Do you need 105 different ring tones? Do you plan to watch movies on your mobile? Or send messages with attached pictures of yourself, snapped two seconds ago? Can you afford to play chess or any other game, "live", with another cell phone freak? Do you feel comfortable only if your phone has WAP, GPRS, 3G, and every other fancy technology that is as yet not supported by your local service provider?
Not me and I guess, not you either. When most of us make a decision to buy a mobile phone, we do so to make phone calls. Ok, ok, we could do with the cheap messaging feature as well, but that's it. We have neither the time nor the inclination to spare on a lot of bizarre applications thought up by marketing geniuses who are desperately scraping around for ways to outsell the other guy. In the process if you can be fooled into spending a couple of thousand rupees more, for a lot of silly add-ons, that'll just make their day!
Don't believe the marketing hype. Mobile phones do turn out plain old models in large numbers. And in most Indian cities you can still buy mobiles in the Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 4,500 range that provide all the basic features one would need — memory to store important numbers, volume control,
caller identification, prompts to tell you who called when your phone was turned off, the ability to call back, and yes a small selection of ring tones.
Every phone these days enables the sending of SMS messages, it is no longer a big deal. We shopped around in a few metros to arrive at this shortlist of affordable no-nonsense mobile phones currently available in India. The Nokia 3315 is possibly the most popular model. It has replaced the 3310 which is no longer available with a receipt and a warranty. The 3315 is priced a little less than Rs. 5,000 in most Indian cities. Another affordable piece is Motorola's T 190, priced at Rs. 4,000. It is giving way to the T 191, but is still widely available. Alcatel is a company that has a number of budget models — the OneTouchMax db or OneTouchEasy db both are priced at Rs. 3,200. The
Seimens offering in the no-frills end of the business is the A 35 (Rs. 4,700) or the C 28 (Rs. 4,200).
Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Panasonic are the three other popular brands in India.
But when we checked last week, we could not find models widely on offer, below Rs. 5,000. The situation keeps changing of course.
If these prices are not obtainable in your town, you might like to shop on the internet. We found most of the prices mentioned above at Indian webstores such as www.ebuyguru.com, www.sifymall.com, www.fabmall.com, and www.phonegarage.com. It is worth shopping between neighbourhood shops and the Web till you get the best price. We are only talking of authorised dealers who will give you a proper receipt and a warranty.
If you have just decided to spend your hard earned money on your first cell phone, the shallow end of the telecom pool is the place to start. It'll help keep head (and purse) above water.
A. VISHNU
vishnua@hotmail.com
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
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