BSNL CELLONE - SIM Activated

The CELLONE SIM got activated as promised at about 6 PM the same day. The reception is good; you get all bars on the mobile where ever you are. Trust me, you cannot find this in VODAFONE and you cannot find this in AIRTEL. I had issues with both these providers at my home but never with CELLONE - from what I see in the last couple of days.

BSNL CELLONE - The Visit to the BSNL Office

You will have to visit the BSNL office for getting the SIM Card, there is no way around it.

I reached the koramangala BSNL office around 10:20 AM today. If you are wondering where this office is, it is in the same complex where the RTO Office & the land registration office is.

The mobile department is manned by two people, one is a guy and the other, the cashier is a woman. The guy is the one you should go to. He is the one with the forms which need to be filled. Once you fill in the form, he will ask you for the plan. Be sure to know which plan you want before hand, the people in this office are not exactly known for their helpfulness.

Once you tell him about the plan he will take two pieces of papers and hand it over to the Cashier woman. After about 5 mins of waiting he will give you a receipt along with the SIM. There is no welcome pack, no booklet, no cover with the SIM, there is just a SIM; thats it. He will tell you that the SIM will get activated today evening.

As of now, I am waiting for the SIM to get activated.

BSNL CELLONE - The ground work.

I had managed to download the CELLONE application form some time ago. For the completeness of this blog when I tried to find the link again, I couldn't. So you can be sure of one thing, it is very difficult to find and download the cellone application form. You can also get the cellone application from from the customer service center.

Yes, I filled up the application form and took a copy of my latest BSNL telephone bill - for address proof. I will need a copy of my PAN Card too. I wanted to get some information on what is the process to follow once I reach the Customer Service Center, so I called up the 1500 BSNL customer service number.

Here are my observations -
1> You are on the queue for about 5 mins. Not a long time to wait, if you are BSNL customer.
2> Then a phone rings & you are immediately disconnected by someone. YES! That's true - "Disconnected". You can actually hear someone pressing the disconnect button on his phone.
3> You will need to dial the 1500 again.
4> Step 2 and 3 is repeated again and again.
5> Finally after about 15 - 20 mins, I was about to talk to a lady who spoke in a highly accented tone. She asked me "What do you want ?".
6> My Reply "I wanted to know the process for getting a CELLONE connection".
7> The lady "Go to BSNL office, format is available, there is a 90 second time limit to this conversation". Wow!! That really explains the disconnections.

Now for a visit to the customer service centre tomorrow.

Two Goals in 20 Days.

I am back to Bangalore and before joining the new company I have 15 working days to work on two projects. The two projects have been chosen based on the level of difficulty and time taken.

1> Getting a BSNL CELLONE connection.
The terms are good and comes with two promises, its good if you dont need customer servers & no customer service.
2> Getting TATA BP Solar Installed.
Want to go green and save electricity.

Lets see how much of these goals I can achieve in 15 days.

xVM on OpenSolaris

I spent most of today experimenting with xVM on OpenSolaris. I got Ubuntu 9.04 and Windows XP running together finally.

Leaving You...

As I walk out your door,
the strings of my heart pulls with a thought,
for you many a night I hadn't slept,
and many a wars I had fought,
away from you will I be lost,
or will I soar.

Leaving HP

After 6 years and 10 Months, I leave HP tomorrow.