WTF : Airtel adds its advertising before the hello tune !!

I don't know whether its because of some idiot in the company taking bad decision or Airtel been pushed to do things like this. But surely , the company has taken a path which is sure to raise question and annoy people in new , improved , different manner.
Airtel today has added its hello tune Advertising before each Hello Tune Song the user paid so that when his friends , relative call him they can hear the song while they wait for the call to be attended.

The Advertising which last about 7 seconds , is a serious issue as , Airtel is using people`s money to use their advertising. A normal person would pick a phone/call within 10-15 seconds and what is the purpose of one keeping the HelloTune when almost half of the time is purely advertisement from the company.

We had the same issue with BSNL , but its time we stand united and show these greedy Corporates that their plan of using our money to advertise their product is not going any further.

For full article and hear a RECORDED SAMPLE please follow this link

*urssiva.com/2009/09/05/airtel-wth-are-you-thinking/

^^yeah. it's true. I just changed the caller tune to QGM walkie talkie one and the advertising is so long that callers never get to hear the actual caller tune.

am gonna call airtel tomorrow if this stays. it's like I am paying airtel for their advertisment on my number.

exactly ..

my frineds who were on BSNL had the same issue when most of the time we cant hear thoer HT. to top it of , thier ads are much longer. Atleast Airtel is faster in the length.

i will call the CC and talk to him tom or monday

Though not still updated on my Airtel Prepaid but this is seriously WTF!

gotta love our indian isp's

hey do you know that airtel holds fifth place among the most profitably companies in india?

*www.stockadv.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/top-25-companies-in-slowdown.jpg

isp with a most profit per year in india.

^^ awesome +1

This is the sign of the Armageddon. Sure we are going to hell in no time.

this is very irritating not only airtel
but with my IDEA caller tunes too

V

naveen_reloaded said:
exactly ..

my frineds who were on BSNL had the same issue when most of the time we cant hear thoer HT. to top it of , thier ads are much longer. Atleast Airtel is faster in the length.

i will call the CC and talk to him tom or monday

Naveen,
this is a serious matter.. Are You from Chennai.? if So can you convince your friend to give written complaint to
G.M (cellone), BSNL ,R.K. Nager Exchange
Mandaveli-
chennai-28

Thanks you,
vaithy

i am from Salem , Tamil Nadu , but have friends in chennai

guys please use this thread *broadbandforum.in/airtel-mobile/51753-airtel-adds-its-advertising-before-hello-tune/

as Admin of that forum is the one who stood up against AIRTEL`s FAIR USUAGE POLICY and now he has told me that if response is good , he might work on this issue too.

@ vaithy , where are you from ?

i will contact CC on monday and tell them politely .

We will aslo try to email them and get thier response.

V

I am from Chennai..
I am not concerned with PVT players.. Because their motive is profit..But public company like BSNL should follow GoVT guidelines in this matter..BSNL tunes is outsourced to the CONTRACTOR.. portion of income is given to them as commission..If they are advertising or any other manner to irritated the customers, during their services, they have to liable for contract violation.. So a public complaint in this matter may help to correct the situation..
T.N customers may forward the complaint to
Chief .G.M (T.N. Circle)
BSNL
Anna Road,
Chennai-60002

Alternatively, users may sent the complaint to
cmdbsnl@bsnl.co.in
in case the advertisement is pan national phenomenon..
with regards,
vaithy

*pgportal.gov.in/index.html

use this link . its the latest online site for registering griefs. its said prompt action would be taken.

for more info *www.megaleecher.net/Government_Of_India_Public_Grievance_Redress_Mechanism

looks like it has stopped. this morning I checked and ads were not coming.

just now ( few sec back) called my friend .. its still there

they removed it.....

they have added it again

That's BAD.

How terrible !

I was expecting this for quite a while.

Actually i blv this is good. but the model airtel has implemented is not good.

The traditional caller tune was developed by a mobile content firm One Mobile.
If you wanna blame anybody.. blame this firm.
Caller tune was developed by OM and is now licensed to almost all indian and many foreign service providers. practically.. all indian service providers are addicted to it.

The advertising model is OM's biggest caller tune gamble... the plan is to have a caller tune which plays advertisement instead of song.

The Business model states to profile users and play add caller tunes accordingly.

Now the best part
The business plan also calls for giving users some freebies for allowing the service provider to play the add caller tune.

So Relax, Airtle is probably just testing the new service it licensed from One Mobile.
IF you have to blame someone.. blame Arvind rao, CEO One Mobile.

(Psst: u can find a nice article regarding the same on forbes india's aug edition, Page 80 )

^^^^^ never knew that...

who is that genius aravind ?

INS-ANI said:
I was expecting this for quite a while.

Actually i blv this is good. but the model airtel has implemented is not good.

The traditional caller tune was developed by a mobile content firm One Mobile.
If you wanna blame anybody.. blame this firm.
Caller tune was developed by OM and is now licensed to almost all indian and many foreign service providers. practically.. all indian service providers are addicted to it.

The advertising model is OM's biggest caller tune gamble... the plan is to have a caller tune which plays advertisement instead of song.

The Business model states to profile users and play add caller tunes accordingly.

Now the best part
The business plan also calls for giving users some freebies for allowing the service provider to play the add caller tune.

So Relax, Airtle is probably just testing the new service it licensed from One Mobile.
IF you have to blame someone.. blame Arvind rao, CEO One Mobile.

(Psst: u can find a nice article regarding the same on forbes india's aug edition, Page 80 )

It's not the kind of Ads that you are talking about here that is the problem, it's the implementation of asking user's to press star if they want to copy the dialer tone. This is not something new, it has been there on the idea network for over 2 years now. It has just started on the airtel network, as soon as I figured that it was there on my caller tune, I just stopped the caller tune service.

If airtel plays this message about copying caller tune before my phone starts ringing, then I have no problem with it, but if these $h1t heads think they can use part of my caller tune time to advertise their campaign, then they can just take the caller tune service, rub it sideways and $hove it up the wrong place.

I will not let a corporation take advantage of my money although they are making millions in profit already, greedy ba$tard$. :-x

PS: I apologize at the outburst of possible profanity towards the end and people here should already know that this is not how I am all the time or that I am not pointing this to anyone on the forum, hence, i would request the mods to have this under consideration if they do think about this.

Moral of the Story: If you want to play your advert, play it on your network and not on my airtime!!

Cyrus_the_virus said:
It's not the kind of Ads that you are talking about here that is the problem, it's the implementation of asking user's to press star if they want to copy the dialer tone. This is not something new, it has been there on the idea network for over 2 years now. It has just started on the airtel network, as soon as I figured that it was there on my caller tune, I just stopped the caller tune service.

If airtel plays this message about copying caller tune before my phone starts ringing, then I have no problem with it, but if these $h1t heads think they can use part of my caller tune time to advertise their campaign, then they can just take the caller tune service, rub it sideways and $hove it up the wrong place.

I will not let a corporation take advantage of my money although they are making millions in profit already, greedy ba$tard$.

PS: I apologize at the outburst of possible profanity towards the end and people here should already know that this is not how I am all the time or that I am not pointing this to anyone on the forum, hence, i would request the mods to have this under consideration if they do think about this.

Moral of the Story: If you want to play your advert, play it on your network and not on my airtime!!

I would blast more than you cyrus... dont feel lonely... we all with you..

none is of usl ike those greedy D!ck H3@ds ..

anyway , here is my proof that i disabled the hello tune ..

*i34.tinypic.com/2v9qi4o.jpg

anyone with me ?

^One step ahead... Never activated it in the first place as:

A). Greedy corps charge us insane rates for calling and if you take the cheaper sms plan, then you lose your cheaper call plan.

B). Add to that the 30 or so bucks a month they want us to pay for a damn song which is of practically no use to us or anyone calling.

C). To activate the CT, we have to call/sms, which we are charged.

D). To deactivate too, we gotta send an sms and i am willing to bet that weget charged for that sms too.

Verdict: CT's suck! I wont succumb to this B$ marketing profit making gimmick of the greedy corps!!! :-x

i had it activated for 4 years now.. had it long back when it was a popular and had it continued coz those a$$ holes keep on giving some sh!t offers...

anyway i dont have to spend 30 bucks

I just tried Hello Tune when I got it for free for some two months. I never understood the logic behind hello tune. Do callers seriously require to listen to the crappy low quality caller tune when they can listen to them on their mp3 players/ mobile phones etc. Instead I can save the 30 bucks every month & treat myself to some good food.

Haven't activated CT till date. I personally find them irritating. But I am thinking of having a caller tune which says "Apne dial kiya hua number coverage kshetra ke bahar hai". Do you get such CTs? I am getting too many unwanted calls.

^Lol.... Airtel gives one facility where you can record your own tunes and have them as caller tune. But the whole point of this thread is that your coverage kshetra ke baahar hai might just be preceded by a, "Is caller tune ko apni caller tune banane ke liye star dabayein!"

Yeh...thats what I feared actually. But it could be either way. A person gets to listen to whole dumb ad and then he gets his coverage kshetra gift! Thats more frustration.

Sounds fun but I think I'll stick to simple tring tring.