Reliance Communications may be promising great speeds and better quality voice quality with its 4G services, but the migration from CDMA to LTE is not without its fair share of birthing pain.
According to social media posts, many users are reporting that they are not able to get any signal, and many of those that have been successfully moved from RCom’s CDMA network are reporting they are not able to use data on the new GSM service.
Most of the problems are being reported from the Mumbai and Maharashtra area, one of the first to migrate to 4G.
UPDATE: The company has said it will switch off CDMA by June in 17 circles and that the process is going smoothly.
Though users were promised a ‘4G upgrade’, many are finding themselves on RCom’s 2G network. In some places like Mumbai, they are able to latch on to the 3G network.
“My reliance wi pod is not working for past 3 days. It is continuously giving red indicator and your customer care is not even picking up my calls. Already got my 4g sim and dongle month ago and it is still not activated,” complained Naser Shaikh, a resident of Pune, on Reliance Mobile’s official Facebook page.
“Reliance network down from last two days,” rued Prafulla Deshmukh, who also seems to be from Pune according to his profile.
“Not a single phone working since past 2 days. All our staff is suffering,” complained Padmashree.
Part of the reason for the confusion may be that many users did not know that a 4G-upgrade also means that the CDMA service will be switched off in many areas.
However, like in any migration process, there are also technical issues, as pointed out Chaithanya Shankpal. “Hello I am a Reliance Wi-Pod Pro 3 user. I have received the 4G sim card by post. Thereafter I started with the procedure to get upgraded to 4G and to get a new 4G LTE data card (the cost of which is obviously 899 for me). When I started with the process,after generating and submitting I was supposed to get redirected to the link where I can order my 4G LTE data card for 899,but that’s not happening.”
Reliance Communications is introducing 4G LTE with network partner Reliance Jio in most of its service areas.
The company derives a large proportion of its revenue from wireless internet services. It also offers the cheapest voice rates in the country, and has an estimated 5 mln customers on its CDMA network.
