It has been a long time since I updated my blog. the reasons were many ranging form not getting free time to not knowing what to write. but few days back when i received a message from my friend notifying the change in his contact number from Airtel to TATA's Docomo, a strange thought process developed in my mind regarding the Docomo plan "pay per second".
At first even I was fascinated by the idea. But i felt sorry for TATA coz they seem to lose huge revenue by providing services at such cheap rates. but one day when I was traveling to my place in BMTC, again this question started to trouble in my mind. so i took a piece of paper and started to write some random minutes and seconds and tried to figure out what individual plans going to cost. To my surprise I got Docomo rates higher than normal 50 paise/min plan. So I thought to make it more structured and planned and make it free from human emotions in generating those random numbers.
Today i am really free with virtually nothing to do . so i thought let me write simple C program and make it more comprehensive. below is the simple C code. (for people who don't know anything about programming write down some random numbers and figure yourselves out)
// rates.c :
#include
#include
#include
#define NO_OF_TEST_CASES 900
#define MAX_MINUTES 10
struct callrates
{
int minutes[NO_OF_TEST_CASES];
int seconds[NO_OF_TEST_CASES];
float totalrate;
} Docomo,normal_50;
int main()
{
int count = NO_OF_TEST_CASES,min,sec,i;
srand((unsigned int)time((time_t *)NULL));
for(i=0;i
{
min = rand()%MAX_MINUTES;
sec = rand()%60;
printf("%d\t\t%d\n",min,sec);
Docomo.minutes[i] = min;
Docomo.seconds[i] = sec;
normal_50.minutes[i] = min;
normal_50.seconds[i] =sec;
Docomo.totalrate += (float)(Docomo.minutes[i]*60 + Docomo.seconds[i])/100; // convert to paisa and then to rupees
normal_50.totalrate += (float)((normal_50.minutes[i]*50)+50)/100; // convert to paisa and then to rupees
}
printf("Docomo\t%f\nnormal_50\t%f",Docomo.totalrate,normal_50.totalrate);
getch();
return 0;
}
( For Programming Geeks : Before commenting on the style of programming or code refinement or making it more optimal please know that I am not a great programmer so please don't see the above code from that perspective . but if you find any logical errors in calculations or better algo for generating random nos etc commenting on that is highly appreciated.)
How to Use :
1. you just need to change NO_OF_TEST_CASES and MAX_MINUTES
How I chose NO_OF_TEST_CASES
Lets say i call 5 times a day.for one month its 5*30 = 150 and i keep this plan for around 6 months .so totally it will be 150*6 = 900 calls.
Choosing MAX_MINUTES
Lets say i speak for a maximum of 10 minutes . All my calls last within 10 minutes.
My Test Results (corrected to nearest integer...included only 5 cases for demonstration purpose)
DOCOMO: Rs. 2647
NORMAL: Rs.2431
DOCOMO: Rs.2746
NORMAL: Rs.2522
DOCOMO: Rs.2646
NORMAL: Rs.2434
DOCOMO: Rs.2727
NORMAL: Rs.2498
DOCOMO: Rs.2758
NORMAL: Rs.2525
GOT THE POINT?????????...
How we have been (at least me) fooled by the "pay per second" plan. I think this plan suits to only those who normally dont talk much over the phone. but the marketing was done so nicely that they made us to feel that we are under "gadi ka atyachaar". When someone talks for around 10 mins then the next few seconds does not count at all. but we fail to recognize this and simply believe that this plan is the best. For those induviduals who speak a minimum of 10 minutes over phone like businessmen or the one having girlfriend/boyfriend this plan is suicidal.
You can try giving different values to the two macros according to your needs and find out which one suits you the best.
By looking at this I realized TATA is not making any loss by allowing us to pay per second and now why every operator seems to be liking this idea. After all nobody sells anything for a loss. Hats off to the guy who created this plan!!!!!!!!!
Disclaimer : I am not in favour of any operator or any plan. I was just letting a machine generate some random numbers and calculate the rates according to the paln. I assume the reader's mind is evolved to the extent of making his own judgements without blind acceptance. If any reader claims he lost money coz of this article anything related to this, the author doesnot take any responsibility in such cases.
Any constructive comments which may lead to a healthy discussion is highly appreciated !!!!!!!!!!!
