USB EDGE has become a popular source of staying connected with internet while on the move. Even analysts and cellular operators didn’t expect this much response from mobile phone users, when it come to USB based EDGE usage in Pakistan.
Despite high pricing of USB based EDGE devices, they went famous, especially when they were coupled with unlimited GPRS/EDGE download and upload per month on a fixed rental. But unfortunately, these USB based EDGE users are not contented with quality of service provided by cellular operators. There are many complaints that we (at ProPakistani) receive on daily basis on respective posts and in Private too.
Concept of USB edge services is solely based on being mobile on the go and browsing internet using GPRS/EDGE services. Unfortunately, I already discussed in my previous articles that we have no proper coverage of EDGE available in major cities then it’s useless to discuss condition of rural areas of the country. In short, cellular companies missed the chance of a booming segment.
Main factors that were ignored while providing EDGE services:
Non technical Support
If you google around, you can easily assess that people are giving negative feedback about USB edge services, because of non technical support provided by mobile operators. If any customer calls help line, respective CSRs are unable to resolve the issue; hence become non responded service all over the Pakistan.
Bandwidth Channel is not broad
Bandwidth channel for using EDGE service via HSDPA modem is not well configured. As I mentioned above, mobile operators were not expecting this much feedback from customers about mobile broadband and they ran the same service on the same channels and all this resulted into slow speeds and even “Page not available” messages.
I think, mobile operators need to realize the nature of services being offered as it is for on the go / on the move, therefore they must start massive deployment of EDGE based BSS all over Pakistan or at least in major cities and highways like Motorway etc. Otherwise, customers will start losing their hopes and their sense of reliability on Mobile Broadband will be killed.
Customers’ bad experience with USB EDGE services can also be termed as bad homework for 3G, as fetching customers for 3G won’t be easy in a scenario when cellular companies will have un-satisfied mobile broadband users.
