A Tale of Two Telcos

Setting up 3G on Tata Docomo with my HTC Desire Z

1. Insert SIM in phone
2. Switch on Phone
3. Ta - Da ...

Setting up 3G on Airtel on same phone

1. Insert SIM in phone
2. Switch on Phone
3. Get an SMS from Airtel saying my phone doesn't support automatic settings download (the hell it doesn't)
4. Look and find some APN settings automatically set and enabled in the phone, but non-functional
5. Google - find several contradictory posts on how to set up APNs for Airtel Karnataka
6. Call their "technical helpline", and be kept on hold forever
7. Call 121, and be treated to lecture on how great my 3G plan is, but no APN settings
8. Try a few things at random
9. Finally find a setting that works - just disable the "Airtel Live" APN by changing the APN type to something nonsensical. Keep the "Mobile Office" and "Airtel MMS" settings as is.
10. Ta-Da (or should that be Ta-Duh?)

Why dont I just switch to Docomo altogether? If they can just sort out my billing issues ...