Addition of 18.98 million subscribers done in October – TRAI

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recently released its data which states that in the month of October this year a total number of 18.98 million subscribers were added.  As per the data Bharti Airtel stood at the first position for grabbing the largest number of subscribers with 3 million.

After Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar grabbed the second position whereas Unitech stood at the third position for having the largest number of added subscribers. The state owned telecom operators BSNL and MTNL grabbed the major combined share of 82.3%.

The month of October witnessed a growth of 2.76 % as compared to the previous month. The base of mobile subscriber in September this year was 687.71 million which rose to 706.69 million in October. The data by TRAI also revealed that the teledensity of wireless increased to over 59.52 %.

As compared to mobile phones, the landline subscribers in the country witnessed a drop as in September it was 35.57 million whereas in October it became 35.43 million.

Enjoy Koffee with Karan on your Mobile Phone

Koffee with Karan is a popular show on TV and if you are also an ardent fan of the program and hate to miss it while going out for some work, then just relax as now you can enjoy the program on your mobile phones.

Hungama Mobile which is the leading VAS provider in the country has recently made an announcement about the launch of its latest services which will enable the users to enjoy the mobisodes of Season 3 show. So now, no matter wherever you may go, you can enjoy your favourite program.

To get the access of the services is also very easy and the user needs to pay Rs. 3 per minute for it. This latest service has been launched by various providers including Tata Indicom, Reliance Mobile (GSM & CDMA) and Vodafone.

Moreover now the users of this latest service by Hungama can participate in the rapid fire round of Koffee with Karan on their mobile phones for which they will be given a gift hamper on winning.

Turf War between DoT and TRAI over regulation of pesky calls

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and the Department of Telecom has recently entered into a war over the regulation of the pesky telemarketing calls. The main spar between these two authorities is concerned with the control of these calls from 1^st of January 2011.

As per Department of Telecom (DoT), TRAI is not technically competent enough so as to oversee the registration of the telemarketing companies which falls under the provision of Indian Telegraph Act 1885 in the internal note. Moreover as per one of the DoT official, the telecom minister needs to consider the circumstances and decide whether the TRAI has enough technical capabilities for handling of the telemarketing registration.

In response to the apprehensions of DoT, TRAI stated that they do not have any conflict with DoT regarding their role. It was further stated by them that an amendment has already been issued for the new launch of the system from January but there can be a delay of around 15 days.

Techonology Minister meets with three India telecoms bigshots

Kapil Sibal , Union Communications and Information Technology Minister recently met with three bigshots of India’s telecom industry — Bharti Airtel’s Sunil Mittal, Reliance Communications’ Anil Ambani and Tata Teleservices’ Ratan Tata. They talked about the current situation faced by the telecoms industry and the scandals that have rocked it in recent months, among them allegations of corruption and underhanded corporate lobbying.

Sibal heard the views of the three telecoms giants and regarding allocation of spectrum; the creation of a new telecom policy, and the slow growth of the broadband industry.

According to reports, the official assured the telecoms firms of complete fairness and transparency in the formulation and finalization of all telecom-related decision of the government. He is also said to have told the telecoms firms that the government will not discriminate against any player.

The three telecom heads in the meantime said that they were concerned about the spectrum shortage which as behind the slow growth and network expansion of the broadband industry.

Cellphone radiation levels in Delhi India are below permissible

Cellular phones in India need not worry anymore by radiation from their units and from cellular phone towers.

An independent t study commissioned the Indian telecoms recently revealed that the radiation level from cellular services in Delhi is way below the permissible limit . According to the Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology (CEWIT), radiation levels emitted by the  mobile towers in Delhi are 100 times below international safety standards set by the  Munich-based International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). This means that cellphone subscribers are in no immediate danger even if they use their handsets regularly.

Academic institutions IIT Madras and Thiagarajar College of Engineering also concurred with the findings that were result of tests measuring emission levels in over 180 locations across Delhi. It was found that the cumulative measurements were safely lower than the compliance threshold ICNIRP defined. ICNIRP is in charge of setting permissible radiation levels for telecom installations, base stations, mobiles and handhelds worldwide.

4G on testing phase in India, download@80 Mbps

Following  Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance (RIL)’s acquisition of Infotel Broadband Ltd, the industry has been awash with unconfirmed reports that Mukesh’s Reliance will be coming up with India’s fastest internet connection. Even as the Indian market remains eager for the formal implementation of 3G network by major players, Reliance has already begun testing 4G connections.

Based on new rpoets, the RIL team at Navi Mumbai began trials of the 4G connection and succeeded in getting an 80Mbps download speed and a 20Mbps upload speed. These connection speeds are way faster than existing 3G connection speeds at 3.1 Mbps or 7.2 Mbps.

Tata Indicom (Docomo) and Reliance Communication (Anil Ambani’s ) have also begun to provide 21 Mbps download speed on their supported devices. As for Reliance it has been making use of equipment from Ericsson for its tests on 4Gtechnology. The goal of Wireless India still way ahead but already, smartphone makers from the US and the United Kingdom have started to market various smartphones in the country.

Bharti Airtel Launches Direct Terrestrial link Between India, China

Bharti Airtel in association with China Telecom has set up a direct terrestrial underground link between India and China. This network will provide seamless connectivity to customers from India or China.

In India, the Bharti Airtel’s high-speed network will span from Siliguri in west Bengal to Nathula in Sikkim via Pedong on one way and the second path will reach Siliguri from Nathula via Gangtok, thus forming a ring like structure.

This network will address the surging international traffic and diversity requirements of both the nations,’ the company said in a statement. ‘It will offer the shortest alternate route between India and China alongside the existing sub-sea routes,’ it added.

‘The launch of India-China link further strengthens our commitment to create state-of-the-art network for our customers through innovation and connects two fastest growing economies of the world on a low latency path,’ said Ajay Chitkara, Bharti Airtel’s chief executive officer for global data business.

Bharti Airtel has also signed a MoU with China Telecom to develop Network to Network Interconnect (NNI) which will allow wide connectivity to the combined regional and global network resources of both the operator.

Yahoo and MTS co-branded page for mblaze users

Yahoo! India and MTS has announced a service and content partnership for MBlaze, a high speed mobile broadband service by MTS. MBlaze users will now be able to access a Yahoo! and MTS co-branded page that will provide their account information and content including Yahoo! Mail, News, live TV and mobile search.

The co-branded page will deliver greater convenience for MBlaze customers as they will now have a single destination to obtain information such as their account balance, account status, mobile products, network coverage and to recharge the balance on their pre-paid accounts. MTS is also planning to offer the co-branded page in local Indian languages.

Vishal Maheshwari, Head Mobile and Business Development, at Yahoo! Asia Pacific, said, “ Through our partnership with MTS, we have now made it easier for consumers to get to their favourite Yahoo! content and services while they are on the move. Yahoo! wants to be at the centre of people’s online lives and this initiative with MTS will allow us to build and deepen our relationships with our audiences.”

Bharti Airtel Launches Tees Maar Khan VAS Services for Its Subscriber

Bharti Airtel has today launched exclusive VAS content for the upcoming bollywood movie, Tees Maar Khan for its 150 million subscribers across the country.

On the launch of this VAS, Shireesh Joshi, CMO-Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel said, “Today, we find customers increasingly rely on their mobile phones for almost everything they do – be it listening to music, watching videos or playing games.”

The Airtel customers can access exclusive contents of this movie like wallpapers, game download; Hello Tunes from their GPRS enabled handset from Airtel Live portal.  The Tees Maar Khan game is exclusively available for Airtel subscribers for an Rs99 per download.

The movie preview is already available on Airtel Talkies and Airtel customers can listen to the star cast on Airtel blog. To set Tees Maar Khan songs as Hello Tunes subscribers can call 55225.

Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif Staring this movie has released on 24 December 2010.

Bharti Airtel Launches GSM Based Mobile Services in Bangladesh

India’s largest Mobile Service Provider, Bharti Airtel, has today launched its services in Bangladesh. With the launch of these services, Airtel Bangladesh joins the global Airtel family of 200 million customers. Airtel Bangladesh was formerly known as Warid telecom, which was having its coverage in rural Bangladesh. It has around 4 million customers to date and it covers around 64 districts in Bangladesh.

On this occasion Chris Tobit, CEO-Airtel Bangladesh said, “We are extremely honoured to begin our journey in Bangladesh with our new global identity. We know the people of Bangladesh are very passionate about their identity, their culture and their language.

He further added that the “Airtel brand will represent these values, while retaining the youthfulness and dynamism of the global brand so that our customers here can enjoy the same best-in-class brand experienced across continents. We have already begun work to take our mobile network deeper into the rural areas and deliver world-class and affordable mobile services.”

The Airtel brand in Bangladesh will be launched with the brand promise: “Bhalobashar tane, pashe ane.” The CEO added “Our brand promise reflects what is unique and different about us. We are here to keep our customers connected not only to each other but also with what they love the most in every part of their lives – music, games, entertainment, networking etc. Along with a bouquet of voice and data services, the communication experience of Airtel customers will be enriched through a variety of innovative lifestyle-based services.”

Airtel also announced a GPS – based Vessel locating Service, which will enable tracking of fishing vessels for the fisherman community.

BSNL offering unlimited broadband usage on Christmas and New Year

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has launched a new offer providing unlimited broadband usage at just Rs. 499 per month in celebration Christmas and New Year.

BSNL Alappuzha general manager T. Natarajan said the new ‘Home 499′ plan would be apart from the ‘Home 625′ plan, which includes 100 free calls without monthly telephone rentals, both of which plans can be availed of without the Rs.250 modem installation charge till February 28.

To know more details send SMS to  94465-00555,  94465-00555  or call on the toll-free number 1555 for more details.

India GSM subscribers reached 526 mn

In November 2010, Indian telecom operators added a whopping numbers of 17.45 million new users. According to the reports of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) the total subscriber base is now increased from 508.72 million to 526.18 million by end of November,2010.

Country’s largest GSM player Bharti Airtel, added 3.10 million new users in November,taking its total subscriber base to 149.39 million and market share to 28.39%.

On the other side Vodafone Essar has added highest number of subscribers among all the service providers in the country and its total subscriber base grow to 121.16 million and market share of 23.03%.

IDEA Cellular added 2.80 million new users during the month of November to take its total subscriber base to 78.82 million and Aircel added 1.21 million customers to take its subscriber base to 48.73 million.

BSNL and MTNL both state-owned telecom firms added 3.01 million and 37,110 new users respectively,taking their subscriber base to 78.19 million and 5.09 million,respectively.

Vodafone closes deal with Unilever

International mobile firm Vodafone recently struck a three-year deal with the Anglo-Dutch multinational Unilever. Vodafone will provide the latter with 50,000 handsets as well as connectivity in 64 different markets globally.

According to reports, Vodafone Global Enterprise will give devices to 50,000 Unilever employees and manage all their connectivity and other mobile service needs. Unilver will also take Vodafone on a consultancy on how it can achieve heightened advantage over all competition via the utilization of mobile solutions.

Vodafone said that the new working partnership will improve Unilever operations and make it more cost efficient for the company to expand business in existing markets. The new deal will also allow Unilever more transparency in its mobile spending and develop service delivery.

Finally, both companies have expressed eagerness to begin a graduate trainee exchange program. The exchange will help encourage “mobile innovation in the workplace and create an atmosphere more conducive to productivity”, said Vodafone execs.

Tata Indicom launches CellPay Remittance Service

Tata Indicom, the CDMA brand of Tata Teleservices Limited has announced its tie up with eSSecom to offer CellPay® (Direct Debit to Account) Solutions for all Tata Indicom postpaid mobile subscribers across Karnataka. eSSecom’s  CellPay solutions will provide consumers the most efficient, convenient and secure way to make their payments through their mobile phones using funds in their bank accounts or through credit card.

The CellPay solution is available for Customers who are registered for Mobile banking with CellPay® connected banks. The registered Customer has to create a unique PIN by calling the CellPay® IVR. Once the number is generated, the caller is eligible to avail all the benefits. Customers using CellPay service have two options to make payments. One, they can either use an SMS requesting for payment using their  CellPay virtual number where in they will get a confirmation of the payment via SMS on their phone. Secondly, the customer can also opt for an application available on the handset to make the payment. Here the customer has to simply select the CellPayÒ application on the phone as a payment option post which a confirmation SMS will be sent to the phone once the payment is received.

Commenting on this strategic alignment, Mr. Sanjeev Khera Regional Head- South Hub & Chief Operating Officer for Karnataka Circle, said, “Our tie up with eSSecom’s CellPay is a great opportunity for us to continue to provide the best and advanced services to our customers. We are confident that this service will change the way people transact and we at Tata Indicom are happy to partner and pioneer the revolution.”

Vodafone Essar Launches 3G Webpage

After Tata Docomo, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communication, Vodafone Essar has launched a dedicated site for it’s upcoming 3G services. This webpage will provide information about what 3G technology is and what it can do.

This website also address subscribers queries and has a separate section which will handle new subscribers registration. The new subscriber will get service details about 3G, it also features FAQs, which is related to 3G. There is also a facility, that enables mobile phone user to check whether their handset is 3G compatible or not. A total of 173 handset brands are listed on the site but surprisingly, the name of few big Indian Handset manufacturers such Micromax, Lemon Mobile and Lava models are missing.

Vodafone Essar had won 3G spectrums in 10 circles that include Maharashtra, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Vodafone plans to start 3G services in this circle during the first half of 2011.

Vodafone 3G webpage can be access from www.vodafone.in/3g/pages/3g_service.aspx

Reliance 3G Tariffs and Plans

As we reported earlier Reliance launched its 3G services in India. Here we bring you the latest 3G plans and pricing from Reliance.

Reliance offers PAYG aka Pay As You Go plans which offers 3G on the go for the price of 10p/10kB upto 50MB and above 50MB you will be charged at 1p/10kB.

Reliance also offers data cards which have two variants 7.2Mbps data card costs Rs.7299 whereas the 21Mbps card costs Rs.4499.

Reliance Mobile Broadband Charges:

Tariff	Data Offered
Rs. 100	100 MB
Rs. 399	500 MB
Rs. 649	1 GB
Rs. 899	3 GB
Rs. 1,499	10 GB
Rs. 2,100	21 GB

Reliance Mobile TV:

Reliance also offers Mobile TV as a part of its 3G services.

Reliance also introduced combo pack which comes bundled with Free Mins, SMS and Data usage.

Sadly there are no unlimited data usage plans. What you think of the Reliance 3G tariffs? Do let us know in the comments.

Reliance Communications launches its 3G service in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata and Chandigarh

RCom aka Reliance Communication launched its 3G services in four of its major circles such as Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata and Chandigarh. RCom is the first private operator to launch 3G in 3 metro cities. RCom says that their 3G network capable of achieving download speeds of upto 28Mbps.

Prashant Gokarn, 3G Head – Reliance Communications said “Reliance 3G services will offer the widest bouquet of cutting edge services including Video Calling, Mobile TV, Video Streamingand Applications accessed at superfast speeds ubiquitously on a variety of Mobile and Personal computing devices. A superior network with 100% optic backhaul, thousands of content rich applications delivered in an easy-to-access mode on a mobile screen, Personalization options and simple tariffs including daily sachet packs are the 4 pillars that will create a significant differentiation for Reliance 3G  services amongst customers”

Reliance told they have partnered with the Nokia, Facebook,  Ericsson , Universal Music and Motricity to enrich its 3G services.

Reliance also added that they will introduce 3G in its remaining nine telecom circles within 2010-2011.

TRAI-No extra charges for Mobile Portability

The TRAI has denied the request of all the mobile companies, in which they have demanded that they should be paid by the subscriber to shift from one network from another when they are using the mobile portability. The TRAI has also scolded the companies for charging high cost on short code number like 1900 which is ben created to enable the portability of numbers and asked the companies to treat those messages as normal SMS.

The TRAI has examined the request raised by the service providers and find out that there is no extra work is required for the operator to transfer from one network to other and the only requirement for the subscriber is to clear the dues before transferring to another network. So, now you need not to pay extra charges for the mobile portability service while you are switching from one network to another.

Lufthansa FlyNet to offer In-flight WiFi along with GSM/GPRS connectivity

Lufthansa will be the first airline to offer in-flight internet access on intercontinental routes.The service will be offered under the banner FlyNet in partnership with Panasonic Avionics. FlyNet will be initially available only on select North Atlantic routes but they plan to offer it on the airline’s entire intercontinental network by end of 2011.All you need is a WiFi enabled device be it a laptop ,  iPad , iPhone , iPod , Blackberry or any Smartphone and you can browse the web in the middle of a boring and tiring flight.
The service is expected to offer Download speeds upto 5 Mbps and upload speeds upto 1Mbps .GSM services such as SMS and GPRS will be available soon and you can send text messages or your phone’s data plan inside the flight.

This is how the service works according to an illustration on the company’s website.

The service will be initially available on Airbus A330 Aircrafts and will be soon available on theBoeing 747 and Airbus 340. And the best part is that the service is not restricted to business class but available to all passengers who are willing to pay.The price would be around 11 euros for 1 hr access to internet and a 24 hr flat fee would be around 20 euros. Not bad at all if you ask me especially if you are addicted to the internet like most of us.Imagine downloading that new app while in the sky or Twitpicking from the top of the Swiss Alps. You gotta love technology ! Don’t you ?

And as a introductory offer the service will remain free till Jan 2011.

Tata Docomo offers 10hrs of Free Live Cricket on MobileTV till Dec 10th

Tata Docomo has launched a new offer wherein users can watch Live Cricket through MobileTV on their 3G Enabled handset. The offer is applicable in circles where Tata Docomo has launched 3G services. You can watch up to 10 hrs of live cricket during the India – New Zealand one day series

Users will be moved to the Rs30 Weekly plan only after the completion of Free 10 Hours or on 11th Dec (whichever is earlier).The customer can unsubscribe from this Free offer before the completion of 10 Free hours or 11th Dec, and in this scenario, customer will not be charged for the weekly subscription.To download the Mobile TV app and avail the offer, users have send TV to 53333 (Toll Free).

If you don’t want to be charged, make sure you cancel the subscription before Dec 11th.

Nokia India installs server for e-mail, messenger service interception

Nokia India, has announced the installation of a server in the country to enable security agencies lawfully intercept its email and messenger services. The step from Nokia will pressurise the BlackBerry makers, Research-in-Motion, to install its server in India.

The company, however, assured its customers that their privacy would be protected, even while fulfilling public responsibility and legal obligations. Nokia Messaging is a push mail service which merely collates information available through the internet and directs it to the respective mobile devices.

Nokia India VP and MD D Shivakumar called on Home Secretary G K Pillai and handed over the letter, saying “The company has conformed with all requirements suggested by the law enforcement agencies to Install the Interception tool. This toll will also facilitate location of the mobile device generating emails.”

Installing a server to intercept data sent and received through smartphones was a key demand of security agencies, which feared that this service could be used terror elements. “We made a commitment to install host servers in India by end of the year. It gives me immense pleasure to inform you that it has been installed. We have completed the software installation and internal testing and the messaging service is now live on our India based servers,” Shivakumar said in the letter.