MTNL against sharing network with pvt operators

It is unfair to expect state-run telecoms company Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd to allow private operators to use its network connections, its chairman and managing director, R S P Sinha, said on Thursday.

Access to the "last mile" of connectivity, the telecom lines leading into homes and offices, has remained the monopoly of state-run companies such as MTNL and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd in India.

"We have built the infrastructure and why should anyone else use it? Will they pay the salaries of our employees?" Sinha replied to a question at a US-India business summit. He said the issue had been a problem around the world.

Private sector carriers such as Bharti Airtel Ltd want the government to open up such connectivity so there was no duplication of infrastructure. They need "last mile" access to provide broadband speeds of 256 kilobytes per second and above.

"We have started offering broadband in order to retain our fixed-line customers, which has been seeing a decline," Sinha told media.

MTNL has 400,000 broadband customers and a fixed-line subscriber base of 380,000. For the year to March 2008, the company has a target of reaching 1.5 million broadband subscribers, Sinha said.

Airtel, Google announces strategic tie up

Bharti Airtel and Google have announced a strategic partnership that will allow Airtel to bring Google search to the Airtel Live mobile WAP portal.

Google will also incorporate advertising through its Mobile Ads product, which are text advertisements based on search terms that are displayed alongside search results, on the mobile portal. Google will power searches on Airtel Live in two areas - on net (rich content on Airtel Live) and off net (Internet on Mobile).

“Mobile users outnumber PC users in India by a factor of six. The first computing experience for the majority of Indians in the next few years will be on a mobile phone." Said Manoj Kohli, President, Bharti Airtel.

MOTOFONE debuts in India

Motorola, Inc. announced the availability and global debut of the highly anticipated MOTOFONE in India.

 

MOTOFONE was unveiled by K Sridhara, member, Technology, Telecom Commission, Government of India and by Allen Burnes, corporate vice president, High Growth Markets, Mobile Devices at Motorola.

 

As the world's first market to launch MOTOFONE, Indian consumers have the opportunity to be first to own this game-changing handset, which is set to redefine the mobile phone market place and strengthen Motorola's drive to connect the next billion mobile phone users.

 

Based on Motorola's evolutionary new SCPL design platform, MOTOFONE is the first of a new breed of handsets designed to disrupt today's communications landscape by cutting across price tiers, product segments and international markets.

 

MOTOFONE combines Motorola's award-winning design sensibility with smart features and easy functionality. As Motorola's thinnest phone yet, measuring in at approximately 9mm, MOTOFONE will provide consumers a value-priced handset with an extensive core feature set, while appealing to more sophisticated design tastes. The products SCPL-based design platform borrows elements from Motorola's iconic portfolio and adds a flat keypad, eye-catching colours and innovative materials.

 

Specifically for the Indian market, Motorola is further enhancing the MOTOFONE experience by offering voice prompts in local languages such as Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telegu, Kannada, Malayalam and Bengali.

 

"Today's global debut of MOTOFONE in India marks a major milestone as Motorola continues its drive to connect the next billion handset users," said Burnes. "Innovatively designed to meet the needs and tastes of consumers such as those right here in India, MOTOFONE is a signature handset that specifically addresses the universal desire for connectivity."

 

In both GSM and CDMA, MOTOFONE re-establishes expectations over how a value-priced handset looks and feels and what it delivers. Offering an intuitive new interface built with icons and voice versus text, as well as voice prompts in local languages, the handset makes it easier and friendlier for first-time users to navigate, place a call, and retrieve messages.

 

Its large, high contrast screen, powered by a revolutionary ClearVisionT display makes it easier to use the phone outdoors.

 

E Ink Corporation, the leading supplier of electronic paper displays, is providing the display technology behind MOTOFONE's ClearVision. The changeable electronic ink display is easy to read in bright sunlight or dimly lit environments from virtually any angle - just like paper.

 

Additionally, the display is plastic, lightweight and ultra-low power, making it ideal for mobile and power sensitive applications by eliminating the weight and breakability of glass used in LCD displays.

 

"E Ink is unleashing the design freedom of Motorola which enables disruptive innovation," said Russ Wilcox, CEO of E Ink Corporation. "Today's launch marks a big milestone in the display industry as it shows that electronic paper displays are entering the mainstream."

 

The GSM version, MOTOFONE F3, is available today through service providers including BSNL, Airtel and Idea. Motorola is working towards shipping the CDMA version, MOTOFONE F3c, by the end of 2006.

Trai out to cut roaming charges

In a major relief to cellular subscribers, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Friday sought stakeholders’ opinion in bringing down the roaming charges by various measures, including fixing a ceiling tariff for services based on usage.

Trai has initiated a consultation process on review of ceiling tariffs for roaming services.

“The Authority proposes to revise the existing roaming tariff by fixing a ceiling tariff for roaming services based on usage. It means that there shall be no rental component for availing roaming services and there shall only be a composite roaming tariff on per minute basis,” the regulator said.

For the moment, though, it has only sought the industry’s views on its suggestion. The last date for submission of comments by stakeholders is December 14, 2006.

Currently, roaming charges are high for both domestic as well as international mobile customers. There is a monthly rental at Rs 100 (ceiling), national roaming airtime charges of Rs 3 per minute (ceiling), a 15% surcharge on airtime component (ceiling) and PSTN charges as applicable from time to time to the fixed network.

Tariffs for international roaming services are under forbearance.

“There is a growing impression among the subscribers of mobile services and other stakeholders that there is a strong case to revisit the roaming tariffs. The Authority studied the prevalent roaming tariffs in the market and has flagged the issue of inadequate competition for roaming services,” the regulator said.

Trai’s consultation paper to review the existing roaming tariffs was necessitated as tariff for roaming services in cellular telephony was fixed way back in 2002.

A number of significant developments have taken place since then, including the introduction of calling party pays (CPP) regime, fixation of cost-based interconnection usage charges (IUC), periodical review of the IUC regime, reduction in the applicable licence fee payable by the operators on the adjusted gross revenue and the explosive growth of subscriber base and the resultant growth in minutes of usage.

Keeping these factors in view, the Authority has raised several questions in the consultation paper like should Trai fix an usage based composite ceiling tariff for national roaming services for various types of calls, among others.

Alternatively, it wondered whether the Authority adopt the home pricing rule for all types of calls while roaming.

It also wondered whether there should be any surcharge on national roaming tariffs and whether outgoing SMS will attract any tariff while roaming other than the one applicable in the home network usage.

Airtel, RIM Intro the BlackBerry Pearl

Airtel, along with Research in Motion (RIM), the makers of BlackBerry, has launched the BlackBerry Pearl in India.

The BlackBerry Pearl, which is claimed to be one of the smallest and lightest smart phones in the world, delivers the powerful BlackBerry experience together with an array of new features in an incredibly small and stylish design.

The BlackBerry Pearl features best-in-class technology and is incredibly easy-to-use. It has support for phone, email, text messaging, organizer, web browsing, and other mobile applications, as well as a digital camera, media player, and an expandable memory slot for the first time.

On this occasion, Sanjay Kapoor, Joint President of Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel, said, "The BlackBerry Pearl delivers exceptional mobile and data experience, and further endorses Airtel and RIM s ongoing commitment to the Indian market. With the BlackBerry Pearl, business meets lifestyle in a compact, sleek, and trendy handset, which defines the Airtel BlackBerry user."

Adding to it, Norm Lo, Vice President for Asia Pacific, RIM, said, "We are very pleased to work together with Airtel to bring one of the smallest and lightest smart phones in the world to mobile customers in India. The innovative BlackBerry Pearl brings the power of the end-to-end BlackBerry solution, and the convenience of a full-featured smart phone together in a small, sleek, and stylish design."

The BlackBerry Pearl has a 1.3-megapixel camera with built-in flash, 5x digital zoom, 64MB of flash memory, Speaker Independent Voice Recognition for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD), support for polyphonic, MP3, and MIDI ring tones, and intuitive call management features such as smart dialing, conference calling, speed dialing, and call forwarding.

It is quad-band and EDGE-enabled, and supports expandable memory through a microSD card slot, giving users plenty more storage capacity for music, pictures, videos, and data files.

The other key features include a speakerphone, Bluetooth 2.0 for use with hands-free headsets, a media player, stereo headset jack, and RIM s popular SureType keyboard technology. It is also supported on BlackBerry Internet Service for individuals and smaller businesses, as well as BlackBerry Enterprise Server for corporate use.

Meanwhile, the BlackBerry Pearl is priced at Rs 24,999 and is expected to be available from Airtel later this month.

Megasoft ties up with Telecom New Zealand

Xius, the telecom division of Megasoft Ltd., will provide roaming and interoperability solutions to the seven cellular operations of Telecom New Zealand International (TNZI).

The company will also partner with TNZI to provide similar services to emerging mobile network operators and mobile virtual networks operators (MVNOs) across the world, according to G V Kumar MD & CEO Megasoft.

Megasoft was recently in the news for acquiring VisualSoft Technologies through a merger move.

Kumar said, “We can expect revenues of the order of $2-3 million from the initial installations itself while we are targeting revenues of the order of $5 million in the first year of the relationship itself”.

BT applies for long-distance licences in India

BT Group has applied for licences to provide domestic and international long-distance telecom services in India to both foreign companies setting up operations and Indian firms expanding offshore.

BT said on Monday it saw revenues from its Indian operations at $250 million (131 million pounds) by 2009, and planned to hire an additional 6,000 people over the next two years. It currently employs 15,000 staff in Asia-Pacific, of whom at least 60 percent are based in India.

"We would now have the ability to directly serve Indian companies that have a global presence and also multinational firms that have multi-site operations," C S Rao, managing director at BT India, told reporters.


Earlier this month, U.S. telecom AT&T Inc. became the first foreign carrier to secure a licence to provide corporate services in India through a majority-owned entity after a policy change last year.


India is home to the world's fastest growing wireless services market, and over the past year it has substantially cut market entry fees in a bid to inject competition for domestic and international calls.

Rao said the BT Group had formed a majority-owned joint venture firm, BT Telecom India Ltd., with Jubilant Group, its Indian partner, owning 26 percent stake.

The firm plans to provide voice and data services based on virtual private networks, international conferencing services and voice and multimedia services for the back office industry.

Rao estimated the market for such services at more than $1 billion annually, growing between 14 and 18 percent as Indian firms expand overseas and foreign companies set up operations in Asia's fourth-largest economy, which is forecast to grow at around 8 percent in the year to March 2007.

At the moment BT provides some services to companies in India through telecoms conglomerate Bharti Airtel Ltd., also the country's largest mobile services provider.

Maran assures Tata of level field

Ahead of drafting a fresh Cabinet note on foreign direct investment (FDI) in telecom, communications and IT minister Dayanidhi Maran has assured Tata group chairman Ratan Tata of a level playing field for all stakeholders while resolving contentious issues.

In a letter responding to concerns expressed by Tata, whose Tata Teleservices Ltd is the second largest CDMA operator in the country and has a foreigner as its CEO, Maran said, “No one will have to face a policy regime more onerous than one’s competitors.” Maran’s letter is in response to Tata’s communiqué to the minister, urging the DoT to drop the clause in Press Note 5 that allows companies to increase FDI to 74% from 49% but restrains them from hiring foreigners as CEOs, CTOs and CFOs.

Tata’s view is that companies which do not have FDI beyond 49% should not be required to adhere to the clause. The government should consider dropping or suspending the clause since such companies had been operating for a number of years, Tata had written.

Maran said, while his department favoured suspending Note 5, the Cabinet didn’t. But he said, “My department has been trying to evolve a broad consensus among different stakeholders and prescribe a policy regime which would be free from any bias.”

SMB solutions...Bharti ties up with Microsoft

Bharti Airtel Ltd. said on Monday that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Microsoft Corp. to offer a range of software and services for small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India. The partnership will begin by offering Microsoft solutions for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration. It will also offer other hosted applications like CRM, Accounting, ERP, Unified Communications and select Microsoft ISV applications.

In unique software cum service solution model, Bharti Airtel is working in close co-operation with Microsoft to provide enterprise-class software bundled with connectivity solutions to small businesses that do not have dedicated IT resources. This service is predominantly aimed at companies with five or more employees, and is expected to be available in January, Bharti Airtel said. These companies will now be able to enjoy the same experience as large enterprise customers without initial investments using a pay-as-you-go model, it added.

This new professional messaging and collaboration service will give small businesses the ability to access secure enterprise grade e-mail, secure instant messaging and intranet portals with rich collaboration capabilities, whether they are in the office or on the road. This follows the strategic partnership between Bharti Airtel and Microsoft that enables the Indian company's customers to access corporate email via direct push technology using Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5.0 platform. Managed entirely by Bharti Airtel, these services will allow businesses to communicate more efficiently, reduce administrative and IT overheads and connect employees with business-critical information whenever and wherever they need it.

"SMB vertical in India have huge potential and offer an exciting opportunity for Bharti. We estimate total telecom spend in the SMB space to be around Rs180bn. IDC estimates that IT spending by SMBs would grow by 17% which is the highest in Asia Pacific. With integrated capabilities across wire-line, wireless, data and managed services, Bharti is in a unique position to be the preferred partner to provide telecom and networking solutions to this segment. We are pleased to partner with Microsoft to offer to Indian SMBs this unique business model," said Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Vice Chairman, Bharti Enterprises.

BSNL to extend toll-free number facility to Reliance Com

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited is understood to have agreed to extend toll-free number facility to Reliance Communication, a move that would enable more than 80 million subscribers of both the service providers to access 1-800 numbers provided by either operator.

The toll-free number market in India, where the caller is not charged for the service is currently at a nascent stage and is expected to grow exponentially in the near future.

Such a model of toll-free access from all networks has been much-awaited concept by all enterprises and consumers.

For the consumers, 1-800 or toll-free numbers help them to call their suppliers or service providers without having to incur any phone charges for such calls. This encourages prospective customers desiring to find information or wanting to purchase a product to call their suppliers freely.

Till today the 1-800 numbers were accessible from BSNL phones only. Now within a few weeks they can be accessed from other networks including Reliance CDMA and landline phones.

Hutch ties up with Microsoft

Telecom service provider Hutchison Essar has tied up with global software giant Microsoft for a mobile search alliance in India, as part of which Hutch subscribers can access 'Windows Live' services.

The 'Windows Live' search for mobile and other services including Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Mail and Windows Live spaces will provide power for mobile internet to the customers.

Hutch customer in India will be able to search and access mobile content and information in a one'stop integrated search powered by 'Windows Live' search for mobile including news, sports and entertainment directly from the World Wide Web.

Hutch's 21 million mobile users will also be able to search for local business listing and services for major Indian cities.

"This alliance with Hutch allows Microsoft to partner with country's leading mobile data service operator to offer rich set of online services through the power of Microsoft's software technology", Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said, who is here on a visit to India.

"It is terrific to be extending our relationship with Microsoft to help provide 'Windows Live' suit to our customers", Huchtison Essar MD Asim Ghosh said.

HC asks BSNL to put on hold Rs 20K cr network contract

State owned telecom company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will have to wait at least until November 16 before it can show any of the international bidders competing for its Rs 20,000 crore expansion plan green lights.

The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked BSNL to not award the contract to expand its mobile network by another 60 million lines at least until that date. The tender is under the court’s scanner because US telecom giant Motorola Corp filed a petition to look into its disqualification from the tender.

On October 9, BSNL had announced Sweden’s Ericsson and Finland’s Nokia winning bidders for its tender, which is the world’s largest telecom contract. There were immediate protests from the American communications leader, which has alleged that BSNL has not been transparent after its disqualification.

Ericsson had bid the lowest per-line cost to BSNL and was poised to bag 60 per cent of the lines being awarded, while runner-up Nokia was to get the remaining 40 per cent. Of the 60 million lines, 15 million are already allocated to ITI, another PSU, which has a tie-up with the French telecom giant Alcatel.

Since the court has put awarding the tender on hold, Ericsson, Nokia, ITI as well as Alcatel will have to wait, at least until the next hearing. Acting Chief Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Kailash Gambhir of the Division Bench of the High Court say in the order: “BSNL cannot award contract till the next date of hearing though it may process it.”

The BSNL tender had set stringent conditions, which were controversial from day one, especially because they expected an annual turnover of at least $1.8 billion for every suitable contender. In addition, every contender needed to have 20 million lines installed, of which one network with at least 2 million lines must be running.

The vendors also need to have supplied GSM networks in at least 10 countries and have two 3G networks up by December 2005, each with capacity to support 5 million users. In BSNL’s reply to a notice issued by the HC earlier after Motorola’s petition was filed, the PSU said it found Motorola ineligible on both the technology and commercial criteria required to bid for this contract. Motorola could only show 3.2 million lines instead of the 20 million lines demanded, BSNL has told the High Court. BSNL’s affidavit also says that Motorola’s approximate losses of Rs 37 crore in 2004-05 also went towards the decision to disqualify it.

The winning bidder will be expected to roll out the BSNL GSM lines in three phases with around 18 million lines to be installed in the first phase, followed by about 14 million lines in the next two stages.

In the past, BSNL has had trouble with Nortel over delays in network expansion, and with Huawei, for backing out of a separate tender it had bid for and bagged last year.

Motorola’s lawyer, A.S. Chandioke on Thursday asked the Court for time to go through BSNL’s reply, and this matter is now posted for a hearing on November 16.

Reliance Comm introduces LPG gas booking on mobile phones

Reliance Communications (RCL)'s subsidiary Reliance Mobile World on Wednesday announced introduction of LPG gas booking service on mobile phones.

This service, launched for Hindustan Petroleum (HP) customers now will be extended to Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat Petroleum customers in the next 30 days, the company said.

"After Railways and Airline bookings, India Speed Post tracking, bill payment and mobile banking, cooking gas booking is being extended to the Reliance customers as another convenience on the go," the company said.

To start with Hindustan Petroleum (HP) gas customers using Reliance Mobile World and SMS can make use of options like gas bookings, queries on on-mobile phones, real-time complaint registrations and many more.

Currently, there are approximately 2.25 crore HP gas customers nationwide.

This initiative is a step forward in providing an easy-to-use anytime, any where B2C mobile application for the masses, said Mahesh Prasad, President Applications Services Group, RCL.

This service would enable an automated and robust Customer Relations Management (CRM) solution for the customers of Reliance Communications and Hindustan Petroleum on mobile phones, the company said.

Requests received on Reliance Mobile World (R World) would be acknowledged and passed on a real-time basis to the nearest distributor for immediate fulfillment.

TRAI rescues international roaming subscribers

Providing much relief to international roaming subscribers, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Tuesday asked operators to provide a facility that would discourage unwanted calls during roaming.

Trai has asked the operators to provide a ring back tone facility to subscribers who avail international roaming and report compliance within 15 days.

This facility will allow display of a message such as “I am on international roaming” to the caller. With this arrangement, the calling subscriber may be discouraged to proceed with the call to the international roaming subscriber unless it is of an urgent nature, a Trai statement said.

Trai said that this was necessary as during international roaming the subscribers generally do not receive the caller line identification (CLI) on incoming calls, which makes it difficult for them to identify and choose the calls.

The problem has gained severity due to increased number of telemarketing calls. The high international roaming charges are an unwanted burden on customers.

This facility is easy to implement and the control of switching ‘on’ and ‘off’ will be with the roaming subscriber. It would also prevent any breach of privacy and the subscriber’s permission is not required for implemention.

The service providers are required to inform their subscribers of such a facility, Trai said.