Telecom Updates

Tata Tele launches Web browser handset

2007-09-16T10:40:00.000+05:30

Tata Teleservices has launched a Web browser mobile phone ‘Samsung Explore’ that is customised to access the Internet.

At Rs 5,499, the phone has other features such as 0.3-mega pixel digital camera, FM radio, MP3 player, mobile tracker, SOS alert and provision to insert external memory cards.

Starter kits and SIM cards would be additionally charged. Tariff plans for Internet access include Rs 10 a day, Rs 30 for 7 days and Rs 99 for a month – all offering unlimited access at speeds of about 156 kbps, Mr Srinivas Rao Sarapalli, Chief Operating Officer, Tamil Nadu Circle, Tata Teleservices, said at a press conference.

Both pre-paid and post-paid consumers can use this phone. The company currently has over 1.9 crore subscribers, about 60 per cent of who access the Internet via mobile phones.

The company expects to sell about 4,000 ‘Samsung Explore’ handsets this month, Mr Sarapalli said.

Subscriber base

Tata Teleservices has about 9 lakh subscribers in Chennai and Tamil Nadu telecom circles and is investing about Rs 400 crore this year to expand network in the State.

It expects to add about 60 lakh subscribers pan India and is investing about Rs 4,000 crore in network expansion and other activities.

Idea Cellular backs COAI on licence row

2007-09-16T10:39:00.000+05:30

Idea Cellular on Thursday lent support to the Cellular Operators Association of India's (COAI) concern on the recent spate of unified access service (UAS) licence applications.

Idea Cellular managing director Sanjeev Aga described them as "nameplate applications".

"Despite 74 per cent FDI being permitted in the sector, not even one major telecom service provider has made an application," Aga, who was in New Delhi to announce an 'Asia Mobility Initiative', said.

"A nationwide mobile network will take over Rs 20,000 crore to be put up. It is unbelievable for a tenth or a twelfth operator to justify a business case for genuine investment. What is it they see that sober, serious players cannot? Are national interests to be furthered in this manner?”, He asked.

Recent UAS applications to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for pan-India coverage were either from unknown entities or non-telecom companies like Swan, Cheetah, Bycell, Alliance Infratech, S Tel, Datacom Solutions and Parsvanath.

It's believed that Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications holds minority stakes in both Swan and Cheetah, while Parsvanath is a real-estate major.

COAI director general TV Ramachandran had already written to the DoT that corporate veils must be lifted while considering applications for telecom licences.

The rush for nationwide licences was triggered by some recent recommendations by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

It's decision not to cap the number of operators in a telecom circle while examining it as a solution to the spectrum crunch was the trigger.

TRAI chairman Nripendra Misra said that one of the objectives of the recommendation was to prevent entry barriers in the telecom sector.

On Wednesday, in a legal notice to DoT, the COAI had sought preference for existing GSM service providers in spectrum allocation. It argued in the letter that GSM service providers had been "disadvantaged by the government policy of 2003 from expanding their footprint as desired".

BPL’s Innovation: Watch TV and track your cell if lost

2007-09-16T10:37:00.000+05:30

BPL MOBILE a GSM cellular service provider launches two new feature packed services in India. One of it is a solution to track down mobile phones that are lost or stolen. Called the BPL Mobile Tracker, this solution can be availed not only by BPL customers but also by any GSM service user. And the other one being the TV on cell: Who doesn’t want to have their dose of entertainment even at the same time as they are on the move? Meeting this need, BPL Mobile has an exciting announcement to make for its customer base in India. BPL Mobile has introduced an all-new Mobile TV service for its valued subscribers across India. With this progressive launch, BPL Mobile gets the distinction of being one of the very few selected GSM operators to announce Mobile TV in 2-2.5 G environment.

The BPL Mobile Tracker is well matched with all Symbian operating system mobile phones, which are mostly seen in Nokia phones. AS of now, around 35 medium to high-end Symbian handsets can use the BPL Mobile Tracker service. They also plan to introduce many more handsets that are compatible with the Mobile Tracker service.

Without affecting the phone’s performance, the BPL Mobile Tracker solution will run in the background. Basically this application will always be hidden. Not only this but also this tracker is exceptionally easy to set-up, and when installed works at the background of the mobile phone.

If a mobile phone that has the BPL Mobile Tracker application installed in it gets stolen, this application detects any changes in the SIM card, after which 2 SMSes are immediately sent to the two substitute recipient numbers which had been entered during the setup of this service application. These messages are sent automatically from the phone’s operating system through the kernel, without any sort of notification on the phone’s screen. Thus, the mobile phone gets tracked down, without the burglar even knowing anything. Not only this, but also the application is so very efficient that such messages get periodically sent every 60 minutes, assuring the owner that the mobile phone is active.

With the speedily growing mobile phone infiltration, this Tracker application is sure to relieve all mobile phone users from the worries of mobile theft and address three of the larger issue of mobile security namely preventing any unwanted usage, securing mobile phones and securing the safety of near ones through emergency SMS and securing the confidential data’s that are stored in the mobile phones.

Listed below are the salient features of BPL Mobile Tracker at a glance:

Rs 149 one-time fees. No Monthly Rentals.

Developed on SYMBIAN and works with the O.S. of the phone.

Works in the background as a watchdog

Application icon is always hidden and will not allow thief to uninstall it.

Implementing the system takes less than 10 minutes.

Extremely easy to use and setup.

On the other hand, in the entertainment domain, BPL Mobile TV ‘Real Time’ streaming will have an attractive flat rate of Rs.5 per minute with no hidden costs. And that can mean fairly a lot of money if it’s a long program.

BPL Mobile is planning amalgamation with ZTE, China’s largest listed telecommunications manufacturer and wireless solutions provider on the technology to make Mobile TV possible on a GSM platform. For content, BPL Mobile has tied-up with NDTV, CNBC and Aajtak for providing Real Time News channels on mobile and news clips. In addition to this, deals have been struck with over 50 top content providers like Onyx, Indiatimes, T-Series and others to provide latest videos under various categories.

Currently, BPL Mobile’s new Mobile TV service will offer users ‘Real Time’ streaming from top Indian news channels such as NDTV India, NDTV 24×7, NDTV Profit, Aajtak, Headlines Today, Tez, CNBC TV18, CNBC Awaaz, CNN-IBN, IBN 7. In addition, content from major television channels will also be available as downloadable ‘Video On Demand’ clips, in the form of news, Bollywood Music, devotional music and others.

Any BPL Mobile customer using the Mobile TV service will pay only Rs.5 if he/she has used for a minute and will not have to pay anything additional for the data traffic. Work is also on, to make available for the BPL mobile customers more Real Time channels, looped contents and content meant particularly for the kids.

Another most important feature of the Mobile TV service is that it will be available through not only the Symbian operating system but also through a much broader directory of handsets. Handsets.

This service has an understandable navigation system. It will also be quite simple to use since it’s made on the line of the very popular BPL Mobile WAP page. A Mobile TV icon will appear of Mobile TV on the home page of WAP site. The users will need to simply click on the icon to start their Mobile TV. No applications are to be downloaded, thus the experience is as simple as using a WAP page.

With these two advances in the mobile technology, BPL Mobile is trying to capture some portion of the very huge telecom market. Not only this, but it will also try and regain its standing that had diminished after the aggressive campaign of Bharti Airtel.

BPL Mobile applies for telecom licences

2007-09-07T22:39:00.000+05:30

BPL Mobile's application for license has created a flutter in telecom circles. The question on everybody's mind is, are the Ruias trying to make a backdoor entry through them since the Ruias already partner Vodafone in India.

It has been learnt that there is an application for a new licence filed by a company called ShippingStock.com, which has applied for 21 telecom licenses and it is a wholly owned subsidiary of BPL Mobile.

The company in a press release said "BPL Mobile Communications Limited (BMCL) has submitted an application with the DoT seeking mobile licenses in 21 circles, i.e, all India licenses apart from the Mumbai license, where the company is currently operating."

Essar has acquired BPL Mobile from Rajiv Chandrashekhar and was supposed to sell it to Hutch. But the deal for BPL's Mumbai circle was not completed and now both Hutch and Essar are fighting a legal battle over it.

Meanwhile Arun Sarin came to India and bought out Hutch's Indian operations for around $17 billion. Essar, who were Hutch's Indian partners continue to remain in the new company and are now partnering Vodafone with around 33 per cent equity in the new company.

No wonder Essar's move to start a parallel telecom business is not going down too well with Vodafone.

Even though Vodafone officials are not willing to comment on the issue yet but senior Vodafone officials say in private that Vodafone is keeping very close watch on Essar's move and may move in if they feel that Essar's new move in any way violates the non -compete clause between the two.

Telemarketers thumb nose at government

2007-09-07T22:37:00.000+05:30

Out of an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 telemarketers, only about 13,000 have registered with the telecom service providers till date, according the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). And, only 5.5 million phone subscribers, out of a total base of around 232.87 million as of end of July, have included their names in the do-not-call list so far.

TRAI had a review meeting with the telecom service providers on Wednesday, to assess the level of industry compliance with the government directive on curbing unsolicited commercial communication.

Although telemarketers from across the country were given time till August 31 to register with the service providers, more than 50 per cent of them are yet to comply. According to sources at TRAI, not more than 20,000 telemarketers are expected to register.

However, TRAI chairman Nripendra Misra pointed out that 13,000 telemarketers would mean 2.5 lakh phone lines have been registered already. "This is because every telemarketer calls up people like you and me from multiple phone numbers," he said.

As for phone subscribers opting for do-not-call facility, it is believed that many of the 5.5 million (the figure given by the industry) may have earlier subscribed to the "do-not-disturb" facility offered by telcos for blocking calls and SMSes originating only from one's own telecom service provider, and not from all telemarketers, as directed by the government.

According to the Department of Telecommunications, any mobile or landline subscriber, who does not wish to receive telemarketing calls, can request their telephone number be included in the national do not call (NDNC) registry.

Such requests are sent through their telecom service providers, which will be stored in the National Do Not Call Registry, established from September 2007. Subscribers can make a 'Do Not Call' request via letter, phone, SMS or on-line. Such a request is free of cost.

Security conditions and government scrutiny are being cited as among the reasons for the slow progress in registration for telemarketers. It is believed that mostly big firms have registered so far.

While telemarketers were asked by the government to register with the telecom service providers by the end of August, in an attempt to restrict unsolicited commercial communication, registration of phone subscribers for the national do not call registry started from September.

Meanwhile, the telemarketers that do not register may continue to make unsolicited calls.

Sify launches broadband initiative

2007-09-07T01:06:00.000+05:30

Sify Anywhere will allow users access to the Net from anywhere.

Sify, a leading player in the internet and enterprise services space in India, has launched a new initiative called Sify Anywhere that will allow broadband users to access the internet even while on the move.

Sify broadband subscribers will now be able to access their accounts from any Sify kiosk at airport, hotels or Sify iWay cafe.

“Subscribers can use a laptop and can use the same account as a dial-up account or walk into any of the over 3,500 iWays across the country, or access using Sify Wi-Fi hotspots,” said Naresh Ajwani, president, consumer infrastructure and operations, Sify.

The internet service provider has also announced a briefcase facility that will let users to store files which will open up as a default desktop page whenever they log in from any iWay cafe, Wi-Fi hotspot or even on a dial-up connection.

This way subscribers can access files from wherever without a laptop.

Ajwani said iWay and the broadband-to-home operations will be his priority for the company.

“We are trying to reach more iWays, up to 3 iWays a day from next month, and are looking at partnering more cable operators so that we can reach out to 300,000 from the existing 225,000 broadband consumers by the end of this year,” said Ajwani.

Sify’s Anywhere service outrides Reliance and Bharti’s broadband services since none of the service providers at present provide a unified remote access service.

“We are a step ahead of Reliance, which has only 200 cybercafes, and Bharti has no cybercafes as of today to allow remote access,” claimed Ajwani. Consumer services contributes 32.6 per cent of Sify’s revenues, and Ajwani expects this to reach 45 per cent by the year-end.

Sify is also supporting Microsoft with internet access for Microsoft’s path-breaking IQ PC initiative that seeks to unlock unlimited potential.

The PC, aiming at families with school-going children which include 100 hours of free internet access.

This is over and above the Microsoft suite and its partner offerings from Brilliant, Pacsoft and Edurite.

Ajwani said Sify will offer value-added services so as to transition its iWay cafes into e-stores.

The services include all forms of electronic fulfillment such as subscription-based browsing and computing for the lower-end of the market, rich graphic interactive content across a range of topics of interest to consumers including Sify specialised portals, access to e-commerce services that include train tickets, air tickets, holiday packages, bill payments and online games.

“The objective is to give more people more reasons to walk into the cafes for empowerment of various kinds while increasing the revenue streams of the cafe,” he revealed.

GSM operators differ with TRAI on spectrum plan

2007-09-07T01:05:00.000+05:30

GSM-based cellular operators and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India seem to be on a collision course over the recent recommendations on subscriber base spectrum allocation policy.

While the Chairman of India’s largest cellular company, Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal, said that TRAI had got it wrong in suggesting that the operators should pack in more subscribers to get additional spectrum, the telecom regulator dismissed the GSM operator’s allegations of being non-transparent.

Mr Mittal also said that telecom companies may be forced to raise tariffs if additional charges are levied on them. TRAI has suggested that operators having more than 10 Mhz spectrum should pay higher charges. “Whatever charges the Government raises or brings down will be reflected in the tariff,” Mr Mittal told reporters on the sidelines of an industry event.
Subscriber criteria

On TRAI’s proposal to more than double the subscribers required to qualify for additional spectrum, Mr Mittal said the operators cannot add more number of subscribers with the current spectrum available to them. “TRAI is grossly wrong in its calculations,” he said

Meanwhile, TRAI officials justified its recommendations and said that the operators went overboard by alleging that the regulator’s suggestions were illegal. They said that TRAI was a law making agency and not a law breaking one.
Charting actions

GSM operators led by the Cellular Operators Association of India are charting out their future course of action including the option of approaching the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal.

However, those opposed to a legal move argue that since the TRAI proposals were only recommendatory in nature, the court may not admit the case. “When the GSM operators had challenged the TRAI recommendations on WLL limited mobility, the TDSAT had refused to pass an order on the grounds that there was no cause of action. The final decision maker is the DoT and operators can only take legal recourse after a policy is announced,” said an operator opposed to taking legal recourse against the TRAI recommendations.

However, those in support said that a legal challenge at this juncture could send the right signals to the DoT when it discusses the TRAI proposals.

Telecom players question legality of TRAI’s suggestions

2007-09-04T22:49:00.000+05:30

Finding it increasingly difficult to weather TRAI's recommendations of August 29 on spectrum allocation, industry is now taking an aggressive stand by questioning its legal legitimacy.

TRAI had asked over 30 questions in its consultation paper of June 12, on licence reforms and capping of number of service providers, but none of them directly referred to the need for revising or assessing subscriber criteria for allocating spectrum afresh, questions a leading mobile operator.

Since TRAI’s recommended criteria for spectrum allocation is not derived from a set of consultation questions, it will not survive legal scrutiny, says TV Ramchandran, Secretary General, COAI.

Even DoT’s reference to TRAI dated April 13, 2007 does not specifically seek recommendations on subscriber-linked spectrum allocation.

"Interim recommendations without relevant questions is most unusual," says a spokesperson from a leading CDMA firm. The grievance relates to TRAI’s stiffening of subscriber-linked criteria for allocation of spectrum, which adversely impacts all five pan-India operators Bharti, BSNL, Reliance, Tata and Hutch.

For example, a GSM operator who was earlier entitled to 8 MHz of spectrum for 0.8 million subscribers, will now need to wait till he has three million subscribers. For 10 MHz of spectrum, the new benchmark is five million (1.4 million) subscribers and for 15 MHz a whopping 10 million (2.6 million) subscribers.

Even in C category circles, 10 MHz kicks in only at four million (0.6 million) subscribers and 15 MHz at eight million (1.2 million). CDMA players face a similar blow. As with GSM, their allocation has been stiffened multiple times, especially in the 5th carrier, 6.2 MHz range for A, B and C categories of circles.

TRAI’s interim recommendations seriously undermine DOT/TECs standing guidelines. Equally, it raises questions about the GSM industry’s claim that it is short of spectrum. A debate that has already divided the industry, this could now lead to a three-way rift between TRAI, DoT and operators.

Experts agree that section 11, 1 (A) (VIII) of the TRAI Act allows it to make such recommendations suo moto, but industry is quick to point out that suo moto can mean without a government reference but does not allow circumventing the process of asking specific questions and inviting stakeholders views.

They back their allegation with a reference to Section 11 (4) of TRAI Act, which states: The authority shall ensure transparency while exercising its discharging its functions. Agrees a telecom lawyer: "A process of consultation is necessary to ascertain views of all stakeholders. It enhances credibility of the regulators decision."

When contacted, TRAI Chairman, N Misra declined to comment.

ICA Moves to Curb Counterfeits

2007-09-04T22:45:00.000+05:30

In the face of exploding batteries triggering safety concerns about usage of mobile handsets, the Indian Cellular Association (ICA) has reportedly moved to tighten the grip on counterfeits sold in the grey market.

According to ICA, nearly nine crore original mobile handsets were sold in the country in 2007-08 along with service packs that included original batteries. However, 70 to 75 percent of the replacement battery market is still dominated by counterfeit batteries.

Counterfeiters illegally use names of well known brands by copying packaging and even misrepresenting technical specifications. The counterfeits are manufactured in extremely poor conditions using manual welding, poor slitting machines, and sub standard material. The fakes lack safety mechanisms such as Protection Circuit Module (PCM), etc.

Pankaj Mohindroo, national president of ICA, believes that there is an immediate need for the government to intervene and crack down on counterfeit mobile accessories and batteries so as to ensure the safety of consumers.

The ICA has sent an appeal to the government to rationalize the duty structure, which according to Mohindroo will go a long way in reigning-in the grey market.

Over the years, the quality and composition of batteries has evolved and new generation Lithium ion batteries are environmentally more friendly than earlier generation Nickel batteries. These batteries have extremely refined ingredients that ensure versatility and safety.

Besides, these batteries, unlike their predecessors, carry a Printed Circuit Board, which prevents overcharge and under charge. The typical life span of a lithium ion battery is 2-3 years under normal use.

The entire telecom ecosystem comprising service providers and handset vendors has urged consumers to use only genuine mobile accessories and check for originality marks like holograms before buying them.

Vodafone set to conquer Indian mkt

2007-09-01T13:23:00.000+05:30

It came, it bought out Hutch but will it conquer the Indian market? That’s what the world's largest telecom company Vodafone wants to do but its tough to be the numero uno.

Number 3 is not his position of comfort! Vodafone Chief Arun Sarin has given the company 3 years to climb up to number one position. Sarin's strategy is focussed clearly on increasing rural subscriber base. But average revenues from these subscribers that are currently between Rs 75 to 125 rupees a month may not be enough to maintain profitability. Analysts say Vodafone will have to aggressively convert the high-end customer with revenues of over Rs 500 to maintain its margins. This may not be very easy

"Don't see a big shift in the market share. There is no reason for people to change the number and they should have a good enough reason to churn" says Prashant Singhal, Partner, E&Y.

Besides, unlike most other markets, Vodafone will have to compete with at least 4 telecom giants in India - Airtel, BSNL, Reliance and the Tatas. Most of these players are very well entrenched in the market. Airtel, Reliance and BSNL already have operations across India. Hutch-Essar, Now Vodafone is present only in 18 circles.

"Is present in all 23 circles to relocate that network and subscriber base, Vodafone will take time to catch up" adds Harit Shah, Research Analyst, Angel Broking

Airtel, Reliance, tata are all household brands in India with high recognition and brand equity. Vodafone will be a brand new name in India especially in the rural areas that is Vodafone's target market.

Analysts say that unless Vodafone can offer a very attractive proposition not only in terms of tariff plans but also in the form of better network quality, customer interface system and innovative value added services, displacing any of these big players could be a long call.

CDMA operators agree on number portability

2007-08-24T22:25:00.000+05:30

Even as the government has not acted on the telecom regulator’s recommendation on framing a policy on number portability in mobile phone services for more than a year, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) players have now stressed the need for the same.

Number portability enables you to switch from one service provider to another without changing your number.

In a letter to communications minister A Raja, CDMA players, represented by the Association of Unified Service Providers of India (AUSPI), said that the Department of Telecom (DoT) must issue necessary guidelines for implementing mobile number portability.

CDMA players have been favouring number portability in both fixed and mobile networks. Now, they seem to have climbed down a bit, saying only the latter needs to be done for the time being.

AUSPI secretary general SC Khanna said in his letter to Raja: “In case fixed-number portability cannot be introduced at this point of time for any reason, technical or otherwise, mobile number portability should not be held up.”

Global system for mobile communications (GSM) service providers, represented by Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), is opposed to the idea of number portability in mobile telephony, at this point.

According to COAI, it can be introduced only after the telecom market matures further.

While CDMA operators include Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices, GSM operators comprise Bharti, Vodafone Essar, Idea, Aircel, and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.

“Number portability is a very important and effective tool for ensuring competition in the telecom market,” AUSPI’s Khanna has written to the minister.

“Any technical or operational apprehensions should not hold up the implementation of number portability because we have before us the experience of other countries and suitable remedies can always be found,” he said.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had, in March 2006, recommended that mobile number portability should be in place by April 2007.

That was one of the last recommendations/orders by former Trai chairman Pradip Baijal. The government has already missed the Trai deadline by around four months.

The move would have stepped up competition in the telecom industry, thereby improving the quality of service as all service providers would have made an effort to prevent customers from shifting to competition.

The Trai recommendation, issued in March 2006, was only for introducing number portability in mobile telephony and not fixed phones. The regulator wanted the rollout to begin on April 1, 2007, across metros, before moving into A, B and C category cities within six months.

So far, most mobile operators have been against the introduction of number portability, as they didn’t want to let go of the customer base they built. Industry estimates suggest that anything between Rs 1,500 crore and Rs 3,000 crore is required as one-time cost for upgrading the networks to enable number portability.

Now, you can call overseas at Re 1

2007-08-24T22:24:00.000+05:30

Come Friday, MTNL broadband customers in Delhi and Mumbai will be able to make an ISD call to any part of the world for as low as Re 1 per minute through their fixed line phones.

The state-owned PSU will become the first telco in the country to offer internet telephony or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) where subscribers can enjoy ultra cheap ISD calls without even having a computer at home. For those who choose to access MTNL’s internet telephony through their personal computers (a PC to PC call), the tariffs are likely to be as low as 10 paise per minute.

If you do not have a PC at home, but want to make cheap ISD calls, just subscribe to MTNL’s broadband connection (which comes with monthly rentals starting at Rs 199) and also buy an Analog Telephone Adaptor (ADA) from the PSU for Rs 1,500.

The adaptor converts the fixed line phone into an IP (internet protocol) device so that the user does not have to use a computer and carry it over the broadband internet line.

Globally, this kind of service, which is fixed to one location, is generally offered by broadband Internet providers such as cable companies and telephone companies as a cheaper flat rate equivalent to the traditional landline service. The state-owned telco has tied up with Aksh Optifibre to offer the VoIP service.

MTNL’s move to enter this segment is set to change the market dynamics and force other operators to follow suit. So far, no telco had ventured into internet telephony as they feared this would eat into their revenues from traditional mobile and fixed line calls.

This may also eat into the business models of Internet service providers (ISP) in these metros. ISPs currently offer internet telephony at rates of 50 paise per minute and upwards, but face a severe disadvantage as they can offer this service only from a PC in India to a landline, mobile or a PC abroad. Sources said, BSNL may also launch internet telephony through fixed line instruments in all major cities, though no time frame was given.

Mixed signals emanate on portability

2007-08-23T22:50:00.000+05:30

There are mixed signals within the government on introduction of number portability in the telecom sector, it is believed. Communications minister A Raja, while replying to media queries on Wednesday, said that the issue of “number portability” was being considered by the government, and that telecom operators would be consulted for the same.

However, sources in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) pointed out that “number portability is not a priority issue for the government at this point.”

Raja was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a conference organised to launch the Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association’s (TEMA) Export Promotion Forum. According to the minister, the spectrum policy would be in place before the end of this year.

Besides the spectrum policy, DoT would also be busy formulating fresh licensing and merger and acquisition rules once the telecom regulator issues its recommendations, sources pointed out. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is expected to come out with its recommendations on the new licensing rules next week. So, DoT may not have time to focus on number portability in the near future, sources argued. Also, as many of the telecom operators are opposed to the idea of number portability, it may not be introduced so soon, it is learnt.

Trai had, in March 2006, recommended that the facility of mobile number portability should be in place by April 2007. That was one of the last recommendations/orders issued by former Trai chairman Pradip Baijal. The government has already missed the deadline set by Trai by around four months.

A representative in the GSM industry recently said, “the industry is not fighting number portability, but its timing”.

Number portability is all about shifting to another service provider, while retaining your phone number. The move would have stepped up competition in the telecom industry, thereby improving the quality of service as all service providers would have made an effort to prevent customers from switching to competition.

The Trai recommendation, issued in March 2006, was only for introducing number portability in mobile telephony and not fixed phones.

The regulator wanted the rollout to begin on April 1, 2007, across metros, and then moving to A, B and C category cities within six months.

Most mobile operators have been against the introduction of number portability, as they don’t want to let go of the customer base that they have built. They have been arguing that it’s a case of misplaced priority.

Industry estimates suggest that anything between Rs 1,500 crore and Rs 3,000 crore is required as a one-time cost for upgrading the networks to enable number portability.

Spectrum rules to be in place by year-end

2007-08-23T06:34:00.000+05:30

The government today said it would announce the spectrum policy by the end of this year. It would also consult telecom operators on the possibility of introducing a facility to enable customers retain their numbers even after changing the service provider.

“I am very optimistic that the spectrum policy will be ready in a couple of months. It will definitely be before the end of the year,’ said communications minister A. Raja.

The policy has four times missed the deadline given by the ministry because of unavailability of spectrum from armed forces. But the defence ministry is expected to release some spectrum in the next couple of months.

Raja said the department of telecommunications (DoT) was aware of the 2G spectrum crunch but the ministry needed at least 35MHz of radio waves from defence forces.

On number portability, he said, “The recommendations given by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) are being considered.

“It is practiced in many countries and is useful for customers,” he added.

Raja said the telecom ministry was in talks with the defence ministry for more spectrum and the exercise was still on. “Some internal technical assessment is being done by both the ministries to see what are the spectrum bands that have not been used for a long time,” the minister said.

“Once the assessment is over, we will come out with a paper and place it before the group of ministers (GoM) .... It will help the GoM look at the release of spectrum in a broad way. Unless there is a quantum of spectrum available on hand, it is very difficult to say anything,” he added.

He also said the DoT had not decided whether to price 2G spectrum. The DoT has sought 42.5MHz of spectrum from defence forces. An alternative optical fibre network will be provided to the Army and the Navy before they vacate any spectrum.

Tariff hike

On the recent tariff hike by mobile operators, Raja said it would refer the issue to Trai and take a decision only after the regulator’s opinion.

“SMS is a mode of tariff. Tariff is in the control of the ministry. Let Trai decide on it first,” he said.

Trai chairman Nripendra Misra said, “There has been no reference from the DoT to look into the matter so far. I will have to get a communication from them first to be able to say anything on the matter.”

Earlier, the regulator had cited market forces as the cause for the hike in SMS and local call charges by Airtel and Hutch Essar. The GSM operators had hiked local SMS, local and STD call charges by 20 per cent. Most of the private gsm players also hiked std tariffs by over 10 per cent for prepaid users.

Earlier, Misra had said, “Although the recent hike in tariffs is not consumer- friendly, there is no scope for intervention as long as there is forbearance.”

MTNL in deal with AOL

2007-08-23T06:33:00.000+05:30

The co-branded portal, mtnl.aol.in will offer a compelling combination of AOL products. This strategic partnership leveraging the inherent strength of MTNL’s network and AOL as a global web services player will bring to subscribes a world class Internet experience

AOL, a division of Time Warner, a leading media and entertainment company, and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), the leading provider of broadband and telecommunication services in Delhi and Mumbai, today announced a strategic partnership which would bring AOL’s products and content to MTNL consumers through a co-branded portal.

The co-branded portal, mtnl.aol.in will offer a compelling combination of AOL products: an easy to use e-mail service, Instant Messenger, content straddling across channel like Cricket, Bollywood, Hollywood, Music, including integrated videos in many channels, in addition to MTNL utilities like Services and Product Offerings, Games, Tariffs Plans and Customer care. MTNL users will have the option of making mtnl.aol.in as their default destination to access content across various channels.

“With adoption of Broadband skyrocketing, this strategic partnership leveraging the inherent strength of MTNL’s network and AOL as a global web services player will bring to our subscribes a world class Internet experience” said J. Gopal, Executive Director MTNL, speaking on the occasion.

Commenting on the deal P G Ponnapa, AOL’s Vice President and General Manager, stated, “We are happy to have partnered with MTNL in launching this portal. AOL’s suite of products and services layered over MTNL’s expertise in total telecommunication services including internet access services and broadband services will catalyze the adoption of the Internet for the Broadband era.

TRAI talks tough with Bharti on network rectification

2007-08-22T08:51:00.000+05:30

Telecom regulator TRAI on Tuesday criticised leading cellular service provider Bharti Airtel for proposing to charge extra for rectifying defects and asked the operator to refund such money, if any, taken from consumers.

Examining the tariff reports submitted by Bharti Airtel, which proposed additional charges for rectification of defects, the regulator said, "such tariff packages are anti-consumer and cannot be permitted."

As per terms and conditions of the licence issued to the service providers, the responsibility for maintaining the performance and quality of service rests with operators.

The customer does not choose the quality of material being used in the network by the company and is not responsible for the bad workmanship in the cable, drop-wire among others and has no say in determining the quality of the network elements.

TRAI has given a deadline of one week to Bharti Airtel to report compliance.

The regulator is the process of issuing separate general guidelines to all the service providers on this issue.

In a separate decision, TRAI has amended the guidelines for registration of consumer organisations/NGOs to attract more representation from the states.

TRAI said 28 consumer organisations/NGOs have been registered with TRAI till now. However, over 11 states in the country have no representation in the registered group of consumer organisations on account of certain eligibility conditions in the guidelines for registration.

Consumer organisations/NGOs can now register after one year of experience in assisting the consumers in redressal of complaints against three years earlier.

The amendment also provides for automatic renewal of registration after a period of three years, taking into account the usefulness of the organisation to protect the interest of consumers of telecom sector and their capacity to advocate the cause of consumers among others.

TRAI smells pricing co-operation among GSM players

2007-08-17T22:59:00.000+05:30

The telecom regulator will bark but not bite over the recent tariff hike. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, or TRAI Chairman Nripendra Misra said that regulatory intervention will set a bad precedent. Reports are that the regulator smells pricing co-operation between GSM players but no cartelisation.

Private GSM players like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone can breathe easy as the telecom regulator is not going to issue a diktat asking them to roll back the recent tariff hike. GSM players hiked local SMS charges, by a flat 20%, on Monday and STD tariffs by 20%, a fortnight ago, much to the dismay of consumers and even the telecom regulator.

A visibly miffed TRAI Chairman Nripendra Misra had earlier indicated that the regulator would explore all options in the interest of the consumer. But private GSM players met Misra on Thursday and explained the rationale behind the tariff hike. The regulator may not have bought the logic but said that intervention is best avoided.

“We have to understand that tariffs are under forbearance. They have been left to market forces and it is a result of that, that we have seen tariffs fall so much. Taking a hasty decision to intervene would set a wrong precedent and I do not want to do that,” said Nripendra Misra, Chairman, TRAI.

But the matter may not die down just yet. A Delhi-based NGO Telecom Watchdog has written to TRAI urging intervention. The NGO has alleged cartelisation by private GSM players and has threatened to take them to court. The regulator says there is no evidence of a cartel but there seems to be pricing cooperation.

"I can smell some kind of a pricing co-operation between the GSM players, but I do not think it is a cartel,” said Misra.

The recent tariff hike is not the only case in point. A couple of months ago all private GSM operators decided against a cut in roaming tariffs, despite all other operators slashing roaming rates. But GSM operators assert that there is only a "meeting of minds" and that no cartel could possibly operate in a market as competitive as this.

Nokia issues battery warning

2007-08-16T09:10:00.000+05:30

Nokia, the world’s largest cellphone maker, yesterday joined a growing list of consumer-electronics makers forced to warn customers that batteries shipped with their products could be defective, posing a potential safety risk.

Finland-based Nokia Oyj issued a global alert, warning that up to 46 million of its cellphone lithium-ion batteries used in its cellphones could, in rare cases, overheat due to a short-circuit while being charged. Nokia is offering to replace the batteries.

The batteries, with the designation BL-5C, were made by Japan’s Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. between December 2005 and November 2006.

The alert, issued after 100 instances globally of phones overheating, is the latest in a string of similar problems experienced by consumer and business electronics makers.

Last year, Sony Corp. recalled more than 10 million laptops after it discovered that lithium-ion batteries used in them could overheat and catch fire. The recalls included notebooks made by other major computer makers, including Dell Inc., Lenovo Inc., Apple Inc. and Acer Inc.

Earlier this month, Sony was forced to recall another 1,400 laptop computer batteries in computers made by Toshiba Corp.

Some observers are wondering whether the industry has a more serious problem on its hands than just sloppy manufacturing.

“There’s a very constant trend in the technology industry for devices to get smaller, faster, more powerful and more feature-filled,” said Carmi Levy, a former analyst and senior vice-president of strategic consulting for AR Communications Inc. “That presents a serious challenge to the engineers that have to provide power for all of that stuff because they are given less space.

“This applies to everything — laptops, cellphones, smart phones, MP3 players — they’re all running hotter.” In the absence of new battery technologies, Levy said, battery manufacturers are being forced to stick the same electrochemical components into smaller enclosures, battery cases, which reduces manufacturing tolerances and increases the possibility of defects.

At the same time, device makers are tempted to shoehorn existing battery types into their shrinking product designs, placing the power sources in closer proximity to wires and other components. That leaves less room for the excess heat created by battery malfunctions.

“What’s happening today is that a defect in battery construction, which years ago would not have led to a catastrophic event, is now much more likely to lead to a catastrophic event because the devices are running so much hotter.”

Nokia officials, however, stressed that the vast majority of the company’s cellphones — Nokia sold more than 100 million handsets in the second quarter of this yearalone — have experienced no battery issues.

“There have been a 100 instances out of 300 million batteries so that is a very rare occurrence,” Nowak said, referring specifically to the BL-5C battery type.

Officials also noted that no one has been injured and no property has been damaged.

The warning doesn’t affect any other batteries sold by Nokia or other BL-5C batteries manufactured by other suppliers.

Nokia has so far offered to replace batteries for concerned consumers. Company officials have yet to determine the cost of providing the replacements.

Some are calling on the industry to spend more money on product testing and battery research and development.

Michelle Warren, a senior analyst at Info-Tech Research Group, said the standards for battery performance may need to be elevated to ensure public safety in an industry in which where intense competition can put pressure on companies to cut corners.

“The technology is not perfect,” Warren said. “While the risk is not huge at this point in time, it’s a risk that we all still take every time we use a cellphone or a notebook.”

Cell cos send message, stand pat on SMS hike

2007-08-16T09:08:00.000+05:30

Mobile service providers are in no mood to roll back the recent hike in SMS and call tariffs.

In fact, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar, which set the ball in motion earlier this week, are going to get some company.

This move comes even as the regulator had expressed its readiness to intervene in the matter. Bharti and Vodafone had increased local call charges within their own networks in the Delhi circle, under some tariff plans, from Re 1 to Rs 1.20 per minute.

SMS rates, too, were hiked from Re 1 to Rs 1.20 per message. Now more of their global systems for mobile communications (GSM) cousins are planning similar hikes, under select plans, in other circles as well.

India has a total of 23 telecom circles. Service providers were not available for comments. Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) director-general TV Ramachandran told DNA Money that “only some operators have hiked rates, under some plans. Customers still have the full choice to select from a variety of tariff plans.”

According to Ramachandran, these are “normal market dynamics”. He indicated that such steps are sometimes necessary in a free market, as operators have to run viable businesses and also have to ensure rollout of networks across the country, including rural and remote areas.”

GSM operators, it is learnt, would present their side of the story to the telecom regulator soon.

Falling tariffs, high churn rate and scarcity of spectrum are their main complaints.
Currently, telecom tariffs are under forbearance. This means that market forces are free to fix call charges.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has been continuing with the forbearance regime for the past few years as tariffs have been falling.

Train can intervene in tariff matters, if it so feels, by floating a consultation paper on the issue. It also has the option of issuing directions on reducing charges for premium SMSes.

Trai chairman Nripendra Misra, who’s usually opposed to the idea of stiff penalties for telecom operators unless there’s a serious violation, had recently told this newspaper that the “solution lies in persuading telcos, and not in suspending their licences.”

In any case, industry representatives maintained that telecom tariffs in India are the lowest in the world. In the past 12 months, call charges have dropped in the range of 12-15% on an average in the country, they pointed out.

“So, why just highlight the increase in tariff under select plans by some operators,” the sources argued.

In a recent study, Trai had said that the average revenue per user (ARPU) per month for mobile operators had dropped 6.2%, from Rs 337 in the quarter ending September 2006 to Rs 316 in the quarter ending December 2006.

While the ARPU of GSM operators in the post-paid category had declined 1.7%, from Rs 643 per user per month in September 2006 to Rs 632 in December 2006, in the pre-paid segment, it dropped 5.3% from Rs 277 to Rs 262.

In the code division multiple access (CDMA) services, operators recorded a 8.83% decline in blended ARPU, from Rs 215 in September 2006 to Rs 196 in December 2006. CDMA post-paid ARPU is Rs 456, while that in pre-paid segment is Rs 159.

Bharti, Vodafone hike mobile tariffs

2007-08-14T12:29:00.000+05:30

Faced with declining average revenue per user (ARPU), mobile operators are now increasing their tariffs.

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar have increased local charges for calls within their own network by 20 per cent. All pre-paid and post-paid subscribers using the low-end tariff pack with rentals less than Rs 150 per month will have to pay Rs 1.20 per minute instead of Re one a minute for Airtel-to-Airtel calls and Hutch-to-Hutch calls.

New SMS rates

The two operators have also increased local SMS rates to Rs 1.20 per message for all users — both pre-paid and post-paid — from Re one earlier. This comes within a few weeks of an increase in STD rates in Delhi. Both Bharti Airtel and Hutch had increased their STD rates to Rs 2.60 per minute from Rs 2.40 per minute and Rs 2 per minute, respectively.

The increase in tariff comes even as the operator’s revenue per user continues to dip over the past year. The national average is hovering around Rs 300 per user per month, which is among the lowest in the world.

Though operators such as Bharti Airtel have stopped using ARPU as a measure for checking the financial health of the company, the increase in tariff targeted especially at low-end users clearly indicates the operator’s concern about declining ARPUs. Other operators are also likely to follow suit given that the two largest cellular operators have taken the lead.

Consumer groups, however, pointed out that the operators have not given any publicity to the increase in tariffs to create awareness among users. They said that the telecom regulator should take a look at the revised rates. The operators, on the other hand, said that advertisements were issued to inform the subscribers. The increase comes even as the Communications Ministry has made lower tariffs as one of its primary goal this year.

New twist to spectrum war

2007-08-14T12:23:00.000+05:30

GSM operators believe that CDMA players are getting additional spectrum virtually free.

Their apex body, the Cellular Operators’ Association of India, has written to telecom minister A. Raja to voice its anguish.

COAI director-general T. V. Ramachandran said, “The cost of spectrum for CDMA operators such as Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices remains static at 2 per cent of the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of their wireless business for up to 5 MHz of spectrum. For GSM players such as Bharti, Hutch and Idea, spectrum cost will be 2 per cent of AGR for 4.4MHz of spectrum; 3 per cent for 6.2MHz; and 4 per cent for 8MHz.”

Earlier, the Association of United Service Providers of India (Auspi), a CDMA operators’ body, had petitioned the telecom minister demanding that all GSM operators be made to pay for additional spectrum allocated to them beyond the 6.25MHz prescribed in their licences.

According to CDMA operators, under the unified access service licence (UASL), every GSM operator is entitled to only 6.25MHz of 2G spectrum and each CDMA operator up to 5MHz free of cost. They feel any allocation over and above this should be priced.

GSM operators have contested this and said that licences awarded by the government did not cap the spectrum allocation at 6.25MHz for GSM players.

“A high-level committee set up by the government in 2003 looked into the spectrum issue in a transparent manner and provided for an allocation of up to 15MHz for every GSM operator,” said Ramachandran.

Moreover, COAI argued that GSM players had already paid an additional 1 per cent charge on each additional tranche of spectrum that had been allotted.

“It is estimated that the GSM industry has already paid over Rs 1,800 crore on account of additional allotments of spectrum over and above the base spectrum usage charge of 2 per cent,” COAI said in its letter to Raja.

Ramachandran welcomed the CDMA lobby’s demand for a high-level probe into the allocation of spectrum to GSM operators. However, he petitioned the government to also probe the entry of CDMA operators into mobility services. He feels the Centre should explore how limited mobility WLL(M) services have morphed into full-blown mobility services.

Ramachandran referred to the 2003 judgment of Justice D.P. Wadhwa, then chairman of TDSAT, which said, “The grant of limited mobile and use of handsets is not legal.” Wadhwa had said that the licences of the fixed service providers “shall be revoked” based on the extent to which they had been modified to allow limited mobility.

DoT to form panel for spectrum pricing

2007-08-10T07:25:00.000+05:30

The department of telecom (DoT) has decided to set up a committee for spectrum valuation and pricing. This significant step follows a TOI story on August 2, revealing that the defence ministry in a late July communiqui, has refused to vacate spectrum till a secure alternate communications network for all three wings of the defence forces is built.

The cost of this exercise is estimated at upwards of Rs 6,000-8,000 crore with annual expenses at over Rs 1,000 crore, Pressure, on account of extremely public altercations between GSM and CDMA operators on the value and process of allocation of spectrum, is also a strong trigger, evident from the fact that the committee has been given just six weeks to submit its report.

CDMA firms allege that GSM operators have received spectrum far more than the contracted amount of 4.4 to 6.2 MHz, without any policy to support such allocation. Pressing for an investigation, they have urged government to extract a fair value of spectrum given above the contracted amount.

However, GSM players insist that they have paid Rs 1,800 crore for use of spectrum over and above the entry fee and an additional Rs 6,000 crore is payable over the next few years, even if the current policy continues.
CDMA and GSM operators also disagree on whether or not the current policy of subscriber-linked allocation can continue. It is in this background that the committee will make its evaluation.

The committee is being chaired by deputy director general (WPF), with joint wireless advisor, DDG-access services and deputy wireless advisor as members. It is expected to take into account existing practice and all other relevant aspects for determining appropriate spectrum valuation and pricing.

Th e committee can consult experts and obtain views of various stakeholders as appropriate. This provides an opportunity to contradict rivals positions on spectrum valuation.

The committee may also invite international experts who have global experience of spectrum valuation apart from existing operators, confirms a DoT official. The committee's mandate includes reviewing current spectrum charges to ensure optimum use of scarce resource of RF spectrum, taking into account the need for similar level of charges through different methods.

It will also examine the need for differential pricing for various parts of spectrum (frequency bands) considering the level of demand (high, medium or low), to encourage users to move from highly congested parts to others. Further, it will examine the need for differential pricing for usage in different areas of the country.

Airtel Ties Up With Google For Web-based Services

2007-08-09T06:10:00.000+05:30

Bharti Airtel Broadband & Telephone Services (B&TS) and Google entered into a strategic alliance to work together in bringing web-based services to Airtel's broadband internet customers. As part of the agreement, Airtel will offer its broadband customers a world-class portal including Google Search for web-based queries, Google Gmail with 2 GB storage, Google Talk instant messaging/ chatting service, Google Docs and Spreadsheets so users can share and collaborate in real-time, and other services like Desktop & Internet Security Services (consisting of Anti-virus, Anti-spyware, Firewall & Parental Control); Web SMS, On-demand gaming service and music download service, etc.

Besides these offerings, customers will get the option to personalize their Internet start page with content of individual preference - news, blog postings, weather and other interactive content and services through thousands of gadgets as well as content/ information from any site that gives XML feeds.

Airtel Broadband customers will be able to access all these services with a single sign-on completely free of cost. The portal will make it easy for customers to access their email, search the web, share ideas, connect with friends and publish content. More offerings like e-commerce applications will be added to the portal over a period time.

"In India, it is rich and differentiated services and content riding on an innovative internet experience that will drive the adoption of broadband. Airtel is delighted to partner with Google, a company that has led the creation of innovative internet experiences, to bring its innovative products to our broadband consumers," said Atul Bindal, President, Airtel Broadband & Telephone Services.

Shailesh Rao, Managing Director, Google India said, "Google is committed to enriching the online experience of users in India. The alliance will provide an ideal platform for Airtel users to enjoy the best possible online experience with customized access to Google's evolving suite of innovative products."

According to Jai Menon, Director, IT and Innovation Bharti Airtel Limited, three set of services will be made available to the customers of Airtel Broadband with a single sign-on completely free of cost.

"We will allow three sets of services. One there will be Airtel set of services - music, gaming and video messaging. Second is completely Google set of services and third is a local content developers' gadget," said Menon.

It will become very easy for customers to access their email, search the web, connect with friends and publish content. Airtel plans to add more offerings like e-commerce applications to the portal over a period time.

TRAI to take operators to task on threatening calls

2007-08-09T06:09:00.000+05:30

Alarmed by the rising number of threatening calls made to defaulters, who do not pay their bills, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is planning to take the operators to task.
The regulator has sought information from telecom licencees on their recovery methods, under an attempt to curb the growing problem.

“A large number of subscribers are receiving threatening calls for payment of outstanding dues, which may or may not be correct. This is not specific to any company, but if this practise goes unchecked it would bring a bad name to the entire telecom sector,” Trai said in a letter to the telecom oerators’ associations.

The regulator was of the opinion that calls made by “anti-social bullies” are also being extended to the subscribers’ relatives and friends. Strongly objecting this, Trai was of the opinion that this was not possible without the help of the operators who would be providing the call data recorder (CDR) details to these outsourced agencies.

“The telecom operators are not taking enough care to check the veracity of details, credentials, authorisation and there is an apprehension that even CDRs have been shared,” it said.
Telecom companies and banks have outsourced their recovery operations to direct-selling agents (DSA) and agencies, who in turn, call up the defaulters. These agencies threaten users with non-bailable warrants, while some of them use force by sending “bullies” to customer premises.

Similar incidents have been largely reported in the last two months, which is a serious and an undesirable practice. This is also a blatant violation of licence conditions, the regulator said.
According to an industry analyst, Trai has the power to bring the telecom companies to book, if any of these operators are found to be guilty of such practices. At present, the regulator is looking at curbing this menace.

Idea to start Mumbai operations in 3-4 months

2007-08-09T06:06:00.000+05:30

GSM service provider Idea Cellular on Wednesday said it would start operations in the Mumbai circle within 3-4 months once the spectrum allocation imbroglio is sorted out.

The DoT had cleared Idea's application to launch services in Mumbai in August 2006, following the exit of the Tatas from the company. Idea Cellular was also awarded the letter of intent (LoI) for its Mumbai foray during the same month and since then, the company has been awaiting the allocation of spectrum to begin its services in this metro city.

"We are aware of the reality of the current situation. The company is in a position to roll out servives in Mumbai within 3-4 months after spectrum is allocated," company's Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Rajat Mukarji told reporters at a function.

"We had hoped that spectrum will be allotted to us by the end of July and we are in constant touch with the government to sort out the issues as soon as possible," Mukarji said adding that they are hopeful that all things will be worked out.

The company had not received any formal communication from the government regarding spectrum allocation for the Mumbai circle, he said.

It has also applied for spectrum in Bihar circle, and the ministry would look at providing the frequency.

"We have filed applications for the rest of nine circles as well," Mukarji said.

Idea Cellular, had applied for the Mumbai license in late 2005, but the DoT had not processed its application for over an year as the Tata Group was a JV partner in the country.

Idea is the fifth largest operator in the country. The company has licence to operate telecom services in 13 of the 23 circles in the country. On June 30 this year the company had over 16.1 million subscribers.

CDMA,GSM players in tug-of-war over extra spectrum

2007-08-08T00:24:00.000+05:30

A war of sorts has broken out between GSM and CDMA operators over whether the department of telecommunications (DoT) is bound by contract to allot extra 2G spectrum without any additional one-time fee.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), representing GSM players, has been writing to communications and IT minister A Raja, highlighting how the government is bound by contract to provide extra spectrum without any additional charge.

But The Association of Unified Service Providers of India (Auspi), which represents CDMA operators like Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices, has shot off a letter, charging GSM players with misrepresenting facts and providing veiled threats of litigation.

In a letter to Raja, Auspi secretary- general SC Khanna has said that cellular operators using the GSM technology have been allocated more spectrum than what the licence agreement allows.

He has also said that the GSM players have been allocated extra spectrum until 2002 unauthorisedly.

Auspi has charged that GSM operators have been hoarding spectrum, leading to large buyout valuations, as can be seen from the recent take over of one of the leading operators by an international company.

"In view of this, we trust that the government will not be impacted by the veiled threats of legal actions by any section of the operators, and will go ahead and take necessary actions in the best interest of the country and subscribers," the letter says.

GSM firms given additional frequency: CDMA operators

2007-08-06T08:59:00.000+05:30

The Association of Unified Service Providers of India (AUSPI), the apex body of CDMA operators, has shot off a letter to the telecom ministry alleging that the GSM operators were given spectrum “way beyond their licences”.

The move will result in a direct confrontation with its GSM counterpart the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) which had earlier refuted its members were provided free spectrum.

“It is no secret that the spectrum allocation to GSM operators has been way beyond the amounts contracted by their licences. However, COAI by quoting different provisions of the license relating to spectrum charges and subscriber base criteria is trying to establish that the licence entitles them to get spectrum beyond the contracted amount.

This too, without paying any additional upfront charges,” AUSPI Secretary General SC Khanna said in the letter.

When contacted Khanna confirmed the development. The letter addressed to Minister of Communications and Information Technology, also alleged that the GSM operators association had not quoted any licence agreement that provides it right to frequencies beyond 6.2 + 6.2 MHz.

There have been different provisions in the licence, but still all the licences refer to spectrum allocation of a maximum of 4.4 + 4.4 MHz, while the fourth cellular licence refers to maximum of 6.2 + 6.2 MHz.

Accusing COAI of presenting “a one-sided, distorted and inaccurate position”, AUSPI has stated that under the Universal Access Service Licence (UASL) the spectrum is capped at 5 + 5 MHz for CDMA and 6.6 + 6.2 MHz for GSM operators.

COAI had also claimed that the government had contractually agreed to provide it upto 15 + 15 MHz spectrum, which is a “complete distortion of truth”. Earlier this month, COAI in a letter to the minister had refuted allegations that its member firms were given free spectrum that resulted in a loss of Rs 1,800 crore to the exchequer.

Dual SIM phones ringing at last

2007-08-03T23:33:00.001+05:30

Cell phone users needn’t be torn between CDMA or GSM technologies before taking a mobile connection, anymore. Now, one can have both on the same phone.

Spice Mobile and Samsung have launched handsets that allow the user to load two SIM cards instead of one.

The Spice Dual comes with two variants — D-88, which supports both GSM and CDMA active connections at the same time, and D-80, which supports two active GSM connections — both priced at Rs 9,849. Switching from one connection to the other is as easy as just pressing a button and the phone provides four basic operation modes — GSM and CDMA dual; CDMA and GSM dual; CDMA only and GSM only.

On the other hand, Samsung’s first touchscreen-based dual SIM phone — Samsung Duo - would cost Rs 11,999, Hyunbai Kim, head, CDMA division, Samsung Telecommunications India informed.

Meanwhile, Reliance Communication has already tied up with suppliers and will also launch these dual SIM handsets before the festival season Dual SIM phones are already in use in China and Korea.

Kunal Ahooja, CEO, Spice Mobile Ltd told, “As one handset per person was not enough, increasingly many are toting around two phones — one for work and one for private use. Our dual phones help get rid of the problem.”

What’s more, users get a call waiting tone if another call comes on the other SIM and can either swap or reject the other call. Thus, both the SIMs can remain active at same time.

Industry experts believe these dual SIM handsets would particularly help people who travel extensively and want to minimise their roaming costs. Even international travellers can now use a single instrument and a single charger, retaining the home network number as well as the visiting country SIM. Effectively, this helps avoid the inconvenience of carrying two phones without sacrificing the advantage of choosing the best tariffs while traveling, especially when overseas.

According to an estimate, dual SIM handsets can capture almost 10% of the present mobile market, putting the size of the dual SIM handsets market at 5 million annually.

GSM operators under attack from CDMA lobby

2007-08-03T23:31:00.000+05:30

GSM-based mobile players, under attack from CDMA lobby for allegedly getting additional spectrum free of cost, on Friday countered the charge saying they have paid about Rs 1,800 crore on radio waves till date.

"GSM operators are paying an extremely high charge for the additional spectrum that is alloted to them," it said in a letter to Telecom Minister A Raja.

As per the existing regime, the GSM industry over the next three years alone will pay over Rs 10,000 crore as spectrum usage charges to the government, of which almost Rs 6,000 crore would be on account on the high incremental charges being applied by the government over and above the initial two per cent charges.

Spectrum is not being given away free to the GSM operators and in fact a very heavy price is being imposed on the operators as charges for GSM spectrum use, TV Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) director general Ramachandran said in the letter to Raja.

The lobby claimed that the government is likely to recover 10 times the entry fee over licence period from spectrum usage charges.

As per the current formula, GSM operators with 10 MHz of frequency are paying a charges of four per cent of Adjusted Gross Revenue and this would increase to six per cent for allocation of 15 MHz, Ramachandran said.

Ericsson accepts BSNL's GSM tender

2007-08-03T23:24:00.000+05:30

Ericsson has accepted the Rs 5,150-crore tender from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) to supply 13.2 million GSM lines to the state-owned company.

The equipment company submitted a bank guarantee after accepting the offer.

A senior executive of Ericsson confirmed that it had submitted the bank guarantee. BSNL will fork out around Rs 3,901 per line for the order which will be both for 2G as well as 3G lines.
Under the advance purchase order the company will now supply 9.7 million 2G lines and another 3.5 million 3G lines but only after the government finalises the policy on the new service.

Nokia, which is the second highest bidder, is also expected to submit its bank guarantee for a combined 2G and 3G order of around 9.5 million lines.

The new price is much lower than what Ericsson, which was the lowest bidder for the earlier 45.5 million line contract, had bid for at Rs 4,965.

The initial order was halved by the BSNL Board.

Motorola, Tata Unveil the Moto Q

2007-08-01T22:31:00.000+05:30

Motorola and Tata Teleservices today launched the Moto Q in the country.

The ultra-thin QWERTY device is based on a Qualcomm Multimedia Platform chipset designed to drive rapid development and adoption of high-speed wireless data applications. And, the phone runs on the Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system.

Malcolm Dawe, vice president and general manager, Motorola India Mobile Devices, said, "The Moto Q is a must-have device that enables true seamless mobility by liberating all of us from the constraints of our offices and living rooms. It brings together all converged solutions users need to work, stay in touch, and have fun. With best voice, data, and design technology in one ultra-thin, intelligent, hard-working device, the Moto Q enables increased productivity and entertainment on-the-go."

Vinayak Deshpande, president of Enterprise and HNI Business at Tata Teleservices, said, "It gives us great pleasure to further widen our association with Motorola. At Tata Teleservices, it is our constant endeavor to enhance the quality and convenience of everyday life, through the use of superior technology available at a reasonable cost."

With the Windows Mobile 5.0 OS, Motorola believes it is putting an 'intelligent' device into users' pockets. The phone offers built-in rich multimedia functionality, and Bluetooth stereo music streaming. It comes pre-loaded with the full-length Bollywood movie 'Dus', 5 MP3 songs, and customized wallpapers.

Salient features of the phone include: integrated Bluetooth 1.2 wireless technology with stereo profile support for communicating with Bluetooth-enabled headsets, car kits, and other devices; integrated 1.3 megapixel camera with video playback and capture; fast downloads of data, email, and large attachments; familiar thumbwheel to enhance navigation; synchronization with email, calendar, contacts, and tasks entries; and integration with Windows Mobile 5.0 OS for user convenience and access to Yahoo!, Hotmail, and other POP3 services.

The Moto Q can also be availed on the Tata Teleservices' exclusive Business Platinum 649 plan, wherein subscribers can enjoy free monthly usage of up to 512MB. They can also get Rs 150 worth of free local calling.

This exclusive package carries a price tag of Rs 19,999, and comes along with a 512MB miniSD card with preloaded content as well as an additonal high capacity (1640mAH) battery.

DoT chalks out road map for WiMax rollout

2007-07-23T07:16:00.000+05:30

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has laid out a road map for wireless broadband (WiMax) roll out in the country, which is at variance with the recommendations of the telecom regulator, Trai, but conforms to the frequency preference of the World WiMax Forum.

It has proposed that WiMax launch be initially restricted to only three players who will operate this service in the 2.5 Ghz frequency band. DoT has also proposed that one of the three slots be reserved for state-owned BSNL/MTNL, which would imply that private telecom operators and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will have to compete for just two slots. The proposal now awaits
final clearance by telecom minister A Raja.

The DoT committee studying telecom regulator Trai’s recommendations on spectrum allocation and pricing for wireless broadband rollout, in its report, has said the base price for auction for WiMax spectrum be set at 25% of the amount for 3G spectrum. This implies, for metros like Delhi and Mumbai and ‘A’ category telecom circles, the base price for bidding will be Rs 40 crore. The same committee has proposed that for 3G spectrum, the base price be Rs 160 crore for Category ‘A’ circles, Rs 80 crore for Category ‘B’ circles and Rs 30 crore for Category ‘C’ circles. (India has 23 telecom circles, which are divided into 3 different categories — A, B and C).

While the DoT committee’s report to offer WiMax in 2.5 GHz frequency is in line with the global scenario, it contradicts the recommendations of telecom regulator Trai. Trai had suggested that wireless broadband be rolled out in 3.3-3.4 GHz and 3.4-3.6 Ghz frequencies and up to 13 players be allocated spectrum to offer WiMax services.

At the same time, the DoT committee has also added that other service providers would be offered WiMax spectrum in the frequencies recommended by Trai at a later stage after compatibility is established. Currently, the 3.4 GHz-3.6 GHz frequency is used by satellite-based services and broadcasters. Spectrum availability in this frequency for WiMax will only be known after the ongoing trials are completed. The trials relate to co-existence of both WiMax and satellite-based services in this brand.

With regard to the 3.3 GHz-3.4 Ghz frequency, the DoT panel has implied that equipment will not be available for the spectrum preferred by India. Additionally, the committee has also added that other frequencies such as 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz were already de-licenced and any operator could avail these bands for free to provide WiMax services in rural India.

DoT’s logic behind restricting the players initially is because only about 70 units of spectrum will be available in the 2.5 Ghz band, as this frequency is used by India’s Insat satellite series. With DoT planning to allocate 20 units of spectrum to each player, only about three operators can be accommodated in this band.

Last year, the global WiMax Forum had cautioned that India could miss the wireless broadband revolution and get isolated from the rest of the world, unless the country allocates spectrum in the 2.5 GHz-2.69 GHz for these services. The WiMax Forum has told the government here, including Trai and DoT, that India was better off allocating a different spectrum band for its satellite services, rather than risk isolation in the global stage.

The WiMax forum had also raised objections to Trai’s recommendations that each player be allocated 15 units of spectrum for offering wireless broadband services, and said the country should opt for 20 units which was the minimum channel requirement. Besides, the Forum had also added that globally, WiMax equipment is configured to work on 20 Mhz channels.DoT’s road map for wireless broadband addresses all the concerns raised by the global WiMax Forum.

RCom plans largest wireless network in the world

2007-07-18T06:40:00.000+05:30

Reliance Communications has grand plans. The Anil Ambani-led telecommunications major aims to have the single largest wireless network in the world by year-end, covering over 900 million Indians.

The company will invest Rs 16,000 crore (Rs 160 billion) for network expansion in FY08, said RCom chairman Anil Ambani on Tuesday in Mumbai.

RCom is looking at inorganic growth route across the world. The company will cover 23,000 towns, or every single Indian habitation with a population of over 1,000 persons, he said. The company will cover almost 100 per cent of all rail routes, all national highways, and 84 per cent of all state highways, he added.

The company has more than 1 million retail customers in the United States, the largest for any Indian company across any sector, a media release from RCom said.

RCom has launched virtual international calling and voice content services in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand. The company is one of the leading providers of international connectivity and data services to telecom operators, content providers and Internet communities.

RCom Offers Free Internet Data Card

2007-07-11T23:16:00.000+05:30

Reliance Communications (RCom) is offering it's NetConnect customers across the country a mobile Internet data card at no additonal cost.

Elaborating on the scheme, S P Shukla, chief executive officer of personal business at Reliance Communications, said that customers can choose from a wide range of options, including getting a free data card against a 12-months subscription.

Under the 24-month subscription Freedom Plan, free usage of up to 1GB is available every month, whereas under the Swift 50 plan, users can avail up to 40 hours free usage every month.

Alternatively, customers can purchase the mobile Internet data card by making an upfront payment of Rs 2,850 for the USB data card, and Rs 2,990 for the PCMCIA data card.

Shukla said the company has already entered into alliances with laptop manufacturers to bundle the NetConnect Data cards.

Reportedly, there are over 10-million Reliance NetConnect customers across the country. With this offering, they will be able to access the Internet at any time and from any where, RCom said.

Trai hauls up operators for poor service

2007-07-11T23:15:00.000+05:30

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) today said it summoned eight telecom operators for poor quality of service across the country.

“We have called four operators yesterday and will call another four tomorrow individually for their quality of service,” Trai member AK Sawhney said today. HFCL, MTNL, Idea, Hutch, Airtel and Aircel were among these operators, he said.

“We have told them to meet the quality of service regulation 2005 parameters by next quarter ending September or otherwise face actions like penalty and even recommendation for cancellation of licences,” Sawhney said.

Trai in its own internal audit found that the telecom operators had failed to meet quality of service regulations. There are 159 licences and 23 circles.

In the QoS regulation, Trai pointed several service quality benchmarks. In case of points of interconnection congestion, it allows 0.5 per cent or one in 200 calls. Congestion in points of interconnection is a major reason for call drop. However, congestion level had rose from 389 in December 2006 to 499 in March.

Trai has found discrepancies in the quarterly report filed by telecom operators and internal report of Trai. On this, Sawhney said they were given 15 days to explain.

BSNL employees go on strike

2007-07-11T23:10:00.000+05:30

Telecom services across the country are expected to be hit following BSNL employees' indefinite strike from Wednesday, demanding immediate placement of equipment orders for expansion of its mobile network.

"Strike started at 0600 hours. Workers of all the associations, unions are on strike. The strike is a complete success," said V A N Namboodiri, joint convener of BSNL and MTNL employees forum.

BSNL has 3.5 crore fixed lines and 2.4 crore mobile subscribers and is the largest telecom operator with operations in regions except Mumbai and Delhi.

Talks fail

The employees went ahead with their decision to go on strike following failure of its talks with the company management, Telecom Minister A Raja and Department of Telecom.

The Union wanted a written assurance from DoT that its demands of placing the contract for laying 45.5 million GSM lines should be placed to the selected vendors.

But the DoT letter did not seem to have lived up to the expectation of the union as it apparently did not mention two crucial issues - that BSNL should go for 3G network and immediate placement of order for 45.5 million lines.

The employees are likely to hold a meeting with Raja on Wednesday along with the top brass of BSNL and DoT secretary.

The problem of the PSU is expected to be compounded with this strike as it struggles to increase its GSM capacity through tenders, which has been mired in controversies and delays.

Airtel, RCoM DTH to offer broadband

2007-07-02T07:11:00.000+05:30

Telecom majors Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications (RCOM), which are set to make their Direct To Home (DTH) foray by the year-end, plan to have a key differentiator from existing players in this space. Bharti and RCOM are looking at providing satellite-based broadband internet services along with their DTH offerings. Globally, a number of DTH majors, especially in the US have adopted this strategy. Bharti’s and RCOM’s move may also prompt Dish TV, country’s largest private DTH player to enter this space in the coming months.

“Satellite internet is a North American model. There are a lot of areas where Bharti would possibly never lay copper cable as it does not make economic sense. In these areas, Bharti will look at a offering broadband through Wi-Max or through DTH,” Bharti Airtel president, broadband and telephone services, Atul Bindal told ET.

Similarly, RCOM’s DTH venture, which is called BlueMagic is also looking at satellite internet services as one of the key differenciators. RCOM sources said that along this facility, the company was also looking at an entire gamut of voice and data services, including facilities like video on demand to offer higher interactivity to subscribers using its digital TV platform.

If Dish TV chooses to offer this facility, it has an added advantage in the fact that its promoters, the Essel Group already has a 50:50 JV with the Shyam Communication (called Essel Shayam Communication) which offers broadband satellite communications solutions in India.

Satellite internet is considered as ideal solution for rural users who want broadband services, but do not have access to telephone lines and cable systems. A combined offering with DTH also makes satellite internet economical. This is because, standalone satellite internet services works out to be expensive proposition as it requires a satellite dish for two-way (upload and download) data communications.

Despite 2007 being labelled as the ‘year of broadband’ by the department of telecom (DoT), high-speed internet services have hardly taken off in India. The country had a total of 2.46 million broadband connections as of May end. “During May 2007 there is addition of 0.04 million connections compared to 0.13 million added during April 2007. This indicates negative growth pattern for broadband subscribers,” telecom regulator Trai said in its latest report. India is also set to fall shot of its target of nine million broadband users by 2007 end by a huge margin.

BSNL IPTV in Karnataka in August

2007-06-29T22:13:00.000+05:30

According to reports, BSNL is all set to launch Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) in Karnataka in August this year.

What is Internet Protocol Television? A system where a digital television service is delivered by using Internet Protocol over a network infrastructure, which may include delivery by a broadband connection.

Simply put, viewers can ask for a particular channel, program, or movie at a particular time. Also, they can pause an ongoing program in the middle in case of work, and get back at any convenient time.

According to T S Kuppuswamy, chief general manager of Karnataka Telecom, with the broadband facility, Bangalore customers will be able to get voice, data, and video.

BSNL's IPTV service will also be reportedly used for e-education. Features such as slide shows, video lectures, and other modes will be used to impart education through the Internet.

To enjoy the service, customers will have to purchase a set top box known as WICE (Window for Infotainment, Communication and Entertainment), and have it installed for a certain fee along with security deposit.

Meanwhile, Karnataka will not be the first city in the country to get BSNL IPTV. Pune already has the service, where a set top box is typically available for Rs 3,950, or can be rented for a fixed monthly charge of Rs 100, along with a security deposit of Rs 1,500.

BSNL's IPTV service will be supported by CSIR, under triple-play broadband technology, which is at par with what is available worldwide. The franchisee for broadband here is India Online.

Telcos to tighten user check norms

2007-06-29T22:12:00.000+05:30

Government today directed mobile operators offering pre-paid services in Jammu and Kashmir and North East to follow instructions on verification of particulars of new users.

After issuing the new instructions earlier this month, Department of Telecom today held a meeting with mobile operators and asked them to strictly follow them after the industry raised concern over its implementation.

Official sources said there were apprehensions by operators on the guidelines that an existing subscriber of minimum three month old should become a witness for a new connection of the same service provider. According to operators this would not be possible in case of new operators who are planning to roll out services.

Operators have suggested that instead of existing subscribers, gazetted officers of the state Government should be authorised to verify new prepaid mobile customers, sources said.

DoT allowed pre-paid mobile services in these terrorist-infested states in February for a period of one year. However, with the rising number of fake addresses and identification given by the subscribers, government fears that terrorists could abuse pre-paid mobile service and walk away scot-free.

"The application for the prepaid connections should be witnessed (sic) by an existing subscriber who must be a regular revenue paying subscriber for at least three previous months of the same service provider," said the DoT guidelines issued in the first week of June.

Pre-paid mobile connections were allowed earlier this year in J-K and northeast, while post paid connections there were allowed earlier.

The mobile company has to also randomly verify 10 per cent of the witness within three months from the date of issuing connections.

The mobile subscriber verification drive all over the country has already set the ball rolling for authentic documentation. Now DoT wants service providers to take necessary action to effectively sensitise the public of these states about the misuse of a mobile connection with fake documents, which would attract stringent action, the letter said.

It is also the responsibility of the service provider to verify telephonically with the witness before activating the new telephone connections. Even the remarks of the witness will be recorded on the application form along with his or her contactable address.

Spice Telecom Selects Ericsson for Push Email Service in India

2007-06-21T23:04:00.000+05:30

Ericsson announced that it has received a contract from the Indian telecom operator, Spice Telecom, to provide push email and personal information management services via its hosted enterprise solution.

The push email solution provides users with easy-to-use secure, real-time access to email and personal information via a wide variety of mobile devices. It enables quick and easy access to emails, contacts and calendar functions while on the move.

Emails are delivered wirelessly in real-time and all activities, such as writing, deleting or sending messages, are instantaneously reflected in the subscriber's account. Installation and maintenance of the email solution are designed to be as simple and straightforward as possible, offering low total cost of ownership.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ericsson will provide hosting, systems integration and day-to-day management of the service.

Prakash Nanani, CEO, Spice Telecom, said, "Spice believes in launching cutting edge mobile applications and Spice Push mail service is another such service. We are proud to offer push email to our customers, enabling them to have full control over their email, whether in the office or on the move. This service will enable the consumer to access an email solution that is useful, fast, secure, simple and cost-efficient."

"What is more is that customers don't need to have any particular handset, as the service is not handset dependent, and shall work on most handsets that support GPRS. We expect this to help Spice to broad base the reach of email service to the masses," added Nanani.

Mats Granryd, Managing Director, Ericsson India, said, "Operators are increasingly positioning mobile push email solutions beyond the professional segment, moving into the mass-consumer domain. Hosting is a proven business model that meets operators' growing needs to quickly and cost-efficiently launch new multimedia services for both business segment and the consumer."

Trai no-reply to congestion

2007-06-19T08:40:00.001+05:30

Telecom regulator Trai is unable to curb the growing incidence of network congestion in mobile calls because the matter is sub judice. Around six million cellular subscribers are added every month.

“The matter is pending with the tribunal. Therefore, the authority is unable to issue showcause notices against non-compliant telecom companies,” said a senior official of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

“With more people using limited resources, network congestion is increasing. It is leading to a loss of calls and poor quality of service,” he added.

However, the telecom watchdog’s power over interconnection has become a matter of legal dispute. The body can do little more than publishing reports and analysis, said the Trai official.

According to a Trai directive of June 7, 2005, all service providers should give interconnection within 90 days of payment.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) had gone to the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal against this notice. The matter is pending with the tribunal.

Trai has been monitoring the level of congestion at points of interconnection (POIs) between different service providers on a monthly basis.

A POI reveals the ease with which a customer of one network is able to communicate with a person of another network. It also reflects the effectiveness of interconnection between two networks.

According to the benchmark set by Trai in its quality of service regulation, only one out of 200 calls should face congestion.

In its analysis for the January-March period, Trai showed that there was greater congestion at the POIs in March this year compared with December 2006.

The number of congested POIs had increased to 499 in March 2007 from 389 in December 2006, the report said.

High congestion leads to loss of calls, repeated call attempts, deterioration in quality of service and consumer dissatisfaction, the Trai official said.

According to the report, 245 POIs had a congestion level greater than 5 per cent in March this year compared with 199 POIs in December 2006.

There were 183 POIs with more then 10 per cent congestion in March 2007 against 137 in December last year.

The worst affected POIs, with congestion level of more than 40 per cent, numbered at 46 in March compared with 39 in December.

In cases where calls from a private operator goes to BSNL, the number of POIs having congestion has increased from 300 in December 2006 to 337 in March 2007.

During the same period, POI congestion among private mobile operators increased from 89 to 162, said Trai.

The 'HTC Touch' from Airtel, HTC

2007-06-19T08:37:00.000+05:30

According to reports, Bharti Airtel, along with High Tech Computer (HTC) has introduced the "HTC Touch" touted as the world's first mobile phone with 'TouchFLO' technology.

"HTC Touch" operates on 'TouchFLO', an intuitive touch-screen navigation technology, and will be now exclusively available to Airtel users.

Featuring a 2.8-inch LCD touch-screen with backlight and 240 x 320 resolution, the "HTC Touch" is a stylish, versatile handset with a wide variety of capabilities that enable mobile consumers to balance work and play.

The phone comes with an internal memory of 128 MB, and microSD expandable slot. It integrates a 2.0 megapixel CMOS color camera, a built-in microphone, and 3-in-1 speaker, as well as connectivity options including Bluetooth and WiFi.

According to HTC, the new phone is capable of recognising and responding to the sweep of a finger across the screen. It promises enough intelligence to be able to distinguish between finger and stylus input, and respond accordingly.

The "HTC Touch" will be available next week onwards exclusively for Airtel users in ten cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Pune, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, and Jaipur. It will come for a price of Rs 19,900.

Vodafone to invest 2 bn dollars on expansion in India

2007-06-15T23:12:00.000+05:30

British mobile phone company Vodafone Group Plc will invest two billion dollars to expand its new India mobile unit, its Chief Executive Arun Sarin said on Friday.

"Last year, we spent about a billion dollars. This year, we'll spend at least two billion dollars. We will monitor the situation to see how many cell sites we can add. Clearly, we are interested in having new customers join the Vodafone Essar Company. And that's what we are about," he told reporters after a meeting with Hutch Essar officials.

Sarin also said he was talking to other mobile firms in India on the possibility of sharing infrastructure like towers.

"Infrastructure sharing is one important way for us to reach every possible consumer...the 1.1 (billion) people who live in India. What we are interested in doing is setting up a platform with whoever wants to join us so we can build our India (operations) in a very cost effective way, most importantly provide excellent services that Vodafone Essar can provide to consumers. We are well on our way with a number of parties to make sure we have excellent network experience around the country," he said.

Vodafone has already announced network sharing plans with top mobile operator Bharti Airtel Ltd. in which Vodafone had owned 10 percent.

It will appoint eight members to Vodafone Essar's 12-member board, with Essar appointing four, Sarin said.

Vodafone, the world's biggest mobile phone operator outside China, agreed in February to buy a majority stake in Hutchison Essar from Hong Kong's Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. for 11.1 billion dollars.

But Indian officials later questioned the deal, particularly the size of the foreign holding, and sought further details.

India's foreign investment body finally approved Vodafone's acquisition of the country's third-biggest mobile operator in April, and the company is expected to officially change its name to Vodafone Essar by the end of this month.

India is the world's fastest-growing cellular market that has been adding more than six million users every month, lured by call rates as low as one US cent a minute.

Tata Teleservices to invest Rs 1 bn in Punjab

2007-06-15T23:08:00.000+05:30

Tata Teleservices the CDMA operator, is planning to pump in around Rs 1 billion in Punjab (India) in this financial year, reports Business Standard.

The investment is targetted at raising coverage capacity by expanding the number of base transceiver stations (BTS), backbone network for data communications, true-value shops and hubs.

At present Tata Teleservices has a subscriber base of 750,000 including those in Punjab and Chandigarh (fixed and mobile telephones taken together).

On the expansion plans, chief operating officer Subhash Arya Punjab said,` In order to strengthen our presence and to have a better penetration in Punjab, we will put up more towers as well as share towers. At present, we are sharing about 50% of the towers with other players. We have plans to increase this percentage to 75 per cent in this financial year.`
He added that putting up new towers was a costly proposition, and that`s why the company intended to share towers with other players wherever possible.

He further said the company had plans to cover the entire Punjab. At present, there are about 500 cell sites in Punjab which cover 6000 villages and 270 towns. Apart from that, it has plans to increase true-value shops and hubs.

Today, the company announced the launch of `Freedom call Voucher` offering free and unlimited outgoing calls to any local Tata phone, both mobile and fixed. The voucher is available for Rs 325 for 30 days and gives Rs 150 bonus talk-time for other calls. It also offers lucarative call rates, local mobiles at Rs 0.49 per minute and local fixed line at Rs 0.99 per minute.

Tata Teleservices and Tata Teleservices(Maharashtra) together serve over 17.1 million customers covering over 3,400 towns. The telecom company is targeting to achieve 100 million subscribers by 2011 by offering world class technology and user friendly services in 20 circles.

Tata frees up local calling

2007-06-14T22:18:00.000+05:30

The local mobile rates will now be free, with Tata Indicom introducing a direct plan under which there will be no charges on calls within the company's network, while 49 paise will be charged for calls to other mobile operators.

Launching a pre-paid mobile card of Rs 325, in which the talk time is worth Rs 150, Tata Teleservices' President (Consumer Business) Naresh Malhan said, "Consumers will get the local mobile call free of cost to other Tata Indicom phones. These free calls are not limited to any number, they are unlimited.”

While, local calls from Tata Indicom mobiles to other fixed lines would cost 99 paise, STDs would cost around Rs 2.4.

Trai to review telecom licensing norms

2007-06-13T23:24:00.000+05:30

In a move whose outcome will determine the future of telecom in India, regulator Trai on Tuesday launched a consultation process seeking the industry’s views on reviewing key licence conditions and capping the number of telecom operators in a circle.

The process also seeks to rework the existing merger and acquisition guidelines and also find answers to the crucial question of whether operators can be allowed to provide both GSM and CDMA-based services in the same circle.

Trai has said that review of the current norms was necessary as competition and steady subscriber growth by itself may not be sufficient to sustain the phenomenal growth that this sector is currently witnessing. “It is imperative that policy framework is periodically reviewed to provide required catalyst for sustained growth.

From the perspective of the cellular telephony market, there is an urgent need to ensure a clear, fair, predictable, transparent and stable policy and regulatory framework, especially with regard to spectrum policy, investment norms, competition policy, and the licensing regime,” the regulator said.

At present, there is no cap on the number of operators who can provide services in a telecom circle, except that every circle must have a minimum of three telecom players. While refusing to take a stance on this issue, Trai has instead called for an open debate to address it.

If the existing operators wanted a cap, Trai has asked them to specify the methodology for fixing this number. Besides, Trai has also said that the consultation will examine if the number of operators in each service area should be determined by market forces.

With CDMA players such as Reliance Communications, HFCL and Shyam Telecom seeking spectrum in the GSM space, the consultation process will determine if these players can offer services using both technological platforms.

If there is consensus on the fact that players should be permitted to offer services on both platforms, then the process will also lay down guidelines which specify both the priority and methodology that will be followed for the allocation of spectrum in such cases, Trai said.

Acknowledging that mergers and acquisitions play an important role in enhancing economic growth, establishing effective competition, attracting investment, enhancing efficiency, improving economies of scale and scope and promoting efficient utilisation of resources, Trai has sought the comments from all stakeholders to rework all M&A norms.

This is because, under existing norms, which were issued in 2004 to induce competition and curb monopolies, an operator cannot hold more than 10% stake in a competing service provider in the same circle. (It was this clause that led to the Tata group selling its equity stake in Idea Cellular to the Birlas. This also resulted in Vodafone reducing its 10% holdings in Bharti Airtel after it acquired Hutchison’s 67% in Hutch-Essar.)

In case of a merger or acquisition, currently, the combined entity cannot hold more than 15 Mhz of spectrum in any circle. Besides, an acquisition or merger cannot take place if the process reduces the number of operators in any circle to less then three or if the combined entity has 67% market share in any telecom circle.

The consultation process, also seeks to review the 15 Mhz spectrum cap in the case of mergers. It will also determine the spectrum cap in the case of cross technology merger, where a GSM-based operator buys out a CDMA player or vice-versa. This is because, GSM and CDMA operators have different allocation criteria.

With regard to roll-out obligations, the regulator has sought the industry’s comments if these should be removed completely and market forces be allowed to decide the extent of coverage, as reported by ET on Tuesday. Trai has asked all stakeholders to send their comments to this consultation process by June 27, 2007.

5 million GSM subscribers added in May

2007-06-09T14:39:00.000+05:30

The GSM operators have added over 5 million subscribers in May as telecom services are becoming increasingly affordable in the country.

This takes the total number of users to 130.6 million in the month, compared with 125.57 million recorded in April, an increase of 4.02 per cent.

Bharti Airtel added 18.5 lakh users during the month, followed by Hutch at 15.1 lakh and Idea had an additional 7 lakh. BSNL had 2 lakh and MTNL, 64, 098.

In terms of subscriber base, Bharti Airtel had 4.07 crore subscribers and a market share of 31.20 per cent, Hutch-Essar had 2.92 crore and a market share of 22.36 per cent, while BSNL had 2.79 crore users, with a market share of 21.43 per cent.

The metro subscribers in the country grew by 3.04 per cent over the previous month, with Delhi recording the highest growth at 3.93 per cent followed by Chennai at 3.59 per cent.

Commenting on the subscriber additions, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) director general, T V Ramachandran said, “We are pleased with the growth of the GSM subscribers, which is being driven primarily by aggressive network expansions by the operators, coupled with decreasing tariffs and increasing affordability.”

RComm lifetime GSM for Rs 222 only

2007-06-07T22:23:00.000+05:30

Reliance Communication has further reduced its lifetime GSM service offer to Rs 222 from Rs 495. It has also come out with a bundled handset offer at Rs 1234.

Reliance GSM's double bonanza offer comes with a lifetime validity recharge at Rs 222 in all its eight GSM circles and also a handset offer in which the company will be providing a Classic 2010 monochrome set along with the connection at Rs 1234, RComm personal business president SP Sukla said while launching the scheme.

The lifetime incoming validity coupon has Rs 10 talk time and the subscribers meed to use Rs 75 in every 60 days to stay active.

Shukla said Reliance GSM plans to spread its service from 2000 towns in eastern India at present to 9000.

RCom operates both GSM and CDMA mobile services, with a total subscriber base of 32 million. With a subscriber-base of eight lakh, the growth rate in GSM connections was 10% to 12% during the last fiscal.

RCom awaiting spectrum allocation for national GSM roll-out

2007-06-07T07:47:00.000+05:30

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group firm 'Reliance Communications' is awaiting allocation of spectrum from the government for national roll-out of its GSM service, a company official said today.

The company had already applied for additional spectrum allocation to the government, Reliance Communications president (Personal Business), S P Shukla, told reporters here.

Reliance GSM service was being currently available in eastern India under the 'Smart' brand name. It is the first GSM mobile service operator in eastern India.

Shukla said at present, Reliance GSM service was spread across 2000 towns in eastern India, which would go up to 9000.

RCom operates both GSM and CDMA mobile services, with a total subscriber base of 32 million. With a subscriber-base of eight lakh, the growth rate in GSM connections was 10 per cent to 12 per cent during the last fiscal.

Shukla said RCom would invest around US$ 2.5 billion to expand its wireless network, both in CDMA and GSM. The likely investment for the GSM expansion would be about Rs 3000 crore.

The basic infrastructure would be common for both CDMA and GSM services, Shukla said.

On a national basis, RCom plans to be present in 22,000 towns across the country from the present levels of 10,000, in both CDMA and GSM.

Register with operators, DoT, telemarketers told

2007-06-07T07:46:00.000+05:30

As part of measures to curb unsolicited commercial calls, the government today asked telemarketing companies to register themselves with telecom service providers and with the Department of Telecom.

Telemarketers will have to apply in the prescribed proforma and a processing fee of Rs 1,000 per centre to access service providers, an official statement said.

The application would be acknowledged on receipt and would be treated as provisional registration for a period of three months for providing service by telemarketer, it said.

Subsequently, a registration would be issued by Department of Telecom to the telemarketer, which would be valid for 10 years.

Existing telemarketers, without any registration, should register themselves by August 31, the statement said.

National Informatics Centre has been authorised to set up a National Do Not Call Registry within three months, which will maintain a record of users who do not want unsolicited commercial calls.

Telecom regulator TRAI decided to impose a fine of Rs 500 on telemarketers for each unsolicited commercial call or message to users who would be registered with the registry.

India rings to add 10 mn cell users a mnth

2007-06-07T07:43:00.000+05:30

India, the world's fastest-growing mobile-phone market, may add as many as 10 million subscribers a month by the end of the year, as cheaper rentals bring more customers on to phone networks expanding into the hinterland.

“I'll not be surprised,”' T.V. Ramachandran, head of the Cellular Operators Association of India, told reporters in New Delhi on Wednesday, referring to the forecast. ``The best is yet to come. We haven't seen anything yet.''

Inexpensive plans offering customers lifetime subscriptions have helped increase the number of users in the nation of 1.1 billion people, many of whom had considered a telephone a luxury until private competition drove down user charges. State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., once a monopoly in fixed-line telephones, expanded into rural areas, connecting more people to networks that now add on average six million users a month.

India aims to more than double the number of telephone users to 500 million by 2010 from 212 million. Call rates in India are as low as 2 cents a minute, the cheapest in the world.

More than 80 percent telephone subscribers use mobile phones and carriers such as Bharti Airtel Ltd. are expanding their networks to rural areas where two-thirds of the nation's 1.1 billion people live.

RCOM, BSNL & MTNL make roaming easier

2007-06-01T22:47:00.001+05:30

Indian mobile operators led by Reliance Communications, BSNL and MTNL today announced a bonanza for their users who are frequent travellers by waiving or nearly eliminating roaming charges.

Anil Ambani group's flagship Reliance Communications unveiled two post-paid plans that made incoming calls while roaming free of cost for the first 200 to 900 minutes depending on the scheme.

Simultaneously, state-run telecom firms BSNL and MTNL announced cutting roaming tariffs to Re 1 a minute for incoming calls and Re 0.40 for outgoing calls within any visiting network under a post-paid plan from June 3.

Mobile leader Bharti Airtel had in February reduced roaming rates to Rs 1.40-2.40 a minute for outgoing calls and Rs 1.75 per 60 seconds for incoming calls.

Tata Indicom said in a statement that its rates were already low at 50 paise a minute for incoming roaming calls.

Reliance Communications said in a release that users could avail of its free roaming service under the 'India Roam Free 990' and 'India Roam Free 390' plans.

Besides, the CDMA operator also announced 50 per cent reduction in international long distance call tariffs on select routes including US and Canada (Rs 1.75 per minute), UK landline (Rs 2.99) and Gulf (Rs 6.75). The rates would be available on purchase of RCOM's calling card worth Rs 2,250.

BSNL too launched a similar calling card worth Rs 2,000 offering identical tariffs. Bharti Airtel's ISD rate to US and Canada is Rs 1.99 a minute on a calling card costing Rs 2,245.

In February, TRAI had reduced the roaming charges, fixing a cap of Rs 1.40 per minute for outgoing local calls, Rs 2.40 for outgoing national long distance calls and Rs 1.75 for incoming calls. It had earlier removed roaming rental.

BSNL looking at Ericsson price offer; Raja seeks deal details

2007-06-01T07:32:00.000+05:30

The 45-million GSM network expansion plan of BSNL, already delayed by six months due to a legal battle, could be held up further over prices quoted by the two lowest bidders - Ericsson and Nokia.

"It is big contract spread over three years.. We are still working on the APO (Advanced Purchase Order) where we are looking at the selected bidders' quoted price.

"Once that is over, we will work out our own suitable price of the tender and ask them to provide the equipment at that price. If they don't agree, we will negotiate with them. Let that stage come, we are yet to do that when negotiations will take place", BSNL CMD A K Sinha told PTI.

Sinha did not say what would be BSNL's offered price. But talks of negotiation spells trouble for both the vendors, as it is common in big tenders for companies to award contracts first and bargain later.

Swedish bidder Ericsson had quoted 107 dollar per line and had got 60 per cent of the 45 million GSM contract, while the second lowest bidder Nokia secured 40 per cent.

Asked whether the Telecom Minister A Raja wants BSNL to place the APO on a lower price of 100 dollar, Sinha replied: "Minister wanted to know certain details on the deal from us and we have already told him that."

Idea-Spice deal stuck over valuation

2007-06-01T07:31:00.000+05:30

AV Birla-owned Idea Cellular’s negotiations to buy out BK Modi’s 51% stake in Spice Telecom have got stuck over the valuation of the company. Sources said Modi wanted Spice to be valued between Rs 4,500 crore and Rs 5,000 crore, but Birlas have valued the company at less than half—at Rs 2,000 crore. Telecom analysts FE spoke to said Spice would be valued in the region of Rs 2,000 crore.

While sources within Idea confirmed talks would continue, they said a buyout would be preferred to a merger.

Even as the buzz about the impending merger between Spice Telecom and Idea Cellular grew louder, the two telcos vehemently denied the rumours.

BK Modi, who owns Spice Telecom told FE, “We have got the approval for an IPO. What is the justification behind merging with Idea Cellular?” Idea Cellular managing director Sanjeev Aga said, “We do not wish to comment on speculative reports.” The Idea Cellular stock was down 2.27% to close at Rs 122.90 on the BSE on Wednesday.

Industry sources claim a buyout or a merger would be synergistic since the circles the two companies operate in are complementary. Spice Telcom, present in the Punjab and Karnataka circles, would give a fillip to Idea’s aim to gain a pan-Indian presence. Idea has a subscriber base of 14.5 million, whereas Spice is a marginal player with just 2.8 million subscribers.

A merger would give Telekom Malaysia, which currently holds 49% in Spice, a greater presence in India, and allow Idea to capitalise on the foreign partner’s strength and deep pockets to tread an ambitious growth path.

Interestingly, Idea which has recently concluded a rights issue and an IPO, successfully raising as much as Rs 2819 crore, has chalked out aggressive capex plans and has repeatedly claimed it would be open to acquisitions and consolidating its presence further.

“A merger will allow them to emerge as strong regional players and catapult the merged entity to the fifth position in the Indian cellular telephone market,” said Sumit Modi, analyst, Emkay Share and Stockbrokers.

Spice says Idea merger talk is speculative

2007-05-30T22:33:00.000+05:30

Indian mobile firm Spice Telecom was moving ahead with plans for an initial public offering and media reports it would merge with larger rival Idea Cellular were speculative, a company official said on Wednesday.

As expected Spice would merge with Idea, and was being valued at between 45-50 billion rupees.

Earlier this week, a newspaper had reported that a merger was a possibility, but such a deal could take up to one year.

"These are all speculative news items. Our IPO process has already progressed actively," Umang Das, a director at Spice Telecom, told Reuters.

He declined to comment further.

A spokeswoman for Idea Cellular's parent, Aditya Birla Group, declined comment.

Spice Telecom provides services in two of the 23 circles or zones that make up India's telecoms market, and had 2.8 million subscribers as of end-April.

Idea Cellular, which provides services in 13 circles, had 14.6 million subscribers at the end of April.

Vodafone to complete Bharti stake sale

2007-05-30T22:31:00.000+05:30

British giant Vodafone will transfer its 5.6% stake in Bharti Airtel back to a Bharti group company for $1.6 billion by November next year. The shares will be transferred in two tranches.

After agreeing to acquire 67% controlling stake in Hutchison Essar for $10.9 billion, Vodafone had entered into a share sale agreement with Bharti regarding its 5.6% equity in the company.

“On May 9, 2007, the Bharti group company irrevocably agreed to purchase this shareholding and the group expects to receive $1.6 billion in cash consideration for such shareholding by November 2008,” Vodafone said in a statement after announcing its results for the quarter ended March 31, 2007.

The world’s largest cellular company had completed the purchase of Hong-Kong based Hutchison Telecom International Ltd’s (HTIL) stake in Hutchison Essar on May 8. Subsequently, it agreed to sell the stake back to Bharti.

“The shareholding will be transferred in two tranches, the first before March 31, 2008 and the second by November 2008. Following the completion of this sale, the group will continue to hold an indirect stake of 4.39% in Bharti Airtel,” the statement added.

Vodafone accounted for Bharti Airtel as a joint venture until February 11, 2007 (when it announced the acquisition of Hutchison Essar) following which it has been accounted for as an investment. Vodafone and Bharti have also signed a memorandum of understanding on infrastructure sharing. Bharti scrip closed at Rs 835.05 on Tuesday, up 0.52%.

Vodafone earlier paid $10.9 billion to HTIL against the previously agreed price of $11.08 billion to reflect retention and closing adjustments agreed between Vodafone and HTIL.

“The last year has seen a further reshaping of Vodafone’s portfolio, with our acquisitions in Turkey and India further increasing the group’s exposure to the exciting growth opportunities in emerging markets. We are well placed to continue delivering on our strategy,” Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin said.

Earlier, Vodafone’s two nominees on Bharti Airtel board — Gavin Darby and Paul Donovan — had tendered their resigned. While Mr Donovan is CEO eastern Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific and affiliates, Mr Darby is CEO for America, Africa, China and India. The duo had abstained from Bharti board meeting in January this year while Vodafone was in talks to acquire Hutchison Essar.

Bharti to enhance Virtual Private Network (VPN)

2007-05-26T00:05:00.000+05:30

Bharti Airtel today partnered with Hong kong based PCCW Global a move that would help carriers, service providers, subscribers and enterprises to build secure global Internet Protcol (IP) networks to support mission-critical applications.

The technology tie will also enhance Bharti's Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity globally.

The Hong Kong based PCCW Global will offer enhanced end to end global solutions through its global networking. PCCW Global had recently announced expanded coverage to West Asian markets including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, plus Turkey, where Europe meets Asia.

The agreement mainly focuses on the enterprise space by offering world-class services and end-to-end communication solutions.

Under the agreement today Bharti's Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) Internet Protocol Virtual Private Networks (IPVPNs) will be connected to PCCWs globally.

MPLS VPN is a family of methods for harnessing the power of Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) to create Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). MPLS is well suited to the task as it provides traffic isolation and differentiation without substantial overhead.

It can be used to replace existing physical links. The specification is based on the Martini drafts, which define methods to transport protocols such as ATM, Ethernet, and SONET.

Bharti currently owns 102 MPLS points of presence (PoPs) in India and is the only service provider to cover 23 telecom circles of the nation.

Bharti Airtel, Enterprise Services, President, David Nishball said, ''The agreement will enable both Bharti Airtel and PCCW Global to take network coverage to the customer's doorstep by providing seamless connectivity on their inter-connected MPLS IPVPN network in India and abroad .'' PCCW Global CEO Dan Lovatt said, ''The relationship is a part of our strategy to collaborate with global service providers so that we can work even closer with our customers in their migration to MPLS-based Next Generation Networks.'' PCCW Global, a subsidiary of PCCW Ltd, is the worldwide business unit of PCCW Ltd, one of Asia's leading players in Information and Communications Technologies (ICT).

Telecom growth data of Trai, DoT mismatch

2007-05-26T00:03:00.000+05:30

The domestic telecom subscriber is undoubtedly growing but to get a correct figure on the key indices like number of additions per month and total user base is not a clear assessment as the official figures of the government and that of the regulator do not match.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) figures released on Thursday for April said the sector expanded by adding 4.9 million in the number of telecom subscribers in April, thereby taking the total number of telephones in the country to more than 211.7 million as compared to 146.20 million during April 2006, a growth of 44.8% during May 2006-April 2007.

All these made the teledensity to improve further to 18.7%, DoT said. This is the only figure in which both the DoT and Trai figures match. The same day Trai figures stated that telecom sector continues to grow with an addition of 5.15 million wireless subscribers in April, taking the total telephone users to 212.02 million and tele-density to 18.74%.

Even in broadband figures the differences remain. The government figures said growth of broadband connections improved further and at the end of March, about 2.29 million broadband connections were provided and coverage of broadband connectivity by public sector service providers has reached 962 cities.

The telecom regulator said total broadband connections in the country has reached 2.43 million by April-end with an addition 0.13 million connections during the month, compared to 0.09 million added during march, a growth of 5.65%.

DoT officials claim the figures released are accurate as it takes into account each and every addition and subtraction of subscribers till the last count.

DoT said the GSM segment has also shown an increase of 4.13 million during April. While the CDMA segment registered an increase of 1.01 million, the fixed segment has declined by 0.23 million. Trai said in the wireline segment, subscriber base increased by 0.04 million in April to reach 40.82 million.

Bharti mobile user base tops 40 mn

2007-05-23T22:32:00.000+05:30

India's top mobile services firm, Bharti Airtel Ltd, said on Wednesday its cellular user base crossed 40 million, making it the 10 th company in the world to achieve the milestone in a single country.

India is the world's fastest-growing mobile market, adding more than six million new users every month lured by call rates as low as US 1 cent a minute. The country had 166.05 million wireless subscribers at the end of March.

Analysts and industry experts expect the mobile user base to triple in the next five years as only 15 per cent of India's 1.1 billion population own a mobile phone, compared with 36 per cent in China.

Bharti, managed by billionaire Sunil Mittal, had 38.9 million mobile subscribers at the end of April, according to data provided by Cellular Operators' Association of India, an industry body representing GSM carriers.

One of the earliest entrants to the sector after it was opened for private players Bharti took 11 years to reach 20 million subscribers in 2006 but just another 13 months to double the figure, the company said.

Bharti, which provides mobile services in all the 23 zones or circles that make up India's telecom market, said its share of the wireless user base increased to 23.2 per cent from 20.4 per cent it had stated at end-March.

Bharti, in which Southeast Asia's top phone firm SingTel owns a 30.8 per cent stake, competes with 11 other players in India's fragmented mobile market.

Reliance Communications is India's second-largest mobile services firm, followed by unlisted state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.

Britain's Vodafone Plc earlier this year bought a controlling stake in India's No 4 mobile firm Hutchison Essar.

Ahead of the announcement, shares in Bharti, valued at $40.3 billion; closed 1.2 per cent down at Rs 849.20 in a Mumbai market that slid 0.63 per cent.

Reliance slashes roaming rates by 70 per cent

2007-05-22T22:40:00.000+05:30

Reliance Communications (RCOM)on Tuesday announced 70 per cent reduction of roaming rates for its mobile subscribers.

The new rates, the lowest in the industry so far, are likely to ignite a major tariff fight among mobile phone operators in India.

Anil Ambani's RCOM had abolished rental charges on roaming and also reduced its roaming rates by 44 per cent in February following a directive from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)

"Now, we have taken a step further by reducing roaming rates to as low as 40 paise per minute on selected plans. This should add real value to those customers, who have a need for travelling across the nation," said SP Shukla, President (personal business), RCOM.

Reducing roaming tariffs has become one of the top priorities for the mobile firms, especially after the announcement by former communications and IT minister Dayanidhi Maran that he would have abolished roaming charges on June 3.

His successor Andimuthu Raja last week said he would look into the matter.

Vodafone launches low cost handsets

2007-05-22T22:37:00.000+05:30

Vodafone, which is entering India through the acquisition of GSM operator Hutch, has launched two low-cost handsets for the emerging markets, including India. The handsets are being priced in the $25-$45 range (Rs 1,015-Rs 1,827) depending on the model and the local market conditions.

The new handsets, Vodafone 125 and Vodafone 225, are part of the company’s ongoing commitment to expand access to mobile in emerging markets, where mobile technology and networks are often the only viable and cost effective telecoms service. The handsets are, therefore, key to offering a range of services, particularly in rural areas where mobile penetration is often at its lowest, Vodafone said in a release here today.

China's ZTE Corporation is manufacturing the handsets, under an agreement signed between the two companies in December 2006.

The Vodafone 125 is a black & white model, while the Vodafone 225 is a colour model.

The move by the UK giant comes after the major Indian CDMA operator - Reliance Communications - launched low-cost black & white handsets priced at Rs 777 and colour handsets at Rs 1,234. Tata Teleservices, the other CDMA operator, reduced prices of its existing handsets by Rs 80, making it the lowest priced mobile phone at Rs 770 in the country.

The Finnish handset-maker Nokia followed suit by launching a series of low-priced handsets.

Vodafone Egypt, Vodafone Romania and Vodacom (South Africa) will be the first countries to launch the two handsets in the next few weeks.

TELES launches DNCL Solution in India

2007-05-22T06:22:00.000+05:30

TELES, the Germany based fixed and mobile telecom operator solutions provider, today announced the launch of its TELES DNCL solution for “Do Not Call List” (DNCL) in line with recent Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recommendations. The centralized server-based solution integrates into the operator’s existing infrastructure footprint, automatically blocking calls to DNCL registry members. The DNCL solution is the perfect aid to service providers provisioning the corporate and financial services sectors particularly banks, bank DSAs, telemarketing enterprises, insurance providers and domestic call centres.

The TELES solution is fully in line with the TRAI recommendations and India’ s stated intention to set up a fully-fledged National Do Not Call (NDNC) registry. TRAI DNC register guidelines specify that subscribers are obliged only to inform their service provider to enrol in the registry. It is then incumbent upon the operator to register subscriber numbers in a central DNC registry.

It is foreseen that businesses will submit their proposed calling lists to the NDNC registry, where the lists will be “washed” by removing those subscribers listed in the registry. According to the TRAI recommendations, companies who continue to call subscribers who have opted out could face fines of up to US$20 for each call made or have their service disconnected for repeat offending. The TRAI NDNC registry recommendations come as the Indian telephone subscriber based reached the 200 million mark in March, providing telemarketers with unprecedented cold calling sales opportunities.

Announcing the launch of the new TELES DNCL solution, TELES Managing Director Mr. Devasia Kurian said “Our solution integrates into the service providers’ existing telecom infrastructure at the integrated access device (IAD) level, supporting storage of up to one million DNCL numbers. These numbers can then be upgraded subject to requirement. Our DNCL solution allows service providers to meet the needs of corporations and enterprises with DEL, PRI and BRI connectivity. Moreover, the system offers uninterrupted call centre operations connectivity.”

The TELES DNCL solution also supports remote monitoring, online error rectification, traffic analysis and CDR extension details availability.

3G spectrum release will cost defence Rs 4000cr

2007-05-22T00:01:00.000+05:30

Mobile operators awaiting spectrum availability from the defence ministry to start 3G mobile services may be disappointed to know that armed forces are far from vacating any radio waves in the near future, as releasing it will cost about Rs 4,000 crore.

3G services are high-end mobile value added services like real-time transactions, video streaming, voice and data services, hold potential for revenue generation for telcos.

"BSNL itself has admitted that laying of exclusive fibre will take about two years to complete at an additional cost of Rs 1,300 crore. This will take the total cost of the army project alone to Rs 3,078 crore. With this increase, the total cost of the project for the three services will be around Rs 4,000 crore approximately," a defence ministry letter to the Department of Telecom (DoT) said.

The DoT had earlier approved Rs 980 crore, the initial estimated cost of the network worked out by the Project Definition Team comprising members from DoT and defence ministry. Thereafter, there is no indication regarding additional allocation of fund to meet the increased cost of the network, it said.

The ministry also said for the interest of the defence security, the armed forces must get reliable alternative networks and full connectivity before the existing spectrum space in vacated.

The defence ministry has also said there has been no meeting of the Steering Committee held on the issue of army and navy components since December 8, 2006, to ensure smooth roll out of the network. It had asked DoT to convene combined meetings for the three services six months ago.

Mobile pre-paid plans to cost less

2007-05-19T12:27:00.000+05:30

Aiming to make mobile services more affordable, three leading players have drastically reduced the entry fee for the lifetime pre-paid schemes.

While leading private mobile operator Bharti Airtel was the first to announce halving of fees to Rs 495, from Rs 999 earlier, Reliance Communications and Hutchison Essar followed soon and each reduced charges to Rs 499.

"The current lifetime product at the reduced fee is intended to drive affordability and consumption in the prepaid category further," Sanjay Kapoor, president, mobile services, Bharti Airtel, said.

While Airtel's lifetime product gives Rs 10 free talk-time to subscribers, on Hutch and RCom, subscribers get free-talk time worth Rs 20.

To keep the Airtel and Hutch connections alive, customers have to go for a re-charge of at least Rs 200 every six months. For RCom customers, the corresponding charge is Rs 125 every three months.

Mobile operators should provide directory service: DoT

2007-05-19T12:25:00.000+05:30

Mobile operators may have to finally publish telephone directory and start directory enquiry service, something they have managed to put off for 12 years. The department of telecommunications (DoT) has yet again asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to furnish its recommendations on the issue.

When this happens, India would join the league of most developed nations and European Union where it is mandatory for mobile operators to publish a comprehensive directory for end-users.

However, Trai has written back to the DoT seeking clarifications on the issue as in 2005 the former had sent a comprehensive set of recommendations to the latter suggesting that telephone directory and directory enquiry service should be made mandatory.

Trai officials said that they have no idea about the status of their earlier recommendations and they should know its fate before they submit a fresh set of recommendations.

The cellular industry, under the aegis of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), had opposed and continues to oppose publication of any directory of post-paid subscribers arguing that mobile phone users prefer privacy. Further, many users give mobile phones to their young children and would not prefer their numbers to be printed in a directory. The issue of roaming charges and unsolicited calls by telemarketing executives were also cited as reasons against publishing mobile phone directory.

However, consumer organisations have insisted on the need to publish such directories as they help in locating people and their addresses.

As far as the licensing conditions are concerned, there’s no uniformity. For instance, the old cellular licenses and basic service licenses mandated operators to publish directories. However, at that time, incoming calls on mobile phones were also charged so the operators never came out with the directories reasoning that it would add to the cost of owning a mobile. The unified access service licence (UASL), which came later, has not made directories mandatory. Instead it enjoins

DoT to do so after consulting the Trai.

In its recommendations, Trai had said that all licence agreements for access service should have uniform provisions for publication of telephone directory and directory enquiry service.

It had also suggested that those subscribers who do not wish to have their names included in the directory can give in writing. Further, with Trai coming out with a regulation on Do Not Call registry to check calls from telemarketing companies, that issue is also taken care of.

It had suggested that while the printed directory should have the names of only post-paid users, operators should provide a web directory of pre-paid users as well.

Idea, Nokia Siemens Networks ink expansion contract

2007-05-18T19:41:00.000+05:30

Idea Cellular Limited, a leading Indian GSM mobile services provider and an Aditya Birla Group company, and Nokia Siemens Networks today announced signing of a USD 500 million GSM network expansion contract. Under the contract, Nokia Siemens Network will expand Idea Cellular’s GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks to cover population centres across six circles of Delhi, Haryana, UP East, UP West, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

The two year contract includes supply and services of GSM equipment, Intelligent Network, Value Added Services and Circuit and Packet core equipment. Nokia Siemens Networks will deploy the latest state of art equipment like flexi BTS, mini-ultra base stations, Release 4 architecture, media gateways and MSS servers.

Said Mr. Sanjeev Aga, Managing Director, Idea Cellular, “IDEA has been at the forefront of providing innovative voice and data services to its customers by leveraging the best technologies. This expansion is a part of our larger growth strategy to take our services to more consumers by penetrating deeper in the circles we operate. This will allow us to more than double our existing capacity and reach out to thousands of new population centres in these circles.” He added, “Nokia Siemens Networks with its cutting edge technology, and its long standing relationship with Idea, is a key partner in our program of taking our business to a higher trajectory.”

“This win is special since it is our first contract with Idea Cellular as the new entity, Nokia Siemens Networks. It is also a testimony to our continued partnership with Idea,” said Mr. Ashish Chowdhary, Head of India Sub-region, Nokia Siemens Networks. “Our innovative product portfolio and services capabilities will redefine the entire approach of providing networks that are affordable and quality-rich. This contract would support Idea to offer its subscribers an outstanding network experience even as services are expanded to newer population centres.

Nokia Siemens Networks brings together two major wireless and fixed technology players, Nokia’s Networks Business Group, and the carrier related businesses of Siemens Communications. It is ready to serve customers with a best-in-class portfolio that is underpinned by a strong presence in the growing services market, a powerful global R&D team, and a huge global installed base.

Trai weighs roaming options

2007-05-18T05:21:00.000+05:30

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is learnt to be weighing the option of abolishing the national roaming charges.

The move has been triggered by the recent announcement made by Dayanidhi Maran and the keenness expressed by A Raja to look into the matter, sources said.

Trai officials were not available for comment.

Maran, after his exit as communications minister, had told the media that he was planning the abolition of national roaming charges as a gift to Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi on his birthday on June 3.

A Raja, who took over as the new communications minister on Tuesday, said he would consider that proposal. Director general of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) TV Ramachandran told that the annual revenue-share fees of mobile operators must be slashed to 6% (from the current range of 8% to 12%), if the government wants to abolish the roaming charges.

“Reduction of revenue-share fee is a long pending demand of the industry,” he said. And that’s the only way of compensating the industry for revenue loss from abolition of roaming charges.

In February, Trai had reduced the roaming charges. As per that tariff order, the maximum permissible charge for roaming calls, irrespective of terminating networks and tariff plans, was set at Rs 1.40 per minute for outgoing local calls, Rs 2.40 for outgoing national long distance calls and Rs 1.75 for incoming calls.

Recently, the monthly rental being charged by operators, for access to national roaming service, was also removed. Earlier, there was a monthly levy of Rs 50 for national roaming.

Roaming charges are paid by mobile phone subscribers when they travel out of town, on making local calls, making outstation calls, and receiving calls. Roaming tariff has two components-airtime charges and interconnect charges.

Last year, Maran had announced an equally revolutionary `One India’ tariff plan, which allowed a mobile subscriber to make calls to any destination in the country at Re 1 per minute.

There are only two ways of reducing or abolishing the roaming tariff, industry sources have said. That is, it can be implemented by making state telecom companies—BSNL and MTNL-to slash the roaming charge, which would then be followed by the private players due to competition.

Otherwise, Trai would need to issue a tariff order for the entire telecom sector. The regulator usually issues such orders through a lengthy consultation process with the industry. However, Trai has the power to issue the order on its own.

According to industry estimates, 10 to 15% of mobile subscribers use the roaming facility. But, revenue-loss figures could not be ascertained, if the roaming charges were to be abolished.

VSNL's Major Plans to Enhance Wi-Fi Service

2007-05-17T18:36:00.000+05:30

Tata Group Company, VSNL has drawn up major plans to enhance the footprint of its Wi-Fi service in India as part of its strategy to tap into the huge growing on-the-move market.

VSNL has been leading the growth of Wi-Fi hotspot industry in India and today has the largest public hotspot network in India with over 250 hotspots. It has drawn up major plans this year to further enhance the footprint to over 1000 hotspots – bringing the internet that much more closer to the large Indian traveling and on-the-move population.

VSNL’s hotspots include the major domestic and International airports, leading premium Star hotels, educational institutions, sports stadia, hospitals, chain of restaurants and coffee shops. Its partners include companies like Taj Group of Hotels, Le Meridien, Café Coffee Day, Barista, Manipal University, Wockhardt, amongst others. VSNL has also been driving innovation through creating hotspots at non-traditional locations like Mobile Stores, IT stores, Railway Stations, etc.

VSNL is the only Indian company to become a member of the prestigious Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), a leading global consortium of Network Wi-Fi service providers. VSNL has drawn up major plans to enable international roaming for business travelers by leveraging the alliance.

In view of its contribution to the Wireless Broadband Alliance, since becoming a member in June 2006 and also looking at the increasing importance of India as a business destination, WBA has invited VSNL to join the WBA ExCo board (Executive committee board) which currently has worldwide telecommunication leaders, British Telecom, France Telecom, Korean Telecom, StarHub, Swisscom Mobile and T-Mobile-US.

VSNL is also gearing up for yet another achievement. “VSNL is deeply honoured to be invited to join the WBA ExCo board and believe that India would play a significant role in shaping the Global Wireless Broadband market” said Prateek Pashine, Vice President - Marketing & Technology, Retail Broadband Business, VSNL.

"India has become a key destination for business travelers across the world thanks to its booming IT industry and large consumer market and WBA has always been very keen to expand its footprint in India. Partnering with VSNL, India’s leading ISP, will enable the WBA members to use VSNL's large network to help their customers across the world to stay in touch continuously. VSNL's membership of the alliance will strengthen it and help link the world to India through wireless Broadband," said Julie Ragbourne, BT, co-chair, WBA, whilst attending the 11th WBA Round Table hosted by VSNL in Goa. 60 delegates from 20 leading service providers across the globe are participating in the Round table.

"We are delighted to welcome VSNL, the pioneers of internet in India, on Board of WBA, which underlines the importance of India as an emerging market for Wi-Fi services” said Ron Angerame, T Mobile US, co-chair, while presenting the invitation to VSNL to join the WBA ExCo Board.

Spectrum crunch hits telecom sector

2007-05-15T23:04:00.000+05:30

The unavailability of spectrum has hit the telecom industry so acutely that the Department of Telecom is now considering to limit the number of operators in each service area to maintain a minimum quality of service.

"The Government is contemplating to review its policy and put a limit on the number of access service providers in each service area," a DoT letter top TRAI said.

DoT said in the letter that the step was necessary as "spectrum is a scarce resource and to ensure that the adequate quantity of spectrum is available to the licensees to enable them to expand their services and maintain the minimum quality of service."

There are 23 telecom circles in the country.

Currently, there is no cap on the number of service providers in a service area.

As on date, 159 licenses have been issued for providing access services in the country and generally there are 5-8 providers in each service area. Since any Indian company can apply for unified access license, this is increasing the demand for spectrum in a substantial manner.

In an evolving sector like telecom to ensure that the policies keep pace with the changes, DoT is seeking TRAI's recommendations on the issue of limiting the number of Access Providers in each service area.

The Department is considering to review the whole set of crucial guidelines in the terms and conditions of access providers (cellular/unified access/basic) licenses.

The terms and conditions slated to be reviewed are "substantial equity holding by a company/legal person in more than one license company in the same service areas, transfer of license and merger and acquisition guidelines."

Besides, other guidelines like permitting service providers to offer access services using combination of technologies (CDMA/GSM and or any other) under the same license, roll-out obligations and requirement to publish printed telephone directory will also be reviewed.

TRAI's decision could also decide the fate of Reliance Communications which is aspiring to enter the GSM space in a pan India presence and has thus applied for spectrum.

As per DoT norms, no single company can have more than 10 per cent stake in two different cellular operators in the same circle.

The guidelines also deal with market dominance and stipulate that the total market share of the combined entity cannot exceed 67 per cent in any circle.

Ultra low-cost sets ring in bonanza for Qualcomm

2007-05-15T22:55:00.000+05:30

CDMA technology pioneer Qualcomm is all smiles. The launch of ultra low-cost handsets by Reliance Communications (RCOM) augurs well for Qualcomm, which gets royalty on every CDMA handset sold anywhere in the world. It also has the potential to expand the share of CDMA in the world’s fastest growing telecom market.

As per industry estimates, Qualcomm gets around 5% of the price of every CDMA handset sold. However, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs has said its ‘royalty rates are somewhere below the 5% range, so if you have a $40 phone that may be $2 at most.’

With RCOM claiming to have sold a million handsets of the Classic range, beginning at Rs 777, within a week, Qualcomm would have made a cool Rs 3.80 crore at the upper-end rate of 5%. Early this month, RCOM had unveiled a range of low-cost mobiles in the range of $17-$20.

Currently, nearly 73% of the subscribers in India are on the GSM platform while the rest use CDMA technology. The GSM net adds in India are helped by the second hand market, where handsets are available in the $18-$27 range without any subsidies.

According to a research by the Prudential Equity group, “the competitive offering by the CDMA operators is likely to pull new subscribers into their service.” Prudential says the move is positive for Qualcomm in two ways.

“The new CDMA subscribers will lead to higher CDMA handset sales, albeit at a lower average selling price; and two, the availability of low-cost CDMA handset will alleviate some concern over the lack of competitiveness of CDMA over GSM due to low-cost handset availability.”

The major argument by the GSM handset and infrastructure vendors had been the availability of low-cost GSM mobiles compared to higher selling prices for CDMA handsets. “We believe that this will help further narrow the handset cost gap and weaken some of the previous incentives for operators to move to GSM from CDMA to take advantage of lower-cost handsets,” said the report.

Qualcomm was in the thick of controversy last year when RCOM raised questions about the royalty being charged by the US-based chipmaker. Mr Jacobs has said, “If we cut our royalties in half and it’s $1 and you contrast that with the fact that over the last year we dropped the handset prices by 25%, so those royalties that are coming into Qualcomm we’re actually using that to fund R&D and to create competition among handset manufactures, which then brings the handset prices down.”

Blackberry to be available on Reliance network

2007-05-14T22:58:00.000+05:30

High-end mobile device Blackberry, which was till now available only with the GSM operators, will be soon launched on CDMA platform by Reliance Communications.

At present, only Bharti Airtel and Hutch-Essar offer the wireless e-mail solution.

Asked when the company would launch Blackberry on its network, Reliance Communications President (Wireless) S P Shukla said, "very soon."

He, however, refused to divulge any further details.

The company today unveiled new range of Reliance Classic colour mobile phones priced in the range of Rs 1,222-1,299.

RCom recently unveiled Classic monochrome handset at a competitive price of Rs 777 and claims to have sold one million handsets in just one week of the launch.

"I have no reason to doubt why our new range of colour phones will not match the success of Rs 777 scheme," Shukla said without giving any exact number which the company is targeting.

He said the company is focusing on new as well as existing customers, who would like to switch to colour phones.

Classic handsets come with SIM cards, which allow subscribers to changeover from one model to another. The subscribers, however, do not have the choice of shifting to another CDMA operator.

TRAI recommends lower FDI in internet services

2007-05-10T23:17:00.000+05:30

The telecom regulator has recommended to the government to lower foreign direct investment in Internet Services from the current 100 per cent to 74 per cent and said an entry fee of Rs 20 lakh has to be put in place for ISP providers.

TRAI said the ISPs having 100 per cent FDI equity should be given two years for reducing foreign holding to 74 per cent.

In its recommendations to Department of Telecom (DoT), the Regulator suggested levying an entry fee of up to Rs 20 lakh along with a uniform licence fee of six per cent of gross revenue.

TRAI has recommended replacing the free entry fee by Rs 20 lakh for national level ISPs and Rs 10 lakh for state level ISPs licenses.

A uniform licence fee of six per cent of AGR has been recommended along with minimum annual licence fee of Rs 50,000, Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 for national level, state level and district level service providers. This could increase the cost of internet and broadband services if the Regulator's suggestions are accepted.

"Out of 700 licences issued within three years of opening of ISP sector to private service providers, only 389 licensees exist on Thursday. As per the performance monitoring report with TRAI, only 135 Internet service licensees are functionally active," TRAI said.

Internet services in India should be at par with global standards and the interest of consumers in terms of affordability and reliability should be uppermost in the revised plans of ISPs, it added.

TRAI has asked for a financial bank guarantee amount and sought a maximum FDI cap/equity of 74 per cent at par with other services of telecom sector. ISPs having 100 per cent FDI cap/equity have been given two years time for reduction to 74 per cent.

The Authority has also addressed the issue of unlicensed foreign entities providing Internet telephony at cheaper costs to lure Indian subscriber.

"TRAI is concerned with the activities of such companies, as they do not fall within the framework of discipline of telecom sector in India. Apart from security considerations there is also an apprehension that Indian subscriber is misled by such service providers." TRAI hopes that the recommendations if accepted by the DoT will contribute to Internet penetration, curb grey market, effectively provide level playing field and above all serve the consumers interest.

Hutch completes call with Vodafone

2007-05-09T22:37:00.000+05:30

Hutch said that it completed the transaction with Vodafone on Tuesday. According to the pact, Vodafone has managed a retention fee of USD 352 million for 10 years, reports CNBC-TV18.

This will waive certain potential claims if they arise within the next 10 years. Hutch's gains before tax is likely to be nearly USD 9 billion.

Vodafone will pay USD 10.83 billion post fresh agreement with Hutch.

Hutch has made it official: its transaction with Vodafone was completed on the 8th of May. Vodafone will pay Hutch around USD 10 billion, instead of the earlier agreed upon USD 11.1 billion.

It is now just a matter of time before Hutch Essar officially becomes Vodafone Essar. The British telecom giant has finally completed its acquisition on Tuesday after getting all regulatory approvals.

Interestingly, Vodafone has reached a fresh agreement with Hutch and will pay USD 10.83 billlion in cash as against the USD 11.1 billion decided upon earlier. The adjustment is on account of Vodafone claiming USD 352 million as retention fee for 10 years. The retention fee is to waive off certain potential claims if they arise within the next 10 years.

Hutch, meanwhile will pocket USD 9 billion as pre-tax gains after making adjustments for retention fee that goes to Vodafone and the settlement fee that will now be paid to Essar.

After the deal is done, the top management can focus on integration issues. The pact with NTT Docomo, for internet telephony, has already been discontinued and the company is likely to rework a lot of the VAS offerings. The Vodafone brand will kick in, in a phased manner over a period of time. There will be clarity on what Vodafone will offer to spice up the telecom market later this month when Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone, visits India.

Nokia to up Chennai capacity; ships over 25 mn phones

2007-05-06T15:57:00.001+05:30

Having shipped more than 25 million phones in one year, Finish mobile phone giant Nokia is planning to ramp up its production capacity at its Chennai factory and is looking at increasing its market share.

"Our current market share in India is very very healthy and it is improving," Soren Pterson, Senior Vice President, Entry Business Unit Mobile Phone, Nokia, told PTI.

Asked whether Nokia plans to invest further to ramp up its capacity, Peterson said "from the Chennai factory we shipped more than 25 million phones. We are very happy with the performance. It is running just as per our plans."

"I expect that we shall increase the capacity. But how much and when and what what will be the investment, we are looking at all these issues," he added.

Currently, from the Chennai factory, which was set up more than a year ago with invest plan up to 150 million dollar over four years, Nokia is shipping 80 per cent of the phones in the domestic market while the rest 20 per cent is being exported to neighbouring countries.

Asked whether Nokia was exporting phones to Pakistan from India, Peterson said "no. We are not sending Indian manufactured phones to Pakistan.

We always keep in mind the trade regulations of countries and take decision accordingly."

Last week there was a news that Pakistan would not accept Nokia phones manufactured in India.

7 New Nokia Phones after June

2007-05-06T15:55:00.000+05:30

Nokia had announced 7 new entry-level phones for the Indian market.

The new phones include: the Nokia 1200 and 1208, the Nokia 1650 and 2660, the Nokia 2505, and the Nokia 2630 and 2760.

Speaking at the launch, Soren Petersen, Senior Vice President for Mobile Phones, Nokia, said, India is very important to Nokia, and to the global mobile communications industry as a whole.

Petersen said, one of the fastest growing markets in the world, India is also home to several Nokia facilities, including R&D and manufacturing.

The Nokia 1200 and 1208 sport new phone-sharing and call-tracking technology, and are aimed at first-time mobile phone users.

Both comtemporary phones, the Nokia 1650 and 2660 are an attempt at marrying functionality and attractive design.

The Nokia 2505 is one of Nokia's sleekest looking fold-style phones for the CDMA market. A unique smooth-back design makes the phone ergonomic enough to both hold and ferry around in a purse or pocket.

At a mere 9.9mm, the Nokia 2630 could qualify as the thinnest handset in Nokia's armory. Both the 2630 and the 2760 are designed for the fashion-conscious, while retaining Nokia's easy-to-use feature set.

All 7 phones will be available in the second half of this year, most likely after June. They will be priced between EUR 35 and EUR 90, which translates anywhere between Rs 1,925 and Rs 4,950.

Trai for three-tier grievance redressal structure

2007-05-05T00:03:00.000+05:30

In a move to address the growing customer complaints on service quality against telelcom operaters, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), has directed operators to set up a three-tier grievance redressal structure which will include call centres, nodal officers in each area and a appallette authority in each circle.

Complaints pertaining to fault repair, service disruption and disconnection of service will have to be attended by the operators within a maximum period of three days and other complaints in seven days. If unsatisfied, consumers could approach nodal officers. However, if their greivances are still not redressed, they can go in appeal to the appellate authority, which will have to adjudicate within a maximum period of three months. Nodal officers for complaints like fault repair, service dsiruption will have to resolve the complain within three days while for other complaints, the period is ten days.

But the move has not got the support of consumer advocacy groups who are peeved that the redressal would be undertaken by operators who are the defaulters.

Telecom complaints account for a majority of complaints received by consumer advocacy groups (CAGs) like National Consumer Helpline, VOICE.

S K Virmani, manager, National Consumer Helpline said, "More than 20% of complaints we receive are against various telecom service providers. The issue that has now come up is that the operators themselves have been given the power to address consumer grievances."

Responding to customer complaints that the billings sent to them by operators are difficult to understand, Trai has directed operators that information on applicable tariff plan, credit limit, security deposit, method of calculating the pulse rate will have to be printed with the bill.

For the first time pre-paid customers, Trai has directed, should be provided itemised bills of calls they have made at a reasonable cost when requested.

M C Chaube, advisor, Trai said:"There is growth and competition in the telecom sector and it has thrown up new challenges for protection of consumer interest. We have asked all the telecom operators in our country, who provide basic telephone service, unified access services, cellular mobile telephone service and broadband service, to establish a formal structure to address consumer grievances. The mechanism would be in place within three months."

Legal recourse could be taken against operators who do not comply with the regulation, Chaube said.

Nokia unveils 7 'entry' phones

2007-05-03T23:34:00.000+05:30

To tap the 800 million potential users across the world, world's largest handset maker Nokia toady unveiled seven entry-level mobile handsets. The phones aimed at first time users will be priced in the range of Rs 2240-4800, excluding taxes and subsidies.

The company said it is expecting its sales to cross four billion mark by 2010 with half of it coming from the Asia Pacific region, including India.

"We shipped one million mobile handsets globally last year and we expect this number to touch four billion by 2010," Nokia senior vice president, entry business unit, mobile phones, Soren Petersen told reporters.

Half of this growth would come from emerging markets, including India and China, and to grab this opportunity, the company is focusing on reducing the cost of handsets, he said.

The phones would hit the market in second and third quarter of 2007. "India is among the top three markets for Nokia and the company's brand is also among the top 10 most recalled brand in the country," Petersen added.

The Finnish phone maker enjoys a strong position in the emerging markets, but in developed markets Motorola and Samsung have attacked it with popular thin phones.

Reliance launches handset @ Rs 777

2007-05-02T23:29:00.000+05:30

Embarking on the low-cost handset epoch, Indian telephony major Reliance Communications announced the launch of its cheapest ever handset at just Rs. 777 a set, with no fine-print and on hidden costs.

However, this is not the launch of the Classic range, but re-pricing of the existing sets already selling.

Aiming at the rural market and also picking up the low-end subscribers in urban areas, S.P. Shukla, president, Personal Business, Reliance Communications said through a countrywide videoconference that this would truly revolutionise the Indian wireless telephony sector.

"Never before and never again," Shukla said would such an unbelievably priced handset be made available. "This is for the moment the lowest price anyone can afford, even Reliance," Shukla said answering a query in Delhi.

The videoconference had wired in scribes from Kolkata, Bhubaneshwar, Lucknow, Bhopal and Delhi, while the Mumbai press was told this earlier in a press conference this afternoon.

Expectedly, Shukla would not budge on issues of investment levels, but said that there would be three in a range of Classic brand handset, the lowest of which would be priced at Rs. 777, and the highest at Rs. 888.

Shukla said that subscribers are free to choose the tariff plan they wanted and accordingly, the initial price offer would fetch benefits as a catch-fast measure by reliance. The benefits could be in terms of free minutes or length of validity, he added.

"Reliance has been the first with its new business initiatives in most things related to mobile telephony, whether it be the One India plan, Capital City offer, lowest tariff rates and so forth, and competitors have copied our innovations, Shukla said.

"So the obvious question was: where could we score higher, and taking cues from journalist friends, who know the market pulse best, we felt that we ought to give a handset at a price which makes people decide on the spot to go for it," he explained.

The additional cost a subscriber would need to make was the SIM card, which could be as low as just Rs. 99, with a talk time of Rs. 100, Sajiv Kanwar, CEO, Delhi and Haryana explained to scribes in Delhi.

Asked what the intriguing "never before and never after" price meant, and whether Reliance, as usual, would soon raise the price, Shukla said: "I do not make predictions, all I can say is that if you are planning to buy my set, buy it fast."

Classic is a brand name, he told and company sources said that of the 16 in the Classic range, some were manufactured in China, some in Taiwan and others elsewhere.

Reliance officials fought the 'reliability factor' of Chinese goods, saying that even the best brand name in the world is manufactured in China. "The reliability of these sets come with the reliability of Reliance as a brand, I can assure you," Kanwar told media persons here.

Asked why Reliance does not get into the manufacturing of handsets, Kanwar said that it did not make business sense, because then the company would have to manufacture for the entire available space in the Indian market to get the economies of scale to bring down prices further than this.

Shukla said that these phones have all the features that there are in any mobile and there are no reductions.

DoT seeks Trai's views on M&As

2007-04-29T11:21:00.001+05:30

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has asked Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to give its views on guidelines for mergers and acquisitions, usage of different technologies by licensees and a cap on number of players in a circle.

Nripendra Misra, chairman, Trai said: "The department has sought our views on 3-points -- mergers and acquisitions, viable number of licencees in each service area and different usage of technology by licensees. We will be issuing a consultation paper seeking stakeholders views in the next 7-8 days."

On the issue of whether CDMA players can operate on GSM technology in a larger manner, Trai's decision could well decide the fate of Reliance Communications, which is aspiring to enter the GSM space in a pan-Indian presence and has thus applied for spectrum.

DoT has asked Trai to find out what would be the viable of number of operators in a service area. Currently, there are five to six operators in a circle.

The current M&A guidelines, which were announced in 2004, were to be eviewed after a year but have not been done so far. The guidelines stipulate that the combined or merged entity cannot hold more than 15 MHz of spectrum in Metro and A category circles and 12.4 MHz spectrum in B and C circles.

Mobile users on internet 24x7 with Star's new initiative

2007-04-29T11:17:00.000+05:30

Media giant Star India has launched an internet facility for mobile users, especially targeted at small-end and rural users.

The new mobile application termed PLUS is at present available for free and is accessible on Hutch, Idea, BPL, BSNL, Spice and MTNL.

"Star India is aiming at a small-end user with a high-end handset to explore the range of internet without a computer and access the net for free," Viren Popli, Senior Vice President, Star India Mobile Entertainment told PTI.

"The facility we hope will benefit all mobile users but we are targeting the rural user," Popli said, adding "the repertoire of data is quite large."

"Mobile users can try out the deal for a month for free and if they choose to stay with it we will charge a minimal monthly subscription of Rs 30 for PLUS," Popli said.

A myriad avenues can be explored on PLUS which is "a one-stop gateway to entertainment, information and services," Yash Khanna also of Star India said.

Star has effected a two-way tie up with data providers and mobile service providers including Hutch, BSNL, Idea, BPL, Spice and MTNL who will make PLUS available to their users.

"So far it is a Rs 15 crore investment by Star India," he said.

The PLUS bouquet includes synopses of T V serials, video clippings, MTV and other music videos, banking data, travel data and news, sports and entertainment updates. "It is the largest repertoire in India."

PLUS also offers a TV Guide for programme schedules, mobile banking with HDFC (allowing you to check your bank balance and last 3 transactions), Mobile Travel & ticketing with Makemytrip and Travelguru, Yellow Pages information search and Astrology.

"We go much further than any other such programmes offered by anyone else in the country," Popli said, adding "ours is holistic approach."

"The mobile phone is a powerful device and to reach out to the masses through that instrument is to open a new pathway in communication and connectivity," Popli said.

"Mobiles have become multi-media devices but their usage in India is limited. Many consumers today have a high-end mobile phone and want to do more, seeking entertainment and information on the go," he said.

"It is a rapidly growing niche we are confident PLUS can exploit it," Popli said.

Early PLUS subscribers will also be eligible for discounts by service partners, Popli added.

Telecom customer satisfaction level dips: TRAI

2007-04-20T22:26:00.000+05:30

As the mobile user base balloons, the overall customer satisfaction level is dipping across the country with only seven out of 129 licensees meeting the benchmark of 95 per cent, reflecting an abysmally low of 5.42 per cent operators meeting the criteria.

TRAI today released the report on Customer Satisfaction Survey of the Basic and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service Quality of Service (QOS) for the quarter ending 31st December 2006.

In Metro circles only Bharti-Mumbai, BPL-Mumbai, Reliance- Mumbai and Tata-Mumbai meet the benchmark and in A Circle Hutch-AP, Reliance Communications-AP and Tata- AP meet the benchmark. The poor performance ranges among all the operators in Punjab (69-85 per cent), West Bengal (75-88 per cent), North East (74-79 per cent) & Orissa (75-88 per cent) circles.

The customer perception of the parameter network performance is poor as only 20 out of 129 operators (15.5 per cent) meet the benchmark. In Metro Circle all the operators in Mumbai are meeting the benchmark.

On billing in the case of post paid segment, overall 48.76 per cent of the licensees achieved the satisfaction level of 90 per cent and in pre-paid segment the number of licensees who achieved this level was 81.39 per cent.

In Basic Service Overall Customer satisfaction Benchmark of 95 per cent, only 40 out of 61 or 65.58 per cent service providers do not meet the benchmark.

Trai asks cell cos to speed up verification

2007-04-20T06:33:00.000+05:30

Millions of mobile subscribers whose connections were deactivated during the verification drive despite submitting the requisite documents have reasons to cheer. Trai on Thursday directed all operators to accelerate the process of verification of documents submitted by the deactivated subscribers, and in case the documents are found in order, restore the connection within 24 hours.

It is estimated that mobile connections of about 10 million subscribers were deactivated during the recently concluded verification drive. Last year, following concerns expressed by security agencies that terrorists and anti-social elements were misusing mobile phones, the department of telecommunication had directed all service providers to carry out 100% verification of identity proofs of all existing subscribers by March 31, 2007.

Justifying the directive to all operators, Trai said, “It has come to the notice of Trai that as a result of the drive initiated by the service providers to carryout the verification process, a substantial number of connections have been deactivated. Trai has also received a number of complaints from subscribers regarding deactivation of their connection even after submission of all the required documents.”

Trai has also said that it has taken the matter (of disconnections) ‘seriously’ and has advised service providers to exercise maximum caution and restraint so that the subscribers in compliance of verification requirement are not put to any inconvenience.

Additionally, it has also directed them to ensure that all the re-activated subscribers get all their privileges and facilities like validity period and balance amount due to them as per their earlier agreements and tariff plans. In fact, Trai was forced to act after various consumer groups, including Telecom Watchdog, had sought its intervention. However, when contacted, most operators said that they had already put the verification of documents on the fast track.

“If the documents are found to be in order, we are activating such connections with immediate effect,” said an executive with an operator. “We have already activated the connections of those who have submitted valid verification documents,” added an executive from another service provider.

Cell, WLL services add 10.2 mn users in H1

2007-04-18T22:26:00.000+05:30

The controversy over mobility turf notwithstanding, the Cellular and WLL mobile services have added 10.2 million users in first half of the current financial year, about five times of 2.14 million in the year-ago period.

"The growth rate during first half of the year over the base on the beginning of the financial year works out to 80 per cent against the figure of 30 per cent in corresponding period last year. If the same growth rate is maintained, the NTP 99 targets of teledensity of seven per cent by 2005 is likely to be met by December 2003, 15 months ahead of NTP 99 targets," Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in a statement in New Delhi.

TRAI said the total additions to cellular and WLL combined during April-September 2003 stood at 10.20 million, which is around five times the addition of 2.14 million users during the corresponding period last year.

This takes the combined base of cellular subscribers and WLL subscribers to over 23 million.

During the first six months of the current financial year about 5.70 million cellular and 4.48 million WLL mobility and 0.02 million fixed line subscribers were added, making it a total of 10.20 million additions.

During September 2003, about 0.9 million cellular subscribers and 0.82 million WLL mobility subscribers were added as compared to 1.09 million cellular subscribers and 0.68 WLL subscribers in August 2003, it said.

Ericsson, Nokia set to get $5-bn BSNL deal as Motorola relents

2007-04-17T06:08:00.000+05:30

Telecom majors Ericsson and Nokia are set to bag a $5-billion tender floated by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) for 63.5 million GSM mobile lines after another vendor, Motorola, decided to withdraw a legal challenge.

The Schaumburg, (Illinois)-based Motorola had moved the Delhi High Court on October 9, 2006 following its disqualification from BSNL’s tendering process on technical grounds. The court had restrained BSNL from awarding the contract.

BSNL chairman & managing director AK Sinha said the contract letter would be awarded by the end of April and the first phase of the rollout would begin by year-end.

In a statement, Motorola said, “In view of the tremendous growth taking place in the telecom sector in the country and BSNL’s petition of capacity constraints to have its share in this expansion, Motorola has decided to withdraw the case filed in the Delhi High Court.” It, however, clarified that the withdrawal did not reflect any change in its original position that its bid was in compliance with the tender conditions.

Sweden’s Ericsson had emerged the lowest bidder in the 45.5-million GSM lines tender, quoting about $107 per line, followed by Finland’s Nokia, which quoted about $177 per line.

Under the BSNL tender, the lowest bidder gets 60% of the contract while the second lowest bidder gets the remaining 40% at the lowest quoted price. Another 18 million lines is reserved for state-owned ITI Ltd, which has a tie-up with French major Alcatel.

Trai opens access to cable landing system

2007-04-13T23:47:00.000+05:30

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday issued a draft regulation mandating open access to cable landing stations. This move is expected to offer bandwidth to end consumers at competitive rates. The regulation talks about new ILD operators and internet service providers (ISPs) having access to the capacity at cable landing stations, “in the same way as the consortium members”.

Also, the TRAI regulation states that charges must be transparent and non-discriminatory to both consortium members and non-members. By stepping up competition in the market, this regulation would ultimately result in reduction in the price of international private leased circuits.

International leased circuits are used by exporters, BPO units, call centres, banks, small and medium enterprises, ISPs and IT-enabled service providers. Also, international long distance (ILD) operators require bandwidth connectivity for carrying international voice calls.

This regulation was needed because some operators have been facing problems while accessing bandwidth capacity at the cable landing station of an existing operator, TRAI said.Regulators in many countries have recognised that submarine landing station is an essential bottleneck facility and there is a potential for the owner of the cable landing station to deny access and prevent competition from new entrants, according to TRAI.

“In order to prevent the misuse of dominant power by the incumbent operator, various countries have enforced specific obligations on the incumbents owning submarine cable system by applying the general interconnect agreement,” the regulator said.

Trai not in favour of mobile infra sharing

2007-04-05T22:15:00.000+05:30

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is understood to have ruled out mandatory sharing of infrastructure among mobile operators, and has instead proposed allowing active networks like antennae, feeder, cables and transmission equipment to be shared among them.

In its recommendations to be announced next week, the regulator has proposed that active infrastructure cannot be ruled out, and it should always be looked at as an option.

Active infrastructure sharing will reduce costs of setting up network for the operators and help in faster roll-outs. "We had asked the question whether active infrastructure sharing should be allowed or not, and operators have favoured the idea in different ways," a senior Trai official said in the consultation paper.

Airtel Easy Mail for Billing Customers

2007-04-03T22:44:00.000+05:30

Airtel has launched a new email solution called "Easy Mail" for its enterprise users.

"Easy Mail" enables Airtel post paid subscribers in the Delhi NCR (National Capital Region) circle to check mails on the move.

The Airtel Enterprise Edition is accessible in two options; unlimited usage for Rs 899, or Rs 199 with 5 paisa/10 KB download.

Customers can access emails that work on push-based technology, wherein emails are directly pushed to handsets as soon as they reach the mailbox, instead of having to log on to the service provider's server in order to check for new mails.

And unlike SMS-based services, mobile mail is delivered through a graphical interface on GPRS-enabled handsets. The mails arrive on mobile handsets in exactly the same way they arrive on the mail server - with support for most popular attachments such as Word, PDF, Excel, and PowerPoint.

According to Christopher Tobit, CEO of Bharti Airtel, Delhi and NCR, GPRS-based email solutions offer a high degree of functionality at an affordable cost.

Airtel is also offering "Easy Mail" in its Internet avataar, wherein customers will be able to access personal Web-based emails through a GPRS-enabled handset even while on the go.

Telcos hang up on USO fund

2007-04-03T22:41:00.000+05:30

The whole logic behind the setting up of a Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) to promote rural telephony seems to have gone for a toss. With high subscriber growth and rock bottom call rates increasing usage, operators don't seem to be in need of any support from USOF to roll out operations in the once unprofitable hinterland.

Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications (RCOM) and Aircel submitted negative bids for some of the active infrastructure slots in the bidding process for setting up telecom infrastructure in rural areas, implying they will pay to the USOF instead of taking its support. Others, like Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL), also submitted zero bids, showing they also did not need any support.

Industry analysts contend that while it may be too early to write off the fund, USOF needs to have a re-look at its approach to rural telephony. "The whole approach to the USOF seems to have got skewed. The challenge is to reach out to people in villages by giving them a choice between mobile and basic services. This does not seem to be happening given the over emphasis on mobile telephony at the expense of basic services," a BSNL official told ET.

In 2005, DoT had launched Rural Direct Exchange Line (RDEL) scheme to offer basic services in rural areas. That scheme has ended on March 31 this year and was not extended by USO fund despite BSNL and industry body AUSPI demanding its extension to complete roll out targets.

All telecom companies pay 5% of their adjusted gross revenues (AGR) towards the USOF, which is used for funding telecom infrastructure in rural India. As per DoT's estimates, the unutilised USO funds stands at Rs 9,194.12 crore (around $2bn) as of March 07. "In case operators don't want to be compensated for providing rural connectivity, the contribution for USOF should be reduced from 5% to 1%," he said.

Rural tele-density is around 2% and has been growing at an extremely slow pace. The inability of USOF to ensure its full and optimum utilisation has led to huge balances in the fund and equally huge gaps in rural teledensity.

"Rural pockets that were earlier unviable are now profitable. Affordability has increased and operators don't need USOF support. There is a need to revisit the contribution to and utilisation of USO fund," Gartner India senior research analyst Neha Gupta said.

Operators across the globe contribute to similar "universal service funds". In the US, operators paid close to $7bn last year towards USF for telephony in low-cost high-usage areas. "But zero bidding and negative bidding is unique to the Indian market. It also shows that USOF needs to make itself more usable," said another analyst.

Ms Gupta said there is no need for high USO fund. "It'll be more profitable for operators who can pass on the benefit to users. Costs which are not natural to the company should be cut as it will benefit both companies and consumers," she added.

Idea reduces ISD rates by 80 paise per min

2007-04-02T22:11:00.000+05:30

After Airtel and Hutch, cellular operator Idea, an Aditya Birla Group Company, has lowered ISD rates by 80 paise per minute.

Idea consumers will now have to pay Rs 6.40 per minute for calls to the US, Canada, Europe and Hong Kong instead of the earlier Rs 7.20 and Rs 9.19 for other destinations instead of Rs 9.99 earlier, a company statement said on Monday.

To rest of the world (II), consumers would have to pay Rs 49.20 per minute instead of the earlier Rs 50.

Hutch and Bharti Airtel had reduced ISD rates from March 31 by 80 paise per minute, following TRAI's decision to reduce by 37 per cent the Access Deficit charge - a levy paid by private operators to state-run BSNL for rolling out telecom services in rural areas.

Indian Regulators Delay Approval Of Vodafone Deal

2007-03-31T12:42:00.000+05:30

India’s foreign investment regulator has deferred a decision on Vodafone’s plans to buy Hutchison Telecom’s controlling stake in Hutchison Essar.

After a meeting of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, Finance Secretary Ashok Jha told reporters in New Delhi that the board had asked for more details on the deal.

This is the second time the board has deferred approval. Jha was quoted as saying the board would make its decision soon, but he didn’t specify when.

Last month, Hutchison Telecom agreed to sell its 67% stake in Hutchison Essar to Vodafone for $11.1 billion. The Essar Group holds the remaining 33% in India’s fourth-largest cellular service provider, which has about 25 million subscribers.

Indian law only allow 74% foreign direct investment in telecom companies, and authorities are looking into the ownership structure of Hutchison Essar. This month, a citizens group filed a petition charging that foreign ownership in the firm was above 74%.

Apart from Hutchison Telecom’s stake, 22% of Essar’s stake is held by foreign shareholders.

The controversy is over the 12.3% stake held by Asim Ghosh and Analjit Singh.

Though both are Indians, Hutchison Telecom funded their acquisition of the shares and held options to buy them out. Because of this, it has been argued that Hutchison controlled their stakes, and hence it should be counted as foreign investment.

Both of them have denied the charge, as well as reports that Vodafone will now control their stake.

Vodafone appears confident of jumping the regulatory hurdles. A spokesperson for the U.K. cellular giant said the deal was expected to close in the second quarter, as scheduled.

Hutchison Telecom’s chief Dennis Lui was quoted as telling reporters in Jakarta, Indonesia, that the company’s ownership in Hutchison Essar was in full compliance with foreign investment regulations and that had been confirmed last year.

“It should not take too long for the sale to be concluded,” he said.

BT may offer low-powered GSM in India

2007-03-23T22:07:00.000+05:30

British Telecom (BT) of the UK is considering a low-powered global system for mobile communications (GSM) service in India, which can bring down the costs significantly on calls made by mobile phones inside offices.

Speaking to Business Standard, BT Global Services Chief Executive Officer Andy Green said, “Low-powered GSM is part of our 21st century network solution and we are ready to explore, if it is allowed, in India.”

India does not issue separate licences for such services. Existing GSM licence holders can go ahead and offer the service, but given their outdoor orientation, the viability may be an issue.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had some time ago suggested the possibility of such networks in the country.

Says T V Ramachandran, secretary-general of Cellular Operators Association of India, “We are already looking at using in-built networks or low-powered GSM in places such as the new Bangalore airport as this is the best way to provide coverage in congested areas where spectrum is limited. Currently, you can operate these networks on existing spectrum.”
In countries such as the UK, the regulator has issued a number of low-power GSM licences that can be operated by independent operators on a spectrum different from that given to GSM operators.

UK telecom regulator Ofcom issued several licences in early-2006 to BT and Colt Telecom among others.

Low-powered GSM is a technology in which small low-powered GSM cell sites are located within a building, on which runs a small localised mobile network.

In simple terms, you can use your mobile phone to make a call outside the building —the call will be connected through the low-powered GSM network in the building.

Instead of using a fixed phone you can call local extensions in office through short codes with no extra cost through the mobile phone.

Similarly calls made by others on your extension at office will directly come on your mobile phone wherever you are. However, once the subscriber moves out of the office the call will be seamlessly transferred onto his GSM network operator.

The advantage is cheaper call rates for subscribers and large saving of scarce spectrum for GSM operators.

This system has a number of benefits for service providers as well as users. The key driver is the fact that an average 70 per cent of all mobile calls happen when the user is stationary. In addition, most calls are made when users are in their office.

Given the spectrum crunch — there is not enough of it —for the growing number of users in India, especially in the cities, low-powered GSM may be a solution to improve network quality and reduce congestion.

This will also result in the convergence of fixed and mobile devices.

Reliance adds 600,000 rural telephones

2007-03-22T23:08:00.000+05:30

Telecom major Reliance Communications (RCOM) on Thursday announced an addition of 600,000 rural telephone users for March under the government's universal services obligation (USO) fund programme.

The USO fund was set up by the government in 2003 for funding its rural connectivity programme.

"I am delighted to announce that Reliance Communications has rolled out telephone connections to 40,000 villages hitherto devoid of any phones," Sanjeev Govil, head of National Rural Marketing-RCOM, said in a statement.

"Our tariffs are made very attractive and affordable to benefit the rural people who have come to realise the necessity to stay connected with the rest of the world," Govil added.

The company, which has a customer base of 30 million, has brought various tariff packages to entice the rural users and increase the company's penetration in India's hinterland.

Charges for local calls will be 80 paise per three minutes for fixed line and WLL (wireless local loop) users and for mobile users 80 paise a minute, the statement said.

TRAI to phase out ADC

2007-03-22T01:48:00.000+05:30

Calling friends or family living overseas will soon get a whole lot cheaper. The government has decided to slash a tax that private telecom companies were forced to pay to state owned BSNL and the tax cuts run deep.

The tax called access deficit charge will now be zero for outgoing international calls from 80 paise per minute.

ADC on incoming international calls has been cut 38 per cent from Rs 1.60 per minute to Re 1 per minute. There is relief on the domestic front as well. ADC on gross revenues is down 50 per cent for this year.

So telcos instead of paying 1.5 per cent of their revenue as ADC will now have to pay just 0.75 per cent of their revenues as ADC.

All this will cut the total ADC amount by Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 3,200 cr to Rs 2,000 cr). The cut in ADC could have been even greater but for disagreement between BSNL and private telcos on ADC calculation and payment.

Cutting call rates

Telecom operators like Bharti, Hutch and Idea are happy with the idea of an ADC cut but they feel that the amount of ADC could have been reduced further. However, the good news for customers is that atleast some of the operators are willing to pass on the benefit by cutting call rates.

The telecom regulator TRAI has said that it will stick to its decision of phasing out ADC by next year.

Besides, even though this round of cut in ADC is likely to shore up the bottomlines of telecom companies, consumers will only benefit if these companies decide to pass on some of the benefits to them.

ISD tariffs to fall on ADC revision, Trai to decide this week

2007-03-19T23:24:00.000+05:30

The international long distance calls (ISD) may become cheaper as telecom regulator Trai is considering reducing levy on both outgoing and incoming ISD calls from April 1.

According to sources, Trai will be meeting this week to finalise the annual review of access deficit charge, a levy being paid by private operators to BSNL for rolling out services in remote and rural areas, which may be reduced on ISD traffic.

The ADC on both outgoing and incoming ISD calls may be reduced by up to 50 per cent and the current total ADC of 1.5 per cent of gross revenue is also likely to come down to one per cent.

As per the road map the total ADC, currently at Rs 3,335 crore, should be lowered to Rs 1,600-1,800 crore for 2007-08 before being phased out by next fiscal to zero.

Even as state-owned BSNL has objected to reduction in ADC annually, Trai has been maintaining that the road map for phasing out the levy would be followed.

The domestic long distance (STD) call tariffs may also fall marginally as the reduction would be spread over to all segment but more on the ILD traffic.

The new ADC regime will come into effect from April 1 this year.

The implementation of the new regime may, however, get delayed as the telecom tribunal Tdsat is hearing a petition on ADC regime challenged by BSNL.

Sources in the Trai said that although the new regime was independent of any past litigation but it (Trai) would prefer to wait for the final judgement from the tribunal.

BSNL plans broadband expansion

2007-03-18T21:16:00.000+05:30

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) plans to invest Rs 800 crore to expand its broadband network across the country over the next three years. The state-owned telecom major will also invest Rs 27,000 crore over the next three years for the expansion of the cellular network primarily in rural areas.

The company expects to get the 3G spectrum by the end of 2007. BSNL is also planning to roll out the multiplay services in Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Hyderabad over the next three to six months.

“For broadband, we will invest Rs 800 crore over the next three years to expand the network. From January 2008, we will add five million broadband connections per year. In the next year, we will spread broadband to 1,100 towns and will connect 20,000 villages with broadband connection.

We are planning to provide one crore cellular connections by end of 2007. From January 2008, we plan to provide three crore connections per year. We plan to invest Rs 27,000 crore for the infrastructure to reach to villages of India,” said BSNL chairman and managing director A K Sinha.

The telecom major, which on Thursday launched the first multiplay service in the country in Pune said that it is scouting for content providers in cities such as Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Hyderabad and has tied up with a few of them.

“We are currently the connection provider but there are places where we will not be able to find content providers with whom we can partner for multiplay services. We are planning to invest Rs 300 to 400 crore for content development,” said Mr Sinha.

The telecom major said Value Added Services (VAS) contributed Rs 100 crore to its 2005-06 revenues. With the introduction of multiplay services, it expects VAS to contribute Rs 500 crore this fiscal and Rs 200 to 300 crore every subsequent year.

BSNL plans convergent billing system

2007-03-18T21:06:00.000+05:30

Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) which is to introduce convergent billing system across the country is in the process of finalising the winners for the billing contract. The PSU telecos has earmarked over Rs 4,500 crore for it.

Wipro Infotech, HCL Technologies, TCS, Satyam Computers and Tech Mahindra have qualified technical evaluation and financial evaluation is underway. The contract will be split between two players and the winners are likely to be announced next month.

The new system will be more than just convergent billing and will include call record management as well as fraud management. It will involve deployment of storage area networks (SAN) for billing systems.

The Call Detail Record (CDR)-based customer care and convergent billing system will end multiplicity of functions.

A data centre each will be set up in Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata and Chandigarh. The system will be implemented throughout India in BSNL's four zones and four data centres.

The whole implementation process is likely to over an year while maintenance will be an ongoing exercise.

BSNL plans broadband expansion

2007-03-16T23:10:00.000+05:30

Vodafone, Essar resolve contentious issue, deal tomorrow

2007-03-14T22:43:00.000+05:30

Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone which successfully bid for majority stake in domestic mobile firm Hutch-Essar, will visit India on Thursday to ink a deal with Indian partner Essar on management and organisational issues.

Nearly a month after the UK firm clinched a deal for acquiring Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecom International's controlling stake in HEL, Sarin will announce the terms and conditions of the partnership with Ruias-promoted Essar, which holds 33 per cent stake in the joint venture.

The two firms have also agreed to rename HEL as Vodafone Essar, which would start selling its products and services under the Vodafone brand in due course.

The partnership would be announced at a joint press conference by Sarin and Essar group Vice Chairman Ravi Ruia, sources close to the development said. However, it was not confirmed whether the deal would be announced in the national capital or Mumbai, where HEL is headquartered.

Under the terms of partnership believed to have been agreed by the two firms, Vodafone would have operational control of Vodafone Essar and Ruias would have rights, such as board representation, in accordance with their 33 per cent equity.

Ravi Ruia is likely to be appointed Chairman of Vodafone Essar board, while Sarin would be named Vice Chairman.

Following the completion of HTIL's stake sale, which is expected in the next few weeks, Vodafone would get a controlling stake of 51.57 per cent in the venture, while Essar Group would continue to retain its 33.02 per cent.

HTIL's existing Indian partners Asim Ghosh, Analjit Singh and Infrastructure Development Finance Company Ltd (IDFC) have agreed to remain minority partners with their collective 15.03 per cent stake.

Mittal to storm telecom with $8-bn investment

2007-03-12T07:05:00.000+05:30

Striving to retain the lead position in the mobile industry, Bharti Airtel will invest a massive $8 billion by 2010 for a 25%market share.

"By 2010, estimates are that India will have 400-500 million subscribers. Bharti strives to retain up to 125 million or 25% of the market," group chairman Sunil Mittal said.

The expansion programme assumes importance in the wake of imminent entry of global mobile leader Vodafone through acquisition of Hutch-Essar. After the Vodafone announcement, Mittal had said Bharti would continue to be the numero uno in India.

The company, since its inception, has planned an investment of about $8 billion (about Rs 36,000 crore) for various services, including mobile, basic, national and international long-distance, undersea cable and broadband services.

“We are spending nearly $2 billion every year as the future (in terms of creation of infrastructure) continues to be stronger than the past... by 2010, we would have doubled the investment. We had put up about 10,000 base stations by 2005-end, another 10,000 by 2006 and this year (2007-08) we would add about 20,000,” Mittal said.

Stating that Bharti had about 34-35 Million subscribers, Mittal said, based on the annualised figure of the last quarter, revenue would be touching $4 billion (Rs 18,000 crore) this year and could double by 2010.

Asked whether Bharti would continue to invest in telecom at the same pace, Mittal said his company had been doubling infrastructure (base stations) every year and by March next year, it would have 40,000 base stations. But the number of towers to be added in the 2008-09 fiscal will be fewer than what has been added until now.

“I may add 30,000 towers in 2008-09. So, for the first time, we will see fewer number of towers coming in than what we did in the past. So, that is the time you start getting some ease on the investment side,” Mittal said.

Temasek, Crown Castle may buy into Tata cell tower unit

2007-03-11T11:53:00.000+05:30

Singapore-based Temasek Holding and the world's second-largest tower business company, Crown Castle International, are understood to be in talks with Tata Teleservices to buy close to a 15 per cent stake in its to-be-hived-off cellular tower business.

Taking a cue from Reliance and Bharti, Tata Teleservices has announced that it will hive off the tower business as a separate subsidiary. "Towers are passive infrastructure. We are actively discussing with various companies on having them take over the business," Tata Teleservices CEO Darryl Green said. A Tata group spokesperson declined to comment on the issue.

While Green admitted that the company had held discussions with around six global firms, investment-banking sources said negotiations with Temasek and Crown Castle were at an advanced stage.

Temasek is a long-term partner of Tata Teleservices. The Singapore-based fund had bought a 10 per cent stake in Tata Teleservices in March 2006 for Rs 1,500 crore. Crown Castle is the world?s second-largest tower and passive infrastructure company and is keen on entering the Indian market.

The Tatas have appointed Morgan Stanley as advisers for spinning off the tower business. Tata Teleservices has close to 5,000 towers, in which it has invested close to Rs 1,000 crore.

Analysts said with the participation of Temasek or Crown Castle, the valuation of Tata Teleservices tower subsidiary might fetch up to $1 billion. American Towers and private equity players like Blackstone and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts are in the race for picking up stakes in the tower subsidiaries of Reliance and Bharti.

Indian telecom companies are hiving off their tower businesses to reduce their additional infrastructure investment.

A recent consultation paper by the telecom regulator says passive infrastructure contributes to 60 per cent of the total cost of networks and active electronics 40 per cent.