Tired of my daily glorification and pampering of the mobile phone, my PC has decided to call it a day. Challenging me to realise that I still do my mobilepunditry through a PC and not a mobile - I don’t even have a moblog yet.
Will be taking a temporary break from blogging this week, till I manage to mend my relations with the PC or actually start blogging from a mobile.
Mauj Telecom has announced the availability of Video ringtones on operator portals like Idea Cellular’s Ideafresh, MTNL’s Funstation, BSNL’s CellOne Galaxy or by SMSing ‘VR’ to 7007 on Idea, BSNL and MTNL or by logging on to wap.mauj.com.
When a user receives an incoming call, a video clip will be played on his screen announcing the call and the caller’s name will appear on the display of the video, if it is already stored in the mobile phone memory. Different video ringtones can be set for different people on your contact list.
The video ringtones are available on Nokia handsets of Symbian 60 series and, after installation, appear in ringtone selection list like regular ringtones.
Naukri.com is planning to provide its content through mobile and WAP enable its website. The company currently provides information about jobs from its naukri.com database through its own short code.
Naukri.com is India’s top jobs site with a majority of its database consisting of IT resumes. Therefore its target segment, which is largely young and tech literate, is most suitable for taking up the mobile version.
Apurva said, “The search application on the mobile is still not there and the company is working towards developing an application, which would enable mobile users to search the company database just like the online search.”
The company is planning to tie-up with various mobile operators to provide its content to their subscribers (job, matrimonial and property). Mobile users can access the content by using the short code of their respective providers.
TRAI has asked the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) not to issue directives disallowing differential tariff for intra-network calls.
DoT had earlier planned to issue a directive asking all the telecom operators to withdraw tariff schemes discriminating between calls terminating within the same network and calls terminating in other networks.
Reliance Infocomm, for example, under some of its schemes charges 40 paise per minute for calls made to its own network. Similarly, Hutch-to-Hutch local calls cost 50 paise a minute and Airtel-to-Airtel local calls cost Re 1 per minute…
“We feel that such consumer friendly plans should not be interfered with and such a step would be against DoT’s objective. This may also lead to a demand for similar tariffs between fixed-fixed and fixed-mobile calls, which would be of disadvantage to fixed operators,” Trai said in a note to DoT.
Airtel, in collaboration with ICICI Bank and VISA has launched mChq in Mumbai and Delhi NCR, which enables Airtel customers and ICICI Bank VISA cardholders to pay for their purchases using Airtel mobile phones.
The transaction process is one where the retailer/merchant sends an SMS mentioning the amount to the customer. The customer enters his/her personalized PIN number and sends an SMS back to the retailer acknowledging the amount to be paid. Both the parties then get a confirmatory SMS indicating the completion of the transaction.
There is a monthly fee of Rs 10 for using this service, which would be added in the monthly credit card bill of the customer. There would also be a SMS charge for the transaction over and above the normal rate of transaction levied upon the use of credit cards.
Giving the rationale behind launching this, ICICI Bank executive director Chanda Kochhar said,
“According to statistics, card transactions only 1.8 percent of the total per capita income of India. We are targeting the rest of the cash/cheque base of 98 percent to migrate to this new service. Also the potential of adding more applications is huge. The service is also expected to revolutionize the entire merchant acquiring side in India.”
Mumbai-based technology partner of Airtel, A.Little.World, powers the mChq technology. IRDBT (technology arm of RBI) is the root key management (KMA) for mChq and the principal certification authority (CA) for use of public key infrastructure in mChq.
Had blogged Airtel’s plans to launch mobile payments around a month back.
With this service Airtel’s customers can make payments, often micropayments, using their mobiles instead of a credit card or cash. It would be interesting to see how Airtel chooses to implement it. Going the NTT-DoCoMo’s Mobile FeliCa way, which combines a multi-application smart card with i-Mode phones, would mean limiting itself to the high-end users. Airtel has a pan-India presence and its number of subscribers alone are more than the total number of credit card users in India. Has the potential to change many equations and create lot of opportunities if Airtel executes it right.
I think Airtel has taken the first right steps in this direction. On a related note, this post on Itz Cash and Oxigen is worth reading.
World’s largest mobile phone company by subscriber base, China Mobile has offered to buy ADAE group company Reliance Telecom. It becomes the second company after Russia’s AFK Sistema to evince interest in GSM-based Reliance Telecom (not to be confused with Reliance Infocomm).
RTL’s advantage is that it is completely debt-free and most of its subscribers are pre-paid customers, thereby reducing the risk of defaults. The company’s value has been estimated at close to $1bn but that is only likely to increase in a competitive bidding game, sources say.
Industry sources believe that a deal could eventually get done at a valuation of about $1.5 bn.
Reliance Telecom has 1.5m subscribers and provides mobile services in eight telecom circles of West Bengal, Kolkata, Bihar, Assam, the North-East, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Himachal Pradesh.
As of July ‘05, China Mobile has 227m subscribers, of which about 166m were prepaid subscribers.
During the annual Hindi Divas ceremony at Vigyan Bhavan last week, the Government launched a chip version of LILA (Learn Indian Languages through Artificial Intelligence) software which will help non-Hindi speakers to learn Hindi on mobile phones.
According to official sources, the LILA series which is already available on the web for learning Hindi through Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and English will now be available in Bengali as well.
Patil said that the new software which is currently available in the form of multimedia cards on cellular phones promises to make Hindi learning easy and high-tech.
Business Standard has a story on matchmaking services like chat, dating and find-a-friend offered by operators.
Non-voice/SMS VAS revenues constitute probably less than 3 percentage of operators revenues. It surely acts as a differentiator helping the operators to compete on more than pricing. The following comment in the article is interesting in this regard.
The telecom companies’ have positioned these offerings under value-added services (VAS), which is not a revenue earner. VAS is an offering to retain users. However, the matrimonial services have begun to churn in revenues, albiet on a slow footing.
Reliance is going a step further by leveraging their WebWorld internet cafes. It also provides additional services like online web cast of weddings, booking of marriage halls, legal counselling, marriage-related purchases and even honeymoon packages.
Reliance Infocomm provides its matrimonial services through R World suite of applications, which is accessible through its Reliance IndiaMobile (RIM) handsets. The suite has a database of profiles, enabling a user to search for a partner from any part of the country.
The company charges Rs 25 for posting a profile and Rs 2 for sending an SMS. However, the Infocomm official claims that this is on a lower side as online registration with matrimonial portals for a limited period ranges from Rs 750 to Rs 1,500 per user.
Reliance WebWorld chief executive officer, Sarup Chowdhury said, “We have two products that can play a crucial role in bringing people together. One is the matrimonial service and the other is the video-conferencing facility and I recall 10 to 12 instances where our video-conferencing facilities were used by prospective groom and bride before finalising the marriage”.
The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Enterprises (ADAE) group company has also recently launched ‘Video Mail’, an extension of e-mail. This facility enables a user to walk into a WebWorld, record a video clipping and edit it and e-mail to another user.
Most of the GSM service providers function on an SMS platform, while some of these have also tied-up with portals like Bharatmatrimonial.com, Indiatimes.com, Yahoo Matrimonals, Rediff.com and Shaadi.com.
SmartTrust along with AirTel had launched the matrimonial service ‘Track Ur Mate‘, which is accessible through SMS.
“The service was launched in 2000, but was not a success during the initial years. However, due to increase in ownership of cellphones and due to its interactive abilities, apart from this being one of the cheapest and easiest method, mobile SMSing to find a partner has increased considerably”.
These services, which are often advertised only through world-of-the-mouth, receives an equal participation from users in rural and urban India.
Mobile subscribers in rural Orissa and Bihar are also using these services to find their life partner as frequent as their urban counterparts, he claims.
The other categories of services making money for operators are Astrology and Sports.
Reliance Infocomm is planning to place an order for 1 million mobile handsets in the next two months, needed largely for its expansion in smaller cities and rural areas. It would be one of the largest orders by any telecom service provider in India, for which the company has initiated talks with global handset manufacturers like Nokia, LG and Samsung.
The company has operations in over 3,750 towns, of which 3,500 small towns and talukas, while it has covered 1.40 lakh villages. Earlier this year, the company had procured 2 million handsets of different makes and this proposed new acquisition will take the total number of mobile phones purchased to 3 million in 2006.
This procurement is the largest in India due to the sheer size of the order, however this is not the largest in the world as China Mobile Xingjiang had placed similar orders earlier, while South Korea Telecom (SKT) was also looking at placing similar orders.
Reliance’s way of doing business has always been big, in whatever it does. This not only affects the competition but also helps it leverage the scale with its suppliers.
Ankit Fadia has released his latest book “An Ethical Guide To Hacking Mobile Phones“, which deals with SIM card cloning, mobile viruses, offers security tips, and explains how GPRS-enabled mobiles could be hacked and about ‘Bluetooth hacking’.
Fadia, a 20 year-old IT specialist, is the author of Network Security - A Hacker’s Perspective and The Unofficial Guide To Ethical Hacking.
Addressing a press conference organised to launch his fourth book, ‘An Ethical Guide to Hacking Mobile Phones’, Fadia says, “We have always assumed that data stored on mobile phones is safe. Today we use our mobile phones to send sensitive data, store important information and even digitally sign on major documents. There is, therefore, greater threat to data security on mobile phones today.”
The 20-year-old computer security expert, who is now close to becoming a billionaire, says, “It is possible for hackers to clone your SIM card and shift the charges of his calls and messages on you. Copying the address book, intercepting data, virus infections, password attacks and automatic locking are the other threats to mobile phones today.”
Published by Macmillan India Ltd, the book is priced at Rs 220.
Speaking at the Wireless and Mobile India 2005 exhibition, DPS Seth, TRAI Member, said that telecom operators should ensure efficient use of spectrum available to them, before demanding more.
The operators must ensure that they adhere to the norms laid by TRAI in this regard and maintain at least a minimum number of base stations, he said sighting an example from a study by the regulator in which it had observed that the number of base stations in a bungalow zone area (VVIP) in Delhi was found to be 50 per cent less than required.
The private operators are demanding an increased spectrum for improving the quality of their services.
In an attempt to save the customers from paying hidden charges, TRAI has banned tariffs plans with misleading titles like ‘zero rentals’. It has directed operators to show all monthly fixed and recurring charges under one head for the purpose of transparency to the subscribers.
The Authority has observed that the tariff plans offered in the market today have monthly fixed charges levied under different sub-heads. Thus, a particular tariff plan, in addition to monthly rental may have plan fee, club membership fee or a fixed charge for compulsory value added services.
It is essential from transparency point of view that such plans do not carry any mandatory fixed Charge not linked to usage, in any form whatsoever.
Om Malik blogs Telcordia’s announcement of a $20 million deal with CDMA operator Tata Tele to implement IMS (wireless-wireline convergence).
Commenting on the post, Sridhar Pai of Tonse Telecom says:
Also Telcordia’s ISCP is a next gen SCP that will enable roll out of pre-paid and post-paid services from the same platform - which is really what the Telcordia press release is saying.
There could be a futuristic evolution of the ISCP to become IMS compliant but true wireless-wireline convergence in India is certainly some years away ..
Press Release: Tata Taps Telcordia Intelligent Network Evolution; First Major Transformation Deal in India Inked
Targeting about 5.5 lakh new wireless connections in the national capital, state-run MTNL will invest Rs 1,312 crore for expansion in Delhi and NCR region in the current fiscal.
“We will invest Rs 1,312 crore in 2005-06 for developmental plans of our services. Our target is four lakh GSM and 1.5 lakh new CDMA connections in the year for which Rs 610 crore will be invested in Delhi,” MTNL Executive Director (Delhi) A K Arora told newspersons here. The rest of the amount will be for network upgradation and new services, he said.
MTNL has 5.47 lakh Dolphin (GSM) subscribers and 1.17 lakh Garuda (CDMA) customers. It will float a tender for 3G services with a capacity of 20 lakh subscribers next year.
Reliance Infocomm is working on overhauling its ‘501′ brand image. Infocomm’s advertising does not have the class seen in ads of Hutch, whose “You and I” campaign won rave reviews.
Reliance has the image of being a common-man’s mobile service, providing value for money. Despite initial billing hiccups they have managed to gain consumer mindshare and marketshare. Their only competitor on price is government-owned BSNL.
Reliance Infocomm has taken the help of either celebrities like cricketer Sehwag or actor Paresh Raval or focused on the pricing factor with emphasis on the 40 paise talktime at the time of launch of services or the Rs 501 phone at the time of the Monsoon Hungama offer.
To an extent, the “unclassy” look may have been deliberate. As Reliance was a late entrant in the mobile phone market and with its plans of being the biggest mobile phone operator, it went about marketing the mobile phone to the man on the street. Hence, the advertising had to communicate affordability more than anything else. While Dhirubhai Ambani was the best brand ambassador that Reliance could have, the advertising could have been better packaged, industry observers say.
Recently, Nokia India’s marketing head Sanjay Behl joined Infocomm as head of branding. Infocomm is currently working with Saatchi & Saatchi and Ambience.
According to a study by Research and Markets, the Indian mobile handset market is now worth about $2 billion, but will surge by over 60 percent in two years. Nokia dominates the market with a 59 percent market share, followed by Samsung with 13 percent and Motorola with 7 percent.
Handset manufacturers including world’s top 3 viz. Nokia, Motorola, Samsung besides LG, Hyundai, Elcoteq have plans to set up Indian manufacturing plants.
Wireless NewsFactor takes the angle of India becoming a handset manufacturing hub.
Manufacturing in India could shave costs by two-three percent — an attractive edge for handset makers whose margins are being eroded by competition and heavy advertising costs, says Pankaj Mohindroo, chief of the Indian Cellular Association.
“India is a natural choice because it compares favorably in terms of wage costs globally. Also, it offers one of finest demographic profiles for companies because about half the population is below 25 years of age,” Mr. Mohindroo said.
Local manufacturing is expected to help India cut the pounds 92 million it spends each month to import phones.
With more than 60 million users, India’s mobile base exceeds the population of Italy. But handset ownership remains clustered in urban centers because networks cover just 30 per cent of the country, which will increase to 75 percent of the population by 2006.
CIOL has a story on Hyderabad-based MapWorld Technologies, which is developing an SMS-based application integrated with a Global Position System (GPS) for location tracking of vehicles and employees.
The company currently has maps of 16 Indian cities and is targeting transport companies, retail, manufacturing, automotive and other sectors, who have field personnel in large numbers.
According to MapWorld, the applications main map would be deployed on a central system and inputs would be loaded on to the employees’ mobile handset. “It’s a two-way communication. While users can still use it as a communicating tool, it also sends the employer, the specific location in the form of a pixel on the central system,” said Kumar.
He further added that since the input from the mobile handset to the computer is SMS-based it will cost relatively cheaper. “While traditional systems will cost around Rs 50,000, we intend to price our application at around Rs 25,000,” explained Kumar.
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