BSNL plans single tender for 60 million lines

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has decided to issue a single tender for installing additional 60 million GSM lines, subject to approval from the DoT. This will possibly be the largest-ever telecom expansion deal in the world, estimated to be worth over $5 billion. The PSU had earlier planned to issue two separate tenders, first for [...]

Number portability or Call forwarding

Communication Minister Dayanidhi Maran has suggested that call forwarding facility should be considered as a viable alternative to number portability on mobile phones. Number portability has been opposed by various service providers citing huge costs involved to make their networks compatible. The issue however is much more complex than that. The biggest lock-in an operator [...]

Tata Indicom’s Non Stop Mobile

Tata Indicom has launched a new scheme, Non Stop Mobile, under which the validity of a pre-paid connection is extended for two years upon a single recharge, thus freeing mobile subscribers from monthly recharges. The service also offers free roaming in over 1500 locations in the country. There is no monthly commitment to recharge. Above [...]

Pyramid Research finds Indians are avid gamers

A recent Pyramid Research survey of mobile phone users across the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries and the U.K. has ranked India as the top mobile game market. Of the 355 respondents in India that identified themselves as mobile data users, 32 percent said that they play mobile games monthly, exceeding the UK [...]

Free Whitepaper on Indian Telecom

Stumbled upon this study by Shosteck Group titled “The Indian Telecommunications Experience: Its Relevance for the World.” Although its nearly a year old, but is still relevant and gives a good summary of the Indian telecom market. You can get it for free by registering. Chapter 1: An Overview Chapter 2: Exploring the Global Potential [...]

2.9 million new subscribers in September

According to figures released by telecom regulator TRAI, telecom companies added 2.9 million subscribers in September, taking the total subscriber additions in the first half of this fiscal to 15.14 million and the total to 65.05 million. “The average additions for the first half of the current fiscal reached 2.46 million per month as against [...]

BSNL slaps additional interconnect levy

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has slapped a levy of Rs 15,000 per annum on private telecom operators for providing them additional interconnect. This has enraged the operators. The charge, which has recently been unilaterally fixed at the rate of Rs 15,000 per E-1 per annum, that too from back date is not fair and we [...]

Other Notable News & Articles

Nokia plant likely to be ready by April 2006A little ahead of the original schedule, said Dayanidhi Maran, Union minister of communications and IT. Cutting Edge Media ties up with ActiveMedia to bring video-on-mobiles to IndiaSetting up the ASP infrastructure needed to deliver these services; in talks with operators and content providers. Good Technology launches [...]

50 million GSM users in India

The gross cellular subcriber base in India is now at 50.87 million, according to the latest figures released by COAI. Bharti led the pack by adding 6.5 lakh new subscribers in September taking its gross cellular user base to 1.40 crore and a marketshare of 27.65%. BSNL comes second with the addition of 4.9 lakh [...]

Network congestion to worsen

A study by TRAI says that congestion on Indian mobile networks has reached an all time high with no scope of improvement. The study said in cities the congestion level was 20 times more than the stipulated norms. Trai blamed network congestion to the inefficient interconnect system between private operators and state owned operator BSNL, [...]

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