3G licenses by March

We have been hearing this for a while. But its good news if it turns out to be true, so lets hear it again. Speaking at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Dayanidhi Maran said the thrust areas in telecom in the coming months includes putting in place the 3G policy by March-end. Mr Maran [...]

Bharti considering exapanding in Africa

Reuters article quoting from an interview with Sunil Mittal on the sidelines of the 3GSM conference. Mittal said that Bharti could consider expanding in other emerging markets, notably in Africa. He expects Airtel’s share of net subscriber additions to rise to between 23 and 24% this year from around 22% now. Mittal said the rapid [...]

GSM Operators Unite for IM

Fifteen of the world’s largest mobile phone carriers have agreed to offer instant messaging (IM) across their networks as part of an initiative to make instant messaging as popular and ubiquitous among mobile users as text messaging. At this year’s 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, world’s largest operators – China Mobile, Orange, Telefonica, TeliaSonera, TIM, [...]

Not the right time for number portability

Nirat Bhatnagar & Vipul Kedia of IBM Business Consulting Services are of the opinion that it is not the right time to introduce number portability in India. Their main argument is that the current focus for the Indian market is increasing penetration (getting more people to take up mobile phones where network exists) and increasing [...]

Swadeshi ULC handset

Move over Infineoon, TI and Philips, we have an indigenously designed ULC handset. A Professor at Ahmedabad’s National Institute of Design (NID) has designed a mobile handset that would cost barely Rs 800, but limits outgoing and incoming calls to and from only three (or limited) programmed numbers. “The idea is simple. If you want [...]

ICA requests tax relief in budget

To curb the grey market and smuggling of mobile phone accessories and components for the after sales market, the apex body of mobile phone handset companies, Indian Cellular Association, has requested the government to abolish the basic customs duty, which is around 20% at present. It said the grey market accounts for 90% of the [...]

Court lifts stay on cricket score updates through SMS

The Madras High Court has lifted the stay on 18 telecom companies from sending SMS of match alerts for the India-Pakistan one-day series saying the company had preferred the suit belatedly, without disclosing all material facts. However, the court made it clear that SMS was the exclusive right of event organisers and that mobile operators [...]

The death of distance

So the mobile tariffs have finally caught up with technology in India. Distance will no longer be a relevant factor in how we communicate in our business and personal lives. BSNL and MTNL have announced the “OneIndia” plan today, charging maximum tariff of Re 1 for a call to any place in the country, effective [...]

Dayanidhi Maran is Telecom Man of the Year

Union Minister for Communications and IT, Dayanidhi Maran bagged the third ‘Telecom Man of the Year’ award instituted by Voice & Data magazine. In his acceptance speech after receiving the award, Dayanidhi Maran said “I thank Voice&Data for the Telecom Man of the Year award. I wonder, why I deserve this award, as I am [...]

Airtel’s Lakshya

Airtel has erected India’s highest GSM tower in Leh region in Jammu and Kashmir. With this, Airtel also becomes the only private mobile operator to launch services in the high altitude region of Leh in the state. Standing at a height of 11,645 feet, the tower is located at the historic Qutak Gompa. The Airtel [...]

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