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Aircel to launch 3G services by early January (India)


Aircel is planning to launch 3G services in the country by early January next year.
According to Aircel Chief Operating Officer Gurdeep Singh, the company will launch 3G services by early January 2011. Aircel had bagged 3G spectrum in 13 out of the 22 telecom circles. Singh added that Aircel will comply with all government regulations.
In recent times, Aircel had given contract for launching 3G network infrastructure to equipment maker Ericsson in six circles. Other telcos, who got 3G spectrum, like Tata Docomo, the GSM arm of Tata Teleservices had already launched the services. Besides, Tata, Airtel has also announced to launch its 3G services by the end of this year.
Aircel is a mobile phone service provider in India. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout India. Aircel is a joint venture between Maxis Communications of Malaysia and Apollo Hospital Enterprise Ltd of India. UTSB has a 74% stake in Aircel and the remaining 26% is with Apollo Hospitals. It is India’s fifth largest GSM mobile service provider with a subscriber base of over 46.51 million, as of September 30, 2010.

Aircel Launches 3G Zones In Chennai


Aircel has launched 3G experience zones in Chennai, to allow customers to experience high speed data connectivity. The experience zones have been launched at four locations in Chennai: Atrium2, Spencers Plaza; Fun City, Express Avenue; Atrium Citi Centre; & Aircel Store, PH road. In terms of services on offer, Aircel is offering demos of IVVR (Interactive Video Voice Response), Aircel 3G PocketInternet portal and Video calls. I’m quite keen on taking a look at how they’re going to deploy mHealth with Apollo Hospitals.
Mobile VAS company IMI Mobile* informs us that they’re powering the Interactive Voice & Video Response (IVVR; Video Portal) and 3G PocketInternet service, and have inked a deal to power full scale deployment for the service once it is rolled out. The company says that the content published will be categorized, and made discoverable through full text search, apart from other discovery mechanisms such as automatic recommendations, top rated content and most viewed. Ideally, they should look to incorporate social recommendations and sharing via Twitter, Facebook and Orkut, as well as SMS, and perhaps even surface ‘most shared’ content. Discovery of content is the main challenge for mobile services, and has been for a while.
It’s particularly interesting to note that for users with 3G SIM’s, Aircel will direct users to a separate on-deck WAP portal which will surface high data consumption content like video streaming and video on demand services. 3G, it is expected, will be all about video.
Aircel has 3G spectrum in 13 circles, and has paid Rs. 6499.46 crore for the spectrum. Remember that apart from 3G, Aircel has also paid Rs. 3438.01 crore for Broadband Wireless Access spectrum in eight circles. In Chennai (and Tamil Nadu), they have both BWA and 3G spectrum.
So that’s at least one of the 3G deals closed. Remember that OnMobile Global had acquired Dilithium Networks in the hope of closing those deals.

Tata DoCoMo 3G Tariff Plans Announced



The first privately held company unveils Tariff Plans for 3G Services in India.


Tata DoCoMo had launched third-generation GSM telephony services dubbed as 3G Live in India last week. Now, the company has revealed the tariff details for Basic 3G Plans, Data Plans and even Voice+Data plans for consumers in nine Indian circles. 

Telecom Talk has put up the tariff plans for TATA DoCoMo's 3G Life services. 

Tata Docomo 3G services are available in all the nine circles where it has the 3G license-Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, UP (West), Punjab, Haryana and Maharashtra-Goa. All plans announced would be effective from November 10 in the aforementioned nine circles. Now let's take a look at different 3G Life plans announced by Tata DoCoMo. 

For those who just want to try out 3G Data plans can look out for 3G Data Top-ups which are basic data packs. To begin or experience 3G, one can go for Data Top Up of " Rs. 90 that offers 100MB usage at 21Mbps with a validity of a week. Furthermore if you want to try it out for a month (30 Days) you can go for:

- Rs. 200 Top-up with 200MB usage at 21Mbps 
- Rs. 500 Top-up with 650MB usage at 21Mbps
- Rs. 2000 Top-up for unlimited usage at 21Mbps till 15GB of download and then the speed drops to 256Kbps.

Also, a typical Video Call would cost 0.66 paise per second which sums up to almost 39.6 paise per minute. We're sure you'd rather go for video chat over the Internet connection because Video calls over 3G would require more bandwidth. Unless you don't care for the bills, Video calling is going to be a costly affair.

Small Screen Voice and Data Plans:
Meant for 3G supporting smartphones, these plans are available for both Pre-paid and Post-paid Tata DOCOMO subscribers. Check out the plan tariffs below:





- In addition, there is also a plan available only on Prepaid for Rs." 350. This has 500 minutes (Local+STD) and 150 MB of 3G Data
- These minutes can be used for ALL local, STD and outgoing roaming calls-all calls are on a per-second pulse
- The options are designed at various price points to cater to different consumption levels
- The above voice call minutes and 3G Data plans have a validity of 30 days
- Plans available in both Post-paid and Pre-paid, so customers can choose their payment preference


Unlimited 3G Life:
Carefree Internet users who seek blazing fast browsing as well as download speeds without worrying about the bills should take a look at the Unlimited 3G Life Plans. 





High Speed 'Unlimited' 3G Data Card Plan for Rs. 2,000 has been announced wherein subscribers would get 15 GB of data usage at a speed of 21.1 Mbps and beyond 15 GB would be free 3G with lower speed of 128 kbps.

Tata DoCoMo certainly is bit costly as compared to the BSNL 3G Plans available today. Now we shall wait for other mobile operators including two telecom stalwarts - Airtel and Vodafone to roll out 3G services and reveal their 3G tariffs in the country. 

Internet Banking Risks In India


Online banking has become an essential necessity these days. It has many benefits but along with these benefits are also some problems. The biggest issue is to safeguard the customers from Phishing attacks and online frauds.


Cyber security of internet banking infrastructure of India is the need of the hour. Instances of theft of money through hacking of accounts of the accounts holders as well as by misleading them through Phishing attacks are fast becoming a trend in India.


India is also insisting upon a weaker encryption standard (40 bits encryption) for online transactions. This also applies to online banking. Surprisingly, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has not shown any protest against this weakening of online banking system of India.


According to Praveen Dalal, Managing Partner of Perry4Law and the leading techno-legal expert of India, the Information Technology Act 2008 has made most of the cyber crimes and cyber offences “bailable”. India has made its cyberspace a “free zone” and “safe heaven” for cyber criminals and cyber offenders. He says that now even after committing hacking in India a person would be entitled to “bail” as a matter of right. There is nothing that prevents such cyber criminals from committing cyber crimes in India in the absence of a deterrent law.


This has resulted in an increased spate of cyber crimes including hacking of the e-mail IDs of the Internet banking users and stealing of their money. Further, IT Act 2000 also does not deal with Phishing expressly.


India has also become one of the most endemic surveillance societies of the World. Confidential information is already vulnerable and with the proposed Indian plans of installing key loggers by law enforcement officers at cyber cafes, the same would exclude the use of cyber cafes for these purposes. Although cyber cafés are not a good place to transact confidential matters yet with a poor Internet penetration in India this may still happen, says Praveen Dalal.


With a weak cyber law, lack of cyber security awareness and increasing e-surveillance initiatives in India, Internet banking disputes are bound to increase in India. The government is least bothered about these issues and ultimately the account holders would have to bear the financial losses.


It is high time for the RBI to step in and do something constructive for protecting bank customers from hacking attacks and Phishing attacks. Till now RBI is escaping from its responsibilities in this regard.

BSNL starts fibre-to-the-home broadband services in Vadodara


After a month-long trial, the Bhartiya Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) on Friday launched the Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) technology in Vadodara. The new technology is expected to deliver high-speed broadband access without facing any technical problems and at considerably cheaper rates. Ramakant Sharma, General Manager of BSNL, Vadodara Circle, said the network has been built on the Gigabyte Passive Optical Technology (GPON) concept which will have the down-link speed of 2.5 Gbps and up-link speed of 1.25 Gbps.
“The single optical fibre will cater to 32 customers with high speed bandwidth. Now, BSNL will offer high speed broadband access up to 100 Mbps with facilities of multi-channel IPTV, video/audio on demand, interactive gaming, conferencing, high-speed lease line, voice services by using this technology,” he said.
He also added that the network is very useful technology to meet demands of new developing commercial and residential areas, corporate bulk demands. It is the latest technology and offers replacement to existing copper network with better reliability and high speed data transmission. When asked about the success of BSNL 3G services, Sharma said: “After we launched the services in July, we have given 3,500 new connections and converted more than 4,000 2G connections into 3G connections.”

BSNL offers freebies to broadband users

CHENNAI: With a view to increasing broadband penetration, BSNL is offering free bonanza to its existing as well as new broadband customers. All the customers registering their new broadband connection up to July 31 under any limited or unlimited BSNL broadband plan of up to 2 Mbps speed shall be provided unlimited free download at 2 Mbps for first 15 days. Installation charges (Rs 250) during this period has been waived off . Security deposit and modem security deposit shall be taken in three equal monthly installments starting from first bill for all the customers registering their broadband connection till this month-end. For customers whose broadband connection has been disconnected due to non-payment of disputed bills, BSNL has also extended the special relief scheme ‘Samadhan’ up to March 31, 2011. Under the scheme, home as well as general user customers are provided substantial rebate to settle their disputed bills.

BSNL plunges into the red

 BS Reporter / New Delhi August 1, 2010, 0:53 IST

State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has posted a loss of Rs 1,823 crore in 2009-10 – its first annual loss since inception ten years ago. A decline in revenue from landline services along with a higher payout to employees because of the award of the Sixth Pay Commission for government employees pushed the company into the red. The company had recorded a profit of Rs 575 crore in 2008-09.

“The wage revision alone caused an additional expenditure of Rs 2,900 crore. If the wage revision had not been there, the company would have recorded a profit before tax of Rs 703 crore,” BSNL Chairman & Managing Director Kuldeep Goel said. BSNL reported a 10.4 per cent decline in revenues at Rs 32,045.41 crore for 2009-10 as against Rs 35,812 crore in 2008-09.

Goel, who retired today after a tenure of three years, exuded hope that the company would be profitable in the current financial year. However, the payment of Rs 18,500 crore for 3G (third generation) and BWA (broadband wireless access) spectrum would result in interest payment of Rs 1,500 crore during the year. On the company's market share, Goel said that in revenue terms, it stood at 19.5 per cent, second after Bharti Airtel.
BSNL, however, registered strong growth of 47 per cent in the broadband segment in 2009-10 – broadband revenue went up to Rs 2,485 crore in 2009-10 from Rs 1,690 crore in 2008-09.
The company plans to add 20 million mobile subscribers in this financial year. Besides, it also plans to introduce value-added services for its mobile subscribers. BSNL has restructured into four business units – Consumer Fixed Access, Consumer Mobility, Enterprise and New Businesses. A team of sales executives in each business verticals has been created for the first time and about 10,000 people have been redeployed and trained for sales activities.

Bharti Airtel offers Encyclopaedia Britannica subscription to broadband users

MUMBAI: Bharti Airtel has entered into an exclusive partnership with Encyclopaedia Britannica. With the deal in place, the Airtel Broadband users will get a two year free subscription, worth Rs 6,575 to Britannica online.

Bharti Airtel Telemedia Services joint president K Srinivas said, “Our partnership with Encyclopaedia Britannica is part of our larger commitment to offer an enhanced broadband experience to our customers, especially to children and the young adults. Encyclopaedia Britannica has created a huge body of content for Indian audiences in art, culture, cinema, education across various mediums and is in line with our commitment of partnering the world’s best for offering innovative content for customers.”

Britannica, one of the leading sources of authentic information, has over 100 million users worldwide and is trusted by over 4,750 universities. As part of its unique collaborative tools, the website also allows customers and members of the public to contribute to the encyclopedia for review, by its panel of eminent scholars including Nobel laureates.


Encyclopaedia Britannica president Jorge Cauz said, "Britannica Online contains rich information along with rich multimedia, and that makes it an excellent match for Bharti Airtel's broadband service. India is one of the largest English speaking markets and is an important market to EB's expansion plans in the Asia Pacific."

The partnership comes on the back of Bharti Airtel’s initiatives to enhance broadband experience through innovative offerings like high speed experience plans, cloud computing solutions and a host of value added services.

irtel doubles speed for Broadband customers at no extra cost


Airtel has upgraded broadband speeds of all its existing customers (on 64, 128, 256 Kbps) to a minimum of 512 Kbps. Further, customers currently on 512 Kbps plans and 1mbps plans will have their speeds doubled to 1Mbps and 2Mbps respectively. The upgrades come at no extra cost to existingcustomers and will be completed by June 2010 pan India. Airtel also announced the launch of ‘Impatience Plans’  which offers 4 Mbps speed plans at Rs. 899/month. .

The Impatience Plans will be available in Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore. As part of the Impatience Plan offerings,customers can either avail an Unlimited Data Transfer Plan OR opt for a Continous Hi Speed Plan-details as below.


Plan Name Impatience 899 Impatience 1099 Impatience 1399 Impatience 1799
Speed 4 Mbps 4 Mbps 4 Mbps 4 Mbps
Rental (Rs.) 899 1099 1399 1799
High Speed Download (in GB) 6 12 25 50
Option 1: Unlimited Data Transfer Plan Post Hi Speed download continue browsing @ 256 Kbps
Option 2: Continuous High Speed Plan Continue at 4 Mbps @ 10 paise/MB per additional MB (Post High Speed download)
Free Bundled Parallel Ringing Parallel Ringing Parallel Ringing Parallel Ringing
VAS Airtelmail Airtelmail Airtelmail Airtelmail
Website Builder Website Builder Website Builder
PC Secure PC Secure PC Secure
Online Storage Online Storage
Unlimited Gaming Unlimited Gaming

BSNL reduced price of EVDO to Rs. 2500

Feeling the heat of competition from its rivals - TATA Photon + and Reliance NetConnect, BSNL has decided to reduce the price of its Data Card - EVDO. The price of EVDO is reduced to Rs. 2500 from Rs. 3500 earlier. As of now BSNL is the only Telecom Operator which is Truly providing Unlimited Data Plans in this category.

BSNL has also announced that the promotional tariff Plan, which ended on 31st March 2010, which provided its users unlimited use ofEVDO, is now a regular tariff. So now you can get an unlimited connection of EVDO at Rs. 750 per month.

Rate comparison of Devices and Unlimited Plans.
Reliance Net Connect - Device Cost Rs. 2299, Speed upto 3.1Mbps No Unlimited Plan, Max. 15GB at Rs.1750 per month.
TATA Photon + - Device Cost Rs. 2399, Speed upto 3.1Mbps, No Unlimited Plan, Max. 15GB at Rs.1500 per month.
BSNL EVDO - Device Cost Rs. 2500, Speed upto 2.4Mbps, Unlimited Plan at Rs 750 per month.

Spectrum price to cross Rs 40,000 cr

The price of spectrum at this bid amount is likely to surpass the government estimate of Rs 40,000 crore. The government expects the bid amount to increase since the autions would be continue for two to three more days.

Aggressive competition is being witnessed among the bidders with the Mumbai circle bid clocked the highest at Rs 1,617 crore, while Delhi circle price rose to Rs 1,550 crore, followed by Maharashtra at Rs 1,020 crore. The bids have started picking up after initial cautious bidding. Altogether 110 rounds of bids are completed. The auction process will resume on Monday.

According to the auction process, there would be multiple, round-the-clock auction simultaneously for 22 circles. There are three and four slots of 3G spectrum.

The department of telecommunications is planning to go for broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum, two days after the completion of 3G auctions. The department has fixed the reserve price for broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum at Rs 1,750 crore. There are three slots for BWA.

Altogether nine applicants have submitted their application to bid for 3G. These players include Aircel, Bharti Airtel, Idea, Reliance, Tata Teleservices Vodafone, S Tel, Videocon and Etisalat DB Telecom.

Net Setter USB Modem

Now stay  connected to Internet at Anytime, Anywhere!! Idea Cellular has launched the new Net Setter USB Modem (usable with both desktops & Laptops) with data, & SMS facility. It is a conveniently slim & stylish solution for internet access on the move. Idea Net Setter is a terminal available for high-speed wireless network access, with which the users can access the Internet in the wireless way at home, office, outdoor sites and so on.
















BSNL 3G Service Hits Bangalore-Karnataka Circle

The teleco's eagerly awaited 3G mobile services have now been officially launched for the Bangalore-Karnataka circle by the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., BSNL.

The next generation 3G GMS mobile service and the HSPA Broadband services were inaugurated by Telecom Minister A Raja and Karnataka's Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa. Starting tomorrow, i. e., February 20, the commercial 3G service will be available for all BSNL post paid and prepaid customers.

The telecom company's new 3G Prepaid Connections comes at just Rs. 59. The starter pack contains a U-SIM (3G Sim card), and after the proper activation of the card, the customer has to recharge with the FRC-120 for the desired 3G tariff plan, which offers the lowest tariff for voice, video calls and data usage.

After recharging with the 3G FRC-120, customers can make local voice and video calls for just 30 Paisa a minute, and all STD video calls will be chargeable at 50 paisa.

The 3G service has already been launched by BSNL across 240 cities in various Indian telecom circles.

3G low-tariff gambit will pay in 3 months: MTNL

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), the public sector telecom firm which is offering lowest rates to attract more 3G users, said the rise in subscriber numbers in the next three months would offset the revenue loss incurred due to low tariff.

The telco, with a 3G subscriber base of 2.5 lakh in Delhi and Mumbai put together, expects to double it to about 5 lakh in the next three months.

“At the moment more than revenue we are looking at mass. In the next 2-3 months the volume of subscribers on 3G will increase substantially,” Kuldip Singh, the newly appointed chairman and managing director of MTNL, said. The PSU telco invested Rs 650 crore for launching 3G services in Delhi and Mumbai.

To generate a huge subscriber base, MTNL has come out with the lowest 3G offering —Rs 10 SIM card. Its another scheme allows for a pulse rate of half-paisa-per-second for voice calls and a data download tariff of 10 KB for one paisa on Rs 149 SIM card that offers Rs 12 talk time. But observers are apprehensive of the viability of low tariffs in the long run.

Singh said, “In the short term low tariffs have adverse impact on revenue. But as usage goes up the revenue goes up, since these are service-driven offerings. We have kept the entry barrier low so that there is faster uptake. The tariffs are even lower than 2.5G.
The volume growth will help negate the initial hit due to low tariff. We expect revenue will offset the effect due to low tariff in three months.”

MTNL also plans to roll out a number of new technologies in FY2010-11. “We will launch fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) technology involving 1,20,000 km of fibre network in Mumbai and Delhi. We will also roll out next-generation-network (NGN) for our landline subscribers in the same fiscal,” he said.

While FTTH can carry high-speed broadband services integrating voice, data and video, NGN refers to a network that transports all information and services (voice, data and video) by encapsulating them into packets.

MTNL has lined up a capex of Rs 1,300 crore in FY10-11 which, in addition to new technologies, will be spent on rolling out additional 1 million GSM lines and 5 lakh broadband lines.

The firm has launched VDSL services for broadband users, especially companies with high-speed internet requirements, with a download speed of 20 mbps and upload speed of 6 mbps at Rs 4,999 per month.

MTNL plans attractive tariffs for newly-launched VDSL service

MUMBAI: Aiming to attract high number of customers to its Very High bit-rate Digital Subscribers Line (VDSL) broadband facility, state-owned
telecom service provider, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), is planning to announce attractive tariffs for the newly-launched service, a top company official said.

"We plan to offer attractive tariff plans for this service in about a couple of weeks. Presently, VDSL facility is available at limited locations in the city. The company will take steps to provide this facility in maximum areas," MTNL's Executive Director, J Gopal, told PTI here.

Public sector MTNL offers VDSL to customers with a high speed of 20 Mbps (2.5 Mb will be down-loaded within one second) for the first time in the country.

Though VDSL broadband technology can offer up to 50-55 Mbps, MTNL had announced that its service can deliver download speeds of 20 MBps.

Earlier, MTNL announced a tariff plan of Rs 9,000 per month with free down-loading up to 45 GB. The new tariff plan will have a monthly rent of Rs 4,999 with free down-loading up to 20 GB, Gopal said.

MTNL said that it expects to attract more customers if Mobile Number Portability (MNP) is launched before the proposed 3G (Third Generation airwaves) auction.

MTNL as well as state-run telecom service provider, BSNL, offer 3G service to their customers exclusively.