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BSNL hires ZTE to enhance broadband services

China-based telecom equipment provider ZTE Corporation today said it has bagged a fresh contract from state-run BSNL, with the aim of enhancing broadband services in the country.


Under the partnership, ZTE will deploy ultra high-speed and next-generation broadband devices across BSNL's network in 15 circles, ZTE Corporation said in a statement issued here.

However, both the companies did not share the financial details of the agreement.


"In today's world, internet access and broadband penetration is an integral part of a country's growth and progress. We are extremely delighted and proud to partner with BSNL to make broadband connectivity more widely accessible to people in India," ZTE India CEO Cui Liangjun said.

The deployment will expand the reach and quality of BSNL's fixed network broadband services across the country and address the requirements of future multimedia broadband services there.

Liangjun further said, "ZTE has been closely associated with BSNL for over a decade across multiple telecom projects, and this latest initiative further reaffirms the strength of our partnership".

ZTE has already deployed over 3 million subscriber broadband units for BSNL



BSNL plans High-speed wireless broadband

The issue of which technology to use in wireless broadband services, TD-LTE or WiMax, is becoming keener.


After Reliance Industries did so, state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) plans to launch LTE-based services. “We will have to continue offering broadband services through WiMax in rural areas because of various government schemes. But LTE-based services are being looked at for urban areas,” chairman and managing director R K Upadhyay told Business Standard.

Both TD-LTE (time division-long term evolution) and WiMax (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) are 4G (fourth-generation) technology, which offer wireless broadband at high speeds. In TD-LTE, subscribers can get data speed in the range of 60-100 mega bits per second (mbps). In WiMax, data speed is around 40 mbps. Apart from the higher speed, an LTE-based service scores over WiMax because of its compatibility with both 2G and 3G networks.




Asked when these services would be launched, Upadhyay said it would take some time. Apart from Reliance Industries, which acquired majority stake in Infotel Broadband, which had won pan-India broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum in last year’s auction, another private company, Aircel, has recently concluded trials for TD-LTE with Huawei.



BSNL’s sister concern, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam, is also contemplating TD-LTE services. MTNL had first called for bids to look for a franchisee for its WiMax business, but this did not materialise. It plans a new tender now, to be technology-neutral and has appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers as the agency to look for a franchisee and prepare an Expression of Interest for this.



Both BSNL and MTNL were awarded BWA spectrum in 2009, a year ahead of the auction for private companies. It is expected that the latter would commercially launch their services in the first quarter of next year.



Bharati Airtel launches new High-Speed broadband plans

Bharti Airtel has come up with new broadband plans for top 10 markets in India. In this line it will offer minimum Broadband speed at 2mbps from 1mbps onwards for the top cities across the country.
On the new broadband plans, the minimum Broadband speed that will be offered in Top 10 markets - Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune, will be 2mbps. For all its other markets, across its service areas in the country, the new plans offer a minimum Broadband speed of 1mbps.

The Airtel Broadband customers can choose their Plans suiting their High Speed Data Usage needs starting from 3GB right up to 150GB. In select markets, customers can double their speeds to 4mbps for Rs. 100 more. The 4mbps plans start at Rs1,099.

Girish Mehta, Chief Marketing Officer, Telemedia Services, Bharti Airtel, said that, over the past several months, we have been continually adding to our broadband service portfolio. Raising the broadband speed threshold with the new broadband plans will help enhance uptake of the array of content and rich media experience on Airtel broadband.
In addition, Airtel has also introduced several innovative additions to its value-added services which includes exclusive offerings for airtel Broadband users with content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Learn Next, Broadband TV, Airtel Photos and Airtel Movies.

Airtel launches Broadband TV at Rs 49 per month

Mar. 16 -- Bharti Airtel has launched Broadband TV service through which customers can watch live TV on their computers and laptops. The monthly rental will be Rs 99.


Customers can watch 28 Live TV channels including UTV Bindass, UTV Movies, Bloomberg UTV, TLC, Animal Planet, all Discovery channels, Sakshi TV, Live India and Tarang Music.

Subscription plans include:

Gold Pack- All channels with Voice on Demand and movies for Rs 99 per month.

Night Pack- All channels with Voice on Demand and movies for Rs 49, per month from 9 pm - 9 am.

My Pack- Any 3 chosen channels for Rs 49 per month.

Published by HT Syndication with permission from Bharat Chronicle.

Bharti Airtel launches Airtel Photo Service for its broadband customers

Airtel has launched a digital photo printing service for Airtel Broadband customers, in association with leading photo-service, Zoomin.com. Called Airtel Photo Service, users will be able upload their photos online, and have them printed, and then delivered to their doorstep.


Apart from printing photographs in matte, gloss and luminous print finishes, Airtel Photo Service gives users many other media to choose from, from T-shirts to mugs, calendars to photo-albums, which can all be customized with personal messages, themes, art clips, etc. Along with online editing tools, users have a handy Organizer to create customized collections.
Users will also be able to store an unlimited number of photos online in their Airtel Photo Service account, and can import albums from Facebook.

The service is available only for Airtel Broadband users, and to make things simple for them, does not require payment online via credit/debit cards. Instead, each item purchased will be billed to the monthly Airtel Broadband postpaid bill, using a ‘pay per instance’ feature to keep track of items. Photo products available on Airtel Photo Service range from Rs. 65 to Rs. 595, inclusive of applicable taxes and delivery charges.


For details on the complete product portfolio, customers can visit www.airtel.Zoomin.com

RCom to offer unlimited wireless Internet for Rs 169 a month

RCom to offer unlimited wireless Internet for Rs 169 a month
New Delhi, Mar 24 (PTI) Reliance Communications (RCom) today said it will provide unlimited Internet usage to its prepaid wireless subscribers in semi-urban and rural areas for Rs 169 a month.The plan has been launched across the country except the top 1,000 towns. It will effectively cover 23,000 towns and 600,000 villages.RCom also slashed the cost of Reliance Netconnect USB stick modem to Rs …
Prepaid Wireless Has Finally Grown Up
Have you taken a look at prepaid wireless lately? I hadn’t, since there is always so much noise to follow in the post-paid world and prepaid is relatively quiet, but prepaid is actually looking better and better over the last few years. Prepaid is becoming a mainstream part of the mix you should consider. In fact, it is now even better than traditional wireless for a growing percentage of users.
RCom brings ‘City Unlimited’ broadband plan
MUMBAI, INDIA: Telecommunication service provider Reliance Communications launches its new offering ‘City Unlimited’ which comes with unlimited data usage and Internet access, within the same city with wireless Internet speed of up to 153 kbps.

India added 22.62 million mobile users in December

NEW DELHI: India added 22.62 million mobile phone subscribers in December, taking the total number of cellular users in the country to 752.19 million till Dec 31, official data said. 

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ( TRAI )), the wireless phone user base grew 3.10 percent in December 2010, from 729.57 million in November. 

But the report said that in December the total number of active subscribers was only 529.22 million. 

The growth in wireless phone category was led by Reliance Communication with an addition of 3.3 million users, 14.54 percent of the country's net addition in December, taking its user base to 125.65 million. 

Telecom giant Bharti Airtel followed next with an addition of over 3.1 million subscribers accounting for 13.71 percent of the net addition in December, taking its total number of subscribers to 152.5 million 

Vodafone stood at the third spot with an addition of 3 million subscribers, taking its total subscriber base to 124.26 million. State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) added 2.98 million subscribers and thus has 86.71 million subscribers. 

Other telecom players such as Idea Cellular performed remarkably well with the addition of 2.95 million users, closely followed by Uninor, which added 2.31 million users. This took their total subscriber base to 81.78 million and 18.51 million respectively. 

According to the data, the broadband subscriber base grew 1.88 percent from 10.71 million in November to 10.92 million in December 2010. 

However, the wireline segment declined marginally from 35.19 million in November to 35.09 million at the end of December 2010.

BSNL losing battle due to government policies


In the times of intense competition in the telecom sector, government policies and decisions are jeopardising the future of State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL). The case here is that of the allocation of non-standardised Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) Spectrum to the BSNL, while private operators have got more efficient radio waves to launch their high-speed broadband services.
Moreover, despite getting inferior spectrum, the BSNL was asked to pay amount similar to what private companies paid after bidding. Pan-Indian BWA spectrum was sold for Rs.12,847 crore. While only one player opted for the bidding process last year due to high prices, the BSNL was given no choice to opt for circles and forced to pay Rs.8,000 crore for pan-India licence (barring Delhi and Mumbai circles where MTNL operates). And this is when the State-owned company suffered a loss of over Rs.1,800 crore in the last fiscal, a first in the company's history.
For BWA services, most private operators have shown interest in adopting LTE (long term evolution) technology due to its high-speed and greater efficiency. But the BSNL has been allocated band on which it cannot launch LTE services. While private operators can use both WiMax and LTE technologies, the BSNL will have no road map for LTE, which is being dubbed as the technology of future.
The BSNL has been allocated BWA spectrum in higher frequency range (2.6 GHz) against lower frequency radio waves (2.3 GHz) given to private players. Lower frequency means better services and less capital expenditure on infrastructure. Here too, the BSNL's position is being compromised compared to its competitors. Even if the BSNL uses allocated spectrum for WiMAX services, it will not get the advantage of economy of scale globally. With the telecom industry more focused towards LTE, its equipment are likely to be cheaper in future.
And it is not all. The Department of Telecommunications has found something amiss in the roll out of BWA services by the BSNL. Its top management has reportedly allowed “cheap access” to some “shell companies” to its precious resources, including costly BWA spectrum in metros (for which the BSNL paid Rs.8,000 crore to government), 50,000 mobile towers and 20,000 of its offices.
While ordering a detailed inquiry into alleged irregularities in the selection of WiMax franchisees in 2010, currently being conducted by DoT's Finance Wing, Communications and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal noted that “these shell companies are more interested in selling their stake to potential buyers rather than broadband network roll out.”
Welcoming the inquiry into the alleged scandal, Sanchar Nigam Executive Association General Secretary G.L. Jogi alleged that the BSNL top management changed rules and regulations after the bid was finalised.
“All these steps would not only hit the competitiveness of the BSNL, it would further deteriorate financial condition of the State-owned company. We have urged Mr. Sibal to scrap this deal and also give the BSNL choice to operate from circles of its choice for financial viability,” he said.
“We have informed about all these anomalies to the Minister. While the BSNL paid Rs.8,000 crore for BWA spectrum, these handpicked companies were gifted all prime circles for operations and given concessions for making payments. ,” Mr. Jogi added.