@ksh@T

RComm, MTN to create a global top-10 telecom firm MUMBAI: Reliance Communications Ltd and South Africa's MTN have begun due diligence as they inch closer to creating a global top-10 telecoms firm, a source close to the development said. The two firms began due diligence over the weekend aimed at a reverse takeover, the source said on Wednesday. Media reports last week suggested the two were discussing a cash and stock swap deal where MTN would take a stake of up to 74 per cent in India's No. 2 mobile operator, and Reliance chairman Anil Ambani become the biggest shareholder in MTN. The Financial Times on Wednesday said Ambani may link up with private equity groups for the deal, but the source said Reliance may not need assistance in funding as the discussions were aimed at a reverse takeover. Still, industry sources said if MTN were to insist on a large sum of cash as part of any deal, the private equity option could be tapped. "It certainly is an interesting and plausible option if MTN were to ask for a large cash component," said a manager at a private equity firm that is not involved in discussions. Ambani could be open to selling a part of his 66 percent stake in Reliance Communications to private equity firms, he said. "They have already done a deal with private equity firms before, and these firms may well have told Ambani that they are willing to be a part of this deal," he said. Reliance Communications last year raised Rs 1400 crore ($330 million) from a private placement of 5 percent of its tower unit company, Reliance Infratel, with seven investors: Fortress Capital, HSBC Principal Investments, Galleon Group, New Silk Route, GLG Partners, Quantum Fund and DA Capital. "Liquidity is tight now, and markets are volatile, so private equity may be an easier option for Ambani now," the manager said. But the credit squeeze is also hurting private equity firms, and they may be averse to doing large deals now -- or push for lower valuations, said a manager at another private equity firm. The Economic Times last week said a potential deal could see Ambani emerge as the largest single shareholder in MTN, with the Indian firm becoming a subsidiary of sub-Saharan Africa's biggest mobile phone operator. Based on foreigners holding 11 percent of Reliance Communication shares, Ambani could swap between 43 and 63 percent of his holding in the company for a stake of 28 to 34 percent in MTN, it had said. India allows up to a 74 percent foreign holding in telecoms firms by foreign companies, with a purchase of 15 percent triggering a mandatory open offer for 20 percent more. Ambani's large holding in his flagship company and low foreign ownership makes a deal with MTN more plausible than the one that Bharti Airtel walked away from, Citigroup analysts said in a note this week. Analysts and media estimate foreigners own 10 to 13 percent of Reliance Communications. Morgan Stanley has estimated an open offer for Reliance Communications shareholders could be at 613 rupees a share, a 7 percent premium to the stock's closing price on May 23, the last day they traded before the firms said they were in talks. Shares in Reliance Communications fell 2.3 percent on Wednesday to 540.15 rupees in a broader market down 2.8 percent. They have lost 5.6 percent in the eight sessions since the talks were announced. Reliance is being advised by Lazard, while Merrill Lynch are advising MTN.

Idea Cellular, Spice redial merger NEW DELHI: Idea Cellular and Spice Communications are again talking merger. ET has learnt that two options are being considered. The first, the Modis may sell their 40% stake in the company to Idea before the merger. Telekom Malaysia , which has a 39% stake in Spice, will then get a stake in Idea post-merger. The second, Telekom Malaysia will first buy the Modis' stake in Spice and the company will merge with Idea later. In such a scenario, too, TM will end up being a shareholder in Idea. Spice Communications chairman BK Modi today confirmed ET's report last week which said he was looking at a stake sale. He did not mention Idea’s name but said that Etisalat of UAE and Japan’s NTT DoCoMo could be interested parties, and added that he was open to Telekom Malaysia increasing its stake to 74% in the company. “TM partners Etisalat and NTT DoCoMo in some markets. If they want to bring them in as part of the deal (for taking stake to 74%), we are open to that,” Mr Modi said. However, a senior source told ET that Idea Cellular may be closest to the deal. Idea Cellular MD Sanjeev Aga could not be contacted despite repeated attempts. But another Idea executive confirmed, on condition of anonymity, that talks have taken place between the two companies. “It has been happening on and off; talks are being held at the promoter level. There has been no final decision on the issue yet,” the source added. In June last year, merger talks between the two companies broke down over valuation differences. According to a source, Idea had put the enterprise value of Spice at $700 million and was willing to go up to $1 billion but Spice wanted the value to be upped to $1.3 billion. The AV Birla group-controlled Idea may be keen on Spice now largely due to the latter’s presence in the Punjab and Karnataka circles where it’s not present. While Idea has been allotted spectrum to roll out operations in these two circles, a full-fledged roll-out will take more than six months. On the other hand, a merger will give Idea a strong foothold in the two circles, which also boasts of high average revenue per user. The merged entity will become the fifth largest telecom company in terms of mobile subscribers (28.5 million-plus) after Bharti, RCom, Vodafone and BSNL and move ahead of Tata Teleservices, which have 25 million subscribers. Idea has been allotted spectrum in the 11 circles where it does not operate, and is readying plans to roll out mobile services in them. It is set to become a pan-India operator by 2009. The reason why the Modis may want to exit Spice is due to its inability to become a pan-India player, which is crucial for profitability in the world’s most competitive telecom market. DoT had recently rejected Spice’s application for a pan-India licence citing the company’s poor net worth, and instead awarded its licences for just four more circles — Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Maharashtra. However, even in these, Spice’s expansion plans are yet to be finalised since TM has refused to pump in the requisite resources. The Malaysian telco is known to share a frosty relationship with the Modis, sources added. Spice has just under 4.5 million of India’s over 269 million mobile users — a market share of a mere 1.6% — and is 39.2% owned by Malaysia’s state-controlled Telekom Malaysia . The BK Modi family has a 40.8% stake through Modi Wellvest, while the remaining 20% is held by the public and financial institutions. The company posted a loss of Rs 36.50 crore for the quarter ended March 2008 and a loss of Rs 14.66 crore in the corresponding period last year.

thats true popkorn why are u having the half knowledge and trying to explain that u have the full knowledge thats true who said u cant record a video or view that video in a video player, first read the complete thread and then post. the issue was that how to play external video that was not creaed by phone meand video songs movies . . .understood . . . so, Half knowledge is dangerous as per a saying eh very much fits in here...

indeed a good plan!. . .bt what minimum recharge in what time period!

first of all kamal why samsung posts are not in samsung section.... you are mod u shdnt do this

Admins move this to samsung section

well honest shouldnt it be in samsung section as the set is from samsung!

opera is in java form the appearance is not as good as nokia but it doesnt connects thats what everyone is searching here

well no idea about that! . .how to change the stuff

MUMBAI: Troubled mobile-handset maker Motorola saw a sharp decline in sales to 29.9 million units in the first quarter of 2008, compared with 47.6 million units in the year-ago period. Having lost its global number two position in the handset market to Samsung, it is now under threat from LG, global technology research firm Gartner said on Wednesday. US-based Motorola, whose market share slipped from 18.4% to 10.2% during the period, continues to struggle in finding a successor to its popular Moto Razr. Although it introduced new models, its portfolio is not competitive enough. “Motorola is unlikely to introduce many products in the second half of 2008, a time when most competitors will bring new additions to the market, so it stands little chance of winning back its No 2 position. It may even have to watch out for a threat from current No 4 player LG,” said Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices at Gartner. Indian consumer electronics major Videocon had expressed interest in buying Motorola’s handset business, valued at around $3.8 billion. In March, Motorola decided to spin off the handset division amid declining revenues. During the first quarter, Samsung sales reached 42.4 million units, with a market share of 14.4% as it widened the gap with third-placed Motorola. Samsung is reacting quickly to the focus on touch-screen devices. “Samsung’s choice to be a quick follower has paid off so far, but it needs to focus on diversifying its designs and strengthening its lower-end portfolio to increase sales in emerging markets,” said Ms Milanesi. Market leader Nokia sold 115.2 million mobile phones in the first quarter of 2008, with a market share of 39.1%. Nokia was able to maintain market leadership, thanks to the richness of its portfolio, which appeals to users in both emerging and mature markets, said Gartner. Worldwide sales of mobile phones grew 13.6% to 294.3 units during the first quarter of 2008, boosted by rising demand in the Asia Pacific region, led by India. The report said 114.4 million mobile devices were sold in the Asia Pacific region. This represented a 26.6% increase over the first quarter of 2007. “India remained a high-growth market, and South Korea became a high-growth market as well during the quarter,” the report said. as consumers upgraded their handsets before the new extended contracts are put in place by operators in the second quarter of 2008,” the report said. “Growth in Asia Pacific was driven by a high number of new subscribers, lower-priced phones based on wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) technology, as well as low-cost global system for mobile communications (GSM) phones and ultra-low-cost CDMA devices,” said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst for mobile terminals at Gartner, based in Mumbai. “We remain confident that 2008 will be a growth year for the mobile phone industry. Sales, driven in particular by emerging markets, will continue to rise in the range of 10-15%. However, the value of the market will be lower than we stated in our forecast update published in December 2007. This is because the current economic slowdown and higher fuel costs will force consumers to defer phone purchases in mature markets, while higher food prices will lead to longer replacement cycles in emerging ones,” Ms Milanesi said.

i agree with you amit

but still how will wap browser work! .. . . ne settings hetal, ashok, kshah . . .please do some r&d

@kamal STD @99p must be a long sight but it cd be for r2r only , as usual the latecomer, i suppose 1.25 to 1.30 , wd be the rate IF they cut

good packs . . .

well that might be possible!

well the above settings of SC810 also dont work what to do!

Reliance may pay premium for MTN control JOHANNESBURG: India's Reliance Communications is prepared to pay a significant premium for control of South African mobile phone group MTN, a newspaper website said on Thursday. The website said there were two options for the transaction: a straightforward cash and shares bid for MTN from Reliance, or a second plan under which MTN would retain its South African identity but Reliance Chairman Anil Ambani would own 34.9 percent of MTN. MTN and Reliance said on Monday they were in exclusive talks after India's biggest mobile phone operator Bharti Airtel broke off talks with sub-Saharan Africa's biggest cellphone group. A combination of MTN, valued at $35 billion at Wednesday's close, and Reliance, valued at $27 billion, would create a top ten global industry player to rival Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc in market value. In terms of subscribers, a merged group would slot in just below Deutsche Telekom as the seventh biggest in the world. FT Alphaville said, without citing its sources, that under the full control option, MTN Chief Executive Officer Phuthuma Nhleko would become CEO of the enlarged group for at least three years. MTN Chairman Cyril Ramaphosa will become co-chairman alongside Ambani for 12 months. After this period, Ambani will then become chairman and Ramaphosa vice-chairman. Under the second option, MTN will buy 51 per cent of Reliance from Ambani and pay in stock. The exchange ratio will include a premium deal price and MTN would then make a cash offer for 20 per cent of Reliance shares held publicly. MTN shares were 4.7 per cent stronger at 149.13 rand in Johannesburg by 1439 GMT while Reliance Communications shares closed 3.9 per cent higher at Rs 573.20 in India. Ambani would then have enough shares in MTN from existing shareholders to lift his direct stake to 34.9 per cent. The website said although Ambani will have economic ownership of little more than 33 per cent of the enlarged company, he is insisting on effective control in return for a premium valuation of MTN. It said Nhleko has been informed that he would be asked to head a combined MTN Reliance for at least five years. Existing stock market listings in New Delhi, Mumbai and Johannesburg would be retained and a secondary listing in London is planned.

what abt TATA they were also to pay almost 300Cr, wd they b dissconnecting or BSNL is planning so

well when i purchased d-88n from hot spot i had my address proof and the guy gave me free airtel connection , i said i will give my photo later and please activate my connection , surprisingly they activated and i didnt gave my photo and rubbish they pasted someone else photo there when i went to gave my photo! . .amazing its INDIA

NEW DELHI: “All determinate situations can be turned to advantage,” explains classical Chinese warrior philosopher Tsun Tzu in his ancient book “The Art of War”. R-ADAG chairman Anil Ambani, a self-avowed practitioner of Tsun Zu’s war strategy has taken a leaf out of the ancient Chinese classic in the MTN saga. Two days after Bharti announced that its negotiations with MTN had failed, Mr Ambani’s Reliance Communications (RCOM) on Monday said that it had entered into exclusive talks with South African mobile firm to discuss a “potential combination of their businesses” to “achieve unique global platform for exponential growth”. Whether RCOM entered into negotiations with MTN once talks with Bharti had failed or whether it was its eagerness to explore all options with MTN which resulted in the South African company refusing to budge from its position that Bharti Airtel become a subsidiary, thereby resulting in the collapse of talks between the two is a matter of conjecture. But one thing is clear. The battle between the India’s two largest private mobile operators has spread from the corridors of Sanchar Bhawan to the domestic market place to foreign shores as well. If RCOM were to pull off a merger with MTN, it would create a global telecom giant with close to 120 million subscribers that has a footprint stretching from the Cape of Good Hope to the Himalayas across 23 countries and covering a population of two billion, a third of the world. Besides, an RCOM-MTN combine will have the largest WiMAX footprint globally covering 50% of the world’s population. The combine will also command a market cap of over $65 billion, have revenues to the tune of $14.4 billion, an operating profit of over $6 billion and assets worth $26.8 billion, and emerge as he second most profitable operator in emerging markets after China Mobile. This will more than drawf Bharti which currently has a market cap of a little over $40 billion with 65 million subscribers with no significant presence outside India. Round One won by RCOM The RCOM Vs Bharti battle is nearly a decade old — while Mittal was earlier pitted against the older Ambani (Mukesh) for the last three years, he has been fighting the younger brother Anil Ambani on the telecom front. While Bharti Airtel is currently miles ahead of over all its rivals, including RCOM in India, the tables had turned only two years ago. In 2005, RCOM (then called Reliance Infocomm) not only managed to dislodge Bharti from its market leadership position, but nearly pushed Mr Mittal to the edge. So much so that even Mr Mittal admitted that at the height of the WLL crisis in 2002, Battleship Bharti was a “machine that was creaking” Infocomm’s entry forced Mr Mittal to invest beyond his company’s means, and the policy googly from the government, which allowed players such as Reliance which held limited mobility (WLL) licenses to offer full-fledged mobile telephony left Bharti a tad vulnerable, both financially and strategically. The pace of Infocomm’s national rollout, coupled with cheaper tariffs and handsets saw the company shot past Bharti in subscriber numbers. Round Two went to Bharti Trade analysts predicted that Bharti would fold up as it could not match Infocomm in either subscriber numbers or tariffs. Instead, Bharti recorded its first quarterly profit of Rs 23 crore in March 2003 and its first full year profit in FY04. Bharti reduced tariffs gradually, harped on the superior quality of services, roped in SingTel as an investor, and launched its now famous outsourcing model. Network management went to Nokia Siemens and Ericsson, IT to IBM and call customer related activities were outsourced to global BPO majors. Infocomm, on the other hand, was plagued by glitches in its first 24 months of operations. From wide-spread billing problems leading to customer dissatisfaction, to trouble with the law for illegal routing of international calls and a down market image, Infocomm’s first two years were mired by problems of various hues, which played into Bharti’s hands. And so, after being behind in the race for subscriber numbers for nearly three years, Bharti drew level to Reliance. The figures explain better: In Q3, FY 06, Bharti had 16.3 million against Reliance’s 17 million; and in Q4 of FY 06, Bharti had 19.6 million against Reliance’s 20.2 million. However, in Q1, FY 07, Bharti raced to the lead with 23.1 million wireless users compared to Reliance’s 22.5 million base. Since then Bharti has pulled ahead month-after-month to command a towering lead — it currently has a subscriber base of about 65 million which is 17 million ahead of Reliance Communication’s CDMA and GSM arms combined. RCOM comes back fighting But Reliance Communications under Mr Anil Ambani, with a change in management and a new brand identity quickly sorted out all problems that plaugedthe company and quickly re-emerged as the primary competitor to Bharti. Lsat year, RCOM could have emerged as the largest operator in India if it was successful in its bid for Hutchison-Essar. If the company had bagged Hutch in February 2007, the CDMA major would have had over 50 million subscribers and close to a 40% market share, way ahead of Bharti with 30 million subscribers . Mr Mittal played his part in providing the no objection certificate to Vodafone, which enabled the UK-based telco to outbid RCOM and gain a controlling stake in Hutchison Essar. Mr Ambani and RCOM hit back hard again late last year. Catching the GSM industry off guard, the Department of Telecom approved the use of dual technology where telcos can offer both GSM and CDMA services under the same license. Even before the policy became public, RCOM got the DoT nod to offer GSM services based on its applications it had filed in GSM license in February 2006. GSM operators led by Bharti went all out to defend their turf — they filed a series of applications with the telecom tribunal and the Delhi High Court accusing the DoT of “twisting rules to benefit one operator”, and said that RCOM’s applications for GSM were invalid. But their lobbying and legal challenges failed to yield the desired results. At the same time, Mr Ambani also opened up a new front — he accused GSM players of trying to hoard spectrum and limit new competition, in addition to resorting to anti-consumer practices, such as cartelisation and price fixation. Even as GSM operators were engaged in proving that they were entitled to spectrum 6.2 MHz, the impasse allowed Mr Ambani to open a third front in the battle for airwaves. RCOM along with Tatas campaigned for enforcing a Telecom Engineering Centre’s recommendations which said that GSM players should increase their subscriber base between 6 - 15 time before they are given additional spectrum. All of Mr Mittal’s efforts to get the DoT to rollback the stringent spectrum allocation norms came to naught. While Bharti and other GSM players were fighting numerous court battles through their industry association, RCOM on the other hand used this break to plan its GSM roll-out. RCOM emerged victorious with a pan-India GSM licence and start-up GSM spectrum. well this article is in short the new saga of indian telecommunications market! . . .

Sistema seeks to up stake in Shyam Telelink to 72 pc MOSCOW: Russian services conglomerate Sistema said on Tuesday it would seek to use a call option to boost its stake in India's Shyam Telelink to 72 per cent. Sistema said in January it had bought a 51 per cent stake in Shyam and entered into a call option that would allow it to boost its stake to 74 per cent over a set period of time. Sistema said in a statement that it had signed an amendment to the option which gives it the right to accelerate the purchase of additional 21 per cent stake at any time. "Sistema has issued a call option exercise notice to acquire the additional 21 per cent of shares in Shyam Telelink for $45 million," Sistema said.

Anil Ambani may get to transfer just 61% RCOM stake to MTN MUMBAI: Anil Ambani can at best transfer a 61% equity stake in Reliance Communications (RCOM) to the South African telco MTN as part of the deal the companies are contemplating to create a combined entity. This is required to comply with the 74% cap on foreign shareholding required by Indian regulations. This is because foreign shareholders already hold 13% in RCOM, as per a JPMorgan report. The contours of the deal under negotiations suggest that Mr Ambani will get nearly one-third stake in MTN against his shareholding in RCOM. The deal, as ET has reported, may be structured in a fashion to make MTN the holding company of RCOM. If the deal goes through, Mr Ambani will be the single-largest shareholder of MTN with a one-third stake. MTN will, then, need to come out with a mandatory open offer for minority shareholders of RCOM to comply with the takeover guidelines. But there are problems with this. The report raises questions on whether MTN's mandatory open offer will be permitted by the Indian laws. If 61% is transferred, it will saturate the 74% foreign holding in RCOM and the resident Indians will not be able to take part in the open offer. However, the brokerage is not sure whether such a partial tender offer is allowed. The obvious solution is for Mr Ambani to transfer less than his 66% holding. A person familiar with the deal said nothing has been frozen so far. “Both the parties are considering several options and this is one of them. There is no guarantee that Mr Ambani will have to transfer 60% stake to MTN. He may transfer 40% stake to MTN to comply with the Indian law. In that case, he may have to pay some money to MTN to compensate the value of 20% equity in RCOM which, at current market price, is pegged at $6 billion,” he said. The JPMorgan report, dated May 27, also points out that MTN may have to issue new shares to give one-third ownership to Mr Ambani. If that happens, the existing MTN shareholders' equity will come down on an expanded capital base. But their exact shareholding, post the deal, will depend on the share swap ratio. These calculations are based on the assumption that the share price is fixed at Rs 600 for RCOM and Rand 150 for MTN. In this scenario, Mr Ambani will get new shares of MTN, equivalent to a 33.3% stake, if he transfers his 61% stake in RCOM to MTN. These new shares will enhance the equity capital of MTN and therefore, the equity of existing shareholders will come down proportionately. The research report anticipated that Newshelf 664 will hold 8.7% post such a deal, against its existing holding of 13.1%. Similarly, the Mikati family's stake will come down to 6.8% (from 10.2%), PIC to 6.4% (from 9.7%). The free float will come down to 44.8% from 67.1%.

well i purchased D-88n for 7380 with Airtel Sim and I year incoming and talktime of 100Rs . .

well they are gearing up for launch of BIG TV , thats it but i will save rs 50 per month for channels that i watch and will have to pay only 200 pm . .

hi guys i was one of the last in my friends to go to BSNL broadband as no other Telco was in my area, and was afraid that BSNL will give wounds but after my friends and almost all forums assured that BSNL broadband is the Best i finally opted it . . the speed was good when i opted in December07, in january too the speed was good . . .i used to get 150K+ download speed in rapidshare etc. but now the scenario has changed am in 2MB plan, with night unlimited the browsing is good but downloading its worst 2.5 K to 7K last . .i mean is that broadband or narrow band! . . . whats the reason . . . are you ppl also experiencing the same! please reply . . the signature below used to be in january - february