Honest

Big C to open mobile outlets in TN, Kerala Business Line l 21 Dec l Hyderabad Big C, a mobile retail chain, has said it would expand the network to Tamil Nadu and Kerala next year. The company has a chain of 60 showrooms in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. “We are going to set up outlets in Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram, Madurai and Salem. The company would spend Rs 50 crore on the expansion plans,” Mr M. Balu Chowdary, Chairman and Managing Director of Big C, said. “We covered top towns in Andhra Pradesh excepting in Medak and Mahboobnagar districts. We will be covering these and tier-II cities to have 100 outlets by the end of the financial year,” Mr Y. Swapnakumar, Executive Director of Big C, said. Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, they said the slowdown might impact just 10-20 per cent of the mobile market. “But it gives us a good opportunity to bargain better for space and human resources,” they said. The company, which registered a turnover of Rs 180 crore in 2007-08, was looking at Rs 250 crore this financial year.

Internet service still spotty in parts of Mideast AP/ PTI / Dubai l December 22 Spotty Internet service continued to plague the Middle East as it began its work, with service providers rerouting data detoured by severed underwater cables. Emirati provider Etisalat says service is at about 85 per cent capacity yesterday -- the same as the previous day. The Abu Dhabi-based company has arranged to redirect some of its data traffic through South Asia, spokesman Saeed al-Badi says. Dubai-based Emirates Integrated Telecommunications, better known as Du, said Saturday it was rerouting data and international voice traffic through Asia and the western United States. Officials could not immediately be reached yesterday. Egypt's Communications Ministry, for its part, made a similar announcement Saturday that it was rerouting traffic through Indian Ocean cables after the main ones in the Mediterranean were cut. After there was no connection for Friday and and much of Saturday, internet service was restored to Egypt at around 70 per cent capacity by yesterday. The ministry said the repair work may take up to a week. Friday's cut was the second large-scale Internet outage in the region this year.

My dear friends it was confirmed upto yesterday that Imported Gsm / Cdma handsets with improper IMEI numbering or BAD ESN will be banned from 6 January. But today I heard that Telecom Operators have come with an option to Upgrade the Mobile Software through which even improper IMEI number handsets will get the life. That means by downloading the software on the mobile the handset will get a new Unique Number for Identification purpose. But this option came from Gsm Operators only. No confirmation from CDMA Operators till date. So, I'm still doubtful about Imported CDMA handsets.

Mobile VAS players ringing in more profits Economic Times l 22 Dec While the world reels under recession, emerging players in the mobile value added services (mVAS) business in India are not just growing but chalking out new plans with the introduction of 3G (third generation) telecom services. Using ingenious strategies, companies like Net4Nuts, One97 Communications, Ziva Software, Mauj Telecom and Hungama are now gunning for expansion into fresh markets with new, innovative offerings. Combating the recessionary winds on the horizon comes first for Chirag Patel, CEO of Net4Nuts, a technology company that provides a range of mVAS to operators like Vodafone, Airtel, Spice, and BPL Mobile. He thinks this is the perfect time to expand beyond the domestic market. His target-countries in the Middle East and South-east Asia. The technology will remain the same with a bit of tweaking to localise services. mVAS applications are going to be a hit with networks that carry 3G, and Patel expects 3-4 times higher margins in the new markets than what he makes in India. "Those applications are priced higher than 2G and have better margins, and so we will be competing full throttle there," he says. Net4Nuts had developed SMS-based software for the Indian Railways, which helps users get information on train schedules and reservation status through their regular mobile phones. Now, when consumers are likely to cut down spending, Patel has a plan ready. "We have launched promotional schemes like referral programmes with operators, where users can refer names and use our services free-of-cost." The company expects to do a turnover of Rs 6 crore this fiscal, which is a 50% more than last year. With mobile penetration in India at 20% against a paltry 2% reach of the Internet, it is estimated that one out of every five mobile users in India connects to the Internet through the mobile handset. Such users own WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) enabled phones allowing access to the Internet through a WAP browser, which adapts web content for the small screen displays of mobile phones. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, mVAS revenues in India are expected to touch over $2 billion by the end of this year. Currently, about 44% of mVAS revenues are driven by short messaging service (SMS) applications. That spells good cheer for smaller mVAS players who are poised to make the best of this trend. One97 Communications, for instance, is now readying new applications to serve the market that will open up with 3G services. Market estimates indicate that nearly 8 million customers would start using mVAS every month in India in the coming year, with much of the urban population a waiting target for fast downloads. "We are aggressively working on mass-market applications to broad-base our market reach at relatively lower rates in these cost-cutting times," says Vijay Shekhar Sharma, managing director, One97 Communications. Sharma says he has re-negotiated with players like HP and IBM for their voice based platforms, and expanding his team to meet the work that would come their way in the 3G era. "Our team is working on low-cost applications for telecom service providers which will be offered to subscribers, and some premium applications for 3G," says Sharma. He adds that demand for broad-based application like tariff plans, call-for-information and voice-based services have been increasing at more than 80% every month. The number of mobile subscribers has reached 325 million, making India the second-largest wireless market in the world. And as subscribers keep getting added, mVAS players are the logical beneficiaries. "We are adding three million subscriptions a month," says Manoj Kohli, CEO and Joint MD, Bharti Airtel, speaking on the sidelines of the Strategic Management Society's India Special Conference in Hyderabad recently. According to a study by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), one impediment that can stunt the telecom growth story is the lack of availability of such services in cheaper handsets. Typically low-priced handsets do not support high speed data transfer, a key enabler of 3G services. This is already being addressed by companies such as DigiBee Microsystems, which has developed feature-rich handsets at half the cost of their big brand counterparts. With handsets priced at Rs 1,000 it tied up with BSNL last June to offer service bundled handsets in tier-II and tier-III markets. The success of mVAS going forward will depend critically on faster adoption of specific applications among different segments of mobile subscribers. Bangalore-based Ziva Software is pinning its mVAS hopes on search, made simple and easy. Its search engine works to understand ambiguity, so if you enter a broad phrase like 'flowers in Chennai', the application guides you through more detailed queries to throw up results accordingly. The best part is that language won't be a bar in this search application. Says the company's founder Ajay Sethi, "For us, concentrating on such innovations is fundamental to being on top of the currents economic situation." Neeraj Roy, CEO of Hungama Mobile, one of the largest developers of mobile and digital entertainment content, couldn't agree more. His company has made the best of mVAS services around the entertainment industry. The latest is voice-based services for Bollywood's latest blockbuster, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, where a caller can share his/her special romantic experience with Shah Rukh Khan. Newer applications are being readied on gaming, music and karaoke for upcoming releases like Chandni Chowk to China, Ghajini, and Jumbo. "More than a billion people across the world will go on to the mobile Internet in the next three years. A major chunk of this will be from India," says Roy. His team has also developed applications on video-conferencing through a 3G mobile device. "There is a big market there," he says. Similarly, Mauj Telecom is looking to bring magazine content to the mobile phone, and 3G will make this easier. Mauj currently offers mVAS services ranging from mobile games, ringtones and wallpapers to roaming applications. It already has access to magazine content from Maxim and Man's World, and has now tied up with For Him Magazine to make its content available on mobile phones. It also plans to launch mobile magazines or Mobizines soon. Of course, all this will look, and work, much better on 3G networks that will offer high download speeds and open up exciting possibilities for more complex application development, says Manoj Dawane, CEO, Mauj Telecom, "You give people what they want, and they will buy."

Wish you many many happy returns of the day my dear Vishal, Neeraj and all others.

^^^ Welcome to the forum my dear friend. With the above budget you can have HTC S720. It could be the best choice for you. Its available under 18K with Warranty. I'm using the same and very much satisfied with it. Can't recommend Imported CDMA Handsets as they are already under Dot's Scanner. They can be banned in India in the near future. So, if you want peace of mind, then purchase the handset with Warranty only. Regards.

^^^ My dear friend, LG6600 could be best for you as LG's after sales service is also superb.

^^^ My dear friend, LG6600 could be best for you as LG's after sales service is also superb.

^^^ Their are problems with Sify always. Be it a cable cut or not.

When we do it with full Honesty then their won't be any problems my dear friend. Thats the reward for being Honest in life.

Yes my dear Saurav, in some other countries, Hutch is also providing CDMA services.

Yes my dear Saurav, the pricing of this man is really neat. Soon I'm going to order him, some of the stuff for myself also. Prawin is really a great man. Regards.

Motorola QA30 Has Slide Out QWERTY Keypad According to reports Motorola has a new 'Q' series device that should be out as a CDMA phone in the US with their Alltel operator. The device, called the QA30, looks quite sharp with a slider form factor that has a bit of a twist. The keypad that slides out from under the 2.5-inch TFT LCD (240 x 320 pixel resolution) display is QWERTY. The MOTO QA30 will also come with a 2MP camera, microSD card support for external memory, USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0, Facebook access, full HTML support as well as a standard 3.5mm earphone socket for the handsfree. There are no more details about the OS, the pricing or the availability of the device. Courtesy : Tech2

@ACS My dear Jayanth, as you know that this matter is already under DISPUTE. Whether OLD MEMBERS could post their BUY / SELL needs in other threads instead of BUY / SELL FORUM is still UNCONFIRMED. Its still under dispute. Our Ashoka The Great and Admins are already working on the same for a SOLUTION. As Ashok Ji, already told that they will come with a solution to this soon. As some other OLD MEMBER'S Buy / Sell Threads are still pending to be moved to the Buy / Sell Forum. So better to leave this thread "AS IS, WHERE IS". As our dear PRAWIN too is an old member. So, why to be PARTIAL with him only. As soon as other so called threads been moved to the Buy / Sell Forum, I will move this one also. Or any other MOD. too can move the same. Lets hope for the best my dear friends. Regards.

Dear Akshat, as the thread was recently started by Chirdeep, so I preferred to hold the merging of this thread for a week atleast. If he do not post new ringtones within a week's time then obviously this thread will be merged with other Ringtone threads. Still I wait for atleast one week. Regards.

^^^ Thanks for the suggestion my dear Jayanth. << Topic Title Udated >>

@ACS My dear Jayanth, yes you are right, earlier the handset name was not mentioned in the Topic Title, so I had UPDATED the TOPIC TITLE of this thread. This seems to be a MAJOR PROBLEM with IMPORTED HANDSETS. Thats why we didn't merged this thread with the old thread. Regards.

Minister asks BSNL to recapture mobile market share Economic Times l 30 September 2008 Communications and Information Technology Minister A. Raja on Tuesday asked top officials of state-owned telecommunications major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. to rework its marketing strategy with emphasis on rural markets to recapture lost market share in the mobile segment. Raja told a meeting of the heads of the BSNL circle officers that the country's rural tele-density at 11 per cent was much lower than the targeted 30 per cent. Expressing concern at BSNL's dwindling mobile segment market share, Raja said targeting rural customers to help bridge the digital divide was a challenge and also an opportunity for the company. Asking the managers to work out new strategies to ensure the growth of BSNL's market share, he advised them to concentrate on cellular and broadband services. The minister was, however, confident that BSNL will continue to contribute more than 50 percent in achieving a national target of 20 million broadband connections by 2010. Raja asked the officers to pay urgent attention to quality of service, customer care and quick response to the needs of customers in order to beat the fresh challenges which are likely to arise out of the impending launch of Number Portability. Further, he called for more intelligent financial management for better profit margins, keeping down costs, efficient utilization of capital assets, increasing revenue through sharing of infrastructure and reduction of outstanding dues. On the manpower front, Raja said the officials need to be imparted special training in customer care and skills. Besides, he said, BSNL could improve its value added services (VAS) to meet customer aspirations and increase revenue. He called upon BSNL to ensure immediate rollout of 3G and WI-MAX services based on the spectrum already allocated to it by the government. India's telecom network has more than 340 million telephones. Some 43.37 million connections have been provided in just five months during the current year.

BSNL to DoT: Q1 revenue is up y-o-y Press Trust of India l 21 Dec l New Delhi State-run telecom operator BSNL has told the Department of Telecom that its quarterly revenue ended June this year increased over the corresponding period last year and proposed that the licensor should not compare revenue sequentially. The Telecom Secretary had recently written to the Chairman and Managing Director of BSNL saying the operator's revenue had dipped around 23 per cent during the first quarter of the current fiscal over the immediately preceding quarter. "We have replied to the DoT's letter that compared on a year-on-year basis, our Q1 revenue has actually increased handsomely. We have suggested that the comparison should be year-on-year not sequentially. That way our Q1 (April-June) revenue is up. DoT has compared them with January-March quarter," BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Kuldeep Goyal said. However, he did not disclose the actual increase. Unlisted BSNL does not release quarterly results. Goyal said that the last quarter of the fiscal also contains the annual billings which are crucial to it in the overall revenue calculation. The PSU, which has seen intense competition from the private players, has also told the DoT that the withdrawal of access deficit charge (ADC), remuneration for BSNL's rural and remote obligations from the private players, had also affected its revenue. ADC has been withdrawn in April this year.

Dear Member, thanks for reporting the thread. << Topic Merged & Topic Title Updated >>

^^^ Your guess is very correct my dear Vishal. Reliance will definetely want that their CDMA subscribers should shift to Reliance GSM.

^^^ Thanks my dear friend.

3G fee may go to Cabinet Business Line l 19 Dec l New Delhi Telecom panel not for administrative charges. The Department of Telecom may refer the issue of levying administrative charges on 3G mobile operators to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. The levy was proposed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The decision is likely to be left to the Cabinet since DoT does not agree with the regulator’s proposal. The Telecom Commission, which is the apex decision-making body of DoT, met on Friday to consider the proposal. According to sources, DoT has opposed levying the additional fee on the grounds that it will get factored in by the operators when they bid for the spectrum. DoT has estimated that the total income from the auction could come down by as much as Rs 5,000 crore if the administrative charges are levied. TRAI had suggested the fee on grounds that as 3G spectrum was being auctioned, the Government could not continue to impose a spectrum usage fee as in the case of 2G mobile services. The regulator has suggested that operators should be asked to pay 2 per cent of the highest bid amount every year as administrative charge. For quick decision The GSM operators have opposed the introduction of the fee. According to the existing rules, DoT has to send the proposal back to TRAI if it does not agree. However, it may go through the Cabinet to get a quick decision since DoT is planning to hold the auction by January 16, 2009.

^^^ Agreed that CDMA subscribers are precious for Reliance. But they are not at all considering CDMA subscribers issues now a days. They should attend the complaints of their subscribers immediately otherwise all their CDMA subscribers would have no option other then shifting to Reliance GSM or any other operator.

When a member SEARCH for Netconnect Issue he / she will get the link of this thread also in the Search Results.