Cellular News

Date 30/6/2002   Send SMS before buying second hand car   Delhi Police has introduced a service using which a second hand car buyer can find out whether the car is a stolen one or not or has any pending challan. The cop can also verify the registration details, ownership and address. The procedure is very simple, just send a SMS message from the mobile phone to 9811452220. The citizens at present get limited information while Delhi Police has access to a host of other features.     Date 28/6/2002   Hutchison-Kotak own UMTL 100% now   The Jhawars of Usha Martin group offloaded their 5% stake in UMTL to Kotak Mahindra Ltd. at Rs 25 crore all cash deal based on near $100 million equity valuation of Command cellular operation in Kolkata. Thus Hutchison-Kotak combine now acquired 100% ownership of Usha Martin Telekom Ltd.   Date 27/6/2002   Switch off cellphones at petrol pumps   The Petroleum Ministry has warned that cellular phones should be switched off at petrol pumps as they were a potential ignition source to the flammable vapours in the atmosphere. Due to the potential risk of fire accidents due to ignition from the batteries of cell phones, manufacturers and service providers of cell phones also advise users to keep cell phones in "off'' mode. The Oil Industry Safety Directorate (OISD) has given the opinion that mobile phones should be switched off at retail outlets, CNG and LPG refuelling stations, and not permitted inside oil installations.   Date 25/6/2002   32K Sim Card  from Escotel for Kerala   ESCOTEL has launched 32 K SIM enabled on the DP 5 platform in Kerala to provide the customers a WAP-like experience at the cost of only a simple SMS. The product was launched by Mr K.P. Padmakumar, Chairman, Federal Bank who handed over the first high power SIM to football star, I.M. Vijayan. With the new 32K SIM, the customers would be able to access all information services on SMS using menu rather than having to type the keywords. The response would also come directly onto the screen of the handset giving the user an interactive WAP-like experience using the SMS platform. It also provides a host of other benefits including up to 250 phone book entries and can store up to 30 SMS messages.

Date 25/6/2002   BSNL in Tamil Nadu   According to T S Vasudevan, chief general manager, Tamil Nadu telecom circle, two lakh cellular phone connections of BSNL will become functional in Tamil Nadu by this year end. Testing has been completed for providing cellular phones in Madurai and Coimbatore and the department was awaiting the government's order to make them operational. Wireless in local loop (WLL) connections has been provided in eleven districts.

Date 24/6/2002   BPL Mobile switching centre in Madurai    BPL Mobile is establishing a mobile switching centre (MSC)  in Madurai very soon. The company had set up its first MSC in Coimbatore few years back. This is expected to enhance the traffic flow  by 50 to 60%. The present switch in Coimbatore is able to take call loads of up to two lakh subscribers at any point in time. The company had so far invested Rs 350 crore in Tamil Nadu.

Date 21/6/2002   Philips launches new range of handsets   Philips India has launched a new range of cellular phone modles called Fisio. The three modles launched under this range are Fisio 820, Fisio 620 (GPRS) and Fisio 120.

Date 21/6/2002   Bharti launched SLD services in Delhi   Bharti launched Subscriber Local Dialing (SLD) services in Delhi by which calls made to a roaming subscriber visiting Delhi, routed directly to his mobile instead of travelling via his home network. This will save Delhi AirTel subscriber 72% and the national roamer 88% on SLD calls.

Date 20/6/2002   BSNL's WLL service branded 'Pratap Mobile'   BSNL's WLL service in Rajasthan is branded 'Pratap Mobile' to commemorate the great Maharana Pratap on the occasion of his 463rd birth anniversary.

Date 17/6/2002   Airtime rates down in Delhi   Following Hutchison's announcement of new airtime tariff structure in Delhi which is upto 20% lower than the existing one, AirTel as well as MTNL has decided to reduce their tariffs. Reliance is also rolling out its WLL network in the capital this year which will further lower the prices.

Date 15/6/2002   Hutch announced new airtime tariff plan in Delhi   Hutch ( previuosly Essar Cellphone)announced its new single tariff plan 'Talk Flexi' where user will pay according to their actual usage. All the post-paid Essar cellphone users will move to this plan from 16th June onwards. According to this plan the user pays a monthly rental of Rs. 295/- and the airtime is charged according to usage slabs eg. Rs 1.98/min for 0-200 minutes and Rs. 1.38/min for >650 min. The incoming and outgoing rates are same. This plan will be introduced for 'Speed' card users too. The plan has additional options like Talk late, Talk Late Free, Family&Friends and Talk incoming.

Date 15/6/2002   Cellphone conversation can be tapped by security agencies   In view of the increasing terror threat in the country the government forced the cellular service providers to install sophisticated bugs at mobile switching centres countrywide. Seven agencies of the state IB, RAW, CBI, NCB, ED, MI and Police are authorised to tap cellphones.

Date 15/6/2002   Bharti launched its cellular services in Haryana   Bharti Cellular Ltd. launched its cellular services in Haryana.

Date 12/6/2002   Existing cellular service providers may get the 3G licences too   Ministry of communications is considering a proposal that may allot 3G (third generation) cellular licences to existing operators instead of auctioning the spectrum through open bidding as adopted by Europe. This will avert unnecessary financial burden for operating companies while maximising the the returns for government through revenue sharing. 3G is next generation broadband wireless communications which will enable high speed transfer of data, video, pictures etc. over wireless networks.

Date 12/6/2002   Worldwide industry giants coming together to set standards   Worldwide the growth of traditional voice calls is maturing and uptake of newer internet ready mobile phones is slow thus the industry giants like Nokia, Microsoft, Intel, Vodafone, Walt Disney and similar 200 companies are coming together to form a new global organisation to develop open standards for mobile phones and other wireless devices to operate seamlessly. The vision is that the customer should be able to get the desired information irrespective of the device, service provider and the carrier he is using. The satisfied customer surfing the internet on wireless device will mean higher usage rates for the operating companies and more sales for device manufacturers.

Date 11/6/2002   Bharti launched its cellular services in UP(West) & Uttaranchal   Bharti Cellular Ltd. launched its cellular services in UP(West) & Uttaranchal on 1800 mHz GSM network.

Date 11/6/2002   Lesser subscribers joined last month   According to the latest figures from COAI only 2.75 lakh subscribers were added last month which is down by 26%. Industry observers have attributed the lesser growth in last two months to the mandatory verification of the identy before acquiring a pre-paid cellular connection.

Date 10/6/2002   Fourth cellular operators to trigger further price cuts   According to industry analysts as fourth cellular operators are set to launch operations in 17 out of 22 cellular circles, price cuts are bound to happen since new operators have paid less licence fee and the equipment cost has also come down.

Date 5/6/2002   Bharti renewed its AirTel brand   Bharti has renewed its brand 'Airtel' aiming a pan-Indian and pan-customer segment appeal as it plans to launch its services in eight new circles Mumbai, Maharashtra, Gujarat, MP, UP(West), Haryana, Kerala and TN by mid July. The pre-paid Magic brand will also become 'Airtel Magic' and have Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Madhvan and Saurav Ganguly as brand ambassadors. The new brand image is supposed to create a strong relevance for potential young customers and symbolise innovation, energy and friendliness.

Date 3/6/2002   Reliance Infocom to offload another 6% for $350 million   Reliance Infocom to offload another 6% equity for $350 million to Samsung. Earlier 3% equity was given to Qualcomm for $200 million in January. The third tranche of sale will be finalised by October. The company intends to raise $1 billion  for its telecom projects. The entire telecom ventures of the company have been split into five entities namely Reliance Telecom - mobile $253 million, Reliance Telecom - Basic $148 million, Reliance - Broadband $5.43 billion, NLD business $932 million and Reliance WorldTel $410 million. Reliance infocom is also setting up a handset factory in Gujarat at a cost of Rs.100 Cr which will manufacture 1 million CDMA handsets per annum. According to Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia the company is expected to post a EBIDTA of Rs.1400 Cr. on total revenues of Rs. 56,100 Cr by 2010 and will be capturing 25% market share.

Date 1/6/2002   IDEA Cellular Ltd. to invest Rs. 1400 crore   Idea Cellular Ltd,  formerly Batata to invest close to Rs 1,400 crore across its five circles of Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Delhi out of which around Rs 700 crore will be spent in the Delhi circle alone to offer world class services.The launch of Idea Cellular's operations in Delhi which were scheduled for 1st June are delayed by a month because the Govt. has not provided the spectrum as yet to start the operations.

Date 1/6/2002   Bharti to consolidate all its cellular operations under one company   Bharti to consolidate all its cellular operations under one company Bharti Cellular. The subsidiaries that will be merged with are Bharti Mobitel, Bharti Mobile, Bharti Mobinet, cellular division of Bharti Telenet and SC Cellular Holdings. The proposal has been approved by Bharti Televentures Ltd.

Date 1/6/2002   Guwahati students protest against tariff revision   Guwahati students are protesting against Reliance Mobile's just-revised rates. One of the students' outfit has even decided to file a public interest litigation against the company which is the only cellular service provider in north east. However, Reliance officials claimed that the new rates have been fixed as per directives of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Date 31/5/2002   'Magic on the Move' in Chennai   AirTel has launched 'Magic on Move' in Chennai. With this service, a customer can order for a Magic recharge coupon, which will be delivered at his doorstep. The subscriber needs to just call 333 from his mobile (free call) and indicate the denomination of recharge required. The denominations of the recharge cards available are Rs 300, Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.

Date 30/5/2002   Escotel launching path breaking vas through SMS in Kerala   Escotel will provide Kerala engineering entrance examination results on mobile through SMS instantaneously when it is declared.    Escotel subscribers in Kerala will also be able to check the status of their passport applications through SMS following a tie-up with the Regional Passport Offices in the State.These are path breaking initiatives by Escotel to facilitate its customers.

Date 29/5/2002   BPL Mobile launches 32 K SIM card   BPL mobile launched its new and powerful 32K SIM card which provides the subscribers the facility to navigate through a host of unique customised services. The present SIM card had only limited capacity of 8K. From the new SIM card, the subscribers would now be able to access general services such as knowing reservation status of train tickets, city specific information like location of bank, ATM etc and personal services like storing address book and sending or receiving e-mails. The new 32K SIM card can be used only in Phase II+ mobile phones. Presently BPL Mobile would be selling the new 32K cards from June 1 to all new postpaid connections in Kerala. The 32K SIM card would be offered to existing postpaid subscribers on an invitation basis.

Date 29/5/2002   Bharti to launch its services in Mumbai and Maharashtra by July   Bharti Cellular will be launching its cellular services in Mumbai and Maharashtra circle by July. This will be followed by the launch of services in UP (West). The company has reached an agreement with the Birla-Tata-AT&T and BPL mobile for site sharing, which is in addition to putting up our own.

Date 27/5/2002   Photo swapping during World Cup Finals   Japan's second largest mobile phone group, KDDI Corp, and South Korea's top mobile operator, SK Telecom Co have tied up to allow users of special camera-equipped cell phones to swap photos during the World Cup finals. More than 50 million people browse the Internet on mobile phone screens in Japan and 7.3 million use 3G technology capable of sending and receiving video.

Date 27/5/2002   SSLC and CET results on AirTel ( Karnataka) through SMS   Bharti Mobile, the cellular service provider in the State, will make available SSLC and CET results to its customers on their mobiles. The subscribers will be able to access their results using SMS.

Date 26/5/2002   DoT urges all cellular service providers to gear up to make emergency services more accessible   Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has noted that the emergency services such as police (100), fire brigade (101) and ambulance (102), when dialled on the network of many of the mobile operators, are not necessarily directed to the nearest available facility. The cellular operators have to add the requisite equipment/software to make this service more meaningful.

Date 25/5/2002   Hutchison Telecom launches new brand 'HUTCH'   Hutchison Telecom unveiled its second generation cellular service brand 'HUTCH' in Hyderabad yesterday. This brand will be launched in its newly acquired Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Chennai circles. It will also replace 'Essar Cellphone' brand in Delhi. It is learnt that the company's 'Fascel' brand in Gujarat, 'Command' in Kolkata and 'Orange' in Mumbai will remain. The company is optimistic about the potential of Indian market and is expanding to gain a nationwide footprint.

Date 22/5/2002   Fourth cellular operators rolling out GSM 1800 networks   The companies that are launching their cellular services shortly as fourth cellular operator are making their networks on 1800 Mhz frequency. These include AirTel in Mumbai, Idea Cellular ( formerly Birla Tata AT&T) in Delhi, Escotel in Punjab, U.P.(East) and Rajasthan and Hutchison in Karnataka and Chennai. The networks of current cellular service providers in India are on GSM 900 MHz. The existing mobile phone users who are using single band handsets will have to upgrade to dual or tri band handsets to be able to use the services of new operators in their circle.

Date 22/5/2002   BPL launches 'Follow Me'   BPL Mobile is launching a new 'Follow Me' service that allows its pre-paid card subscribers one way roaming facility where they will be able to receive calls anywhere in the country. Also the subscribers can send and receive SMS messages while roaming anywhere in the country. The service can be activated by dialling 505 and following the instructions received on voice response system.

Date 20/5/2002   Spice to be ISP   Spice Communications, cellular service provider in Punjab and Karnataka has attained ISP ( Internet Service Provider ) licence for the two states. According to Mr. Umang Das, CEO of Spice Corp., this will help the company to provide better value added services to the customers.

Date 20/5/2002   Escotel in alliance with Max to offer Life cover   Escotel and MNYL ( Max New York Life ) have entered into an alliance to provide Life Insurance cover free of cost to Escotel Club Royale members. This is part of the company's new loyalty program 'Operation Rakshak'. Escotel is working on new customer acquisition and retention programs for its existing as well as newly acquired circles.The life cover is being provided in three brackets of Rs. 50,000/-, Rs.100,000/- and Rs.200,000/- and double the amounts in case of accidental deaths depending upon the duration and usage of services.

Date 20/5/2002   Case of cellphone cloning   This is the first case of phone hacking in India where a Chandigarh based electronic hobbyist Ashwini Gaur cloned a mobile phone handset which makes it possible for two handsets to have the same number and the cloned handset works like a parallel phone. The person involved copied the integrated circuit of his friend's mobile to clone. The result could be huge mobile phone bill if somebody is using a clone of your cellphone. Cloning is the process of taking the programmed information stored in a legitimate mobile and illegally programing the identical information into another mobile phone. The service providers networks usually do not have the way to differentiate between the two. They will have to implement security authentication systems which will disallow hackers from writing electronic serial number (ESN) to refuse registration of cloned sets.

Date 17/5/2002   BSNL set for the mega launch of its GSM cellular services   Recently corporatised telecom giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited ( BSNL) is all set for the mega launch of its GSM cellular services from July this year. The network will be covering at least 1000 cities and all major highways with national roaming, SMS and lower airtime rates targeting 2.5 million users by the end of this year. BSNL is also workig on its WLL based limited mobile services simultaneously.

Date 17/5/2002   Indian telecom services market to reach $14billion   According to Gartner Dataquest there will be double digit growth in indian telecom sector with telecom services market reaching    $14 billion by 2006 including mobile and fixed line services.

Date 17/5/2002   Wireless Internet networks in India   At a FICCI symposium on the eve of World Telecom Day, telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh told that the ministry has completed the work related to delicencing of 2.4 GHz radio frequency spectrum for use by wireless internet networks. This frequency supports Wireless Fidelity ( Wi-Fi) or 802.11 b networking standard that enables computers within a short distance ( 100-300 ft) of a base station to share internet connection. This wireless local area network offers internet access speeds upto 11 Mbps much faster than the peak 144 kbps rate for 3G mobile phone networks. These are suitable for airports, homes, offices, shopping malls etc.

Date 17/5/2002   MTNL ties up with Data Access   MTNL tied up with a new International Long Distance service provider Data Access for its ILD traffic which is offering MTNL  an upfront revenue guarantee and very low rates that will allow MTNL to reduce its outgoing call charges to half without affecting revenues. Data Access is a joint venture between Mr. Ray's Spa Enterprises and Pacific Century Cyberworks ( PCCW) promoted by Hong Kong's Richard Li.

Date 16/5/2002   Verification of Identity mandatory for Pre-Paid card users also   Under pressure from security agencies which are fighting against the misuse of pre-paid cards by criminals all the cellular service providers in Delhi have made it mandatory for the new as well as old users of pre-paid cards to provide proofs of their identity to the retailer. Now to buy Speed, Magic or Trump card one has to fill up a comprehensive form and submit a photo ID. The cards won't be pre-activated and will take 24-48 hrs till the verification of the ID. Existing users will be disconnected if they fail to frnish the ID. This will soon be applicable in all other circles as well. The companies are expecting a sudden fall in the subscription initially which they say, will be a short term affect. 60% mobile phone users in India are pre-paid users.

Date 9/5/2002   26% fall in growth of cellular subscribers in April   With the addition of 2.8 lakh new cellular subscribers in April the total no. now stands at 67.14 lakh against 64.3 lakh last month which is 26% less than the addition last month. Delhi added 53,954 subscribers in April while Mumbai added 51,107.

Date 2/5/2002   AirTel launches 32K sim card   AirTel introduced its 32K sim card in Delhi. This will enable users to access SMS based information services given by the company using a scroll down menu instead of remembering service numbers and codes. The services offered are like News, Astrology, Sports, Flight Info, Stock Info, Railway schedule etc. This will also enable enhanced phonebook memory and SMS inbox memory.

Date 2/5/2002   Samsung India to invest $6m   Samsung Electronics India Information and Telecommunications Ltd. to invest $6m for marketing and sales of its telecom products.This will include GSM and CDMA mobile phones. Out of this $5m will be spent on marketing and $1m will be utilised for sales and servicing support.

Date 1/5/2002   Birla-Tata-AT&T unviels new corporate identity - 'Idea Cellular'   Birla-Tata-AT&T unviels its new corporate identity as 'Idea Cellular'. The new brand will be launched in Maharashtra (excluding Mumbai), Gujarat, Goa where it will be replacing 'BirlaAT&T' brand. In Madhya Pradesh and  Chhattisgarh it will be replacing 'RPG Cellular' while 'Tata Cellular' will be replaced in Andhra Pradesh. Idea Cellular will soon launch its operations in Delhi as the fourth cellular operator. This fastest growing cellular company will now hit the market with interference free network for superior voice delivery and new value added services like vernacular SMS.

Date 27/4/2002   Handset prices slashed   With reduction in duties and taxes in the current budget and subsequent lowering of prices by the handset companies, the price differential between legal and grey market is only 5-20% depending upon the model. So now customers are prefering to buy new handsets with warrenty instead of buying from the grey market where used, refurbished or tampered phones are sold at lower prices. This is likely to increase the sale of handsets through proper channel by 30-50%.

Date 26/4/2002   Hotmail on cellphones in Europe   Microsoft has signed up with several European wireless telecom carriers to bring Hotmail email service to mobile phones over simple SMS messaging. MSN's new tie ups are with KPN mobile in Netherlands, Telenor Mobile in Norway and ONE/Connect in Austria. The service is already there in Denmark by TDC and by Sunrise in Switzerland.

Date 25/4/2002   Night tariff reduced on 'Speed' cards   Hutchison Essar has reduced tariff on its 'Speed' ( pre-paid ) cards in Delhi for the calls made between 10:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m.   The incoming calls will cost 80 paise per minute while outgoing calls will cost Rs.1.34 per min.

Date 22/4/2002   ISD rates down by 40%   From 1st May 2002, Bharti Telesonic is reducing International Long Distance Tariff by 40%. This has kicked off a price war in    Rs. 7000 crore ILD telephony. Tata owned VSNL has also indicated that it will reduce its tariff too. The rates of Bharti's India One will be Rs. 24/- per minute for US, American subcontinent, Africa, Ocenia and Europe and Rs. 21.18 for SAARC countries.

Date 17/4/2002   Roaming volumes shoot up after TRAI order   A recent TRAI order brought down the roaming charges from March 1 this year. Through this order TRAI has banned deposits for roaming, set a limit for maximum monthly access fee for regional/national roaming at Rs.100/-  and Rs.3/- per minute for roaming airtime. 15% surcharge applicable only to airtime. As a result several networks eg. BPL mobile, Hexacom etc. reported a sharp rise ( 80-100%) in roaming usage and subscription. It was also noted that earlier the users relied more on SMS while roaming than voice but now they are making and receiving more voice calls.

Date 12/4/2002   Escotel launches WAP like services on non-WAP phones   Escotel mobile communications limited recently deployed a value added service delievery platform with integrated multiple   technologies where subscribers will get WAP like services over any normal GSM cellphone. These services are being launched in UP(West), Haryana and Kerala which are at the same price as SMS. The services offered are mobile banking, railway bookings, hotel details, stocks, forex, news etc. It will require 32 K Sim Cards while the ones in common use are 8K / 16 K. The company will provide these to all new subscribers, old subscribers can upgrade at a cost of Rs.200.

Date 12/4/2002   Bharti Singtel cable project   Bharti & SingTel flagged off a 3,200 km undersea cable connecting Chennai with Tuas in Singapore. It is the first private cable link which will contribute 8.4 terabytes to the international bandwidth availability in India. The cable system is developed by Network i2i at a cost of $250 million. The companies have decided to move slowly on plans to build a back up undersea fibre optic cable link between Mumbai and Singapore.

Date 12/4/2002   BTAL subscriber base grew exponentially   The subscriber base of BTAL has shown 135% rise at 8.08 lakh over previous year. The company is a joint venture between Birlas ( Aditya Birla group, Tatas and AT&T Wireless of US. It has operations in Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.

Date 11/4/2002   BPL Mobile reports turnover of Rs. 992 crore   BPL Mobile, cellular service provider having a total subscriber base of 9,40,000 has reported a turnover of Rs.992 crore and an operating profit of Rs.274 crore for the financial year 2001-02. This includes the operations of BPL Mobile Communications in Mumbai and BPL Mobile Cellular in Maharashtra, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. The company exceeded its targetted subscriber base in March. BPL Mobile is in the process of merger with Birla Tata AT&T which is expected to be completed by June with which it will become the largest operator in the country.

Date 11/4/2002   Cellular operators to move Supreme Court   In response to telecom tribunal's ruling in favour of basic operators on limited mobility case, cellular operators have decided to approach the Supreme Court "to seek justice" and appeal against "the wrongful, illegal and unlicenced entry of fixed operators into mobile services through backdoor, without paying any entry fee and without being subject to the same terms and conditions as are applicable to licensed cellular operators.

Date 9/4/2002   Sony Ericsson launches T68i   Sony Ericsson launched new mobile phone T68i which can take and send pictures through MMS ( Multimedia Messaging Service ). The cost of the phone is Rs.25,995/-. The small digital mobile camera CommuniCam MCA-20 comes as an accessory that actually clicks photographs and is priced at Rs.8,000/-. It is GPRS compatible too. The other new handsets which the company is planning to launch in the third quarter this year are Z 700, a mobile phone with gaming capabilities and P800 which has built-in camera and organizer.

Date 9/4/2002   BSNL to spend Rs.1,500 cr. for Village telephony   Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited plans to spend Rs.1,500/- crore in the current financial year to expand VPTs ( Village Panchayat Telephone Networks) based on WiLL and satellite technology which will be covering 69,000 villages.

Date 8/4/2002   Number of cellular subscribers in India - 64,30,814   Number of cellular subscribers in India reaches 64,30,814. Metros account for 40% of the total subscribers. Delhi cellular subscribers base crossed a significant 1 million mark.

Date 8/4/2002   Country's bandwidth capacity will jump to 20 tera bytes per sec.   Country's international bandwidth capacity through undersea submarine cable will jump to 20 tera bytes per sec. The first to start is  Bharti-SingTel submarine cable which landed in Chennai contributing 8.4 terabytes. Untill now, international bandwidth through undersea cable was available through VSNL only which was only 900 mbps. The other private undersea cable projects going on are DishnetDSL's $1.3 bn project that will offer 7.68 tbps and Reliance with Maxis Communications to offer 3 tbps.

Date 5/4/2002   Punjab cellular subscriber base expanding fast   Punjab cellular circle added 40,000 subscribers to Spice Telecom in March which is the highest in any month so far in Indian cellular industry. The company attributes this achievement to market growth due to entry of competetion, deeper understanding of the market, good infrastructure, strong product line targeted at different market segements, widespread distribution and innovative value added services like SMS on landlines, Zingmail, helpline for career counselling etc. 30,000 were registered to AirTel when their services were launched in February.

Date 3/4/2002   Gurgaon cellular subscribers in a fix   According to one of the DoTs latest rulings, it is the area within a radial distance of 5 kms of Gurgaon telephone exchange and municipality areas beyond 5 kms which form a part of the Delhi metro cellular service area for coverage. This implies that the new colonies like DLF, Sushant Lok, Udyog Vihar, Jaipur highway and the Palam area can get cellular services by the Haryana cellular service providers and not the ones operating in Delhi. Thus the people who are using the services of Essar or AirTel of Delhi will have to use roaming service to be able to use their cellular phones in new parts of Gorgaon which is expensive. The monthly rental for roaming service is Rs. 99, Rs. 3 per minute is the roaming surcharge plus the STD tariff. The cellular service providers in Haryana are Escotel and Aircel Digilink which will be strating their services for these areas. With the sim cards of Escotel and Aircel Digilink people will be able to make their calls to the rest of Haryana at local rates. The cellular operators of Delhi Essar, AirTel and Dolphin and the Haryana operators Escotel and Aircel Digilink have already started discussions to offer competetive and attractive roaming facility. Although the users of AirTel and Essar will not suffer since Bharti is the fourth cellular operator in Haryana and Aircel Digilink is an Essar group company who will do their best to retain customers.

Date 3/4/2002   Rush for net telephony licence   DoT received over 30 applications till April 2, 2002 from ISPs seeking the TRAI prescribed amendment to their existing licences which will enable them to offer internet telephony. Other than the major ISPs like Sify etc., three US-based players namely ComsatMax, IceNet and Estel Communications are willing to enter this market through their existing Indian joint ventures.

Date: 1/4/2002   Cellular phones to boost net banking   In a session on technology in banking at CII summit, TRAI chairman M.S. Verma said that new technology driven channels of banking, other than ATM and Internet will be driving the growth in banking business in future. The number of cellular phone users is growing at a much faster rate in the country than the PC penetration thus a substantial chunk of business will be transacted through cellular phones. The number of cellular phone users is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 5% over the next five years to over  30 million from around 6 million at present.

Date: 1/4/2002   National Panasonic ambitious on Indian cellular market   National Panasonic, Japanese consumer electronics major has ambitious plans for expanding in Indian mobile phone market. According to Takeshi Ikeda, Asia-Pacific chief, systems product division the company plans to increase its distribution network to one thousand outlets from current three hundred and eight distributors in the country. The company will be launching new products in the market.

 
 

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