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. |