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"If Wishes Were Horses, Beggars Would Ride". Heard the proverb in kindergarten days. Refers to something which is impossible or day dreaming. Even today the Mobile Consumer in India is sort of a beggar for many just or necessary wishes. On the last day of the year 2010, Here is my Wish List For the Telecom Sector in 2011. Fellow Beggars…errrr….Fellow RIMweb members do contribute your wishes….. Indian Mobile User's Association The total mobile subscriber base as on 31st October 2010 is 706.69 Million. Assuming that even 50% of this number belong to non active or multiple connections, we have 353.34 Million Mobile users in the country, that's about 35 Crore Customers. AND We Have No Unified, Large Voice At all to represent our interests to Government, Regulatory Authorities or Telecom Operators. In India we have interest groups, associations, unions for every imaginable thing who protect their interests with unified representation but most of the time with coercion. Few Examples, -Some 50,000 Taxiwallas and 1,00,000 Rickshaw Owners keeps a city like Mumbai with 1.5 Crore population to ransom everytime they want a fare hike and gets it easily. -A few hundred ATC (Air Traffic Controllers) can halt entire Aviation Sector in India and get their demands met. -About a million or so Transport Operators gets their demands met (However unjustified) every time by halting their wheels for a few days. Imagine how powerful Indian Mobile User's Association can be with a strength of 35 Crore Members. And funding this can be pretty easy. For a Start if every mobile subscriber gives just Rs 20 as Lifetime Membership, Rs 700 Crore can be raised. With that type of money, this association can have countrywide offices, hire the best talent, can have their own call centers and many things more. For further funding and to meet year to year expenses, All fines levied to Telecom Operators can go to this body like all fines levied in Stock Markets goes to Investor Education Fund. Some of the innovative activities this body can do for members is, -Mobile Strikes-An operator not listening…Boycott them for a day or more and cause some serious revenue damage. -Gandhigiri Type Satyagrah-All avenues exhausted and still the operator not listening. Well All members of this body will simply stop paying their bills to the particular operator. Let them initiate crores of recovery suits….They will come to their senses sooner than you think. -Mandatory representation of this body in all telecom policy formulation and management. Think more and you will realize what can be done with unity and strength… Pesky Call/SMS Punishment For years we are suffering the agony but it took TRAI one pesky call received by Mr. Pranav Mukherjee while in a meeting to get all charged up and come up with the new Pesky Call/SMS regulations. Now from 1st January implementation, it is rolled back to February. Still even after will it be effective with all the enhanced fines, registration procedures and what not… I have a simple suggestion for ending this menace… -Whenever a Customer will receive a pesky call, he can just press a pre-defined 3 number combination on any handset and then the same call will be simultaneously routed to Prime Minister, Entire Council of Ministers, All MP's & MLA's and Leaders of all Political Parties. The system will be such that all of them will have to listen to the call in full and cannot cut it off. No other function will be possible on the phone till the call is completed. -Similarly for pesky SMS, again a pre-defined 3 number combination and it gets delivered to all the above. Again they will have to read it fully and only then the handset is available for any other function. TRAI don't try for lengthy regulation. Try the above. It will work wonders in ending this menace once and for all… Web Based Mobile Account Management-Pre Paid Included All Mobile Operators have varying degrees of Web Based Customer Account Management available but mostly for Post Paid. The irony here is that in India out of the total mobile customer base, nearly 90% is pre-paid. Even for Postpaid Customers, Web Based Account Management is not comprehensive. The Operator's excuse for not providing this services to Pre-paid customers is inability to manage such a large database on the web which is actually a lot of bull***. If all the following services are available to User Online for himself to manage, a lot of our pains and grouse can be avoided, -Switching to a different plan. -Activating and de-activating VAS services. -Managing Caller Tunes. -Activating and de-activating add on packs for Calls, SMS. -Recharge, Balance Management, Usage History. Mobile Coverage Check Tool Mandatory on Telecom Operators Websites It's a tough job deciding a network operator for coverage. For the same operator, one city may have excellent coverage and another very poor. This changes even within city areawise. As of today, the mobile consumer has no way to check what quality coverage he can expect within the areas most used by him other than word of mouth which can be really off the mark most of the time. As all operators network is basically managed by computers and data centers, why not to have a tool on each operators website which can graphically display the following information, -BTS Numbers and Location in a Particular Area. -Signal Strength, Congestion, Call Initiation, Completion, Call Drop rates in a particular area. With this the consumer will be able to choose the best network in the respective area. VOIP made legal for use within India We all make those dirt cheap VOIP calls abroad to Mobiles and Landlines. Why not make them legal for Calling within India to all mobiles and landlines. This one move can be the real game changer as far as tariffs go and will keep all telcos on their toes. Till now they have succeeded by lobbying against this but this is the change which is needed. Optical Fiber Data pipes, broadband connectivity and all infrastructure is already there. Just a policy move is needed. Reliance Infotel LTE Rollout Reliance Infotel's LTE High Speed Wireless Broadband Rollout this year should change the broadband sector in India quite dramatically. Hope is for a nationwide rollout with Economical Data Packages and Choice between various devices. But the biggest anticipation is that Mukesh Ambani will roll out this with Voice Capability also. Lets hope this wish comes out true. Economical 3G Hi-Speed Data Yes, Yes we all know you brainless 3G auction winners that you blew up thousands of crores in 3G Spectrum and now think that it was too costly perhaps. So you want to extract the same from 3G Customers. Reminds me of a drunken, gambler husband who will always blew up everything and will return to the helpless wife demanding more dowry. Usually the Pati Parmeshvar type Wife will toil hard and meet all the demands for years living in suffering and pain. But today's India is different. The other half is liberated, courageous and will not tolerate nonsense. The only way for Telcos to wriggle out from this is to have sensible 3G data tariffs so that there is widespread adoption which in turn generates the much needed revenue for them. Telcos should understand that the Consumer wants Economical Data Tariff which may not necessarily be cheap. There is a difference between the two. OMH Handsets Mandatory For CDMA When you buy a Car, is it legal for your manufacturer to demand that you can fill up the petrol from only Hindustan Petroleum OR can use only Apollo Tyres? Then why allow CDMA Operators to have network locked handsets particularly now when OMH Handset Technology is available. Make a law or regulation making it mandatory that any new CDMA handset launched henceforth has to be OMH handset so the consumer can freely use it on any CDMA network. Nationwide MNP Including Outside Circles We are still keeping the finger crossed whether the damn thing will happen or not on 20th January for the entire country. But even if it happens, it will be limited to switching within the same circle. Though assurances are given that Intra Circle switchover is the ultimate aim, this has to happen very soon. Technology is already there and this will be real freedom for the consumer. Right To Information Act Coverage of Even Pvt. Sector Telecom Cos. This one Act has really made a difference for helpless entity called aam aadmi in India. Most powerful and mighty have come down to earth with intelligent use of this powerful tool. But it is not applicable to Private Sector Companies. With Telecom such a vital sector having Crores of subscribers, isn't it in real Public Interest to extend Right to Information Act Coverage to All Telecom Companies. BSNL-MTNL Merger, Listing on Stock Exchange and Freedom From Babudom We have been hearing this since years and long overdue. The BSNL-MTNL merger and one entity nationwide can give some serious competition to Private Telcos and relief to millions of Customers who want BSNL Services but can't get it simply because they are in Mumbai and New Delhi which are incidently two cities with the largest mobile customers. BSNL disinvestment plans are also heard since ages but nothing done. Even with a 20% disinvestment (New Equity), BSNL can get critical fund infusion for exapansion and network enhancement. And Freedom from Babudom concerns BSNL/MTNL's equipment purchases. Everyone knows how this one simple factor delaying equipment purchases keeps BSNL/MTNL behind the Pvt. Telcos and dents its competitive advantage. "Agni Pariksha" For Spectrum Scamsters We have heard story in Ramayan when Bhagvan RAM subjected SITA Maiya for Agni-Pariksha before accepting her back. SITA Maiya walked the fire and came out without any hurt. While this was thousands of years back and in today's world, the idea of justice and punishment has changed… Still going by the chaos in the spectrum scam of a JPC, PAC, CBI, Supreme Court, Enquiry Commission…..endless delays….The Culprits are never going to be punished for years. Why not have "Agni Pariksha" for all Spectrum Scamsters? None of them will pass and burn out. Good riddance and swift justice.

HOW 2 MOD AND SETUP SMC 3G WIFI ROUTER (RELIANCE VERSION) to use with PREPAID 3G DataCard? Plus: Working Reliance 3G Wifi Router Settings Timeline 6th July 2010 ====================== 01:00 pm) Bought 3G WIFI Router (Model:SMCWBR14-3GN) from Reliance Express at MRP Rs.3699/- in Mumbai. 01:10 pm) Recharged my PREPAID Reliance Broadband+ 3G (EVDO) Data Card with Rs.3000 for Prepaid plan 18gb/6months. Came back home. 04:05 pm) Connected USB 3G Data Card to SMC Router. Connected SMC Router to PC and switched on. PC Got Dynamic IP as 192.168.2.100 Opened SMC Configuration System in browser with address http://192.168.2.1 (Logged in with default username as admin and password as smcadmin) Did following working changes in NETWORK SETTINGS >> WAN Section 1. Wan Connection: 3G 2. Backup Wan: None 3. Start Mode: Automatic 4. PPP Authentication: No Authentication 5. PIN Code Protect: Not enabled 6. Dial Code: #777 7. APN Service: internet 8. 3G Username: 9323XXXXXX << your datacard number 9. 3G Password: 9323XXXXXX << your datacard number 10.3G MTU: 1500 11.3G MRU: 1500 12.Connect Type: Auto Connect 13.CLICKED TO SAVE. Trust me you dont need to make any changes. Leave everything else default. It takes a minute or more to save for first time and Voila!!! Information section started showing 3G CONNECTED! MIN ERROR! Not able to browse any site -------------------------------------- I was so happy. Opened another Browser window and saw Google page working but very few seconds GOT ERROR IN BIG FONTS as MIN ERROR! Not authorised or some message like that. Now could not browse. Tried several times and got same error. 05:00 pm) Called helpdesk at *355 and explained error, they said some engineers available at other number will help me. Called for few minutes but could not get through these new numbers for 30 minutes. 05:30 pm) Finally got someone on this number and talked with him about settings and error. He made following statement which was like BOMB-EXPLOSION to me I AM ADVICED TO GET POSTPAID PLAN WITH MULTIUSER SETUP? OMG I'M SCREWED ---------------------------------- He said "The settings are ok but I need to get POSTPAID PLAN WITH MULTIUSER SETUP to use 3G Router with Reliance DataCard." THIS WAS LIKE A BIG BLOW ON MY NOSE. SCARED I LOST MY RS.3000/- as I know how good reliance is in refunding money. He further asked me to go to Reliance Express and request them to refund my Rs.3000/- paid for PREPAID 3G Recharge and convert DATACARD into POSTPAID and go for any plan with MULTIUSER request. I was nearly going faint. Said "Thanks" and hanged up phone. THOUGHT THIS WAS THE DEAD END. EXPERIMENTING ON MY BRAND NEW SMC ROUTER -------------------------------------- 06:15 pm) With this new discovery I was feeling like being Stupid but then I started looking for my own options. 06:45 pm) After playing around for some time in SMC Management Window, I noticed the SMC FIRMWARE Version as showing following line OLD FIRMWARE Version: reliance_smcmr3306a-1.0.1.8-INDr1865.ba The word RELIANCE in this firmware caught my attention and was sure RELIANCE have modified the factory FIRMWARE with some SMART BUSINESS ORIENTED tweaking. With other handy internet connection, I visited www.smc-asia.com and luckily found and downloaded new FIRMWARE for exact SMC model as given below... NEW FIRMWARE Version: smcmr3306a-1.0.1.8-beta-EUr1885.ba FIRMWARE UPDATE --------------- 07:00PM) Without giving a second thought flashed new FIRMWARE on 3G WIFI SMC Router from following SMC Options MANAGEMENT >>> FIRMWARE >> Selected firmware file and uploaded in Router. Update took around 3 minutes and Router Rebooted. Did all same above settings once again and saved. Switched off Router and Switched on... SUCCESS! USING 3G ROUTER WITH PREPAID PLAN WITH NO MULTIUSER REQUEST ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Now I can use 3G Router for Internet Wired and Wireless connection on all connected PCs and wifi devices like... my Motorola Milestone, O2 Atom Life, etc. etc. with no restrictions with same PREPAID PLAN. Internet everywhere on each router connected devices. This means reliance was actually cheating with customers (us) by forcing us to change our cheaper PREPAID plan data cards into costilier POSTPAID plans. PROBLEM SOLVED -------------------- Reliance tried to play smart with customers but with this simple trick I could SOLVE this reliance-made problem in just few hours. HOPE THIS HELPS WHOLE INDIA.......COZ REALLY I DID NOT GET THIS SOLUTION ANYWHERE WITH SMC ROUTER ALL SETTINGS AND FIRMWARE FLASHING INFORMATION IS CORRECT, BUT STILL YOU MUST DO IT ON YOUR OWN RISK. And yes, one also must have some courage to flash brand new devices in first few hours. I did flashed O2 Atom Life around 70 times with custom ROMS with different features and WM6.5 OS. Also unsuccessfully tried to ROOT Motorola Milestone (giving superadmin root access) in first 3 hours of purchase, but thank god no damage done. Anyways GOODLUCK TO YOU ALL. PS: Writing this post with same 3G Router Connection of Relianc PREPAID 3G Internet. EDIT: (17-July-2010) As per Devesh's advice I did upgraded to Firmware Version: smcmr3306a-1.0.1.10.ba found on USA site of SMC with no issue. CLICK HERE FOR HIS VALUABLE POST WITH MY REPLY.

Karthik Bhai, aap apna Resolution toh likho. Aapka New Year Resolution kya hai ? By the way, my New Year Resolution is : I will not leave Daaru this year too and I will be strict to it.... and I mean it. Cheers !

Just got the ASUS UL30VT-A1 13.3" laptop which I have imported from US as this specific model is not available in India. Importing it from US wasn't going to be easy, but thanks to a client of mine in US and kshah (& Sadikk) it reached here without having to pay any duty fee. The ASUS UnLimited (UL) Series boasts for its 12 hour battery life performance which is dubbed as "all-day computing". I have gone for this model specifically for that reason, so that I can stay online for at least for 8 hours when on the move and no access to a power outlet. It achieves the maximum battery life when the settings are changed to the minimum configuration like on-board graphics instead of the Nvidia GeForce G 210M 512 MB graphics card, power saving settings, etc. We can switch the graphics card (between on-board and dedicated) without having to restart the laptop while the "Turbo33" technology (where you can easily overclock the CPU for extra performance) will need restart. Turning them off will help with the battery life. With a 1.3 GHz processor (which is just 300 MHz more than my Droid Incredible!) I wasn't sure if the performance would be good enough. However the Core 2 Duo CULV Processor does extremely well in terms of performance along with the 4 GB DDR3 RAM. It is this processor that helps achieve the high battery life it claims, so one can't expect a Intel Core i series processor here. For the hardware parts, it includes a 500 GB (5400 rpm) hard drive, integrated bluetooth, 802.11n Wi-Fi, 3 USB 2.0 ports, HDMI port, VGA port, SD Card reader, RJ45 LAN port, chiclet style keyboard, multi-touch trackpad, Altec Lansing speakers, 0.3 megapixel webcam, etc. It isn't too heavy nor too light, but very compact at 1 inch thick. It comes pre-installed with Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. I noticed there were a lot of pre-installed softwares including non Asus ones. I removed most of the non-Asus software and left some Asus softwares which are pretty cool like FastBoot, Fancy Start, etc. It also has a virtual OS that allows you to access web browser, instant messengers, etc. instantly (within 5 seconds after pressing the dedicated button) without having to boot into the operating system! It is powered by "Splashtop Instant-On Desktop from DeviceVM" and is called "Express Gate" by ASUS. I have checked the battery life for the first conditioning (full charge and discharge) and it did give around 12 hours battery life. With WiFi ON and normal usage I would expect at least 8 hours from what I see till now. Things I don't like in the laptop is the hard-to-press trackpad button which is stiffer than the soft trackpad button in my Dell Inspiron and the lack of hardware volume control keys on the outside which my old Dell Inspiron has. On the bright side it doesn't get uncomfortably hot as my Dell Inspiron does when using on "lap". This specific model was launched in January 2010 and was replaced with a newer model (ASUS UL30VT-X1K) by now. The pricing for this laptop was the sweet spot of the deal which I got from B&H store here: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/671904-REG/ASUS_UL30VT_A1_UL30Vt_A1_13_3_Notebook_Computer.html - It was for $699 with a FREE 320 GB Leather External Hard Disk Drive which can work via USB or eSATA without external power. As you can see in the page above it is listed "Discontinued" now and they discontinued it a couple of days after I purchased it! I haven't seen that price tag of $699 elsewhere as most other stores like Amazon offer it for $750 - $850. Anyway this laptop would cost a LOT more if it was launched in India. Oh, and it also comes with a 2 year limited global/international warranty from ASUS! Thanks to Anupe for recommending me this laptop which has turned out to be a really good one for me, after all it had many good reviews on most websites.