Arun

Business Standard December 26, 2006 08:56 IST Here is bad news for millions of customers who thought that subscription to the discounted SMS schemes would come in handy on a few special occasions like Christmas or New Year. Mobile operators have suddenly withdrawn the discounted benefits for SMSs on some "key" days of the year when the load is heavy. Operators like Hutch, Idea and Airtel have sent messages to their customers saying that that "discount schemes will not be applicable on festive days like Christmas, Diwali, New Year, Valentine's Day, among others." At least half of the pre-paid customers use the discounted SMS schemes offered by operators. And they pay about Rs 25-60 per month to avail themselves of the scheme. However, not all is lost. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India officials said while they had not received any complaint so far, it was a serious issue. "Operators cannot suddenly withdraw the discounts unless subscribers are properly informed at the time of the service delivery," a top Trai official said. He added that due to congestion on such days, millions of SMSs remained undelivered but customers still paid for them as SMSs were charged on origination and not on termination. Telecom operators defend the move by saying that the key reason is not revenue generation but easing congestion on these heavy traffic days. However, industry experts say that companies also want to maximise their revenue on these days. Usually, SMS traffic on New Year's eve and day swells up to 3-4 times. TV Ramachandran, director-general of the Cellular Operators Association of India, said: "One should understand that because of the free and discounted advantage, the traffic will be jammed. Millions of normal subscribers will also suffer. Also, the plan details clearly say that operators can withdraw the scheme on certain days." A Hutch spokesperson said the discounted schemes would not be applicable to SMSs for a few select "heavy traffic days" and everything was mentioned in the plan details. The move was to ensure that service to regular customers, who paid normal rates, were not affected, he added. Bharti cited similar reasons. Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices said schemes offered by them would remain unchanged.

Just tried on my Nokia 6235 now, worked fine without any problem. Thanks for the software, Hetal !

The "Enlighten" skin was always there till now. The Skin selector is at the bottom of all pages. Since we are going to upgrade to IPB 2.2.x version soon, the current 2.1.x version skins will not work. So we have to part away with the 2.1.x skins anyway. New skins will have to be installed after the upgrade, though it can take a while for version 2.2.x skins to be available. Yes, he forgot to change back to the Default skin after he did some experiments yesterday night... the change in forum skin was not intentional. Sorry for the confusion.

I'm not sure but Ashok will mention it by 29th when he comes back from Goa !

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year to all !

Yes, it does look as though they will continue CDMA alongside GSM, rather than moving/shifting. They are just trying to establish in the GSM segment as well.

There is one more prize slot and it is a "1 GB USB Pen Drive" sponsored by kshah. Contestant list has been updated with the extra member, towards the end.

Thanks to tanveer, we have 5 more prizes (5 * Rs.115) now taking the total to 63 prize slots. New contestants have been added in the main post (towards the end) and PM sent to them ! More prize slots to be announced later !

The Stock Mania application is yet to be launched in any handset, though the media reports mentioned it was launched. I was looking for it too as the idea behind the application sounded good. Anyway, it looks as though there is no ETA (estimated time of arrival) either when I inquired.

You still have to pay the Base Charge depending upon the application. Its the Network Usage Charge that has been waived off for you. Total charge = Base content charge of the application + Network usage charges Check out this Excel sheet which lists the exact charges for all applications.

bit conflicting from the earlier report, but sounds more "official" Ambani pitches for Ruia's Hutch stake Business Standard December 19, 2006 03:37 IST The Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group has approached the Ruias through merchant bankers to buy their 33 per cent stake in Hutchison Essar Ltd. Nimesh Kampani of JM Morgan Stanley, who represents the Ruias, is believed to have had meetings with R-ADAG Chairman Anil Ambani on the issue. Merchant banking source s said the Ruias were veering to the view of cashing out but a final decision would be taken only after the valuation was decided. Both Reliance and the Ruias refused to comment on the issue. A Hutchison spokesperson from Hong Kong said they did not comment on speculation. Sources said Ambani had approached Morgan Stanley and Hutchison's adviser Goldman Sachs with a clear direction that he would pick up 100 per cent stake in the company and was not interested in negotiating separately with the Ruias later. "If the deal happens, it has to be 100 per cent and the Ruias and Hutchison both have to be out. There is no question of having negotiations later on with the Ruias after buying Hutchison," said a source. At an enterprise value of $12-14 billion, the Ruias' 33 per cent stake is already worth an attractive $4-5 billion. Sources said the Mittals of Bharti had also informally sounded out the Ruias, though Sunil Mittal said nothing was happening at the moment. Hutchison's advisers are believed to have also sounded out the Tatas but they declined to enter the race. Sources close to the Ruias said the group had been averse to taking too much debt on its books to buy out its partner's 67 per cent stake, which could cost around $8 billion, especially at a time when the company had restructured and cleaned up its large steel and oil debts. "With valuations at a peak in the telecommunications business, it is a windfall for the Ruias," said an analyst closely watching the deal. However, they have been approached by some bankers and telecom companies in case they are interested in bidding for the Hutchison stake. Ambani is expected to close in on a deal in the next few days at an enterprise value of $12-14 billion. His adviser UBS has already roped in buyout funds like Blackstone, Texas Pacific, Carlyle and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, among others, to structure the financing. With about $10 billion through cash to buy equity and around $2-4 billion as debt, Ambani has enough resources to strike the deal. However he may face competition from Malaysian telecommunications company Maxis, which may also put in an offer.

BSNL's 2 Mbps broadband @ Rs 250 a month Rediff.com December 21, 2006 17:21 IST Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the state-owned telecom service provider, will provide broadband up to 2 MB at Rs 250 per month. The speed has been increased by almost 8 times whereas the download has been increased by 2.5 times at almost half the cost, said a company press release. Under the new plan all the existing 820,000 customers are also being upgraded for the speed up to 2 Mbps depending upon technical feasibility. The year 2007 has already been declared as the 'Year of Broadband.' BSNL plans to add a 5 million port capacity to the existing network of 1 million ports during 2007. The telecom services provider has a market share of 44% in this segment. BSNL plans: BSNL has a very ambitious plan to add large capacity during 2007. More than 1000 cities / towns and 20000 villages will come under the broadband map. 10,000 exchanges in urban 20,000 exchanges in rural would be broadband enabled. All the telephone exchanges with more than 1000 lines will be covered under this expansion plan. By the year 2008, all gram panchayats will have Broadband coverage. Broadband coverage for all secondary and higher secondary schools and all public health centres by December 2007. BSNL is in the process of launching broadband access through WiMAX technology in about 1,000 block headquarters with support from the government which will cover an area of about 20-25 km in each block. BSNL is already in the process of launching triple play services over broadband in Pune and subsequently in Chennai and Bangalore. BSNL will also to start on-line gaming services over broadband very shortly under two categories -- Standard and Premium packages -- with monthly fixed charges of Rs 100 and Rs 200, respectively. The company release said that: Till now the minimum bandwidth available to broadband customers was 256 Kbps. BSNL has now decided that all the Home and Business Plans will offer data rates up to 2 Mbps, subject to technical feasibility. Further, the downloading limits in Home 250 and Business 700 plans have been enhanced to 1 GB and 4 GB from 400 MB and 2 GB, respectively. The limits in other plans have been suitably enhanced. With the increase in downloading limit, a Plan 250 customer will get a benefit of Rs 840 per month for 1 GB limit and Business Plan 700 customer will get a benefit of Rs 2400 per month for limits up to 4GB. BSNL has also decided to bring down the per MB downloading rates from 1.40 per MB to Rs.0.90 per MB in Home 250 plan and the rates have also been lowered in other plans. BSNL has also decided to reduce the fixed monthly charges from ADSL modems from Rs 100 to Rs 60 per month which would benefit about 800,000 customer of BSNL. The reduction is applicable with effect from December 1, 2006. New year bonanza for MTNL, BSNL subscribers MTNL subscribers can now take an 'express highway' route to access the Internet. Dayanidhi Maran, union minister of communications and information technology, announced that all the existing broadband customers of MTNL will be automatically upgraded to the speed of up to 2 Mbps from the existing 256 Kbps from 1 January 2007, at the existing rates. He was speaking at the inauguration of the new building of MTNL 'Mahanagar Doorsanchar Bhawan'. Speaking on the sidelines, Maran said that the convergent billing system of MTNL will come into effect from 31 March next year. The convergent billing system will enable the MTNL to provide single bill of all services against multiple bills. In addition, it will enable the MTNL to roll out its services faster and in an efficient manner. This will further enable the customers of the MTNL to access through Internet the status of their bills on real-time basis. Keeping in view the year 2007 being declared as 'Year of Broadband' in India by the DoT, the enhancement of broadband speed will further popularise the usage of the broadband in the country. It may be recalled that BSNL has already announced to provide broadband up to 2 Mbps from 1 January 2007. Hope Private Providers will wake up soon !!!

Check out the ebooks for Forumlas and Functions in Microsoft Excel 2003: http://www.rimweb.in/forums/index.php?s=&a...ost&p=75649

LOL, too late now as the answer is out already

Anil Ambani, Maxis may tie up for Hutch Essar DNAindia.com Thursday, December 21, 2006 21:48 IST Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) flagship, Reliance Communications, is likely to team up with Maxis Communications, Malaysia, to make a $14 billion offer for a 100% buyout of Hutchison Essar. It is believed that the top brass of Reliance Communications is burning midnight oil to come out with a winning offer on December 28 — the birthday of Dhirubhai Ambani. On another side of the Hutch spectrum, Vodafone UK’s board is slated to meet soon to fix a $13.5 billion offer for Hutch Essar, in what can then turn into a battle of telecom titans. Maxis had earlier put in a $13.6 billion bid for a 67% equity of Hutchison Essar, held by Hutchison Telecommunications International Limited (HTIL), along with private equity fund, Texas Pacific Group (TGP). This was rejected by HTIL. For Maxis, teaming up with Reliance Communications is expected to add muscle to its second attempt. Sources close to the deal said that Reliance Communication may offer Maxis a stake in Hutchison Essar, in proportion to the funds that the Malaysian telecom operator brings to the table. Reliance will be backed by the Blackstone Group, manager of the world’s largest buyout fund. Maxis will bring along Texas Pacific Group. Industry insiders reckoned that Reliance can raise anything around $7 billion by parking Hutch Essar holding with private equity investors, while the balance will be put up by a consortium of investment bankers like Citibank, HSBC, ABN Amro and UBS. Such a financing through a mix of equity issuance to deal partners and debt would result in a net debt/EBITDA of a comfortable 2.6 times. Maxis, which holds a 74% equity in Aircel Cellular, may agree to merge Aircel with Reliance Communications, in lieu of a stake in a much larger Hutchison Essar. Sources said that a buyout of Hutch Essar by Vodafone could be done as it does not fall within the regulatory constraints of existing operators and the UK operator was flush with funds, having exited several smaller markets. The company, which has a 10% stake in Bharti Airtel, had been keen to increase exposure in the latter but was turned down and the current interest in Hutch Essar was logical to increase presence in one of the fastest growing emerging markets. But Vodafone, too, would hit a stumbling block towards a potential bid — finding an Indian partner. It could either be current promoter, Ruias of Essar. Reliance Communications is yet to receive regulatory approvals and spectrum to provide GSM on a pan-India basis, and if the Hutch Essar deal goes through, the latter will be present in all the circles where Reliance is not.

to Dear Vishal Gupta and others !!!

Yes, it was supposed to be 50 itself and 50 slots was what I decided to contribute from my part for the prizes. The rest 8 slots came after my decision in the form of donation from 3 members as mentioned in my post. There are chances for few more prize slots now as I got PMs from some members today who are willing to donate few more prizes for the contest

Sorry about that, fixed now

well, Reliance seems to be loosing the hold now... Maxis readies bid for Hutch Essar Business Standard New Delhi - December 21, 2006 After Vodafone, more competition for Anil Ambani. Posing serious competition to the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group, Maxis of Malaysia is finalising a bid for Hutchison Essar, the third largest private mobile operator in India. The Maxis bid has the option of buying Hutchison’s 49 per cent stake in Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd (Orascom owns another 19 per cent and the remaining stock is widely held) or directly acquiring HTIL’s 67 per cent stake (with its associates) in Hutchison Essar. Maxis representatives have declined to comment. After the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group and European telecom major Vodafone, Maxis is the third serious suitor for Hutchison Essar. An acquisition will give the successful bidder a strong footprint in India, the world’s fastest growing mobile market. Maxis already has a presence in India after it bought Aircel, which operates mobile services in Tamil Nadu and Chennai, apart from five other circles, and is now looking for a pan-India launch. Meanwhile, the Vodafone stock today moved up by 1.04 per cent on the bourses after news broke that it might join the race for Hutchison Essar. Vodafone is likely to call a board meeting soon to discuss the matter. Ravi Ruia of the Essar group is also learnt to be camping in London. While Vodafone said it would not comment on speculation, sources in the know said it was interested in picking up only the HTIL stake in Hutchison Essar, and would want to operate the company with the Ruias. They also disclosed that Vodafone had had months of discussion with Sunil Mittal of Bharti Airtel, in which it had a 10 per cent equity stake, for making a joint bid for Hutchison Essar and perhaps later merging the two entities. However, the talks were believed to have failed on account of regulatory issues and the possibility of the Mittal equity falling very low in case of a merger. As a result, merchant bankers said, Vodafone had decided to go it alone. If the deal fructifies, Vodafone sources said, the company could sell its stake in Bharti Airtel, given that it would have a larger stake in another mobile operator in the country. On his part, Mittal denied that there was any move by the two companies to jointly buy into Hutchison Essar. He said he was unaware of Vodafone’s plan for Hutchison, adding that Bharti was not interested in any bid.

Alright, I got a couple of reports by now about it, will get to you by PM for further information. If anyone else gets it, please drop me a PM.

rupees_ind changed to RAVIPATENT

MoneyControl.com December 20, 2006 at 08:16 “Nothing is impossible... The word itself says I M (am) possible” - this catchy message has resulted in a first-of-its-kind SMS fraud in the city, where two brothers allegedly duped at least 50,000 persons of Rs 2.56 crore. The masterminds behind the fraud, Jaynand Nadar (36) and Jayaraja Nadar (28), owners of a fake company named SMS Media Company, are currently absconding. In September 2006, they floated a company, 'SMS Media Pvt Ltd', and registered it. Attractive promos were then inserted in newspapers and magazines to lure investors. The Nadar brothers even put up a website (www.getpaid4sms.com) to promote their scheme. Those interested were asked to text message the word 'media' to a four-digit number and follow further instructions. “About three months ago, the accused had advertised in some newspapers and messaged random numbers, asking persons interested in earning Rs 10,000 per month to contact them” said Ajendra Thakur, Senior Police Inspector. Interested ‘subscribers’ were asked to deposit Rs 500 each. The accused claimed to be working in collaboration with a US-based company named Aropis Advertising Company, which wanted to market its clients’ products through SMSs. The subscribers received about 10 SMSs everyday about various products and they were promised a commission if they managed to rope in more subscribers by forwarding the messages. In return, Nadars promised to pay Rs 10,000 over 16 months to the investors. This amount was to be paid in installments of Rs 1,000 every few months. The accused also invited people to become 'agents' and get more and more members for the scheme. The agents were promised a handsome commission. Initially, the accused paid up small amounts. But when cheques and pay orders of larger sums issued by the two were not honoured, the agents got worried. On November 28, one such agent approached the D N Nagar police after a pay order of Rs 21.70 lakh issued to him by the Nadars was not honoured. The police lodged an FIR. Within days, eight other agents turned up with similar complaints, and more are coming up everyday. The brothers told the subscribers that their American clients wanted to conduct a study about the local response to their advertisements and were using SMS as it was the newest medium of mass communication. However, the SMSs suddenly stopped on December 10. The ‘subscribers’ then found that the accused had locked their office and disappeared. A complaint was lodged at the DN Nagar police station and police have already recorded the statements of ten persons duped by the duo. “We suspect the fraud amount may be as high as Rs 30 crore. The case will be transferred to the Economic Offences Wing soon,” added Thakur. “The scheme said every month Rs 1,000 will be added to the money you deposit,” says senior police inspector, Pradeep suryavanshi. The accused also enrolled agents who were promised a handsome commission. Police says close to four lakh individuals handed over money to the conmen, but sources say the figure could be much higher, close to a million across the country. “ So the next time someone offers you something so unbelievable, ignore it for your own good.

Happy Birthday Shaikhsadik(28) and others !

Zee News Mumbai, November 2006 The Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group on Saturday announced the launch of its online gaming portal and said it would invest 100 million dollars in the venture over the next three years to tap the entertainment sector. The portal - Zapak.Com - presents India`s largest online gaming catalog. It currently has over 150 casual games and would offer more than double of these by the end of the year, a company press release said. "Gaming is an important part of our entertainment strategy and we are investing USD 100 million in this venture over the next three years," Rajesh Sawhney, president of Reliance Entertainment Limited, was quoted as saying. "India as a market offers tremendous potential. The gaming market is expected to grow to USD 200 million by 2010," he said. Zapak.Com offers games across various genres like action, racing, puzzles, strategy and sports in the single player category. Most of these games would be exclusive in India to Zapak.Com. The portal offers some of the top international titles in single player and multiplayer free-to-play format. The company also announced its association with actor Salman Khan for creating a zone with him on the portal. The company`s chief technology officer, Sudipto Majumdar, said it has set up operations on 100 servers and can support up to six million users. "We intend to increase this number to 1,000 servers in the next three years," he said.

Anil's 'altitude sickness' strategy 19 Dec, 2006 - Times News Network On Sunday, we carried an analysis headlined “The shadow war over Hutch Essar” in which we wrote: "It's Reliance's gameplan that has been the subject of some discussion. Why has it chosen to show its hand so early in the game, especially when it could artificially drive up Hutch Essar's valuation and make the acquisition even more expensive?" We ended our analysis by saying, "Maybe its time to call in the game theorists." We weren't being flippant. The undeclared, largely subterranean war for Hutch Essar has everything a game theorist would want to keep himself occupied for a good several hours. For starters, why indeed has Anil Ambani's Reliance Communication chosen to show its hand so early? We asked a few people close to the situation. Reliance, it appears, is trying to create an atmosphere where its competitors develop "altitude sickness", to use the words of a top investment banker who's in the loop. "When the bid price is at sea level, there'll be lots of takers. As you move up, the less serious bidders will drop out. By declaring its interest, Reliance is seeking to drive the price up to an altitude that's beyond the tolerance range of competing bidders." But isn't Reliance cutting its nose to spite its face? Such a high price would go against its own interest, right? Well, apparently not. Anil Ambani, say people close to him, is not unhappy with the status quo where Hutchison (of Hong Kong) continues to hold 67% and the Ruias of Essar the remaining 33%. Reliance Comm has a subscriber base of roughly 24 million and it's growing nicely. It has Airtel on one side at 30 million and Hutch Essar on the other at 22 million. No one's really unhappy, because everyone's growing. Reliance's interest in Hutch Essar, we have reliably learnt, was triggered by reports of tension between Hutchison and the Ruias. The turning point came when the joint venture partners went into arbitration over BPL Mobile on the advice of the Bombay high court. According to a person in the know, "There were stories on the grapevine that Hutchison might be willing to exit if the price was right. Reliance wanted to signal its interest to Hutch before anyone else could stake a claim and maybe even strike a deal. If Hutch decides not to sell to anyone, then Reliance doesn't have a problem. But obviously, its interests could be affected if a competitor gets Hutch Essar." But surely it could've had done so discreetly, without the world media getting wind of it? Who let the dog out, and why? Our source has a theory:"Anil Ambani wanted to make sure that everyone on the Hutchison Whampoa board, particularly its independent directors, knew of Reliance's interest. So if Hutch were to be approached by some other group, the directors would at least ask,'have you spoken to Reliance as well?' A deal wouldn't just go through without considering all offers on the table." Ambani appears to have succeeded in putting the heat not only on Hutchison, but on investment bankers and private equity firms as well. Banking sources say the Texas Pacific Group was in the process of being lined up by Maxis of Malaysia for its bid for Hutch Essar, but once Anil Ambani's interest became public, it decided to go with him. We asked a top official in Reliance Comm if Ambani or any of his lieutenants had spoken with the Hutchison bosses in Hong Kong. He said no, it was too early, the bankers were doing the talking at this stage. What about Essar? Had Ambani spoken to the Ruias about his interest in buying them out, which he will have to since telecom laws require that he either buy less than 10% or the whole 100%, nothing in between. It seems there's been no communication on that front either. Said a source, "The Ruias have to first decide whether they want to sell or not. It's no use talking till then." Right now, the Ruias hold the key to all possible deals. Even if Hutchison is willing to sell its 67%, but the Ruias don't want to sell their 33%, then its a no-deal as far as Reliance or any of its competitors is concerned. What Reliance has managed to do is set the cat among the pigeons.