Arun

and there a few screensaver applications availabe too that you can find when you search, but its better not to install all those cosmetic stuff as it could increase the occassional "fatal errors" that pop up in the PDA mode.

Airtel vs Hutch: And the winner is... - Rediff.com Amit Ranjan Rai & Aarti Menon Carroll | January 04, 2006 Telecoms are rolling out like never before. And that 100-million mark doesn't look too far away. The mobile subscriber base crossed 65 million in September 2005, an over-30 per cent increase over the previous year. Last quarter, market leader Airtel (22 per cent market share, over 15 million mobile subscribers, source: Cellular Operators Association of India) witnessed its highest-ever net addition of 1.8 million mobile customers in a single quarter. And it's not slowing down; the company's busy rolling out networks, targeting its presence in over 4,500 towns and locations (from 3,200 in September) in the next three-four months. Hutch, with over 10 million subscribers (15 per cent market share) may be No. 4 (behind Reliance and BSNL) at present, but it has the highest average revenue per user. With the recent acquisition of BPL Mobile, its subscriber base should increase to about 13.5 million later this month when the merger is formalized - pushing it up to the No. 2 slot. Of course, right now, the focus is more on its orange-pink transformation. What makes Airtel and Hutch pull such numbers? The Strategist examines how Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd and Hutchison Essar built, sustained and strengthened two of India's biggest telecom brands in the 10 years of mobile telephony. Airtel: Leadership, power. . . feelings? "In a service industry like telecom, people live a brand 24X7. It's all about experience; and for Airtel 'brand=customer experience," says Rajan Mittal, joint managing director, Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd. That's now, but when mobile telephony began in India a decade ago, the brand was all about aspiration. That's understandable: a handset cost about Rs 45,000 - the price of a second-hand Fiat - and call charges hovered around Rs 16 a minute. Naturally, the target customer was clearly defined: elite, upmarket professionals and entrepreneurs. "We positioned Airtel as an aspirational and lifestyle brand, in a way that trivialised the price in the mind of the consumer. It was pitched not merely as a mobile service, but as something that gave him a badge value," recalls Hemant Sachdev, chief marketing officer (mobility) and director, Bharti Tele-Ventures. Airtel was on a power trip: the logo was black, uppercase bold lettering; and the baseline was "the power to keep in touch". "From day one, it was decided that the brand should always connote leadership - be it in network, innovations, offerings or services," says Diwan Arun Nanda, CMD, Rediffusion-DY&R, the agency that has created all Airtel ads over the past decade. The taglines emphasised that stance: "Airtel celebrates the spirit of leadership" and "The first choice of the corporate leaders". This was also a time when customers needed to be educated; interest levels were high, but customers' exposure to the cellular world was limited. Airtel took out full and half-page ads in newspapers, answering queries like "what is roaming?", "what is coverage area?" and "how to make international calls". In 1999, the rules of the game changed. The New Telecom Policy came into effect, replacing licence fees with a revenue-sharing scheme and extending the licence period from 10 to 20 years. Now, cellular service operators could drop their prices and target new customer segments. As SEC B became part of the catchment area, Airtel's communication changed from "power" to "touch tomorrow". The focus now was on the endless possibilities of technology to make life good and advertising became two-pronged: a product-driven communication that showcased new offerings like the Magic prepaid card, and an emotional communication that showed younger people. In 2002, Airtel signed on music composer A R Rahman and changed its tune to "Live every moment": Rahman's signature tune for Airtel is, perhaps, the most downloaded ringtone in India. But that was just part of the ongoing communication. The following year Airtel adopted the "Express yourself" positioning, which is also its current tagline. Now, the emotional angle was predominant - and stark, black and white imagery to stand out in what was becoming a highly commoditised, crowded market. The latest campaign continues that thought. Only, mobile telephony is now extending to even low-income mass categories. So the first TVCs in Hindi and regional languages are now on air, as are low-priced products, like the Rs 200 recharge coupon. Communication was just part of the battle: customer service would prove more critical. "We were very clear that Airtel will be a service-led brand," says Mittal. Accordingly, Airtel was the first cellular service provider to start customer centres (called Airtel connects), where customers could pay their bills, apply for new connections and touch and feel new handset models. The way to the future, though, seems to be through product innovations such as easy charge (recharging prepaid connection through SMS), hello tunes, the Blackberry option, stock tickers and M-cheques (mobile credit cards). The customer care centres, too, are metamorphosing into "relationship centres", one-stop shops where subscribers can not only pay their bills and have their queries answered, they can shop for new phones, surf the net and enjoy a cup of coffee. "What matters is what the customers want," points out Mittal. Hutch: Colour coded Back in 1995, using "Hello Bombay" as the tagline, and pitted against consumer electronic giant BPL, the campaign for the unknown Max Touch got underway. Says Narayan Kumar, executive creative director, TBWA Anthem, part of Mudra's creative team for Max Touch, "We consciously decided to cultivate the brand personality as foreign." The international pedigree was underlined by the baseline "World in your pocket", but local relevance was built using celebrities to endorse the brand ("Citizens of Mumbai"). Like Airtel, Hutch, too, needed to educate consumers about cellular telephony. So, it also had ads like "Can I call STD?", "Can I use my phone in a lift?" "What is airtime?" International was believed to be synonymous with sophisticated, and the customer service reflected that. Max Touch introduced Integrated Voice Response systems, and for face-to-face interactions, it had swanky customer spaces with smartly dressed executives who had been trained in customer relationships. "The advertising and the delivery of services were in tandem, something that continued with Orange and Hutchison affiliates," says Gangadharan Menon, director, Octane Communications, then a member of Narayan's creative team. Even as Hutch's communication appealed to the upper class, it was working on innovative product offerings: in 1996, it was the first cellular company to establish national roaming; later that year, it introduced over-the-counter prepaid cards. And if black proved to be Airtel's winning colour, Max Touch found orange worked for it. The almost accidental use of the colour in an ad campaign - changed at the last minute from green - was fortuitous. In February 2001, Max Touch became Orange and the account shifted from Mudra to Ogilvy. By replacing a highly recognised brand with a virtual unknown in just two weeks, the new Ogilvy campaign redefined conventional communication strategies. In Mumbai, for instance, ads compared the cost of a mobile phone call to an inexpensive cutting chai. A big success factor was how aspirational overtones in brand imagery stayed, even though price wars had started. Again, the colour orange was a seminal attribute; the brand's slogan was 'The future's bright, the future's orange'. The next year, though, it was time for another name change. Hutchison announced the creation of an umbrella brand, Hutch, although to confuse the issue further, Mumbai retained the Orange brand. The separate identities of the two brands were duly emphasised, although strategic sponsorships of theatre, music and art events overlapped - as did the use of orange colour. The new brandname also heralded the arrival of a new mascot, the "Hutch" pug. When Hutch launched the Abby-winning "Wherever you go our network will follow'" ad, viewers believed that was Hutch's new slogan, but it was just one brand attribute. Twelve other campaigns followed; each one with a single communication of a value-add, all stylised to be uniquely Hutch. "In a service business you can't have high imagery and low delivery. Effective branding has to be built on a bedrock of fundamentals of service - great network, customer service and great billing systems," Harit Nagpal, chief marketing officer, Orange had said a couple of months ago. Value-added services - such as "Privileges" (discount coupon booklets), cricket scores and stock market information - have formed as critical a part of Hutch's marketing efforts as its advertising. Other services like Hutch World (GPRS service), Hutch Alive (non-stop, streaming action) and Hutch4Help, a unique dial-in 'convenience' service, all emphasise the premium attributes of the service. But now there's Chhota Recharge, small value recharge cards (starting at Rs 10), which will also help mobilise small spenders. And now there's pink. Last month, Mumbai was overrun with billboards that simply said "Bye". A week later, the same billboards, along with the rest of the country, sported the Hutch tristar in a new, vivid pink. At the time, Naveen Chopra, corporate vice president, group marketing, Hutchison Essar, said, "The idea is just to refresh the brand, and inculcate a new 'Hutch spirit'." But the brand makeover had less to do with creating excitement and more with renouncing the Orange brand to Orange Telecom and creating the new pan-Indian Hutch brand. Airtel or Hutch? you choose Samit Sinha, Managing Partner, Alchemist Brand Consulting Airtel seems to have consciously decided to go for the belly of the market and aggressive market expansion, while Hutch seems to be pursuing a relatively more sophisticated consumer. There isn't a great deal of differentiation in terms of pricing, services, schemes and so on, but there are differences in approach. Overall, AirTel is focused on functionality and efficiency, while Hutch has veered towards warmth and emotions. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Harminder Sahni, Principal, KSA Technopak Hutch has developed a more effective branding strategy purely through its emotional connect with customers. While Hutch used the powerful visual imagery of a dog, Airtel chose to use music, which is not nearly as effective. Ad recall for Hutch has always been much higher. Still, Airtel is more powerful by sheer physical presence, while Hutch has been too fragmented. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Meenakshi Madhvani, Managing Partner, Spatial Access Brands of most mobile service providers enjoy a high unaided recall. One would assume that this high level of awareness is driven by a constant media presence. But this logic does not explain recall for BPL Mobile in Mumbai, which has minimal media presence. In such a scenario, it would not be right to conclusively say that Brand A is stronger than Brand B. However, if you consider adoption of the service by consumers as an indicator of brand strength, then Airtel would rank reasonably high.

For the phone mode or PDA mode ? It isn't possible to use a screensaver/wallpaper in the phone mode. But for the PDA mode, you can get screensaver applications as well as launchers which support background wallpapers.

Yeah, its just only the home page of Reliance Infocomm that has been revamped for now.

I think that would be difficult since both parties need to be present at the Web World where the request is being submitted. Earlier there was a charge of Rs.500 for ownership change, not sure it exists now. Complete details of new party must be given including photograph, Identity proof and address proof. So that would require you to be physically present for identification.

yup definitely, anujit and Chirag... clear your cache and try !

The automatic restart could be happenning since your system could have encountered a "system failure". The default setting for what WinXP should do on "system failure" is to "automatically restart". Go to System Properties | Advanced | Startup and Recovery Settings. Under System failure, remove the check from the box that says Automatically restart. Though I'm not sure if this is your case since "system failure" is normally accompanied with the Blue Screen of Death. If you think it could be something to do with your Hard Disk, you can manually do a Scan Disk check by... 1) Click on Start and then My Computer. 2) Right click on disk you wish to scan and then click on properities. 3) Click on Tools tab at top of window. 4) Click on Check Now in the Error Checking section. 5) Click on boxes to automatically fix file system erros and scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.

Lifetime prepaid cards -- what's the catch? Nazim Khan | February 22, 2006 It's a once in a lifetime opportunity. Or is it? Cellular operators are trying to woo customers with prepaid schemes that offer a lifetime of validity. Should you bite? The answer to that will depend on what you want from your mobile phone. What is lifetime validity? Lifetime validity essentially means you pay a certain amount -- between Rs 950 and Rs 999 at the moment -- for a prepaid card and you get a mobile connection for life with free incoming calls. The one-time fee of Rs 900+ includes a small amount of talk time (between Rs 25 and Rs 100). The rest of the fee is the processing cost. The lifetime validity offer is ideal if you use your mobile phone only to receive calls and don't make too many calls -- or any calls at all. What's the catch? The biggest catch is the cost of outgoing calls. Except MTNL's Trump, most operators charge a flat fee of Rs 1.99 per minute for outgoing calls on lifetime validity offers, regardless of whether the call is made to a mobile phone number of the same operator, a mobile phone of a different operator or a landline. On non-lifetime validity schemes, mobile phone operators offer differential pricing based on who or what number you call. For instance, a call within the operator network could be as cheap as 50 paise per minute. You can also reduce the cost of your outgoing calls in non-lifetime validity schemes by combining them with other special schemes. For example, Airtel-to-Airtel calls in some schemes cost Re 1 during peak hours, and 25 paise during non-peak hours in certain regions. Hutch subscribers can opt for a scheme that enables them to make calls to other mobile phones at just 99 paise by paying a monthly rental of Rs 25 a month. You cannot combine these special offers with lifetime validity schemes. Another downside is that you remain locked into the scheme. If you want to discontinue the connection after, say, three or six months, you will have to forfeit the one-time fee that you paid. On the plus side, unlike prepaid cards, you don't have to recharge every now and then to keep your connection active. What's more, when you recharge a lifetime validity card, you get full talk time (less taxes). In contrast, when you recharge or refill other prepaid cards, you have to shell out between 30 to 50 per cent as processing fees. For example, on an Airtel prepaid card of Rs 60, you pay a processing fee of Rs 30 and a service charge of Rs 5.6, which means you get only calls worth Rs 24.4. Choose wisely As we said earlier, most lifetime validity schemes are ideal for people who do not make outgoing calls or send many SMSes. It's best for those who are at the receiving end; for the listeners, not the talkers. If you want both lifetime validity as well as competitive outgoing call rates, schemes offered by MTNL and Reliance appear to be the best bets. But here's one last point you must keep in mind. Mobile operators get a 20-year licence from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). What happens when the licence period expires? Will the lifetime scheme be carried forward once the licence is renewed? Is it really valid for a lifetime? The TRAI is looking into these issues and is expected to come up with guidelines for such schemes soon. How these schemes will be affected by the guidelines, and what will happen to customers who have already locked into the schemes, only the TRAI and time can tell. Till then, choose wisely.

OneIndia: Not really for the common man - Rediff.com Surajeet Das Gupta | February 22, 2006 Union Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran has been publicly talking about his great vision - to ensure the death of distance. So after much dithering, state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd announced an aggressive "One India" plan last fortnight whereby customers will fork out only Re 1 a minute for a long distance call to any part of the country. At first blush, it's an exciting offer. Your STD tariffs will drop a whopping 140 per cent - from current rates - and you can avail of this offer regardless of whether you have a mobile phone or landline. Even local call tariffs will be cheaper by 20 per cent. Says a beaming A K Sinha chairman of BSNL: "The new One India tariff will make communications more affordable to the masses. And, of course, grow the Indian market." BSNL points out that while they will make a loss of Rs 600 crore (Rs 6 billion) due to cheap STD calls, this will be more than compensated by a 40 per cent growth in calls, which it anticipates. However, questions are being raised whether the "One India" offer is really as cheap or affordable as it is made out to be? Private telcos say they don't want to upset the minister's pet scheme and are unwilling to come on record. Off the record, they tell you that "One India" is not a big deal and what the incumbent telcos have done is some smart tariff rejigging. Says a leading operator: "They wanted to create a noise and give the impression that they were the first to bring in "One India". If the Interconnect User Charges regime is changed as the regulator has said there is no reason why we cant offer the same tariffs. So it is nothing to do with vision." Under the interconnect regime, the regulator is expected to cut access deficit charges which are paid by private operators to the incumbent for subsidising local calls, dramatically reducing the floor restriction whereby private operators have to pay a minimum of Rs 1.10 per call to the NLD operator as carriage fees (this has to be reduced as cost of carrying a call for NLD operators is as low as 30 paisa). However, to be fair, all of them admit that the STD tariffs would make sense for high long-distance callers - the premium customers. Says a senior executive of a leading private sector telco: "In the fixed line tariff, they have reduced STD tariffs by increasing the rentals as well as removing the free calls. And in the mobile space they have again hiked the initial commitment that customers have to put up with." Now let us compare the Rs 299 One India plan with its tariff plan of Rs 180 rental - which most of us use. The Rs 180 scheme consists of 50 free calls (which is valued at Rs 60 if all of them are used to make local calls) - so effectively your rental comes down to Rs 120. Compare that with the Rs 299 One India plan. You effectively pay Rs 179 extra compared to the older scheme. If you are a customer who does not make STD calls of more than 90 minutes get, there is not much for you in the new tariff plan. That is because over and above the free calls, customers also have to pay for the next 300 calls only Re 1 for a three-minute call and Rs 2 for an STD. The scenario is similar in the pre-paid mobile space. Again the commitment, which the pre-paid mobile customers have to pay upfront surely does not cater to the common man. It is again geared to benefit the premium customer - whose 30-40 per cent calls are STD. Private mobile operators say while 70 per cent of the mobile market is based on pre-paid customers, the average revenue per user is Rs 200. These customers are looking for more local calls and minimum upfront costs. But the One India plan is based on a large upfront commitment - you have to fork out an upfront payment of Rs 799 (with a talk time of Rs 550) to get the cheap STD benefit. In the post-paid arena, for instance, another closer look is warranted. While the Rs 299 post-paid offer provides STD calls at Re 1, there is no reason for you to change in case you are a customer who makes most of your STD calls to other mobile numbers. For instance, Tata Indicom on its Rs 399 scheme already offer STD all across the country for Re 1. On top of it you get 100 SMS's free (that is valued between Rs 100 to Rs 200 depending on whether you are sending messages locally or in other locations in India), a much cheaper local mobile to mobile and mobile to fixed call rates - which are half of that offered by the incumbent in the new plan. The message is clear, there are no free lunches. And while the Re 1 OneIndia offer is a bonanza for heavy STD users, it might not be that attractive for wooing new users.

yes, for Reliance's lifetime offer Here's a short summary of the lifetime prepaid offers by different providers: Nazim Khan | February 22, 2006 Note: All call charges are per minute. Reliance IndiaMobile Cost Rs 995 Free talk time Rs 50 Recharge denominations Starts as low as Rs 10. You can couple the lifetime offer with recharge coupons that allow you to make outgoing calls for as little as 40 paise and send an SMS for 1 paisa. Call and SMS rates with lifetime validity Local calls: Rs 1.99 STD calls: Rs 2.99 Local SMS: Rs 1 National SMS: Rs 2 Call and SMS rates on non-lifetime validity prepaid cards Local Reliance to Reliance/ FWP/ FPT: Rs 0.99 Local calls to other phones: Rs 1.79 STD calls to Reliance: Rs 1.79 STD calls to any other phone: Rs 2.49 Local SMS: Re 1 National SMS: Rs 2 The small print on lifetime validity The connection will be deactivated if there is no transaction in the account for six months. And since it's a CDMA service, it can be used only with Reliance-ready handsets, which means switching services can be rather expensive. One advantage of this service is that you can combine lifetime validity with special schemes that suit your mobile usage. Special schemes (available on both lifetime validity as well as non-lifetime validity cards): Make free calls to Reliance phones by recharging with a Rs 440 coupon (valid for 30 days, talk time Rs 100). One Nation, One Tariff: Buy a Rs 1,100 voucher and call any phone in India at Re 1 (valid for 30 days, talk time worth Rs 750). SMS Top-up: For a Rs 55 top-up card you can send unlimited SMSes to Reliance phones across India (valid for 30 days). For a Rs 180 recharge you can send 18000 SMSes (valid for six months). Airtel Lifetime Prepaid Cost Rs 999 Free talk time Rs 25. Full talk time (less taxes) on subsequent recharges Recharge denominations Rs 60 to Rs 3,300 Call and SMS rates with lifetime validity Local calls: Rs 1.99 STD calls: Rs 2.99 Local SMS: Rs 0.99 National SMS: Rs 1.99 Call and SMS rates on non-lifetime validity prepaid cards Local calls to Airtel phones: Re 1 Local calls GSM/ WLL/ landline: Rs 2.25 STD calls to Airtel phones: Rs 2 STD calls to GSM/WLL/landline: Rs 2.9 Local SMS: Rs 1.50 (up to 160 characters) National SMS: Rs 2 The small print on lifetime validity The connection will be permanently deactivated if you don't make an outgoing call/ get an incoming call/ or buy a recharge for a continuous period of six months. So you can't stash away your mobile in your drawer, forget about it and still retain your connection. You cannot opt for any of the above mentioned special schemes once you have opted for the lifetime validity plan. Special schemes (not available on lifetime validity offers) Airtel One Local: Make local calls to any GSM mobile phone for Re 1 by paying a monthly rental of Rs 25. Airtel One STD: Make STD calls at Rs 2 for a monthly rental of Rs 50 and a one-time activation charge of Rs 50. Airtel Friendz: Send local SMSes at Rs 0.30 and make calls between 11 pm and 7 am to an Airtel phone at Rs 0.50 for a monthly rental of Rs 30 Hutch Chalta Rahe Cost Rs 999 Free talk time Rs 25, with full talk time (less taxes) on every future recharge Recharge denominations Rs 10 to Rs 3,300 Call and SMS rates with lifetime validity Local calls: Rs 1.99 STD calls: Rs 2.99 Local SMS: Rs 1.50 National SMS: Rs 2.50 Call and SMS rates on non-lifetime validity prepaid cards Local calls to GSM/ CDMA/ landline: Rs 1.99 STD calls to GSM/ CDMA/ landline: Rs 2.64 Local SMS: Rs 1.50 National SMS: Rs 2 The small print on lifetime validity You have to recharge every six months, or your connection will be cut off. The plus point is that you can get recharge coupons for as little as Rs 10. As in the case of Airtel, you cannot activate the special schemes after opting for lifetime validity. Special schemes (not available with lifetime validity) Get Closer: Make an STD call to any Hutch phone at Re 1 for a monthly rental of Rs 25. Wait Till Night: Send an SMS to any local Hutch phone between 10 pm to 10 am for Rs 0.10 for a monthly rental of Rs 25. Talk@99p: Make calls to any local mobile phone @ Rs 0.99 for a monthly rental of Rs 25. MTNL Trump Jeevan Sathi One-time cost Rs 990 Free talk time Rs 100, with full talk time (less taxes) for subsequent recharges Recharge denominations Between Rs 100 and Rs 2,640 Call and SMS rates for both lifetime validity and non-lifetime validity schemes Local calls to Dolphin/Trump: Rs 0.90 Local calls to any other phone: Rs 1.50 STD calls within Maharashtra/ Goa (any phone): Rs 1.75 STD calls outside Maharashtra/Goa: Rs 2.40 Local SMS: Rs 0.50 National SMS: Rs 1.50 Note: Call rates are the same, whether you choose a lifetime validity scheme or any other offer. MTNL does not have any special scheme that can be coupled with the normal plan. The small print on lifetime validity You have to recharge the card at least once in six months with a minimum recharge of Rs 100.

End of the world in 1,000 years? - Rediff.com February 17, 2006 12:57 IST To stay alive, we have to meet a deadline. * If man does not stop burning fossil fuels, by the year 3000, rising oceans will drown many countries and cities, and temperatures will have risen by as much as 15 degree Centigrade. * Global warming could quadruple by 2100. Abrupt climate changes will become routine. * Ocean water will become less acidic, throwing the marine ecosystem out of gear and resulting in catastrophic results for the earth. These are the findings of a study called Climate Change on the Millenial Timescale by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research for the United Kingdom's Environment Agency. And it's not just the British study -– which is the first to examine the impacts of global warming beyond the end of this century -- that urges mankind to save itself right now. Jim Hansen, a climate change scientist with America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration told the British newspaper The Independent: 'I think sea-level rise is going to be the big issue soon, more even than warming itself.' The Tyndall Centre study says by 3000 oceans will rise by more than 11 metres if mankind ignore the peril the earth is in. Hansen, director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York -- who is American President George W Bush's top climate modeller -- said the Bush administration tried to gag him when he wanted to speak to the media about new satellite data of the Greenland ice cap. 'They (the satellite data) show that Greenland seems to be losing at least 200 cubic kilometres of ice a year,' Hansen wrote in the as-told-to article in The Independent, adding that even two years ago, the ice cap was deemed to be stable. The earth seems to be on the edge of a tipping point beyond which the melting ice would see huge armadas of icebergs floating in the ocean and drowning much of the earth, he wrote. Both the British study and Hansen say the only way out is drastically cutting down carbon-based fuels and focusing on alternative energy sources. Now. In fact, the British study says mankind must stop all greenhouse gas emissions -– caused by burning fossil fuel -- by 2200. And if we don't take action now, both Hansen and the study emphasise, the earth may set in motion disastrous consequences that we would not be able to reverse later, even if we tried. -------------------- looks as though the theme of "The Day After Tomorrow" movie is coming into reality !

looks as though only the main page was revamped, not sure if they would rework all the pages. The drop down link menu looks very unprofessional. Defenitely the older design was better !

'postpaid to prepaid' migration Reliance Infocomm writes off Rs 4,500 crore !!! [ Monday, February 20, 2006 11:46:56 pm - TIMES NEWS NETWORK ] MUMBAI: The cheap subscriber schemes and large scale import of poor quality handsets during the early days of Reliance Infocomm in 2001 has now come back to haunt the company. On Monday evening, Reliance Communication Ventures, the company created to park the RIL ownership as part of the division between the Ambani brothers, said that its board of directors had decided to write-off Rs 4,500 crore accrued till March 2005 before the ownership shifted from Mukesh to Anil. Post write-off Reliance Infocomm’s net worth will become Rs 11,000 crore, a company statement said. The bad debts accrued from its countrywide launch in 2001 due to the losses on the ‘Monsoon Hungama scheme’ where the company offered schemes to subscribers for just Rs 501 and later even as low as Re 1 for a connection. Months before the split, Reliance Industries had transferred Rs 3,500 crore of its bad debts to Smart Entrepreneurs Ltd, a subsidiary of Reliance Communication Infrastructure (RCIL). RCIL later became part of Reliance Infocomm. In 2005, just before the split of the Reliance Group, Reliance Infocomm, then controlled by Mukesh Ambani, had written off Rs 450 crore of its outstanding bad debts and disconnected 9.3 lakh subscribers, nearly 10% of the subscriber base then close to 1.1 crore. In addition to these schemes and 20 lakh poor quality handsets, the company had to pay penalties and access deficit charges to the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) for re-routing international calls as domestic calls. DoT fined Reliance Infocomm for violating the international subscriber dialling (ISD) norms. The company paid close to Rs 150 crore as penalties to the DoT. The board of directors took this drastic step after receiving a green signal from Ernst & Young, the company’s independent auditor. A company release attributed the write-offs to liabilities relating to regulatory and taxation matters, bad debts, irrecoverable amounts, obsolete, slow moving inventories and the impairment of assets. The move is part of cleaning up the balance sheet prior to listing on the bourses on March 6. However telecom analysts are surprised by the size of the write-off.

2) In the PDA home menu, click the Options Drop down button (in the Graffiti area) > App > Delete 3) Themes are always resource hogging, zLauncher is one of the lighter one 4) Not possible 5) Nopes ! 6) Normal SD cards and MultiMedia Cards are compatible. NEC 512 MB costs around Rs.1200 in Mumbai 7) Not the place for requests, but you may contact someone by PM 8) I did get some good games for the Kyo (hint: I statred from google.com ) 9) Thats from Phone Preferences > Call Volume > Speakerphone

OK, I'll get in touch with you through PM.

This seems to have been caused due to misconfiguration on your Dialer. Are you using the R-Connect dialer or did you create a new one through Dial–Up Networking Wizard ? You may try recreating/reinstalling the dialer and then try again as this problem is reported to get fixed once the settings are reset.

There was a nice tutorial link posted by 'cracker' a few days ago, but the link was removed since the website had some illegal stuff. If you need it, just send me a PM.

Welcome back ! Quoted from Khaleej Times...

OneIndia revolution or missing the telecom bus? Praful Bidwai - Kahaleej Times 18 February 2006 Is India about to launch the much-awaited Telecommunications Revolution through the OneIndia tariff plan that Minister Dayanidhi Maran announced last week? Or is it likely to miss the bus yet again? The honest answer is, probably the second. On the face of it, OneIndia is attractive. It has even been called "revolutionary". Reducing the local-call landline rates by the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam by 17 per cent to the magic figure of Re 1 for three minutes is an audacious step. Slashing the long-distance tariff by 58 per cent to Re 1 a minute irrespective of distance is even bolder. This carries the attraction of promoting a unified all-India market. Similar reductions have been effected in mobile tariffs too. However, on closer examination, OneIndia will block telecom growth, especially in villages which need it the most. It will also discourage lower-middle class people from acquiring telephones and widen India’s yawning Telecom Divide. There’s no merit in imposing distance-independent tariffs in a semi-continental country like India. OneIndia is likely to prolong the long stagnation in India’s teledensity, which is just 4.5 fixed lines per 100 people, among the lowest in the world. In Asia, India compares poorly not just with South Korea or Taiwan (teledensity, 50 per 100), but with China or Malaysia too (teledensity, about 20). OneIndia will again deprive India of advantages like saving costs, and reducing drudgery and labour expended in avoidable physical movement of people. What explains the gap between appearance and reality? Call charges have been lowered, but monthly telephone rentals have been raised to Rs 299. The rise is 20 per cent for Mumbai and Delhi. But it’s much steeper (66 per cent) for BSNL’s city-based subscribers and an even sharper five-fold for rural lines. This will put off new subscribers. True, existing subscribers have the option of staying with their old plan. But high rentals will act as future barriers. In villages, teledensity is an abysmal 2 per 100. OneIndia also discriminates against low-end users and favours high-end subscribers who make frequent long-distance calls. Ordinary Indians use the telephone frugally. Seventy-three per cent pay monthly bills of Rs 500 or less. As many as two-fifths ensure that their bill doesn’t exceed the rent, which includes a number of free calls. Under OneIndia, there will be no free calls at all. The incomes of the 1.2 million people who operate public-call offices will be hit. BSNL and MTNL will suffer a revenue loss of Rs 3,000 to 5,000 crores. Maran seems to have been guided by motives other than ensuring BSNL-MTNL’s financial well-being. One is the coming Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, which has a relatively high telecom penetration. But this short-sighted calculation will prove expensive for the country. It’s hard to justify the sudden, large, reduction in long-distance rates. These have sharply fallen since 1999 from Rs 36 per minute. They dropped to Rs 24 (2000) to Rs 9 (2002), Rs 4.80 (2003), to Rs 3.60 (April 2004) and Rs 2.40 (September 2004). Further reduction could be spread over, say, three years. But a precipitate decrease will impose losses on the two public-sector companies. They need to be strongly supported — for sound economic and social reasons. The burden of connectivity has fallen on BSNL’s shoulders. It has connected over 500,000 villages. The private companies have only connected 15,000! Private firms were meant to commit 10 per cent of all new lines to rural areas. They have provided only one-tenth. Under OneIndia, private companies will indulge in cherry-picking. And public companies would be left with low-end users and lose revenue. India’s telecom sector is marked by enormous disparities and anomalies. The greatest anomaly is the National Telecom Policy of 1994, arbitrarily rewritten and repeatedly violated, as in the award of contracts for each of 20 basic telecom circles. The winners were obliged to pay high licence fees, but were let off-Banana Republic-style. Numerous scandals followed: cheating on service obligations, formation of cartels, sell-off of the public sector VSNL, and Reliance’s abuse of its fixed-line licence to provide full mobility. Disparities are no less striking. Mobile telephony has witnessed dizzying growth, especially after 2003, when incoming calls were made free. Since 2000, the number of mobile lines has increased 30-fold to 65 million, overtaking fixed-line connections. It’s now annually growing at 50 per cent, or by two million lines a month. However, fixed-line growth has slowed from 25 per cent in the 1990s to just 7-8 per cent. Worse, the rural-urban divide has widened from 1:3 to 1:11. About 85,000 villages still remain unconnected. Mobile telephony has not bridged the divide. Mobile network coverage is only about 30 per cent of India’s land-area. Three lessons emerge. Mobile telephones are not a substitute for fixed-line phones. A large proportion of their owners are fixed-line subscribers. Their spin-off effects are limited. Most cellphones don’t allow Internet access. Second, competition doesn’t guarantee growth. Competitors can narrowly focus on affluent consumers. It’s only when MTNL and BSNL were allowed to enter mobile telephony that costs dropped. Third, markets don’t address the needs of low-end consumers. OneIndia is based on a technologically unsound presumption-the death of distance. This can only happen when Internet-based data transfers through Broadband connections greatly exceed voice traffic. But in India, the number of fixed lines is 48 million. There are only about 1 million Broadband subscribers. Therefore, the length of copper wire or optical fibre must remain a major determinant of the real cost of calls. A Delhi-Chandigarh call should not be charged at the same rate as a Delhi-Kokatta call. Irrational pricing is a recipe for losses and slower telecom growth. Maran is a man in a hurry. But he should pause and ask if any country has provided telephones to the masses without cross-subsidies-so that surpluses gathered from long-distance calls and rich subscribers to support expansion in backward areas and among low-end users. India is no exception to this. OneIndia will promote telecom elitism and further divide the country. That’s not what we need.

MP3 sound via the headset is really good stereo effect, especially if you use Bebopper MP3 player for Palm. The sound via the speaker phone is OK, not very loud, but clear.

In which format are the ringtones and softwares that you have ?

@gr8usr: You haven't which your old handset is, but your profile says LG RD 2030. Your old handset will become blank (you can use a GSK to activate it with a new number if you want) or else sell it for for Rs.500 - Rs.750 LG RD 6230 fits your bill, and you can connect it to PC. @liveonrim: You haven't mentioned your budget, but LG RD 6230 should be fine if you have the miniSD card alongside.

Which model R-Connect card have you brought ?

LG RD 2630 and LG RD 3330 has been announced by LG. Find more here.

Be cybersafe when banking online - Rediff.com Jayshree Mulherkar | February 16, 2006 Along with the convenience of Internet banking, phone banking and ATMs, come some risks. Though banks take pains to ensure that online transactions are secure, you need to be responsible and vigilant while using any of these services. Many frauds occur because of careless users rather than careless banks. Here are some ways in which you can protect yourself while banking online: Choose the right place The best place to check your online accounts is from your personal computer at home. Avoid accessing your online banking accounts from shared computers, like those in cyber cafés. Also avoid locations that offer online connections through wireless networks (Wi-Fi), where privacy and security are minimal. If you do have to check from a cyber café or even in your office, follow these precautions. Once you log on, don't wander off from your desk to have a cup of coffee or attend a meeting. Never leave your PC unattended after keying in information while transacting on a web site. Always log out and shut the browser when you leave. Remember, log out and close the browser to ensure that your secure session is terminated. Never exit simply by closing the browser. Do not select the option on the browser that stores or retains user name and password. Get a smart password A password is the latchkey to your online account, enabling you and only you to carry out transactions. Don't reveal it to anyone. Use an alphanumeric password – one that combines numbers, alphabets and other characters -- like !, @, #, $, %, ^, &,* (, ) -- to make it difficult for hackers. Use passwords that can't be easily guessed -- for example, don't use your date of birth, address, telephone number, spouse or kid's name. Keep changing passwords at frequent intervals. Memorise your passwords and don't ever write it down and stuff it in your wallet! If you lose your wallet or it gets stolen, you could be in a soup. Some banks have separate passwords for viewing your accounts and for carrying out transactions. Keep both of them safe. Other banks have a feature whereby you need another password for high value deals. So, if the money that you want transferred to another account exceeds a particular sum, you will need to enter a specific password to validate the transaction. If you have several bank accounts, avoid using the same online banking password for all. Get onto the right web site When logging on to your bank's web site, don't use the embedded links in any e-mail to get to any web page. Type the link address (URL) in your web browser. Never enter your user ID or password or such sensitive information without ascertaining that you are on the right web site. Many banks have a 'last logged in' panel on their web sites. Always check the panel whenever you log in. If you notice irregularities (like you are logging in after two days, but the panel says you logged in that morning!), report the matter at once to the bank and change your password immediately. Frequently check the balance in your account so that if you discover a transaction you haven't made, or if you have made a mistake, you can get it rectified immediately. Notify your bank as soon as you discover something unusual. Banks also ensure a certain amount of security by putting a daily limit on transactions. For example, ICICI Bank restricts online transactions to Rs 1,00,000 a day. And if transactions involving huge sums are done frequently, you may be asked to visit the bank for signature verification. Is your computer safe ? Ensure that your web browser supports 128-bit encryption. In fact, most banks won't let you access your online accounts if your browser does not support it. It's also a good idea to install a firewall on the machine you're using to make online transactions. There are many free personal firewalls online such as Zone Alarm. A firewall is like an electronic fence around your computer; it prevents crooks from accessing the information you have on it. It also gives you a warning when someone is trying to get into your computer. Also ensure that the latest anti-virus and anti-spyware software is installed on your PC. Don't open, run, install or use programs or files obtained from a person or organisation you do not know or from someone who is not a reputed vendor. In case you find all of this too tedious and bothersome, remember, it is always better to be safe than sorry.