Arun

Reliance Infocomm lines up brand push Business Standard / Mumbai December 3, 2005 Reliance Infocomm, which is in the process of a brand overhaul, is scouting for nearly 50 people in the marketing, branding, customer management and communication space. The company will unveil its new brand identity shortly with a multi-media campaign. While the media duties will be handled by Mudra’s media arm, Optimum Media Solutions, Reliance Infocomm is still in the process of finalising the creative agencies. The agencies that are currently handling the Reliance Infocomm account are Satchi & Satchi and Ambience. “We are in the process of rebranding ourselves into a brand that has a lot more emotional connect and imagery. The whole process will be completed in the next six to eight weeks,” said Sanjay Behl, head (branding), Reliance Infocomm. He said Reliance Infocomm’s vision was to become a globally competitive brand across all the categories. The company will also restructure its marketing team by having a central marketing team in Mumbai and several circuit marketing teams in regions. On the branding front, the company is looking at brand architecture, advertising professionals, individuals with retail branding and out of home visibility expertise. The effort is to position Reliance Infocomm as a contemporary brand that has the ability to connect with the mass, he added. “Reliance Infocomm today is perceived as a brand that ensures value for money,” said Behl.

Reliance to offer 3G services Business Standard / Ahmedabad December 02, 2005 Reliance Infocomm to migrate into 3G (third generation) very soon, if demand rises. "Reliance Infocomm is ready with the platform providing 3G in mobile phone which will give all facilities available on broadband connections," claimed B M Jain, chief technical officer, Reliance Infocomm. It will mainly focus on high speed data connectivity of around two mbps in mobile phone including video conference, video streaming, gaming applications and others. "Now company has a platform of network bandwidth capacity in terabytes (a thousand of gigabytes)," claimed Jain.For video games, a server would be created in which thousands of games would be available. "If content developing company offers the service, one can play games with some one who is on-line on phone," said Jain. Jain said that many services which are currently available like video streaming are very time consuming. "Once 3G services are started, all data based services would open very fast," he said. He added that services like banking operations and others will be just click and downloaded. Right now 3G services is a year away as customer has not demanded yet."In the initial stage we would start it in metros than mega cities and than across the country as it does not fulfil the requirement of customers in towns and villages," claimed Jain. Currently in India, many mobile operators were offering 3G enabled services but it consumes time. "Operators are working on 2.5G technology and they will have to migrate to 3G as per to Universal Mobile Telecom Service (UMTS) standard, which was created in 2000," explained Jain. Once operators migrated to 3G, there will be an inter operator compatibility. Not only in India but even in international market, lobbies of both GSM and CDMA are making their own applications and some agree and some disagree to migrate to standard norms of UMTS. However, for GSM operators migration to 3G would be on large scale technology changes. "GSM operators are offering these services on the basis of Global Package Radio Service (GPRS) and to offer high speed data connectivity in GPRS, they might require to high investment in technology. While CDMA is data enabled technology which needs minor changes to start providing high speed connectivity," said Jain. According to Jain, many operators in different countries claim that they are using 4G technology but it is conceptual. "Developed countries like USA and Japan are using 3G and they may migrate to 4G in near future," said Jain.

Mukund Govind Rajan, (TATA) on the future of CDMA in India - Rediff.com December 02, 2005 He has been in the thick of things, formulating strategy for the Tata Group's telecom forays as executive assistant to Ratan Tata. Part of the hallowed fraternity of Tata Administrative Services, the 37-year-old, soft spoken, Oxford-educated Mukund Govind Rajan has played a crucial role in turning around Videsh Sanchar Nigam and getting Tata Teleservices on to its aggressive expansion path as an all-India player (he is director in both). Rajan, who took over as president of the Association of Basic Telecom Operators last week, in an interview with Surajeet Das Gupta, talks about the future of CDMA, the spectrum controversy and the bitter battle being waged between GSM and CDMA players. <br>Excerpts: The Government has got a target of 250 million phone lines by 2007. Is this achievable? I think we can over-aspire. Essentially it is a matter of network reach, handset prices and service. In the network field, you need to have the right combination of tactics and significant support from the USO fund, which can be used to create incentives for faster rollout. Also, the government needs to reduce the burden of taxation (30 per cent of revenues). Then the industry can grow much faster. How do you tackle handset prices? We have set challenges to our suppliers to come up with rural terminals, which will serve these markets and be even cheaper; we need to have handsets within the $15 range if you want to proliferate ownership. We should have an interesting product in the market in the early part of next year. What kind of support are telcos giving to the $15 phone? We are putting pressure on component manufacturers and vendors. As the chipset is a large part of the cost, we are in serious discussions with Qualcomm. There are smaller entities like Via Technologies, which can also produce the chipsets.You can strip the phone down down to the bare essentials: what you need is a voice-only offering. You don't necessarily need to have a display screen at all. GSM operators have pooled together to ensure large volumes to handset manufacturers and bring down prices. Why is no such effort seen in the CDMA space? Typically, we haven't done that in CDMA, but there are efforts to get operators to come together to order large volumes. However, my understanding is that beyond a certain point, scale loses meaning for the vendor. So, for instance, after 2-3 million handsets, the marginal advantage is lost. We (CDMA operators in India) have not sat together; each company has its own strategy, but we don't rule out a possibility of coming together. Different operators are using different platforms. Are CDMA operators dependent on subsidised phones to get subscribers? In CDMA, we did not have legacy carriers, a second hand market of handsets, or even people understanding the technology. So willy nilly operators started supplying handsets to customers. We had to give some incentives that became a pronounced subsidy over time. The good news is that both operators have been able to drive down handset prices from vendors, and there is much more competition amongst handset manufacturers in the CDMA space than in the GSM space today. And both operators are moving away from the subsidy game. CDMA operators are fighting a bitter battle with GSM operators on the issue of spectrum. They say you have claimed on affidavit before courts that you are five times more efficient than GSM, so you should be given much less spectrum. Technology has moved on. For instance, GSM operators like Cingular claim that they are more spectrally efficient than CDMA. I have never heard of any economy or country which says that if you are efficient you should be penalised. At the end of the day, it should be the operator's choice what he should choose. Tomorrow there might be another technology better than GSM and CDMA. Instead of flogging a dead horse, what we need to look at is what is appropriate for us today in our country. The statements they (GSM operators) are relying on are dated statements. In 30 odd countries CDMA and GSM coexist and they get the same spectrum. The Tatas and Reliance have a different approach towards spectrum allocation,diametrically opposed to each other. What is the stand of your association? AUSPI has conceded that there are different approaches that our members have on spectrum. One member has said we must have a large fee, another has suggested that the fee should be brought to a minimum in order to make services more affordable. What we are united on is that spectrum should go only to serious players who want to serve the market. No, we have had no consensus on this issue, and leave it to the Government to make a final call. Do you think 3G will become a mass-market phenomenon in India and we will see a large shift from 2G to 3G? We have to feel our way. The limiting factor to full-blown 3G will be the terminal handset cost. Currently they cost $350-400. Dayanidhi Maran has been talking about "India One" or one tariff across India. How do you see this coming along? We have formally written to the government requesting details of what it would comprise. We don't have the information. At the moment, when you add all the connectivity and other costs up, we are not clear how you will achieve a one India tariff without addressing these issues. Also, local call rates may have to go up. Most private operators say the market should decide these things, as there is already enough competition. The other alternative is to have a fixed return, like in power. You can have very low tariffs, but if competition goes away you will again have a monopoly, which is not good for customers.

cool logos there, shiva ! I'll have Indra have a look at them !

abhay, thats not the withdrawl procedure, but thats the verification procedure after you add your credit card to your PayPal account. Even if you withdraw US$ 150 or US$ 500, you will be charged US$5 + 3% , and it is per transaction.

er, when & where did I ask that ? Maybe you missed this: Regarding acceptability of links in signatures (be it a profit/non profit site), all such signature links are reported in the moderator forum, reveiwed and then a decision will be taken on whether to allow it or not. We will have a link exchange program soon, but not in the signatures.

Thank you for the reviews guys, it was really great to read them Regarding posting reviews in other forums/website, I would request you not to do so, unless they specifially mention that they welcome reviews of other websites/forums. If you post reviews without their consent, that would be considered as 'SPAM', and that would infact degrade our forum. So other than mouthshut.com, which are the other websites on the net that welcomes/allows reviews of other websites ? Please post here if you know any similar websites like mouthshut.com And regarding the forum creators to post a review about their own website/forum won't be a good idea at all, as that would again be treated as SPAM and biased by others. It is should be the members who should evaluate us and post their reviews (both positive and negative points) and comments Thanks again for the reviews and keep 'em coming

to Ashok ! 6 members are celebrating their birthday today pjthevj (21), Morpheus (23), ashoksoft (21), amitstg (29), rajaas (31), reachpradeep (25) Happy Birthday to all !

I also got my Breezy Badger CDs (15 of 'em) and hope to install them after my exams BTW, congrats kagashe !

PayPal doesn't cost you anything to maintain an account with them, though you need to have minimum US$150 to be withdrawn in India. The charge for this facility is US$5 + 3% of the exchange rate. It will take about a month for the cheque to reach you after you request to withdraw though.

I've installed a skin called 'Reverb', which you can choose your controls link. I'll be adding more skins and emoticons in a couple of days.

Most probably, your post was 'moved' from a topic as a new thread by a moderator in order to keep the other topic away from 'off-topic' discussion.

Here is the report ! CDMA Leaders Gather to Discuss Strategies for Continued Expansion of the Technology Worldwide Source: CDG CDMA operators from around the world met on November 11 and 12 in Mumbai, India to share their successes with the technology and set priorities to ensure continued progress in the coming years. The fourth annual CDMA Operator Summit was hosted by Reliance Infocomm Limited, the largest wireless operator and a leading telecommunication provider in India. The discussions focused on cooperation in the areas of business development, new market opportunities, technology evolution, device availability and global interoperability. "This year marks the 10th anniversary of the first CDMA network deployment," said Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDMA Development Group (CDG) (www.cdg.org). "CDMA has become a leading platform for 2G and 3G services with 200 operators in 71 countries and nearly 300 million subscribers worldwide. CDMA operators who gathered here represent diverse markets from developed as well as developing regions. Sharing their experiences and needs will enable the industry to focus on issues that are important to continued success." "We are delighted to have been able to host this year's summit," said B. D. Khurana, group president, Reliance Infocomm. "CDMA has been a tremendous success in India, bringing affordable voice and offering advanced data services to millions, including those who never had access to a phone. This forum enables us to discuss openly the issues facing our industry and our markets and to set priorities to make sure that the needs of our customers are addressed by the CDMA2000 industry." The Summit is one of the largest gatherings of CDMA operators and has become an important venue for the industry to share experiences, identify market opportunities and provide input on the market requirements for future technology, handset and service development. This year, operators from Asia Pacific, Latin America and North America participated, including Alltel Corporation, USA; Asia-Pacific Broadband Wireless, Taiwan; Bakrie Telecom, Indonesia; China Unicom, China; JSC Altel, Kazakhstan; KDDI, Japan; KTF Co., Ltd, Korea; LG Telecom, Korea; Pacific Bangladesh Telecom, Bangladesh; PT Telkom, Indonesia; Shyam Telelink Ltd, India; SK Telecom, Korea; Sprint Nextel, USA; Tata Teleservices Limited, India; Telecom Mobile, New Zealand; Telus Mobility, Canada; Verizon Wireless, USA; Vibo Telecom, Taiwan; and VIVO Telecom, Brazil. The summit attendees discussed the vibrant CDMA2000 evolution path, including ways to continue to meet customers' needs and stay ahead of the competition. They also identified areas for greater cooperation including improving interoperability of features and increased participation in the CDG's Global Handset Requirements for CDMA team to ensure greater handset availability and volume-based pricing at all tiers. Many participants noted the increased interest in R-UIM-based CDMA2000 handsets. The CDMA2000 Operator Summit moves to North America for its fifth meeting in 2006 with the announcement that Sprint will host the gathering.

OK, I'll this clear out this mystery 'PM' ! The 'member' who sent the PM to Rajan was a 'validating member' at the time he sent it. Yes, 'validating members' can send PMs, maybe we have to block this in future. We do flush out 'validating members' who haven't valiated their accounts for a long time. And by the time Rajan had checked his PM, the 'validating member' was already removed from the database. And thats why the PM appeared to have come from.... 'nobody' !

4 members are celebrating their birthday today Mahidhar(23), Dhirens(32), milimaity(35), pbreddy014(24) Happy Birthday to all !!!

and sending MMS using 1st smtp won't work anymore too

If directory listing is disabled, you wont be able to find out the sub folder/page names. Most websites have Directory listing disabled including Geocities. However, you may try HTTrack Website Copier

Changed, Dilbert !

Welcome Mr.George Thomas to the forum ! nice to have you here ! yeah, heard of Tinfo Mobile a lot, been following the recent reports of Mr.Anupam's speech at 'Mobile Gaming 2005’ too

Rajan, thank you for reporting it, you must have received my message by now.

Samsung SCH 191 is better than LG RD 2030 for R-Connect. And regarding battery life, there are USB cables which can charge your handset when you are using R-Connect.

I think you can check your data and voice usage by login into "My Rim" option at http://bill.relianceinfo.com/webapp/portal...et/LoginServlet 47777[/snapback] BPP was referring to this issue.

If you are *now* on any of the old data based plans, it is a good idea to stay with it (unless you need to download a lot during night). If you haven't subscribed to the data plans before, then you can surely look into the Freedom@Night plan.

Interesting to see some contradicting statements in the news statements... While he had admitted something different in the public news conference here...

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