Arun

Happy Birthday Chirag !!!

"want to open it up and use it" - what exactly do you mean by that ? Do you mean use it with another operator ?

Well, India has won finally !!!!!

Advantage Reliance Communications Business Standard - Mumbai January 19, 2008 While GSM mobile phone firms Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Essar remain locked in battle with the ministry of telecommunications for extra radio spectrum to run their operations, CDMA mobile phone firm Reliance Communications can finally expect to steal a march over them now that it has also been given GSM spectrum in all 22 telecom circles across the country. Of the 85 million new mobile connections of all types (both GSM and CDMA) added in the country between November 2006 and November 2007, nearly 27 per cent were accounted for by Bharti Airtel as compared to a mere10 per cent by Reliance and 13 per cent by fellow CDMA mobile provider Tata Teleservices, underscoring Reliance’s need to begin offering the more popular GSM mobile services. Beginning GSM mobile services is also critical since the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is much higher for GSM firms which, on average, earn Rs 275 per month as compared to Rs 173 for all the CDMA mobile firms. So far though, Reliance has managed to show an operating profit margin equal to Bharti’s due to the lower operational and capital costs of CDMA mobiles. In the second quarter of 2006-07, Bharti’s turnover was 1.2 times Reliance’s and this rose to 1.4 in the second quarter of 2007-08. In terms of operating profits, this difference rose 1.3-1.4 times in the same period. What’s important for Reliance’s GSM foray is that it has a big advantage over the two or three newcomers who are also expected to begin operations in the GSM mobile space. Not one to waste time, Reliance has already reportedly placed orders for 80-100 million lines to be set up over a period of about three years. The Reliance advantage is two-fold. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Essar’s quality of service is declining with the existing spectrum over-stretched, so if Reliance gets its GSM mobile network up and running fast, it can hope to attract several of their customers. If it gets the companies’ older subscribers, this will hike its ARPU even more — in general, older subscribers, generally in the metros, pay a higher ARPU than non-metro users and are often heavier users of value-added services as well. In the thick of the fight between the GSM mobile phone firms and the telecom ministry, Telecommunications Minister A Raja had announced that number portability would be introduced from April this year — this will allow Reliance to attract customers of existing GSM mobile phone firms. With the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) increasing the subscriber requirements two to three times for spectrum allocation, existing GSM mobile phone firms may be in a position to improve the quality of their services. In spite of several of them soon qualifying for fresh spectrum in some circles, they may still not get it. The new subscriber norms notified by the ministry include allocation of spectrum till just 7.5 MHz, while firms like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Essar already have 10 MHz and will soon qualify for 12.4 MHz! This is the reason why Trai chief Nripendra Misra has written letters of protest to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). Misra has said that while he had prescribed a subscriber-linked path for the allocation of up to 15 MHz of spectrum, the DoT had notified a path of just up to 7.5 MHz. In comparison with the new GSM-mobile players who’ve just been given their licences/spectrum, Reliance Communications has a cost advantage of anywhere between 20 and 40 per cent. As Romal Shetty, consulting firm KPMG’s executive director, points out, 60-70 per cent of Reliance’s existing CDMA infrastructure (the towers) can be used for its new GSM network. A good way to illustrate this is to look at the country’s expected mobile phone subscriber base of 500 million by 2010. If Reliance is to get 20 per cent of this market, it needs to get around 65 million more subscribers. Assume all of these are to come from GSM mobile services and not from CDMA that Reliance offers at the moment. To service such a market, a newcomer would have to set up 65,000 towers (assuming one tower can service an average of 1,000 customers) which could cost around $4bn and another $2.5bn or so for the electronics. Reliance, however, already has 22,000 towers, according to company officials. So, while it will need to spend around $2.5bn on the electronics for GSM services, it will need to build just 43,000 new towers — this reduces its overall capital costs by around a fifth (given that Reliance has transferred all its towers to a separate business, Reliance Telecom Infrastructure Limited (RTIL), the capital costs talked of refer to RTIL — the point, however, remains since the revenues Reliance Communications will pay RTIL will depend upon the overall cost the latter incurs). Reliance officials, however, claim that they will have 40,000 towers up and running by the end of this fiscal. Though rivals argue it is not possible to ramp up so fast, it is useful to see the impact of this on its costs. If the company has 30,000 towers, and needs to build just 35,000 more, its capital costs will fall to $4.7bn or nearly 30 per cent less. If the company has 40,000 towers, the capital costs go down by over 35 per cent. In the first year of operations, however, Reliance’s savings will be a lot more since it can use its 22,000 existing towers first and simply instal the GSM electronics required on them — for the first 22 million or so subscribers that these towers can accommodate, Reliance’s capex costs will be a mere $35-40 per subscriber, according to Shubham Majumder, associate director-research, who tracks telecom at Macquarie Capital. This is in comparison to the $100 or so that newcomers will have to invest in capex per subscriber. Obviously, existing mobile phone firms such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Essar will also be able to expand at $30-40 per subscriber since they can use their existing towers and just need to add in electronics — but if the firms don’t get additional spectrum, such comparisons are meaningless. This is the crux of the current tussle between the GSM mobile firms and the ministry of telecom. While many believe it will be difficult for Reliance to offer both CDMA mobile and GSM mobile services at the same time, there are some precedents for this. Vivo, the largest operator in Brazil and the country’s only CDMA operator, moved to a GSM network three years ago and 70 per cent of its net additions came from GSM services. For now, it is definitely advantage Reliance.

Business Standard January 18, 2008 04:44 IST Now you can swipe your mobile phone to purchase things, much like a credit card, with a Mumbai-based company rolling out a technology to enable this. The company has already roped in Axis Bank for the service and is in the advanced stages of beta testing, while the commercial launch is just three months away. The company behind this innovation is Atom Technologies, a subsidiary of the BSE-listed Financial Technologies (India) Ltd, which runs the Multi Commodity Exchange of India. According to FTIL director (Technology), Dewang Neralla, Atom Technologies' product -- Atom Card -- and software can burn the user's credit card data to a mobile phone, that too over-the-air (like making a call or sending an SMS). The data would be stored in a 2-D bar code format and cannot be read even by the user, assuring security in case the handset is lost or stolen. However for making a purchase an authentication -- providing the PIN -- has to be made. After the credit card data is burned on the mobile phone (irrespective of the operator, but in collaboration with the card-issuing bank), the handset can be used instead of credit cards. The swiping model, which the company terms as optical payment, can be done at any merchant establishment that has the requisite software. The company will upload a 2-D barcode on the phone that can be read by a simple webcam with the necessary software. Neralla claims that a Rs 200-webcam is all that is required for reading the 2-D barcode. The company has also received a patent for this payment mode in the US. The second method is remote location, or over-the-air authentication, by which the user can use the cards sitting at home or office. In this case, the merchant establishment and the bank are connected over the air and the user will have to approve the purchase. Hitherto, the user will have to authenticate the deal. However, the system will work only on Java-enabled phones (a high-end graphic suite), and at present, the lowest Java handset available in the market is priced at around Rs 3,000, said Niranjan Gosavi, chief marketing officer, Atom. Atom would provide the software free-of-cost to banks, merchant establishments and customers, but will levy a percentage of the transactions as its fee, he said. The company, which is already doing a pilot study with 500 customers of Axis Bank, is in the advanced stages of tying with other banks in the country. Atom is also planning to provide the solution to overseas market and is in talks with international banking majors, he added. Companies like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and C-Sam (a firm founded by Sam Pitroda) were also looking at offering mobile commerce solutions. C-Sam had earlier launched mobile wallet in Japan and Scandinavian countries, while Airtel and RCom are offering certain wallet services like money transfer, mobile remittance, cheque clearance, ticket booking, among others, over mobile. Value-added service providers like IMImobile and Roamware are into the developing of these kinds of applications. However, the Reserve Bank of India is yet to give clearance for mobile wallet services and companies are waiting for the apex bank's approval.

" Compatible Mobile Networks* • 1xEV-DO " Huawei Ec321 isn't EVDO, Reliance's network doesn't support EVDO either, atleast for now.

That is right, Reliance doesn't allow you to have 1 number on 2 devices.

The "Personal Hot Spot" wireless router shown there seems to be EVDO. It doesn't say whether it is compatible with CDMA 1x. Yes, Reliance network supports only CDMA 1x 2000 for now as EVDO isn't launched yet. EVDO has average speeds like 750 kbps, while 1XRTT has average speed like 80 kbps only.

<< Topic Merged >>

This guide is meant for newbies who want to upload ringtones/wallpapers to their handsets. I'm posting this new thread as I've noticed many newbies sending E-Mails/PMs to other members asking how to do it. If you are still having any problems, please create a new topic or reply here, with the exact problem/error that you are facing. Only thing is, do not ask again the question: "How do I upload ringtones to my phone?" ! Please note that you should upload ringtones to your handset at your own risk and we will not be responsible for any damage caused to your handset. Also, note that this has been tested on LG RD2030 only. So it may or may not work on other LG handsets. If it works, please do let us know. Anyway, other handsets (Samsung, etc.) are not compatible with this particular software. You will need a Data Cable, local cables will work fine too. Though some users have reported problems with USB cables. So a Serial cable is recommended. You need to download & install a software called bitpim to view the file system Many members have created custom ringtones which you can upload to your handset. You can get them here. If you want to create a ringtone yourself, please check out the next post in this topic itself. Once you have everything ready and the handset connected to the computer, follow these steps... 1) Run the bitpim software 2) Goto Edit > Settings and configure the correct port and select the Phone as LG-VX4400 (others might work too, try changing if you get any errors) 3) Now click the 'Filesystem' tab in the software. You will see a plus (+) sign. Click to expand it (it may take a few seconds to show up) 4) Now go to the 'meldl'rectory and expand it. You will see three files toward the end of the sublist, namely, melody04.dat, melody05.dat and melody06.dat 5) Right click on melody04/05/06.dat and click 'overwrite'. Then browse to the new .dat file (that you downloaded) and select it. The ringtone will be transferred to your handset. 6) Restart your handset by switching off and switching on. Voila ! Enjoy your new ringtone ! The same procedure can be done for wallpapers too. You can download wallpapers from here. For ease in creating wallpapers, check out customised soft here Content Courtesy: www.ngcoders.com

Times News Network 6 Jan 2008, 0352 hrs IST Here's some good news: Those numerous SMSes that you paid for may well become free in future. No, it isn't because the mobile service providers have had an attack of altruism, but rather a new technology allows advertisements to be tagged along SMSes and, hence, the advertisers are willing to pick up the tab. Everyday about 5.5 crore SMSes are estimated to be moving across the network in the country. And by 2010, it is expected to go beyond 18,000 crore per annum, allowing advertisers to reach a huge audience. "Every message is personal to the user and he pays great attention while reading it. This presents advertisers an opportunity to send across their message too," an industry source said. Mobile service providers are also game for free SMSes and see in it a means to make a kill - they could charge advertisers higher for SMSes. Moreover, free SMSes would make users send more messages. "We are evaluating various options for free SMS. While mobile advertisement potential is huge, it depends on right content and relevance. Else, subscribers may not take to the service even if it is free," Reliance Communications spokesperson Krishna Durbha said. Another industry source who heads the value-added services segment, however, said: "There are still some gaps in the technology. For instance, while appending the advertisement to a message there is a chance of the message being tampered. This is a typical security flaw if the technology provider is not competent. It might take some time to sort this out." Several technology companies, including a few from the city, are working on helping the advertisers tap this area. "The nascent free SMS service segment would see a huge growth in the next couple of years as advertisers are increasingly shifting from online to mobile space," SMS Country Networks CEO Satyam Yerramsetti said. In the free SMS model, the original message would come in the existing format but it would have an advertisement at the end. The technology companies are already in talks with mobile service providers for working out the model for sending messages and revenue sharing. In the free SMS model, once the message is sent, it would go to the service provider's server first and then to the content aggregator's server for tagging on the advertisement. Then it would be sent to the receiver. The technology companies would monitor the advertisement tags using specially-designed softwares and the advertisers would be charged based on the number of sponsored messages. According to another technopreneur, Vebtel MD Kusumba S, mobile-to-mobile free SMSes could become a reality soon as declining average revenue per user (ARPU) in voice mode and increasing competition are forcing telecom players to look at value-added services like SMS.

Reliance Communications to bring in cheaper mobile tariffs Saturday, 12 January , 2008, 09:51 Sify.com / Economic Times New Delhi: Reliance Communications on Friday said that its proposed GSM services will be based on quality and affordability platforms. Reliance Communications has been allotted 4.4 MHz of start-up spectrum in these 14 circles. Reliance, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Reliance Telecom, already offers GSM services in the remaining eight circles. This implies that RCom’s plans of offering both GSM and CDMA services on a pan-India basis has finally be translated into a reality. The company confirmed that it has received spectrum from the Government to offer GSM mobile services in 14 new circles. This takes its total number of GSM circles to 22 including the 8 operational ones. The company, which has a pan-India CDMA network, currently owns 40 million subscribers. The GSM foray will enable it to target another 170 million more mobile subscribers. The company said that its network will cover 97 per cent of the population, 23,000 towns and 6 lakh villages. Company sources indicated that since RCoM was already offering cheaper tariffs on its CDMA platform, there was scope to launch its GSM services at tariffs that are much lower than the current levels. Earlier RCom had alleged that existing GSM operators were in a cartel to fix tariffs. RCom sources also said that it will soon come up with a tender to procure 100 million GSM lines. This will be the biggest tender in the country yet valued at over $6 billion. Economic Times has also learnt that RCom will roll-out GSM services in these 14 circles within the next couple of months and will offer tariffs that are up to 30% lower than the prevailing GSM call rates. RCom which offers CDMA services across the country plans to have a similar GSM network in place by the year-end. The move is set to trigger a series of price wars that will benefit consumers. Besides, increased competition will also ensure better quality of services and a wider rage of value added services as telcos go all-out to retain their subscribers. When contacted on the issue of being granted GSM spectrum, RCom, in a statement said, “The launch of nation-wide GSM services would enable Reliance Communications to effectively target the fast-growing subscriber additions of 6 million GSM subscribers every month. The company would also address the telecommunication requirements of the existing 172 million GSM customers with the launch of nation-wide GSM network in addition to its CDMA network.”

GSM or CDMA ? If CDMA, then UTStarcom PPC 6700 ! Any PPC that runs Windows Mobile 5 or 6 will be good enough to run Excel or PowerPoint files, if you have the appropriate software installed.

Reliance Communications gets spectrum for GSM services BS Reporter / New Delhi January 12, 2008 ANIL AMBANI'S DAY OUT Rival operators' lobby to approach Delhi High Court. The Department of Telecom (DoT) issued spectrum to Reliance Communications (RCom), the country's largest CDMA player, for GSM operations under the cross-over technology policy for the 14 circles or service areas for which it had applied. The cross-over technology policy allows service providers to offer customers both GSM and CDMA mobile technologies on the same licence. The spectrum, the radio frequencies that enable wireless communications, was issued to the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) company late on Thursday night for five circles — Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Chennai, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and Maharashtra & Goa. Spectrum for the remaining nine circles was issued today. Reliance Communications has already received a letter of intent to provide GSM services in 13 circles. The company already had GSM operations in six circles — Assam, West Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh. Responding quickly to the move, the GSM lobby Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) has decided to approach the Delhi High Court against the decision. COAI has already filed a writ petition for staying the issue of spectrum under the cross-over policy. The hearing is slated for Monday. The move closely follows COAI's failure to get a stay either from the telecom tribunal or the Delhi High Court directing the government not to issue spectrum under the new policy, which they have challenged in the courts. The GSM lobby has maintained that the cross-over policy was malafide. The Delhi High Court, however, told COAI that it could approach the court if the government issued spectrum under the cross-over policy. Meanwhile, DoT has also cleared the issue of spectrum to incumbents who have been waiting in the wings from December 2006. RCOM won its first victory earlier in the day, when the Delhi High Court, hearing a petition filed by leading GSM players, refused to stay the process of spectrum allotment to Anil Ambani-owned company and other aspirants who hold the dual technology license. (Under the dual technology licence, a service provider can offer both GSM and CDMA services across the country.) During the proceeding senior advocate Fali Nariman, appearing for GSM lobby group, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), requested before the single-member bench to stop the allocation of spectrum to RCom. However, Justice Gita Mittal refused to grant a stay and directed that the matter be adjourned till January 14. Mr Nariman also mentioned an application filed by the COAI before the court to stay the whole process, but GSM players received a major setback as the they failed to find relief from the Delhi High Court.

Reliance Communications to get GSM spectrum along with Vodafone, Idea, Aircel 10 Jan, 2008, 1620 hrs IST Press Trust of India NEW DELHI: In a development that could bring peace to the turbulent telecom sector, the government on Thursday decided to allocate spectrum to existing GSM players such as Idea Cellular and also to rival CDMA player Reliance Communications for launching mobile services. The new entrants, on the basis of eligibility and the priority of application, would be considered thereafter, according to a direction given by Communications Minister A Raja to his ministry officials. Among existing GSM players, Aircel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone-Essar would be getting the start-up frequency of 4.4 MHz for some circles at the existing price based on Rs 1,651 crore for nationwide spectrum. These companies have been waiting for spectrum to start GSM mobile services in some of the circles to cover the remaining areas in the country. Besides them, Anil Ambani-led RCom that currently offers CDMA-based services, would also get GSM spectrum under the government's decision of October 19 last year to allow companies to launch operations with both the technologies. The GSM operators have challenged the dual technology decision in telecom tribunal TDSAT and also in Delhi High Court but haven't been able to get a reprieve. The Telecom Minister has signed an in-principle order for GDM spectrum allotment to Reliance Commmunication. CNBC-TV18’s Sandeep Gurumurthi said that this allotment is critical for RelComm as it can not go ahead an place orders for GSM spectrum equipment and put their backend in place. The Telecom Minister has signed an in-principle order for the start up GSM spectrum allotment to Reliance Communications and also for additional GSM spectrum allotment to Bharti Airtel and Vodafone. The in-principle order has not been issued yet and that’s because the secretary and the member - technology also needs to sign that file. But it’s now almost a done deal, just the matter of time or a couple of hours maybe, that’s what our sources tell us. The allotment of start up spectrum for Reliance Communications is critical because now they can go ahead and place orders for GSM spectrum equipments and put their backend in place. So once defence vacates spectrum, they can roll out GSM services. As far as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone are concerned, again a long expected line. It’s only as per TRAI criteria and they will not get in all the circles. According to analysts, they could only get in about three or four circles at this point in time because they have reached their subscriber thresholds through additional spectrum allotment only in three or four circles. We understand that Delhi and Bihar could be two of those circles, but that’s not confirmed information. As far as Idea Cellular is concerned, it also got a start up spectrum in two circles. We are told that it is also going get an Lol for a license in nine circles where it’s not operating right now. Idea currently operates only in 11 circles. So in Mumbai, it gets spectrum and in nine other circles. where it is not operating it will get an Lol. Idea will have to convert that Lol by paying an upfront fee. It’s about Rs 1,650 crore for a pan India license, but it will be lot lesser for idea as they need to pay only for nine circles.

Thanks for sharing your discovery !

if no one else bids a higher amount and if there is no reserve price set by the seller, then you will get it for Rs.825. As the time for bid ends, more people will bid and so you will have to bid again to stay in the race to win the item, obviously the price will be higher that time. Some sellers will have a Reserve price which will be hidden and only if the highest bid is above that price then you get to win the item if you are the highest bidder.

This is what I heard from their announcement... The production and roll out is planned for March 2008 and will initially be available only in Mumbai, Gujarat, Pune and Delhi, the company is planning to launch it in other Indian cities through its own multi-brand laptop service centres in the metros.. The new laptop has a seven inch TFT screen, weighs 950 grams and has the size of a simple diary to ensure it fits nicely within ones briefcase or carry bag without adding weight to ones shoulder. The Chairman and Managing Director of Allied Computers, Mr Hirji K. Patel, displaying the prototype of the Rs 14,999-laptop in Bangalore on Tuesday

Maybe he was referring to this service.

There you go... India just lost the match

well, we cannot say all three of them are biased... maybe Bucknor is... ICC should just allow the players to appeal (refer to 3rd umpire) to avoid such human errors... it may be implemented in the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy

Can you try creating a Dial-up Networking dialer and use it instead of the RConnect dialer ?

do you get good signal for TATA Indicom in your are ? how many signal bars does it show when the speed is slow ? If the signal strength is better for Reliance in the same area, then you might consider switching.

Even LG RD 2030 had this sticker on as if CDMA 1x is 3G ! No, neither has EV-DO support.

and the budget ?