coolrajiv

Source - Times of India e-paper No. portability divides telcos GSM & CDMA Operators On Opposite Sides Of The Ring On Trai Proposal New Delhi: The telecom industry is at loggerheads again, with GSM and CDMA operators on opposite sides of the ring. And its not the usual culprit spectrum that is causing discord, but number portability, an issue with serious ramifications on India’s competitive landscape. Number portability allows a consumer to switch operator for any reason without having to change the number that he currently carries. It is a perfect tool in the hands of the consumer, not only to exercise choice, but also to extract the best quality of service and price for his given needs. Several countries around the world follow this practice. Trai in March 2006 had recommended, after a detailed consultation, that India should usher in number portability in the mobile sector as it will enhance competitiveness. Generally, existing players who do not wish to lose high paying customers to new entrants, oppose number portability. New entrants seek this regime as it allows them to lure high paying customers to their networks. More so, when operators are of different vintage. In India, metro operators entered in 1994, followed by two GSM operators in 1995. BSNL entered in 1999 as the fourth GSM operator in 2001, followed by two CDMA operators in 2003. This opens up a nine-year gap between the first operator Modi Telstra, which launched in Kolkata in 1995 and Tata Teleservices, which launched some of its circles in 2004. GSM association COAI says number portability is a misplaced priority. “We have no objection to it as we feel CDMA players will lose even their meagre 30% market share if this is introduced,” says TV Ramachandran of COAI. Undeterred by the GSM challenge, CDMA association Auspi has been quick to write to telecom minister, A Raja, urging him to usher in number portability at the earliest. “In the absence of number portability, there is no incentive for telcos to surpass the service quality benchmarks set by the regulator. Its introduction will stimulate better service so as to retain existing subscribers and attract new ones,” it says. Assuring its support, Auspi says neither technical nor operational apprehensions should hold up the rapid implementation of at least mobile, if not fixed line number portability. However, COAI is quick to point out that operators’ money is better spent on building infrastructure than on number portability. Consumer organisations disagree. They point out that number portability can be implemented within the annual advertising budgets by merely using a part of the advertising budgets of telcos. However, even if the government moves at lightning speed, it will be at least sixto-eight months before consumers can benefit from such a regime. DIFFERENT CALLS CDMA operators have urged telecom minister A Raja to usher in number portability at the earliest as it will help telcos to surpass service quality benchmarks set by Trai However, GSM lobby argues that operators’ money is better spent on building infrastructure than on number portability In March 2006, Trai had recommended number portability in the Indian mobile sector to enhance competitiveness.

ya hope so buddy we can get 3G by the end of 2008 or by mid 2009.

Source - http://www.tech2.com/india/news/smart-mobi...amshell/13121/0 Nokia has announced their new 3G enabled WCDMA and Quadband GSM handset – The Nokia 6555. This clamshell features a QVGA 16 million color internal display. The resolution of the screen is 240 x 320 pixels. It has an internal memory of 30MB and supports external memory through microSD cards. "Mobile-savvy consumers expect superior quality and design. We understood that need, and so created the Nokia 6555. The Nokia 6555 is a sophisticated accessory delivering the outstanding features that you expect from Nokia," said Markku Suomi, Product Group Director, Mobile Phones, Nokia. Nokia doesn’t mention what type of camera is present but they did mention that it has 6x zoom. It also has an option for self-portrait and video sharing. The 6555 also has Bluetooth capabilities. It’s priced at just around Rs. 11,100 and should be available next month.

Source - Business Telegraph Rcom has introduced live commodity prices on Reliance mobile world in association with www.commoditiescontrol.com The service will help customers track information abt commodities in mandis and exchanges.

Completely agree with you hetal diff people have diff needs.

Source - http://www.tech2.com/india/news/smart-mobi...d-speed/13061/0 Samsung has launched a new mobile with the weirdest name – The UFO. What? Contrary to what the name may suggest, the phone is not round, nor are there little green men inside. It’s actually a slim slider phone and the model numbers are SCH-W300 and SPH-W30000. Yes, I found those difficult to go by either so we should stick to UFO. I’m not sure how true this is, but according to some, the UFO was derived from "Unimaginable, Fast speed and Oh, 7.2Mbps" which in reality is what this HSDPA phone is designed to provide – up to 7.2Mbps of download speed. This GSM handset is just 12.9mm thick and is equipped with a 2.0 megapixel camera, Bluetooth and allows for external memory support. As of now it’s available in Magic Silver and Black Pearl and although the price is not correctly known, it’s estimated to be around Rs. 26,000. Hopefully we’ll get to see it soon here. Wow now thats HSDPA

If we can get 3.5G at a reasonable charge buddy than it will be really cool..

well agar hota toh mazaa aa jata for now we in India can just dream abt it .. perhaps may be in 5-7 years time this will happen for now lets just appreciate that Samsung his released this handset Fact is in countries like Korea & Japan this kinda handsets is not breaking news but for us it sure is Kab aayega 3G aur Kab aayega EVDO only god knows

I am using Reliance for last 2 years without much of a problem network is very good , sms though is a concern , no world class handset available no hard feelings for Nokia CDMA handsets... I would switch to GSM when MNP starts .. Hutch my next operator & yes HSDPA when available would be cool .. EVDO though is quite irresistible

Asustek to start volume shipments of Eee PCs in September Yen-ting Chen, Taipei; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES [Monday 20 August 2007] Asustek Computer will begin shipping its ultra low-cost notebook, the Eee PC, simultaneously to clients in the US, Europe, China as well as Taiwan, in mid-September, with the first-round shipments targeting 20,000 units, according to sources at the company. In addition to securing orders from the mentioned countries, Asustek has also landed orders for its Eee PCs from a number of education organizations, insurance companies and emerging markets, the sources noted. However, the company is concerned that the persistent tight supply of a number of key components might affect production in the second half of the year, contended the sources. The Eee PCs will be available at US$199, US$239, US$349 and US$369 depending on specifications, with the model priced at US$349 targeting the mainstream, said the sources, noting that the first-round shipments will be mostly of the mainstream model. Since the specifications of Eee PCs are similar to a mini notebook, international market research firms are reportedly considering classifying shipments of Eee PCs as notebooks, which could boost Asustek's market share as well as its ranking in the global notebook market, according to market sources. Shipments of Eee PCs are expected to top 500,000 in 2007 and increase to 3-5 million in 2008, company chairman Jonney Shih predicted earlier. Asustek was ranked the world's ninth largest notebook vendor in 2006 with own-brand shipments totaling 2.74 million units, according to data available at market research firms.

A lot of CDMA users will definitely shift to GSM once this happens.

Source - http://www.tech2.com/channels/story.php?id=51 By : Monica Khatri | Aug 18,2007 One of the least talked about scams in the mobile industry has resellers buzzing, but strangely no mobile company is willing to look it in the eye! We unearthed some real shocking facts in the mobile phone racket and here is the dope fresh off the stables. Sources from the gray market willingly displayed the difference between fake and original phones, while authorized dealers, Sony and Nokia representatives and those who pleaded anonymity, well… almost all, confirmed the same! Read on… The racket runs something like this - Industry sources tell us that “importers or wholesalers” have agents based in China who inform them about the latest mobile phones manufactured in clandestine factories, packaged and boxed and ready to be sold as the original. These naturally come at dirt cheap prices, but mind you, when sold to the unsuspecting customer, the price is obviously at a premium and as the original. Most “copies” have lesser features than the ones specified in the original model and on a closer look, these phones look like they have been made of substandard plastics and have a cheap look and feel to it. Moreover in terms of camera quality, a layperson will not realize that the camera in the phone would be of a lower resolution than the one he has paid for. The phone he has just purchased from the market might just have a 1.3 mega pixel camera when on the packet it says 2 mega pixel. Such mobile phones get sold in the gray market - ‘without the bill’. That’s why you will never get hold of a sealed packet in the gray market. Another recent development, which is even more shocking, is that these unbranded phones packed as Nokia and Sony phones have found their way in the so-called authorized dealer stores. They are commonly referred to as ‘china ka phones’. One Nokia dealer at Protronics, Lamington Road told us that till a while ago sometime back he would stock and sell these phones. “The market for these mobile phones is quite lucrative. Some of them are packaged and sold as Nokia phones. These phones have the same look and feel of the original but we realized that their shelf lives are short-lived. We got way too many customer complaints and because of the ill-reputation it was bringing us, we stopped stocking the fakes.” Another retailer at Fort disclosed that although this business was a roaring success initially, it fizzled out in Mumbai as customers became increasingly tech-savvy. Currently the fakes now see their way through the smaller cities and towns in the country. An authorized Nokia dealer admitted to the racket and also mentioned that even though there are chances that the phone may sometimes be an original, the charger and the hands-free are 99.9% fake. An interesting mention by another authorized Nokia is that mostly phones are also “modified” to an extent, that the phone is partly original and partly fake. While the chargers and headphones are invariably counterfeit. Our sources at Heera Panna, Mumbai’s gray market haven, out-rightly refused to admit that there are any faults with the phones. They claim, they have their own “sources” who frequently travel to China and Dubai on “business” trips and buy these phones without paying any tax, and hence this explains the lower than MRP prices of these phones. Right! When did the airport customs officials’ start permitting large-scale import of phones without their cut… err oops, sorry! Without the duty? Another claim, by a hawk-eyed dealer, of the widespread phenomenon is that these “smuggled” mobiles see the light of day in the country because of the ‘setting that dealers have with the customs department’. Retailers of mobile phones in the gray market pointed out that Sony Ericsson mobiles have a huge price difference in the gray market whereas most Nokia mobiles are sold at the original price. Which could mean that there are more chances of Sony Ericsson phones being refurbished than Nokia. Apart from the authorized dealers, we even spoke to a Nokia sales executive Imran, from Nutech at Fort, who further enhanced on the spicy details of this racket. He said, “There are both original and refurbished Nokia mobiles available in the market. This does not mean that only Nokia is prey to these scamsters, other popular brands have also fallen to this racket. While the original phones are available with the authorized Nokia dealers, one can avail of the refurbished phones through dealers either at Heera Panna, Musafir Khana or at Manish Market in Mumbai.” Imran added, “These unauthorized dealers have a huge network in China and Dubai where they make dyes of the phone boxes, seals and stickers. They even make duplicate bodies, batteries, chargers, and earphones. They assemble all these parts here in India and then sell them at a much lower price and that too without any guarantee.” “Some of these dealers even bribe the custom officers here in India and manage to get the original packed phones that are imported directly from the Nokia assembling factory in China. They unpack these phones, replace the original parts with the fake ones, repack and then sell them into the market.” When asked whether Nokia officials are aware of this huge scandal, Imran mentioned that Nokia is well aware of these racketeers and their activities and have even conducted numerous raids on these dealers. He laments about the strong networking amongst these racketeers in the gray market, “These unauthorized dealers are controlling the market to such an extent that information about the raids reaches them even before the raid takes place.” Ironically another dealer said “Nokia when launching a new product launches it in the gray market and then launches it officially depending on the response.” Although that piece of exaggeration did sound like a load of bull to our ears, his vociferous manner of stating it almost sounded true. Funnily enough, Nokia seemed to ignore this when we posed them with questions. All they gave us was some jargon on educating the customer! According to Devinder Kishore, Director, Marketing, Nokia India at Nokia, “We have been working closely with the Government and industry associations to encourage use of genuine phones and accessories. Additionally, we have also been educating consumers through campaigns for years on how to spot a genuine handset and accessories - our warranty program and the hologram is reflective of the same. As the largest manufacturer of mobile handsets in the world, Nokia has always looked to offer consumers the right mobile experience, be it at the time of making a purchase decision, buying the handset or at the time of using the device. We continuously work towards ensuring that consumers have the right channels to purchase authentic Nokia handsets and have access to our entire range of products in India. Today Nokia handsets are available across the country, giving consumers the power to make an informed purchase decision." Wonder whether the pressure of making a politically correct statement clouds the minds of vendor officials in understanding the gravity of the situation. An agitated Yuvraj Mehta, Marketing Head, GSM, Samsung India claimed that the gray market for Samsung phones in India is not more than 2-3%! I beg to differ on this one! Mehta further added, “ We are aware of the existence of refurbished phones and along with “Cell One” (Samsung’s mobile service) we have worked hard to firstly educate the customer on whatever platform possible. Secondly there has been a huge reduction in prices due to the gray market hence with hardly any difference in prices people would rather buy a phone from an authorized showroom. And thirdly we have reduced the time frame between Indian and global launches.” Our sources tell us otherwise! Samsung phones have a huge price difference in price between the authorized and gray market. Mehta tells us that sometimes there are phones the company might not want to launch in India that might reach the gray market via the Dubai network but that, according to him, (apparently) hardly exists anymore. When was the last time these officials made a trip to the by-lanes of Dubai or even Manish Market (Mumbai)!

Best option is to get your battery replaced asap if its among the affected lot.. why take chances with it after all a life is much more precious than a mobile.

ya BSNL is among the worst in broadband wait list my cousin got the BSNL broadband connection in March 2007 and he had registered for it on September 2006.. Tata indicom i got the connection within working 3 days after i registered for it .. no bsnl is not worst, bcoz its best there is waiting. Hi kshah, By worse i mean waiting time is worse not that the connection is worse buddy i know their internet speed is very good but so is Tata indicom i am using it for last 1 year without any problem speed also is superb in Tata indicom & also service support is very nice in Tata indicom .. same cant be said of BSNL their support service is abysmal atleast in calcutta i am saying this from my own personal experience though.

Firefox is the best no doubt abt it . yes safari beta 3.0.3 has lots of bugs too it does crash once in a while in windows XP platform.

Source - http://www.phonescoop.com/news/item.php?n=2338 Motorola has leaked the existence of the Q9m, a CDMA version of the new Q9, by publishing a picture of the model in a new charging stand. Motorola has not officially announced the Q9m, so it is unknown if it matches the specs of the Q9h. However the picture does clearly show a Verizon-branded device running Windows Mobile 6 Standard as well as showing off a new home screen with multimedia shortcuts. The HSDPA Q9h features 2 megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth and 256 MB of on board memory.

Ya reliance will get this handset in India when it has become obsolete in USA .. this is really sad considering we have so many cool cdma handsets available in the market but reliance just wants to make lots and pots of money selling crap classic mobile.

ya BSNL is among the worst in broadband wait list my cousin got the BSNL broadband connection in March 2007 and he had registered for it on September 2006.. Tata indicom i got the connection within working 3 days after i registered for it ..

Source - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2289747.cms 18 Aug, 2007, 0219 hrs IST, TNN NEW DELHI: Amidst widespread panic due to fear of overheating in Nokia BL-5C batteries, the cellular handset makers have warned against a bigger issue of about 36 million fake batteries currently in use in India. According to Indian Cellular Association (ICA), of the 45 million replacement batteries in the Indian mobile market, about 80% are counterfeit and unsafe. Fake batteries of Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, LG, Samsung, and others are freely available in the market. Most batteries come at a nominal cost of about Rs 50 compared to a branded battery which costs about Rs 500. “These batteries have extremely poor (about 30%) performance compared to original batteries. The recharge life of these batteries is also about 20%. If a branded battery can be recharged about 500 times, a fake battery has a recharge life of just 100 times,” said ICA president Pankaj Mohindroo. Meanwhile, ICA has cautioned mobile users against fake batteries. “Since these are manufactured in extremely poor conditions with manual welding, poor slitting machines and using non-standard coating material, most of these deliver very poor performance and may not be safe,” ICA said. About 90 million mobile phones will be sold in India this year which will carry original (OEM) batteries. “Original mobile handset batteries are manufactured in sophisticated state-of-the-art plants,” said ICA. “These new generation lithium ion batteries are more environmental friendly than the earlier generation nickel batteries. The lithium ion batteries unlike the earlier generation batteries also carry a printed circuit board, which prevents overcharge and under charge that is, these batteries have their own intelligence,” ICA added.

u r most welcome Hetal

Ya Airtel & Hutch both should be penalized so than other operators will think twice before raising their call & sms charges.

Even i did use Safari for a couple of days but did not find it that good ... Mozilla is the best no doubt

ya agree with you buddy. Reliance is only interested in selling crap mobile such as classic .. its us who r losing out on such good high end handset .. there r so many cool handsets in CDMA segment available but reliance will never bring them to India .. even Tata is much better in this regard atleast they have MotoQ now available in their lineup..

Source - Times of India epaper Tariff hike: Consumers may sue Trai New Delhi: In response to Monday’s tariff hike by Airtel and Hutch that raised SMS and call rates to Rs 1.20 from the earlier Re 1 level, consumer groups across the country have threatened to take legal action unless Trai intervenes and enforces a rollback. In the same manner, just two weeks before this, the two firms quietly raised STD charges to Rs 2.65/minute. Bejon Misra of Consumer VOICE said, “This is not the first time we are seeing a cartel-like behavior. These two operators have increased rates by the same extent on similar services on the same day. This is far too convenient to be a coincidence.” Misra said VOICE and Consumer Coordination Council, a national coalition of 57 leading consumer organizations are waiting for Trai to act, failing which legal recourse is certain. “The regulator is accountable. How is he allowing this,” he questions. Consumer VOICE says this is another reason why any move to place a numeric cap on the operators is against government’s procompetition policy objectives.

Source - http://www.techtree.com/India/News/New_Pla...-82813-613.html MTNL has announced promotional schemes, including the Dolphin Jeevan Saathi Plan, the Dolphin Plan 75, and the Garuda FW connection to existing landline customers. In addition, the company has come out with a new Garuda Camera Handset. The Dolphin Jeevan Saathi Plan for MTNL and BSNL (NCR towns) landline customers offers a discounted one-time rent of Rs 100 (plus taxes) instead of the existing Rs 450 (plus taxes). The offer is on till September 18th, 2007. Activation charges of Rs 500 have been waived-off during the promotional period. The last paid bill copy will be considered for providing this connection. Security received against landline connections will be treated as security for STD for mobile connection. The plan will be available through Sanchaar Haat and MTNL distributors. For BSNL (NCR) subscribers, they can take a connection from any Sanchar Haat after showing the last paid bill copy of their BSNL landline connection. Under the Dolphin Plan 75 -- monthly rentals are Rs 75; activation charges Rs 500 plus taxes; local call rates for all networks Re 0.50 per month, STD call rates Rs 1.75 per month, STD security Rs 1,000; and local SMS is Re 0.25, STD SMS Re 1.00, and ISD SMS Rs 2.50. Both Dolphin Plan 75 and Dolphin Jeevan Saathi Plan are valid till November 13th. MTNL has also launched an attractive new Garuda handset available on existing Garuda tariff plans. It features: Inbuilt Camera (VGA) that can also be used as PC camera, button backlight function, SMS/VMS, DTMF dialing, lock function, calculator, stop watch, memory dial function, ringer/vibrator mode with multiple ring tones, Internet @144.4 kbps and WAP connectivity, talktime @180 mins and stand by time @175 hours, and handsfree function with handsfree kit and phone hand strap. The handset is available for Rs 2,999 along with free call allowance of Rs 100 per month for 15 months for local calls on the MTNL network. And, MTNL has announced a Garuda FW connection for it's landline customers having a landline connection in plan 250 and above working for minimum 6 months. Activation charges will be Rs 100 upfront. FW Plan 100 will be available as follows: monthly rent of Rs 100; local to fixed (own)/BSNL for Re 0.40 per month (Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gurgaon); and rest all other local calls for Re 0.60 per month, and STD calls Rs 2 per month; and local SMS Re 0.10, STD SMS Re 0.50, and ISD SMS Rs 2.50.