savramesh

Livemint Jun 25 2009. 12:22 AM IST India’s primary phone operators’ lobby had asked for a uniform fee of 1% of AGR New Delhi: A committee set up by the department of telecommunications, or DoT, to replace the graded structure of telecom licence fees with a uniform one for phone service operators is in favour of a flat fee of 9% of revenues, two senior department officials who are members of the panel said. The committee will make its final recommendations in two weeks. Telecom firms currently pay between 6% and 10% of adjusted gross revenue, or AGR, to the government as licence fees for the right to offer phone and related services. Services such as Internet access are levied at 6%, while mobile phone services entail payment of up to 10% of AGR. The rates vary according to circles or licence areas as well. This levy includes a payout worth 5% of AGR made to the universal service obligation, or USO, fund, which is used to subsidize the roll-out of phone services in rural areas. AGR stands for gross revenues minus service tax and payments made to enable phone services such as charges for interconnection between two networks. The move to a flat fee structure will cover not just mobile and fixed-line phone firms but also those with licences for national and international long-distance phone services and Internet access services. Phone firms have been charged with misreporting their revenues under various service heads in an attempt to lower this payout, and DoT is conducting audits on operators such as Reliance Communications Ltd, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Vodafone Essar Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd to check on this. Latest DoT data show the government received Rs4,200 crore as telecom licence fees for the first two quarters of fiscal 2009; it was Rs8,100 crore in the previous fiscal. Mint had reported in April that DoT was looking to implement a flat licence fee structure to simplify the revenue sharing model between phone firms and the government. On 5 May, DoT formed a four-member committee to look into the merits of implementing a uniform licence fee and to work out a rate for the uniform fee. “The weighted average of the fees that have been given so far comes to around 9%. The committee feels that this would have a minimal impact on the revenues of the operators as there would only be a slight deviation from what they are already paying,” one member said. “The report should be ready in another 15 days.” Still, the 9% levy will fall short of industry expectations. In its recommendations for the budget for fiscal 2010, India’s primary phone operators’ lobby, Cellular Operators Association of India had sought a uniform licence fee of 1% of AGR, excluding the 5% USO charge. “This is not possible at present as this would reduce the revenue to the government,” said the DoT official quoted earlier, adding an earlier proposal to reduce the USO fee from 5% of AGR had been shot down by the government. The official also said the department has not asked for any change in the licence fee structure in this year’s budget proposals. An industry representative was critical of the move to a flat 9% of AGR as licence fee. In a rural area where it is more expensive to provide phone services, argued S.C. Khanna, secretary general, Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India, “if operators have to pay 9% as opposed to the 6% they are already paying, then it is unfair”. The association represents fixed-line phone operators and firms running wireless networks on CDMA (short for code division multiple access) technology.

Sify Business 2009-06-25 08:31:13 Hyderabad: Reliance Communications will soon offer 35 television channels for its GSM users. It would use Mimobi, a technology platform developed by the Hyderabad-based Apalya Technologies, to offer the MobiTV service. "We are in advanced talks with Apalya. The tie-up would help us increase the width of the usage," Krishna Durbha, Head (Value Added Service), RCom, said here in a statement. RCom is already offering 13 news and other TV channels to its CDMA network, using real-time streaming technology. "Apalya's Mimobi technology uses progressive download method for playing video. Progressive download means the application initially downloads some part of video file, and then it starts playing the video file," he said.

lets hope atleast tata gsm network is better than reliance gsm..

^^^ rush to showroom and check if there is any unsold p200.. they may also able to find unsold bike from other showrooms..

local outlet here [nagercoil, TN] said sim will reach only on July 1.. so i really have to wait..

Freshnews . in JUNE 22, 2009 Many still have to know how things actually go about. Here is someone who is very keen on telling everyone about this. A man from California came out with his excitement for the latest Apple iPhone by flying 5,400 miles across the Atlantic and queuing overnight outside the London store to be the one of the first to get the new phone. And what was all this for? Just in order to rip the phone into pieces so that he can show everyone what it is actually made of. Kyle Wiens was the man we are talking about. He is the CEO of ifixit.com, a company that specializes in repairing broken gadgets. He wanted to be the first person to be able to disassemble the new iPhone 3G S. At last his activity revealed a CPU by Samsung that works at 72% of its capacity, a move that’s more than likely a bid to save battery life.

waiting to get my sim.. one doubt how do they calculate termination charges which is calculated per minute whereas here the call charges are per second..

Source LG recently displayed the first-ever LTE USB modem globally, reports Unwired View. This announcement was made at the CommunicAsia 2009, Singapore. The modem supposedly has the ability to provide data transfers of up to 100 Mbps via a mobile network. It is reported to be better and speedier than any 3G modem available at the moment. This is the primary step taken towards the deployment of the next generation Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology. Many carrier providing companies have revealed to develop networks on the 4G platform while many of them will support the technology in their own way. Many devices released are compatible with the latest technology and it is expected that many handset makers will release LTE-capable phones in the future. There is no information provided by the company regarding the release of the device. Its release however directly depends on the date of release of LTE networks globally.

^^^ Pulsar 200 looks great.. hope the performance will also be good.. i am with bajaj family since 2000.. they are creating new technologies.. all the best..

Just received an sms from RK505999567 "Cine Magic On ur Fone !! Rewind & Forward whenever u want.. Call 505999567 TollFree to start Audio Cinema at only Rs30/month"

Times of India 23 Jun 2009, 0800 hrs IST Parents will soon be able to “keep an eye” on their kids’ mobiles phones, thanks to technology already in use by American Cops Parents can receive alerts in the form of SMS and email every time their child gets a call from an "unapproved" number. My Mobile Watchdog, which is set to be launched in August for about 12 dollars per month, will also let parents to view any text messages, emails, pictures and calls made to and from their kid’s mobile. Colorado police were said to have nabbed more than 50 paedophiles with the technology since last year, and parents maybe expected to put it to same use. Geoff Sondergeld, managing director of Australian distributor Direct Connections, said that it was intended at parents of kids between eight to 16 since they were "overwhelmingly unaware who was contacting their kids". "And they are worried the people contacting their kids could be bullies or sexual predators," the Courier Mail quoted him as saying. But civil libertarians said such “snooping” would indicate a failure of a good parenting job and would also violated children''s rights to privacy. Civil Liberties Council president Terry O''Gorman said: "This is the latest in a line of gimmicks where profit is sought out of parents'' perennial fears for their children.”

Techtree News Staff, Jun 22, 2009 1800 hrs IST Aircel has launched a new prepaid voucher in Kerala priced at Rs. 150 and is now offering Aircel calls within Kerala for free and calls to other networks within Kerala for 50 paise. The voucher has 30 days validity. Prior to this, Aircel had launched another special-value voucher for its Kerala subscribers - the '40 paise Kerala mobile calling voucher.' This special-value voucher is designed for customers who make more local calls. The voucher allows subscribers to make calls for 40 paisa per minute. According to Aircel, this is the lowest offered local call rates in the State. The benefit is available with the Rs.39 special-value voucher. This offer comes in addition to the Rs. 99 prepaid scheme for Aircel customer that offers lifetime validity with call rates 40 paisa per minute.

NDTVGadgets.com, June 23, 2009, New Delhi Bharti Airtel and HTC Corporation announced the launch of India's first Android-powered mobile phone The HTC Magic. The Android-powered HTC Magic opens new arena for customers and the developer community to interact in order to bring new applications to Android-based phones. "The HTC Magic presents a powerful mobile internet and multimedia experience that should drive the uptake of accessing the internet over mobile amongst Airtel users," said, Raghunath Mandava, chief marketing officer, mobile services, Bharti Airtel. HTC Magic opens up a new mobile experience. A tablet-style device, with a sleek design and compactness for a smartphone, the HTC Magic presents an enhanced mobile internet and multimedia experience. The HTC Magic comes equipped with Outlook synchronisation, Smart Dialler and an onscreen keyboard with predictive text. To begin with, Airtel customers can avail many utility based applications such as Portfolio Manager, Hello Tune Manager, Weather Channel, Mobshare, In-mobile search and City Search on the HTC Magic. For Airtel customers, HTC Magic allows free data download of 100 MB per month for a period of six months. The HTC Magic will be available at a market price of Rs. 29,900 at Airtel Relationship Centres and authorised HTC resellers in 17 cities. The cities include Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Coimbatore, Cochin, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar, Patna. The Android platform constitutes a set of software for mobile devices: an operating system, middleware and key mobile applications. Developed by the Open Handset Alliance, a group of 47 technology and mobile companies, Android brings Internet-style innovation and openness to mobile phones and enables developers to create mobile applications to optimise the functionalities of the mobile phone. Android does not differentiate between the phone's core applications and third-party applications, thus providing users with a broad spectrum of applications and services. Airtel applications available with HTC Magic Portfolio Manager: Portfolio Manager is Mobile Client application to provide general public a secured and user friendly service platform. Its objective is to facilitate investors in Indian share market to manage their portfolio. Hello Tunes Manager: Hello Tunes Manager will be used by subscribers to search for, buy and share hello tunes/hello tune albums. You can use Hello Tunes Manager to send/receive hello tune recommendations from friends, rate hello tunes. Weather Channel: This application provides weather forecasts for the current day and next six days. Any location of user's choice can be marked as favorite. The user can obtain weather forecast for (a) Current location ( Favorite location © Any other location of choice. Mobshare: MobShare is a Mobile phone picture sharing Application that enables sharing of mobile pictures, and browsing, of the shared Pictures. In-Mobile Search: This application enables the user to search for contacts, image files, audio files and video files from a single interface. The user can search any of the above mentioned files starting with the query string entered. It provides the user to view the image or play the audio / video files without the use of any external applications. City Search: This application incorporates both location and data call technology. For the selected category, the application retrieves appropriate list of options for any location review. The application provides the full information (address, contact number and other information) for any selected option. User also has an option to call the selected option or SMS the info from the application. Features of HTC Magic * HTC Magic features a trackball with zoom in/out function. It is also equipped with fit-the-width rendering, and auto screen rotation for an easier navigation experience and internet browsing. The HTC Magic has a 3.2" HVGA touch screen display and features a trackball for easy access and a 3.2 mega-pixel camera. It provides full fidelity PC browsing experience, where users can expand and personalise their phone to fit their lifestyle. * HTC Magic is enhanced with HTC goodies like Smart Dialler and an on-screen keyboard. Smart Dialler lets you call people in whatever way you like, by either dialling the phone number or by dialling the first few letters of the name of the contact. The versatile keyboard helps to choose the favourite way to type and the predictive text completion helps in typing faster. * HTC Magic allows Microsoft Exchange server synchronisation for email, calendar and contacts.

Techtree News Staff, Jun 23, 2009 1525 hrs IST Toshiba T-01A smartphone runs Windows Mobile on 1GHz Snapdragon chipset Toshiba had showed Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipset pepped TG01 smartphone at the Windows Mobile 6.1 launch in London in February. Now, the same 9.9mm slim Toshiba TG01 smartphone has been launched as DoCoMo T-01A for the Japanese market. No word on its pricing is available as yet. NTT DoCoMo's T-01A is the first commercially available product based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon System-on-Chip chipset. It's the same chipset that Qualcomm boasted of running at 1GHz at low power and offered instant switch-on. DoCoMo's T-01A is 9.9 mm slim and has 4.1-inch (800x480) resistive touchscreen display. Toshiba's custom built graphical user interface will be masking Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional operating system. For network connectivity options, T-01A supports 3G HSPA 7.2Mbps along with support for Wi-Fi, GPS and Assisted-GPS. This 1GHz CPU running smartphone will compete with Samsung's recently updated Omnia lineup and Apple's new baby - the iPhone 3G S. This smartphone is slated to be available in Europe later this year. Let's hope that this slim 1GHz T-01A smartphone is available in India through "www.tatadocomo.com/" Tata DoCoMo tie-up.

^^^ giving IMEI number is only for existing china handsets without IMEI number.. Read below.. no more china mobiles, its banned.. http://www.rimweb.in/..../index.php?showtopic=19932

Hey they are Aircel, Airtel, Vodafone and Bsnl, but dont know which one is what..

finally found the exact cause of display problem. the problem came only after the first windows update, so i checked what is updated [update history], updates were audio drivers and display adapter drivers.. so i disabled display adaptor and restarted.. now its working fine..

finally finished the 100% genuine download using DAP and just installed a fresh windows 7. it has booted for the first time and doing recommended windows 7 update now.. last time it worked till here, while restarting only i started getting display problem. before this installation i did a windows 7 compatibility test and it passed with one issue. "Your current video graphics card will not support Windows Aero" so i guess this service was the cause of display problem. lets see this time, how it works with this genuine installation. if the same problem comes, then i think i will have disable windows aero service using safe mode.. hope everything will go fine..

Economic Times 22 Jun 2009, 0031 hrs IST NEW DELHI: After banning the import of all mobile handsets that do not have a unique international identification code, the government has now decided to crack down on telcos who still allow their subscribers to use such handsets on their networks. The Department of Telecom (DoT) has now asked all operators to furnish details as to how many of their customers, who use cheap Chinese handsets without the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number (a 15-digit code which appears on the operator’s network whenever a call is made), have availed of the software update which will enable these phones to get a unique number. In May 2009, following a government directive to ban all handsets that do not have an IMEI number on account of security issues, all telcos jointly had said they would get their subscribers who used such devices to get a software update, which would provide these phones with an unique identity, as required by the law. Telcos also said that they had set up over 1,600 centres across the country to enable their customers to get this software installed for a fee of Rs 180. Telcos had also argued that since ‘most of these handsets are owned by the masses, it would be unfair and unjust to disconnect such customers as they have bought these handsets unknowingly’, while adding that software update would address the security concerns raised by intelligence agencies and the Home Ministry. The software was jointly developed by GSM operators’ body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and Mobile Standards Alliance of India. It is estimated that close to 25 million of the 400 million plus mobile users in the country use cheap Chinese handsets without IMEI numbers. This unique code reflects on the operator’s network whenever a call is made or received from any handset and therefore allows lawful interception of all calls. Mobile operators store these numbers in Equipment Identity Register (EIR) — so if a handset is stolen, and its owner can provide the IMEI number to his operator to ensure that all calls from this device is barred. In October 2008, the DoT asked telcos to install EIR so that calls without IMEI or with IMEI consisting of all zeroes are not processed. This followed investigations by security agencies looking into the bomb blasts in several Indian cities this year which revealed that mobile phones used by terrorists did not bear valid IMEI numbers.

Reuters India Mon Jun 22, 2009 3:16pm IST MUMBAI (Reuters) - India should rationalise the multiple taxes and duties levied on the telecoms sector in the federal budget this year to help reduce the cost of services, an industry body said on Monday. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will present the federal budget on July 6. Taxes, including annual licence fees, usage charges for spectrum, microwave access, and service tax, ate up almost 24-30 percent of the operators' adjusted gross revenue, the Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) said. As a first step towards rationalisation, COAI has sought a uniform license fee of 1 percent of adjusted gross revenue, excluding universal service obligation fees, across all segments of telecom. COAI has also sought tax break extensions for the telecom industry, at par with other infrastructure sectors, to aid further expansion of affordable services. It said telecom operators should be be able to claim tax breaks for 20 years. Out of this, COAI said, operators should be eligible to claim a 100 percent exemption on taxable profits for 10 successive years. Currently, a telecom operator is entitled to a 100 percent tax break for 5 years, followed by a 30-percent relief on profit for the next 5 years during the initial 15 years when commercial operations start. It has also sought doing away with the current rule that requires subscribers to quote PAN, or personal account number, at the time of acquiring a mobile connection, as several low-end rural subscribers do not have a PAN number.

nokia 1203 shows IND 042 IND 043 IND 080 TATA GSM [not tata docomo] IND 094 Reliance

with rgsm alone they cant survive.. so selling cdma completely is a bad decision.. lets see what happens..

Business Line Friday, June 19, 2009 HYDERABAD: Cellular services provider AirTel has been allotted a 10 MHz spectrum in Andhra Pradesh said Mr Sharlin Thayil, CEO, AirTel. “We have recently been allocated the additional spectrum which will improve the quality of services for a hassle-free calling experience. We are also going to add 2000 more cell sites across Andhra Pradesh to enhance our coverage capacity,'' said Mr Thayil. He announced that AirTel has crossed the ten million (one crore) customers mark in the state, which gave it a market share of 31 per cent. This has also increased the wireless penetration in the state from 24 to 36 per cent. We will also be going deeper into the rural market by setting up an additional 2000 AirTel Service Centres by March 2010, the CEO added. AirTel's revenue stood at Rs 3200 cr in Andhra Pradesh during 2008-09. Referring to mobile number portability, which is expected to become a reality in September, he said they would welcome it. Since we have been ranked the best by TRAI in customer servi ce, the number portability will make more people to come to us. For us, we expect the churn-in to be more, Mr Thayil said. – PTI

if my call drop history is available with reliance and they plan to refund, then i will get a good amount call rates in seconds welcome , but what happens to termination charges ?

Business Standard Friday, Jun 19, 2009 With the defence services agreeing to vacate 10 MHz of additional spectrum immediately across the country, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) would have enough spectrum in most circles to allow between four and 12 operators (including BSNL and MTNL) for 3G services in some circles. The sole exception would be the Rajasthan circle (which can accommodate only two operators). The West Bengal and North-East circles would be able to accommodate only four operators. The numbers are based on the latest note prepared by the DoT. The availability of spectrum is a key element that determines the auction price of spectrum. Higher availability means a lower price. Communications Minister A Raja has said that he hopes to mop Rs 25,000 crore from these auctions. Metros like Mumbai can accommodate eight operators (each operator gets 5 MHz), Delhi can accommodate five operators, while Kolkata, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu can accommodate 12 operators each. The analysis of the availability of spectrum by DoT is crucial, as a fierce debate is on between ministries on whether the government should auction the entire spectrum available in one go or limit the number of operators to only four-five players in the initial stage so that there is spectrum available when some of the operators require more than 5 MHz. The DoT note on issues related to 3G auctions take into account the opinion of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and the Solicitor General of India, who said that all available spectrum should be auctioned. Through this, more service providers can be accommodated, leading to more competition in the telecom sector. However, on the other hand, the auction of all available spectrum would mean that there would be no spectrum left for the future needs of operators. Also, an auction of a large number of blocks would lead to fragmentation of spectrum, which could lead to an inefficient utilisation of spectrum. A SIGNAL FOR MORE CELL OPERATORS Service Area Available 3G spectrum* (MHz) No of blocks earlier No of blocks available now Mumbai 30 6 8 Kolkata 50 10 12 Delhi 15 3 5 North-East 5 1 3 Rajasthan 0 0 2 (*According to the Wireless Planning and Co-ordination wing of the Ministry of Communications) On May 22, DoT and the defence ministry had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) after a deadlock for over two years over the release of spectrum used by the defence forces. According to the MoU, the armed forces will immediately release 10 MHz of 3G spectrum and 5 MHz of 2G spectrum. The rest will be released according to timelines agreed on by the two ministries, which are contingent upon DoT placing the supply order for setting up an optic fibre cable (OFC) network for the defence services, the supply of the equipment, its installation and commissioning. The defence forces have always been major users of spectrum for various security-related operations like air defence, command and control, information services, communication and early warning. They have spectrum along the border, as well as in the hinterland and mainland, for low-intensity conflicts. The defence ministry’s view has been that it could part with some spectrum by shifting the use of some systems to an exclusive fibre-based network. With the entry of at least six new operators on the Indian telecom scene, the fight for spectrum has only intensified. And, with the average revenue per user (Arpu) on a constant decline, operators want to capitalise on 3G services which will help them to offer high-end data services for higher revenue per user.