city02

OK everyone, pls remember not to confuse me 'city02' with 'city03' now!

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/824100.cms

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/821701.cms

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/821244.cms

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/813492.cms

MTNL plans broadband network to take on Reliance MANOJ GAIROLA | NEW DELHI TIMES NEWS NETWORK [sATURDAY, JULY 31, 2004 12:48:45 AM] Economic Times Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) has completely changed its strategy to compete with Reliance Infocomm in the lucrative (Delhi-Mumbai) broadband market. It has now done away with the franchisee model of providing broadband services. Flush with cash reserves, it has instead decided to set up its own network. The network installation will be complete by November. Reliance had announced that it would provide broadband services by next year. MTNL wants to capture the broadband market before Reliance does so. “Incumbent operators throughout the world set up their own broadband networks. We have also realised that in the long run this model will be more beneficial than the franchisee model,” said RSP Sinha, chairman and managing director of MTNL. The company has cash reserves of Rs 2,600 crore. The total investment in the broadband project would be over Rs 250 crore. Therefore, its funds would be utilised properly, Mr Sinha said. MTNL has already floated a tender for procurement of the equipment. The tender will be opened on August 20. Earlier, the company had invited expressions of interest (EOI) from potential franchisees. In the franchisee model, MTNL was supposed to get 30% of the revenue share without much investment. It was a good bargain compared to the 29% revenue share that BSNL was getting under a similar franchisee model. However, MTNL officials realised that in the long run this would not be beneficial. The only reason in favour of a franchisee model was speedy implementation of the project. MTNL would also have benefited from the marketing skills of the franchisee. Nonetheless, MTNL has set up an internal committee for speedy implementation of the project as it is running short of time. It wants to grab the market before the entry of Reliance Infocomm, which has already announced its plans to provide broadband services throughout the country. MTNL is expected to launch the services by next year. MTNL will be able to offer 100,000 broadband connections by the end of November and 2,78,000 connections by the financial year end. The customers will be able to receive all the broadband services such as virtual private network, video multicast, cable TV, and video on demand over the network. MTNL will install additional capacity on the basis of the initial response. However, the company has not yet finalised the prices of broadband services. “I can only say that the prices would be very attractive,” said Mr Sinha.

I wanted to upgrade my tyres and came across this very useful forum: http://www.1010tires.com/forum//forum_topics.asp?FID=40 The best part is a handy calc that lets you enter your old and new tyre sizes and tells you if its safe/possible to make the upgrade or not. http://www.1010tires.com/TireSizeCalculato...p?action=submit It has a similar interface to this forum - maybe it uses the same software/app. I found it very helpful and so was this article: http://www.autospeed.com/cms/A_0277/printArticle.html Below is a screenshot of the webpage. My local mechanic was apparently recommending an unsafe upgrade! So I was able to pick a safer R14 alternative using this. I even got some good advice in the forum where I registered under my same handle 'city02' just so you know its your old pal from over here...

I'm hoping that was a rhetorical question! Just in case it wasn't, Bin Laden has not been caught (if you follow the article's reasoning) since he does not use a RIM! Even if he did, he would not get caught unless he stopped paying!!

In Mumbai its available for 350 incl S&H so it may be better for those living in other areas. Does anyone have a LG FWP USB data cable for laptops?

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/804705.cms

Competition, tariff cuts eat into telecom revenues REENA CHOUDHARY / ETIG | Economic Times TIMES NEWS NETWORK [THURSDAY, AUGUST 05, 2004 04:57:32 AM] The entire telecom market revenues in 1999-’04 have grown at a CAGR of just 15%, which is not scorching by any standards. One reason for this is the fixed line component in total revenues, but that does not tell the entire story. While mobile subscriber growth has been healthy, revenue growth has not matched up. Telecom industry sales, comprising fixed and wireless segments, have doubled from Rs 24,194 crore in FY99, to Rs 47,896 crore in FY04, at a CAGR of 15%. The subscriber base, in contrast, has grown by a healthier CAGR of 27% in the same period to 76m. One reason for the low overall growth in revenues is the fixed line business. Due to tariff reductions and slow growth in subscriber base, revenues in this segment have only increased 9%. Wireless revenues, however, have increased 55% in the same period. But this still does not explain the wide variance in the subscriber base and revenue growth. The answer to this part of the puzzle can be found in the fact that wireless subscribers have grown at a CAGR of 94% to 33.3m in the past five years. At one end, fixed line revenues and subscribers are growing at much lower rates, while wireless revenues are also growing at lower rates compared to subscriber additions. So what causes this discrepancy? The cut throat competition between the various telecom players and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s tariff related interventions have lowered rates. The average ARPU (average revenues per user) for the cellular market has dropped from a high of Rs 1,319 per month in ’00, to Rs 469 per month in ’04, or a compounded annual decrease of 16%. In 1999, the ARPUs were about Rs 1,100, Rs 800, and Rs 600 per month for A, B and C category circles, respectively, while the metro ARPUs were much higher. In the fixed segment, too, the STD tariff rates have come down, and hence the 9% CAGR of revenues from this segment is lower than the 15% CAGR of fixed line subscribers during the period from FY99 to FY04. Further, the preference for mobile telephony has caused the growth in fixed line subscribers to plateau. From an annual growth of 21% in FY99, the growth in the fixed line subscriber base has come down to 3% in FY04, adding just 1.4m subscribers in FY04. On the other hand, the wireless subscriber base is growing at an accelerating rate. In FY04, these subscribers grew by 156% from 13m to 33m. The wide variation between the growth in the subscriber base and revenues in wireless will continue for some time. The main growth engine of the telecom market is the wireless segment, which is being driven by attempts by players to increase penetration. Going forward, once the players reach saturation point in terms of penetration, the growth in revenues will mainly come from increase in usage and population growth.

Mobile2Mobile calls to cost more RAJESHWARI ADAPPA THAKUR EconomicTimes MUMBAI: Calling from your mobile phone just got expensive. Although mobile operators call it rationalisation of charges as they announce a flat rate for calls made to either a mobile phone or a fixed phone, the hike in monthly rentals spells bad news for subscribers. Cellular operators, BPL and Orange, in Mumbai on Wednesday announced a flat rate of Rs 2.25 per minute (post-paid) and Rs 2.75 per minute (pre-paid) for its entry level plans (most of the new acquisitions are in this category). An Airtel spokesperson said they had not made any changes to its tariff plans so far. Thanks to the flat rate, mobile-to-mobile calls have become more expensive while mobile to fixed calls have become cheaper. In the case of pre-paids, the flat rate has resulted in a hike in charges for calls to mobile phones from Rs 2.49 per minute to Rs 2.75 per minute and in the case of post-paid, the rates have jumped from Rs 1.99 per minute to Rs 2.25 per minute. On the positive side, calls from mobiles-to-fixed phones will be cheaper as the rates per minute have dropped from Rs 2.99 to Rs 2.75 (pre-paid) and in the case of post-paid, from Rs 2.49 to Rs 2.25. What is likely to hurt the customer is the increase in monthly rentals from Rs 149 to Rs 175 in the case of post-paid customers. In the case of pre-paid customers, the talk time value is likely to be reduced, pointed out dealers. Mobile operators denied that rates where being hike and defended the new rates calling it a “rationalisation and simplification of rates.” “We are offering one flat rate to customers where if charges have increased in one case, they have also reduced in the other instance. There will be small corrections, nothing dramatic,” said informed sources. Denying that tariffs were being hiked, an Orange spokesperson said, “We are introducing a flat rate so as to minimise the load on the processor which has to identify each call whether it is being made to a mobile number or a fixed number.” Regarding the increase in rental, he added, “We had dropped monthly rentals from Rs 299 to Rs 149 in October last, which was a Rs 150 drop, which was too drastic. Now, we have increased it only by Rs 25 since we have to maintain a balance between pre-paid and post-paid.” In the case of pre-paid, he said that the coupons were being reconfigured with incentives on some coupons and not on others. As usual, the changes in the rates were done quietly. BPL Mobile, at least, conveyed the message to some of its subscribers through text messages. Operators who go wax eloquent when they drop rates were not too forthcoming with details about the latest changes. With the increase in the mobile subscriber base, the traffic of mobile-mobile and mobile-fixed calls is almost equal. The changes in tariffs is not expected to make much difference in bills of subscribers, except in special cases. “This is not a revenue earning strategy for us, either,” said operators. The new rates are effective August 4. Industry sources pointed out that the differential rates for calls from mobile-mobile and mobile-fixed were due to the different charges specified by the telecom regulator, TRAI.