Karthik R

Draft telecom security policy takes tough stance New Delhi : India will soon have a telecom security policy mandating that at least 50% of all 'core telecom network equipment' be indigenously developed or manufactured. The draft Telecom Security Policy, a copy of which was reviewed by ET, states that all network gearmakers and mobile phone operators will be 'suitably engaged to achieve this objective' of local manufacturing . The proposed policy recommends radical changes aimed at securing the country's mobile networks, which are the second largest in the world after China. For instance, it states that mobile phone companies will be permitted to induct both hardware and software only from 'trusted sources' , a list of which will be complied by the telecom department. The draft also adds that all core hardware required for the telecom network must be installed only on certification by a standard testing organisation irrespective of the origin of equipment . It also calls for periodic audit of the networks of all mobile phone companies by security agencies, government wings or reputed international agencies for bugs and other security breaches. Importantly, the draft also states that a slew of new regulations will be enacted to 'enable law enforcement agencies to legally track communications , messages and data on a realtime basis' without transgressing on the privacy of citizens. "The effective systems, processes and regulations will be put in place to ensure the traceability of telecom users also in case of need. While best efforts will be made to extend the communication assistance for law enforcement to security agencies, it will be kept in view that privacy of individual is not transgressed without valid reasons, provided the law and development needs of the country are not hampered," the draft policy adds. The new policy may address the government's concerns regarding 15 forms of communications, including Google's Gmail, Research in Motion's BlackBerry services, Nokia's email offerings and Microsoft Skype amongst others, which cannot be tracked by enforcement agencies here on a real-time basis as the new framework may force operators who offer such services to either locate servers in the country or share encryption keys and assist security agencies in monitoring these services. The telecom department (DoT) had earlier maintained that the ultimate solution to address security issues should involve intelligence agencies building up capabilities indigenously to monitor and intercept these technologies. It had also suggested that security agencies here avail the help of companies such as Infosys, TCS, Wipro and Tech Mahindra to build such capabilities. The new framework also moots for stricter norms for remote access (RA), or the provision to monitor data and voice traffic on cellular networks from remote locations across the globe and proposed that this facility be carried out only from within the country. The Cabinet cleared the external RA facility in March 2007 with a slew of riders . Indeed, security concerns over RA delayed the FDI hike in telecom to 74% by a year. Under existing rules, operators should keep an audit trail of all remote access activities for six months, and these must be provided on request to DoT or any other agency authorised by the government. Besides, telecom companies must keep mirror images of such activities for online monitoring and provide the same to security agencies on request. Also, the provision of remote access cannot be used for monitoring content. The DoT has already circulated the draft policy prepared by its security wing, headed by Ram Narain, to all its members who have been asked to submit their views by September 6. Justifying the need for a new framework , the communication ministry said that most sectors of the economy were dependent on exchange of information , which largely takes place through telecommunication infrastructure . "It is not simply an information infrastructure or even a critical information infrastructure, but has to be viewed as the most important critical infrastructure. Because of the dependence of other sectors on telecom infrastructure , it has become important even for the security of the society and the country," the draft policy states. Source : Economic Times

Trai says cancel 69 telecom licenses, DoT agrees to only 8 New Delhi: The department of telecommunications (DoT) has decided to move for cancellation of only eight licences for failure of telecom operators to meet rollout obligations, against the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai's) recommendation that 69 licences be cancelled. According to data available till August 28, 2011, only Aircel (two), Dishnet (three), Etisalat (two), and Sistema Shyam (one) were issued show-cause notices for cancellation of licences. Any licence termination can only occur after the conclusion of a long legal battle. Apart from this, since companies have got away with a large majority of their licences intact, the impact on their business is negligible. Consumers are also largely insulated from this move, as the violation signifies lack of network and therefore, subscribers. In any event, with number portability, the few subscribers, if any, can easily migrate to the 10-13 other operators in the same circle. Documents with TOI reveal strong reluctance on DoT's part to cancel more than these eight licenses, based on disagreement with the Trai on the very definition of rollout obligations. The telecom regulator had made statutory recommendations under Section 11 of the Trai Act and DoT has been grappling with the recommendations for over nine months. If this confrontation between DoT and Trai continues, the holders of the remaining 61 licences are likely to get away by paying penalties as opposed to licence cancellation. Rollout obligations are one of the key licence conditions in terms of public/consumer interest since it is an indication of how far and how soon an operator rolls out the network. The spread of network, in turn, increases competition - which places downward pressure on consumer tariffs. After the CAG report on the 2G spectrum scam, dated November 16, 2010 was released, pointing to a Rs 1.76 lakh crore loss to the exchequer, a PIL was also filed in the Supreme Court. Simultaneously, on November 18, 2010, Trai wrote to the DoT recommending cancellation of 69 licences granted by ex-telecom minister A Raja on account of violation of rollout obligations. Trai had determined that 38 of the 69 licences were straight cases for cancellation, while in the remaining 31, DoT should "seriously consider cancellation after legal examination in view of non-utilization of spectrum and resultant loss of revenue to the exchequer, in addition to the imposition of liquidated damages as per license conditions". Rollout obligations become even more important in the current context since the government had argued that it was giving away spectrum in 2008 at 2001 prices to 121 new unified access service licensees and 35 dual technology operators purely to serve consumer interest - the need to have a higher degree of competition in order to reduce tariffs further. Three years later, Trai found that at least 69 of these licensees had not even met their preliminary rollout obligations. Source : Times Of India

@ Saket Cross Platform means that it will work on all mobile devices regardless of the operating system it is running on - symbian, android, ios, windows phone, whatever.

@Dpak nope, these phones will be locked to MTS network in all likelihood (just like Micromax EG333 with Tata Indicom.) Check out www.omhworld.com/devices for OMH compliant phones.

^ ^ ^ R2R and R2O local calls alone I suppose or does it also include STD?

Kuduos to MTS India these devices are good for smartphone / android beginners and at this price point it's a steal. MTS MTAG 3.1 is rebranded Huawei C8511 and MTS Livewire is ZTE N600. Between the two, go for the Huawei one.

Tata Telecommunications lost 2.7m in July In a country used to seeing millions of new telecom subscribers every month, Tata Teleservices has pulled a shocker by losing as many as 2.7 million, or 3.1%, of its subscriber base, in July. The company, which owns the Tata Docomo brand, saw its wireless subscriber base fall from 91 million at the end of June to 88.3 million at the end of July, data from industry body Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India show. The company has a 11% revenue share of India’s telecom market. According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, only about 48% of Tata Tele’s subscribers were active at the end of June. The sharp contraction compares with a relatively weak subscriber addition of 2.1 lakh in June. The National Capital Region, Chennai and Madhya Pradesh saw the sharpest declines. Tata Tele did not respond to queries from DNA Money seeking reasons for the subscriber loss. On the other hand, rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone added 1.5million subscribers each in July, while Idea Cellular added a million. In June, Tata Docomo had announced that those joining after 16th of that month will need to pay higher charges after their first year of subscription. The higher charges represented a doubling in call tariff from 1 paisa per second to 2 paise per second. Bharti, Reliance, Vodafone and Idea Cellular joined soon after with a 20% tariff hike in call rates, marking the reversal of a 2-year trend where call tariffs have been on a downward spiral following the entry of new subscriber-hungry operators in 2008-09. Analysts, however, differed on possible reasons for Tata Tele losing subscribers “spectacularly”. Of late, they say, operators have been trying to focus more on increasing revenue from subscribers rather than adding subscribers aggressively, thus resulting in a slowing down of monthly subscriber additions. Analyst with a foreign brokerage, who did not want to named, said the fall Tata Tele’s subscribers is likely on account of the firm purging its books of inactive subscribers — typically those who sign up just to take advantage of discounted promotional schemes and stopped using the connection when the discount schemes are no longer available. To be sure, the only other telco that has reported a fall in subscriber numbers during July is Videocon, which lost about 95,000 subscribers. For Videocon, a struggling new entrant in the market, this is not the first time. DNA Money had reported in February that Videocon lost of as many as 1.3 million subscribers during January, which analysts then attributed to efforts to ‘clean-up’ the subscriber base. The clean-up referred to newer entrants in Indian telecom industry such as Videocon, Uninor, Etisalat and Sistema Shyam aggressively signing on subscribers without verifying their identities as required by law and later scrambling to ensure regulatory compliance by ‘cleaning-up’ the database. Source : DNAIndia

It is worth a retrospective to see how it all started. Check out the original 1984 Macintosh introduction when Steve Jobs unveils the Macintosh when he takes it out of a bag. The video is titled "The Lost 1984 Video : young Steve Jobs introduces the Macintosh.": via : techzone360

Launched! Priced @ Rs. 35,990 We are proud to collaborate with Qualcomm to present another technological breakthough device from HTC – Evo 3D. We are confident thta the HTC Evo 3D will set a benchmark for 3D viewing and our consumers will make the best use of this offering” - HTC India

Wasn't it discernible from my post that I was referring to the CDMA counterpart available for some time now in the forum Links : http://www.rimweb.in...-reliance-cdma/ http://www.rimweb.in...-rs-26600-only/ http://www.rimweb.in...446#entry236446

EG333 will work with only Tata Indicom's RUIM/OMH card. You can go in for Samsung Mpower TV S239 or Mpower txt M369. Have used both and they are good.

^ ^ ^ Huawei C7300 is not a dual SIM capable phone like Deepak asked for. It's just CDMA with Evdo Rev. A.

Of course, we can get it for 25 K here

Palm Pixi Plus / Pre Plus / 2 and even the recent Hp Pre 3 doesn't officially have a onscreen keyboard. And I dont think it is practical to enter alphabets through the Call Card you have posted.

^ ^ ^ that's great news. It's just the price that feels unjustifiable considering how outdated the specs are.

Still holding on to the connection just for the 2G gprs / edge data packs.

^ ^ ^ Lol, that's damn hilarious esp. the comments.

Tim Cook, the new Apple chief executive who replaced Steve Jobs, has been awarded 1m shares in the company in a bid to keep him at the helm until at least 2021. The stock transfer, which is worth just over $383m (£235m) at current prices, was disclosed in a mandatory document filed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. Half the shares will vest in Mr Cook on August 24, 2016, while the other half will vest on the same date in 2021, subject to his continued employment at Apple. via : The Telegraph This puts to an end the speculation that Cook had been appointed as an interim figure

The touchpad is getting snatched up at lightning speed and online stores have almost run out of stock

MTS offered Htc Hero / MTS Pulse for free if the subscriber chose a monthly rental scheme and struck a contract for a period of one year. Will the same offer be extended to this device?

It appears Apple may be hiring Photoshop artists alongside lawyers for its legal battle with Samsung Electronics Webwereld.nl, the Dutch sister site of Computerworld, claims that Apple is using an image of the Samsung Galaxy S smartphone resized to more closely resemble the iPhone 3G. This follows similar claims that Apple had doctored images of the Galaxy Tab to look more like the iPad. The reportedly altered images--which were presented as evidence in court--would place Apple on shaky ground. The company's primary argument is that Samsung's products are "slavish" imitations of Apple's hit mobile devices. But the need to adjust images of Samsung's products would call into question just how similar they are. thanks : cnet

How do we name links! I can't find the option

Guys only someone with more money than sense will buy Pre 3 / Veer / Touchpad now since it is highly unlikely that Hp will continue to support them. With unsupported software, the errors that you will definitely face in the course, will never be fixed. Hp is trying to clear out their inventory by offering such huge discounts. But is it worth the 99$? I think I'd rather spend 99$ elsewhere

And I had saved up about 20 grands to buy a Pre 3! (of course, after reading reviews ). Thank God I did'nt take the plunge. Will now hold off till Sprint release the Epic 2

And IF they indeed shut down CDMA network, we people will be the worst hit. Just imagine our big ticket Evos, Epics and Droids turned into paperweight or at the best fancy ipods overnight. What a nightmare!