Karthik R

Blame the exorbitant 3G charges on the auction format that was followed in allocating spectrum. 3G - luxury - not meant for the masses.

@ Vinayak Spectrum in the 800 Mhz have largely been exhausted and the Tatas and Reliance have put on hold their plans to roll out high speed wireless Internet services due to a crunch in spectrum availability in other alternative bands 450 MHz and 1900 MHz. This is one of the reasons which prompted them to jump stables.

Rajan bhai of all CDMA phones listed, both of above mentioned phones are carrier-locked to MTS so it wont be quite an option for Reliance and Tata users.

@ Raccoon good piece of info Have they addressed your complaint against non conferment of the double talktime promised under their fb offer?

they are providing free 10000 SMS on on-net and that too comes with a validity of 30 days.

Great proposition will make going mobile more affordable to the masses.

Yep Yuvi and Raina held their nerves in the end and did not buckle under pressure. Also Pointing played a great innings. Next stop Mohali, March 30th : v/s perennial rivals Pakistan.

the fixture

Tata DOCOMO invests Rs 250 crore for 3G in Gujarat Becoming the first private mobile operator to have launched 3G services in Gujarat, Tata DOCOMO, the GSM arm of Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) has invested about Rs 250 crore for the rollout in the state. The rollout has resulted Tata DOCOMO offering 3G services in 19 cities of Gujarat including Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Godhra, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Junagadh, Nadiad, Anand, Vapi, Valsad, Bharuch, Ankleshwar, Amreli, Gandhidham, Kandla and Anjar. "Our 3G services have received a phenomenal response during pilot tests from customers across Gujarat till date and today, we have become the first mobile telecom operator to launch our 3G services in Ahmedabad and Vadodara. While 3G as the next-generation of mobility, brings with it better voice clarity through HD voice, fewer call-drops and high-speed Internet access, the impact on consumers' lives will be much higher than any of these improvements," said Nipun Sharma, Chief Operating Officer, Gujarat, Tata DOCOMO. The operator's Small Screen Plan offers data packs that have tariff options starting from Rs 11 to Rs 2,001 offering 10Mb to 15GB of data usage. Priced between Rs 350 to Rs 2,000, the Smart Life Plans on pre-paid comes bundled with data usage and talk time. Tata DOCOMO 3G E stick, its wireless USB data card, is available in three different plans including speeds up to 3.6 Mbps at Rs 1699, up to 7.2 Mbps at Rs 1999, and up to 21.1 Mbps at Rs 4,200, respectively. - Business Standard

RCOM announced the launch of Century Pack for its new customers on both CDMA and GSM service in Karnataka for the Cricket World Cup on Monday, March 21. Reliance customers can now enjoy full talk time and free 100 local and national SMS per day for one year. The offer is available on the first recharge of Rs 83 with a tariff validity of one year. “Reliance offers three platforms to our customers: superior network, superior customer service and superior value. The new Century Pack is our latest offering on the superior value platform of our service. This will further reinforce our commitment to our customers to offer the best value,” said Swaminathan, Hub Head-Karnataka, Reliance Communications.

Opera Mini 6 compresses webpages to one tenth of their original size, reducing data usage and fees in the process, while Opera Mobile 11 boasts full HTML 5 based browsing and the same Presto engine found in Opera's desktop solution. Opera Mobile 11 Features Modernized new user interface New UI optimized for tablet devices Faster framerates when panning and zooming No checkerboard, ever Text stays sharp during zooming Improved text-wrap on zoom Smart-tap, auto-zoom and highlights links if ambiguous link click Incremental zooming for devices w/o multi-touch Buttons for jumping to the top/bottom of the page Haptic feedback (if supported in hardware) Share URL on social networks, email etc Improved Geolocation support Session restore Rendering Presto 2.7.81 JIT for greatly improved Javascript performance (was supported in 10.1 on some Symbian devices) Adobe Flash support (Android only, Flash player available separately in Android Market) Click-to-play, load Flash content on demand only Application Cache WebStorage and WebDatabase DOM touch and multi-touch events HTML5 Audio/Video Support for CSS @viewport Improved support for meta viewport Support for Web Open Font Format (WOFF) Support for Arabic ligatures Improved form fields skin

AT&T Inc plans to pay $39 billion for Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile USA to create a new US mobile market leader, but the pricey purchase is likely to attract intense antitrust scrutiny over potentially higher customer bills.

indefinitely huh?

MDN stands for mobile directory number, the actual number you dial to connect to a mobile phone.

Brought a camera - Canon IXUS 9515, for 9K. For dad, he is a beginner in the world of photography

Dear friends, may this festivity of Holi bring into your life the vibrant colours of Happiness

Yes. It is an EVDO Rev. A, phone which supports up to 3.1 Mbps downlink.

Bharti Airtel may buy Qualcomm's BWA biz Bharti Airtel is likely to buy yet-to-be-launched Indian wireless broadband business of Qualcomm, industry sources said. The US-based chip maker is set to be in discussions with the country's largest telecom operator to sell its BWA licences in all four circles, sources told ET NOW. The valuation of the deal is likely to be around $1.2-1.3 billion, with a premium of 25-30%. Qualcomm has broadband wireless licences in four circles of Mumbai, Delhi, Kerala and Haryana and had paid $1.05 billion for these permits and airwaves. "Qualcomm is not expecting much of a premium on these licences. It expects only a commitment from the operator that it will use its LTE TDD technology ," an industry source added. ET Now had earlier reported that along with Bharti Airtel, Aircel was also in talks with Qualcomm to buy its wireless broadband business. Earlier, Bharti Airtel had shown interest for Delhi and Haryana, while Aircel had shown interest for Mumbai and Kerala circles. But ET NOW learns that Aircel, a unit of Malaysia's Maxis Communications has walked out of the deal because of various issues. Qualcomm refused to confirm that it was selling to Bharti Airtel, but in an email statement said: "Qualcomm has publicly stated that it will work with 3G operators to develop the 3G+LTE ecosystem, commercially deploy LTE TDD in the broadband wireless spectrum, and then exit its India venture. Consistent with those goals, discussions with 3G operators in India on LTE TDD commercialisation and commercial discussions related to Qualcomm's broadband spectrum are indeed ongoing. These discussions are however confidential and Qualcomm cannot comment on speculation regarding specifics." When contacted, the Bharti Airtel spokesperson said: "As per company policy, we do not comment on speculation." Qualcomm is best known for pioneering the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology, which is used by several mobile phone companies, including Reliance Communications , Tata Teleservices and Sistema-Shyam in India. The San Diego-based company had earlier told Indian telecom companies that the buyer of its broadband permits will have to give an undertaking to use these airwaves only to offer services on the upcoming Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology. Qualcomm's upcoming TD-LTE technology directly competes with Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), a platform that is being pushed by global giants such as Intel and Google. The American chip maker has a history of participating in spectrum auctions to popularise and expedite the commercialisation of new technologies, and has successfully bid for airwaves in both the US and the UK. Qualcomm India has Global Holding and Tulip Telecom as its India partners, each holding about 13% stake in the company. Both companies will also sell their stake, if Bharti Airtel is successful in buying the BWA licences of Qualcomm India. Source : ET

Even me find it hard to swallow that Idea fares poorly with call connectivity. TRAI should have come up with circle wise assessment instead of rationalizing. Also suprised that RGSM finds no mention here!

Optical fiber may be the only way ahead to provide high-speed Internet. But the business case looks tough in the short term. There's a telecommunications crisis brewing in India and it has nothing to do with 2G, 3G or even 4G. India's communication infrastructure at the ‘last mile'--the part that connects your home or office to a communications provider - is rotten. A December 2010 report by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) says that of the 40 million copper loops (that cover the last mile) countrywide, only half are considered usable for broadband Internet connections. This most widely used medium, twister copper wires owned mostly by BSNL or MTNL, are largely old and inadequate for carrying data. Since very few telcos are putting any fresh copper in the ground, the number of usable copper loops for broadband in the country is expected to run out by 2014. The next best option, coaxial fibers that take cable TV into 80 million households, carry mostly low bandwidth analog signals and are managed by thousands of small entrepreneurs with neither the capital nor the knowledge to use them for data. At present, barely 10% of them are equipped with the support infrastructure that will make them capable of two-way data transfer, required for broadband. It is therefore a widely held view in telecom that 3G or 4G wireless technologies are the best way forward, as they don't require roads to be dug up or wires to be strung. But, unfortunately, because of government flip-flops over policy, no operator is anywhere close to getting the required spectrum for providing good quality broadband to millions of consumers. For instance, TRAI estimates that in Delhi a wireless operator relying on even newer technologies like LTE or Wimax will require 280 MHz of spectrum to match the city's broadband requirements by 2012. Instead, in last year's auctions, operators were allotted a mere 20 MHz. Why Fiber Works The likely solution to this problem lies in the work of a Punjabi scientist who, in the 1960s, chanced upon the concept of transmitting light through thin and bent glass tubes after learning that light could travel only in straight lines. If optical fibers had a father, it could well be Narinder Singh Kapany. Kapany's discovery is today fast becoming the medium of choice for many Indian service providers. Enterprise communications provider Tulip Telecom says it has laid more than 6,000 km of optical fiber across 300 cities over the last two years, all of it at the last mile level. State-owned BSNL is offering fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband in cities such as Hyderabad, Jaipur and Vadodara with speeds of up to 1 Gbps. This comes at a cost of Rs.3,000 to Rs.50,000 a month, but at speeds of up to 100 Mbps. Radius Infratel, a Delhi-based broadband infrastructure provider, signed a contract with Ericsson to connect 6 lakh homes and businesses with optical fibers across India. The reason is simple: Optical fiber is really the only choice for high-speed data connectivity in the future. "I can carry anywhere from 4 GB to 16 GB in every core of the fiber. The capacity of the fiber is limited only by the choice of terminal equipment, which means I can offer unlimited bandwidth to my customers," says Lt. Col. (Retd.) H.S. Bedi, Tulip Telecom's chairman. While near-infinite capacity over the long term might be a great proposition for service providers, the flip side to optical fibers is a near-impossible business case in the short term. Fibernomics The cost of optical fiber has been falling rapidly over the years with costs today being around Rs.30,000 a kilometre. In fact, the protective polyethylene pipes are more expensive. A larger chunk of the cost--on average Rs.1.6 lakh a km--is incurred on digging and filling roads and laying cables. Infographics : Hemal Sheth But the largest cost, and the biggest inhibitor to operators laying more optical fiber, is the money to earn 'right of way'--the money paid to municipal authorities for permission to dig up roads. This cost can vary from tens of lakhs in cities to Rs.1 crore for a kilometre in densely populated business districts of Mumbai. "In cities such as Mumbai, the city municipal corporation looks at this as a source of revenue. It is a huge deterrent to service providers," says Vish Iyer, head of Cisco's service provider offerings in India. "One of the factors holding back cable operators from laying optical fiber is the restrictive regime of TV channel prices in India. In a capped price environment, an entrepreneur who cannot sell higher value products will not want to invest in additional infrastructure," says John Medeiros, deputy CEO of the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia, or CASBAA. There are also topographical factors that complicate the last mile game. Delhi has more individual homes while Bangalore has more apartment blocks. It's easier to connect apartments in a building than individual homes. One factor that might, however, change the return-on-investment equation in favor of optical fiber is the National Broadband Plan released by TRAI in December 2010. The plan envisages government-owned national and state-level optical fiber authorities that will install and maintain shared optical fiber networks across most Indian cities, towns and villages at a total cost of Rs.65,000 crore. The plan also calls for installing FTTH connections in the 63 biggest cities and fiber-to-the-kerb (FTTK) connections in all other cities. Service providers of all varieties can then lease capacity on this network instead of laying their own optical fibers. From Bane to Boon But the TRAI plans could meander around for years before fructifying. Till then, optical fiber at the last mile will be a source of competitive advantage to those who manage to install it. Not only is it expensive and cumbersome to lay optical fibers, its next to impossible to dislodge an incumbent who's spent the money and effort in getting his own optical fiber running into a customer's offices. "Today, there is inter-city optical fiber available from nine different players on a pan-India basis. With just two to three percent of capacity being utilized, I would say there's unlimited availability. But there's nothing available on the last mile," says Bedi. Courtesy : Forbes

There seems to be EMI offer at Rs. 1655 with HDFC and ICICI Bank to finance the phone.

Not getting any balance alert after deducting money for SMS send or on consuming data on phone. Guess it is for calls alone

Do we have to explicitly mention it as 'special recharge'? Last time CC guys said recharges below the denomination of Rs.50 can be done as special recharge only by the retailer. Someone verify the same

In all likelihood, nope

Insurance companies are looking at billions in losses from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, with one early estimate placing the figure as high as $35 billion.