kesav

A very valid and vital warning to 'media'. :clap: Court proceedings are not cricket matches to run live commentary. It's a process which takes months to arrive at a conclusion. Judges will use certain harsh words towards counsels to extract the truth in the mid of of the proceedings. That does not mean the Judges have already decided verdict. In most of the cases, counsels who have been chided by Judges in the proceedings turns out to be victors of the case. Court room verbal exchanges are the time at which Jury extracts the truth and learns the case. It's totally in bad taste to report such exchange of words in court room to outside world. Let media give opportunity to court decide the case rather than trying to navigate the direction of the verdict to their liking. Let media wait for final verdict and run if they want 1000-page editorial on the verdict. Court will be very happy to listen to it. Somehow, I feel it's time for Govt. to intervene and ensure the revenue for news media does not come from corporates. Otherwise our democracy is at risk we'll end up having only 'paid' news rather than 'free' news.

If the phone tapes related to 3G scam released by Outlook Magazine are any indicator, then one can assume that babus and netas will fall in line after they have extorted their bribe money. Case in point is that they never cared about security issues when BSNL and MTNL were offereing 3G services becaue they could not extort bribes from PSU companies. Now that private companies are starting 3G services babus and netas have woken up regarding the security threats because now they see good probability of extorting money from private telecom companies. Dear Friend, Out of valid anger on our public servants, it's not good to conceal/overturn the truth. The fact is PSUs have been asked in the past to stop their 3G services till security agencies were able to monitor the services on real-time. PSUs made arrangement for it and were allowed to resume services. Govt. has clearly mandated to all service providers to start any service(2G or 3G or 4G or any G)only after it has proven to security agencies that those services can be monitored on real-time. The current 3G security issue is purely because of inclination of private corporates towards easier method of bending laws through bribing rather than difficult method of respecting and implementing the law of land.

A very good say !! For Ambanis, stooping to any level to get their job done is there in their blood. so don't worry guys.....

Reliance is improving the EVDO (CDMA-3G) coverage at breathtaking speed. It has already reached close to 150 cities/towns. http://www.rcom.co.in/Rcom/personal/internet/wireless_internet_coverage.html As posted earlier by one of the our members, the focus is clearly on the circles where they've not won GSM-3G spectrum. Eagerly waiting for launch of USB modems which can seamlessly access both 3G technologies (EVDO and HSDPA) depending on n/w availability by Reliance. Villagers, I'm sorry to say but you've to wait one more year either to see EVDO(CDMA-3G) signal or HSDPA(GSM-3G) signal from any operator. Operators' focus for the calendar year 2011 will only be on lucrative cities/towns.

Didn't want to bribe my way into airline business: Ratan Tata source :: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_didn-t-want-to-bribe-my-way-into-airline-business-ratan-tata_1467032 It's refreshing to know that there exist at least few people who cares about ethics and values in the muddy corporate world. :clap:

Aircel finalises equipment vendors for 3G source :: http://telecomyatra.afaqs.com/news/index.html?sid=2482_Aircel+finalises+equipment+vendors+for+3G Ericsson --> 6 Circles Huawei --> 3 circles NSN --> 3 circles ZTE --> 1 circle

TRAI has recommended for cancellation of 69 Unified Access Service (UAS) Licenses TRAI has recommended cancellation of 38 licenses for roll-out obligation as per following details: Aircel Ltd. --> 1 Dishnet Wireless Ltd. --> 3 Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt. Ltd. --> 2 Loop Telecom Ltd. --> 14 Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd. --> 10 Unitech Wireless (East) Pvt. Ltd. --> 2 Unitech Wireless (North) Pvt. Ltd. --> 5 Unitech Wireless (West) Pvt. Ltd. --> 1 Further TRAI has also recommended for cancellation of 31 UAS licenses after legal examination as per following details: Aircel Ltd. --> 1 Allianz Infratech (P) Ltd. --> 2 Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt. Ltd. --> 11 Loop Telecom Ltd. --> 6 Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd. --> 1 Videocon Telecommunications Ltd. --> 10 source :: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=0

TRAI issues Recommendations on ‘National Broadband Plan’ Establishment of NOFA(National Optical Fibre Agency) and SOFA (State Optical Fibre Agency) 10 Mbps speed with FTTH in JNURM cities(65) by 2014 4 Mbps in 352 cities with FTTK (within 0.5 KM from residence) by 2014 2 Mbps in the rest of India by 2014 reduction/removal of tax levies on CPE( modems, routers etc.,) 75 million broadband connections by 2012, 160 million by 2014 n/w to be established at a cost of Rs. 60000 crore Estimated revenue for NOFA and all SOFAs put together is Rs. 26000 crore/year :clap: It's good to see TRAI marching ahead with its job even during these trying times. Let us pray that its customer-centric national building approach will not be diverted by the meaningless media and egoistic opposition. http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/trai/upload/PressReleases/778/prcndiv8dec10.pdf http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/trai/upload/Recommendations/124/Broadbandrecommendation08_12_10final.pdf http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/trai/upload/Recommendations/125/Dotltr.pdf Let us hope our politicians will concentrate on this mammoth task in hand rather than wasting their time on non-existing figurative 2G scam. To achieve this stupendous milestone, TRAI, DoT, state govts should work in tandem parking their egos at rest.

1) Is this kind of generic recording actually done in India? As in are all voice calls of all subscribers recorded for x hours/days? It should be there but I don't the value of "x" 2) I am not necessary against the kind of recording done against Mrs. Radia. That being, that for a particular suspicious subscriber, specific legal permission is sought for phone tapping. But what the govt. wants with RIM is real time access to any/all random subscribers without any permission from a court, etc. Then it's good. Just a bit of misunderstanding from your end so far. Govt. wants hard real-time access to any such subscriber which it deems fit for surveillance. Permission can be granted from certain level in the intelligence/Law enforcement agencies but certainly cannot wait for courts. As far as I understand and remember, RIM has always been willing to share records of a specific subscriber with Indian Intelligence Agencies.... only not in real time. Records doesn't serve the purpose.It's postmortem and it just similar to the case 1 and just not useful. Assuming that RIM can actually do this (I won't be surprised if they can) ie. crack their own encryption, it would still just be one variable and probability for a leak will be much, much lower. If intelligence agencies are allowed to snoop on each and every subscriber at whim, the possibility of leak grows manifold as the variables have increased! What is more, the "value" of the leaked data will be far greater in local hands, than a Canadian company, much of whose business depends on its reputation for keeping subscriber data confidential. I plead to disagree on this point completely. Intelligence works are not only directed against terrorists but also against nations. Certainly no sensible govt. can trust a company working in Canada to preserve the pro-intelligent data emanated from western world to be handed over to Government of India in an unmodified way. RIM will always work as an agent of Canada.

Vodafone sees pain for operators as spectrum issue gets resolved source :: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/12/11/stories/2010121152700700.htm Let us hope this time Mr. Pieters has met Mr. Sibal as CEO of Vodafone instead of his regular job as messenger of Bharti Airtel. "...this may cause pain to some of the operators. If the incumbent players have to bear a part of that pain, Vodafone will be prepared for that..." is really an unexpected positive sign from Vodafone. Let us hope Vodafone to break away from cartel and really works as an international player.

Sibal hits back at BJP on privilege motion source :: http://sify.com/finance/sibal-hits-back-at-bjp-on-privilege-motion-news-default-kmkuuegbjib.html

TATA's Letters http://www.tata.com/pdf/Ratan_Tata_Letter.pdf http://www.tata.com/pdf/Letter_from_TTSL_to_Rajeev_Chandrasekhar.pdf http://www.tata.com/pdf/Letter_to_Business_Standard_18Nov10.pdf http://www.tata.com/pdf/Letter_to_India_Today_08122010.pdf The first one is really sharp, comprehensive and catches the issue right at its neck......

BJP’s policy flip flop the most, says Tata source :: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/bjps-policy-flip-flop-the-most-says-tata/722790/ Rajeev Chandrashekar is an independent Rajya Sabha MP elected due to support of BJP. He was past president of COAI. I think RIM members will not require any further information on this gentleman. :Riendo:

Transparency & Simplification is very much needed in Indian Telecom Industry. It's very much overdue from TRAI. It's time for TRAI to ban dedicated(special) account on the validity of bonus talk-time (sometimes called as promotional talk-time). Why on earth you've validity for talktime when you already have validity for tariff and main account? Just capricious and absurd !!

There are 2 levels of recording normally required by any law in the world. (1) Generic Recording -- All the records(read as voice&data) of all subscribers of each service provider has to be archived for the last xx hours.I don't know exactly what is the value of xx in Indian context. xx will differ for different services like voice, data & SMS. RIM doesn't have any problem in this aspect. This is basically needed for postmortem work by intelligent agencies. (2) Specific Recording -- This is hard real-time 24x7 access on specific subscriber who has been suspected by intelligent agencies and has to be carried out only on specific request from intelligent agency to service provider. This is the case of Nira Radia where they've accessed her for 120 days or so continuously. RIM has a problem here due to their servers in Canada and strong encryption. In the emerging news, The Nira's tapes have been leaked out by the service provider of Nira Radia rather than by Govt. Let us be very very clear, our service providers can illegally tap our phones at anytime for as long as they like without anybody's permission. In case of Blackberry, the point of such possibility shifts from service provider to RIM due to encryption. What we've been fighting here just to allow lawful access to our intelligent agents on the voice&data which is very well illegally accessible by private corporates in the telecom flow chain.

Nokia installs server in India; BlackBerry may face pressure source :: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/hardware/Nokia-installs-server-in-India-BlackBerry-may-face-pressure/articleshow/7029663.cms This is another nail in the coffin of blackberry in India. What India demands is just what it has already done across more powerful nations(USA,Canada,China,Russia etc.,) I feel it's time for India to stop behaving like soft nation and be assertive...

Completely assumptive(may be paid on lines of Vir/Bharka) reporting by Times of India without any substance. Every Indian knows JPC drama is just political and it has nothing to do with transparency. On contrary, allowing JPC will only make the entire process more opaque and political by bypassing every other constitutional institution. Trinamool or DMK is not foolish to believe that by accepting JPC(political joke) they can get votes. Just ridiculous......

Raja seeks Antony’s help to secure defence airwaves for 3G-CDMA auctions source :: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/Raja-seeks-Antonys-help-to-secure-defence-airwaves-for-3G-auctions/articleshow/6849233.cms IMHO, A.K.Antony is a non-performing asset in the current Govt. He never showed any courage in dealing with armed forces. He just parrots whatever is said by Armed Forces Chiefs without applying any mind to it. His adamant attitude and inflexibility has really caused havoc in our telecommunication growth. Let us hope at least this time he'll show some maturity and magnanimity which we associate to his age & seniority in the Govt. Not releasing the spectrum which were earmarked in NFAP and ITU for commercial telecommunication for more than 3 years is unjustifiable.

It is very difficult to accept that our agencies just recorded conversations without disconnecting it....May be just a bit of exaggeration..... The points regarding the revamping of our security apparatus and intelligence gathering is a valid one. Everyone here in the forum is aware and vouch for it. Coming back to this topic, Let us park all the terms like patriotism, terrorism, intelligence, security etc., for a moment. What we want here is very simple. There is requirement of lawful interception and every telecom entity operating in India must abide by it. Technology can't be allowed to be used as an excuse. On contrary, technology should be used to abide with law. No excuses.... No justifications.....No procrastinations..... All the faults which had been highlighted can be overcome easily if you develop a nation of law abiding citizens(inc. corporates).

My vote is for Avira. It's quite light and effective. BTW, I've used only TrendMicro, Norton, AVG, McAfee, Avast other than Avira. So my opinion is limited to my list. I can't comment on others(K7, Kaspersky etc.,). Once I started using Avira, I never looked for anything else. @Karthik, why can't you add MSE into the list?

RIM Still Refuses to Give in to Indian Demands source :: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=68075 Yet another disappointing news on the subject. Let us hope RIM will provide meaningful solution before deadline ends to avoid permanent closure of its services in India. Hope RIM will move out of its cheating attitude and solve the issue amicably.

Lobby scandal tars competitive media source :: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/22/AR2010112206732.html It's totally unethical for media houses to retain these tainted journalists in their package. The most sriking aspect in this issue is absolute silence by entire media(inc. regional media) on such a devasting scandal ever seen in the history of Indian media. If the same would have been any politicians or people from other walks of life, each and every media would have run a 24-hr playback of recorded conversations. It's shameful to Indians to tolerate such unethical people in the media. Until Barkha Dutt, Vir Sanghvi resign, boycott NDTV & Hindustan Times? source :: http://www.newspostindia.com/2010-11-20-until-barkha-dutt-vir-sanghvi-resign-boycott-ndtv-hindustan-times A very valid cry from a frustrated Indian. Barkha, Vir Sanghvi under scrutiny by netizens source :: http://www.ciol.com/News/News/News-Reports/2G-scam-Netizens-bark-at-Barkha-Vir-Sanghvi/143737/0/ It's worst behaviour from media house to defend its tainted journalist when even a first class student can understand the core purpose of that lobbying(to reinstall Mr. Raja).

The republic on a banana peel Media-corporate links are structural. But journalists, certainly entrenched ones, can choose whether they wish to be stenographers or not. source :: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article927895.ece?homepage=true

BSNL has released a short guide on its APNs. http://kerala.bsnl.co.in/mktg/apn-94c-19112010.pdf

If true, The move is clearly on the expected lines.... Then, we can expect USB modems from Reliance which supports both HSDPA & EVDO on the same hardware.