KumaarShah

BT not in race for 3G services; to serve enterprise clients 3 Jul, 2008, 1737 hrs IST, PTI HONG KONG: Global communications service provider BT said on Thursday that it would not bid for launching next generation (3G) telecom services in India, but was looking to serve the enterprise segment. The UK-based company is not interested in entering the consumer segment and would rather focus on providing telecom services to the enterprise segment, BT Asia Pacific President Allen Ma told reporters. Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had last year granted international long distance (ILD) and national long distance (NLD) licences to BT. With the government deciding to allow foreign players to offer 3G services in India, it was expected that the likes of BT, AT&T Inc., Deutsche Telekom AG and NTT DoCoMo Inc would show interest in entering the Indian market, the second largest in the world for wireless telephony after China. However, Ma said: "We are not planning to offer telecom services to the consumer segment in India." BT, the oldest telecom service provider, has been trying to brand itself as a networked IT solutions provider than a telecom player. It is planning to strengthen its services segment in the Asia Pacific region and is looking at acquiring companies offering IT services in India. "Globally, the market for networked IT solution services is nearly $100 billion which is growing at 115 per cent in the Asia-Pacific region. India has a very stronghold in IT services. We are looking at acquiring companies having IT capabilities to strengthen our Asia-Pacific operations," Ma said. Across the globe, BT would focus on four main verticals for offering networked IT solutions such as financial sector, manufacturing and logistics, pharmaceuticals and media and broadcasting. In India, the company would focus on the financial sector and media and broadcasting, he added. BT counts Star TV, NDTV, INX and financial service providers such as ICICI and Bank of Baroda among its clients. The company is open to both organic and inorganic growth in the country. However, the focus would be more on acquisitions. However, he declined to comment on the size and scale of the deals. After South East Asia, India is the second largest market for BT in the Asia Pacific region, which accounts for half of the company's global revenues. Asia Pacific and specially India is emerging as an important market for BT as more and more companies are outsourcing there non-core, but mission critical services to others. Moreover, the companies are not looking at vendors but for business partners who can help grow their business, he said.

Spice withdraws suit for pan-India GSM licence 3 Jul, 2008, 1721 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: Spice Communications, in which Aditya Birla group firm Idea Cellular bought 40.8 per cent stake, on Thursday withdrew its petition filed against Department of Telecom before sectoral tribunal TDSAT, challenging its rejection for pan-India GSM licence. During the proceedings of the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal, counsels appearing for Spice submitted their request to withdraw the suit. Spice counsel's submitted before the tribunal that on the instructions from the company they want to withdraw the suit filed against the DoT. After observing that there was no opposition from the government's side, TDSAT Chairman Justice Arun Kumar granted the permission to withdraw the suit and dismissed it. Spice had challenged its rejection for licence by the DoT for 16 telecom circles. The telecom firm, which has operations in Punjab and Karnataka, has been given licence for Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Maharashtra. DoT has rejected Spice's application after finding that it did not fit the net worth criteria for a pan-India licence. Spice had claimed a net worth of Rs 1,254 crore in its application submitted in 2006. The company had included the networth of its stakeholders Modi Wellvest, Super Infosys and TMI (Indian arm of Telekom Malaysia). However, the government found that Spice Communications, which had run into significant losses, had not taken into account the debit balance of profit and loss account negative free reserves. Idea Cellular had in June bought 40.8 per cent stake of its promoter B K Modi for Rs 2,716 crore. Following the acquisition it had made an open offer to shareholders of Spice for acquiring additional 20 per cent stake in the telecom services provider for about Rs 1,066.63 crore. Mods/Admins: Please move this topic to Indian Telecom Discussion.

Falling shares, Ambani feud could scupper MTN deal 3 Jul, 2008, 1638 hrs IST, REUTERS MUMBAI: India's Reliance Communications Ltd has days to reach an agreement for a tie-up with South Africa's MTN Group, but falling shares and a face-off between the Ambani brothers could all but scuttle a deal. Shares in Reliance Communications, which is holding exclusive talks with South Africa's MTN to create a global top 10 telecoms company, have shed a third of their value since the company, run by Anil Ambani, said in May the firms were considering a potential combination. Reliance shares fell 6.9 per cent on Thursday. There is no sign that the bitter rivalry between India's two richest men is letting up. Anil Ambani's aim to create a global company has been threatened by a claim from older brother Mukesh Ambani, who controls Reliance Industries, of first right of refusal on India's No. 2 mobile operator. "The tiff has almost certainly scuppered the deal," said Emeka Obiodu, a senior mobile technologies specialist at London-based research firm Global Insight. "As long as there is any uncertainty about the legal validity of a deal, it is unlikely MTN will go through with it. And there is no point in extending talks if the situation will not change." The 45-day exclusivity period ends on July 8, Reliance said. Reliance Communications said last month the claim by Reliance Industries would not delay its talks with MTN. But traders in Mumbai earlier this week said concerns that Mukesh may throw a spanner into the works had helped push down the share price. The lower valuation of Reliance Communications, which now has a market worth of about $18 billion, down from nearly $27 billion when it first said it was in talks, could spoil the share swap that the two firms were reported to be discussing. "Will MTN still be inclined to give Ambani a big stake, now that Reliance shares are down?" said Harit Shah, telecom analyst at Angel Broking, which has a 'buy' rating on the stock. Media reports and a source close to the development had indicated the two firms were aiming at a reverse takeover, with a share swap that would give the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group the largest shareholding in MTN, and making Reliance Communications a subsidiary of MTN, sub-Saharan Africa's top mobile operator. "Ambani may also need more cash, now that valuation has fallen, and that will be difficult in this market," Shah said, adding the deal had a "50-55 per cent chance" of going through. The volume of worldwide mergers and acquisitions announced in the first half of 2008 fell by 36 per cent compared with the same period last year, Thomson Reuters data showed, because of volatile markets. OTHER SUITORS Newspapers reported on Thursday that Reliance Communications along with investors, including Middle East sovereign wealth funds, may buy a majority stake in MTN rather than merge operations as planned earlier. A spokesman for Reliance Communications declined comment. Reliance Communications may also consider a revenue-sharing agreement, said Kevin Trindade, analyst at KR Choksey Securities. "They will have to restructure the deal. The legal challenge from Reliance Industries can open a whole can of worms and a lengthy legal battle can drag the shares lower," he said. A potential combination of MTN and Reliance Communications will have operations in about two dozen countries. Reliance Communications, which has snapped up a series of smaller overseas assets recently, will not be content simply with growth in the Indian market, which Gartner consultancy forecast would expand cellular services revenue at 18 percent annually and add subscribers at 21 percent a year till 2012. It is keen on Africa: it recently bought a telecoms firm in Uganda, and was one of four bidders last year for a controlling stake in Telkom Kenya, which went to France Telecom. This time around though, it cannot hope to fend off other suitors for MTN, Obiodu said. "MTN has signalled it's on the market and other bidders may only be waiting for the exclusivity period to end before they throw their hat into the ring," he said. "Vodafone, France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom and China Mobile are all interested in the Middle East and African markets," he said. An investment banker who is not directly involved in the deal also said MTN "would not play the waiting game" with Reliance. "Anil is a tenacious guy and will fight, but he has nothing to offer as bait to keep MTN interested for long," he said. The deadline to the talks comes two days after the death anniversary of Dhirubhai Ambani, founder of Reliance Industries, and still a strong influence on the squabbling Ambani brothers. Anil, who chose his father's birth anniversary in December 2006 to announce his interest in Hutchison's controlling stake in the Indian mobile venture with Essar, may well pick the 6th. "Anil's very particular about dates. He may say something on the 6th," Shah said.

Spectrum panel to meet on July 14 to discuss price, allocation 3 Jul, 2008, 1759 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: A panel formed by the Department of Telecom to recommend methodology including a suitable auction mechanism for the allocation and pricing of second generation (2G) spectrum for mobile services would meet on July 14. 2G Spectrum pricing and allocation has seen considerable controversy between DoT with TRAI, Finance Ministry and operators. A DoT official said the panel main task is to work out a practical, revenue-generating and amicable solution on these two issues. The panel, headed by DoT's additional secretary Subodh Kumar is expected to recommend an appropriate auction mechanism for additional spectrum, said a DoT circular. Telecom engineering Centre which had drawn up the subscriber threshold limit for acquiring spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz is also a member of the committee. DoT and Finance Ministry have been at loggerheads over pricing spectrum with the latter wanting higher charges. The Finance Ministry has been pushing for auctioning 2G spectrum on the grounds that the price formula suggested by DoT was based on spectrum charges decided in 2003. It has concluded that for a pan-India operator, the circle fee fixed at Rs 357 crore per MHz should be inflated by a multiple of 3.5 times reflecting the growth in revenue per MHz between 2003 and 2008. The DoT recently allocated 120 universal access service licences (UASL) for Rs 8,986 crore. The Finance Ministry has placed the real value closer to Rs 31,452 crore. DoT, on the other hand, is convinced that the fee structured proposed by it would raise more than Rs 10,000 crore for the national exchequer. It also cites legal problem in going for auctioning 2G spectrum which would require license guidelines modifications. Source: The ET Note to Mods/Admins: If this post can be shifted to an existing topic, please move it.

Excellent move by MTNL. Hope elder brother BSNL follows suit.

I would say my experience is mixed. Sometimes I get very good loading speeds and sometimes I get very very slow speeds. Sometimes, I get the error, "Link Not Found" etc etc.

Good models, but the keys in E71 are too cramped and may not be comfortable for emailing/sms'ing etc.

Looks good, but it will be ridiculously priced atleast around 4k, IMHO. No Mp3, no ext mem, no bt, no browser, no camera. But 500 contacts and 400SMS storage plus LMS, are plus points.

NEW DELHI: The government’s decision to double the reserve price for the 3G spectrum auctions spells bad news for many of the country’s stand-alone Internet Service Providers (ISPs). This is because, the reserve price for the WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) spectrum auction is likely to be set to be a fourth of that for 3G spectrum. Put simply, this implies that reserve price for an ISP who applies for pan-India WiMAX spectrum will be over Rs 550 crore. The final price could be several multiples of this depending on the outcome of the auction. ISPs say that a higher reserve price would create a scenario where they would not be able to enter a bidding war with telcos, who too are keen to launch WiMAX services. Besides, this also implies that the reserve price for a telco, who wants to bid for both WiMAX and 3G radio frequencies will be about Rs 2,800 crore. Confronted with this grin reality, the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI), the body representing all stand alone ISPs in the country, will soon approach sector regulator TRAI demanding that their members be charged only 25% of the highest bid that a telco makes for WiMAX spectrum in that particular circle during the auction. “We will tell TRAI that in order to have a competitive market, standalone ISPs must be charged a maximum of 25% of the highest bid that a telco makes for WiMAX spectrum. We will also seek that a few spectrum slots be reserved for ISPs during the WiMAX auction. This is perhaps the only way that government can address the dismal broadband penetration in the country. We (ISPs) will offer a much needed competition to telcos in the WiMAX space, without which they will not roll-out these services,” ISPAI president Rajahs Charier told ET. Sources say that the DoT wants the WiMax launch be initially restricted to only three players who will operate this service in the 2.5 GHz frequency band where one of the slots is reserved for state-owned BSNL/MTNL. This contradicts the recommendations of telecom regulator TRAI which had suggested that wireless broadband be rolled out in 3.3-3.4 GHz and 3.4-3.6 Ghz frequencies and up to 13 players be allocated spectrum to offer WiMax services. At the same time, the DoT also wants to allot WiMAX spectrum to other service providers in the frequencies recommended by TRAI at a later stage after compatibility is established. While WiMAX is still an evolving technology, it is still considered a threat to third generation mobile services. As per global industry experience, WiMax offers data speeds that are 10-30 times faster than 3G. To put this in perspective, the data speeds of 3G networks are over five times faster than those offered by 2G cellular networks that telcos in India currently use.

NEW DELHI: India’s largest private mobile firm Bharti Airtel, on Wednesday, denied media reports that it was in talks for a merger with Kuwaiti operator Zain. Bharti Airtel had recently lost a bid to acquire a controlling stake in South Africa’s largest telecom operator MTN after both companies had failed to agree on the corporate structure of the merged entity. The Bharti spokesperson said the ‘company vehemently denies being in talks with Zain’. Bharti insiders, whom ET spoke to, also said that there were no truth to reports that Bharti was looking to acquire or merge with MTN. Zain, along with Egypt’s Orasom, are the main rivals to South Africa’s MTN in Africa and West Asia. The Kuwaiti telecom operator functions in 22 countries, 7 Middle Eastern and 15 sub-Saharan African countries (inclusive of the recent signing of Westel in Ghana), and is the world’s fourth-largest operator if the geographic parameter were to be considered. It has a market cap of $25.8 and has over 46 million customers. Zain began its African operations by acquiring Celtel in 2005 for $3.4 billion for which it had entered into a bidding war with MTN. Despite its failure to lure MTN, Bharti Airtel sources say that the company is open to new avenues to expand its presence globally and is looking at overseas buys in an effort to export its low cost business model to the developing markets. In India, Bharti, which is 30.5% owned by Singapore Telecommunications, has more than 66 million subscribers. It is the market leader as it commands a lead of 17 million more customers over Reliance Communications, its closest rival. Ever since the talks with MTN collapsed, Bharti has been linked to several other telecom majors such as Orascom, which has over 75 million customers and Millicom, which has operations in 16 countries spread across Central and South America, Africa and Asia.

RCOM looks at buying stake in MTN directly MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications (RCOM) may be examining alternative structures to bring about its proposed mega-combination with MTN. RCOM, possibly in partnership with a sovereign wealth fund based in the Middle East, may directly buy a large equity stake in MTN, emerging as the single largest shareholder. This is to avoid legal disputes that may arise from Reliance Industries’ (RIL) claims of right of first refusal (RoFR) if RCOM were to enter into a reverse merger with MTN. Under the reverse merger route, MTN would have made an open offer for RCOM followed by a share swap between Reliance ADAG, promoters of RCOM, and MTN. ADAG would then have emerged as the single largest shareholder of MTN while RCOM will become subsidiary of MTN. That plan has not been junked, but sources close to the development said RCOM is also examining the option of directly acquiring a 40% stake in MTN. A Middle East-based sovereign wealth fund could join hands with RCOM for the acquisition of the controlling stake in MTN. The name of the fund could not be ascertained. Since the South African stock exchange rules require any acquirer to launch a tender offer if its holding crosses 35% stake in a company, RCOM intends to acquire a shade lower than the threshold limit. Subsequently, RCOM is looking at a ‘whitewash’ procedure under which MTN’s shareholders will be asked to vote to waive their right to a tender offer. If the shareholders agree, RCOM will scale up its stake to 40% in MTN. Otherwise, it will be contend with a stake just under 35%. However, RCOM will emerge as the single largest shareholder by far with its 35% stake. Newshelf 664, a trust, is currently the largest shareholder with its 13% stake. A 35-40% stake would, however, mean there would be no consolidation of revenues and profits in RCOM’s books though there may be other synergies. Industry officials said MTN could be valued at $35-40 billion against its ruling market capitalisation of nearly $30 billion for the transaction. So, RCOM will have to chip in $12-14 billion for the purchase of 35%. Its fund requirement will go up if the MTN shareholders allow it to acquire another 5% stake. The transaction may be routed through a special purpose vehicle in which RCOM will hold majority control with the sovereign fund holding the remaining stake. In addition to the foreign fund’s equity contribution, the SPV will raise debt to finance the deal. So, the pressure of funding the deal will be substantially reduced from RCOM’s balance sheet. An RCOM spokesperson declined to comment. If the deal goes through in this form, it will be one of the largest overseas acquisitions by any Indian company. Tata Steel so far tops the list with its $12.9 billion purchase of the Anglo-Dutch steel maker Corus. Interestingly, RCOM had entered into the discussions with MTN after the foreign telco refused to sell a majority stake to Bharti Airtel. A source close the development said MTN always wanted to combine the strength of the two companies. “The new structure proposes that RCOM, instead of ADAG, will be the controlling shareholder of MTN. Both RCOM and MTN will enhance their partnership later. More importantly, this is the best option available under the changed circumstances,” he added. ‘Changed circumstances’ refers to RIL’s interpretation of a reverse merger of RCOM with MTN as ‘sale’ of RCOM leading to RIL possibly attempting to exercise its claimed RoFR in RCOM. “It’s certain that Reliance Industries will take legal recourse if RCOM reaches a reverse merger with MTN. The new structure, if it goes through, will mean RCOM directly buying a controlling stake in MTN. This beyond the so-called RoFR claims,” the source added. Sources said both the parties are expected to extend the 45-day exclusive merger talks (during which the two sides would not talk to anyone else), which is slated to expire on July 8, by a couple of weeks. The due diligence is likely to be over by this week. Newshelf 664 is the largest shareholder of MTN with a 13.1% stake. The Beirut-based Mikati family holds a 10.2% while PIC has a 9.7% stake. The rest 67.1% is widely held. Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings upgraded MTN’s national long-term rating to ‘AA-(zaf)’ from ‘A+(zaf)’ with a stable outlook, reflecting MTN’s position as a leading emerging market mobile telecommunications player following considerable operational growth and its proven ability to operate successfully in challenging environments. Fitch said the rating is supported by strong cash flow generation, low leverage and strong liquidity position of MTN which has a subscriber base of over 116 million in 23 countries. Source The ET

Spectrum auction: 3G ticket to kick off at Rs 2,260 cr NEW DELHI: The communications and IT ministry is learnt to have finalised a reserve price of about Rs 2,260 core for telecom companies that want to participate in a pan-India auction for third generation (3G) spectrum in the upcoming policy, which is slated to be announced in the next couple of days. This is exactly double the reserve price recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in its recommendations. ET has also learnt that the communications ministry, has also decided to allow international communication majors to participate in the auctions for 3G spectrum, but with a rider that foreign firms should have provided 3G services for a minimum period of one year. The government’s move to allow foreign firms is in contradiction with the TRAI’s recommendations. Existing Indian telcos are also bitterly opposed to the entry of foreign players in the 3G space in India. Sources said that the new 3G policy would state that telcos would not have to share revenues with the government for the first year of operations. But from the second year, they would have to share 1% of their revenues from these high-end services. The policy will also have stringent roll-out obligations, service providers will be subject to ‘spectrum hoarding cess’ of 2.5% of the amount they bid for 3G spectrums, for every quarter, if they fail to meet the stringent rollout obligations stipulated by the government, sources added. However, these could not be independently confirmed. The DoT has arrived at the Rs 2,260 crore figure as follows. The base price for metros and category A circles is Rs 160 crore, while for category B and C circles it is Rs 80 crore and Rs 30 crore respectively. India has four metros, five category A circles, eight category B circles and 6 category C circles. Meanwhile, there was intense speculation that the 3G policy would be announced on Tuesday. When contacted, a top Department of Telecom source confirmed that the policy has been cleared ‘in principle’ and that they were waiting for telecom minister A Raja to officially announce it. The DoT source also confirmed that there would be ‘no bar on foreign players in bidding for 3G spectrum’, but refused to divulge any further. The new policy will be a welcome relief for the global telcos who want to enter India via the third generation (3G) route. Despite repeated warnings from TRAI, the government had decided to go in for a global auction and allow new telecom aspirants, including foreign players to participate after the Union law ministry, which studied the issue, has said that it saw no legal hurdles if the government went ahead with the move. Mr Raja had always maintained that the government wants foreign telecom majors to be allowed to bid for 3G spectrums as this would push up the government’s revenues from the auction. Mr Raja has been supported by finance minister P Chidambaram who has been pushing for a global auction on the grounds that a 3G auction among existing licence holders (as suggested by TRAI) was not a ‘workable option’.

New low-cost CDMA handsets support high-speed internet services The Jakarta Post, Jakarta An upcoming open market handset (OMH) system offering faster wireless data transfer and greater interoperability may benefit CDMA network users with 3G internet services. "CDMA handsets sold in Indonesia offer only basic functions for calls and short messages. With OMH, we can expect low-end handsets enhanced with 3G capability to access data," CDMA-operator Bakrie Telecom vice president for corporate communications Nadia Diposandjoya said. The OMH system, which complies with the international CDMA2000 system, will support the removable-user identity module (R-UIM), which is 3G capable. All operator- and subscriber-specific settings can be accessed on the new R-UIM rather than on both the R-UIM and the handset, thus allowing handsets to be opened to all CDMA operators. James Person, the Chief Operating Officer of CDMA Development Group (CDG), said the ability to change service operator without changing handset would open the market to a wider variety of handsets, lead to bigger profit margins for manufacturers and potentially lower handset sales prices. "As a result, the operators will pay less for each phone and could potentially bring a greater variety of handsets to the market at a faster pace and at a lower cost to the consumer," he said. Venkat S. Narayanaiah, director for business development of Paris-based telecommunications giant Alcatel Lucent, said during his trip to Indonesia last week that the company was working on ultra low cost 3G handsets that would be sold for as little as US$20, or one-sixth of the price of those sold in 2004. The move is welcomed by CDMA operators. "Cheaper prices will lower the barrier for clients to use the service. Customers will also have more handsets to choose from, from entry-level handsets to the those with camera," Nadia said. Last month, CDG claimed to have successfully completed trials in conjunction with Esia and Mobile-8 using the OMH-enabled R-UIM smart cards and prototype OMHs made by Huawei and ZTE, including the WAP browser, BREW, voice features and CDMA2000 1X packet data features. OMHs will hit the market late this year or early 2009. CDMA was first introduced by Telkom under brand name TelkomFlexi in 2003. Five other network operators have since offered the service. They are PT Indosat Tbk (under service name StarOne), PT Smart Telecom (Smart), PT Mobile-8 Telecom Tbk (Fren and Hepi), PT Bakrie Telecom Tbk (Esia, Wifone and Wimode), and PT Sampoerna Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Ceria). At the end of 2007, there were 14.4 million CDMA users in Indonesia. However, the alternative GSM network system holds market share with 91.4 million users. The majority of Indonesians use their mobile phones for voice services only. Source: http://old.thejakartapost.com/detailbusine....L03&irec=2

@akhil, Your post is really hilarious. But as rightly said by HP above, there seems to a handset problem only. Maybe you can return the piece and get another from the shop that sold it to you. Another thing is that "Never trust any Chinese handsets". Probably if you had visited our forum regularly you would have known better. Either way, you ended up spending more than 7k - the original cost of a Spice D88n.

^^^ Wow!!!! That's a terrific manual effort from you, Honest. I am sure even Arun's automated list will be the same or almost the same.

@kepal, Is NJ300 a NetConnect plan?

^^^ I also have accounts with SBI, ICICI, Citibank, Dena Bank, PNB etc. I closed my accounts with HDFC, SCB, ABN, Indian Bank. Of all the above SBI is the cheapest at 500 bucks without cheque book but with ATM card. At Citibank, I have a Gold account and hence there are no transaction charges of any kind whatsoever. PNB and Dena are also core banking but charges area bit heavier than SBI. As for ICICI, it is the costliest bank in terms of charges of any kind.

^^^ 6265 was in any case RUIM based. Maybe you are referring to 6235?

Porn turning iPhone into iPorn 27 Jun 2008, 1340 hrs IST, Vivek Khanna,TNN NEW DELHI:The new 3G iPhone has taken the world by a storm. With its strikingly different features compared with other wireless handhelds in the market, Apple's latest entrant is creating buzz all around. But for those of you tired of the self-anointed telecom experts beating the drum about new iPhone's attractive low price tag, new rich features, remarkably improved navigation system and the 3G Web experience, here's something else that you might be reading for the first time: porn friendliness! Now, experts surely won't tell you about the potential of this handheld jewel, but the seamy side of the beautiful gizmo is not lost on people globally, many of whom are busy fast reducing iPhone to iPorn! The technological feats of the 3G iPhone - once in news for innovations and uniqueness - are now being accredited for the emergence of pornucopia! With several leading porn players getting their content ready for the new version of Apple's device, the reality of this potential is already making the smut world sit up and take note. Mobile porn so far has consisted largely of still images, racy text services and sultry-sounding ring tones. There is an active market for video chatting at various places across the globe; users pay about Rs 2,000 a month to exchange dirty messages with actresses. But there are indications iPorn may be a different ballgame altogether! Mobile porn has always been around and 3G has brought it to the fore due to much faster Web surfing and download speeds, but the iPhone has made it far simpler. The video dexterity feature incorporated in iPhone enables users to view short clips which are becoming a staple of the mobile porn business at a fast pace. The popularity of the term 'iPhone porn' can very well be judged by the sharp increase in its search on Google Trends which measures Web buzz. And the beneficiary is not just the user. The leading porn peddlers see the iPhone as their dream come true. Its relatively ample screen size, speedy Web access and simple user experience are just part of the `wholesome' package. An added attraction is the mini version of Apple's extremely fast Safari browser which further simplifies mobile access and streamlines the process of tailoring dirty sites for optimal viewing on the go. Some of the porn players have already given the new phone from Apple the tag of 'porn-friendliest'. The huge popularity of smut aspect of iPhone can be gauged from the numerous iPhone-specific porn sites that have been launched in the recent months. The trickle-down effect is already visible as several others are already following the suite by targeting the iPhone. Though officially Apple obviously condemns such use of its phone and says that it will ban adult content from applications, just as it has restricted adult content in the podcast section of the Apple store, but porn may well prove to be a tougher customer. It can't prevent customers from accessing porn through the device's browser. In fact, porn in that sense may well prove to be a challenge big enough for Apple to surmount. In fact, the fear is that this may even propel mobile porn deeper into the sphere of interactivity and social networking, beyond anybody's control. A blogger has already imagined one such scenario. "I wish there was an application that allowed you to undress people by dragging your fingers across the screen and literally dragging it off," he wrote on iPhonematters.com. According to Apple, more than 250,000 programming kits have been downloaded which enable programmers to create their own applications on iPhone. With unlocked iPhones available for use around the world, some may finally figure out how to secretly create and distribute iPhone porn applications. The porn industry sees this new 'avatar' of the iPhone as a win-win situation and therefore is investing heavily and feverishly broadening its marketplace. It is the speed that makes the iPhone 2 score over its predecessor. Loading Web pages and running videos are all a matter of few seconds which are crucial for the porn industry. So if you are a parent just waiting to give in to the demands of your teenager for an iPhone as soon as it is launched in India, you may do well to consider again until some safeguards can be found, if at all. Such usage of iPhone will drastically remove the current barriers for porn and bring it in your face! Unlike iPhone 1, the new model will be available in at least 75 countries, enabling content providers to reach new mobile porn viewers round the world. The iPhone becomes a portal where people can get to content directly without worrying about the social mores of the network operator. This means better margins for direct porn providers amid this potential wave of new profits. In 2007, the international market for mobile adult content reached $1.7 billion and the iPhone is expected to catapult it. However, the opposition to iPhone porn may grow as well. Such easy availability of the genre is set to spark vociferous demands for mobile-phone porn blockers, particularly for Apple's device. But then a large number of parents may not be tech-savvy enough to figure that out and some kids may be clever enough to find a work-around just as they have on the Web. How will this change things is yet to be seen, but iPhone users are definitely in for some Apple candy stuff! Source: ET P.S.: pics removed.

^^^ Maybe very soon, maybe very late. Never know with BSNL. Hope for the best.

Good that finally NOKIA has realised that style also matters to many people and have introduced such handsets. IMHO, the 7610 does look good but I would not touch the 7510.

Send a detailed email to corporatecentre.customercare@relianceada.com and you will receive the reply.

@kesav, Could you please find out whether the pulse duration (for local calls only) is 60 secs or 3 minutes? If 60 sec. then this plan is indeed very good as you say, but on the contrary, if it is 180 secs, then this will prove costly to some users who finish their calls within say 60 secs.

@VG, Very good work, keep it up.

After reading all posts, I have come to the conclusion that when your validity is nearing the end, or has ended already, DO NOT RECHARGE - WAIT FOR OFFERS FROM THE OPERATOR. THE MORE YOU WAIT, THE BETTER THE OFFER. AND IN ANY CASE, ALL OPERATORS ARE ALLOWING INCOMING CALLS. THEY DARE NOT LOSE THE TERMINATION CHARGES ON INCOMING CALLS.