KumaarShah

DoT backs 2G spectrum auction KOLKATA/NEW DELHI: Now, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is willing to try out auctions, but only for allocation of additional chunks of spectrum to existing players. It still wants to stick to the traditional, administrative method for allocating the initial chunk of spectrum that an operator would get along with the operating licence. DoT has, for the first time, indicated that it is open to the idea of auctioning of second-generation (2G) radio frequencies, also known as spectrum. At present, all mobile services in India work on 2G frequencies. DoT, in a communication to the finance ministry, has said it was exploring the auction route only for additional spectrum allotment to existing operators. In its letter, a copy of which is available with ET, DoT has ruled out any move to auction start-up spectrum and has warned that any such step would make mobile services unaffordable to the masses and derail national rural telecom penetration targets. At present, GSM and CDMA operators get 4.4 MHz and 2.5 MHz of start-up radio frequencies per circle to launch operations. Spectrum comes bundled with the licence of telecom companies, this means on paying an entry fee of Rs 1,651 crore, a GSM player becomes entitled to 4.4 MHz of start-up spectrum across all circles. Additional spectrum is allotted on both platforms in a phased manner, based on the addition in subscription numbers. India’s telecom policy entitles GSM players to get a maximum of 15 MHz per circle while CDMA players can get up to 7.5 MHz. DoT has sought the finance ministry’s go-ahead for constituting a expert panel to design an appropriate auction mechanism for spectrum allocation. “Designing of an appropriate auction mechanism would require extensive analysis, for which a committee of experts may need from six months to a year’s time. Such a committee can be constituted if so decided,” DoT's wireless advisor PK Garg said in his communication to Union finance secretary D Subba Rao. Finance ministry officials confirmed they had received the DoT communication, but refused to comment on the development. Explaining the logic for auctioning only the additional spectrum and not start-up radio frequencies, the DoT communication said, “Auction of 2G spectrum at the initial level may not be possible as licence conditions provide for allotment of GSM spectrum up to 6.2 MHz. But there is a suggestion to treat 6.2-MHz GSM spectrum as ‘threshold’ and allot spectrum beyond this (6.2 MHz) through auction. But this would amount to a change in existing guidelines and appropriate amendments would be necessary after this approach is approved in-principle.” DoT said it was not in favour of the auction route for allotment of start-up spectrum to new entrants like Reliance Communications and Tata Tele that are planning to offer GSM-based services. “Considering that allotment of initial spectrum is linked with the telecom service licence for which an operator pays an entry fee, auction of such initial spectrum is not feasible. Spectrum auctions can result in higher tariffs which would stifle growth of mobile telephone services in rural areas. This would go against the objectives of NTP-99 and make achievement of DoT’s targets difficult,” Mr Garg’s letter said. The finance and law ministries have repeatedly called for auction of 2G spectrum to both new entrants and also to existing operators that require additional frequencies for expanding their services. So far, the communications ministry has turned down these demands and had maintained that no form of auction would be possible due to legal barriers. DoT, in its January 29 communication, has pointed out that the auction of start-up spectrum was not feasible as the spectrum availability was not uniform across the country. “At present, spectrum availability is neither clear nor contiguous because of other usages, especially the defence usages in these bands. Within a mobile service area, different frequencies are allotted for different districts. At times, less than the minimum initial spectrum is allotted depending on availability. Without clear and contiguous spectrum availability, auctions are neither feasible nor would they fetch real value,” it added. Link http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/N...406,curpg-2.cms

AFAIK, RCOM in Gujarat is offering LT till 2017, month and dat not known to me. This is also mentioned on their website's LT page very clearly.

^^^ seems more like 9238347246 than 91238347246. Try here for mobile number finder http://www.informationmadness.com/cms/inde...0&Itemid=49

What exactly you are trying to convey? Can you elaborate on this?

^^^ What you say makes absolute sense in our heads, but not in the heads of the operators. They are here only to earn money from us by hook or by crook. They are not here to do any sort of "Janta Seva" And Rs 33 per month is not a heavy amount by any standard. It works out to just a little bit more than a measly buck a day!!!! Free Life time Incoming also comes at a cost and the operators are subsidising the initial cost (Rs 199 or so) to us and charging running costs (Rs 200 / 6months or so) which would not pinch anybody. At the same time, they also earn a substantial sum of money. This way their subscriber base also increases manifold and they can get additional spectrum etc and also they can get a sizeable valuation if and when they want to sell out. (a la Hutch) It is a sort of quid pro quo scenario. The subscriber gets long term validity and the operator gets a reasonable revenue. IMHO, its a fair deal. AFAIK, RCOM is the only operator who is giving such a wonderful LT scheme in which you can also use all available STVs.

LG RD 3000 and 3100 are far superior, economical and reliable than this "Classic beauty"

My piece of advise to all who read about these Chinese handsets. Please see the full features by taking a detailed demo. Dont go by specs as they are misleading most of the times. f demo is not available, then don't buy that handset at all. It may not be worth it. I am not too sure of brands like yulong, coolpad etc. These may be reliable or maybe not also.

^^^ In my case, I cannot upload the entries on my phone to their servers. Always the upload completes successfully and then when you try to download, it gives the old figures only (pre-upload) implying that uploads are not taking place at all. The pre-upload date is Jan '06 and now we are in Jan '08. And yes I do not have any special characters in my phonebook. LG ASC people told me that spaces should not be there in the entries of names and moreover all zeroes preceding either a mobile or a landline number that has been saved would be removed, so you have to manually enter each and every zero. I have almost 490 contacts on my phone with most of them having atleast 4 to 5 numbers for off, home, fax etc apart from email ids and notes/memos. This apart I have about 150 entries on my RUIM also. Here there is only one number per entry. Any solutions to my problems?

^^^ If it is calendar year, then it will be Jan-Mar and if it is fiscal/financial year it would be Apr-Jun of any year.

^^^ It is far far better than 6275 and it is 3G enabled, quad band, 2 cameras, USB connectivity etc etc. None of these are on 6275. The only similarity is that this phone also is S40 and not S60 version. But then, this S40 may be far more advanced. @coolrajiv, you mean micro SD instead of microUSB??? Or am I ignorant of any new memory card types?

Good Model, But how is it mid-range - price wise? feature-wise? and waiting till april to June 2008 is too long. Nokia should give a quicker time frame for release.

This is interesting news, if true. Maybe you could give the link on RCOM's site for our benefit.

N6265 is no longer available with either Nokia or RCOM. You may get only 2nd hand sets in the market at around 8k onwards. N6275 also AFAIK, stopped by Nokia and RCOM. It may be available somewhere still. As for the choice between 6265 and 6275, I personally feel N6265 is more sturdier and reliable than 6275. Opinions may differ. In any case, with RCOM, you can only do browsing on WAP - d/ls are not allowed except for some *.jar/*.jad files. You may be able to watch some videos (some users have been lucky here), but I have not been able to watch any so far. As far as SMS is concerned (since you have got a DAPO plan, you may be a SMS freak) both handsets are lousy with very poor support for SMS. Both have only 90 SMS store capacity plus 10 templates that you can delte to create extra store capapcity on phone plus 10 - 30 SMS store capacity on RUIM depending on RUIM you get. You cannot transfer SMS to memory card nor can you use the PC to send SMSs. The above apart, Nokia is notorious for service matters. It will take them at least 15 to 21 days ususally to correct any small problem that you have on your handset. Unless you know ADA personally, you will have to forgo your handset to Nokia for this period always. Finally, IMHO, do not go for any of these handsets. Use a PC to browse or do whatever you want. Maybe a PPC would be better, but then that is someone else's cup of tea - I mean someone who has a PPC can explain in detail. A PPC also would cost you somewhere in that range from 8k (for a used phone) to 15k (for a slightly used phone). Finally both (Nokia and PPC) are unreliable for service. If I were you, I would preferably take a EDGE GPRS-GSM connection and use some of the latest, trendy handsets available in the GSM segment rather than use RCOM's cheap and half-hearted value added services. You can go in for a sub 10k handset (and you get real good handsets in this price range in GSM) and use the extra 5k for subscribing to a un-ltd data connection over a year atleast in the GSM segment. And in any case, by March 2009, RCOM also will conme to GSM and at that time you can always switch operators, and RCOM will bring in a pan India EDGE network. And mind you, VAS will become more and more expensive going by what ADA has recently said in an interview on NDTV Profit as the ARPUs have come down drastically in the voice segment and VAS ARPUs only will contribute more now onwards. I am waiting for MNP to come in and I will kick RCOM in the ***. Try your luck.

BSNL, Chennai- so far no problems here. I have not been online for longer periods to really know if there was any slowness. P.S.: Today the speeds are really pathetic. the d/l speed is only 17kbps and the pages take ages to load. Y'day and day before, it was not noticeable.

^^^ I think in this case, RCOM's LT pack is not that attractive even if you use STV Jadoo 49. The economics is as follows: - LT pack initial cost: Rs 222 (or is it Rs 649?) Every quarter, you have to recharge with Rs 125 TT (which means Rs 150 recharge) so annually Rs 600 and out of this amount, you can use Rs 500 for outgoing calls. Use Jadoo 49 and get R2R @ 0.33, all other locals calls within the state @ 0.49 and all STD @ 2.99 (LT STD charges) So effectively the total annual cost would be Rs 100 plus Rs 588 (Rs 49 *12) ie Rs 688 (for 5.5 years, it will cost Rs 3784 plus the initial cost) plus one pays a bomb for STD calls. As compared to Tata's 2008 plan which entails a spend of Rs 2307, this means an additional outgo of Rs 1500 minimum. However if a customer does not use STV Jadoo 49, then RCOM's offering is a bit better, though the call charges will be Re 0.99 for all local calls. The total cost thus will be Rs 100, the balance Rs 500 can be used up for TT. (150 x 4) As and when the user wants, he can use STV Jadoo 49. There is no compulsion to use it every month. Anyway, the TATA offer is equally good, if their network is good. I do not know much about TATA's network.

^^^ From their website as given above: Join the Skyfire Private Beta We are accepting sign-ups for early beta access to Skyfire so we can get your feedback and suggestions built into the final product. Sign up for our private beta today and we’ll notify you when it’s ready for a test drive. Then you can start using Skyfire, and tell us what you think. We look forward to your feature suggestions, troubleshooting tips and ideas. Even with the early beta release, you’ll be browsing the web on your phone just like you do on your PC. What you need to participate * A U.S. mobile phone number. * A mobile phone subscriber data plan with a mobile phone service provider (an unlimited data plan is recommended). * A mobile phone running Windows Mobile 5 or 6, both touchscreen and non-touchscreen phones are supported. Phones we support * Skyfire will initially run on Windows Mobile 5 or 6 mobile phones in the United States. If you do not know what mobile phone platform you have, visit the Microsoft Windows Mobile phone directory to find out if yours is a Windows Mobile 5 or 6 device. * The initial beta release will support only Windows Mobile phones with full keyboards (QWERTY). If your Windows Mobile phone doesn’t have a full keyboard, please continue to sign up for the beta and we’ll let you know when it’s supported. * Soon we will support the Symbian platform. * Other platforms and geographies are on the roadmap, too. Sign Up Today * If you have a Windows Mobile phone, sign up today and we will notify you when the Skyfire private beta starts. * If you do not have a Windows Mobile phone or you live outside the United States, please sign up so we can promptly notify you when Skyfire is available for your type of mobile phone.

Casio W61CA waterproof Sport Mobile Phone Posted on Mon, 28 Jan 2008 04:00:00 CST Casio introduces with the W61CA a feature rich water proof mobile phone for sporty people. The Casio W61CA is IPX5/IPX7 waterproof foldable phone with a cool 5.1MP digital camera. Casio took its digital camera know-how and integrated the mobile Exilim engine featuring blur reduction through six-axis correction. A timer, distance measurement and calorie counter make the W61CA a neat companion for walking and running. A very Japanese feature of the W61CA is the inclusion of anime story featuring the 'Adelie Penguin'. The animated story continuous to unfold whenever the phone is in standby. A new phone for the Japanese market needs to of course feature DMB-TV and so does the W61CA. Other features of the new Casio W61CA include 2.7 inch QVGA screen, microSD card slot (up to 2GB), voice input, IrSimple, Office document viewer, navigation, and dictionary. The CDMA 1X WIN supporting W61CA comes in green, gold, white and my favorite yellow (see photo). Link http://www.i4u.com/article14316.html

^^^ Yes absolutely true. no hopes on GOI, RCOM etc.

^^^ No need for the CDMA special version now. All PC Suite versions nowadays support CDMA. Try out the latest one on Nokia's website.

^^^ Yes for all prepaid customers they have removed the membership or L1 plan as sson as they introduced 10ps/10kb plan. All prepaid customers have to now pay 10ps/10kb compulsorily. And they also closed subscription for all postpaid customers also for L1 plan, now they have only L4 at Rs 249 per month. This is costly considering that you can only browse internet and not download any music/data/video/image file also. The GSM gangsters are providing better services on the GPRS front though it is horribly slow except maybe in EDGE networks. It is high time RCOM also allowed us to download whatever we require. Or is it dependent on the handsets? Can anyone using ppc's please clarify whether they are able to d/l whatever they want using RCOM's WAP services? If it is allowed on these handsets, then Rs 249 per month is cool.

^^^ The above does not mean that you will get detailed bill for free. It is only meant for those customers who are getting bill by email. Some of our great gangsters had earlier decided to send only bills by email and not hard copy. TRAI's above order is directed at these operators. If the above order includes detailed billing free to all customers, then BSNL will be the one that is highly affected. They claim that they cannot provide detailed billing for some fee also as the list would go into crores of lines. Ridiculous reasoning, but you cannot argue with babus, you know.

In one news report it said two months and in another report, it said few months. So nothing is certain at the moment. Moreover, the Court case verdict also will have to be taken into consideration. I personally think RCOM GSM will start sometime by June 2008. It may start earlier if the courts give a favourable verdict to RCOM. Lets wait and watch.

Verizon moves toward Global Standard technology? Wow!!! Posted on January 21, 2008 by Scot Cerullo Verizon Wireless has begun laying plans to join the global wireless community, stating that it will be using Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology as the platform for its fourth generation network, or 4G as it is more commonly known. This is a significant development, since until now in the US there have been two different major platforms running our cell phones: CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), which is the technology foundation used by Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon, and GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), used by AT&T Wireless (GSM uses Time Division Multiple Access or TDMA as its foundation). The latter is the world standard, and those of you with cell phones using SIM cards will be familiar with GSM. (Nextel runs on IDN technology and is not relevant to this discussion). These two platforms are incompatible and have run parallel in the US since their inception, and this disparity has resulted in numerous frustrations that accompany proprietary networks. A person using an AT&T phone cannot port it over to Verizon, or vice versa. Each has it’s strengths and weaknesses. For example, Verizon’s CDMA network is based on military technology and is provably more secure by design than it’s GSM counterpart. But GSM’s latest incarnation, being deployed by AT&T throughout the US, allows for simultaneous transmission of voice and data, something CDMA cannot do. Therefore, if a Verizon customer is surfing the web, an incoming call will go to voice mail, whereas with AT&T Wireless it will not. Another example: future phones will allow for users to talk to their friends and see them in real time simultaneously. Here again, something CDMA cannot do. More importantly, when AT&T wireless comes out with a phone, any phone, it will work in over 130 countries right out of the box, without any modifications whatsoever. By contrast, when Verizon launched it’s Blackberry 8830 World phone, it made a huge deal about its ability to work in many countries. Yes, but only because of the addition of a SIM card, or GSM technology, and software that allows the devise to switch between technologies. In short, Verizon Wireless has built an entire network based on a technology used by less then 30% of the world. Seventy percent of the world’s cell phones use GSM; LTE lays the groundwork for the two technologies to finally intersect and allow Verizon Wireless to capitalize on the benefits of 4G speeds, especially as they relate to data. Verizon Wireless is jointly owned by Vodafone and Verizon Communications. Vodafone is the largest telecommunications company in the world, and owns 45% of Verizon Wireless. Living in the US it is easy to be unaware of the global network, but global implications for future growth is clearly not lost on Verizon Wireless, especially since some cell phone manufacturers are becoming more reluctant to develop devices for CDMA. LTE deployment for Verizon Wireless is set for 2010, and the result will be across-the-board improvements, including faster upload and download speeds. Also, the shared technology partnerships will preclude the need for dual-band phones. Even more exciting is that AT&T Wireless plans to adopt the LTE technology as well, which would mean interoperability between the two rivals. Moreover, with Verizon Wireless’s recently announced “any app, any device” policy, customers will eventually be able to port their phones back and forth between the two rival companies. A common, global platform has many benefits, but it also means fewer players. AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless have chosen their future, while Sprint is still using its WiMAX XOHM service, and probably does not have the cash necessary to fund a new deployment. Common platforms will also make it infinitely easier for software companies to design applications. With rival companies sharing a common technology, there will no doubt be a marketing shift away from focusing on “the best network” and “fewest dropped calls” and a heightened focus on which provider offers the more exciting product mix, who has the best customer service, etc. Finally, while 4G will provide the speeds necessary to deliver a high quality data experience, surveys show that a considerable number of customers remain unenchanted with the idea of using their cell phones to access the internet. But as carriers continue to improve their technology and continue to offer easier-to-use devices, more people will no doubt test the internet waters from their handhelds. It’s worth noting that data usage among customers is so important, it has become the new, primary metric upon which the carriers keep score. Whereas they used to measure Net Adds (new customers), they now focus of ARPU, Average Revenue Per User, and Data is a huge driving factor in generating revenue. Link: http://www.cellphones.ca/news/post002869/ Are we Indians missing out on some new technologies? Are we being given some obsolete technology in the name of 3G which has till date not seen the light of the day?

China Unicom Promotes CDMA Stylish Mobile Phones BEIJING, Jan 22, 2008 (SinoCast China IT Watch via COMTEX) -- CHU | news | PowerRating | PR Charts -- China United Telecommunications Ltd. (China Unicom, NYSE: CHU, HKSE: 0762, and SHSE: 600050) has started the promotion of CDMA stylish mobile phones for the beginning of 2008. Its move also includes the promotion of CNY 8,000-priced phones in high-end market, and low-end phones in the rural market. China Unicom's CDMA division revealed that they had bought several models of CDMA stylish phones from global phone makers. From January through March, Unicom Huasheng Telecommunications Technology Co., Ltd., responsible for the procurement of terminals, will promote seven models of stylish phones with preferential prices. Stylish phones are designed for medium-end customers. Besides having voice and short massage functions, they are avant-garde, fashionable, with low price-to-performance ratio and various value-added services. In 2007, China Unicom promoted as many as tens of models stylish phones. The Chinese second largest mobile carrier lowered their prices through centralized procurement and user customization, while equipped them with mobile functions. The company will select seven popular models made by mobile phone giants Samsung, Motorola, and LG, and promote them to customers with preferential prices as well as bundled gifts, citing an insider of China Unicom. The seven models include one Motorola, two LG, and three Samsung, with their prices ranging from CNY 1,128 to CNY 2,998 apiece. CDMA phones are stronger than GSM ones in their content and quality, not in sales number and variety, points out a top executive of Huasheng. Even CNY 300-priced low-end CDMA phones have access to the Internet, let alone stylish phones more than CNY 1,000 apiece. Actually, in the stylish phone market, with a price range of CNY 1,000 to CNY 3,000, the competition is bitterer, where gather most of the mobile phone makers. More than 60% Chinese users will choose mobile phones from CNY 1,000 to CNY 3,000, 35%, lower than CNY 1,000, and only 5%, higher than CNY 3,000, shows a survey done by Sino Market Research Ltd. The provincial branches of China Unicom will provide subsidy for their stylish mobile phones, including special offer for the Spring Festival in early February, toll subsidy, gifts for subscription, preferential price for data services, and 1X data package more than 10M. Moreover, according to China Unicom's new policy, as long as users maintain a certain amount of consumption level every month, and subscribe for its services for more than one year, they will get subsidies about 30% to 50% of their expenses, which can be used to buy CDMA mobile phones or converted into tolls. In the first three quarters of 2007, China Unicom had 3.617 million of new subscribers for its CDMA network, meanwhile, the company took up 50% of the market of high-end mobile phones with prices higher than CNY 5,000 apiece. From eNet.com.cn, Page 1, Monday, January 21, 2008 info@SinoCast.com Link: http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/S...20News/1010350/

^^^ same here i would be interested even if it was 5k+