deepu

How the pre-paids ring Janaki Krishnan & Hemangi Balse in Mumbai | August 31, 2004 Rediff.com At a time when prices of everything are going up, it's a major relief to find cellphone operators slashing rates for both local and long distance calls for pre-paid customers. Reliance Infocomm started it all on August 13 by wielding the machete on tariffs, bringing it down by 60 per cent. Other players had no option but to follow suit. So what are the new rates like in terms of savings and services? According to Hutchison Essar, users opting for its new tariff will be charged a monthly fee of Rs 25 per subscription. Airtel's tariffs are applicable to both new and existing customers on the payment of a nominal one-time activation charge of Rs 50. However, Airtel has said that customers would also get Rs 50 off on AirTel-to-AirTel SMS as a 'plan welcome benefit'. Therefore, this service is virtually free. For new customers this charge is waived off up to September 30, 2004. The new Airtel rates are effective from August 25. The Tariffs: Let us take up local calls first. At present, Hutch charges Rs 2.75 per minute for calls made to all mobile services and non-mobile services. The new rate (that is for those paying Rs 25 per month) will be Re 0.99 per minute to all mobile phones and Rs 1.99 per minute to non-mobile phones (fixed lines). Those who do not pay Rs 25 per month will still be able to make calls to both fixed and mobile phones at Rs 1.99 per minute. Airtel's rates are slightly more complicated. Local calls from Airtel to Airtel are billed at Rs 1 per minute against the current Rs 2.75 per minute. Airtel to any other cell phone will cost Rs 2.25 per minute against the existing Rs 2.75 per minute. A call from an Airtel phone to a fixed line number will also cost Rs 2.25 per minute, which is a reduction of 25 per cent. The other major player, BPL Mobile, is yet to join the rate war. Long-distance or STD calls: Hutch has said that STD calls from Hutch to all other mobile phones and non-mobile phones will be at Rs 2.25 per minute irrespective of the distance. This is for those who subscribe. For the non-subscribers too, the rates have been simplified and will be at a flat Rs 2.99 per minute irrespective of whichever phone you make a call to and whatever be the distance. Airtel has also cleaned up its STD rates. Airtel to Airtel rates will now be Rs 2 per minute; calls from Airtel to a fixed line numbers will be billed at Rs 3.25 per minute, regardless of the distance. At present the latter rate varies between Rs 2.99 to Rs 4.99 per minute depending upon the distance. The rate for calls from Airtel to any other mobile phone is also Rs 3.25 per minute. Some caveats: Airtel's new tariffs apply to all, including WLL numbers. Hutch, however, has qualified that "any other mobile phone" means those starting with the number '9'. This, in turn, means that the new tariffs are not applicable for calls made from Hutch phones to Reliance Infocomm phones. Hutch also requires the subscriber to send an SMS saying that he wants to avail of the offer. Airtel assumes that a pre-paid customer would be glad to avail of their service and an SMS is required only if the subscriber does not want to avail of the offer. Reliance India Mobile already charges Re 0.99 per minute for calls within the same circle made from one Reliance phone to another. Inter-circle calls to other mobile phones and fixed line numbers attract a tariff of Rs 1.79 per minute. Long-distance or intra-city RIM to RIM calls attract a charge of Rs 1.79 per minute. To all other phones, the rate levied is Rs 2.49 per minute. Now let us see how these rates compare with the standard STD rates. Last week, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd anounced that it would be reducing its peak STD rates to a flat Rs 2.40 per minute, against the prevailing Rs 3.60 per minute. The new rates are effective from September 10, 2004. BSNL's intra-circle STD calls (within Haryana or Maharashtra, for example) will also cost a maximum of Rs 1.20 a minute, down from Rs 1.80. Fixed line subscribers of BSNL will have to pay Rs 1.60 per minute for making calls within the same circle to mobile phones other than BSNL's CellOne service. CellOne's pre-paid customers will pay just 90 paise per minute for cell-to-cell calls within a circle, down from Rs 2.20 at present. For inter-circle calls, they will pay Rs 2 per minute instead of the current Rs 2.40. For calls to landlines, CellOne subscribers will pay Rs 1.20 a minute, within a circle instead of Rs 2.40. For inter-circle calls over 500 km, the call will cost Rs 2.40. International call rates are the same for Airtel & Bharti, hovering between Rs 16.99 per minute to Rs 19.99 per minute. Bharti also has a Rs 40 per minute slab for specific countries. The pulse rate is 60 seconds for both.

Hey guys you can access HOTMAIL/YAHOO/AOL through this site... go to www.mymail.ie register with them. They will ask for your hotmail id and password.. they will also ask for a pin... Then they will give you a wap link.... it will be something like this https://www.mymail.ie/pin.asp?uid=xxxx@hotmail.com you can browse to this URL through your WAP browser and get a login screen... there you can give your pin and then login...... Add the URL to your favorites so that there is no need to type it again Its as easy as that and it worked for me....

It sounds OK... But still not that perfect

Why worry if you have a DAPO connection :whistle:

How much you are getting Arun for the baazee ad.

any idea about the model no, price, features etc

Is there any such shop in Bangalore

Reliance puts Rs 1,500 cr on TCS IPO Kausik Datta in Mumbai | August 20, 2004 08:24 IST The Reliance group has emerged as the largest single investor in the recent initial public offering of Tata Consultancy Services. The group has put in nearly Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion). Cyrus Poonawala, the Pune-based vaccine maker and horse breeder has put in Rs 121 crore (Rs 1.21 billion) for the issue, which is expected to be listed with the bourses on Wednesday, August 25. Sources in the know of developments said the Reliance group had invested in the IPO through a handful of companies. When contacted, a Reliance group spokesperson offered no comments. Poonawalla, the low cost vaccines maker, who is also known for his horse farms, has emerged as the largest single investor in the high networth category. Poonawalla is known for his exquisite collection of thoroughbred horses, expensive watches and expansive homes. Sources said the investors, however, will not be able to get the full allotment of the number of shares applied for. "In all probability, the Reliance group will receive shares amounting to nearly 5 per cent of the shares applied for," they added. Some of the big global funds, including Fidelity, Scottish Widows Fund, Goverment of Singapore, Duetche State Street Bank, GMO Emerging Markets, Abu Dhabi Investment Fund, HSBC and Templeton, have also applied in the IPO. The TCS shares are expected to be credited into applicant's accounts latest by August 21 and the shares will start trading on the bourses on August 25. The total number of allottees is 11.30 lakh (1.13 million). According to merchant banking sources, retail investors who had bid for 56 shares will get 20 shares, while those who had bid for 49 shares will get 17 shares, and applicants with bids for 42 shares will get 15 shares. Similarly, those who had bid for 35 shares will get 12 shares, and those who have bid for 21 shares will get allotment of 7 shares. Individual investors who have put bids for 14 and 7 shares will get allotment on a proportionate basis, sources added. The retail portion of the 100 per cent book built issue of 55.45 million shares of Re 1 each was subscribed 2.85 times, while the high net worth investors portion was subscribed 19.15 times. The total offer was subscribed 10.32 times. TCS priced the IPO at Rs 850 a share, near the top end of the previously set Rs 775-900 price band.

Wishing everybody a very very happy Onam

This is a review of GMAIL from ZDNET by MATT LONEY Google's yet-to-launch Gmail is, arguably, already as well-known as free email stalwarts such as Microsoft's Hotmail. In part, this is due to the high expectations generally placed on anything from the Google stable. But the debate over privacy issues surrounding the advertising-driven business model that Gmail will use, when it launches, is also a factor. Google has not yet set a date for the widespread availability of Gmail (this still appears to be several months away), but it has offered 1,000 trial accounts, and ZDNet has had a good look at the beta version. When it does launch, Gmail is certain to see a deluge of users signing up. Those who worry about the privacy issues will probably ignore it, but many will find that its features and convenience outweigh any security concerns. Google's new Web mail service is free and provides a gigabyte of storage, but also raises privacy concerns. We put the beta version through its paces. What do you get with Gmail? First of course, there is 1GB of space. This is significantly more than most other free email accounts, and also puts many corporate email allocations to shame. Google plans to subsidise the cost of all this space through advertising -- in the terms and conditions, you have to agree to Google serving targeted adverts. In place of banner ads or pop-ups, you get the familiar text-only Google ads ranged down the right-hand side of the window containing the email; they are not intrusive, and the ads only appear in your Gmail window -- they are not attached to emails that you send out. Below the ads come a couple of related links from Google’s search engine, picked according to the subject matter of the email. Google says that emails are scanned automatically, and that no personal information that could link subject matter to a name will be divulged to any advertiser. One issue that's raised by having 1GB of email is: how do you manage your emails and find those that are stored? Predictably, Gmail is search-based. It is also heavily thread-orientated and uses labels to classify threads, which Gmail calls 'discussions'. These are the three central themes of the service. The inbox view, showing emails and threads, which are called 'discussions' in Gmail parlance. Labels, where assigned, are shown next to the subject. Threading becomes apparent within your first few emails; instead of displaying every email by default, Gmail’s inbox view simply displays the first message of each thread, or discussion. Organisation is aided by labels. You can define as many labels as you wish, and Gmail has four types set up by default: Inbox, Starred (a simple highlighting device), Spam and Trash. Unlike folders, labels can overlap, meaning that mailing list items in your inbox from, say, Politechbot.org, can be labelled 'Politechbot', and all those concerning privacy could be labelled 'privacy'. You can then choose to display only Politechbot emails or only emails regarding privacy issues, but some emails will appear in both views. It’s a simple Boolean ‘OR’ function, and currently there's no way to apply other Boolean logic to the views. For instance, you cannot exclusively select those emails that are labelled both ‘Politechbot’ and ‘Privacy’ (‘AND’) or just those that are labelled ‘Politechbot’ but not ‘Privacy’ (‘NOT’), and so on. User-defined labels are used instead of folders for organising emails and discussions. An email can be assigned any number of labels. For finding emails, you'll probably rely heavily on Google’s search engine, which is typically and necessarily thorough. By default, it operates on content, subject and email addresses. Search options allow you to search any of these fields exclusively, identify which (if not all) labels should be searched, search for conversations that do not contain a particular word (again in a particular label if you like), and specify whether the search should be performed only on those discussions that have attachments. A useful date feature lets you search only those emails that arrived on a particular date or within a range of days, weeks or months from that date. Instead of displaying every matching email at the end of a search, Gmail displays the threads; you have to click on one to see the whole thread with matching words highlighted. Search is used for finding old emails; the advanced search is particularly useful. Alongside Search is the Filter option. This contains many of the same choices, allowing you to filter incoming emails by email address, subject, words either contained or missing in the content, and by whether they have attachments. For each filter, you can specify whether an email should skip the inbox and go straight to the archive, get a particular label assigned to it, or go straight to trash. Users can create any number of filters to organise email as it arrives. Archiving is a term that simply means an email (or discussion) ceases to show up in the inbox. It will still be included by default in searches, but that appears to be the only way to reach it -- there's no option to view the archive in Gmail. Beyond archiving, you can send emails and discussion to the Trash folder/label (which you can view). The only way to delete email forever (at least as far as the user is concerned -- Google specifically states in its terms that it will not guarantee that the data that makes up the email is ever actually wiped from its servers) is from the Trash folder. This, presumably, is Google putting weight behind its claim that Gmail users will never have to delete email again. Google has obviously paid a great deal of attention to the interface. Changing a search option has a corresponding effect on the discussions that are returned, but there is no apparent whole page refresh; only the list of returned discussions refreshes. It’s very slick in practice. Emails are organised as discussions. Performing a search returns the entire discussion, which can then be browsed. The text-only adverts are shown down the right-hand side of this view. Another nod to usability is contained in the keyboard shortcuts. These are turned off by default, but when turned on allow you to navigate between discussions, through emails within discussions, and perform most other essential functions without touching a mouse. The mail settings window has only very basic options, such as switching on keyboard shortcuts (which are set to off by default). Google has taken a characteristically simple approach with Gmail, which means, for instance, that there's no POP3 or SMTP access: you have to use Google’s Web interface. Also, the shortest username that Gmail will accept is six characters, which some people are bound to care about. In its terms and conditions, the company says the service can only be employed for personal use, but it's likely to find favour among many professionals at least as a backup email service, or as somewhere to forward all those emails with big attachments that eat up their miserly corporate space allocations. Google's new Web mail service is free and provides a gigabyte of storage, but also raises privacy concerns. We put the beta version through its paces. Terms and conditions Gmail’s terms of use are, for the most part, pretty straightforward. Because the service is free, it's provided ‘as is’ -- Google can close it without notice at any time and without any liability. Also, Google says it will close any account that's not logged into for 90 days. There is the clause regarding emails remaining in the system once they have been deleted -- but anyone who seriously believes that deleting emails in any system removes all trace should probably surrender their PC now. The really contentious part of the terms and conditions relates to adverts. Here, you agree that Google will serve ads relevant to the content of your email using a completely automated process. Nobody will read your email. However, Google has given itself a get-out by stating that no human will read the content of your email in order to target such advertisements or other information without your consent (our emphasis). What does this mean? We don’t know. We have seen companies offering spam-filtering services in the past that use people to read corporate emails, but this is not an easy game to play. Even with the highest vetting procedures, you still never really know exactly who is reading your email, and just what their motivation is for being there. If you don’t want anybody to read your Gmails, just say no. And if you don’t want a machine to read your emails, go elsewhere or use encryption. Google states in its terms that it welcomes feedback, and that the privacy policy may change before the service goes live. However, the company is unlikely to change the ad-placement policy unless it meets some unmovable obstacle in the form of legislative bodies. So far, that has not happened. In the UK, an initial complaint from Privacy International about Gmail was struck down earlier this month by Britain's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), partly on the grounds that under EU law, an Internet service is considered lawful as long as it explicitly spells out how the user's details will be handled in the terms of service. The Information Commissioner’s view is that as long as Google is clear and transparent, there is no data protection issue. However Privacy International’s point is that because consent for emails to be read can only be given by an account holder, those who send email to a Gmail customer will have no opportunity to consent to having their email read for keywords. So what, exactly, does the privacy policy say? Google says: # 'We collect limited account information and store and maintain your account and email messages on our secure servers.' # 'We will never rent, sell or share information that personally identifies you for marketing purposes without your express permission.' # 'No human reads your email to target ads or related information to you without your consent.' The information that Google collects includes basic personal information for the account, such as first and last names, a backup email address and a 'secret question' (together with an answer) in case you forget your password. And what about when you click on an advert attached to your email? Google says that a referring URL is sent to the advertiser’s site identifying that you are visiting from Gmail, but that it does not send personally identifying information to advertisers with the referring URL. Those who care deeply about the privacy of their emails will find reason not to use this service -- but then, those individuals should arguably be encrypting all their email anyway. For the rest of us, the adverts will either be ignored or provide an interesting diversion.

This is how GMAIL looked after I first logged in

Surely will give an invite you when i get it

I just got my Gmail ID. Its deepu.krishnan@gmail.com Still now has not got any invitation privilages.. But can invite some of you when I gets it... If anybody wants it can reply here...........

Me just got a GMail account... Its really cool My id is deepu.krishnan@gmail.com

Court summons Ambani brothers August 26, 2004 17:23 IST Rediff.com A Mumbai court has issued summons against industrialist Mukesh Ambani, his brother Anil Ambani and seven others following a complaint by a local resident alleging that he was getting Reliance cellphone bills although he was not a subscriber. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate D A Joshi issued the summons on August 19 on the complaint filed by Dinesh Kotecha and asked the respondents to appear in person within 90 days as a prima facie case was made out against them. Kotecha's lawyer Niranjan Lapsia submitted that his client had received the first bill for the month of December 2003 following which he registered a criminal complaint with V P Road police station against Reliance Infocomm, Reliance Industries and Reliance Communication and Infrastructure Ltd. Kotecha, however, kept receiving bills for the next five months and so he registered another complaint but there was no action. On June 7 this year, Kotecha alleged that he was threatened by two persons who asked him not to lodge complaints and pay the dues. Kotecha then issued a legal notice to Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries; Anil Ambani, vice chairman and managing director, Reliance Industries; Vinod Ambani, company secretary, Dilip Derai, executive director, Reliance Infocomm; and Satyapal Jain, chairman, Reliance Infocomm. The notice was posted by the registry on June 9 but there was no reply and further bills kept coming following which Kotecha filed the complaint before additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Girgaum court. The court took cognizance of the complaint on August 19 and issued summons against the persons named in the complaint under Section 384 read with 34 IPC.

Which country is largest spam exporter? August 25, 2004 14:13 IST The dubious honour goes to the United States of America. According to a report of the security firm Sophos more than two of every five messages originate from the US. In percentage terms, it means that a whopping 42.53 per cent of spam orignates from the US. The study also throws up a surprise with the next largest source being South Korea, with 15.42 per cent. China and Hong Kong account for a combined 11.62 per cent. The report released on Tuesday suggested that a US law known as CAN-SPAM that took effect in January has done little to curb the flood on unwanted messages that some seen as a threat to the Internet. Chris Kraft, senior security analyst at Sophos, said the results showed little overall change from a similar survey in February for the United States. "Six months and millions of spam messages later, it is quite evident that the CAN-SPAM legislation has made very little headway in damming the flood of spam," he said. "If nine months isn't long enough to make a significant difference, how long is?" The 'dirty dozen' spam sources, according to Sophos, included Brazil, accounting for 6.17 per cent of global spam, followed by Canada (2.19 per cent); Japan (2.87 per cent); Germany (1.28 per cent); France (1.24 per cent); Spain (1.16 per cent), Britain (1.15 per cent); Mexico (0.98 per cent); and Taiwan (0.91 per cent).

Block that pesky phone call ADITI PRASAD TIMESOFINDIA.COM [TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2004 11:27:42 AM] NEW DELHI: Sick of receiving unwanted phone calls offering you free credit cards? Relief is on hand with Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s proposal to have a do-not-call register. TRAI's recent consultation paper emphasising the need for directory enquiry services across different network and service areas, including mobile phone numbers, has more to it than meets the eye. "If you read the proposal carefully, it also highlights the menace of direct marketing calls. Through this paper we will also study the need to regulate unwanted phone calls on the mobile phone. A do-not-call register, like in the US, is also a proposal that we are considering," says the TRAI Chairman, Pradeep Baijal. For the uninitiated, in the United States consumers who signed up for the 'National Do Not Call Registry' maintained by the Federal Communications Commission, are protected from unsolicited text messages and telemarketing calls. A telemarketer has to check this list once a month to ensure the numbers registered are not called. If they still call a listed person, they can be fined $11,000. Some 62 million Americans have registered on the 'National Do Not Call Registry' out of a total of 160 million phones. The silence of Indian laws on this subject has prompted gross misuse of mobile phone number databases. Since most companies outsource their customer-calling business to outside tele-calling agencies, misuse of database is rampant. Insiders in the tele-calling industry inform that "one agency may be used by many clients. I myself have a series of clients ranging from cell phone operators, to credit cards to banks to travel agents. Often one database is exploited for another's benefit." The result: We are inundated with unwanted and exasperating phone calls from a bank, financial institution, offering a pre-approved credit card or an attractive personal loan. Consumer rights activist H D Shourie is completely in agreement with a do-not-call register proposal. "We must start a do-not-call registry and publicise the news through the media. A lot of consumers would sign up," he says. "People are not very enthusiastic about a mobile directory as tele-marketers would have even more direct access to their numbers and personal information. We are planning to use this ‘mobile directory proposal' to pitch for a do-not-call register in India, so that consumers can heave a sigh of relief," another official at TRAI pointed out. However, cellular operators in India are not too enthusiastic about this turn of events. "Let them (TRAI) first implement the proposal for a mobile directory service and then a do-not-call service. India is not yet ready for a do-not-call register. We do not still have the necessary intelligence network platform to implement it," says T V Ramachandran, Director General of the Cellular Operators Association of India. Implementation of such a proposal may be fraught with more than one problem and sundry infrastructural bottlenecks. But as far as the consumer is concerned, an effective do-not-call register would surely make us sigh in relief.

Hi Guys, Please vote for your favorite messenger I know there are other messengers like GAIM, Odigo, Indiatimes etc. But left them out for the biggies... If you use those why not write about them here...

why no one has replied to my query.........

If you guys want to do messaging, then use GAIM.. Its available at http://gaim.sourceforge.net You can use Login to MSN / Yahoo / AOL / ICQ services simulatneusly. What more you can login to two Yahoo accounts at the same time.... So thats the best option as far as messaging is concerned. The only problem is that you will not be able to use advanced features like voice chatting...

Ha ha ha

Come on..... some one vote for hotmail toooo

me too would want one.... invite me at deepu_vk@rediffmail.com

Great news... But when can we see a prototype of this...........

Happy Birthday