Honest

Swan Telecom to sell 26% stake to foreign firms Business Standard Swan Telecom, which has received licences to operate mobile phone services in 13 out of the 22 telecom circles in India, is in talks with foreign companies for diluting 26 per cent of its equity for around $470 million. "Arrangements are being worked out for selling a 26 per cent stake in the company," said Shahid U Balwa, managing director, Swan Telecom. The talks are happening considering a total equity value of the company around $1.8 billion. Including debt, the company's enterprise value is pegged around $2.2 billion. Meanwhile, real estate major Unitech's talks to sell 26 per cent stake in its mobile operations have picked up pace, with the company holding several rounds of talks with three international players for the deal this week. The company holds the licences through several unlisted subsidiaries. Senior Unitech executives said a potential partner would be shortlisted soon, with a final deal possible within weeks. With licences for 22 circles, the company is valued at $3 billion, said executives. It has already hired close to 70 senior staffers, including chief executive Rohit Chandra, a former Ericsson India executive vice-president who has also worked with operator Aircel. While Swan and Unitech's prospective international partners have not been named as yet, there is a growing buzz about cash-rich Emirates Telecommunication Company (Etisalat). Known to be interested in entering India (the company operates in 16 countries including Pakistan where it holds a 26 per cent stake in PTCL), it had earlier initiated talks with B K Modi-promoted Spice Communications, which was later acquired by Mumbai-based Idea Cellular. Sources said Etisalat has also spoken to Unitech, but the negotiations did not mature on valuation differences. There has also been talk of Etisalat having entered into exclusive talks with Swan Telecom. However Balwa denies that. Calls and messages to Etisalat International executives and the press office remained unanswered till the time of going to press. "We are in talks with a European and two West Asian telecom players," said Balwa. "There will be clarity on the talks by August-end," he added. Swan has the GSM mobile spectrum licence in four circles and has also applied for dual-use spectrum. The company is majority owned by the Mumbai-based Dynamix Balwas group of companies, which owns the property on which the Le Royal Meridien hotel has come up in Mumbai. Reliance Communications, which owned a 9.9 per cent stake in Swan, later sold its stake to a Mauritius-registered infrastructure fund. Regulations allow 74 per cent equity in an Indian telecom services company to be divested to a foreign company. Of this, 49 per cent can be done through the automatic route, while 25 per cent can only be sold with prior FIPB approval. The talks highlight the efforts of India's recently licensed mobile companies to divest equity in a bid to partner large international players who are seeking a toehold in the fastest growing mobile services market in the world.

Emirates Telecom buys 45 pct in India's Swan 23 Sep, 2008, 1513 hrs IST, REUTERS DUBAI: Emirates Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat) said on Tuesday it agreed to buy about 45 percent of India's Swan Telecom for up to $900 million. Etisalat, the second-largest Arab telecom firm by market value, said the deal implies a valuation of $2 billion for the Indian firm. Abu Dhabi-based Etisalat, which lost its monopoly at home when du started operations in early 2007, operates in 16 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt.

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Airtel, Affle Launch Search Via SMS Bharti Airtel and Affle have announced the launch of an upgrade to SMS which allows users to trigger Search from their SMS screen. The Short Message and Search 2.0 (SMS2.0) application is available to users for free. To download SMS2.0, the Airtel customers need to send "SMS2" to 543210. There is no charge for downloading and for subsequent content delivery on this platform; the SMS charges remain unchanged and according to the existing mobile plan. Sanjay Gupta, Chief Marketing Officer, Bharti Airtel said, "The uptake of the SMS2.0 has been very encouraging and we are embarking to take this platform to a different level – introducing search through SMS. This new upgrade service will thus allow Airtel users to Search - Airtel Live, Internet, Local search, Jobs and Property listings, from their SMS screen." Courtesy : Tech2

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Nokia Launches Supernova Range in India Nokia has unveiled their Supernova range of handsets in India - the 7610, the 7310 and the 7210. All three handsets are designed to give the Indian style conscious consumer an opportunity to express their personal styles through a range of vibrant designs, unique materials, and personalization with The Supernova range comes with 3D patterns, bold colors and mirrored surfaces. "Consumers are becoming more sophisticated in their selection of handsets and are basing their purchase decision on a blend of technology and style", said Devinder Kishore, Director Marketing Nokia India. "With our new range of stylish handsets, we aim to give consumers an opportunity to experiment with unique designs and express their individuality." Featuring a slide design and smooth curves, the 7610 offers Xpress-On covers in a choice of a set of 'steel blue' and 'red' covers. The theme colorizer feature lets people apply captured colors to the phone's key illumination and wallpaper. Additional features include a 3.2 megapixel camera with dual LED flash and 8x digital zoom, instant messaging, FM-radio, MP3 player and TV out for image sharing. The Nokia WidSets service gives access to enjoy and share content on favorite websites through the device. The 7310 includes Xpress-On covers etched with 3D textured designs available in 'steel blue' and a second front and back cover in 'candy pink'. Additional features include a 2 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom and TV out for image sharing, instant messaging and playing the preinstalled games on TV. The phone also features an FM radio and MP3 player. The 7210 has a slim design is available in graphite color in a gloss finish and features a 2 megapixel camera. Courtesy : Tech2

Indian Government To Sniff Your E-mails Patriot Act-esque move to weed out terrorists Did you know that our security agencies have been watching all the Web traffic entering and leaving the country? For over two years, they've had hardware installed at our international gateways, sniffing traffic for signs of a terrorist attack, or any malicious intent towards the country. They've also decrypted the data on Blackberry networks so that the security agencies can sniff out the data passed over Blackberry devices and track them. It's no mystery that terror networks have been using e-mail to spread their nastiness, but shouldn't someone have told us we were being watched? It's now been discovered that terrorists have been using our internal networks, such their e-mail can't be monitored using the sniffer hardware at the international gateways. To counter this move, the security agencies now plan to use e-mail sniffers at every ISP, and apparently, this move is already well under way with five major ISPs on board. So the government could, if it wishes, read the contents of your e-mail at any time. Worse, so could your ISP. Corporate houses have been using these tools to monitor the traffic entering and leaving their servers, but they're usually up-front about it, and are justified in that they need to know what you're doing with the company's time and hardware. However, what we do in the privacy of our homes should be our business. Guess it's time to see what our privacy laws say about this. Courtesy : Techtree

Etisalat close to picking up over 40pc stake in Swan 22 Sep, 2008, 2145 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: UAE's leading telecom operator Etisalat is understood be in the final stages of inking a deal with Swan Telecom for picking up over 40 per cent stake in the firm. According to sources close to the development, Etisalat is likely to sign a deal with Swan Telecom, which had recently bagged start-up GSM spectrum in many circles including Delhi, to acquire over 40 per cent stake in the telecom firm. Etisalat has been scouting for an Indian partner for quiet some time now and was reportedly in talks with other players including Spice Communication and Videocon-backed Datacom. Promoted by Dynamix Balwa Group of companies with interest in hospitality and real estate, Swan Telecom was in news for its reported association with Anil Ambani group company RCOM, which was said to hold 9.9 per cent stake in it at the time of applying for licence last year. RCOM officials, however, had said the company does not hold stake in Swan telecom anymore. Swan Telecom had received licence for rolling out operations in 13 circles. Etisalat, which operates in 16 countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa has a presence in India, through its data services subsidiary Technologia in Bangalore.

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Government norms likely to compulsorily secure WiFi links 15 Sep, 2008, 0319 hrs IST, ET NEW DELHI: In the wake of the terror emails being sent from unsecured wireless fidelity (WiFi) networks, the government is examining the possibility of issuing new norms that will make it illegal to leave such internet connections open. The new norms may also put the onus on telcos and internet service providers (ISPs) who sell WiFi connections to educate their customers of keeping them secure. The department of telecom will work with the home ministry and intelligence agencies to put in place steps to secure WiFi internet connections, which are increasingly being used in homes and offices across the country. WiFi networking companies may also be asked to limit WiFi signal right down to a defined radius by installing access points around the signal. However, internet service providers (ISPs) say that it is customer who is to blame. “Internet service providers are taking steps on their own to secure WiFi connections. All ISPs are installing AAA servers and firewalls. But, if you look at the terror mails, they were sent from hacked or open WiFi accounts – there is nothing we can do about this. When people take a broadband connection, then take routers and make their homes and offices WiFi enabled, and then leave it open, there is nothing ISPs can do about it,” explained the president of the Internet Service Providers Association of India’s president Rajesh Chharia. Industry experts say that regulations will not help much since most home and corporate users use minimal security to lock their WiFi networks making them an easy target to hack into. Security experts suggest that WiFi users should never broadcast their SSIDs (service set identifiers) and change their access passwords. “Most routers which come in the market have a password 1234 and login id – as admin. One should immediately change it after installing. Also one should block the router’s SSIDs from broadcasting the WiFI networks and allow only particular machines to access it,” says Aujas Network Founder and COO Sameer Shelke. Generally a WiFi router is configured to advertise its SSID to all neighbouring WiFi devices. One can block the SSID from advertising so that only by typing the name, the particular WiFi network appears. The Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) connection of a Mumbai based power company was hacked into by suspects in Chembur, who sent the e-mail to news organisations while the serial blast continued in the capital which killed about 25 people and left about 100 injured on Saturday. Experts say that digital forensics still holds the key to catch suspects who have even challenged security agencies to catch them. Accessing the WiFi router or the wireless access point’s log files (present in Mumbai’s Kamran Power Company in this case), one can find out the MAC (Media Access Control) address of the WiFi card which accessed the WiFi point of that company. Each WiFI adaptor card manufactured in the world has a unique MAC address. Identifying that MAC address would mean identifying the manufacturer of that particular network card. The manufacturers are generally based in Malaysia, Taiwan and China, global hubs of electronic manufacturing. A high level protocol with Chinese or Taiwanese government can help the investigating agencies get hold of which factory that particular card was shipped to and when. It can also identify the bar code number of that card. Each PC or laptop maker like Dell, HP, Lenovo or Acer tags the barcode numbers of the card before assembling them into the machines. This information can be used to find out which dealer sold that particular laptop in which part of the world and to which buyer, which in this case can be the suspect. Identifying the digital footprint can thus help trace the culprits. US-based Meru Networks’ India head Giridhar Java says: “We can also configure a network to operate only in a particular radius. All signals going outside a particular periphery can be blocked. Another way is to throw junk to an outside receiver trying to connect. We can easily jam his or her WiFi card but that’s not legally allowed in most parts of the world.” The easiest way to secure is to provide a password for accessing WiFi but y experts say that too is penetrable. “Basically WiFi operates in the 2.5 GHz frequency and one can still access your WiFi network by special frequency scanners but that is tougher.

DoT, DIT chalking out norms for strict Wi-Fi security 21 Sep, 2008, 1250 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: With terrorists using the open Wi-Fi networks for communicating, Department of Telecom and Department of Information and Technology are jointly working out measures to check this growing misuse. Investigations into the recent bomb blasts at Ahmedabad and Delhi have shown that there has been a widespread use of wireless (Wi-Fi) technology in carrying out the attacks. DoT officials, however, admit that the march of technology cannot be halted but its misuse certainly has to be checked. A DIT official said the department is in talks with the DoT on this and some actions in terms of issuing general guidelines, instructions and advisories could be expected soon. Telecom regulator TRAI is also, currently, looking at the various measures taken globally to make such networks secure. It would suggest ways and means to make networks safer. The discussion between TRAI and DoT also revolve around carrying campaign by Internet Service Providers to educate their customers on Wi-Fi security measures. An official of the cyber security wing of DIT -- Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) said the ISPs should provide all these features of password and password protection. The open network and open password make it quite easy for anyone to access another person's network. The most widely default password for Wi-Fi open network is 1234. ISPs, however, denounce this point saying Wi-Fi routers are easily available in the market and it is the customer who should take care of password protection not the ISPs. The unsecured networks should be made secure by customers themselves for their own security. All an ISP can do is educate the user to be more careful on passwords for Wi-Fi technology, ISPAI President Rajesh Chharia said.

At last, govt cracks BlackBerry code 22 Sep, 2008, 0121 hrs IST, ET NEW DELHI: The government has decrypted the data on Research In Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry networks. The department of telecommunication (DoT), Intelligence Bureau and security agency National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) have done tests on service providers such as Bharti Airtel, BPL Mobile, Reliance Communications and Vodafone-Essar networks for interception of Internet messages from BlackBerry to non-BlackBerry devices. Initially, there were difficulties in cracking the same on Vodafone-Essar network but that has also been solved. This means that the e-mail messages sent on Internet through your BlackBerry sets would no longer be exclusive and government would be able to track them. “Decompression is being tested in operator’s network with three successful testing on Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communication and BPL Mobile,” a source in DoT said. He, however, added that the solution reached upon would not be shared with anybody including the national telecom service providers like BSNL or MTNL. “The test is being conducted wholly for non-enterprise solutions,” he said. The Union cabinet has also been apprised of the recent developments by the DoT. Makers of BlackBerry set, RIM, could not be contacted for comment. An e-mail sent in this regard the company did not elicit any response till the time of going for press. An official in Vodafone-Essar, however, on conditions of anonymity said that there has been substantial progress in decoding the BlackBerry encryptions and DoT has got success on decompressing the data on the networks of all the major service providers. The test would be conducted on all the network of all the BlackBerry service providers and the service providers, on whose network the interception does not happen smoothly, would be asked to make technical changes in their services to make them compatible for decompression. Decompression is the process of decoding information with an aim to transfer the data to a different medium like data to voice, data to video or data to text. The DoT had earlier asked RIM to provide the master key to allow access to contents transferred over their handsets. RIM had, however, said that it could not handover the message encryption key to the government as its security structure does not allow any third party or even the company to read the information transferred over its network. The BlackBerry issue surfaced earlier this year when DoT asked Tata Tele-services to delay the launch of the service till appropriate security mechanisms were in place. Currently, there are over one lakh BlackBerry users in the country. Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Vodafone Essar and BPL Mobile are offering this service in the country. Tata Teleservices has also been allowed to offer the BlackBerry services recently. Incidentally, Tata Teleservices launched the service after telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura said that the government has no role in stopping the company from offering the service.

DoT may set user base rider for 3G spectrum auctions 22 Sep, 2008, 0137 hrs IST, ET Tougher norms New second generation (2G) telecom entrants Swan, Loop, Datacom, S Tel, Loop Telecom and Unitech may find their valuation plans going awry. ET has learnt the finance ministry wants tighter norms for third generation (3G) spectrum auctions. The ministry will ask the department of telecom (DoT) to allow only those Indian companies to bid for 3G which have an active subscriber base. Current norms allow foreign telcos to participate in 3G auction only if they furnish experience certificates, but this does not apply to Indian telcos. This means companies like Swan, Datacom and Unitech can bid for 3G spectrum along with existing operators such as Bharti, Vodafone and Reliance Communications, despite the new players having no experience in providing telecom services. A senior government source told ET: “The finance ministry may question DoT on the logic behind allowing a January 2008 2G licensee to bid for 3G spectrum, when it has not rolled out a single base transceiver station or acquired even one customer, let alone having 3G experience. The ministry feels the current policy encourages a newbie to buy 2G spectrum from DoT at a fixed price and auction it to a foreign player at a much higher price. Had 2G spectrum been auctioned, the revenue would have accrued to the public exchequer. Instead, the money is being allowed to enrich private pockets at the expense of a looming fiscal deficit.” However, it is not known if DoT will further tighten 3G norms as sought by the finance ministry. Recently, DoT had turned down the ministry’s demand to raise the base price for pan-India 3G radio frequency to Rs 2,500 crore from Rs 2,020 crore now. At the same time, DoT, over the past two weeks, has taken many steps to speed up the entry of foreign players who want to bid for 3G spectrum. Last week, as first reported by ET, DoT said that it would allow foreign telcos to bid for 3G spectrum as 100% entities. This implies a foreign player will not have to tie up with an Indian JV partner and seek clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to participate in the upcoming 3G auctions. DoT had earlier amended merger norms in the 3G policy to enable foreign telcos, which successfully bid for 3G spectrum, to buy an existing licence holder without having to wait for three years — the lock-in period specified earlier. Industry experts, however, said that the amendments would only help push up valuations of new 2G entrants. This is because these players, realising the 3G spectrum winners need to get a universal access service licence with 2G spectrum, can literally demand the moon in terms of valuation, posing an entry barrier to the foreign player. In such a case, the new 2G entrants would hawk their licences at a premium without a single subscriber and no 3G experience. Little wonder then that despite the recent round of amendments to the 3G policy, there is still a view in government circles, especially the finance ministry, that the 3G auction guidelines continue to pose several entry barriers to foreign players. “It effectively means a foreign player would need to shell out well over $500 million to operationalise its 3G spectrum. This shows the current 3G policy is skewed against foreign players, who may feel discouraged to participate in the upcoming 3G auctions. These players are looking at the prospect of locking in billions of dollars without the certainty of being able to operationalise their 3G spectrum. If things indeed come to such a pass, the government’s target of garnering Rs 40,000 crore from 3G auctions may remain a pipe dream. In their present form, the 3G auction guidelines seem tailor-made to help realtors and speculators make a killing,” said a top official close to the finance ministry.

3G auction may not fetch Rs 40,000 cr 21 Sep, 2008, 1515 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: Finance Ministry's hopes of garnering about Rs 40,000 crore from the sale of spectrum for 3G mobile services may be dashed as most of the operators are unlikely to bid beyond the reserve price of Rs 2,200 crore. According to assessments within the Department of Telecom, maximum 5-7 operators would bid for 3G spectrum and the amount would remain within Rs 2,200-2,500 crore. Going by this, the government is likely to get a maximum of Rs 17,500 crore in stead of an earlier estimate to raise Rs 40,000 crore from the auction leaving a gap of over Rs 20,000 crore. Sources said any pan-India bid beyond Rs 2,500 crore would make the operations financially unviable and services costlier to the subscribers. Although the DoT had earlier earmarked 60 MHz spectrum for 3G mobile services to accommodate 10-12 service providers, but sources said maximum seven operators are likely to put in bids, including two international players. In fact, keeping this in mind the Finance Ministry had earlier asked DoT to consider increasing the reserve price to Rs 2,500 crore from Rs 2,200 crore but the proposal was turned down by DoT saying ascendingorder of auctioning process would automatically give market determined price. Source in department said all five leading cellular operators Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices are likely to put their bids while the scenario among the international players is not yet clear. US-based AT&T is a potential candidate to bid for 3G spectrum but would have to form a joint venture with an Indian entity before rolling out the services as permitted by the FDI guidelines. The government has already started the process to appoint e-auction agency to conduct auctioning and hopes to end the process by end of November this year, senior DoT officials said. Asked how many licences are likely to be issued, officials declined to comment saying Communication and IT Minister A Raja had announced 10-12 players and the DoT still maintains it. Officials said enough spectrum would be available with the DoT to give 5MHz spectrum each to all successful candidates for 3G services. Going by the schedule prepared by the DoT, 3G services should start in the first quarter of next financial year by the private players while the PSUs BSNL and MTNL have already announced their plans to start services from December this year.

BPL Mobile arbitration panel to resume hearings on Aug 5 1 Aug, 2008, 0327 hrs IST, ET Bureau MUMBAI: The prolonged battle for ownership of BPL Mobile, which offers cellular services in Mumbai, seems to be nearing an end. The case is entering the final stages of hearing before a three-member arbitration panel, which was reconstituted earlier this year after the death of former chief justice RS Pathak. “The panel will meet on August 5 when the two sides will present evidence and begin arguments in the case,” sources told ET. While it is not known when the matter will be finally settled, the meeting of the arbitration panel is considered significant as it is the first step towards resolution of the conflict. The panel, which was constituted in March 2007, has met only four times till now. It could not meet for scheduled hearing in March this year after the death of Justice Pathak in November 2007 as he was heading the panel. The other two arbitrators are former chief justices. Pending arbitration, BPL Mobile is being managed by the Ruias of Essar group. The Ruias acquired BPL on behalf of Hutchison Essar (HEL, now Vodafone Essar) in 2006, but have not transferred the shares. Neither the Ruias nor Vodafone is ready to give up BPL Mobile, which has 13.7 lakh subscribers in the Mumbai circle. BPL Mobile has claimed Rs 1,300-crore damages from Vodafone Essar, saying that an injunction on the sale of its shares had hurt its shareholders. Vodafone Essar is disputing the claim and has contended that shares of BPL Mobile must be transferred to them and that “the termination of the agreement was illegal.” “Till now, only procedural hearings were taking place. Both the sides will now present witnesses before the arbitration panel to argue that they are the rightful owner of BPL. On August 5, Vodafone Essar will lead evidence and present its witness. Now, the case is expected to be put on the fast track as the panel is back to full strength,” sources said. They said Justice BP Jeevan Reddy, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, has come on the panel in place of Justice Pathak. Vodafone Essar MD Asim Ghosh and Essar group spokesperson declined to comment. The dispute kicked off in August 2006 when the Ruias terminated the share purchase agreement with HEL. HEL had paid Rs 1,617 crore to Essar for the purchase of BPL Mobile in 2006. HEL contends that they have paid 97.5% (Rs 1,617 crore) of the purchase consideration and now Essar should move out as they have become the owner of BPL by paying the consideration. However, Essar terminated the sale of BPL Mobile citing non-receipt of department of telecom (DoT) clearance for the merger of BPL with HEL after its share purchase agreement expired on July 31, 2006. Since an existing operator cannot hold more than 10% in another entity in the same circle, Essar had made sure that its telecom arm, Essar Teleholdings, had limited its direct stake in BPL Mobile to 9.9%. Mauritius-based investment company CapitalGlobal holds 16.1% while BPL Communications has the balance 74% stake. Although, the exact ownership has never been made public, it is believed that these two companies are controlled by friends and associates of the Essar group.

‘BPL Mobile stake structure won’t be altered’ 22 Sep, 2008, 0154 hrs IST, ET MUMBAI: The legal battle between the Ruias of the Essar Group and the British telecom giant, Vodafone, has taken an interesting turn with the Ruias giving an undertaking to the Bombay High Court saying they will not alter the shareholding of the disputed BPL Mobile Communications or of its subsidiary, Loop Telecom, in any way in future. This assumes significance as Gypsy Rover, a Mauritius-based company which picked up a 17.6% stake in BPL Mobile Communications, was to increase its stake to 30% by August-end through conversion of compulsory convertible preference shares at Rs 145 apiece. Vodafone Essar, the joint venture between Vodafone and the Ruias, sought an injunction from the Bombay High Court after BPL Communications sold stakes in BPL Mobile Communications to Gypsy Rover without keeping either the arbitration panel or Vodafone in the loop. This has led to a legal battle in the Bombay HC. Incidentally, Gypsy Rover shares the same address with Capital Global, owner of 13.36% stake in BPL Mobile Communications. In its undertaking to the court, the Ruias have also agreed to abide by the arbitration panel’s judgment on the dispute as the final verdict in the case. Any future deviation from the panel’s order would now be considered as a contempt of court. Interestingly, the undertaking by the Ruias to the high court came after an out-of-court settlement agreed between both the parties over the Gypsy Rover issue. In an order dated September 2, 2008, Justice VM Kanade said as the parties, Vodafone Essar and BPL Communications, have settled the matter, the petition filed by Vodafone Essar against BPL Communications and other respondents is disposed of. The court said the undertaking given by BPL Communications and other respondents, Essar Teleholdings and Capital Global, has been accepted. The Ruias had sold off BPL Mobile’s shares in two tranches on July 4 and July 25 this year for Rs 600 crore in spite of the arbitration panel asking them not to do so, according to the Vodafone petition. “After this order by the Bombay HC, it would be difficult for the Ruias to do anything behind the back of Vodafone. Besides, the arbitration panel's order now gets more teeth,” a legal source advising one of the parties told ET. “This also shows that both parties are now keen to resolve the issue.” Vodafone had taken over Hong Kong-based Hutchison’s 67% stake in the company for $11 bn last year. The British company also inherited a legal battle between Hutchison and the Ruias over the merger of BPL Mobile Communications with Hutchison Essar. Vodafone Essar claims that it had paid the Ruias for merging BPL Mobile Communications with itself. Both the Essar Group and Vodafone refused to comment on the issue. In its petition to the Bombay High Court, Vodafone had sought restoration of shareholding in BPL Mobile Communication to the situation dated September 26, 2005. “The alleged sale of equity shares and convertible preference shares to Gypsy is clearly an attempt to frustrate the very purpose of the arbitration and to impede the process of merger between VEL and BPL Mobile Communications. It is clear that the alleged acts of the BPL Communications are not in acts in good faith, but a malafide and brazen attempt to frustrate the arbitration,” the VEL said in its petition. The Bombay HC order came three days before the arbitration panel asked the Essar Group not to sell any shares in BPL Mobile Communications. While Vodafone owns 67% stake in Vodafone Essar, the Ruias own the rest.

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Cell banking only for card holders: RBI 20 Sep, 2008, 0054 hrs IST, ET MUMBAI: Small-ticket payments and remittances from mobile phones will become a reality soon. Keeping in mind the superior reach of mobile phones as a delivery channel, the Reserve Bank of India on Friday released its final operative guidelines for mobile banking. The central bank has decided to keep the limit on the ticket-size for mobile banking at Rs 2,500 per transaction, and Rs 5,000 per day. Banks have also been allowed to put in place a monthly transaction limit, depending on the bank’s risk perception of the customer. While the guidelines will enable lenders such as State Bank of India and Axis Bank to go ahead with their launch of mobile-banking services, the central bank has decided to restrict the services only to holders of debit and credit cards. The card user base in the country is 80 million, with 55 million debit card users and 25 million credit card users. However, it comes as a blow to players who intended to use mobile banking to reach out to the underbanked in rural India. A number of microfinance institutions and mobile payment operators such as mChek, PayMate and Obopay had tied up to offer mobile-based financial inclusion products in the hinterland. Banks, however, have been allowed to use the services of banking correspondents for extending this facility to consumers. Only Indian rupee-based domestic services shall be provided on the mobile-payment platform, and the use of mobile-banking for cross-border transactions have been strictly prohibited. Banks which are based, licensed and supervised in India will be allowed to offer such services. Further, only banks which have implemented the core banking platform will be allowed to offer mobile banking. At the same time, the RBI has recommended that all mobile banking transactions are validated through a two-factor authentication system, thereby complying to the latest security and encryption standards. The RBI has also said the long-term goal of the mobile-payment framework in India would be to enable funds transfer from and account in one bank to any other account in any bank on a real-time basis, irrespective of the mobile network the customer has subscribed to. The guidelines also recommend that banks do not compromise on their know-your-customer and anti-money laundering guidelines. They will also be required to file suspicious transaction reports (STRs) to the Financial Intelligence Unit for all mobile banking transactions, as in the case of regular banking transactions. It has also been recommended that banks explicitly state the risks to the customer and also get them to sign a contract before the service is adopted. It has also asked banks to make their mobile-banking services available across all phone networks. The number of mobile phone connections in the country was at about 296 million at the end of July this year and it is growing at about 8-9 million per month, according to telecom regulator Trai. Banks have been exploring the feasibility of using mobile phones as an alternative channel of delivery of banking services. Some banks have also started offering information-based services like balance enquiry, stop payment instruction of cheques, transaction enquiry, location of the nearest ATM or branch, etc. Acceptance of transfer of funds, instruction for credit to beneficiaries of same or another bank in favour of pre-registered beneficiaries have also started in a few banks, the RBI said.