Honest

^^^ What's the price of the above handset my dear Jayanth ?

^^^ @Vikramgvk My dear friend, we are not saying that Chinese handset doesn't have IMEI number. Instead the matter here is that Chinese Mobile Manufacturers are selling many handsets with the same IMEI number. Regards.

^^^ MY dear friend, you can search for the wallpapers in "Ringtones / Wallpapers" forum of our belvoed Rimweb. Regards.

Reliance Comm adds 1.75 mn users in Aug 15 Sep, 2008, 1641 hrs IST, ET NEW DELHI: Reliance Communications, India's No 2 mobile operator, added 1.75 million new wireless users in August, taking its total user base to more than 54 million, the company said in a statement on Monday. The company had 52.54 million wireless users as of end-July, according to data from India's telecoms regulator.

ADAG eyes steel foray; lines up Rs 40K cr for J'khand plant 15 Sep, 2008, 1836 hrs IST, PTI RANCHI: Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group has proposed to set up a 12 million-ton per annum steel plant in Jharkhand, a top official in the state government said. "They (ADAG) have approached us to set up a 12 MTPA steel project. We have their proposal, the process is on," Jharkhand Industrial Secretary K K Khandelwal said. ADAG group company Reliance Infrastructure will be undertaking the greenfield project and is expected to invest around Rs 40,000 crore in the venture, sources closed to the development said. Reliance Infrastructure officials could not be contacted. ADAG group company's decision to foray into steel comes in the backdrop of world's largest producer ArcelorMittal's finalising plans to set up an integrated plant in the state with the same capacity. When asked if an agreement between the Ambani Group company and the government could be reached soon, Khandelwal said, "The process is on. We are looking into it." Reliance Infrastructure, formerly known as Reliance Energy, is active in infrastructure, engineering and construction businesses, among others.

Intex Launches Dual-SIM Handset Intex Technologies has debuted in the CDMA market with a dual SIM (GSM + CDMA) handset - IN 5050. The IN 5050 is a candy-bar model that allows the users to multi-task by installing two separate SIM cards belonging to two different service providers (GSM/CDMA) and make a shift between them, without switching off the mobile phone. While receiving calls, the phone flashes from which SIM card the call is coming, along with other call details. The other 'duals' in the gadget include - Dual Stand By mode and Dual Speakers for a clear, high quality audio output. The handset weighs 88gms, is equipped with Bluetooth, supports 2 GB T-Flash card and possesses a battery backup of 130hrs on standby mode with talk time of 160 minutes. The entertainment package an includes in-built FM, MP3, and MP4 player. The phone also features a 1.3 mega pixel camera and MMS and WAP services. The phone book has a capacity of 1000 numbers and an SMS capacity up to 400. The phone comes bundled with a 1 GB memory card, an extra battery and a portable battery charger and costs Rs. 7200. Courtesy : Tech2

WiFi system safer option for terrorists 15 Sep, 2008, 1225 hrs IST, ET MUMBAI: It didn't need great hacking ability or computer skills to have used the WiFi network of Kamran Power Control at Eric Building in Chembur to send the terror mail on Saturday soon after the Delhi blasts. Mumbai's anti-terrorism squad (ATS) has found the WiFi system was not secured, implying no password was needed to get into the WiFi system, only an easily available software that allows access. ATS chief Hemant Karkare said, "Computer experts and ATS officers are making enquiries. We are yet to arrive at any conclusion." On Sunday, ATS officers questioned Manohar Kamath, proprietor of the firm and his son Nikhil hoping to crack the origin of the mail. The email, claiming responsibility for the Delhi blasts, originated from al-arbi-delhi@yahoo.com. Meanwhile, the Kamaths said they would continue to use the Wifi. Kamal Kamath, a software consultant and wife of Manohar Kamath told TOI, "Wifi is a very good technology. We were caught unawares since there were no safeguards. We will continue using it with security measures." In the case of the Ahmedabad blasts, a WiFi system of an American resident of Mumbai Ken Haywood was used. That too was not secured. Computer experts say that few users bother to password-protect their WiFi accounts, leaving it open for anyone in the radius of about 100-200 metres to get in easily. For terrorists, this is far safer than trying to go to a cyber cafe, where they would be asked for identification. The 600 sq ft office has only four staff. Kamath told the police that he does not suspect his staff. '' One of the four computers may have been hacked through WiFi,'' he said. She said that her husband and others were in the office at 7 pm on Saturday when the mail was sent through their Wifi system. "We came to know about it through news channels," she said. Since then, the Kamaths have been deluged with calls from friends and relatives. '' The police have been fair with us and we have cooperated with them. They also know that we are not at fault,'' Kamal said.

Google phone won't be an immediate game changer 15 Sep, 2008, 1257 hrs IST, ET NEW YORK: Anyone expecting the soon- to-be-launched Google phone to change the market like Apple's iPhone has over the past year will likely be disappointed - for now. Industry insiders who have worked on Google Inc's Android mobile operating system say it will struggle in the near term to match the consumer enthusiasm generated by Apple Inc when its iPhone redefined the touch-screen phone market and greatly improved mobile Web surfing. Instead, Google sees Android as an open-source platform for designing mobile devices, saying it will encourage innovation by allowing outside software developers to tinker with the system and create better mobile programs and services. But these things take time and the first phone using Android, code-named the Google "Dream" phone, is unlikely to wow consumers. The device is made by Taiwan's HTC Corp. Sources familiar with the plan say Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile plans to introduce it in New York on Sept. 23. "I'm not sure the consumer experience is significantly better than that of the iPhone," says Rajeev Chand, a wireless analyst at investment bank Rutberg & Co, who has tried out an early version of Android. "When the iPhone came out the experience was several orders of magnitude better than anything that was out there." Google, its partner carriers and application developers hope the Android platform will drive even more mobile Web surfing than the iPhone, which has helped Web usage rocket in comparison to other smartphones. But unlike Apple, which keeps a tight grip on the iPhone's hardware and software, Google will have less control as Android will be open to developers to create component technologies in almost any way they can imagine. Google's engineering-led culture appears content to launch the first Android phones as a kind of science project that will be rapidly improved afterward. Google has produced big hits and plenty of hard-to-remember misses with its strategy of launching new ideas and iterating quickly. Yet, Google will not have the kind of leverage in mobile that it is used to in the PC world, where it dominates search. Phone carriers have a huge say over how devices are designed and what data services are accessible over their networks. While Android could offer real promise in terms of technology and usability - particularly because it is an open platform - it is unlikely to single-handedly change the restrictive nature of the mobile industry, said John Poisson, founder of Tiny Pictures, a developer partner of Android. "Carriers in each market will still control how it gets implemented and on which devices and in which form," Poisson said. "Android lives and breathes at the pleasure of the operator." BRAND AWARENESS Another problem for Android is how to explain what it is to consumers. Unlike the iPhone, which came on the back of Apple's hugely successful iPod music player, Android is an unknown brand, even though the Google name has plenty of cache. "People forget these things get to customers through the retail channel and marketing," said Frank Meehan, the global general manager for handsets and applications for Hong Kong telecommunications conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. "We operators struggle with how to market this phone. There's nothing really unique about it and we can't say it's a Google phone," said Meehan, whose company buys millions of 3G devices year. Despite the concerns, mobile industry executives say they welcome Google's entrance as its deep pockets will help meet the increasingly high expectations of consumers for mobile services. From a developer's perspective, Android's advantages over the iPhone or Nokia's Symbian operating system is that it is open source, which means Google is sharing its software code and making it easier for third parties to develop compatible applications. Apple's second-generation iPhone applied the same strategy and offers more than 3,000 third-party applications through its App Store, but the company still retains some control. "Android promises to be the most open platform for building mobile phone applications that we've seen to date because it's based on very familiar tools and technologies," said Jason Devitt, co-founder of Skydeck, a new service that will allow users to manage their cell phones over the Web. Others hope that Google's entrance can galvanize mobile advertising, which is still in nascent stages. "All these devices are resulting in better usage and that's what advertisers want and they're growing their spend," said Jason Spero, vice president of marketing at AdMob, a marketplace for mobile advertisers. Google is hoping to generate revenue through its existing search advertising and related services by the addition of mobile to PC. "Google's power comes from the freedom of choice, in terms of the component technology and services that can be laid on top," said Cheng Wu, founder of Azuki Systems, a mobile Web technology company. "The only thing they want to control is the kernel of the operating system and the ability to data mine for search and advertising down the road."

@Anil My dear friend, Hetal is a very senior member of Rimweb and you should give him full respect as he has given Rimweb a lot. Who says that he is hiding anything. Please search the forum and then you will get to know what Hetal has done for members of Rimweb. I'm sure that you really feel sorry after searching the forum. And in the future never ever blame any member if you are not 100% sure. Regards.

^^^ Thats really useful for many users my dear Hetal. Regards.

Communication jammed when cellphone needed most! 28 Jul, 2008, 0225 hrs IST, ET Bureau NEW DELHI: Tried reaching your friend or loved ones in Bangalore or Ahmedabad following the blasts? Frustration would be an understatement. Tens and millions of India’s mobile customers were confronted with a similar scene all over again—mobile networks, the lifeline of communication, get jammed when the user needs them the most.The problem is unlikely to disappear soon. Industry experts and executives recommend the following when faced with such crisis situations: use fixedline phones; send SMSes rather than calling; and if you can’t get through, wait for a while before calling again. But why does the problem occur in the first place? Sources in telecom regulator TRAI put the blame on telcos and the government. “Operators had failed to put systems in place to ensure to ensure that all calls are re-routed when networks are jammed. Only the Department of Telecom has the powers to ask telcos to put disaster recovery management systems in place. Trai therefore cannot interfere in this space,” a source with the regulatory body explained. Executives with telcos however refuted TRAI’s contention. “Indian regulations do not allow us to re-route calls. For instance, when our switches in Bangalore got jammed, we had spare capacity on switches in several cities in North India. But, regulations do not allow us to re-route traffic on say a switch in Chandigarh and get it to back to Bangalore,” explained a top executive with a leading mobile operator. The spokesperson of another telco said that it was not possible to build networks with large amounts of spare capacities anticipating such a scenario (as in Bangalore or Ahmedabad). “This will make building mobile networks unviable,” he said. An executive with another telco added that even in the case of the London and Madrid blasts, mobile networks in these cities went down temporarily. Yet another executive with a telco said while operators often shared networks at such times to overcome congestion, the spectrum (radio frequency) crunch in all major cities was a major roadblock.

‘SMS may be the best way to communicate during a crisis’ Business Line New Delhi, Sept. 14 The serial bomb blasts that rocked Delhi on Saturday collapsed the mobile networks across the city, with users calling their families and friends to enquire about their well-being. While consumers complained that the cellular networks jam when they actually need to make emergency calls, operators say that nothing much can be done to tackle such peaks in usage that lasts for a few hours after any major incident. But what makes our communications services so vulnerable? According to technology experts, there are at least four different situations when the operators, the Government or technology cannot do much to keep you connected. The biggest and most common cause is when the telecom network gets congested in a crisis situation, just like it happened on Saturday in Delhi after the serial bomb blast. Customers in other cities like Ahmedabad and Bangalore also had to deal with a congested network after bomb blasts rocked these cities recently. Higher load While most telecom networks have the capacity to function even if there is a 200 per cent increase from the normal day peak hour traffic, in times of severe crisis, operators record a 500 per cent increase in traffic. “In such a situation, when the load is higher than the capacity of the network, the system collapses just like it would in the case of electricity-generating units. However, some of the operators have designed their network in such a way that the system does not collapse but the excess traffic gets rejected, which gives a busy tone in case a subscriber calls into the network,” said a leading telecom technology vendor. The phenomenon is not common to India only. Telecom networks in London and New York were jammed after the bomb blasts in the sub-way train last year and the twin-tower tragedy respectively. Operators say that a similar surge in traffic is witnessed during New Year’s Eve or a festive season but since these are expected events, they get enough time to upgrade their networks. “Events like bomb blasts or other natural calamities are unpredictable and it is too expensive a proposition for us to keep excess capacity in anticipation of such a crisis. However, we do deploy technology that can increase the capacity of voice calls up to 200 per cent and three times more short messages,” said a Delhi-based operator. Short messaging Operators said that a way to get around the problem would be to keep the calls short and communicate more using SMS in times of crisis. “Short messaging takes less capacity than voice calls because in the latter, we have to provide a channel dedicated to the call whereas in messaging, the text can be sent by the network as and when capacity is available,” said a Mumbai-based operator.

DoT to audit user base prior to 2G spectrum allotment 15 Sep, 2008, 0220 hrs IST, ET NEW DELHI: The department of telecom (DoT) has decided that it will allot additional second generation (2G) radio frequencies to telecom operators only after independently verifying their subscriber base. Currently, all mobile services in the country run on 2G radio frequencies and 2G spectrum allotment is based on subscriber base. Under existing regulations, GSM and CDMA operators are entitled to a maximum of 15 MHz and 7.5 MHz of 2G radio frequencies, respectively, and this is awarded in tranches. This means, every time the subscriber base of an existing operator reaches a pre-defined subscriber base, they are given additional radio frequencies. However, this methodology of allotting airwaves has come under severe criticism with several operators accusing the incumbent players of jacking up to subscriber bases to get more radio frequencies. Telcos such as the Tatas have always been demanding that the DoT audit the subscriber base of operators to prevent any player from hoarding spectrum. The DoT has now decided that its deputy director general (security) in consultations with the wireless advisor will verify the subscriber numbers declared by telcos before they are given additional radio frequencies. All existing operators are due for additional spectrum in several circles as their subscriber figures have crossed the pre-defined marks prescribed by Trai. DoT sources said that these allotments will now be made only after the claims of operators are verified. This marks the second attempt by the DoT to tighten the allocation of radio frequencies to telcos. Earlier this year, the DoT had adopted Trai’s recommendations that both GSM and CDMA players increase their subscriber base between 2-6 times (depending on the circle) before being granted additional spectrum. The DoT also endorsed the official spectrum panel’s recommendation that GSM operators be given additional spectrum in tranches of 1 MHz against the current norm where they are given additional radio frequencies in blocks of 1.8-2.2 MHz.

MTNL gets ILD licence; ISD may come down 18 Jun, 2008, 1936 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: Public sector telecom service provider MTNL on Wednesday received the much-awaited international long distance licence, a development which could signal further lowering of ISD rates as the PSU is gearing up to carrying its own traffic in the near future. A senior MTNL official told media the PSU has signed the licence agreement with the Department of Telecom today and would now focus on carrying its own ILD traffic, although for some time the PSU would depend on the other ILD operators' network. MTNL is currently routing most of its ISD traffic through VSNL. At present mobile ISD rates to the US, Europe, Gulf and Africa ranges from Rs 6.40 to 9.20 per minute, while from landline the average rate is 5.99 per minute to the US. With its own network coming up, the official said, the PSU's ISD carriage cost would fall significantly. This would cut down the PSU's operational cost. The ISD segment which already has players like state run BSNL besides private majors like Bharti, Reliance and VSNL, see some more competition with the entry of MTNL. The operator of Mumbai and Delhi circle is also building an undersea cable project to carry its own ISD traffic. Its erstwhile partner BSNL has pulled out of the project, which is to connect India to Singapore and Malaysia.

BSNL to bid for MTNL's ILD tender 14 Sep, 2008, 1050 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: State-run BSNL will bid for the outgoing international call routing tender of MTNL. "The company would participate in the tender and there is no PSU angle. It is just commercial consideration as BSNL has ILD infrastructure," a senior BSNL official told reporters. MTNL proposes to invite sealed bids from eligible Indian ILD operators for routing its international traffic of MTNL Delhi and Mumbai to various destinations around the world through an open tender. The bids will open in the last week of September. The likely date is September 23. MTNL, which operates in Delhi and Mumbai and holds an ILD licence largely depends on other operator's network as it doesn't have its own infrastructure ready till date. At present the PSU operator's international traffic is mainly routed by Tata Communication. The fresh invitation from MTNL implies that it is looking at other ILD operators who can carry its outgoing ILD traffic at cheaper price than the prevailing rates, said MTNL officials. However, the company is in the process of laying down its own submarine cable which would connect India to other countries like Singapore and Malaysia. The undersea cable can cut down ISD tariffs as the operational costs would fall substantially. At present, the company charges in the range of Rs 6.40 to Rs 9.20 per minute for ISD calls to the US, Europe, Africa and Gulf countries. Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Tata and BSNL are the other ILD operators in the country

Chinese mobile firm Huawei under DRI scanner 14 Sep, 2008, 1302 hrs IST, PTI Chinese telecom firm Huawei is under the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence scanner for a case relating to duty evasion. Top sources in the DRI said that some time back the Hyderabad unit of the agency had registered a case with regard to certain duty evasion by a firm which had trading links with the Chinese entity. As part of its investigations into the actions of a particular firm, the Delhi zonal unit of DRI had recently carried out a raid at the Gurgaon office of Huawei. Sources said that the investigating agency had seized at least three laptops along with certain documents from the firm which have now been sent to Hyderabad for further investigation. "The case is registered against a different company and not against Huawei. But during the investigation, name of Huawei came up and hence we had to check certain transactions of the firm. The laptops and documents were seized in this regard," a senior DRI official said. Officials of Huawei could not be reached immediately for comments. Huawei has been operating in India since 1998 when it set up its first R&D centre here followed by its marketing and sales office in 2002. The company claims to have been a preferred vendor of leading service providers like Reliance Communications, Vodafone-Essar, Bharti Airtel, BSNL and Idea.

BSNL set to allow private telcos roam on its network 6 Sep, 2008, 0115 hrs IST, ET NEW DELHI: State-owned BSNL has opened talks with private telcos for roaming agreements. If the talks are successful, subscribers of private operators will finally be able to roam on BSNL’s nation-wide network. While all private telcos have roaming agreements with each other, BSNL, till date, has not opened up its networks for roaming deals. At present, only subscribers of state-owned MTNL (whose services are restricted to Delhi and Mumbai) are allowed to roam on BSNL’s networks. Private telcos have been seeking commercial agreements with BSNL on roaming for years now as the state-owned telco has a superior network in smaller towns, villages, on highways and railways. “We are evaluating the proposals from private operators. We are open to sharing our networks with them for commercial roaming agreements. If we can do it with one operator (MTNL), we can replicate such deals with other players too. Talks are on and we may conclude some agreements soon,” a top BSNL executive told ET. As per industry estimates, BSNL will get upwards of Rs 750 crore annually by signing commercial roaming deals with private operators. It is also learnt that BSNL wants a higher revenue sharing between operators for roaming customers, over and above the fixed 30-paise-per-minute charge the regulator has granted the operator on whose network the roaming call is terminated. The logic: BSNL feels that since all operators treat their roaming customers differently by charging a much higher tariff that is not cost-based, there should be revenue share between roamer’s home network and the terminating network. Another reason why BSNL is opening talks with private telcos was on account of the department of telecom’s (DoT’s) plans to make it mandatory for all telcos to open their networks for roaming after the introduction of 3G services. This is because, the DoT is of the view that there would only be a limited number of 3G service providers. Besides, 3G services are likely to be restricted to the metros and key circles initially. Therefore customers of these telcos who offer 3G will have to depend on 2G networks and services of other telcos. Another option for customers is to switch on to the 3G networks of BSNL since the PSU will be the only operator to roll-out these high-end services across all circles.

BSNL allows roaming with private telcos 14 Sep, 2008, 1235 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: Mobile subscribers are likely to enjoy seamless connectivity throughout the country soon, as state-run BSNL has decided to share its network with private telcos for roaming agreements. In a Management Committee meeting recently, the PSU approved a proposal in this regard. "The MoU in this regard may be signed with the seeking operators initially for six months only on non-exclusive and experimental basis," a BSNL internal circular of the Management Committee meeting said. BSNL will sign the first roaming agreement with new telecom operator Swan Telecom, the circular said. The committee has decided to levy roaming charge of 52 paise a minute per outgoing call. "The Management Committee, after detailed discussion, has decided that roaming charge of 52 paise per outgoing call may be offered for the intra-circle roaming service seeking operators," it said, adding BSNL would review the charge after initial six months and it could be revised up or downward based on prevailing conditions and volume of business. The committee said only the idle capacity of the network will be used to earn extra revenue. The incremental additional cost of of the upgradation of equipment to provide roaming will be borne by the seeker operators. With this, subscribers of private operators will finally be able to roam on BSNLs nation-wide network. While all private telcos have roaming agreements with each other, BSNL, till date, has not opened up its networks for roaming deals.

DoT snubs FinMin, retains reserve price for 3G spectrum 14 Sep, 2008, 1642 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: The Department of Telecom has ignored Finance Ministry's suggestion to raise the reserve price of spectrum for 3G mobile services to Rs 2,500 crore, saying the auction process would discover the best price. "DoT has carefully considered the suggestion ofthe Ministry of Finance to raise the reserve price from Rs 2,200 crore to Rs 2,500 crore but maintained the status quo since the ascending order auction would in any case discover the price in consonance with market conditions, DoT sources said. The Ministry of Finance held a meeting with the senior officials of the Telecom Commission recently and raising the reserve price was one of the major issues discussed. According to sources, DoT has already incorporated rest of the amendments suggested by the Ministry of Finance. The DoT has, however, suitably incorporated the change in the annual spectrum usage charge for 3G services and it would be at the rate of one per cent on the incremental revenue due to 3G mobile services. On this also, the DoT is planning to have a detailed discussions with all the stakeholders like telecom operators for evolving a formula for fixation of annual spectrum charge. Sources close to the development said that DoT may consider segregation of revenues generated from 2G and 3G services separately to work out the annual spectrum usage charges. Sources said that this would be necessary to maintain transparency in disclosing the revenues from their different services for the purpose of working out annual spectrum usage charge and licence fee paid by telecom service providers to the government. Even as the DoT has initiated the process to appoint an e-agency to conduct the auction of spectrum for 3G services, the government would also simultaneously work on these issues and may incorporate changes in the guidelines shortly. The government is looking at generating close to Rs 40,000 crore from the auctioning of spectrum for 3G services. Earlier, the ministry of finance had complained that it has not been consulted on DoT guidelines on auction and allotment of spectrum for 3G and WiMax telecom services. However, responding to it,the Telecom Secretary Siddartha Behura had also shot off a strongly worded letter last month to the Finance Secretary for questioning the procedure for 3G guidelines, saying the policy announcement was made after due consultations and there was no departure from the Cabinet decision.

Yes my dear srk, Spice D88n as suggested by Vikas above can be the best option for you. Regards.

^^^ My dear Jayanth, forget about Rcom getting serious about the buyers as they are now much more interested in GSM as they already get the Pan India license to start their Gsm services. And about Nokia, we should not expect much from them because Nokia too is interested to manufacture only Gsm handsets. You can have a wide variety of Nokia Gsm handsets but in case of Cdma they have limited models only. Regards.

@Naveen My dear friend, although your problem seems to be the Network Specific but still you can try Pinging your connection and check if the problem solved or not. You can get the Ping method by searching the forum. Regards.

DoT unveils norms to select agency for 3G, WiMax bid 13 Sep, 2008, 0341 hrs IST, ET NEW DELHI: The department of telecom (DoT) on Friday issued a revised request for proposal (RFP) to select an e-auction agency that will conduct the online auctions for third generation radio frequencies in India. All interested firms have been asked to submit their bids by September 25. All firms bidding to be the agency to conduct the e-auction will also have to declare their shareholding pattern — both Indian and foreign (if any). Besides, the DoT has said that potential bidders cannot have more than 10% stake in any telecom or internet service provider in India. The guidelines also add that only those companies who have a paid up capital of Rs 2.5 crore and a networth of at least Rs 10 crore and has conducted similar auctions before will be eligible to apply. The DoT has said that the auctions of third generation radio frequencies for telcos will be held within three months of selecting the agency to conduct the same. This implies, if the agency in selected by October, the auctions must be conducted before January, 2009. Following the first round of auctions, the agency will also have to conduct subsequent auctions as and when radio frequencies are available, the DoT added. All bidders must also quote their fee for conducting the entire auction process. The fee will be the per cent of the of the total revenues they raise from the auction. “All applicants that meet the eligibility criteria will have to make a presentation before the evaluation committee demonstrating their experience and capacity to conduct the auction,” DoT said in a communication on its website. The department of telecom (DoT) has started discussions on allowing telcos to share spectrum, the radio frequencies on which all mobile services operate. In a meeting with the minister of state for communication and IT, Jyotiraditya Scindia, earlier this week, the DoT officials listed out the pros and cons of becoming the first country in the world to allow spectrum sharing. In an internal note that was presented to Mr Scindia the DoT said that spectrum sharing would help telcos use radio frequencies in a ‘more economic and efficient manner’. The note also adds that the sharing of radio frequencies between different operators would ‘boost transparency by revealing the true opportunity cost of the spectrum’ and would also make it ‘possible for companies to expand more quickly’ in addition to ‘making it easier for prospective new market entrants to acquire radio frequencies and launch operations’. “Spectrum sharing can also be used to correct inefficiencies arising from the allocation of spectrum to different applicants, which can create artificial spectrum scarcity,” the note said. According to sources, the DoT may ask telecom regulator Trai to look into this issue and frame norms for it. The regulator in an earlier recommendation had pointed out that sharing or pooling of spectrum was a complex model of infrastructure sharing that cannot be successful without close association and coordination between different mobile companies. At the same time, the DoT in its internal that was presented to Mr Scindia has also listed out five disadvantages if spectrum sharing is allowed, including loss of revenues to the government, interference between the mobile services provided by different operators which impact the quality of services and existing regulations which state that radio frequencies cannot be shared or transferred. Additionally, the DoT has also said that if spectrum sharing were to be allowed, it is possible that ‘some operators may accumulate considerable amount of radio frequencies and start driving the market’. Currently, radio frequencies are allotted to operators based on their subscriber base. This implies, every time, operators reach a pre-defined subscriber base in a given circle, they are given an additional radio frequencies. Spectrum or radio frequency is a scarce resource, which is considered as the lifeline of mobile services. Limitations in the availability of this resource has prevented many operators from expanding their operations to more circles, delayed the roll-out of 3G services in India and has also resulted in deterioration in the quality of telecom services, especially in the metros. Existing Indian regulations allow telcos to share both active infrastructure which includes as antenna, feeder cables, node B, backhaul and transmission equipment and also the passive part which means physical sites, buildings, shelters, towers, masts, power supply and battery backup. While passive sharing enables telecom companies to share over 30% in both capex and opex spending, this figure touches the 50% when active infrastructure is also shared.

Velocity Mobile Launches HTC Phone Look-alike Velocity Mobile, a nine month old collaboration between one of the world’s largest notebook computer manufacturers and a team of veteran wireless designers and engineers, have announced the retail availability of their first touchscreen phone, the Velocity 103. The company's belief is that the simplest solution is often the best solution and have thus tried with this handset to combine an easy-to-use Odyssey Interface, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone operating system and their Velocity Over The Air updates. The outcome is a sleek but rather similar-to-HTC form factor. "Consumers these days are demanding more from their phones. Our research tells us that people want experiences, not applications and functions," said David Hayes, president and managing director, Velocity Mobile. "Velocity Mobile has brought together some of the greatest minds and best of breed partners in the industry to deliver positive experience and value to consumers." Velocity Mobile’s core leadership team collectively has nearly forty years' experience in innovative mobile engineering, design, sales and marketing, and is working in collaboration with Inventec Corporation, one of the world's top three original design manufacturers (ODMs) for notebook computers. Together, these two companies have developed this GSM handset that incorporates features like a Qualcomm Mobile Station Modem (MSM) with a MSM7201 chipset, a touch screen display with a 640 x 480 VGA resolution, 256MB ROM with 128MB RAM and Bluetooth 2.0. The Velocity 103 also features Wi-fi, integrated GPS, a 2 megapixel camera, TV/VGA out and MicroSD expansion slot for more memory. It uses a trackball for navigation much like you’d find in a Samsung or Blackberry Pearl. The unlocked Velocity 103 is available for pre-order online now through Expansys for Rs. 26,477 (£334.99) and will ship by the end of September. Courtesy : Tech2

^^^ Thats really a complete loot my dear Kalpak. Regards.