Honest

Doubts raised over Reliance Communications' disclosure 24 Jul, 2008, 0019 hrs IST, ET Bureau MUMBAI: Raising questions about Reliance Communications’ (RCOM) compliance with disclosure norms, a report by a brokerage house has said that the company’s revenues, as reported to telecom regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), are significantly lower than those filed with bourses. While RCOM reported gross wireless revenues of Rs 416 crore in the March 2008 quarter, it told TRAI that its net wireless revenues were Rs 318 crore, a difference of 38.9%, according to the report by Kotak Institutional Equities Research. To top this, the revenues disclosed to TRAI are unified access service licence (UASL) revenues, which include earnings from fixed line as well. “The difference between the gross revenues reported to investors and TRAI would be even larger if we were to include the fixed line revenues in the revenues reported to shareholders,” said the report. Further, the gap between reported wireless revenues to investors has increased significantly in the past six quarters. “Reported gross revenues were 4.4% higher than TRAI-reported numbers in the December 2006 quarter, which have gone up to 25.5% in the March 2008 quarter.” Gross wireless revenues, the Kotak report said, had grown to Rs 416 crore in the March quarter this year, from Rs 337 crore in June 2007, an absolute increase of Rs 79 crore. However, in the report to TRAI, RCOM showed the increase during the period from Rs 314 crore to Rs 331 crore, a net rise of Rs 17 crore. “For other service providers such as Bharti and Idea, absolute revenues and growth were consistent between those reported to TRAI and the shareholders,” it said. However, an RCOM spokesperson declined to comment. While licence fees and spectrum charges reported to TRAI by other operators have had a meaningful increase, consistent with annual gross revenues, for RCOM, the charges have remained largely unchanged for the past three quarters. The RCOM management attributes the difference to increasing proportion of wireless revenues from rural households, direct exchange lines, data cards and R-World & RCOM’s value added services platform. On revenues from DELs, the Kotak report said: “We agree with the RCOM management on this aspect. The DoT does provide capex and opex subsidy. This can potentially explain a revenue gap of 4.3% between the revenues disclosed to investors and TRAI,” it said. “RCOM’s explanation partly addresses the reasons for the revenue gap reported to TRAI,” the report added. RCOM also said that it does not include revenues from its R-World platform and the data card business as part of the revenues reported to TRAI. “However, we note that other operators include revenues from these services as part of gross revenues and AGR; operators have to pay licence fees on all telecom-related revenues,” the report said. Further, the absolute increase in network operating costs for RCOM is lower than even Idea Cellular despite RCOM increasing population coverage for its CDMA and eight GSM circles to 90% over the past one year. Bharti’s population coverage increased to just 71% in FY08 against 58% in FY07. For FY08, RCOM’s absolute increase in interconnection costs is also lower than Idea Cellular, and significantly, lower than Bharti Airtel. The RCOM management has cited an increase in on-net calls and investments in points-of-interconnection as the prime reason, said the report.

^^^ My dear Pankaj but this news is the need for the society. All our rimwebians and guests who read this thread, will be alerted atleast. So that they could take care from such kind of spywares in the near future. Regards.

^^^ @Innu Raja My dear friend, actually Reliance does not sell these handsets, thats why they had told you that it will not support Reliance network. See even chinese phones works with Reliance network. You will get the Sim from Reliance Web World. If you have the postpaid starter kit then their should be a Ruim in the starter kit itself. And if you are already using Reliance number on another handset, then you have to convert your number to RUIM, which can be easily done from any Web World after paying some minimum amound of Rs.15/- (Blank Sim Charges). Regards.

Mobile spyware: Send this to everyone you want to snoop on 24 Jul, 2008, 0149 hrs IST, ET Bureau NEW DELHI: Crave to spy on that crucial board meeting of your rival corporate? Or, perhaps, you want to keep an eye on your party MPs to make sure they are not being lured by rivals to switch sides. Maybe, you have this irresistible urge to snoop on your spouse’s phone-talk all the time. You can do all this and more with spyware available on the Internet. At least half a dozen mobile phone hackers have set up shops on the web. All it take is an MMS to take control of somebody else’s phone. The latest mobile phone spyware doing the rounds can be installed on a Java phone by just sending an MMS, followed by an SMS containing a string of Java commands that will activate the spyware. Once the spyware is installed, whenever the person gets a call, your phone will beep and you can listen to the conversation. And every time an SMS is send, a copy of it comes to you too. What more, the victim does not even get a hint of somebody tapping on to his or her phone as the Java commands sent via SMS are configured in a way that they don’t appear anywhere on the phone. Some spyware can even switch on a phone’s camera and recorder from a remote location. “One can have a better look at who all are present in a meeting,” says Rajat Khare, director, Appin Security Labs, a network security company. “These spyware are extremely dangerous in the current cut throat corporate scenario. Such software can also shutdown a mobile phone instantly or configure it to shutdown every 15 minutes or so,” adds Mr Khare. They can destroy all data on a phone. But they don’t come cheap. A all-in-one spyware that can turn on the camera and recorder even if the phone is switched off (and the screen remains blank!) costs around $850. The spyware is run by J2ME, or Java 2 Micro Edition, a language used for programming micro devices like PDAs, phones, home appliances and sensors. The J2ME commands sent through SMS are nothing but a string of characters which when keyed in can direct a phone to perform a certain tasks. For instance, keying in *3370# can recharge a mobile phone’s battery to 50% from the reserve charge. Keying in 112 dials an emergency number regardless of whichever part of the world you are in. Most J2ME commands entered via the keypad are blocked by mobile phone makers. However, spyware directs the mobile phones to perform certain tasks like send SMSes randomly, make calls, send your address book to someone else, make somebody else listen into all your calls via digital J2ME signals. It maybe frightening that you can be spied on so easily. Luckily the handset makers and telecom operators are aware of the menace and are looking for ways to counter them. A Research In Motion (BlackBerry maker), India spokesperson told ET: “BlackBerry application control rules are designed to prevent installation of specific third-party Java applications. BlackBerry users to which you assign the policy cannot use third-party Java applications to send and receive data from internal servers.” According to Mr Khare, BlackBerry phones offers stronger immunity to spyware. “Other operating systems like Apple iPhone OS 2.0, Windows Mobile or Symbian (for Nokia phones) are attractive grounds for developing hacking applications,” he says. While Apple declined to comment, Nokia said it has a tie-up with F-Secure for virus protection for Symbian. Microsoft said it has a tie up with Symantec and Trend Micro, and Windows Mobile offers a number of security features such as Bluetooth authorisation and end-to-end encryption over a virtual private network. According to an Airtel official, the company is working towards developing robust anti-key logging applications for protection from spyware. According to security experts, subscribers should immediately get their SIM card checked by an expert seeing a rise in bills or suspicious activity like slow response time. “When sending confidential data via SMS, a SMS encryption software should be used,” says Mr Khare. To be on the safer side it will help to get the mobile phone checked occasionally to keep the spies at bay.

Rising subscriber base: Vodafone closes in on RCOM 24 Jul, 2008, 0110 hrs IST, ET Bureau NEW DELHI: Even AS Bharti Airtel remains the clear leader with over 69 million subscribers, there is a close race for the second slot. Earlier this week, Reliance Communications stated it had crossed the 50-million mark (both GSM and CDMA). Now, ET has learnt that Vodafone Essar, too, has gone past the 50-million subscriber mark. While RCOM has held on to its second place for about three years now, one will have to wait for the month-end (when all telcos release their growth figures) to see if Vodafone Essar can snatch this position. As of June-end, both RCOM and Vodfaone Essar had over 49 million customers. Unlike Bharti and RCOM, which have a pan-India presence, Vodafone Essar operates in only 16 of the 22 circles. Vodafone Essar has also become the sixth telco in Asia to have over 50 million customers in a country. In fact, three of the six telcos who have 50 million plus users in a country are from India with the others being China Telecom, China Mobile and Japan’s NTT DoCoMo. China Mobile leads the pack with over 414 million subscribers as of June-end, followed by China Unicom with 170 million customers, Bharti Airtel with about 69 million and NTT DoCoMo with about 54 million. At the same time, it is also possible that RCOM may continue to hold on to its second place in the considerable future as it has a larger reach — its CDMA operations are available in all 22 circles while Reliance Telecom, its GSM arm, offers services in eight circles. Besides, the telco will soon announce the GSM rollout in the remaining 14 circles, too. Of RCOM’s 50-million plus subscribers, the GSM base accounts for just a little over 8 million. The race will continue to be tightly fought as Vodafone Essar, too, is in the process of launching operations in the remaining six circles soon. Meanwhile, in a related development, RCOM sources said the company had completed testing of its GSM network in 100 top cities while adding that initial signal testing has been successful and was in advanced testing stages. “Equipment installation, which includes MSC, core switch and auxiliary equipment, pre-paid & billing systems, has been tested and completed in the top 250 cities. The nation-wide GSM launch is scheduled by fiscal end and the company has already made investments of about $1 billion. Equipment orders have been placed with Huawei and Alcatel Lucent,” a source said. RCOM sources also added that the telco would target a monthly growth rate of 3 million subscribers on completion of its GSM network. Last month, Bharti Airtel had set a national record by adding 2.5 million users in June.

Excess spectrum charge: COAI hits out at CDMA companies 24 Jul, 2008, 0119 hrs IST, ET Bureau The GSM operators on Wednesday hit out at CDMA companies for demanding that the former be charged market rates for all radio frequencies they hold over the 6.2 MHz limit. The Cellular Operators Association of India on Wednesday said that ‘licence terms have been outlined by successive governments over a decade ago and the allegation of CDMA stakeholders tantamounts to raising fingers at every government and administration over the last decade and accusing them of acting in an extra-constitutional and unauthorised manner’. Last week, following Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh’s demands that GSM players be charged for ‘extra spectrum, the COAI written to the prime minister saying that allegations of GSM players holding excess spectrum were “completely baseless and incorrect”. These developments come even as the Association of Unified Service Providers of India (AUSPI), the CDMA body, has moved TDSAT asking that excess spectrum be taken back from GSM operators. While at the same adding that GSM players be charged for using the excess spectrum.

^^^ @Innu Raja Yes my dear friend, the above Dual Sim handsets models V80 & B720 supports the Ruim card for CDMA alongwith GSM. So both the models can be used with Reliance network. Regards.

Then what to do in that community? ^^^ Dear Member, their are lot of other things in the life to be discussed on or to be shared with one another or between friends. As we discuss all about Reliance, Other Operators, Handsets, Handset Manufacturers and Other Services regarding Mobiles right here on our beloved Rimweb, So it is understood that their is no need to discuss the same their on Orkut. Their is much more in LIFE. Otherwise their is no LIFE at all. Regards.

^^^ Dear Member, this is not the right place for such kind of discussions as it may lead this thread to off topic. Definetely in the near future we definetely tell you about the Decision Making Portals with enough examples. Or you can say we will provide you the full encyclopedia for Decision Making Portals in General Chat Forum. But not here. Regards.

^^^ But Asit, I think their's already a community on Orkut related to Rimweb, to which many members from Rimweb too had joined. Your new thread just reminded me of a very old thread on Rimweb. Just check it out here : Orkut.com Invites Regards.

BSNL Offers Landline At Rs. 20 Per Month There was a time when landlines dominated the Indian telephone sector. With the advent of the ubiqutous mobile and subsequent cut-throat competition, tariffs have dropped and the mobile phone is now no longer considered a luxury. With mobile penetration even reaching remote corners of the country, the landline is struggling to maintain a loyal user base - even in rural India! In a bid to lure users from the rural markets, BSNL has recently announced a plan in Uttar Pradesh where users have to pay a monthly installment of Rs. 20. Another option BSNL offers is a payment of Rs 200 at one time eliminating the monthly charge. With this offer, customers can avail of 20 free calls per month. With Bollywood star Preity Zinta endorsing the brand, BSNL sure hopes to strikle it rich in the landline telephone section. As of now, this plan is offered only to selected rural areas in Uttar Pradesh, perhaps as a testing ground. If things go well, we could soon see this plan being extended to rural areas in other parts of the country. Courtesy : Techtree

^^^ Hope that everything should go well and this Plan will be available throughout all the rural / urban areas soon. And not only BSNL but MTNL's landline rentals too are much more then what mobile operators are offering. Regards.

^^^ But dear member, I think that Reliance Mobile Store, doesn't have the full access to Reliance Network and Systems. They only have partial access. By partial access I mean, that they still don't have access to decision making Portals in the systems. But still I'm not 100% sure about this. Regards.

TRAI issues consultation paper on tariff rates 23 Jul, 2008, 2133 hrs IST, Press Trust of India NEW DELHI: Telecom regulator TRAI has issued a consultation paper on a plethora of tariff offers in access service as it is of the view that the existing system needs to be reviewed to further enhance transparency in rate offers. Seeking stakeholders view, the regulator said the minimum protection period available to an access service consumer from hike in any segment of the tariff is proposed to be increased to 12 months from his/her date of enrolment into a tariff plan from the current six month time. However, lifetime subscribers and subscribers of longer periods of validity will continue to be protected for the lifetime and with respect to the longer periods of validity subscribed to by the consumers. In cases where a subscriber of an existing lifetime validity plan or unlimited validity plan opts for migration to a new lifetime validity or unlimited validity plan, with lower entry fee, the service provider shall not levy any upfront payment or recurring charges or fee for allowing such migration, TRAI has proposed. In cases of straight tariff reductions, where the declared intention of the operator is to extend the benefit to all subscribers without any attached liabilities, there shall not be any pre-condition of explicit positive action on the part of subscribers, it said. No fixed fee other than applicable taxes shall be levied on recharges exclusively meant for provision of talk time value. However, the service providers can charge a nominal fee not exceeding Rs 2 per top-up towards administrative costs.

^^^ Yes my dear Raccoon, it should be implimented in the subscribers favour. These operators had already looted innocent subscribers a lot. Now their should be some cap from TRAI on them. And about the "nominal fee not exceeding Rs.2/- per top-up towards administrative costs", could be another bunch of benefits for subscribers. Regards.

^^^ The only thing that can be possible my dear Asit, would be that Reliance could forward its latest information about Tariff Plans, Charges, Offers, Initiatives, etc to our beloved Rimweb through E-Mails. But this too seems to be difficult. Actually they will not give access even to Admin / Mods of Rimweb. As it is against the policy of the company and may be against the law also. As their could be some security threats too. But as it is rightly said, that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE IN THIS WORLD. So why can't this too be. WHERE THEIR IS A WILL, THEIR IS A WAY. Lets make impossible to I-M-POSSIBLE alltogether. Regards.

^^^ @Vijay My dear friend, its really pitty of Reliance, that they even do not bother to respond to the mails of their subscribers. Thrash the mails to some higher authority. Regards.

DoT to follow international radiation norms 23 Jul, 2008, 2010 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: Mobile handset importers and local manufacturers will now be asked to adopt international standards with regard to electro magnetic field radiation exposure. Dropping the idea to issue its own norms, Department of Telecom has now decided to adopt international guidelines regarding electro magnetic field radiation exposure for mobile telephones and base stations. DoT will adopt guidelines set by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection with regard to basic restrictions and reference levels for limiting radiation exposure, official sources said. A detailed system for implementation through third party would be worked out by the Telecom Engineering Centre, the technical wing of DoT, sources said. These conditions would be incorporated in the import licence of mobile sets, if any issued by DoT. Officials said domestic manufacturers would also be asked to adopt these standards and self certify their products . Custom authorities would be notified that the mobile handsets being imported should bear certification from manufacturers that they meet these standards. Operators would conduct audit and provide certificates regarding meeting of standards for Base Station antennae. ICNIRP guidelines, which provide the benchmark for maximum permissible emission, are already in force in Spain, Germany, Australia, France, Japan and many other countries. In India, nearly 270 million customers use cellphone and there are over 1,15,000 towers, which emit electormagnetic radiations. Although all branded mobile handsets are adhering to the global norms, it is believed that Chinese handsets are not complying with them.

Hold mobile payment service: RBI 23 Jul 2008, 0058 hrs IST, TOI NEW DELHI: The Reserve Bank on Tuesday asked banks to hold their mobile payment services till the apex bank comes out with final operating guidelines on the service. "Banks are advised to keep on hold their mobile payment services till issuance of the final guidelines," the RBI said in a notification to all scheduled commercial banks.

BSNL rings Rs.42,000 Crore expansion plan 23 Jul 2008, 0132 hrs IST, TOI NEW DELHI: State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) plans to invest Rs 42,000 crore or roughly $10 billion over the next three years, mainly on network expansion, in order to take on private sector players who are rapidly gaining territory and strength. "Our mobile expansion is on track. We have rolled out 25 million lines all-India and this capacity kicks off in August. We have announced tenders for another 93 million lines and are adding two million lines in WLL", Kuldeep Goyal, CMD, BSNL told ToI. According to sources in BSNL, its revenues have dipped 6% to Rs 32,500 crore in 2007-8 from Rs 34,600 crore in 2006-7, while net profit is down to Rs 292 crore. BSNL, which controls over three-fourth of the near Rs 27,000 crore fixed line revenues, serves as much as 80% of India's 39.5 million fixed line subscriber base. Its fixed line revenues have been flat over the last two years despite the fact that this segment incurred a decline of over 10% in revenues across India and over 20% in subscriber base between fiscal 2006-7 and 2007-08. BSNL's performance in mobile telephony has been better than fixed line business, clocking a near 13% increase in revenue to roughly Rs 10,600 crore. However, this is but a shadow of an over 35% industry growth rate which saw a majority of India's leading GSM operators like Bharti, Vodafone, Idea, Aircel, Spice and MTNL growing at over 40% in this period. While BSNL continues to be the largest service provider in national long distance (NLD/STD) and fourth largest in international long distance, its NLD revenues have witnessed a massive 40% decline. These worrying numbers, controversies regarding its mobile equipment tenders preventing rapid expansion, rapid competitor growth and a potential merger with loss-making ITI Ltd indicates that these investments are critical for BSNL's survival. BSNL is now turning towards broadband, network monitoring and managing MPLS networks for big corporates for its next big growth push. "We are in talks with international firms like Cable and Wireless and British Telecom to carry overseas traffic through Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and Managed Private Leased Services (MPLS) for big corporates," said Goyal. "Broadband penetration is another focus area for BSNL which has a capacity of four million lines of which 2.3 million are in use, representing an over 50% share of the total four million broadband connections in the country," added Goyal.

Sony Ericsson Adds to Walkman Phone Line It's official - Sony Ericsson fanboys can mark July 22nd in their calendars after reading this article. Sony Ericsson is all set for rebirth of its Walkman line of phones. Visit the Sony Ericsson website for further details. The website clearly mentions that the new line of Sony Ericsson Walkman phones will arrive on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at 10:00 CET. After launching W980 in the Walkman series line, Sony Ericsson took a good break and must've been working on fresh line on the quiet. Click on the last (outermost) white bar of 2008 circle, and you'll get to read about the global announcement. Watch the video that carries sneaky snapshots of upcoming models in Walkman series. According to Sony Ericsson fan forums, the following are the most likely models to be announced next: W302: Candybar replica of S302 in Walkman series skin for mid-range W595: Slider and upgraded version of W580i W902: Candybar with 5 megapixel camera Courtesy : Techtree

Sony Ericsson Launches 3 Walkman Phones This August will be three years since the first Walkman phone was launched. In celebration, Sony Ericsson has unveiled three new Walkman phones - the W902, The W595 and the W302. The W902 features a scratch-resistant 2.2" QVGA display, a 5 megapixel camera and music navigation keys. It comes bundled with headphones and an 8 GB Memory Stick Micro (M2). It is a UMTS/HSDPA 2100 and GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 phone that will be available in selected markets in Volcanic Black, Wine Red and Earth Green in Q4 of 2008. Courtesy : Tech2

^^^ Very true my dear Mukesh Bhai. And by the time Reliance starts providing GSM services, their would be new entrants / operators too, from whom subscribers could think to take the services. Regards.

RIM Patches PDF Attachment Vulnerability In a pro-active move, RIM recently announced that it has managed to patch a vulnerability in their BlackBerry Enterprise Server. Once the PDF parsing-related vulnerability was identified, it took no time to have the hole plugged. The security hole would have given hackers access to the Enterprise Server by tricking RIM BlackBerry email users into opening a malicious PDF email attachment, potentially leading to a crash of the entire server. Server crashes are nothing new for RIM. Back in September-October 2007, the BlackBerry servers had crashed twice in as many months prompting analysts to question the security and stability of the Enterprise Server. Since then it had been an uneventful 2008,till this flaw was spotted. RIM has confirmed that only BlackBerry server versions 4.1.3 and 4.1.5 were affected by this security hole. Enterprise Server version 4.1.6 for Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Domino was apparently not affected by the flaw. The security patches have been issued to BlackBerry Enterprise server customers. The statement added that there have been no reports yet of any actual exploitation of this vulnerability and since the patch has already been applied, this should not be a major cause of concern. Courtesy : Techtree

Vodafone sees year revenues at lower end of range 22 Jul, 2008, 1204 hrs IST, ET LONDON: Mobile phone group Vodafone posted first-quarter revenue in line with forecasts on Tuesday but said full-year revenue was expected to be around the bottom of its previously stated range due to economic weakness. Vodafone, the world's largest mobile phone company by revenues, said it added 8.5 million subscribers in the three months to the end of June, taking the company's proportionate customer base to around 269 million. Group revenues climbed 19.1 per cent to 9.8 billion pounds ($19.57 billion), with organic growth - which strips out acquisitions and disposals - of 1.7 per cent. Analysts had expected first quarter revenues of 9.8 billion pounds, according to a poll for Reuters Estimates. But the British-based group said it now expected its full-year revenue to be around the bottom of its previously stated range of 39.8 billion pounds to 40.7 billion pounds due to recent economic weakness and lower than expected equipment revenue. "Notwithstanding this more challenging operating environment, we continue to benefit from a diversity of assets and services, with strong revenue growth in (emerging countries) and another good quarter of data revenue growth offsetting weakness in Spain," Chief Executive Arun Sarin said. "Whilst we expect revenue around the bottom of the outlook range, our continued focus on cost reduction enables us to reiterate our operating profit and cash flow guidance for the year." The results will be the last for Sarin, who will step down after five years on July 29 and be replaced by his deputy Vittorio Colao.