Honest

R-Comm bets big on sports! 2008-07-16 11:38:28 CNBC-TV18 It might be tough times for the economy, but advertisers are betting big on sports. Reliance Communications has signed a one-year on-air deal with ESPN-Star Sports starting with the ICC Champions Trophy. After signing on as a global ICC sponsor last year, Reliance Communications is now pumping moolah on-air. R-Comm has signed a one-year deal with ESPN-Star Sports in the range of Rs 30 crore. The deal will kick off with the ICC Champions Trophy starting September 11 in Pakistan. While Reliance Communications confirmed this long-term deal with ESPN-Star Sports, the sports broadcaster offered no comments. This deal would also include R-Comm's presence on the Barclays Premier League, Twenty20 World Cup next year, Formula One, three tennis grand slams and a whole lot of non-India cricket. ESPN-Star Sports had signed a similar long-term on-air deal with Nike last year focussed on football for around Rs 15 crore.

No doubt my dear friends, TATA's network is really good in many parts of India. If we compare TATA CDMA with other GSM operators, then TATA's is a ahead of all of them. And if we compare TATA with RELIANCE CDMA then still Reliance seems to be the best in Network. Regards.

@traghu79 My dear friend you can try MP4 Videos from here : TASHAN OF RIMWEB Videos in the above link will definetely work with your Nokia 6275. Regards.

^^^ You can get the panel for your Classic mobile from the service centre of Classic. Regards.

^^^ Thats no good of IDEA at all. They increased the STD charges by 0.20 paise. Hope other operators like VODAFONE too will not do this to their subscribers. Regards.

^^^ My dear friend, 3gp is not a software which you can install in your mobile. Infact 3gp is a file extension / file type, which is associated with Video files. So, if you want to view videos on your mobile then you have to first convert them to *.3gp or *.mp4. Regards.

Amar's spectrum call gets forwarded by PMO 15 Jul, 2008, 2358 hrs IST, ET NEW DELHI/KOLKATA: The government has taken the first steps to appease the Samajwadi Party-its new partner at the Centre. The Prime Minster's Office (PMO) has forwarded SP general secretary Amar Singh’s demands to impose a windfall tax on private refineries and make GSM telecom operators pay for additional spectrum to the respective ministries and has asked them to look into it. The PMO has asked both the communications ministry and finance ministry to look into and act on Amar Singh’s demands that GSM players be charged a one-time market rate for all the radio frequencies they hold over 6.2 MHz. Last year, RCOM chairman Anil Ambani had written several letters to both PM and the communications ministry on exactly similar lines. Sources said that DoT was considering Mr Singh’s demand that the government impose a one-time fee of Rs 1,312 crore for every MHz of spectrum that GSM players held over 6.2 MHz mark as this can rake up over Rs 10,000 crore to the government. Besides, this proposal is in line with an earlier demand from the finance ministry. The Telecom Commission is slated to meet on Friday to consider levying one-time spectrum charges for existing telecom operators. Both Amar Singh and finmin want this one-time fee to be applied to all existing GSM telcos from the time their spectrum capacity crossed 6.2 MHz limit.

Indian mobile VAS market to hit $2bn in 2008: PwC 16 Jul, 2008, 0006 hrs IST, ET NEW DELHI: Following a dip in revenues from voice-based services, mobile value-added services (MVAS) is all set to see a phenomenal growth across the world. According to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), the Indian mobile VAS market is all set to grow to $2 bn in 2008. Currently, mobile VAS in India accounts for 10% of the operator’s revenue, which is expected to reach 18% by 2010. The worldwide spending on MVAS, including mobile music, mobile payment and mobile advertising will reach $55.6 bn by 2011, the report added. Mobile payment, which currently accounts for just 1% of the data services market, is set to add 70.9 mn users by 2010, the report states. According to the report, the key driver for the growth of VAS in mobile payment segment will be demand from rural and semi-urban areas, where a huge gap exists in banking infrastructure. Mobile wallet will also replace plastic cards (credit cards) in coming years, the report added. "India has a high proportion of mobile subscribers to total telecom subscribers, driven by the faster wireless rollout, inexpensive handsets and low cost prepaid cards. Here, money transfers, driven by lack of banking infrastructure is a key service need," the report said. Currently, about 44% of VAS revenue in India is driven by short messaging service applications. The youth segment will also continue to drive the market, particularly in the entertainment MVAS. The mobile music segment is also set to fuel up with user spending on mobile music expected to increase to $32.2 bn in 2010 compared to $13.7 in 2007. While the revenue from mobile gaming is expected to grow to $9.6 in 2011 compared to $1.8 bn in 2007. Mobile advertising, which is an important VAS segment, is expected to grow consistently to reach a valuation of $12.8 bn by 2011, compared to $2.7 bn in 2008. The growth in this segment will be fuelled predominantly by rollout of 3G networks, IPTV and high- end gaming on mobile phones. The size of mobile advertising in India is miniscule. However, analysts believe it has potential to grow at 200% a year, giving operators a new revenue source. Currently, the VAS market is governed by short message service (SMS), Interactive voice response (IVR) and WAP portal platforms, delivering applications such as entertainment, advertisement, gaming and news.

Mobile marketing now takes a bite of bluetooth 15 Jul, 2008, 0613 hrs IST, ET NEW DELHI: Your mobile’s bluetooth is the next big wisdom for admen and marketers. Step into a mall or temple, and your mobile complements its surroundings with local ads, special offers, merchandise, directions, aarti timings and what have you. All you need is to switch on the cell and ‘bluecasting’ takes over. While malls are making full use of this proximity marketing, as advertisers call it, retail chains, manufacturers of apparel, consumer durables and banks are also getting connected. Have faith, even temples in southern states are using it to the benefit of devotees. Coimbatore’s Vasavi temple is one such example. While companies provide discount coupons apart from freebies to lure them to their stores, temples have other things to offer. Bluecasting at the Vasavi temple, started recently, was a huge success where free wallpapers and ringtones were offered for devotees. There was more than 70% acceptance in the temple at Coimbatore where worshippers got wallpapers of Gods and Goddesses and slokas as ringtones. Worshippers who attended annual day celebrations were treated with free mobile content. “The campaign attracted huge turnout and acceptance,” says Suresh Narasimha, CEO of Bangalore-based Telibrahma Convergent Communications, which also did bluecasting during the recent IPL matches and has Hero Honda, Maruti, HSBC, ICICI Bank and Shoppers Stop, among its clients. Pune-based One-2-One Technologies did a bluecasting campaign for HSBC through Mindshare across nine airports in the country. Says Nilesh Kale, founder of One-2-One, “Our technology has been used by leading agencies in India to service brands such as Idea, HSBC, Wrangler, Lee and Disney.” Companies like his and Telibrahma see a 10-fold growth in business on a monthly basis. And why not? With the growth of mobile subscribers by 15 million users per month, admen and marketers are indeed gnashing their bluetooth to grind every opportunity. According to estimates, currently mobile marketing fetches around Rs 50 crore in revenues each year. This figure is expected to jump the Rs 500-crore mark in the next five years. And as far as the target audience is concerned, there’s no dearth of tech-savvy urban and semi-urban youth to rake in the moolah, feel advertisers. The brands get the ability to send content-rich offers to consumers without the need of a GPRS connection and since this is an opt-in technology, the advertiser requests you to switch on your phone’s bluetooth, the negativity associated with pure-push technologies like SMS is easily dodged. “There is also a viral effect as people usually share this content with their friends and family,” says Lowe executive director Tarun Chauhan.

@Asit Oh, thats really seems to be a big problem for you my dear friend. Now only thing you can try, is to find out the importer of Nvidia cards in your city. As, just like their are authorised distributors of any brand in all city's, so as their are big Importers for the same brands, which provides the same products with their own warranty. Their personal technicians repair the product if their is any fault. The Importer of Nvidia cards of your city can definetely help you out in this matter. Try to find if their is any in your city. Regards.

Thats a great collection indeed my dear Munna. Really awsome. Regards.

TDSAT scraps plead challenging tariff hike by telcos last year 15 Jul, 2008, 1800 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI : Telecom tribunal TDSAT on Tuesday disposed of two petitions challenging tariff hike by the three major telecom players Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea in August 2007, after observing that the charges has come down. "Today, the factual position is that such rates and rates of other telecom services have drastically come down. Thus, this petition has become infructuous and is accordingly disposed of," said TDSAT Chairman Justice Arun Kumar. During the proceedings of the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal, counsels appearing for the telecos submitted that the tariff hike by the companies in August last year has become thing a of past and current prices are much below to the rates challenged in petition. They added that the after issuance of new licences by DoT, the sector is now gearing up for more competition and prices would further come down. Moreover, Justice Kumar also observed - 'fixing the tariff was not tribunal's work'. Delhi-based two consumer organisation Telecom Users Group of India and Telecom Watchdog had filed a petition seeking TDSAT's direction alleging that the three telcos have formed a cartel and increased local call charges by 20 per cent along with 20-32 per cent increase on ISD calls. However, TRAI had already made its stand clear on this issue saying that the charges were with in its forebearance limit and there was no urgency to intervene in that.

BSNL Bidding For Vanity Mobile Numbers From July 21 Want to grab a mobile number of your choice? Be ready. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will open the bidding July 21 for "vanity and VIP" mobile numbers in Uttar Pradesh, an official said Monday. And the minimum bid for a mobile number will be set depending upon the frequency of occurrence of a digit in the number - the higher the frequency, more the price. "Depending upon the occurrence of digits in a mobile number, the minimum bidding amount ranges from Rs. 7,500 to Rs. 50,000," BSNL's DGM Mobile Mahendra Srivastava told IANS. The rarer the occurrence of the number, the higher is the minimum bidding amount, he said. The bidding process will continue till July 28, officials said. For mobile numbers containing eight similar digits, the minimum bidding amount has been fixed at Rs. 50,000. Likewise, for six similar digits in a mobile number, minimum bid has been fixed at Rs. 15,000, officials added.

Telcos oppose move to frame norms for value-added services 15 Jul, 2008, 0034 hrs IST, ET NEW DELHI: Telcos have opposed any move by the government or sector regulator Trai to regulate or frame guidelines for the value-added services (VAS). Telcos want light touch regulation, where they only have to inform the department of telecom (DoT) before launching a service. VAS accounts for about 10% of the service providers’ revenues. Trai will soon take a call on whether VAS should be regulated in India. “We believe that the current licensing obligations for provisioning of VAS are appropriate and adequate. So, there is no need for imposing any further obligation on the telecom operators,” the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the body representing GSM players, said in its communication to Trai. Ditto to the CDMA industry body—Association of Unified Service Providers of India (AUSPI)—which said: “Once DoT has been intimated about a VAS by a service provider and service provider also informs about the availability of Logical Information Machine (LIM) with a self certification regarding compliance to licensing terms and conditions, service provider should be allowed to offer service without awaiting any additional or formal clearance.” At the same time, the COAI has pointed out that delay for obtaining a security clearance, which at times stretched for years was acting as a major bottleneck and hindrance for the growth of VAS. “So as to give a further impetus to VAS and to preserve the innovativeness of this segment, it is desirable and in fact even necessary that the security clearances be granted and service approved in a time-bound manner, the GSM body added. VAS operators, however, do not share the telcos’ viewpoint and have demanded that the regulator impose guidelines for the sector. For instance, Times Internet, one of the leading VAS providers, has said that the regulator must ‘push for transparency on Management Information System (MIS) by mandating mobile operators to share data about downloads, usage etc on VAS services’. Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the representative body of content providers, also backed the move to impose additional obligations on telcos. The association recommended regulations for telecom operators regarding availability of short codes, access and interconnect norms as well as payment structure. Net Core, in its response to Trai, suggested that voice minutes and SMS capacity should be sold in wholesale to the VASPs in order to provide level-playing field.

China’s ZTE eyes tie-ups with Indian telcos 15 Jul, 2008, 0036 hrs IST, ET SHANGHAI/SHENZHEN: Tian Ling, the celebrity Beijing 2008 Olympic torchbearer, is not a 3G technology buff. But he is upbeat about Chinese companies joining the league of global vendors, leveraging on opportunities to promote the use of 3G technology in the Olympic Games. ZTE, ranked among the top six mobile vendors globally, claims to have grabbed over a third of the market-share of 3G handsets in China after China Mobile began commercial trails two months ago. The company, listed on the Shanghai and Honk Kong bourses, is now watching market developments in India including the likely rollout of 3G services to explore equipment supply tie-ups with prospective operators. Bharti and Vodafone have already tied-up with Apple to offer iPhone 3G, though the government is yet to award licences for 3G services. With competition intensifying in the telecom market, ZTE is on a brand-building mission to bolster sales in India that topped $ 750 million in 2008. As a first step, it plans to directly market low-cost handsets under its own brand. “If the timing is right, we will sell low-cost ZTE handsets directly in the Indian market by this year end. We will bank on volumes to drive growth”, said ZTE executive vice-president He Shiyou. Its R&D facility in India for developing value-added services is equipped to make handsets if required. The Shenzhen headquartered company provides CDMA handsets to telecom operators including Communications, Tata Teleservices and BSNL. It is also in talks with GSM licensees for product offerings and network expansion, said ZTE director for international marketing Richun Wu. Vodafone already has an exclusive global tie-up with ZTE to source GSM handsets. While these distribution channels will continue, Shiyou reckons that direct marketing of its low cost handsets makes business sense as India has emerged as the fastest growing mobile market. Over 7 million new connections are being added every month. Analysts, however, say the going may be tough as Nokia commands a 60% market-share in mobile handsets in India. ZTE’s target is to make 50 million handsets in 2008 and deliver over 15 million of these to India. In 2007, it produced 30 million handsets, of which 10 million came to India. Its brand-building strategy also revolves around more tie-ups with mainstream CDMA and GSM network operators, selling broadband, WiMAX and IPTV solutions.

^^^ @Asit My dear friend, it seems that, you yourself have judged it very correctly. If you are not getting any problems with another graphics card then surely the problem is with your current Nvidia card. You must visit the service centre. Regards.

^^^ @Akshat My dear friend, if anyone get his / her very desired mobile number then their is no issue of whichever the operator is. The main thing is that now a days subscribers want their own desired numbers. If I get my desired number with any operator, I could think to shift. And BSNL is not that bad my dear friend. Regards.

Apple sells million iPhones in three days of release 14 Jul, 2008, 2035 hrs IST, ET NEW YORK: Apple Inc said on Monday it has sold one million iPhones in the three days following the release of the latest model on Friday. "IPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend," said Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, in a statement on Monday. But the launch was plagued by software problems. All the new iPhones had to connect to Apple's servers for activation, which quickly overloaded them. Lines of customers built in stores as employees were unable to get the phones working. Additionally, new software was released for the old iPhone, which required reactivation of those phones. Many owners of the older phone were left with unusable units. The iPhone 3G was launched simultaneously in 21 countries, including the US. Apple had sold about 6 million units of the first-model iPhone since it launched in the US a year ago. The company has set a goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008. Shares of Apple rose $5.32, or 3.1 per cent, to $177.90 in morning trading.

^^^ My dear friend, if your handset is 6-7 months old then their is no chance for getting the replacement. In my opinion their could be the problem of battery charger. Reliance doesn't have any role in this. You have to contact the ZTE service centre. Regards.

Got A Nokia Account Yet? Nokia is converging all its services under one roof so that they can be accessed from a single user ID, which will be your new Nokia account. This marks a gradual shift for the company from being only a mobile phone manufacturer to a service provider. While most of these services like Maps, File and Music Store were originally owned by different companies, they were eventually bought out by Nokia Originally, these services had different membership systems. With Nokia bringing all these services under one roof, it has decided to spare customers the inconvenience of having to use different IDs for each service. This is one of the reasons why Nokia is aiming for an unified account access system a la Google. Nokia has also launched an umbrella brand for all these services. Known as the "Ovi" (Finnish for Door), the website can be accessed on www.ovi.com. The services that can be availed currently include Maps, Nokia Music Store, Ovi Share, Ovi Files and N-gage. There is also a new chat application coming up. More on that on Nokia Chat Beta. To create your account, all you need to do is visit http://accounts.nokia.com and sign up using a valid email ID. We did notice initial issues with sign up and webpage access, but hopefully these will be fixed soon. Courtesy : Techtree

^^^ My dear friend, its how much time you had purchased the handset ? If it is more then a week then its not possible to get the replacement. You will only get it repaired. Also the replacement depends on the kind of problem you are getting from your handset. Regards.

^^^ This really seems to be a good news for all MTNL users. MTNL is really doing good for all its subscribers. Regards.

Motorola launches co-branded handset with Ferrari 14 Jul, 2008, 1544 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: US-based mobile phone maker Motorola today said it has joined hands with Italian sports car manufacturer Ferrari to launch a co-branded 3G-enabled handset priced at Rs 21,840 in the Indian market. The new handset -MOTORAZR 2 V9 Ferrari would be available exclusively at the Mobile Store for the first week of its launch. However, the phone would not be a limited edition device. "The consumers mindset and taste is rapidly changing in India. The formula one racing culture is fast catching the fancy of the Indian youth and we are confident that we will find the right kind of audience for the product here," Motorola Senior Director, Sales and Distribution (India and South West Asia) Lloyd Mathias said. The product is 3G enabled, so users could use the device to watch movies as well, once the operators start 3G services here, he said. The phone comes with a unique racing interface, 2-mega pixel camera and has expandable memory up to 2 GB. "Initially, the product will be available in ten cities such as Delhi and NCR , Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Pune , Kochin and other cities. Depending on the success we will make the product available in other cities as well," Essar Telecom Retail (The Mobile Store) CEO and Director Rajiv Aggarwal said.

^^^ My dear friend, I don't think that their is any postpaid plans available with Virgin right now. In Virgin you will get only Prepaid. Regards.

Trai hits out at DoT, now over WiMax 14 Jul, 2008, 0034 hrs IST, ET NEW DELHI: Telecom regulator Trai has slammed the communications ministry for being secretive about the amount of wireless broadband (WiMAX) spectrum that is currently available in the country. Trai has also accused the Department of Telecom (DoT) of keeping it in the dark, both on the availability of WiMAX spectrum as well as on the government’s efforts to get other users such as the department of space to vacate these radio frequencies.The regulator has also demanded that the government put in place a transparent and efficient spectrum management regime. “The results of the efforts made by the Wireless Planning & Coordination (WPC wing of the DoT) to get the required spectrum bands vacated/re-farmed from the incumbents are not available in the public domain. The Authority has time and again emphasized that in the times to come, the spectrum will become the most valuable and scarce resource as with the advent of new data centric applications, its demand will increase and there will be competitive users for the same band of spectrum. Therefore, there is a need to have a transparent, predictable and efficient spectrum management system for allocation and pricing of the spectrum,” Trai said in its communication to the DoT. Trai has also point blank told the DoT that even as other countries had rolled out WiMAX services, the process in India had been delayed ‘due to uncertainty in the spectrum allocation policies’. “Unless immediate action is taken for vacation of spectrum and its further allotment is done in a time bound manner with the clear-cut roadmap, little progress will be made in term of penetration of wireless broadband in the country,” the regulator warned. Trai has also directed the DoT to work with the Department of Space (DoS) to get 100 MHz for broadband wireless spectrum vacated urgently in the 3.4 - 3.6 GHz band for wireless broadband services. At the same time, the authority also took a dig at the DoT and said: “The Authority does not have any information regarding the efforts made by the DoT/WPC to coordinate with the DoS for spectrum in this band, and also results of the study done to find solution to the interference problem in this band between the satellite and terrestrial wireless services.” Importantly, Trai has also decided not to make any recommendation for 3.4-3.6 GHz frequency bands unless the DoT assess the compatibility of satellite based services with WiMAX services in a transparent manner. Again, in the case of 2.5 to 2.69 GHz frequency bands, Trai has asked the DoT to coordinate with the DoS and ascertain the feasibility of vacation of additional spectrum in this band within the next 45 days.