News Snippets

[nitink 279]

One Plus X Launched, https://oneplus.net/x/

will cdma/evdo work out of the box, check the specs >

https://oneplus.net/x/specs

EU/India:

GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900MHz

TDD-LTE: Bands 38/40
WCDMA: Bands 1/2/5/8
FDD-LTE: Bands 1/3/5/7/8/20
CDMA EVDO: -

[Dushie 30]

If it does CDMA then it's excellent news

Sent from my XT1031 using Tapatalk

[SUDYEcaZ 67]

One Plus X Launched, https://oneplus.net/x/

will cdma/evdo work out of the box, check the specs >

https://oneplus.net/x/specs

EU/India:

GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900MHz

TDD-LTE: Bands 38/40

WCDMA: Bands 1/2/5/8

FDD-LTE: Bands 1/3/5/7/8/20

CDMA EVDO: -

I guess no bands are mentioned.

Will not support CDMA.

[SUDYEcaZ 67]

http://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/policy/rcom-board-meet-on-monday-to-mull-sistema-shyam-telecom-business-merger/49608665

NEW DELHI: Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Communications' board will meet Monday for considering merger of Sistema Shyam Teleservices Limited's (SSTL) telecom business into itself, which could well mark the beginning of the first consolidation in the telecom sector since 2009.
The No 4 mobile services provider by subscribers, told the Bombay Stock Exchange on Saturday that it would hold a meeting of the Board of Directors on November 02 'to consider a scheme of arrangement for demerger of telecom business undertaking of Sistema Shyam Teleservices Limited into the company.' SSTL operates in India under the MTS brand.

Separately, sources said that the board of Russia's Sistema JSFC had met on Saturday to ratify the demerger of the telecom business from its Indian unit, SSTL, and merge it with RCom's business.

An SSTL spokesman declined to comment.
The companies had entered into talks in May for a possible merger of their operations in the country through a stock swap, where MTS could get a stake of 8-10% of the merged entity. RCom would keep the controlling stake, absorb most of the chief executives from the Russian company, while not taking on any debt. MTS has a debt of around Rs 3,800 crore.

RCom had told BSE in June that the discussions were 'indicative and non-binding in nature,' and were subject to due diligence, definitive documentation and approvals.

ET had first reported the deal in the works in May, and subsequent developments over last few months.

Sistema JSFC holds nearly 57% in Sistema Shyam, which uses CDMA technology in nine of India's 22 service areas to nearly 10 million subscribers. Other shareholders include the Russian government with over 17% and Shyam Group, the Indian promoters of SSTL, holding 24%. Minority shareholders own the rest.

Sistema entered India in 2007 and got licenses in all 22 circles a year later. But in 2012, the Supreme Court cancelled all but one of the company's licences. The pure-play CDMA operator bought back through a subsequent auction airwaves in eight circles - Delhi NCR, Kolkata, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh (West) and West Bengal - rights for which expire in 2033.

SSTL's acquisition would extend the combined entity's license validity period, future-proofing nearly half RCom's telecom circles which expire by 2022-23. RCom has 21 circles which expire by this year, while West Bengal expires in 2017. It acquired Assam and the Northeast in the February auction, which will last till 2035.

RCom would also not need to pay anything more to the government if it acquires SSTL's bandwidth, going by the current M&A rules , as all of the airwaves have been won in auctions.

Having chosen to give up on 900 Mhz in some of its circles in the recent auctions, and instead buy more of the 850 Mhz band, RCom expects to launch 4G services on these airwaves by the end of 2015.

[praveenwarrier 49]

http://goo.gl/Mpvfha

Telecom spectrum trading norms make Ambani brothers cheer..!!

[KanagaDeepan 1,084]

Looks like Ambani brothers are going to use all of the CDMA spectrum for 4G LTE.. Especially in Mah and AP circles, total of RCom + MTS + RJio has only 5MHz spectrum, which is bare minimum for framing LTE network..

[Venkatagiri 53]

Xiaomi launches ‘Mi Protect’ insurance plans for smartphones

The Mi Protect service is applicable only for products purchased from the company’s official website for India.

Once purchased, users can get their devices repaired if it is damaged by liquid.

Xiaomi Mi Protect insurance benefits

1. Accidental and liquid damage protection
2. Doorstep pickup and drop-off
3. 24X7 call center support to report damages
4. Two repairs. Restoration of full amount after the first repair
5. One call to block your SIM from anywhere in the world
6. SIM misuse insurance cover of up to Rs. 3000
7. Smartphone assistance to resolve all your Mi phone related queries
8. Docusafe of up to 1GB to store and access all your important documents from anywhere in the world

http://telecomtalk.info/xiaomi-mi-protect-insurance-plans-prices-benefits/145555/

[nitink 279]

RCom in talks with Aircel to combine mobile businesses

Reliance Communications (RCom) is in talks with shareholders of telecom operator Aircel for a potential merger of the wireless or mobile businesses of the two companies.

The Anil Ambani-led telecom company said, "It has entered into a 90-day exclusivity period with Maxis Communications Berhad (MCB) and Sindya Securities and Investments Private Limited, the shareholders of Aircel Limited, to consider the potential combination of the Indian wireless businesses of RCom and Aircel."

RCom is already in the process of merging Indian mobile telephony business of Sistema Shyam Teleservices under MTS brand.

According to sources, the proposal on the table includes operation of mobile business of three companies - RCom, MTS and Aircel, under a new entity led by RCom.

The merged entity will be created through equity deal where RCom's shareholders are looking for three shares against each held by them.

The current debt of RCom, estimated to be around Rs 10,000 crore, will be transferred to this new entity and the company will become free of debt, sources said.

"RCom has expressed interest in focusing on enterprise business while the new entity, whose brand and other details will be finalised later, will run mobile business created by using resources of RCom, Aircel and MTS," they said.

The combination of RCom, Aircel, MTS wireless businesses will hold 19.3 per cent of the total spectrum allocated to the the industry - the highest in the country by an entity.

The new entity, which is in the works, will hold spectrum across all allocated bands -- 800 Mhz, 900 Mhz, 1800 Mhz, 2100 Mhz and 2300 MHz -- for 2G, 3G and 4G services.

"With merger of MTS and Aircel, Reliance Communications will become a formidable entity with approximately 200 million subscribers. Furthermore, with spectrum consolidation, it can plan its longer term business strategy better," Gartner Research Director Amresh Nandan said.

"It will allow them (RCom) to target high-end services on mobile broadband and business-centric mobility solutions."

RCom said the idea of potential combination of business with Aircel is to mutually derive expected substantial benefits of in-country consolidation, including operating expenditure (opex) and capital expenditure (capex) synergies and revenue enhancement.

"The discussions are non-binding in nature. Any transaction will be subject to due diligence, definitive documentation and regulatory, shareholders' and other third-party approvals. Hence, there is no certainty that any transaction will result," the company said.

The potential combination will exclude RCom's towers and optical fibre infrastructure, for which RCom is proceeding with an asset sale, as announced on December 4, 2015.

On December 4, RCom said it had signed a non-binding pact to sell its cellular towers to private equity firm Tillman Global Holdings LLC and TPG Asia Inc in an estimated Rs 30,000-crore deal to pare debt.

The stock of RCom closed at 85.70, up 2.39 per cent, on BSE today.

source http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/rcom-in-talks-with-aircel-to-combine-mobile-businesses-115122200577_1.html

[Venkatagiri 53]

Reliance Jio, Airtel oppose auction of 700 Mhz band till devices are available

http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/reliance-jio-airtel-oppose-auction-of-700-mhz-band-till-devices-are-available/article8026236.ece?w=alauto

[KanagaDeepan 1,084]

Since RJio is also opposing, 700MHz spectrum auction may not happen this year

sent from my Lenovo Vibe P1 using Tapatalk

[praveenwarrier 49]

Netflix comes to India..

http://goo.gl/Hh0IDs

[Venkatagiri 53]

The DoT has asked RCom to pay Rs 5,384 crore for sharing its 800 MHz spectrum in 16 circles.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/rcom-asked-to-pay-up-rs-5-384-cr-spectrum-fee-116011200626_1.html

[Venkatagiri 53]

TRAI mulls auction of 35 MHz of 700 MHz band in upcoming spectrum sell-off

Very interesting

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/trai-mulls-auction-of-35-mhz-of-700-mhz-band-in-upcoming-spectrum-selloff/article8135745.ece?homepage=true

[::: VA ::: 531]

Are there any globetrotter in this forum?

This could come as a great news or the most exceptional one. A company called chatsim is providing their sim for 10€ annual subscription to use instant messaging through most popular chat apps across 150 countries at no extra/roaming charges. WhatsApp, line, messenger, bbm, telegram, etc. Are supported. If you have a dual sim phone then you could just keep this as extra sim whenever you are traveling. It could greatly reduce international roaming data usage. If you want to send pics and videos during chat then there is extra subscription fee. Else they will only let your apps pass your texts and emojis of course. Too good to be true.

http://www.chatsim.com/en

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

[nitink 279]

India smartphone market up 23 pct; Reliance Jio’s Lyf becomes second largest LTE phone supplier

India smartphone market grew 23 per cent in the first quarter of 2016, surpassing the US to become the second largest country in terms of users, even as sales remained flat globally while Reliance Jio’s Lyf became the second largest LTE phone supplier surpassing Micromax and Lenovo during january-March 2016, research firm Counterpoint said today.

“India which surpassed USA to become the second largest smartphone market in terms of users has continued to register strong demand for smartphone,” Counterpoint Research Research Director Peter Richardson said.
There is a massive opportunity for every player in the mobile value chain when the second largest market by volume is still under penetrated and growing, while the rest of the world smartphone demand has waned, he added.

“India is the next China…more than a billion smartphones will be sold in India over the next five years. This will drive the number of smartphone users from quarter of a billion to more than half a billion in the same time period,” he said.

Furthermore, the advent of advanced 4G LTE network infrastructure will also be a key catalyst in the country’s smartphone adoption in coming years, it said.
Global smartphone shipments remained flat at 344 million units in January-March, impacted by weaker demand in China and Brazil as well as parts of Europe, as per Counterpoint.
It added that this is the first time since the launch of smartphones that the segment globally has seen no growth.
Samsung led the India smartphone tally with 29 per cent share. Interestingly, Reliance Jio, which forayed into the market this quarter itself with brand ‘Lyf’, cornered 7 per cent share.

“We estimate, this quarter strong shipment was more of channel filling, the actual sell-through will happen in Q2 2016 as the operator starts full-fledged marketing and promotional activity,” the report said.
Others in the list included Micromax (17 per cent), Intex (10 per cent) and Lenovo (8 per cent) and Karbonn (5 per cent).

Apple recorded a stellar 62 per cent growth in the first quarter from year-ago period, though on a lower base, thus registering back-to-back sequential growth in spite of negative growth results globally for iPhones.
In terms of overall mobile phone sales (including feature phones), Samsung led the segment with 25 per cent share, followed by Micromax (14 per cent), Intex (11 per cent), Lava (9 per cent) and Karbonn (5 per cent).
“The demand for LTE smartphones remained strong as two out of three smartphone shipped was LTE capable,” Counterpoint Senior Analyst Tarun Pathak said.

source

[srk006 21]

The key here is

“We estimate, this quarter strong shipment was more of channel filling, the actual sell-through will happen in Q2 2016 as the operator starts full-fledged marketing and promotional activity,” the report said.

The sales of Lyf is not the actual retail sales... It's just the shipment to dealers.

[KanagaDeepan 1,084]

Haha. Hype machine of jio [LYF here] is as usual in full swing..

sent from my Lenovo Vibe P1 using Tapatalk

[prihir 53]

The key here is

“We estimate, this quarter strong shipment was more of channel filling, the actual sell-through will happen in Q2 2016 as the operator starts full-fledged marketing and promotional activity,” the report said.

The sales of Lyf is not the actual retail sales... It's just the shipment to dealers.

Here Main distributor have 75 Lakh Rs. stock of This Instruments. (It's UNOFFICIAL but TRUE)......

[csmart 472]

This could be a real shocker. Phones send data secretly to servers in China as per NY Times.

Quote

Secret Back Door in Some U.S. Phones Sent Data to China, Analysts Say

点击查看本文中文版

 

 

WASHINGTON — For about $50, you can get a smartphone with a high-definition display, fast data service and, according to security contractors, a secret feature: a backdoor that sends all your text messages to China every 72 hours.

Security contractors recently discovered preinstalled software in some Android phones that monitors where users go, whom they talk to and what they write in text messages. The American authorities say it is not clear whether this represents secretive data mining for advertising purposes or a Chinese government effort to collect intelligence.

International customers and users of disposable or prepaid phones are the people most affected by the software. But the scope is unclear. The Chinese company that wrote the software, Shanghai Adups Technology Company, says its code runs on more than 700 million phones, cars and other smart devices. One American phone manufacturer, BLU Products, said that 120,000 of its phones had been affected and that it had updated the software to eliminate the feature.

Kryptowire, the security firm that discovered the vulnerability, said the Adups software transmitted the full contents of text messages, contact lists, call logs, location information and other data to a Chinese server. The code comes preinstalled on phones and the surveillance is not disclosed to users, said Tom Karygiannis, a vice president of Kryptowire, which is based in Fairfax, Va. “Even if you wanted to, you wouldn’t have known about it,” he said.

Security experts frequently discover vulnerabilities in consumer electronics, but this case is exceptional. It was not a bug. Rather, Adups intentionally designed the software to help a Chinese phone manufacturer monitor user behavior, according to a document that Adups provided to explain the problem to BLU executives. That version of the software was not intended for American phones, the company said.

“This is a private company that made a mistake,” said Lily Lim, a lawyer in Palo Alto, Calif., who represents Adups.

The episode shows how companies throughout the technology supply chain can compromise privacy, with or without the knowledge of manufacturers or customers. It also offers a look at one way that Chinese companies — and by extension the government — can monitor cellphone behavior. For many years, the Chinese government has used a variety of methods to filter and track internet use and monitor online conversations. It requires technology companies that operate in China to follow strict rules. Ms. Lim said Adups was not affiliated with the Chinese government.

At the heart of the issue is a special type of software, known as firmware, that tells phones how to operate. Adups provides the code that lets companies remotely update their firmware, an important function that is largely unseen by users. Normally, when a phone manufacturer updates its firmware, it tells customers what it is doing and whether it will use any personal information. Even if that is disclosed in long legal disclosures that customers routinely ignore, it is at least disclosed. That did not happen with the Adups software, Kryptowire said.

According to its website, Adups provides software to two of the largest cellphone manufacturers in the world, ZTE and Huawei. Both are based in China.

Samuel Ohev-Zion, the chief executive of the Florida-based BLU Products, said: “It was obviously something that we were not aware of. We moved very quickly to correct it.”

He added that Adups had assured him that all of the information taken from BLU customers had been destroyed.

The software was written at the request of an unidentified Chinese manufacturer that wanted the ability to store call logs, text messages and other data, according to the Adups document. Adups said the Chinese company used the data for customer support.

Ms. Lim said the software was intended to help the Chinese client identify junk text messages and calls. She did not identify the company that requested it and said she did not know how many phones were affected. She said phone companies, not Adups, were responsible for disclosing privacy policies to users. “Adups was just there to provide functionality that the phone distributor asked for,” she said.

Android phones run software that is developed by Google and distributed free for phone manufacturers to customize. A Google official said the company had told Adups to remove the surveillance ability from phones that run services like the Google Play store. That would not include devices in China, where hundreds of millions of people use Android phones but where Google does not operate because of censorship concerns.

Because Adups has not published a list of affected phones, it is not clear how users can determine whether their phones are vulnerable. “People who have some technical skills could,” Mr. Karygiannis, the Kryptowire vice president, said. “But the average consumer? No.”

Ms. Lim said she did not know how customers could determine whether they were affected.

Adups also provides what it calls “big data” services to help companies study their customers, “to know better about them, about what they like and what they use and there they come from and what they prefer to provide better service,” according to its website.

Kryptowire discovered the problem through a combination of happenstance and curiosity. A researcher there bought an inexpensive phone, the BLU R1 HD, for a trip overseas. While setting up the phone, he noticed unusual network activity, Mr. Karygiannis said. Over the next week, analysts noticed that the phone was transmitting text messages to a server in Shanghai and was registered to Adups, according to a Kryptowire report.

Kryptowire took its findings to the United States government. It made its report public on Tuesday.

Marsha Catron, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said the agency “was recently made aware of the concerns discovered by Kryptowire and is working with our public and private sector partners to identify appropriate mitigation strategies.”

Kryptowire is a Homeland Security contractor but analyzed the BLU phone independent of that contract.

Mr. Ohev-Zion, the BLU chief executive, said he was confident that the problem had been resolved for his customers. “Today there is no BLU device that is collecting that information,” he said.

 

[csmart 472]

After Idea-Vodafone, now Tata and Airtel are in talks for merger for telecom & DTH.

Source: Economic Times (Mumbai edition)

Quote

NEW DELHI | MUMBAI: The Tata Group and Bharti Enterprises have held exploratory talks to evaluate a mega alliance involving their telecom, overseas cable and enterprise services, and direct-to-home TV businesses, several people familiar with the matter said. 

Discussions between both sides have revolved around a possible merger between unlisted Tata Teleservices and Tata Sky and the listed Tata Communications with the Sunil Mittal-owned Bharti Airtel, which includes its wholly owned DTH arm, these people added. 

A Tata Sons spokesperson declined to comment while the Bharti Enterprises spokesperson did not respond to ET’s emailed questionnaire. 

The discussions are still at a preliminary stage and there is no certainty that this will lead to any deal. 

But if the alliance does fructify, it will consolidate the Indian telecom market still further, and narrow the field down to three main players: Idea-Vodafone, Reliance Jio, and the Airtel-Tata combine. 

The merger will enable Bharti Airtel, the bigger partner in the alliance, to close the gap between Idea-Vodafone both in terms of numbers of subscribers as well as revenue market share. Airtel has nearly 280 million mobile phone users in India while Tata Teleservices has around 48 million. Airtel will also get access to a ready network including 4G bandwidth in the much-sought-after 800 MHz band. 

For the Tatas, the merger will provide an opportunity to fold their loss-making telecom business into a bigger company and become minority investors. The Tatas have been looking to exit the business for the last few years and in the past had also held discussions with Vodafone. The over-Rs 30,000-crore debt and its dispute with former partner NTT Docomo had, however, made any progress on this front difficult.