The strike called by employees of the state-owned telecom giant, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), on Wednesday evoked a good response in the city with around 5,000 staff and executives staying away from work.
The joint committee representing various unions had on Tuesday decided to go on an indefinite strike in place of the earlier planned one-day strike. Talks between union representatives and telecom ministry officials have remained inconclusive despite parleying since Tuesday.
The nation-wide strike began at 6 am on Wednesday. Union officials will be meeting on Thursday to decide whether to continue with the strike. There have been no reports of disruption of BSNL services so far from around the city.
The strike is an outcome of the telecom ministry’s recent decision to go for re-floating of tenders for its capacity expansion plans. Under the previous tender passed in May this year, private foreign firms Nokia and Ericsson had secured the contract for helping BSNL to improve its machinery and technology under a project to add 4.5 crore additional mobile GSM (global system for mobile) connections.
In Pune, striking employees gathered at the BSNL’s Satara road administrative office and slogans were raised against the ministry’s decision.
Vandana Kamthe, member of the co-ordination committee of the employees, said that any further decision will be taken after the talks in New Delhi.
BSNL employees allege that the company is losing Rs 55 crore every month due to non-fulfilment of the tender agreement with Nokia and Ericsson, and they blame the ministry for allowing private telecom operators to gain ascendancy.
The employees have also condemned Union telecom minister A. Raja for his recent statement wherein he had suggested continuing with the existing 2G (second generation) technology by BSNL.
The unions, such an action will allow the private telecom companies to get a headstart in the latest state-of-the-art 3G (third generation) cellular service operation.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
One of the leading telecom service providers, Bharti Airtel in collaboration with Sweden-based Wayfinder Systems AB today launched GPS based navigation application on mobile handsets.
The application turns the compatible mobile phone into a complete GPS-based navigation system with detailed maps and points-of-interest of a number of cities in the country.
The system will provide all users with continuously updated, real-time content and geographical data via the wireless network using EDGE/GPRS, the company said in a statement.
To start with, the application shall be available on BlackBerry 8800. The Airtel users can avail map information and area coverage details of the cities - Delhi and NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chandigarh.
‘’We are now introducing in India, a state-of-the-art GPS based navigation system that will largely benefit all frequent travelers using compatible mobile handsets like BlackBerry 8800,'’ Bharti Airtel Chief Marketing Officer (Mobile Services) Sanjay Gupta said in the statement.
Bharti Airtel is offering a six months free trial for all its Airtel BlackBerry 8800 users. As per the offer, the customer will not have to pay any subscription charges on the application during this period. However, data download charges will apply as per the subscriber’s BlackBerry plan.
To download the application, Airtel BlackBerry 8800 users need to send ‘NAV’ as an SMS to shortcode ‘3636′.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Continuing the intensified battle for wireless supremacy in India, Reliance Communications has introduced lowest ever roaming rates on certain plans.
Mr Shukla, President Wireless Business said,
The roaming rates had already been reduced in Feb 2007 for our customers. Now, we have taken a step further by reducing roaming rates to as low as 40ps/minute on select plans. This should add real value to those customers, who have a need for traveling across the nation. A significant feature of this rate reduction has been on Incoming Calls while roaming, which have been reduced from current Re. 1.75/min to Re. 1/min - so that our customers will not have to think before accepting incoming calls while roaming.
So how soon will Airtel and Vodafone respond to Reliance offer ?
Reliance has also intensified its WiMax broadband roll out plans in Bangalore and Pune.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
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BSNL employees abstain from work
