Launch of MNP again delayed in India
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The launch of the mobile number portability in India has again been delayed by the government from March 31 to June 30, 2010. Earlier the implementation was scheduled to take place in December 31, 2009 in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai as well as in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
According to the government, operators are yet to test if their networks are ready to launch mobile number portability, or MNP, services and the government has set a deadline of May 15 to complete the tests and on the basis of the successful completion of the action taken (tests)…, the DoT will finally decide the dates for MNP implementation.
The launch has already been delayed twice despite the fact that the government decided to launch MNP by the first week of May, with initial launches in the southern cities of Bangalore and Chennai.
BSNL launches 3G service in Andhra Pradesh (India)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Indian city of Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh has welcomed the arrival of 3G services along with other major cities across the state. The launch has taken place barely after its arrival in Bangalore, Karnataka.
The tariff offered by the company includes- STD calls for 50 paise per minute while the local calls are priced at 30 paise per minute. The charges are offered when the user is on 3G network. While not using 3G network, 70 paise for STD and 60 paise (both per minute) for local calls will be charged.
Local SMS will be charged at 40 paise per SMS, national SMS for 60 paise and international SMS for Rs. 3. The data transfer charges is 1 paisa per 10KB data transfer. Rs. 59 is the subscription charges for the 3G network. New 3G consumers have the option to recharge for Rs. 120.
A promotional offer has also been announced by BSNL in which users will get 50 minutes of free talk time on STD or local calls (video calls) and 25MB of free data transfer.
50 paise and 70 paise for 3G and a non 3G local call respectively will have to be paid by existing BSNL consumers and 60 paise using 3G and 80 paise on 2G will have to be paid for STD calls.
GSM mobile services launched by Uninor in Orissa
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With the launch of its services in Orissa, Uninor, the GSM mobile service brand of Unitech Wireless and the joint venture company of India’s second largest real estate major
Unitech Limited completes the Blue Arc taking its toll to eight circles pan India. Now Uninor’s service is available in nine states including Orissa, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
According to the Unitech Wireless managing director Stein-Erik Vellan, the company is planning to focus on gaining shares where they have launched their services.
The company emphasized on the fact that they want to stay the closest to their customers. From product, pricing to customer services, the firms aims at creating value for individual customers.
According to the executive vice-president of Uninor, Akash Das, the company’s national distribution presence went up over 50 distributors following the launch in Orissa apart from four exclusive stores ready for service across the state. Managing director of Unitech, Sanjay Chandra regarded the project as a mega-success. Uninor’s services have two basic price plans including a base plan known as talklonger@29p and a subscription plan known as callmore@29p.
The former plan is for customers who make longer calls. The plan offers its customers STD call at 49 paise per minute and local calls at 29 paise per minute after charging a call set up fee which costs 39 paise and charged at the time of activation of the cell.
TATA and BSNL enter Network Sharing deal (India)
Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL), India’s fastest-growing pan India telecom service provider, today announced the signing of a landmark ‘Master Services Agreement for Passive Infrastructure Sharing’ with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).
Becoming the first Indian private telecom operator to enter into an agreement of this nature. The agreement which is valid for 15 years will be applicable to both Tata Teleservices Limited and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited in all of India’s 22 telecom Circles.
This is a moment of pride for us, as we have become the first private telecom operator to enter into such a strategically important agreement with BSNL, one that will allow us to expand our telecom footprint across the country much more quickly,†Mr Madhav Joshi, President, Legal and Regulatory Affairs, Tata Teleservices Limited, said.
The agreement comes at a very strategic time for Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited (TTML), as both companies have been aggressively expanding their network presence on the CDMA side with Tata Indicom, while also rolling out GSM services under the TATA DOCOMO brand name. In the short space of just three months, we have already rolled out our GSM services in nine Circles—Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Orissa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh and Haryana,†Mr AG Rao, Chief Technology Officer, Tata Teleservices Limited, said. This agreement has the potential to not just speed up our network expansion and rollout process, but would also have a substantial impact in terms of reduced costs,†he added.
Under the terms of the agreement, TTSL and TTML will have access to thousands of BSNL towers all across the country.
