India gives 60 days to RIM to provide data access to Blackberry services
Indian government has averted the ban on BlackBerry services for two more months after the device’s maker, Research In Motion, proclaimed that it would give security agencies greater access to corporate e-mail and instant messaging.
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, it would review the situation in 60 days after the DoT studies the likelihood of routing BlackBerry services through a server in India. RIM has made certain plans for legal access by law enforcement agencies and these would start operating instantaneously. The possibility of the solutions offered would be reviewed later.
If this ban takes place about 1 million BlackBerry users would have been affected in the country.
RIM has unwillingly agreed to New Delhi’s demands for instantaneous access to encrypted corporate e-mail, telling previously it is technically impossible to provide.
According Nokia India Managing Director D. Shivakumar, the decision by Nokia Corp. — Research In Motion’s major competitor in India — to set up a server in the country to facilitate government monitoring may have damaged RIM’s dealing position. The company will now install a server in India in November to ensure government access to the data.
This problem which extended all round the globe, made Research In Motion’s stock price to a 16-month.
Indian officials stated that they are not eager to ban the BlackBerry but they won’t compromise on national security.
Security concerns flared after the terrorist attack on Mumbai in November 2008, which was coordinated using mobile phones, satellite phones and voice-over Internet phone calls. And the security agencies feel that Commonwealth games can be the major target.
Indian officials have also raised anxiety about Skype and Google, though both companies yet to receive formal notice of an inquiry.
MTNL setting up networks for the October Commonwealth Games (India)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Three communication networks is under the process of construction by Indian state owned telco, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, at a cost of INR2.85 billion for the October Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.
INR1.82 billion will be provided by the Ministry of Sports to the telco for setting up the networks. According to junior minister for telecommunications, Gurudas Kamat, MTNL is further negotiating to receive INR300 million from the Ministry of Home Affairs and INR730 million from the organizing committee.
Besides, MTNL is setting up networks for games data, security data and video broadcast.
Mi-Pay extends Globaltopup service to India
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Mi-Pay has extended its Globaltopup service to include India’s top five major cellular operators, which cover up to 89% of the sub-continent’s cellular subscribers. The news follows a recent announcement by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, confirming India as the fastest growing cellular market in the world.
Globaltopup will appeal to those with family, friends or colleagues – travelling, working or living in India – who want to ensure that they have access to mobile airtime, whatever their location or circumstances.
With over 391 million mobile subscribers and 13 mobile operators, India is ripe for mobile service deployment,” said Norman Frankel, CEO of Mi-Pay. With 25 million Indians living and working abroad, it has one of the world’s highest international remittance figures. This indicates a large base of non-residents regularly helping those financially back home. We believe they will welcome the ability to provide vital cellular airtime to their relatives through our Globaltopup service.â€
Frankel is quick to point out that demand will not be restricted to non-resident Indians. There are large numbers of expatriate US, Canadian, and European citizens based on the Indian Subcontinent. It is also a popular destination for gap-students, international travellers and cultural visitors. Indeed, tourism looks set to boom when India hosts the Commonwealth Games in 2010. With our service, all of these groups will be able to benefit from easier access to mobile services facilitated via top-ups from family, friends or employers based abroad.â€
Easy to use and secure, Globaltopup allows registered customers in one country to buy airtime topups for people in different countries via the Internet. All that is needed are the country, operator and recipient’s mobile number. Users simply choose from the topup amounts available, and the cost is given in the local currency at the prevailing exchange rate. Once the transaction is confirmed, Mi-Pay collects the payment and processes the topup immediately.
Mi-Pay’s Globaltopup service now supports the following mobile operators in India; Vodafone, Airtel, Reliance, BSNL, Idea and Aircel. This includes the top five largest operators by subscriber numbers. To do so it has overcome many of the challenges associated with delivering an international remittance service from overseas.
Frankel explained: Although operators are extending their reach into less populated and rural communities, the market is still very fragmented and often divided into geographic calling circlesâ€. Each operator has a number of regional operations, each of which sells its own range of topup products, and has its own technical infrastructure. Mi-Pay is able to integrate with this complex infrastructure and offer customers a simple, easily understandable interface irrespective of location.â€
Outside India, Mi-Pay has signed international airtime deals with airtime distributors and mobile operators in over thirty countries, and is rolling out these operators in the next few months. As well as selling services via its own Globaltopup portal, Mi-Pay provides the portal as a full ‘white-labelled’ service for MVNOs, operators and financial institutions wishing to offer international mobile topup services using their own brands.
About Mi-Pay
Mi-Pay the leading mobile money company, provides an innovative range of products and services that enable consumers around the world to undertake safe and secure financial transactions from their mobile phones. With its International HQ based in the UK, Mi-Pay recognises the need to be local as well as global and has offices and operations in Dubai, Romania, and India, bringing a global perspective to the provision of secure transactions from the consumer’s handset through to settlement. Mi-Pay has significant expertise and service offerings that span mobile money transfer, mobile initiated payments, mobile banking, and pre-pay top ups.
For more information visit www.mi-pay.com and www.globaltopup.com
