Idea Cellular to empower the rural segment of Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, UP West & AP

On 03.15.11, In Mobile, By Editor

Idea, the pan-India telecom operator and handygo, India’s leading provider of VAS solutions, have announced the launch of ‘Behtar Zindagi ‘, latest bouquet of VAS offerings for customers in rural areas of Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, UP West and Andhra Pradesh. This innovative product is specially designed to provide day-to-day information to Idea’s rural subscribers. The subscribers can get exhaustive and up to the mark information regarding health, education, finance, weather updates, mandi rates, livestocks, agriculture and fisheries.

To use this service Idea subscribers need to dial 556780 (tollfree) and avail the subscription pack at a minimal charge of Rs 30, 15, 7 and 2 for 30, 15, 7 and 1 day, respectively. The service is available in all the respective states regional languages along with Hindi and English.

This unique IVR based rural solution by handygo provides credible and authentic information to the rural subscribers. For latest and reliable updates handygo has partnered with various organizations such as Care India, Aviva Life Insurance, Indian Metrological Department, INCOIS, Hariyali Kisan Bazaar, Network for Fish Quality Management and Sustainable Fishing, Transparency International India, Sonalika, EKO India Financial Services and plethora of other organizations.

On this tie-up, Mr. Praveen Rajpal, CEO, handygo said, “We are contented to partner with one of India’s leading mobile operator -Idea Cellular. We envisage great potential in the untapped rural market and are bullish about the stupendous feedback from the end consumers. We have partnered with various large associations for ensuring the latest and authentic information to the mobile subscribers using the service. Our IVR based rural product is available in all the regional languages along with Hindi and English.”

Announcing the launch of these services, Mr. Rajendra Chourasia, Chief Operating Officer – Maharashtra & Goa, Idea Cellular said, “With over 1.2 crore subscribers, Idea is the largest mobile network and has the highest penetration in rural parts of Maharashtra & Goa. We are happy to partner with handygo to offer relevant and affordable services to our rural subscribers in the circle.”

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DoT allows mobile towers near the border (India)

On 03.07.11, In Mobile, By Editor

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has made a decision to permit mobile towers within 500 metres of international borders.

The department has modified its norms according to which installation of towers within 10 km of the international border was not allowed. The move is seen as an attempt to counter incoming signals from neighboring Pakistan and Bangladesh.

According to Minister of state for communications and IT, Sachin Pilot, they have changed the norms as they observed that signal from other countries are entering their border areas in North-East, Rajasthan and Gujarat. Now, towers can be placed within 500 metres of the border on Sunday. He added that the move will improve signal strength in the border areas which is important for security.

According to reports, Pilot stated the department was vigilant about the reports of Pakistani mobile network being used near border areas. They have taken action against a few and also Ministry of Home. Defence and DoT are working together to counter such activities.

Pilot added that the department will distribute satellite phones to villagers and security personnel where there was no mobile network and signal was a problem. They intend to ensure network availability to each person in the country.

As the supply of electricity is less in the sparsely-located areas on the borders, a few upcoming mobile towers will be run by solar plants.

The minister launched a scheme called ‘Rakshak’ on Sunday. The scheme offers facility to paramilitary personnel to stay connected with their families in any part of the country without spending on call charges. By paying a nominal sum of US$6.62 monthly, soldiers will get two SIM cards, one of which they can give to their family. The calls made between the two SIM cards will be free.

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MTS launches MBlaze in Gujarat

On 03.04.11, In Mobile, By Editor

Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited (SSTL), operating its telecom services under the brand “MTS”, today announced the launch of its high-speed mobile broadband service, MBlaze in Gujarat. The Company has rolled out its high speed mobile internet services in Ahmedabad, Baroda, Rajkot, Surat, Gandhinagar, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Kodinar and Verawal. With this launch, SSTL has brought in a rich portfolio of world-class voice and data services for its customers in Gujarat.

According to Cheenu Seshadri, Chief Strategy Officer, Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd, “MTS is committed to building a business model based on its unique and differentiated ‘Data centric, Voice enabled’ strategy. As part of this commitment, the company is rapidly expanding its data footprint in the country and currently offers High Speed Mobile broadband services under the MBlaze brand in over 130 towns across India including 75 of top-100 cities across the country. Specifically, looking at Gujarat, it is a key market for us and we have earmarked Rs. 100 Crore to roll out our voice and high-speed data services across the state.”

Given the scale and speed of rollout of MBlaze service across the country, MTS now addresses over 92% of the data potential across India.

According to Navid Rashid, Chief Operating Officer, Gujarat circle, Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd, “We are excited to launch our High Speed Mobile Broadband service in nine towns across Gujarat. The launch of MBlaze services is supported by a robust network of 8500 retail outlets and 15 company flagship stores, backed by a world class customer care set up. Customers in Gujarat will now be able to enjoy the unmatched MBlaze experience coupled with attractive tariffs and innovative offerings.”

Data Opportunity In India

As per Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) December 2010 report, the broadband penetration in India stands at just 0.8% as against the Teledensity of 60.99% as of September 2010. This in-turn translates to a mere 10.3 million broadband connections by the end of 2010. The National Broadband Plan envisages provision of 160 million broadband connections including 60 million wireless broadband connections by the year 2014. Hence, there is a huge opportunity for the growth and proliferation of High Speed Mobile Broadband services in the country.

Special Attractions

MBlaze World Cup Pack
• MBlaze World Cup Pack On recharging with Rs. 496, MBlaze customers to get 5 GB data usage free. Additionally, for every Indian victory in the world cup, MBlaze customers will get 250MB data usage free. If India wins all its matches including the world cup final, the customers will get over 2 GB data usage absolutely free.

MBlaze Tariff Advantage
• To suit everyone’s pocket, MTS has introduced attractive data usage plans starting from Rs.198.

• Customers also have the option to enjoy unlimited data usage with Unlimited MBlazer priced at just Rs. 999 with a 30 day validity.
MTS TV Access to Live TV and Video on Demand

• Using MBlaze dongles and HSD (High Speed Data) compatible handsets, MTS customers can enjoy video streaming, High quality audio/video download and live play back.

• With MTS TV, customers can watch over 60 LIVE TV and on demand Video Channels. The customers will get access to a range of News, Entertainment, Sports and Regional channels.

Exciting Offers for MBlaze Customers
• MTS has tied up with Hewlett Packard (HP) On purchase of an HP laptop, customers can get MBlaze for just Rs. 999; made available through prepaid plans

 

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Idea reduces roaming rates in UAE (India)

On 02.22.11, In Mobile, By Editor

India’s Idea Cellular is lowering its international roaming rates by 30% for postpaid subscribers in Andhra Pradesh, Mumbai, and Gujarat for the Dubai Shopping Festival.

Idea is offering a 30% discount on international roaming services (including incoming calls) in UAE for calls made to India and local calls within UAE.

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TRAI says 17 lakh users opt for MNP (India)

On 02.09.11, In Mobile, By Editor

Indian Telecom Regulator, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has reported that after the national launch of the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) service, more than 17 lakh mobile subscribers have opted for this facility that allows users to change their service provider while retaining the number.

According to TRAI, the MNP service was introduced on a pilot basis in Haryana on November 25, 2010 and was later rolled out pan-India from January 20 this year. Of the total 17.11 lakh requests received, about 2.29 lakh were from Haryana circle where MNP was first implemented.

In other circles, Gujarat saw the highest number of switching requests at 1.67 lakh, followed by Rajasthan (1.44 lakh) in Zone-I (northern and western India). In number portability Zone-II (southern and eastern region), maximum number of requests were received in Karnataka (1.16 lakh) and Tamil Nadu (1.14 lakh) circles.

TRAI added that it is constantly monitoring the implementation of the service. It was noted that certain requests were rejected by the  telecom operators because subscribers had quoted incorrect Unique Porting Code (a unique number given to a subscriber who wanted to change his operator) in the porting form. The rejection was also on account of non-payment of outstanding bills and non-completion of 90 days from the date of activation of mobile number.

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Vodafone Essar in talks to sell 7,000 Towers

On 02.02.11, In Mobile, By Editor

­If sources are to be believed, India’s Vodafone Essar is reported to have received two bids for the 7,000 towers that the company is looking to sell to a dedicated tower operator. The bids are from GTL Infrastructure and Viom Networks.

Listed tower operator, GTL Infrastructure, which is India’s largest tower network is still absorbing the 17,000 towers it brought last year from Aircel. Rival bidder, Viom is the privately held company formerly known as Quippo-WTTIL.

Vodafone Essar has been looking to offload the 7,000 towers it owns that overlap with the towers it owns through its Indus Towers joint venture with Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular.

The towers cover seven telecoms licensed circles. However, the company has faced opposition to its plans to split off the tower assets into a separate company from tax authorities in Gujarat and Delhi.

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Nokia launches affordable mobile phone (India)

On 01.29.11, In Mobile, By Editor

nokia x2-01
Nokia has launched its affordable range of QWERTY mobile phones in Gujarat.

According to Head service marketing, Nokia India, Jasmeet Gandhi, the Nokia X2-01 is competitively priced with colorful design and optimized for messaging performance. Among mobile phones, QWERTY category of phones is the fastest growing segment where messaging and accessing emails could be faster. The X2-01 is targeted at the youngsters who want to be connected with the internet and social networking sites, and want information on the go.

He added that it has been kept in the affordable range looking at the spending capacity of college goers and teenagers. With the new 3G spectrum coming in place, Nokia is also planning to add more 3G enabled phones to its portfolio.

He further stated that in the past few years the company has seen more business coming from the rural market rather than the urban centres. The main reason behind this growth from rural areas was because the mobile operators had now started exploring the rural markets.

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Tata DoCoMo launches T24 mobile service in Gujarat (India)

On 01.11.11, In Mobile, By Editor

Tata DoCoMo has launches its new ‘T24′ mobile service in Gujarat, a brand launched in alliance with the retail chain giant Future group.

According to Tata DoCoMo COO Gujarat Nipun Sharma, it is a unique marketing alliance between a retailer group and telecom operator that offers customers free talk time on purchases or recharges made at any of the Future group outlets.

Future group that operates store chains like Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar and Pantaloons will be offering this new service from 23 of its big stores spread across seven towns in Gujarat including Anand, Vapi, Surat and Bharuch.

According to Future Group CEO Telecom Mayur Toshniwal, this new service, which is on a franchise model, will be offered from all of their 23 large outlets spread across seven towns in Gujarat. They shall open two more retail stores in Bhavnagar and Mehsana in Gujarat over next 6-8 months period.

According to Toshniwal, the new service has received encouraging response from its launch in Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) has forged alliances with Virgin mobile, Quippo for passive infrastructure(towers), Japan’s NTT DOCOMO for GSM services and Future group for T24.

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For buying 3G equipment Vodafone will invest 500 million dollars

On 10.22.10, In Mobile, By Editor

Marten Peters, the chief executive officer of Vodafone Essar stated that the company for procuring electronic equipment for its third generation service will spend in the tune of four hundred to five hundred million dollars before the launch of the same in the first quarter of 2011.

The company will arrange for the funds by taking bank loans and offering some new shares to its existing shareholders.

Vodafone Essar the third biggest telecom provider of the nation in terms of subscription had spent in the tune of eleven thousand six hundred and eighteen crores of rupees for acquiring the 3G spectrum in the month of May. Mr. Peters added that the company paid that massive amount as there was an artificial dearth of bandwidth.

Vodafone will launch its services, dividing them into phases. The 3G services will first start from metro cities like Mumbai and Delhi and gradually it will spread over all circles of Maharashtra, Kolkata, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and West Bengal. These facts were given by Mr. Sanjoy Mukherjee the director of business operation of Vodafone Essar.
Marten Peters added saying that Vodafone is negotiating with other top quality and long term operators like the Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel to distribute 3G services where Vodafone does not have 3G airwaves.

The whole idea of taking this move is to provide the customers the experience of 3G services all across the country regardless of the circle owned by Vodafone or any other operator as stated by the Vodafone director of business operations, Mr. Sunil Sood.

Sanjoy Mukherjee further stated that the 3G service will have reasonable pricing and will vary from location to location and on its usage. He cited example stating in cities video calls will be less expensive from the video call s of a remote village.

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Vodafone leads in Gujarat CUG deal (India)

On 10.19.10, In Mobile, By Editor

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar are in the final race for the important bid to connect Gujarat government employees in the country’s largest closed user group (CUG) network. However, as per state government sources, Vodafone is leading the tally with overall 91 points, followed by Airtel’s 79.5 points, Tata’s 55 points, BSNL’s 50 points and Idea’s 40 points.

On Monday, the Gujarat administration department (GAD) opened a financial bid that carries 40% weight, a week after it opened the technical bids. The latest bid saw Airtel going for a kill by proposing the lowest tariff, over 40% discount to the base rates, beating Vodafone and Tata that offered 35% discount, Idea 30%, and BSNL 20%.

But, according to sources in Gandhinagar, the technical strength of the existing operator Vodafone would eventually score over the competitor’s tariff bait. The state’s oldest and largest player Vodafone enjoys an upper edge as technical bid carries higher weightage of 60%. The CUG contract generates annual revenues of US$6.78.

Vodafone has been catering to the state government’s mobile telephony requirements under the specially designed CUG plan for the past four years at a monthly rental of US$1.02, generating billing worth around US$6.78 million a year. The revised tariff offered by Vodafone is expected to be much lower than the one it is charging at the moment, thus benefiting the state.

As per GAD, it wants to take a relook at the agreement for two more years and has sought competitive tariff bids from six players — Vodafone, Airtel, Idea, BSNL, Tata DoCoMo and Reliance GSM. In an unexpected move, GAD revised its terms and conditions in technical and financial rounds with 60% and 40% weight.

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