www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Indian regulator’s plans to move the country to an eleven digit phone number system has been opposed by the majority of India’s mobile network operators. Pending shortage of available numbers within the current mobile prefix has made the changes to the numbering system a requirement and has leaded the TRAI to hold a consultation.

Mobile operators have countered this suggestion of TRAI by suggestion that the numbering blocks currently reserved for landline can be made available to mobile subscribers. The GSM operators have been represented by Cellular Operators Association of India which feels that keeping six billion numbers reserved for fixed line subscribers is unfair. This is a clear wastage of the precious numbering resource as the actual number is even below 40 million.

According to the association, considering the relative size of the subscriber bases in the mobile and fixed sectors and the exponential growth of mobile subscriptions, it is worthwhile to free up the fixed line numbering resources and re-allocate some levels to mobile services

The only operators which had not objected to the idea of longer phone numbers are Reliance Communications and the Tata Teleservices. In their opinion, long term trend towards 11-digit phone numbers in inevitable regardless of how many dialing prefixes are made available.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: About 60 million subscribers of Tata Teleservices in India are going to witness another unique level of customer care services and customer experience. The GSM and CDMA operator while unleashing an interesting initiative has decided that if the company fails to meet pre-determined levels of service standards, the subscribers would be compensated with monetary benefits.

Almost all the spectrum of customer complaints has been covered in the current service charter of the company, thus enhancing customer experience.  If issues related to bill disputes, call drop, handset replacement and deficiency in service standards remain unresolved for 3 days; customers will get a benefit of $ 0.55 for every additional day to resolve the complaint. If the Call drops increases from promised 1.5 percent of total calls, 2.5 per cent of the customer’s last billed amount will be refunded. Trials for the value added service will also be provided by TTSL.

After the implementation of mobile number portability (MNP) from May, the new customer service will help TTSL to retain its customers which will continue to avail the service owing to improved customer experience. With so many operators with similar rates and no differentiation, customer experience is expected to become the key focus area in the future. The initiative also aims at commemorating the 171st birth anniversary of Tata Group founder, Sir Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata.

The service is expected to be extended to all the subscribers of Tata DoCoMo and Virgin Mobile in India. Apart from the above mentioned services, a customer will also receive a loaner handset if a handset could not be repaired over the counter at TTSL’s I-Care centers.

Subscribers can also access the call centers 24 hours and seven days a week and would be answered within 90 seconds. If the call is not answered within the stipulated time period, the company would call the customer back within two hours.

With so many offers rolled out by TTSL, the customers are really going to have a gala time enjoying all these facilities while the other operators will take a plunge with similar services to retain their customers. But as of now, TTSL has already scored a notch above others.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 19.90 million Subscribers have been added in the month of January by mobile firms in India. This has taken the number of mobile users to 545.05 million in the worlds fastest-growing, and second-largest market. 19.10 million users were added in December.

Mobile subscribers grew at a monthly average of nearly 15 million in 2009. With the addition of three million new users in the month of January, Tata Teleservices, 26 percent owned by Japan’s

NTT DoCoMo led the parade. It also helped it to raise its position from sixth rank to fifth.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A franchisee agreement has been signed between Tata Teleservices and Kishore Biyani owned Future Group to launch Talk 24 (or T-24), under the tagline ‘Shop More, Talk More’. A similar franchise agreement has already been signed between Tata Indicom and Virgin mobiles.

Though the details regarding the agreement are unavailable, it seems to be based on the concept of exchanging shopping benefits and talk time. According to Tata Teleservices spokesperson, the two firms will jointly work on integrating the billing systems but nothing has begun as the company has only signed the agreement.

The companies will begin to roll out the GSM SIM cards of T-24 shortly. Tata Indicom GSM connections will be sold by the Future group at all its retail outlets – Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, eZone, FutureBazaar.com, Central malls, Food Bazaar, Fashion Station, Depot (books and music) and Shoe Factory.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar have been outpaced by a smaller rival Tata Teleservices for a sixth straight month in mobile additions. The firm continued to gain share in the world’s fastest-growing but cut-throat mobile market by adding 3 million mobile subscribers in January, taking its total user base to more than 60 million.

Tata Tele which 26 percent owned by Japan’s NTT DoCoMo, would shift from sixth position in the country’s mobile market to the fifth position.

ndia’s number one mobile operator Bharti Airtel added 2.85 million mobile subscribers in January to have a total of 121.7 million. Vodafone Essar, which holds the third- rank gained 2.74 million in January, taking its total to 94.1 million.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: NTT DoCoMo stake in Indian mobile network operator Tata Teleservices (TTSL) could be boosted incase the latter fails to meet certain performance benchmarks. As per the agreement between the two companies, NTT could raise its stake in Tata Teleservices from 26% to 35% by March 2012 by infusing fresh equity.

The stake could further rise up to 51% by March 2015 by subscribing to new shares at fair market value plus a 30% control premium.

However, the above action will be taken only if TTSL fails to reach a minimum operating profit margin of 15% and roll out 20,000 GSM towers by March 2012 besides increasing the number of GSM towers to 26,000 and further hiking its EBIDTA margin to 25% by March 2015.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The telecom war in India does not seem to be getting over as the battle ground is ready to welcome one more player. Virgin Mobile is expected to launch GSM services in South India this week, using Tata Teleservices Ltd’s (TTSL’s) network.

Currently, Virgin Mobile operates in the CDMA network and plans to launch its services in Orissa, Maharashtra and North India by March 2010.

According to the top officials from the company, GSM network is significant for growth and we will be launching it first in South India.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Nokia Siemens Networks has been appointed by Tata Teleservices Limited to implement part of its next phase transmission network. With this, Tata Teleservices Limited, the leading dual-technology telecom service operator in India is gearing up for the upcoming growth in data traffic and enhancing IP capabilities of its existing mobile backhaul network.

FlexiHybrid microwave radio, which is leading the market, will be supplied by Nokia Siemens Networks under the contract, to efficiently support both legacy Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) and newer IP traffic on a single platform. FlexiMetro radio for high capacity and improved bandwidth efficiency and FlexiHopper, a cost-optimized, low-capacity microwave radio for connecting base stations are also included in the contract.

NetAct Operations Support Systems platform for the efficient monitoring, management and optimization of the network to ensure high-quality end-user services has been deployed by Nokia Siemens Network. Project management, network planning, installation and commissioning are included in an array of services of full turnkey solution.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With the goal of expanding its reach among the people and especially youths, Tata Teleservices youth brand, Virgin Mobile is planning to launch its GSM services.

Virgin Mobile GSM may use TATA DOCOMO’s network and will be first introduced in Chennai and Tamil Nadu Circle and Mumbai & Maharashtra circle.

TATA DOCOMO’s service is yet to roll out all over India while Virgin Mobile will also take time to establish its mark among the masses. Currently, Virgin Mobile is using TATA Indicom’s network to operate.

Highest no. of subscriber during the past 3 months has been recorded by TTSL and  TATA DOCOMO is considered to be the major factor behind this growth.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The 2G and 3G customers of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) in Delhi and Mumbai circles can now enjoy per second billing scheme. The announcement was made after the launch of per second billing systems by other telecom majors like Tata Teleservices, Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel.

As per the plan, any call made within the same network across the country will cost half paise per second and the calls made to other networks will cost one paise per second. Even video calls through 3G network will cost one paise per second.

The cost of text messages has also been reduced with 25 paise for local messages Re 1 for national messages while international messages will cost Rs.2.50.