Vodafone rolls out 3G services in Uttar Pradesh (India)
Vodafone has launched its 3G services across large parts of Uttar Pradesh.
According to Vodafone East UP chief operations officer Ravi Santhanam, the Vodafone 3G services will give its customers a faster, smarter and better mobile experience with internet access at speeds up to 21.1 Mbps.
He added that the new service will empower Vodafone customers with exclusive access to retransmission of live matches of the cricket World Cup and streaming of entertainment and other content on their compatible mobile devices.
The launch of the 3G Services is supported by an extensive multi-media advertising campaign that will bring alive the benefits of this exciting and fascinating world of 3G.
He further stated that currently, customers in east Uttar Pradesh will have access to Vodafone 3G services at no additional cost.
Presently, Vodafone 3G services will be available in Lucknow and Kanpur. It will be extended to Allahabad and Varanasi over the next two months and subsequently in the remaining cities.
Vodafone prepares to launch 3G services in UP (India)
India’s GSM operator, Vodafone is preparing to launch its 3G service in the Uttar Pradesh (East) circle soon.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Aircel have already launched their 3G services in the circle. Aircel launched its 3G service in Lucknow last week.
According to COO Ravi Santhanam, in the first phase, the 3G service will be launched in Lucknow and Kanpur and gradually, other pockets would be covered too.
Vodafone is the largest operator in the circle with about 13 million subscribers.
He added that although UP (E) is the biggest circle in terms of population, the penetration level is much lower at 40%, compared to the pan-India average of 55-60%.
Aircel rolls out 3G services in UP (India)
Aircel has launched 3G services in Uttar Pradesh (East) circle, the second circle after Chennai. It is the second company to launch the service after state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited to launch 3G services in the area.
In the first phase, the company has launched 3G services in Lucknow and gradually other major towns including Kanpur, Allahabad and Varanasi would be covered.
According to Aircel National Head (operations and customer support) Vipul Saurabh, the remaining towns and rural pockets in UP (E) would be covered in phases in the next nine months.
Tata DoCoMo launches T24 mobile service in Gujarat (India)
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.
DoT rejects Liberty group bid for ITI takeover (India)
The department of telecom (DoT) has reportedly rejected the Liberty Group’s bid for attainment of telecom equipment maker- Indian Telephone Industries (ITI). The Liberty Group which is known for its footwear brand was the only company to have raised a bid for attaining ITI after the fourth deadline to find a buyer for the ailing state-owned firm expired in August 10.
An ITI executive has confirmed that Liberty’s bid had been rejected. The official added that apart from failing to meet some of the technical criteria, the bid was also not placed before the deadline expired.
Liberty has diversified into telecom equipment manufacturing by forming a joint venture with Israel’s Runcom Technologies to make WiMax base stations and accompanying equipment. This JV called Sunfest had recently forged tie-ups with several foreign firms to manufacture telecom equipment.
ITI, which employs more than 12,700 people and operates six manufacturing units in Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, has been bleeding revenues over the years.
For buying 3G equipment Vodafone will invest 500 million dollars
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.
Base Stations closed in the Indian city, Noida
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Around a quarter of the base stations had been shut down by the authorities, resulting in the disruption of ¬mobile phone services over the weekend in the Indian city of Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
The action was taken after the phone companies failed to meet the authorities demand to seek the necessary authorization for the towers to be erected. Out of 400 to 572 towers in the city, 125 to190 towers have been shut-down. The authorities have also cut the electricity supply to the towers and have sealed the backup generators.
According to Sandeep Chandra, senior project engineer, Noida Authority, only 125 cellular service providers had submitted applications requesting an extension a few months ago and would be spared for the moment.
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.
Reliance Mobile plans new celebrity brouhaha
Anil Ambani group’s Reliance Mobile, which is looking to spread its GSM telephony tentacles across the country, is believed to have roped in a constellation of six celebrities for a big-bang advertising campaign.
While cricket star M S Dhoni is almost certain to be a part of the star cast, industry sources say the company is also in talks with film star Abhishek Bachchan. (The junior Bachchan already endorses Motorola’s cellular phones.) Others in the campaign – to kick off by the end of this month – will be from the fields of sports and entertainment.
Speaking to Business Standard, Reliance executives confirmed that the campaign would be a multi-celebrity campaign involving cricketers, music industry stars and film stars. Sanjay Behl, head of branding, Reliance Mobile said: “We are in an evolutionary stage in growth and imagery. The communication will reflect that.”
The new campaign is being executed by creative shop Cartwheels, run by JWT’s former creative head, D Ramakrishna.
Behl is not willing to disclose if Abhishek, or Hindi music director and singer Himesh Reshammiya, is a part of the cast, though he claims that there might be about six celebrities who will endorse Reliance Mobile.
Celebrities are not new to cellular phone service providers. While cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has been associated with Airtel since 2003 and Rahul Dravid bats for Hutch, former Indian cricket captain Saurav Ganguly has featured as the ambassador for Tata Indicom. Apart from Ganguly, Tata Indicom has also used star couple Kajol and Ajay Devgan in its campaigns.
But Reliance has reason to be aggressive. Apart from its CDMA services, which form the bulk of Reliance’s approximately 22 million subscriber base, the company is in the midst of scaling up in the GSM space, where it will find itself up against formidable rivals like Airtel and Hutch. While Hutch associates itself actively with cricket, theatre and art, Airtel has played up its music association through ringtones using its brand ambassador, A R Rehman.
In February this year, Reliance had applied for GSM spectrum in markets like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Uttar Pradesh (east and west circles), and Jammu and Kashmir.
It already operates GSM (900 MHz) mobile services in circles like West Bengal (including Kolkata), Assam, Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and the Northeast.
Source- http://www.business-standard.com
