' The Name Tunes' service fromTata Docomo

Tata DOCOMO has introduced a new innovative feature - Name Tunes, a VAS application in partnership with mCarbon.

You can now greet your caller with your name, not just tunes, with Tata DOCOMO’s 'Name Tunes'. Adding another exciting, new feature in its 'Call Me Tunes' portfolio and continuing to Do the New, Tata DOCOMO, has announced another new innovative feature—Name Tunes. The pioneering VAS application, a first-of-its-kind globally—is a result of Tata DOCOMO’s partnership with mCarbon, one of the leading VAS providers in the telecom industry.

Name Tunes allows subscriber to greet callers with his/her name and a personalized message of their choice, chosen easily from the Template Messages, thereby allowing callers a refreshing experience, rather than making them listen to the traditional ring tones or caller tunes. The offer is available exclusively to Tata DOCOMO subscribers.

"Name Tunes is in line with our way of doing things in a Refreshingly Different manner and brings in an element of fun and newness to the existing set of VAS offerings. Greeting callers with their own name, and then with a personalized message while the phone rings, will enable our subscribers to make their conversations even more pleasant and special, Mr Rishi Mohan Malhotra, the Value-Added Services Head at Tata DOCOMO, said while announcing the launch of the service. 

"This offers a new vista of Caller Tune opportunities for our subscribers who want to stand out and be different. For Tata DOCOMO, this is an opportunity to reach out to the untapped market of personalized 'Call Me Tunes'. We are delighted with our association with mCarbon, which has helped us launch a global-first service, in keeping with our objective of redefining the telecom experience," he added.

Activating this service is quick and easy—Tata DOCOMO subscribers simply have to SMS 'First Name' to 52100, toll free. Subscription charges are Rs 30 per month and Name Tunes downloads will be charged at Rs 15 for 90 days.

So don’t waste any time, DO the New with this cool service and make an impression on your friends everytime they call you!source

New Study Reveals the Mobile Channel is First.

Neustar, Inc., (NYSE: NSR), a provider of market-leading, innovative solutions and directory services to enable trusted communication across networks, and Aepona, a provider of software solutions for Mobile Cloud Computing, today released the results of a new industry white paper*, authored by Yankee Group, called, "The Mobile Cloud: Unlocking New Profits". The research investigates the growing demand from consumers for high-speed mobile services and its impact on mobile network operators (MNOs), brands, advertisers, content owners, and enterprises. The report reveals that these stakeholders have an opportunity to differentiate themselves and add new revenue-generating services by harnessing mobile cloud computing (mobile cloud).

"Yankee Group is bullish on the prospects for the entire mobile ecosystem - if stakeholders have the ability to work together more efficiently. The industry needs capable stakeholders to step up and reduce the friction that currently stymies the creation of an efficient and profitable mobile platform," said Brian Partridge, vice president, Anywhere Network Research at Yankee Group. "Solutions that can successfully address these key challenges can help the entire mobile ecosystem create more profits."source
Highlights: 

•     MNOs will require new sources of revenue that harness the value of the network investments;
•      Yankee Group believes that the mobile cloud has the potential to change how consumers work, transact commerce, socialize, and entertain themselves.
•      In the last five years, the mobile channel has moved from the bottom of the value stack to the top priority.
•      Enterprise IT managers must deal with the growing need for enterprise application mobility and the impact from productivity tools created in the consumer world that are increasingly being brought into the work environment.
•      Application developers face significant choices about which platform they should target for development and how to achieve wholesale access to MNO APIs.

"The study conducted by Yankee Group confirms our view that the mobile marketplace is at an inflection point," said Steve Edwards, senior vice president, Carrier Services. "Operators need monetize their network investments and support consumers' increasing appetite for rich media services. The Neustar Intelligent Cloud changes the mobile services business model by reducing operating costs and improving the consumer experience, while creating new revenue streams."
Key Findings:
Based on an examination of the mobile marketplace and ecosystem, the Yankee Group believes that a well-executed mobile cloud service eliminates the commercial and technical fragmentation that has proven to be a barrier in the past. The firm believes that by combining mobile cloud services with a motivated ecosystem, there are significant opportunities to enrich the entire marketplace.
"The Aepona software engine powers the convergence of open mobile networks with Mobile Cloud Computing," said Al Snyder, Chief Executive Officer, Aepona. "Through our work with OneAPI, we saw the need for a service that streamlines the path to market for mobile services. By working with Neustar, we are able to enable a rich variety of applications and series that utilize the mobile network features and intelligence available on-demand via the mobile cloud."
The complete white paper titled "The Mobile Cloud: Unlocking New Profits" can be downloaded at: http:// www.neustarintelligentcloud.biz/.

NextGen Voice Portal

Reliance Communications, one of India's telecom service provider, is all set to launch R World, a next generation mobile portal, a press release revealed.

The portal would deliver a host of futuristic mobile internet and data services to the customers.

Motricity's m-Core platform has been selected by the Indian telecom service provider to deliver advanced capabilities on its 3G, GSM and CDMA mobile platforms.

"The initial customer response to R World has been exceptional. We believe the future of mobile experiences is going to be based on the delivery of highly personalized offerings which include localized content, delivered to our customers in their native language," said Prashant Gokarn, head of  3G Business at Reliance Communications (News - Alert), in a statement.

Gokarn said that Reliance is pioneering a new way of delivering personalized information anytime, anyplace and through any device.Motricity's (News -Alert) m-Core Platform provides the company the scale and the capabilities it needs to deliver on this vision, he added.

"Motricity is pleased to continue to work closely with Reliance to evolve R World," said Ryan Wuerch, chief executive officer of Motricity.

Wuerch said that through the delivery of highly relevant experiences, Reliance will be in position to delight and retain its customers, and further monetize these offerings through the marketing of targeted mobile value added services, as well as, targeted mobile marketing and advertising campaigns.

Motricity is a mobile data solutions provider exclusively focused on the rapidly growing mobile Internet market.

Officials with Reliance pointed out that key features which the company intends to make available through R World include-Highly-targeted mobile marketing and advertising campaigns, to further monetize the mobile Internet experience; localized regional content to serve individual consumer interests and tastes; multiple language support, starting with Hindi, the native language of over 250 million Indians and location-based services to help ensure users get what matters most to them based on where they are at any given time.source

DTH+3G can bring the next big revolution.

These days I’m in Mumbai, and as I entered here while coming from Delhi I found almost every slum house on the way fitted with Airtel DTH. That’s some awesome thing, isn’t? DTH subscribers are over 20 Million now and guess what? It added 10 million subscribers during 2009-2010 i.e. adding half of it’s 5 year total during last year. It’s growth is amazing and everyone from Broadcasters to Subscribers are loving it.

Be it the innovations like- HDTV, Digital Dolby, Record via Mobile, Pause live TV or the content- interactive TV, Movies on Demand, people seem to praise every thing about DTH. And thanks the competition, prices are coming down almost every day.

As DTH expand it’s tentacles to untapped markets where Cable Industry couldn’t reach in last 10 years, it may give an answer to very important questions- Could we connect every household in India (specially rural India) via broadband? The answer lies in new-age wireless technologies like 3G and WiMAX (BWA). As Airtel Digital TV, CEO Ajai Puri puts it-

The advent of new wireless access technologies like 3G & BWA will make it possible for customers to experience the true power of two-way interactivity even on DTH.

Companies like Airtel, Tata and Reliance can actually take true advantage of being in both DTH and Telecom industries and acquiring costly 3G spectrum.

Wireless is the only solution to connect whole of India and TV can be a medium of choice to connect to internet for those who have never used a physical computer. Imagine the day when you can connect to internet just by attaching a mouse and keyboard to your Television!

Let’s see how fast these companies implement 3G technologies over DTH to enable 2-way interactivity which will not only enhance TV viewing experience but will also connect millions of Indians to broadband internet.

Do you think DTH can achieve what TRAI has been saying but couldn’t achieve till now- 200 Million broadband users?source

First Intel-branded 3G, 4G chips debut

Add capApple's iPad uses what is now an Intel 3G chip--formerly Infineon.
(Credit: Apple)

Intel announced shipments of the first 3G chips--and future 4G silicon--that sport its branding today at Mobile World Congress--the fruits of its acquisition of Infineon's wireless business.

"Intel Inside" takes on a new meaning with 3G chips. After the acquisition, Intel Mobile Communications has overnight become a major supplier of so-called baseband processors, which handle the 3G connection and are one of the most critical chips in a smartphone or tablet.

Intel's--formerly Infineon's--3G chips are used in prominent devices such as the iPhone and iPad.

Announced today, the XMM 6260 is designed for smartphones and can be coupled with a smartphone's application processor or offered as a standalone solution for PC modems and data cards, Intel said.

The HSPA+ technology "comprises a fully integrated HSPA+ system solution supporting HSPA category 14 (21 megabits per second) in the downlink and category 7 (11.5Mbps) in the uplink," according to Intel.

Intel's MWC wireless rollouts don't stop there. The world's largest chipmaker also announced LTE technology, generically referred to as 4G.

The multimode (LTE/3G/2G) platform XMM 7060 "is suitable for integration in LTE-enabled portable devices such as mobile handsets, data cards/dongles and other embedded solutions," Intel said.

The 3G silicon is shipping in volume now, while the LTE solution will be available for volume shipment in the second half of 2012. Though the world's largest manufacturer of chips, Intel will not be making these products, instead consigning production to an Asia-based manufacturer.source

CBI questions brass of 9 telcos

NEW DELHI: CBI has accelerated its task of identifying the main beneficiaries of the 2G scam , masterminded by former Telecom Minister A Raja , ahead of the March 1 deadline set by the Supreme Court. Senior functionaries of S-Tel and Unitech, Loop Telecom, Swan Telecom and Reliance Communications have been questioned about their role in the scam in the last few days. 


The investigating agency has already conducted one round of examining of officials of all 9 telecom companies which were conferred the 2G licences in 2008, and is in the process of interrogating them again. According to CBI, the charges against the companies which were awarded a total of 122 licences across 22 circles in 2008, fall broadly in three categories. They are, violation of the first-come-first-served policy, tampering of cut-off date for licences and failure to meet the eligibility criteria. The charges against most companies fall under any of the three categories or more. 


In its status report before the apex court last week, CBI described it as multiple-conspiracies. CBI had last week arrested DB Realty promoter and Swan (now called Etisalat DB) director Shahid Balwa in connection with the scam. The prosecution claimed that Balwa had entered into a conspiracy with some private companies to cause a loss to the exchequer. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India in its report last November said priority lists in Punjab and Maharashtra were tweaked to benefit Swan in spectrum allocation. 


In the same report , CAG had alleged that S-Tel was not eligible for getting six mobile permits . The national auditor found that the company had submitted false certificate from the company secretary. S-Tel Chief Operating Officer Shamik Das said CBI had asked for information from all companies who got licences in 2008 and there were no specific charges against the company. He said the company had for its interaction with CBI sent its official representative. 


A Unitech spokeswoman said pursuant to the Supreme Court order, all the 9 telecom companies which received the licenses were being questioned by the agencies and was not specific to any one company. Unitech is a responsible corporate, functioning within the guidelines prescribed by the government and has been fully co-operating with the investigating agency, she said. 


RCOM CEO Wireless Syed Safawi said CBI was reportedly examining a large number of telecom companies and their officials from across the entire telecom industry in relation to various matters for 2001-2008 . “We are fully co-operating with the authorities in this regard, and will continue to extend all assistance as required to enable them to complete their investigations ,’’ he said.source

Mobile Call Charges Likely To Rise

he Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), on Wednesday, has recommended a six-fold jump in 2G spectrum cost for operators. This is after the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) findings that the exchequer has lost an estimated amount of Rs. 1.76 lakh crore in 2008 by selling 2G licenses bundled with start-up spectrum at Rs. 1,658 crore to pan-India operators.

The operators are currently paying Rs. 1,658 crore for the contracted 6.2 MHz spectrum for pan-India license but TRAI has come out with a new rate of Rs. 10,972.45 crore. Also, each MHz of additional spectrum held by operators should cost a one-time charge of Rs. 4,571.87 crore (all India). However, this would vary from circle to circle and operators would be required to pay only for those circles, where they hold extra spectrum. TRAI has also recommended that the suggested prices should be made effective from April 1, 2010.

This would mean that our mobile bills are going to multiply in the coming days. Imagine the call rates being Rs. 5 or Rs. 6 per minute, for local calls. That would be “disastrous”, as the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the general body for GSM service providers, says.

“This would mean that my mobile charges are going to triple or even more. My father lives abroad and if the call charges are going to be hiked, all I can do is reduce my dependency on mobile phones and make use of cheaper internet based services like Skype or GTalk,” says Arun Shajan, Quality Controller, Hilton Hyundai, Trivandrum.

“Also, in the long run, this is going to cause heavy loss for the government as more and more people would turn to the aforementioned services,” he adds.
Major telecom operators like Bharti and Vodafone have raised their concern over the new recommendations by TRAI, terming them as “flawed, illogical and discriminatory” against the old operators. The COAI also commented that it is like “changing the goal post in the middle of the game.”

However, the telecom operators in Trivandrum, when contacted chose not to comment on this. “I’m not aware of any such issues and as such I have not been intimated about any call charge hikes,” says Jyothi Shankar, XX, BSNL, Trivandrum.

Telecom minister Kapil Sibal also criticised the CAG for the methodology used to arrive at the presumptive figures.  source

Secrecy in deal kept DoT, TRAI out of the loop

The Antrix-Devas controversial deal has brought to the fore the secretive functioning of the Department of Space (DoS) and the Indian Space Research Organisation while dealing with allocation of their resources for general use. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which are responsible for the growth of telecom and DTH services, have been making unsuccessful attempts at getting the DoS and ISRO to streamline issues related to these two sectors.

While the DoT is the custodian of spectrum (radio waves) and it frames policies on satellite communications and VSAT services such as DTH, the TRAI decides the regulatory mechanism of the two sectors. But in the deal between ISRO's commercial arm, Antrix Corporation, and Devas Multimedia, both the DoT and the TRAI were not kept in the loop.

“The use of satellites and transponders has undergone major changes since the boom in the mobile telephony and DTH sectors in recent years. As far as the use of space technologies for general use goes, it is no longer a secretive issue. Telecom and DTH come under our purview … we tried to discuss the matter with the DoS and ISRO officials on several occasions, but they never cooperated,” a former TRAI Chairman told The Hindu.

“The telecom sector is plagued by the scarcity of spectrum due to a tremendous boom in mobile telephony ... we have been trying to get unused spectrum from various government agencies like defence, police, Railways, and the DoS to ensure that the telecom sector gets spectrum to support growth. [But] the response from the DoS has been poor. We wanted to discuss the use of S-band to help the growth of broadband where India is lagging behind, but the DoS would either bring the Union Cabinet into the picture or talk about national security to scuttle our moves,” he said.

Significantly, the Department of Telecom opposed the ISRO-Devas deal in 2007, two years before ISRO asked for a review, while senior DoT officials have been saying ISRO had no power to allocate spectrum.

Devas' claim

Devas Multimedia president and CEO Ramachandran Viswanathan has been claiming that as per the agreement signed by the Bangalore-based firm and Antrix, the allocation of transponders was based on the SATCOM Policy as an “open window process,” just like DTH and GSAT service providers received in the past.

But the SATCOM Policy forms part of the New Telecom Policy 1999 that comes under the DoT and is made as per recommendations of the TRAI. Similarly, licences to VSAT service providers are also given under the NTP 1999. “The SATCOM Policy shall provide for users to avail [themselves] of transponder capacity from both domestic and foreign satellites. However, the same has to be in consultation with the Department of Space … Under the existing ISP policy, international long distance communication for data has been opened up. The gateways for this purpose shall be allowed to use SATCOM,” says NTP 1999.

Pointing out that they were never informed by the DoS at the time of the signing of the deal between Antrix and Devas, the former TRAI Chairman also said that legally they should have informed both the DoT and the TRAI. “And when the use of spectrum was for general interest, the DoS and ISRO should have consulted us. We have been demanding S-band spectrum for broadband services, but now it seems that Devas wanted to get the high-value spectrum for similar services,” he added.source

Vodafone says - Auctioning is the only way out of 2G mess

 

Vodafone Essar has told the Department of Telecom that auctioning 2G spectrum is the only right way forward to deal with the current mess. The mobile phone company said that recommendation by the telecom regulator to price spectrum based on calculations was incorrect and unjustifiable.

“Even though the one-man committee has criticised DoT for not implementing the 2003 decision of the Cabinet to move to auctioning of spectrum….even today the TRAI refuses to advice to move to an auction model and has come out with an arbitrary and flawed administrative way of charging for spectrum, designed to aggravate the discrimination between different operators,” the Vodafone letter to DoT Secretary said.

“We believe that there is only one way out of this mess viz. allocation of spectrum through transparent auctions. In respect of an administrative approach to address legacy issues, we believe that it at all it has to be applied, the only acceptable way forward will have to be a solution that is anchored around on uniformly applied principles — i.e. no distinctions between below and beyond 6.2 Mhz or between GSM and CDMA,” it said.

The TRAI has suggested that the Government should collect a one-time fee from operators with 2G spectrum at the rate of Rs 1,769 crore per Mhz of spectrum up to 6.2 Mhz and Rs 4,571 crore per Mhz for anything beyond that. This will cost the telecom firms about Rs 16,000 crore, according to Government estimates. Over the next few years, this could go up to Rs 40,000 crore, when the operators go for renewing their licences

Vodafone said that the TRAI had not granted a hearing. The company said that TRAI has no powers to impose retrospective charges for spectrum already allocated.

Last week, Reliance Communications had come out saying that the TRAI recommendations benefitted incumbent operators such as Vodafone as it had reduced the per Mhz price compared with the May 2010 proposals. In May last year, TRAI had said that 2G spectrum should be priced on a pro-rata based on 3G auction price.source

How Nokia and Microsoft will take up Innovative Mobile Services

Nokia smartphones will be running Windows Phone, but the company is hoping to hang on to some of its service-provider identity even as Microsoft grabs the choicest morsels.

Nokia tried hard to redefine itself as a provider of services, which is what everyone wants to be these days - hardware margins are tight and most software platforms are being given away for free. Over the years, Nokia has launched a plethora of services, including PIM synchronisation, cloud storage, and its very own instant messaging service – all of which eventually got lumped together under the Ovi brand but never really gelled as a coherent offering.

Recently, the Finns started killing off some of the more esoteric offerings, such as the cloud storage service, and they farmed others out to better-equipped companies, which included dumping Ovi e-mail and messaging with Yahoo. Ovi will no-doubt continue to provide services for non-smart phones, and the 150 million Symbian handsets Nokia expects to ship during the transition, but much of the service offering will now be handed over to Redmond.

Nokia gets to keep mobile mapping, while Microsoft gets handset advertising, an area in which Nokia has never showed much interest. Nokia also gets free rein to take Google and Apple to the cleaners over mobile patents, while Microsoft gets to poke Intel in the eye one last time.

These days, it's almost possible to feel sorry for Intel, which must really hate the mobile industry. First, the company pissed money into WiMAX, which got killed off by the network operators in collusion with Qualcomm. Then Microsoft announces that desktop Windows will be ported to the ARM architecture used by every other chip manufacturer, and now, Intel's attempt to undermine Microsoft with its own mobile platform is in tatters with MeeGo redefined as a "project" by Nokia and kicked into the "longer term".

Not that Nokia has much to celebrate, with Microsoft taking some of the best services for itself as well as collecting OS royalties. Contact and calender synchronisation will inevitably end up with Redmond, on smartphones at least, as will e-mail. The Ovi store gets integrated into the Windows Marketplace. We're not sure that that means. Perhaps developers will be able to submit applications to either company, but more likely, Microsoft's store will take advantage of the operator billing that Nokia has been able to put into place.

Ovi Music could survive. Microsoft has no problem with alternative content providers as long as they integrate with the appropriate Windows Phone 7 hubs, but we've yet to hear any details on that.

Ovi Maps will be the location technology of choice, on Nokia's handsets at least. It's not clear what happens to other Windows Phone 7 manufacturers which is where things get interesting. Bing Maps is currently well integrated into the Windows Phone 7 experience, automatically linking to contact addresses and calender appointments. Bing Maps can also be utilised by third-party developers through a Silverlight control, and we have to assume the same functionality will be available on Nokia handsets using Ovi Maps instead. With a consistent interface, and Microsoft getting the advertising revenue, one has to wonder why Nokia would be so keen on providing maps anyway, other than to justify the $8bn or so the Finns spent on Navteq in 2007.

Nokia has never shown much interest in mobile advertising, which is surprising when Google spent $750 on AdMob, and Apple shelled out $275 on Quattro for its iAd platform. Even Opera managed to find $8m to buy up Ad Marvel. Nokia owns Novarra, which already optimises – and inserts advertising into – mobile browsing sessions for Vodafone UK and Yahoo, but Nokia seems happy to hand over the whole smartphone advertising business to Microsoft's adCenter.

In return Nokia gets "significant" and "substantial" amounts of marketing dollars, and a doorway into America. Like all European stars Nokia has always been desperate to make it big in America, sometimes embarrassingly so, and this deal will likely put it there, but America changes people, and the Nokia that succeeds there will not be the Nokia we remember. source

A free cloud service for building smartphone apps

 Conduit, an application developer for Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association, is now making its app-building tools available free. The Tel Aviv, Israel-based company has developed a website for building an application once that will run on five smartphone platforms: iPhone, Android, Windows, Blackberry and Nokia's Symbian.

The service uses feeds from your website or social networks. "You can slice and dice it how you want" for the mobile app, said Dayna Verstegen, marketing director of the company.

The app-building site also walks the developer through the application process for each smartphone marketplace, whether it's iTunes or the Android marketplace. Conduit also runs its own marketplace and apps built in on the free platform will be added to it.

Apps built on the free service will display ads, which is how Conduit makes money from the service.

The company started out building browser apps for companies in 2005 and grew to include mobile apps. Clients range from large and high-profile companies -- eBay, TechCrunch, Fox News -- to small business owners, such as a high-end pet store in Baltimore, Verstegen said.

The free cloud service, Conduit Mobile, launched this morning and there are now 2,000 mobile applications that have been built.

The company said it had 230 million users active as of February and 230,000 customers.

It will continue building custom mobile applications through a revenue-share model as well.source

Swarm Of Google Services

This week NetSpeak takes a fresh look at some of the latest offerings from Google.

Google's dominance over the online world seems to be insurmountable. Aside the wide variety of search services from its flagship search product pack (web search, video search, blog search and the like), Google offers numerous other services as well (Google mail, Browser, Google Apps and the like). Even in the fastest growing mobile web segment, Google is surging ahead.

The on-line world is now agog with the news that Android, the open source mobile operating system from Google, has become a major platform for mobile devices (http://www.gpsbusinessnews.com/Canalys-Android-is-World-Leading-Smartphone-Platform_a2775. html).

The staggering number of mobile applications being released for Android-based smart-phones further underlines this trend. NetSpeak will deal on this topic in one of the forthcoming editions of this column.

An interesting feature of the Google's product ecosystem is that its constituents interact with mutual synergy, making it grow in an organic manner.

This aspect is quite apparent in Chrome, the popular browser from Google. As already mentioned in an earlier column, the strength and popularity of Chrome lies in the availability of a variety of extensions that enhance its power.

Extensions meant for accessing almost all Google services with ease are in place. You may also note that the latest version of Chrome has got a feature called ‘Instant', which is similar to Google Instant.

This feature enables the browser to load a web page as soon as one starts entering its URL. Besides this, instead of a site's URL, if you are entering a search string, search results will start appearing as you type.

Google Apps marketplace

Google Apps (http://www.google.com/apps/) is a significant component of Google ecosystem. For those of you who are not familiar with Google Apps, it is a Google service that provides various Google products (such as gmail and google docs) on a custom domain. Anyone with a domain name can avail of this service, which is free for up to 50 uses.

Google Apps allows a domain owner to leverage Google's infrastructure and deploy Google's popular applications on his domain without incurring any additional hardware/software overhead. Google also offers ‘Google Apps Marketplace', a web-based platform meant for finding/installing third-party on-line applications that work with Google Apps' built-in application mix.

The latest development in the ‘Apps Marketplace' front is the launch of a new channel exclusively meant for the education segment (http://goo.gl/pdGZJ). In this category one can find several applications useful for both teachers and students.

Brainpop, a popular on-line service that creates educational content for kids is a good example.

The service offers animated educational movies on a range of topics within Science, Technology, Social studies, English and so on. Although Brainpop is not a free service, for ‘Google Apps' users it is available for free till March 11, 2011.source

Travelling Numbers

Almost all mobile service brands say the much anticipated and much delayed mobile number portability is not going to be a game changer in their industry. And yet, not one of them is holding back on doing their best — in effort and expenses — to get subscribers to port from competing service brands best — in effort and expenses — to get subscribers to port from competing service brands to their own.

Idea Cellular started advertising before the launch of MNP in November 2010. By now, there is a communication deluge as MNP cuts across India. Leading players such as Airtel and Vodafone have gone aggressive across TV, print, radio, outdoor, at points of sale and online.

Newer entrants Uninor and MTS have been advertising over the past two months or so. To Idea’s celebrity endorser Abhishek Bachchan, Airtel has roped in AR Rahman, Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor.

Vodafone has a TV ad featuring a kiddie photo session and hoardings welcoming subscribers to much better services and quality without changing their mobile numbers.

And riding on the din, though perhaps not specifically MNP-driven, is Videocon with its zero-paisa per second call offer — for the period of one year — on its TV ad and outdoor media.

So is it much ado about nothing?

Mritunjay Kapur, MD, Protiviti Consulting India (Protiviti is an international risk management and business consulting group), said, “Because one brand is doing it, others are also doing it. It’s a very competitive market.”  With as many as 15 mobile service brands fighting for business, no one would miss out on any action, not even in a market with a subscriber base as large as 75.22 crore as on December 31, 2010, according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) figures.

Atul Bindal, president, mobile services, Bharti Airtel, said, “Pre-paid subscriptions make up 95% of the total mobile customer base in India. With already very high monthly pre-paid churn at around 7%, MNP will have very small impact at an industry level.”

Samaresh Parida, director, corporate strategy, Vodafone Essar, said, “In most countries where MNP has been launched, the action mostly lasted over three-four months, by which time subscribers settled down with the service of their choice.”

However, port-outs and port-ins are happening with every service, big and small. “We have seen 2,17,000 port-ins and 1,25,000 port-outs,” said Parida.

While attractive price deals are very visible, the bigger players insist that low pricing cannot be a sole driver for MNP movement. “We find customers changing operators due to network issues. Our research also indicates that they are switching operators because of service and not pricing issues,” Bindal said.

But, he added, “the possibility of ongoing tactical promotional offers at the local level cannot be ignored. As prices in India are already very low, there is no further scope for a sustainable price drop. With MNP launch, all existing operators will be working on improving their quality of services — network, customer service, products.”

“Customers responding to MNP are making more considered choices. Their requests are on network quality, service, brand strength and also tariffs,” Parida observed.

Rajat Mukarji, chief corporate affairs officer, Idea Cellular, said, “Consumers, our research shows, are looking for a pan-India network offering seamless connectivity; affordable, relevant products and service offerings; accessible and humane customer care; accurate billing systems; voice clarity; and no call drops. These are the key parameters for satisfaction and will ultimately be the deciding factors for exercising choice, post MNP. These were the highlights on our ad campaign, with its key message, ‘No Idea, Get Idea’.”

Newer operators are, however, more upbeat on the mix of attractive pricing and less cluttered networks since their subscriber bases are smaller.

“We expect MNP to boost our subscriber base. January-November 2010 TRAI numbers show that 14% of incremental subscribers were brought in by new operators. Post MNP, 60% of our port-ins were GSM consumers. The new operators received licences at varied intervals between 2008 and 2009, so their achievement is even more significant,” said Leonid Musatov, chief marketing officer, MTS India, which offers CDMA services.

Olav Sande, EVP, western circle, Uninor India, said dynamic pricing has worked wonderfully for Uninor. “We see MNP as an excellent opportunity to grow. In itself, MNP is not a basic need. The basic need is the attractiveness of the plan in terms of price and the services we offer on that plan,” he said.

Every mobile service brand wants the high ARPU (average revenue per user) subscriber — who is mostly a post-paid customer — but is not averse to lower revenue customers too.

Parida explained, “Naturally, I would give higher priority to my high ARPU customer. Below that, based on usage segmentation, I would offer different services to different customer sets.”

Airtel’s Bindal was more direct: “We remain focused on delivering complete ‘value’ as against offering just the price proposition. We hope to acquire few customers in the category of deal seekers that keep switching operators depending upon ‘offer of the day’ schemes. Our early analysis indicates that among MNP port-ins, Airtel is getting disproportionate share of high value customers from other operators.”

Does MNP impact anything then? Protiviti’s Kapur concluded, “It gives consumers choice. It puts greater pressure on mobile service operators to improve their products, services and quality. Overall, MNP can create better balance in overall deliveries. Consumers gain.”source

Samsung adds 10.1-in. Android Honeycomb tablet

Samsung has added the Honeycomb-based Galaxy Tab 10.1 to its line-up of tablets.

The new tablet comes with a 10.1-inch LCD screen and a resolution at 1280 x 800 pixels. Under the hood, there is a 1 GHz dual-core processor.

The tablet measures 9.6 inches by 6.6 inches by 4/10 of an inch and weighs 1.3 pounds, according to a company statement. That makes it a good bit lighter than the Motorola Xoom, which also has 10.1-inch screen, is based on the tablet-optimized Honeycomb OS -- also known as Android 3.0 -- but weighs 1.6 pounds, according to a spec sheet on Motorola's website.

The back camera has an 8-megapixel resolution and LED flash and the front camera has a 2-megapixel resolution.

Users who want to watch streaming video on their tablet can access the Internet using Wi-Fi (802.11a, b, g and n) or HSPA+ (High-Speed Packet Access) at up to 21M bps (bits per second). For users to take full advantage of that speed, their mobile operator may first have to upgrade their network. Today, there are 79 commercial HSPA+ networks that can handle data speed of 21M bps, according to a recent report published by industry organization GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association).

The device will start shipping in some markets, including Sweden, in June. Pricing was not disclosed.source

NFC-based Cross-border Mobile Financial service

As early as end of this year, Korean and Japanese users will be able to experience seamless and convenient mobile payment in Korea and Japan with the introduction of Near Field Communication (NFC) based mobile financial services.

For the cross-border mobile payment service, KT, the second-largest mobile carrier, has joined with NTT DoCoMo, the leading mobile carrier in Japan. Meanwhile SK Telecom, the No. 1 mobile carrier in the local market, has joined forces with KDDI and Softbank Mobile. 
source

Old Telcos Likely To Challenge TRAI Fine

 Old telecom players — Bharti, Idea and Vodafone are considering a legal challenge against Trai’s recent recommendation to levy heavy spectrum charges on them. Trai has recommended this penalty for excess spectrum held by these companies.

The CAG, which had pegged the exchequer’s loss due to the 2G scam at Rs 1.76 lakh crore had also ascribed Rs 37,000 crore of the total to the excess spectrum held by these firms. “If the telecom department accepts the Trai recommendation, we will have no choice but to challenge them in the courts. The Trai recommendation are unjust and the charges they have announced are too high,” said a senior official from a telecom company.

In fact last year Bharti, Vodafone and Idea had challenged in TDSAT, Trai’s recommendation which had first talked about levying one time charge on these old telecos for the spectrum they hold beyond 6.2 Mhz based on the price discovered in then on-going 3G auction. These companies were forced to withdrew their petition because at that time telecom department had not accepted these recommendations and therefore the petition was not “maintainable.”

However, then Trai on its own had told the telecom department that it will study the matter in detail and will give recommendations separately on how to charge the spectrum beyond 6.2 Mhz. Last week, Trai finally came out with its report recommending that companies be asked to pay Rs 4,571 crore for every MHz of spectrum they hold on a pan-India basis over the contractual limit of 6.2 Mhz.

The government is expected to get additional revenue of Rs 16,000 crore if it accepts these recommendations, an analysis by Emkay Global Financial Services shows. BSNL, which holds the maximum amount of additional spectrum, will have to pay Rs 7,000 crore. BSNL has excess spectrum in 19 circles (61 Mhz), Bharti in 13 circles (32 Mhz), Vodafone in seven circles (19.6 Mhz), Idea in six circles (12.6 Mhz), MTNL in two circles (12.4 Mhz), BPL in one, Reliance in one, Aircel in one and Spice (now Idea) in one, according to CAG report.source.

Globe Telecom Strengthens Mobile Data Services

Globe Telecom has started expanding its line-up of internet capable smartphones and tablets to meet the increasing demand for an affordable yet reliable on-the-go internet connectivity. This move taken by Globe is part of  the company’s plan in strengthening its leadership in mobile data services in the country. The aggressive push for new devices and mobile data plans addresses the demands for a more accessible and more affordable internet access to mobile phone

subscribers.

Among the latest addition to Globe’s line-up of affordable mobile phones are the following: Huawei Ideos U8150,Samsung Galaxy Europa, Samsung Galaxy

Mini s5570 and the Samsung Galaxy Ace s5830. These mobile phones are powered by the Android 2.1~2.2, a mobile operating system specifically designed for mobile functions such as internet browsing, gaming, sending of tweets, viewing and updating of Facebook statuses, communication and other mobile internet functions available in most Android-powered devices today.

The Huawei Ideos u8150 and Samsung Galaxy 5 i5503 Europa both come free with Globe MySuperPlan 499 and 30 days of Super Surf.

The Samsung Galaxy Mini s5570 comes  free at Globe MySuperPlan 999, while the Samsung Galaxy Ace s5830 is free atPlan 1799. Both are bundled with 30 days of Super Surf for free so users can experience and enjoy mobile internet their way.source

Google Nexus S with AT&T 3G Appears at FCC

Google is one of the world’s leading software manufacturers both in terms of online applications and mobile software. Quite obviously, their Androidmobile platform can largely be attributed when it comes to their success as it has become one of the most used platforms in the world. However, Google has also dabbled in in the hardware world working closely with manufactures like HTC and Samsung to push out the Nexus One and Nexus S, respectively.

However, both the Nexus One and Nexus S currently only work with T-Mobile’s 3G speeds leaving those wanting to use it on AT&T with slow speeds. Luckily, a version of the Nexus S was just spotted at the FCC complete with AT&T 3G built-in. Unfortunately, this device has yet to be confirmed but seeing how the Nexus S is one of the most highly sought after Android devices currently on the market it most likely won’t be too long now.source