Pink transformed to Red

After the successful acquisition of Hutch by Vodafone beating the Reliance and the Hindujas bid they have launched thier sizzling red brand, today in the indian market. This is defnitely a big day in the india telecom and probably the biggest migration happened so far...

Asim Ghosh, Managing Director, Vodafone Essar, said: "We've had a great innings as Hutch in India and today marks a new beginning for us. Not as a departure from the fundamentals that created Hutch, but an acceleration into the future with Vodafone's global expertise."

"It is even larger than our own previous brand transitions as it touches over 35 million customers, across 400,000 shops and thousands of our own and our business associates employees." said Mr. Harit Nagpal, Business and Marketing director.

With the acquisition of Hutch in India, Vodafone has spread its operations in 26th country, covering five continents & 40 partner networks with over 200 million customers worldwide.

Though it costed Vodafone over $11b to bag hutch in India they strongly belive its the right deal and a good strategic move for them & thier brand to enter this emerging market. Vodafone has also got a 10% stake in Bharti Airtel.

To Know more log on to http://www.vodafone.in/

The National Do Not Call Registry NDNC

As per TRAI guidelines the NDNC (National Do Not Call Registry), had finally taken shape and is now operational since Sep 1st' 07. This is started with the purpose to curb all Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC).

The mobile subscribers can get registered to NDNC service, if they do not want to get disturbed by any telemarketing calls or messages via any telecommunication services. Ideally, this directory contains the list of all the mobile subscribers who are not willing to take any calls or receive messages for any sort of marketing & promotional activities. This NDNC registry is maintained and monitored by National Informatics center (NIC),

For registering the request for DND (Do Not Disturb) the subscriber can contact their operator through the customer care / SMS / via online website / in writing.

The regulation had prescribed NIC a three-month time frame to establish the Registry. Once registered, the Telecom operators will verify the same and has to intimate the registry within the next ten days. Finally, post 45days from the date of request no unwanted commercial calls can be made to that number failing which the subscriber can lodge a complaint with their operator with complete details of the call.

An amount of Rs 500/- per UCC has been proposed who violates the guidelines. If the UCC is repeated by the same telemarketer for the second time, his service provider shall charge a higher tariff and also service providers have been directed to disconnect telephones connections of telemarketer if sending of such Unsolicited Commercial Communication is repeated.

For more information please visit http://www.trai.gov.in/ or http://www.ndncregistry.gov.in/

For registering with NDNC Registry, please follow the below links:

Reliance Users: Click here

MTNL Delhi: Delhi Users Click here
Idea Cellular: Idea users click here
MTNL Mumbai: Mumbai Users Click here
Spice Users: SMS the keyword "BLOCK" to 363

Hutch Users: SMS "ACT DND" to 111 or Click here
Airtel users: SMS “START DND” to 121 or click here

BPL Users: SMS "NDNC" to 50800 (for postpaid) or 50505 (for prepaid) Or Click here

Iphone prices slashed!!!

Ever since the iphone has been launched on June 29th this year, the iphone has been the most covetous smart phone, with a million units sold. The unanticipated decision of apple to cut down the prices of iphone by about $100 on both the models, has upset the existing iphone users. The new prices would be $299 for a 4GB iphone & $399 for an 8GB model.

The news of price cut on iphone have deeply hurt & disappointed the existing users and Mr. Steve Jobs has been kind enough to offer a store credit of $100 for all the early birds who made iphone the only choice to go mobile, As he writes in an open letter that “We want to do the right thing for our valued iphone customers. “We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple.”

In spite the store credits which are seldom received well, the existing iphone customers felt it was a core abuse by offering that credit more over for this credit reimbursement they are still supposed to stay tuned.

Are Idiot boxes getting smarter or the smarter PC’s turning to Idiot boxes????

It sounds a conflict of interest or say a point of debate but with the nascent IPTV services fast penetrating into the India market leaves you behind with this question.

Internet Protocol TV is a method of offering digital television services using the Internet Protocol. Can be defined, as the method of transmitting the television content over broadband infrastructure generally used for computer systems instead of traditional broadcast and cable formats.

IPTV is growing rapidly and major television broadcasters round the globe are already offering their broadcast signals over the internet, It only requires an Internet connection with an Internet enabled device like a computer, HDTV connected to a computer or even a 3G mobile phone to watch the IPTV broadcasts. There are many free IPTV’s available worldwide and this segment is fast growing.

The IPTV offers a tailored television services using the high speed broad band access technology, with high picture quality even on the giant screens, it allows the users to store, replay the content. It also offers Video on demand, music on demand and many other customizable features. This IPTV concept is emerging in India and a firm called Optibase has already celebrated the successful launch of their IPTV services in New Delhi and this company is looking forward for international tie ups so that their can create their footprint across the nation.

Now, with the availability of mobile streaming technology over mobile phone appeals the Telcos to offer the IPTV services which can be broadcasted over the mobiles using the high speed data access. Hence, the Telcos are now eying for it big time, as this will surely shoot up their ARPU’s.

The recent news that the TRAI has approved both the Telcos and the cable operators to offer IPTV services that too much without the need for renewal of existing licenses created fire in the industry, although the entire services no matter offered by Telcos or cable operators will be governed by the Ministry Of Information & Broadcast. But, now the ability of Telcos in India to capitalize on this potential is still a debate, they are required to upgrade their existing networks, having said so they also have deliver a rich experience rather then just access.

VASillating Facts…

VAS : The services apart from the basic voice services like OG & IC which allows the user to personalize & add value by enhancing the mobility & can be subscribed by the user based on their requirement can be defined as VAS… the big tool to build ARPU

VAS is mainly segmented based on content to Infotainment, Entertainment & m-Commerce

Infotainment: The info broadcasted which is intended both for entertainment & information
Entertainment: The broadcast information provided with amusement content or content designed purely for entertainment.
m-Commerce: the commercial transactions which can be done wireless (OTA) using mobile technology & mobiles.

Further the Value Added Services can be classified to Text, Voice, Call Management, Data, and USSD Based.

The foremost troops who have a big say in this are, telecom companies, content providers, technology & solution providers, content copyright owners, IT vendors, aggregators, developers, handset manufacturers, mobile internet, portal providers, short code owners, system integrators, smartcard manufacturers, multimedia providers, financial service providers etc…

As per IAMAI the VAS industry in India is now a 4560cr which is just about 2850cr in 2006 and is anticipated to fold 10- 15times by 2010.

The Total Revenues

The maximum revenue shares are from the entertainment services and can be quantifies as below as per IMRB research

P2P ---------------- 40%
P2A & A2P --------- 15%
Game & Data ------- 7%
Ringtone download- 35%

Others -------------- 7%

The VAS Revenue sharing

P2A & A2P------------- 15%
Copy right Owner ------ 15%
Aggregator n developer- 25%
Operators -------------- 60%

(Telcos take major share as the SMS stands in top when it comes to VAS )

Revenue sharing in Enterprise solutions:

Short Code Owner ------- 30%
Operator --------------- 70%

OTA : Over The Air
P2P : Person to Person, P2A : Person to Application
USSD : Unstructured Supplimentary Services Data

ARPU : Average Revenue Per User per month

OG : Outgoing Calls, IC : Incoming Calls

IAMAI: Internet and Mobile Association of India.

The Accelerating VAS

Though the growing subsciber base was exhilarating & good news to celebrate, the flip side was that the ARPU’s have been descending, leaving only a thin line of profits for operators which is now the momentous concern…

The waning ARPU’s & reducing tariff rates on voice have urged the mobile operators to look for an alternative to push their revenues up the ladder drawing their focus on innovation of mobile VAS which is increasingly a growth area, helping operators to maximise revenues and build healthy ARPU's.

Introducing new concepts of mobile VAS at an affordable price has been an appealing source of revenues and a key differentiator when talking in terms of service provisioning and price war, as the entire products are driven by the subscriber demand, who now wants to be more sophisticated being mobile and demands much of personalization of the luxurious services defnitely at a competitive price.

With voice fast becoming a commodity, it’s no more a differentia and of course many a VAS products will face the same challenge in due course of time.

In the resent past there has been a great demand for data & data related services like EDGE, 3G, HSDPA, IP TV etc but these superior services are band width hungry and can be offered to subscribers only if an operator owns a gargantuan infrastructure and necessary spectrum, though the operators are ready to pump as much funds as required there has been a discrepency in the spectrum allocation by the government. You might have heard a lot about the quantum’s of GSM spectrum, its allocation and pricing in the recent news...

As the game has just begun, all the competitors wants to grab the opportunity to offer the services for the first of its kind to lead ahead in the race thereby winning the customers heart and meeting their expectations by providing superior services at the comfort of mobility. This has led the operators to look forward for the tie ups with content providers though only a little focus is put upon content development…

Note :

VAS: Value Added Services

ARPU: Average Revenue Per User per month

HSDPA : High Speed Data Packet Access

EDGE : Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution

The Indian Telecommunications

The Indian telecommunication industry has been growing exponentially and especially the mobile sector in particular has today emerged as the most vibrant & dynamic business ever…

If we have a glance at the numbers, which represent the mobile user growth in India & the rate at which the industry is growing, its just flamboyant and the change is very promising, and will reveal many interesting facts about the mobile revolution India is going through…..

Looking back into the last fiscal, in March’06 the mobile sub base was around 96million which ripened to 120million by Aug06 which shows that the user base is increasing @ 3 - 4 million a month.

Remember? Sometime mid April’06, was when India celebrated 100million mobile users. Though this growth was very enthusiastic it did not leave much excitement within the operators due to various factors out of which, the declining ARPU has been their major concern. Their top priority was to look for alternatives to accelerate the revenues.

A glance at the market share of Post paid & prepaid sub base on an industry average, looks little bumpy and I really wonder how healthy is the business with these numbers... The prepaid base grabs an whooping 80% share in that pie leaving just about 20% for the postpaid.

May be the industry has been digesting this huge variaion in the pie share, due to the fact that the acquisition cost of prepaid stands much lower than post paid although postpaid fetches a promising and higher ARPU largely to that of prepaid and moreover the prepaid loyalties are extremely low and hopeless… This now recoils the fact that it requires the operators to focus more to maintain and retain the sub base from churn which can only be achieved by superior differentiating tools like VAS and after sale support; after all voice has just become a commodity and will surely remain a raw material going forward….

Is this Blog Dead???

The answer is a big NOOOOOOO..... Every fall has its rise. right??

Folks, i know this blog sounds much faded but I have to tolerate the same, as i was held up with too many things; which are though not impressive...

Well, apologies and i shall try my best to bring life back to this blog soon, and make it more lively and atleast polish it to an extent that it is worth having a glance for updates..... the count down begins...

LG Prada : The Touch Screen Mania

LG Electronics, a pioneer in consumer electronics and mobile phones, and PRADA, one of the world’s leading brands in the luxury goods industry, unveil the first completely touch screen mobile phone.

The PRADA Phone by LG (KE850) is an unique and much sophisticated mobile device with the first complete advanced touch interface.

LG introduced the world’s first advanced touch interface which made the conventional keypad obsolete, Prada with the much wide diagonally 3” LCD screen is surely a visual delight, also featuring all the mobile phone essentials and packed with a 2 megapixel camera with Schneider-Kreuznach lens, video player, MP3 player, making this device a breakthrough in mobile revolution.

Customizable wallpapers and sounds option is pretty decent with the Prada, The phone also has four inbuilt games loaded - Halloween Fever, Photo Puzzle, Virus, and Piper and of course this is not everything as you can download from the web as many as you want. Other essential features include a vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, an alarm clock, a calculator, a world clock, a unit converter, and a calendar. voice recorder, e-mail support, Bluetooth 2.0 support, a speakerphone, FM Radio Tuner, document viewer but it would have been great with a 3G support though it is EDGE enabled…

LG and PRADA together worked closely and crafted their product with high detail on every aspect adding more value, to deliver an uncompromising quality topped with luxurious design, calling the attention of every gadget freak on this planet…

“We at LG are exceptionally proud of the PRADA Phone by LG. The two companies have worked together seamlessly towards a truly shared vision, to develop one of the most beautifully stylish handsets the market has ever seen.” says Dr. Scott Ahn, President & CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company.

"As we do with ready-to-wear and accessories, we were looking at a break-through. Consistent with our approach, we are not branding an existing product; rather, Miuccia and I have been working with LG to give this new phone a very strong character and unique style, both in its contents and in its design. We, just like our partners at LG, are known for the attention to detail and uncompromising quality of our products. And we find these characteristics in the new mobile phone." Says Mr. Patrizio Bertelli, President and CEO of PRADA


Sum Rich Features :

Capacitive Touch Screen
Music Player (MP3, ACC, ACC+, WMA, RA)
Music Multitasking (Messaging)
Video Player (MPEG4, H.263, H.264)
Macromedia Flash UI
Document Viewer (ppt, doc, xls, PDF, txt )

Few Technical Specifications :

Network:
EDGE Tri-Band (900/1800/1900)

Dimensions:
98.8 × 54 × 12 mm

Camera:
2M CMOS Camera / LED Flash

External Memory Slot:
Micro SD

Inner pack Battery 800mAh

Connectivity:
Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0, USB Mass storage

Audio:
3.5mm headset jack

FM radio tuner (only works if you have the included headset attached, because it uses the cord as an antenna)

HTC Touch

Founded in 1997, High Tech Computer Corp. with its much manifest R&D capabilities manufactures and markets innovative, feature rich state-of-the-art PDA Phones and Smart phones with luscious designs which took shape as HTC devices and as products, individually with customizable options for operators and device partners.

This Taiwan-based High Tech Computer Corp. partnered with Bharti Airtel and have jointly launched the India's first mobile phone with TouchFLO technology the HTC Touch.

"Our partnership with HTC to introduce India's first TouchFLO technology featured mobile phone underlines our commitment to innovation. We are very excited at the opportunity to bring to our Airtel users a best-in-class product. This phone will be available exclusively on Airtel," said Sanjay Gupta, chief marketing officer, mobile services, Bharti Airtel.

"HTC Touch is the first device to feature TouchFLO, the new underlying touch screen technology developed by HTC," said Peter Chou, chief executive officer, HTC.
"We are excited to partner with Airtel and bring this device to India and we are confident that HTC Touch will have a positive impact on the Indian telecommunications market"

"HTC Touch is a smart, stylish and versatile handset that brings together a wide variety of communication, entertainment and professional capabilities that enable mobile consumers to balance work and play," the company said in a statement

It facilitates the users a new way of controlling touch screen navigation devices by recognizing and responding to the stimulus of a finger on its way. It can even make a distinction between finger and stylus inputs.

The Technical Specifications:

Processor:
TI's OMAP™ 850, 201 MHz

Operating System:
Windows Mobile® 6 Professional

Memory:
ROM: 128 MB
SDRAM: 64 MB DDR

Dimension:
99.9mm (L) X 58mm (W) X 13.9mm (T)

Weight:
112g with battery

Display:
2.8" LCD touch screen with backlight
240 X 320 dots resolution with 65,536 colors

Network:
GSM/GPRS/EDGE Tri-band: 900, 1800, 1900

Device Control:
HTC TouchFLO™ 5-Way navigation control

Connectivity:
Bluetooth® 2.0, Wi-Fi® IEEE 802.11 b/g
HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB and audio jack in one)

Camera:
2.0 mp CMOS color camera

Audio:
Built-in microphone and 3-in-1 speaker

Video:
Windows Media Player supported formats: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, WMA, WAV, QCELP, MPEG4, AMR-NB, AMR-WB)

Battery:
Rechargeable Li-lon battery
Capacity: 1100 mAh
Standby time: Up to 200 hrs
Talk time: Up to 5 hours

Expansion Slot:
microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)

AC Adapter:
Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60Hz
DC output: 5V and 1A

Will it deliver, what it was much hyped for???

If you contemplate the insides, its processor is of a Samsung radical, the world's largest memory chip manufacturer, also manufacturing NAND flash for the iPhone’s.

It also has a good motion sensor for display orientation, can switch to landscape mode once the phone is skewed at a right angle, which is an added feature mostly found in select models of digital camera's.

If you ask Apple the Voice recording, Voice dialing, Voice memo, AOL & Yahoo IM’s, To do, Streaming audio / video, The 3G compatibility, Games, GPS, the ability to add new programs, it retorts a big NO, apart hating flash...

Apple didn’t spare a dedicated answer button, which might invite you some trouble of accidentally answering unwanted calls, while you are using other phone features via touch screen.

Did you ever realise how correct can your passwords be when you type it using touch screen…

It's runs on a lithium ion battery, which can be recharged for about 300 – 400times, so if you charge your iphone regularly what happens after an year, will you send it to Apple for a replacement???

A colossal step by Apple, a hit and miss?

Apple claims that the launch of it’s much anticipated versatile phone is a big success, though it tested the patience of about 2% of its customers, while they paid big to break existing contract to switch to iphone and the AT&T, they suffered delays in the activation process of the phone due to technical issues, it is supposed to be activated using the itunes online stores, and moreover none of the features seem to work without the authorization code which added to much disappointment….

Now that the problem has been largely resolved with much care on a case to case basis, giving them a mouthful of air.

The iphone passion...

This splendid device, by its charismatic looks, undoubtedly compelled an appeal not only to tech lovers, but the attention of all stripe, chewing every competitor on its way.

Surprisingly, if once its veracity is transpired, its devotee's wud'nt have foreseen that, one has to consent a few facts it lacks... A hardware KeyB (may not be a big deal though when we look back at all the Touch Screen technique), the ability of its blue tooth connectivity to pair wit other devices wireless and play music (A stereo Blutooth) is still a myth... OTA firm/software updates, java, flash, rss are somthing you should never forget about but think of... This hyped Apple may not leave you wit a choice to select desired itunes as rintones, other then 25 inbuilt tunes to choose from...

However, it has a one touch swap to silent mode, you can disconnect the device anytime from the MAC/pc while in sync unlike the ipods, it can get you to the home screen no matter where ever you are navigating or struck with any app, all just with a single touch of home key.... So you are never lost & also helps quit the programs by force when in trouble.
A light ambient sensor, which controls da brightness apart clogging da screen from being touch sensitive once its against your ear, all these surely contribute to its manifold composition making it a breakthrough gadget

Apple aims to cash big with sales upto 10m units in 2008, and upto 45 millinon phones in 2009, its a boom in wireless industry, & a boost for apples revenues apart from ipods and macs which fetched them thier margins in the past, this for sure a blessing to its share holders....

Unlocked Apple iphone ???

The notion of the secondary markets, are all focussed on the ideas to unlock the iphone & crack the restrictions, to bag most of it .... dont u think so?

Ofcourse, it had already invited and ignited the minds of all the crackers and the hackers to hunt for its furrows n flaws, which it carries deep inside, though under disguise. Hence, no wonder when domains like iphoneunlocking getting registered & all set to challenge the most wanted apple's iphone and its science of restricting its usuage from operators other then AT&T at the moment....

The early bird cracking the code n uncovering its covert from the backdoor, will for sure be embracing a big monetary godsend.... wanna give it a try ???? hmmmm not a bad idea huh... ;)

iphone - Technical Specifications it boosts about....

Operating Frequency :
GSM Quad-band (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)

Operating system :
OS X

Size and weight Height:
4.5 inches (115 mm)
Width: 2.4 inches (61 mm)
Depth: 0.46 inch (11.6 mm)
Weight: 4.8 ounces (135 grams)

Audio formats supported:
AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 1, 2, and 3), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV

AudioFrequency response:
20Hz to 20,000Hz

Video formats supported:
H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 768 Kbps, 320 by 240 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

Camera :
2.0 megapixels

Capacity :
4GB or 8GB flash drive

Display :
3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen multi-touch display
480-by-320-pixel resolution at 160 dpi
Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously

Getting Wireless :
Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
EDGE
Bluetooth 2.0+EDR

Input and output :
iPhone 30-pin dock connector 3.5-mm stereo headphone minijack
iPhone Dock: Dock connector

Power and battery :
Built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery
Talk time: Up to 8 hours2
Standby time: Up to 250 hours3
Internet use: Up to 6 hours4
Video playback: Up to 7 hours5
Audio playback: Up to 24 hours6

System requirements for Mac users :
Mac computer with USB 2.0 port Mac OS X v10.4.10 or later

Headphones :
Stereo earphones with built-in microphone
Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
Impedance: 32 ohms

Environmental requirements :
Operating temperature: 32° to 95° F (0° to 35° C)
Nonoperating temperature: -4° to 113° F (-20° to 45° C)
Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing
Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)

Wanna share your views on

What is the buzz in it?

What does Apple iphone lack in????

Do you think it has got everything, to make a difference from others and to survive itself in the most wanted list ?