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September 14, 2009
Indian Telecom News, Till 13-Sep-09
Devices
Karbonn K217, Sony Ericsson C903, HTC Hero, Spice D6666, Samsung Omnia Pro, Intex IN 4477
Nokia’s devices are apparently eco-friendly – They are reducing the usage of hazardous material in their mobiles.
Apps/Services
ESPN has launched mobile TV service for a few of its programs – could not find out about operator support. It supports only Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Blackberry devices now. Airtel offers 50+ channels in its service. Apart from these, MTV, Colors and other channels are on the way.
Navteq has expanded its Indian presence. Slowly & steadily, they are becoming a tough competitor to MapMyIndia. However, people to be noted is – BIGMaps. They have launched now only with Reliance Mobiles but hope they offer services to everyone through APIs soon.
MTNL has launched its own LBS service based on mobile network information itself.
An application for booking doctor’s appointments through SMS has been launched in Kochi.
UshaComm is looking for grand expansion in Africa for VAS services – frankly, I have not heard much about them in India. Are they big? Or are they just into billing?
RML has tied up with Idea Cellular to expand their agriculture information services. What is puzzling is – they have their own service offered separately, offered through Nokia with Idea again etc – how are all these differentiated?
Nokia Messaging may get launched in India in December 2009 with push email support.
SMSGupShup, the ‘Desi Twitter’ will soon launch ‘real time search’ of its messages. Sorry if I am being irreverent, does serious talk happen in SMSGupShup channels, is it not filled with jokes and ‘timepass’ material.
Operators
Numbers starting with ‘8’ have started coming out – Reliance has started a gimmick with that already, the BOSS (8055) series.
Blackberry is trying to get into the customer segment and seems to be getting some success too. Aircel and DoCoMo have started offering Blackberry services too.
Climax of the Bharti-MTN saga is coming soon. Bharti seems to have sweetened the deal a bit.
Essar Group has taken control of Yu, a Kenyan operator. Meanwhile, BSNL & MTNL are rumored to have bought stake in Zain, though they claim to be still only ‘considering’ it.
DoCoMo have expanded their ‘charged in paisas’ tune to SMS also. After pay one paisa per second, it is pay one paisa per character in SMS.
Regulators
The Government has once again set a deadline to block phones without IMEI – Nov. 30. COAI has already asked for more time.
The ‘pre-bid meeting’ for 3G is planned for 13-October. Here is hoping that it happens for sure. By the way, new players may pay 3% of revenues for 3G spectrum.
The prime minister is interested in mBanking – Good news this.
DoT & National UID Project people will discuss about how mobile subscription numbers can be utilized for the UID project.
Others
When you talk to call center agents at telcos, do not lose your temper – your calls may get blocked. I agree with this, sometimes we behave really bad with them, but then the decision to block should not be left with the lowest level employees.
Statistics for August – Subscriptions, Market Shares etc. And by the way, Indian mobile content market will be worth $2.3 billion by 2013.
One more report from Vital Analytics – on mobile gaming in Urban India. As we are at it, IndiaGames have launched new games on latest movies.
August 19, 2009
Indian Telecom News, Week Ending 16-Aug-09
Dear MoMo Community,
This is an attempt to have a ‘Weekly Newsletter’ for the MoMo community (thanks to Rajan for setting this up). I already blog this at http://mobilenewsindia.blogspot.com/.
For the first few weeks, it will be cross-posting between both the places. Later, as we see the feedback, we will have special editions for MoMo
You may expect a post every Sunday/Monday on this.
Looking forward to your feedback,
Karthik Srinivasan (carnivas@gmail.com)
Devices
A very affordable dual SIM phone by Karbonn has been released. Another player at the low end, Micromax has launched a dual-SIM ‘chatting phone’ with Nimbuzz preloaded in it. Spice has launched a dual SIM model too with nothing less than Windows Mobile in it. Heard that Indian low cost players and the Chinese are fighting for the low end while the high end is safe for the big-brands. Will Nokia’s low end market be in trouble?
Samsung has launched 2 phones in the Omnia series – to compete with iPhone and Touch Diamond.
Applications/Services
Virgin Mobile has launched a phonebook backup service.
NXP’s smart card solution has been chosen by Indian Railways for contactless ticket vending machines.
RCom has launched a ‘mobile conference’ facility at Rs. 99 a month for both its GSM & CDMA subscribers. Up to 9 numbers are supported and all of them should have this facility enabled.
SatNav has partnered with the largest organization that would have information on India – The Survey of India. Hope to see a lot of useful apps now.
SMSGupShup has launched a developer platform to utilize their SMS framework. Way to go!
Tata Indicom has launched a campaign to promote m-learning services.
ITC & Monster have launched a rural job portal. Mobile access seems to be not available yet. Any news about the success of BabaJob and Airtel tie up? Meanwhile, Airtel & IFFCO have tied up to reach mobile services to rural Andhra Pradesh.
A few channels from the Star TV Group are now available on mobile phones through Apalya Technologies. They are available for 2.5G networks also – but who guarantees the speed?
iJiny is a new player to offer ‘micro-classifieds’ in India. You guessed it right – the max length of your classified ad should be 160 characters in length. (The iJiny site is not opening though at this moment!)
Operators
MTNL has launched 3G service Jadoo in Mumbai. Their Wimax franchisee offer has no takers though. But BSNL’s Wimax roll out is on – a US co has bagged the deal for equipment. Bids for its rural roll out will begin on 25-August. BSNL has got 40K subscribers for its 3G service and the price has been lowered too.
An insightful summary of all the 3G/Wimax games played by MTNL & BSNL is available at Developing Telecoms Blog. In fact, there was an ‘India Week’ at DTW – 2 articles on MNP affecting telcos appeared too. (first, second). Medianama’s analysis on MNP can be found here.
For other operators wanting 3G spectrum, please wait – the ministers will hold their second meeting on 27-August.
Mobile numbers starting with ‘8’ may happen soon.
Others
July statistics are out – 325.7 GSM subscribers in all. More at Medianama.
HP, the grand daddy of computing giants will focus on ‘mobile computing space’ from now – with India the focus.
If the mobile carriers indeed share their database, your mobile payment record may be the de-facto credit rating for your loans etc in India.
Vital Analytics has come up with one more report – on the urban internet usage using mobiles.
