BSNL's third generation services launches in 11 cities

India's Biggest telecommunication company State-owned telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) today commercially has launched its third generation (3G) mobile phone services simultaneously from 11 cities, namely, Jaipur, Agra,Jalandhar, Ambala, Jalandhar,Haldia, Dehradoon, Shimla, Lucknow, Ranchi, Durgapur, Patna and soft launch in Jammu.

BSNL also announced tariff plans for third generation mobile services under both pre-paid and post-paid voice, video and data plans. The voice call will be available for as low as 10 paise per minute under full value 1,000 plan and local SMS is at Rs 10 paise per SMS under super 1,350 plan. Video calls starting with Re 1 under unlimited 2,500 plan and Rs 2 for STD video calls.

BSNL has invested Rs 2,700 crore to make 3G services available to the consumers of this country. BSNL has planned to cover all district headquarters and important commercial towns in its first phase.

Earlier this week, BSNL had launched its 3G services in Chennai. The 3G services will bring high quality voice services along with high speed data and video services. The data speed is expected to go up to 2 Mbps or higher. Applications like, video telephony, mobile, broadband, mobile television and video on demand shall be offered to the consumer with immediate effect. It is expected that services like music downloads, video tones, instant messaging, on line gaming, bill payment among others will be offered shortly.

Subsequently, other cities and towns will be covered as per the experience of its first phase.

Last month, another state-owned unit, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) was the first company to launch 3G services in the country. MTNL now offers 3G services in Delhi, and is expected to launch services in Mumbai and other operational areas soon.

Tata Indicom offers 100 percent cash back on handset

Tata Telecommunication services(Tata Indicom) (Maharashtra), the leading telecom service provider across Maharashtra and Goa, announced an exciting 100 percent pay back offer on handsets for its post-paid costomers.

This ‘never-before’ offer comes with an assurance of a full refund of the full value of the handset. There are three attractive, feature-rich, colour and FM handsets under the plan: Samsung Super Hero (Rs1,800), Radio phone (Rs1,800) and Motorola W212 (Rs1,200).

This scheme comes coupled with the Great Value 199 postpaid plan at a monthly rental of Rs199 which offers:

Local call rates/minute STD call rates/minutes SMS local/national
Mobile Tata Indicom – Tata Indicom 30p Tata Indicom – Tata Indicom Rs1.5
/ min Tata Indicom – Tata Indicom 50p
Others 50p Others
Fixed line Tata Indicom – Tata Indicom Re1 Others National
Others Re1 International Rs5

The offer is on till February 28, 2009.

Shashank Pore, general manager – marketing, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) said, “This is yet another initiative from Tata Indicom to offer customised and first-of-its-kind services to its esteemed subscribers. Through this unique 100 per cent cash back offer, we are delivering an amazing value proposition to the consumers. We are confident that this offer will set new benchmarks in the industry.”

Vodafone close to signing deal on new 'Google phone'

Vodafone is close to signing a deal with Taiwanese mobile phone manufacturer HTC for the next version of the so-called Google phone.

Vodafone and HTC are understood to be in discussions about the next generation of device based on Google's Android operating system – dubbed the G2. Both parties hope to have a deal signed in time for an announcement at Mobile World Congress, the mobile phone industry's annual tradeshow in Barcelona which opened on Monday.

HTC was responsible for the first Gphone, the G1, which rival T-Mobile launched last autumn under an exclusive deal. While that device has done well in the US, recent numbers from T-Mobile in the UK suggest it has struggled to compete with Apple's iPhone, available exclusively on O2.

Several mobile phone manufacturers including Motorola, LG and Samsung are working on their own handsets that run Andriod but so far the G1 is the only device using the search engine's software available to the mass market.

Google's entry into the mobile phone market follows the success of Apple's iPhone and the search engine company is hoping that its operating system will help persuade more mobile phone users to access the internet on their devices and become the platform of choice for developers of mobile phone applications.

While Apple's iTunes currently dominates the so-called mobile "apps" space, Android already has about 800 applications available even though there is only one device in the market. It hopes that its share of the market will increase as more mobile device manufacturers release products.

Executives from Samsung admitted last week, however, that the launch of their Android phone will not happen until next week.

For Vodafone, meanwhile, grabbing the next Android phone would give it another weapon in its armoury against the iPhone in markets where Apple has supplied the phone exclusively to one operator, such as the UK, Germany and the US.

Neither Vodafone nor HTC would comment.

Vodafone did announce the launch of its "most affordable" phone ever. Aimed at the developing world, the Vodafone 135 has just a two-line black and white display and is meant just for calls and texts.

Telecom industry faces moment of truth

The world's mobile telecom industry will gather in the Spanish city of Barcelona next week, hoping to find ways to outwit the downturn, powerful new rivals and software developers threatening to steal their thunder.

Mobile World Congress, the phone industry's biggest annual gathering, comes on the heels of a season of miserable 2008 results reports dominated by lowered profit outlooks, deep job cuts and slashed capital spending.

The mobile phone sector is grappling with formidable new rivals from the computer industry and web such as Google and Apple who have been faster to realize the potential of the convergence of phone and Internet features.

This year, a host of PC makers will join the fray.

Taiwanese notebook manufacturers Acer and netbook pioneer Asustek are poised to debut new smartphones, and speculation is rife that PC maker Dell is also looking to revamp itself as a phone maker.

Bengt Nordstrom of telecoms management consulting firm Northstream says notebook makers have developed relationships with operators as mobile broadband has become a reality, easing the next step to marketing their own phones.

"Dell, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Acer -- they're very well-connected. Laptops have become an integral part of the mobile broadband market," he says. "And those companies are very good at logistics, streaming production."

The mobile communications industry, formerly controlled by huge, integrated former state monopolies, has fragmented so that hardware, software and services can now easily be provided by different suppliers, lowering barriers to entry

TATA INDICOM-Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL)

Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) is a part of the Tata Group of companies, an Indian conglomerate. It runs under the brand name Tata Indicom in India, in various telecom circles of India. The company forms part of the Tata Group's presence in the Telecommunication Industry in India, along with Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited (TTML) and TATA COMMUNICATIONS LTD.

In February this year, TTSL announced that it would provide CDMA mobile services targeted towards the youth, in a joint venture with Virgin, UK,on a Franchisee model basis.

Company background

Tata Teleservices is part of the INR Rs. 2,51,543 Crore (US$ 62.5 billion) Tata Group, that has over 87 companies, over 330,000 employees and more than 2.8 million shareholders. With a committed investment of INR 36,000 Crore (USD $7.5 billion) in Telecom (FY 2006), the Group has a formidable presence across the telecom value chain.

Tata Teleservices spearheads the Group’s presence in the telecom sector. Incorporated in 1996, Tata Teleservices was the first to launch CDMA mobile services in India with the Andhra Pradesh circle.

Starting with the major acquisition of Hughes Telecom (India) Limited [now renamed Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited] in December 2002, the company swung into an expansion mode. With a total Investment of Rs 19,924 Crore, Tata Teleservices has created a Pan India presence spread across 20 circles that includes Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, Gujarat, J & K, Karnataka, Delhi, Maharashtra, Mumbai, North East, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Bihar, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (E), Uttar Pradesh (W), Kerala, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal.

Having pioneered the CDMA 3G1x technology platform in India, Tata Teleservices has established a robust and reliable 3G ready telecom infrastructure that ensures quality in its services. It has partnered with Motorola, Ericsson, Lucent and ECI Telecom for the deployment of a reliable, technologically advanced network.

The company, which heralded convergence technologies in the Indian telecom sector, is today the market leader in the fixed wireless telephony market with a total customer base of over 3.8 million.

Tata Teleservices’ bouquet of telephony services includes Mobile services, Wireless Desktop Phones, Public Booth Telephony and Wireline services. Other services include value added services like voice portal, roaming, post-paid Internet services, 3-way conferencing, group calling, Wi-Fi Internet, USB Modem, data cards, calling card services and enterprise services. Some of the other products launched by the company include prepaid wireless desktop phones, public phone booths, new mobile handsets and new voice & data services such as BREW games, Voice Portal, picture messaging, polyphonic ring tones, interactive applications like news, cricket, astrology, etc.

Tata Indicom redefined the existing prepaid mobile market in India, by unveiling their offering – Tata Indicom "Non Stop Mobile" which allows customers to receive free incoming calls. Tata Teleservices today has India’s largest branded telecom retail chain and is the first service provider in the country to offer an online channel www.ichoose.in to offer postpaid mobile connections in the country.

Today, Tata Teleservices Limited along with Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited serves over 28 million customers in over 5,000 towns. With an ambitious rollout plan both within existing circles and across new circles, Tata Teleservices offers world-class technology and user-friendly services in 20 circles.

Tata Teleservices has also acquired GSM licenses for specific circles in India.

Idea cellular

IDEA Cellular is a publicly listed company, having listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in March 2007.

Idea Cellular is a leading GSM mobile service operator with pan India licenses. With a customer base of over 36 million in 15 service areas, operations are soon expected to start in Orissa and Tamil Nadu-the first steps in providing pan India services covering over 90% of India's telephony potential.

A frontrunner in introducing revolutionary tariff plans, IDEA Cellular has the distinction of offering the most customer friendly and competitive Pre Paid offerings, for the first time in India in an increasingly segmented market.

Customer Service and Innovation are the drivers of this Cellular Brand. A brand known for many firsts, Idea was the first to launch GPRS and EDGE in the country. Idea has received international recognition for its path-breaking innovations when it won the GSM Association Award for "Best Billing and Customer Care Solution" for 2 consecutive years.

IDEA Cellular is part of the Aditya Birla Group, India's first truly multinational corporation. The group operates in 25 countries, and is anchored by over 100,000 employees belonging to 25 nationalities. The Group has been adjudged 'The Best Employer in India and among the Top 20 in Asia' by the Hewitt-Economic Times and Wall Street Journal Study 2007.

The Promoters are -

• Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited
• Grasim Industries Limited
• Hindalco Industries Limited and
• Birla TMT Holdings Private Limited.

Vodafone-Voice data fone

Vodafone is a mobile network operator with its headquarters in Berkshire, England, UK. It is the largest mobile telecommunications network company in the world by turnover and has a market value of about £75 billion (August 2008). Vodafone currently has operations in 25 countries and partner networks in a further 42 countries.

The name Vodafone comes from Voice data fone, chosen by the company to "reflect the provision of voice and data services over mobile phones.

On 21 September 2007 Hutch was rebranded to Vodafone in India.

As of 2006 Vodafone had an estimated 260 million customers in 25 markets across 5 continents.On this measure, it is the second largest mobile telecom group in the world behind China Mobile.

In the United States, Vodafone owns 45% of Verizon Wireless.

In 1982 Racal Electronics plc's subsidiary Racal Strategic Radio Ltd. won one of two UK cellular telephone network licences.The network, known as Racal Vodafone was 80% owned by Racal, with Millicom and the Hambros Technology Trust owning 15% and 5% respectively. Vodafone was launched on 1 January 1985.Racal Strategic Radio was renamed Racal Telecommunications Group Limited in 1985.On 29 December 1986 Racal Electronics bought out the minority shareholders of Vodafone for GB£110 million.

In September 1988 the company was again renamed Racal Telecom and on 26 October 1988 Racal Electronics floated 20% of the company. The flotation valued Racal Telecom at GB£1.7 billion.On 16 September 1991 Racal Telecom was demerged from Racal Electronics as Vodafone Group.

In July 1996 Vodafone acquired the two thirds of Talkland it did not already own for £30.6 million.On 19 November 1996, in a defensive move, Vodafone purchased Peoples Phone for £77 million, a 181 store chain whose customers were overwhelmingly using Vodafone's network.In a similar move the company acquired the 80% of Astec Communications that it did not own, a service provider with 21 stores.

In 1997 Vodafone introduced its Speechmark logo, as it is a quotation mark in a circle; the O's in the Vodafone logotype are opening and closing quotation marks, suggesting conversation.

On 29 June 1999 Vodafone completed its purchase of AirTouch Communications, Inc. and changed its name to Vodafone Airtouch plc. Trading of the new company commenced on 30 June 1999.To approve the merger, Vodafone sold its 17.2% stake in E-Plus Mobilfunk.The acquisition gave Vodafone a 35% share of Mannesmann, owner of the largest German mobile network.
vodafone's original logo used until the introduction of the speechmark logo in 1998.

On 21 September 1999 Vodafone agreed to merge its U.S. wireless assets with those of Bell Atlantic Corp to form Verizon Wireless.The merger was completed on 4 April 2000.

In November 1999 Vodafone made an unsolicited bid for Mannesmann, which was rejected. Vodafone's interest in Mannesmann had been increased by the latter's purchase of Orange, the UK mobile operator.Chris Gent would later say Mannesmann's move into the UK broke a "gentleman's agreement" not to compete in each other's home territory.The hostile takeover provoked strong protest in Germany and a "titanic struggle" which saw Mannesmann resist Vodafone's efforts. However, on 3 February 2000 the Mannesmann board agreed to an increased offer of £112bn, then the largest corporate merger ever.The EU approved the merger in April 2000. The conglomerate was subsequently broken up and all manufacturing related operations sold off.

On 28 July 2000 the Company reverted to its former name, Vodafone Group Plc. In April 2001 the first 3G voice call was made on Vodafone United Kingdom's 3G network.

In 2001 the Company took over Eircell, then part of eircom in Ireland, and rebranded it as Vodafone Ireland. It then went on to acquire Japan's third-largest mobile operator J-Phone, which had introduced camera phones first in Japan.

On 17 December 2001 Vodafone introduced the concept of "Partner Networks" by signing TDC Mobil of Denmark. The new concept involved the introduction of Vodafone international services to the local market, without the need of investment by Vodafone. The concept would be used to extend the Vodafone brand and services into markets where it does not have stakes in local operators. Vodafone services would be marketed under the dual-brand scheme, where the Vodafone brand is added at the end of the local brand. (i.e., TDC Mobil-Vodafone etc.)

Bharti Airtel-Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited (BTVL)

Bharti Airtel, formerly known as Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited (BTVL) is India's largest and world's third largest cellular service provider with more than 82 million subscribers as of December 2008.[1] It also offers fixed line services and broadband services. It offers its TELECOM services under the Airtel brand and is headed by Sunil Mittal. The company also provides telephone services and Internet access over DSL in 14 circles. The company complements its mobile, broadband & telephone services with national and international long distance services. The company also has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore. The company provides end-to-end data and enterprise services to the corporate customers through its nationwide fiber optic backbone, last mile connectivity in fixed-line and mobile circles, VSATs, ISP and international bandwidth access through the gateways and landing station. SingTel owns over 30% of the Bharti Telecom. Airtel is also a shareholder of vodafone with 31% of the shares. Thus making it a sister company of the brand. It is also a stockholder of other of the cellphone brand Hutch.Group.

Bharti Airtel India’s largest integrated and the first private telecom services provider in all the 23 telecom circles. With its world class products and services, Bharti Airtel since its inception, has been at the forefront of technology and has steered the course of the telecom sector in the country. The businesses at Bharti Airtel are structured into three strategic business units (SBU’s) - Mobile Services, Telemedia Services & Enterprise Services. The Mobile business provides mobile & fixed wireless services using GSM technology across 23 telecom circles, Telemedia Services business offers broadband & telephone services in 94 cities. The Enterprise services provide end-to-end telecom solution to corporate customers and additionally provides national & international long distance services to carriers. We have recently forayed into Media Business by launching our DTH Services in October 2008. All these services are rendered under a unified brand “Airtel”.

They are serving over 82mn customers as of October 31, 2008; of whom 80,199,747 subscribe to GSM services and 2,549,043 use Telemedia Services either for voice and/or broadband access delivered through DSL. They are the largest wireless service provider in the country, based on the number of subscribers as of October 31, 2008.

The company also deploys, owns and manages passive infrastructure pertaining to telecom operations under its subsidiary Bharti Infratel Limited. Bharti Infratel owns 42% of Indus Towers Limited. This has been incorporated with an objective to provide “Shared Telecom Infrastructure” to telecom operators across the world on a nondiscriminatory basis. It’s commitment towards continuous innovation will enable optimization of future tower rollout and enhance operational efficiencies and result in substantial cost savings for its customers

Reliance Communication-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group

Reliance Communications (formerly Reliance Infocomm), along with Reliance Telecom and Flag Telecom, is part of Reliance Communications Ventures (RCoVL). It is an Indian telecommunications company. According to National Stock Exchange data, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani controls 66.77 per cent of the company, which accounts for more than 1.36 billion shares.[3] It is the flagship company of the Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, comprising of power (Reliance Energy), financial services (Reliance Capital) and telecom initiatives of the Reliance ADAG. It uses both CDMA2000 1x and GSM technology.

RelCom is also into Wireline Business throughout India and has the largest OFC backbone architecture [roughly 110,000 km] in the country. The company also has licenses in the GSM telecom services space for most of the Telecom Circles (zones in layman's words). It currently operates in 8 circles and plans to launch in the others soon.

Reliance Communications has interests in Direct To Home (DTH) TV also, known as "Big TV". It plans to launch its DTH business by July 2008. Once launched, RelCom will have presence across all B2C communications channel in one of the fastest growing markets in the world

BSNL-Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (known as BSNL, India Communications Corporation Limited) is a public sector telecommunication company in India. It is India's largest telecommunication company with 24% market share as on March 31, 2008. Its headquarters are at Bharat Sanchar Bhawan, Harish Chandra Mathur Lane, Janpath, New Delhi. It has the status of Mini Ratna, a status assigned to reputed public sector companies in India.

BSNL is India's oldest and largest Communication Service Provider (CSP). Currently has a customer base of 73 million as of June 2008.[1] It has footprints throughout India except for the metropolitan cities of Mumbai and New Delhi which are managed by MTNL. As on March 31, 2008 BSNL commanded a customer base of 31.55 million Wireline, 4.58 million CDMA-WLL and 36.21 million GSM Mobile subscribers. BSNL's earnings for the Financial Year ending March 31, 2007 stood at INR 397.15b (US$ 9.67 b) with net profit of INR 78.06b (US$ 1.90 billion). Today, BSNL is India's largest telco and one of the largest public sector undertakings with estimated market value of $ 100 Billion. The company is planning an IPO with in 6 months to offload 10% to public in the Rs 300-400 range valuing the company at over $100 billion.