Operators to stop services to phones sans IMEI no from Apr 15

NEW DELHI: About 250 lakh handsets are expected to be out of service from April 15, as GSM service providers, including Airtel and Vodafone, gear
up to deny connectivity to cell phones without International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number.

Concerned over the national security, the Department of Telecommunications
(DoT) has asked operators to disconnect services to handset that does not have an IMEI number. IMEI is a 15-digit code which appears on the operator's network whenever a call is made.

If all service providers adhere to the deadline given by DoT, nearly 250 lakh handsets, which are almost 10 per cent of the total GSM mobile phones in use in the country and mostly China-made, are likely to go out of service, industry sources said.

Analysts feels that the move is also likely to hit the revenue of telecom firms as phones which have no IMEI numbers are usually low-cost and unbranded and used by low-end subscribers.

To get these subscribers back on the network would be a challenge for the telcos as they have to provide these subscribers subsidised or free handsets.

In October 2008, DoT had set December 31, 2008, deadline to stop services to handsets without IMEI numbers. The deadline has been extended to April 15, 2009.

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BSNL to roll-out 3G in 700 cities by June

MUMBAI: Public sector telecom major, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), is all set to launch its 3G operations in 700 cities across north and
east India by June and in the south by July, a senior company official said.

"We plan to bring 3G to north and east India by June," BSNL Deputy Director General (VAS) S S Sirohi told reporters here today.

The services would be launched in east and west Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam. We plan to cover over 700 cities in the next three months (by June)," Sirohi said.

The company is also targeting its 3G launch in Kolkata next month.

The net outflow towards launching this service in the 700 cities is around Rs 2,700-crore, he said.

BSNL, with a huge presence in the northern and eastern parts of India, has 42-million mobile subscribers presently.

"By March 2010, the number of our 3G subscribers will go up to about 60-million in the country," Sirohi said.

The state-run telecom behemoth would focus on mobile broadband, mobile television, online gaming, video streaming, full track downloading and video telephony, he said.

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BSNL lowers mobile tariffs to 50 paise for local, STD, SMS

CHENNAI: Initiating another round of tariff war, state-run BSNL on Sunday announced a new plan offering local and STD call at just 50 paise a

minute across all the network, while the charges would be 20 and 30 paise for BSNL to BSNL.

BSNL's new tariff plan "India
Golden Fifty", offering local and STD call at just 50 paise would be available from March 1. and the scheme, along with BSNL's 3G mobile services in the state, was launched by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.

BSNL Chairman Kuldeep Goyal told reporters that the Golden Fifty plan would be available to consumers for a monthly rent of Rs 375 inclusive of taxes.

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India makes it to the global 3G map

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh put the country on the global 3G map on Thursday when he launched the services on state-owned Mahanagar
Telephone Nigam’s (MTNL) networks in Delhi.

The 3G platform will enable telcos to offer high-end services such as high-speed internet, video conferencing on mobiles, interactive gaming, ultra fast downloads of video and music clips amongst other services. The PM also witnessed for sometime a live telecast of the India-England Test match on a mobile handset using 3G services.

MTNL also became the first teleco in India to launch these high-end services which it has christened ‘Jadoo’. But the commercial launch of 3G will happen in January ’09. MTNL executives present in the event said the PM had only kicked off the ‘soft launch’ and that some parts of central Delhi would have free access to these services during the test phase.

MTNL does not want to charge for these services during the soft launch phase as it wants customers to first experience 3G services. “We will also launch 3G in Mumbai by the end-of January,” MTNL CMD RSP Sinha told ET. MTNL offers mobile services
in Delhi and Mumbai. Mr Sinha said that MTNL was yet to take a call on the 3G tariffs. “It depends on the amount of data usage. Our 3G pricing cannot be different from existing prices across the world. The pricing will be affordable, sustainable and likeable to all,” he said. The company will invest Rs 400 crore to set up 3G networks across Delhi and Mumbai and hoping to add 200,000 subscribers on this platform.

State-owned BSNL will do a soft launch of its 3G services by the end of December, its CMD Kuldeep Goyal told ET. All other telecom companies will have to wait a lot longer for launching these high-end services. This is because, auction for the radio frequencies on which 3G services work is slated to take place in early 2009.

“After the auction, the government will have to give us spectrum. We will take six months from the date of allotment of spectrum to launch 3G services. Bharti hopes to launch commercial 3G services by 2009-end,” Manoj Kohli, CEO and Joint MD, Bharti Airtel said. The government had given 3G radio frequencies to both MTNL and BSNL ahead of the auctions.

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Idea Cellular ties up with HTC Corp to launch touch phones

MUMBAI: Idea Cellular, a leading mobile service operator has entered into a tie up with Taiwan's handset manufacturer HTC Corp to offer two touch
phone models in India targetted at the premium segment.

Pradeep Shrivastava , chief marketing officer of Idea Cellular said at a press conference on Tuesday the market for premium segment in the country is estimated to be about 15 per cent of the overall market size.

He also said the ongoing recessionary trend may not affect the demand for these types of phones though customers may tend to be a little cautious before shifting to the new products.

The two Taiwan made models called HTC Touch Pro and HTC Touch Viva based on Windows mobile platform offer elegant touch screen experience .

HTC Touch Pro is priced at Rs 34,900 while HTC Viva will sell at Rs 16,490 at all HTC resellers across the country.

"The tie up between the two companies is not exclusive and there is no financial arrangement between them," Shrivastava said. Customers of other mobile service operator also could opt to buy these models .

"The two models embody our commitment to build a family of touch phones that are powerful, stylish and offer something for everyone", Jack Tong, Vice President, HTC Asia said.

HTC ,one of the fastest growing companies in mobile sector globally , earlier used to make handset for others but started marketing under HTC brand since 2006.

It has many firsts to its credit like being the first to offer microsoft 3g phone, microsoft powered smartphone and last year the touch screen model which allows finger tip navigation.

Source : Economic Times

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Tatas mull mobile handset foray with DoCoMo

MUMBAI: The Tatas, who stopped making fixed telephone instruments under the Tata Fone brand some years ago, plan a re-entry into the business by
calling-time.jpg
developing mobile handsets. Tatas will consider the feasibility of the project in collaboration with its new Japanese partner NTT DoCoMo, which has strong expertise in handset development besides managing next generation technologies.

DoCoMo has an extensive lineup of lifestyle-focused handsets tailored for varying customer needs and preferences like waterproof models, kids' models with GPS tracking and handsets with wellness applications
to monitor health and fitness.

DoCoMo has struck a strategic alliance with Tata Teleservices, including buying a 26% stake in Tata Tele. The co-operation between the two wireless carriers is being extended across marketing, handset development and technical support services.

" We will leverage DoCo-Mo's handset designing capabilities and work closely to bring out both high- and lowend models for our customers,'' said a Tata Tele executive. NTT DoCoMo president and CEO Ryuji Yamada said, ‘‘ The company is establishing a task force comprising its directors and technology experts to work on different areas with our Indian partner.''

Another Tata Tele official said, ‘‘ Given that the alliance has just been formed the business model would evolve over a period of time.'' Currently Tata group company DriveIndia .com procures and sells CDMA handsets from manufacturers like Samsung, Nokia, Huawei and Haeir. Tata Tele focuses only on providing mobile services, while group firm Tata Business Support Services handles customer queries and interactions for Tata Indicom and Virgin mobile. ‘‘ With DoCo-Mo as partner, the branding architecture could change,'' said the Tata official.

Source : Economic Times

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Every second Indian will go mobile by 2012

NEW DELHI: With India now adding 8-10 million mobile subscribers every month, up to half the nation’s population-or one in every two citizens-will own a mobile phone in India by the middle of 2012.

According to Business Monitor International, a renowned London-based research firm, 612 million mobile subscribers by 2012 will help India clock a mobile teledensity of roughly 51% by 2012. This scorching pace of growth is unlikely to falter unless the sector faces unforeseen policy disasters or if India’s operators fail to roll out their networks.

International Telecom Union’s (ITU) projections are in the same range.India is already the world’s second largest mobile market, behind China’s 500 plus million mobile subscriber base.

Increasing incomes, changing lifestyles and lower cost of technology are allowing more and more Indians to ride the telecom wave. The new numbers overtake earlier estimates, including from UBS, Citigroup and Credit Suisse, predicting a mobile population of 400-450 million by March 2010. Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers have been more even conservative, betting on a base of just 400 million by 2010.

However, India will reach this milestone in 2009 itself. India’s mobile revolution has been a huge social leveler, with the growing number of users tying a diverse nation in a manner rarely seen before.

Its youth are expected to contribute significantly to these surging numbers. Sir Richard Branson, founder, Virgin Group, which tied up with Tata Teleservices to launch branded services in India recently said, “An exciting market, with over 215 million Indians aged 14-25 years. Over the next three years we expect to be adding 50 million new youth subscribers.’’

While companies like Virgin are currently focused on the urban market, it is clear that the next set of growth will come from B and C category cities as well as rural India. Mobile penetration of this magnitude has the ability to revolutionalize long distance learning and health care quickly reaching some of the most far flung and difficult terrains.

Where mobile content is concerned most analysts agree that, largely on the back of India’s popular film industry, music services will grow very quickly, even if other content related revenue lags behind.

Given that a reasonable part of the population by 2010 will be children below 14 and senior citizens, it seems mobile access among the youth and working classes will be more in the range of 70-80%. In policy terms, government needs to quickly turn its focus on redirecting funds for rural mobile access, manage spectrum efficiently and invite multi-billion dollar investments at a pan-India level to fuel this already scorching telecom growth.

Source : Economic Times

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Shyam Tele gets spectrum for all-India rollout

NEW DELHI: Mobile operator Shyam Telecom, in which Russian communications major Sistema holds a majority stake, has become the first of the new telecom players to get pan-India spectrum for launching mobile services. The company has been allotted radio frequencies on the CDMA technology platform. New GSM licensees such as Datacom, Unitech, Loop Telecom and Swan have been given start-up spectrum, but this has been largely restricted to the southern circles in the country.

ET has learnt that communications minister A Raja has already approved the allocation of spectrum to Shyam Telecom. Earlier this year, Shyam-Sistema had announced that the company would offer mobile services across India on the CDMA platform.

The company also bagged licences for 21 circles except Rajasthan, where it already offers services under the brand name Oasis. Shyam also becomes the third private pan-India player to offer services on the CDMA platform.

Sistema president Alexander Goncharuk recently told ET that the company would increase its stake in Shyam to 74 per cent over a period of time. Sistema has already invested about $500 million in India — it paid the Rs 1,651 crore licence fee for Shyam. Sistema also plans to finance its investments by utilising money under the Rupee-Rouble debt agreement between India and Russia.

Source : Economic Times

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3G auction to also include CDMA: Raja

NEW DELHI : The Govt has decided to auction CDMA licences for 3G services, a change in policy that means Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices will have to bid for spectrum they were previously guaranteed of getting.

No. 2 mobile operator Reliance Communications and sixth-ranked Tata Teleservices are the only operators with major CDMA operations in India, where the GSM platform dominates.

At the start of August, the government announced plans for a global auction of 3G licences. At the time only two CDMA licences were thought to be available, so the plan was that Reliance and Tata would pay a pro-rata price based on the outcome of the GSM auction, telecom minister Andimuthu Raja said on Thursday.

"Now one more operator has been permitted. So again we consulted the TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) and took a decision that it can also be auctioned." CDMA and GSM mobile services are provided on different bandwidths.

The government has said the global auction for GSM 3G spectrum would end by December. Current Indian telecoms operators and foreign firms with prior experience in 3G services are eligible to bid.

Reliance Communications has some GSM subscribers, and is expanding its network, but at present more than 80 percent of its customers are on the CDMA platform.

Chairman Anil Ambani has said Reliance would consider providing 3G both on GSM and CDMA. Tata Teleservices has acquired licences for second-generation GSM mobile, but is yet to start services.

Source : Economic Times

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'India could have 270 mn 3G subscribers by 2013'

NEW DELHI: India could be the largest 3G market among emerging countries as 270 million subscribers are expected to use these high-end value added mobile services in the next five years, says a research agency.

The guidelines have been already issued for 3G services and the Government hopes to roll out high-end mobile services by December.

"In terms of subscribers, India is going to be the largest market for 3G users among all emerging markets...India could have 270 million users subscribing to 3G services by 2013," research agency Strategy Analytics VP, Wireless Practice, David A Kerr said.

The research agency said 3G subscribers would constitute more that one third of the total wireless users in the next five years.

Initially, the subscribers would come from metro and 'A' category cities, and enterprises and business customers would make the largest chunk of it, it said. "India has 700 million untapped customers and it is very much possible to have 270 million 3G subscribers in next five years."

At present, the country's total mobile subscriber base is about 290 million.

"At the initial stage corporate and enterprise users as well as tech-savvy young generation would drive this market," Kerr said.

Source : Economic Times

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Vodafone looking at instalment scheme to sell iPhone

NEW DELHI: Vodafone, one of the two license holders for the latest Apple iPhone that went on sale at midnight Thursday in India, is looking at easy finance schemes to help sell the product in the country, a person familiar with the development said.

"Vodafone is talking to Barclays and ICICI Bank for introducing two monthly schemes for six and 12 months," the person requesting anonymity told IANS Friday.

Bharti Airtel, the other license holder in India, declined to make any comment, but it is believed it too is talking to several banks.

The Apple iPhone 3G (third generation) was launched in Singapore and the Philippines apart from India Thursday. While it costs around Rs.8,000 in the US where Apple is headquartered, it costs around Rs.9,840 in Singapore.
In India, the iPhone is priced at Rs.31,000 for 8GB and Rs.36,100 for 16GB of memory space.

Now, to push sales, Vodafone is trying to increase iPhone sales by arranging for financing schemes for its products.
"We expect to sell anywhere between 50 to 100 phones a day," the source said. "However it is too early to predict how the sales will shape up."

Airtel gave a similar response.

Said Sanjay Gupta, Airtel's chief marketing officer: "We will only be able to figure out the trend only after a week or so. The response has been overwhelming but it's still not clear how many of the pre-bookings will actually convert to sales."

Airtel received over 200,000 pre-bookings for the phone, the process was started about two months ago.
They grey market, which has been raking in the moolah on iphones for more than a year were despondent. Dealers at Delhi's Gaffar Market - centre for electronics goods sale - were of the opinion that with the phone being sold by authorized dealers their share in the pie would be reduced to nil.

"We were selling the 3G version till a few days ago for anything between Rs.40,000 to Rs.55,000. There will always be people who will spend anything. The [older] 2G version sold for around Rs.24,000-25,000. Now, we will have to undercut," said a dealer in Gaffar Market.

The iPhone is being sold in Hyderabad and Bangalore besides the four metropolitan cities and will be later introduced in 65 cities.

The phone comes locked to the service provider, which means a user cannot switch his or her operator while using an iPhone.

However, the availability of a number of software in the market for hacking the iPhone has not gone unnoticed by telecom operators.

"We are aware of the hacking software that are available and are used to unlock the iPhone, but customers who will stay with Airtel will be able to enjoy iPhone's full benefits including the data plans," Sanjay Kapoor, Airtel's president (mobility) said.

The phone, which won Time magazine's coveted 'Invention of the Year 2007' honour, and marked the Cupertino-based computer giant's foray into the mobile phone arena, debuted in June last year.

"More than 30,000 iPhone's (2G) are running on the Airtel network alone," Sanjay Kapoor said.

Source : Economic Times

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TRAI, DoT lock horns on 3G policy

NEW DELHI: TRAI’s recent letter to DoT, highlighting shortcomings in the government 3G policy, has kicked up differences between the telecom regulator and DoT.

TRAI, in its letter, has highlighted six shortcomings in the 3G auction guidelines that were announced recently. The most significant one that can impact exchequer revenue relates to the need for an “amended’ ’ unified access service licence (UASL), which needs to be acquired by every successful new entrant in the 3G space.

TRAI, in its letter to DoT, concludes that a reading of the 3G guidelines “implies that in case a non-licencee becomes successful bidder, he will be given a new (modified) UASL without the provision of 2G spectrum (spectrum in the 800, 900 & 1800mhz) at an entry fee equal to the entry fee of UAS licence’’ .

While announcing the 3G guidelines, telecom minister A Raja had confirmed that universal licences for new 3G entrants—costing Rs 1,651 crore— will come without 2G spectrum. Potential bidders have also complained that this is “unjustifiable and discriminatory’’ . Now, in contrast to TRAI and Raja’s conclusions, a senior DoT official told TOI that “new 3G entrants will, by virtue of their universal licence , be eligible for 4.4 MHz of spectrum as per the law of the land and can also join the 2G queue’’ .

This fresh twist is set to spark more confusion among potential bidders.

TRAI has thrown another spanner by informing DoT that it needs to receive recommendations from the regulator if any amendment of the licence agreement is proposed. “As this would require the terms and conditions of this new licence , including the annual licence fee, the authority would like to draw the attention of DoT to section 11 of the TRAI Act wherein recommendations of TRAI are necessary,’’ the regulator wrote.

DoT will find this letter tough to ignore, considering TRAI’s principled and legally valid stance on the matter. Equally, TRAI is obliged to engage in a public consultation process. All this could take months. Meanwhile, all this confusion could help new entrants make a killing. A shareholder in a pan-India 2G firm that received a letter of intent (LoI) on January 10 for 2G spectrum told TOI that 3G entrants will be better off while striking deals with new entrants before participating in auctions. The firm, which paid Rs 1,651 crore for 4.4mhz spectrum, has term sheets doing the rounds boasting of an enterprise value of Rs 6,000 crore, without even spectrum in hand.

“Even if new 3G entrants join the 2G spectrum queue, everyone knows there is no spectrum to give, so why should they pay the government Rs 1,651 crore for just a licence. They would be wiser to buy into a company like us which has assured spectrum,’’ he told TOI.

Source : Economic Times

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Airtel building landing station for two cable systems in Mumbai

MUMBAI: In a bid to strengthen its international business, Bharti Airtel is building a landing station for its two new cable systems terminating in Mumbai—Europe India Gateway (EIG) and India-Middle East-Western Europe (IMEWE). This new station at Mumbai will complete the crucial `redundancy piece’ (which can be used in case of any emergency) in Bharti’s submarine cable systems.

Besides fortifying Bharti’s capability to offer transit services to Middle East and European traffic, it will provide redundancy to the company’s two Chennai landing stations. While Bharti has not revealed the investment being made at the new landing station in Mumbai, analysts peg it at between $70-$80 million.

“We have been making investment (in the Mumbai landing station) over time. One of the key focus areas for us is to develop Mumbai as a strong hub for business. It will be the second hub of operations for us,” Bharti Airtel president for Enterprise business David Nishball told ET.

“One of the key elements we wanted to add to our value proposition for our enterprise customers was the landing station diversity. The Mumbai station will allow diverse routing for IPLC (international private leased circuit) and strengthen our position in the BFSI segment,” he added.

Bharti has invested over $100 million in the two cable systems that will land in Mumbai. EIG is a $700 million cable system, which will connect 13 countries across three continents. IMEWE will connect India with Europe, via Pakistan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Cyprus, Morocco and Italy and is expected to be operational by the middle of next year.

Source : Economics Times

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Finance ministry wants 3G policy put on hold

NEW DELHI/KOLKATA: In a move that may delay the rollout of 3G services in the country, the finance ministry has asked the Department of Telecom (DoT) to put the 3G policy on hold as it was not consulted on the financial implications of the guidelines. The finance ministry has said DoT has contravened an earlier Cabinet decision, which had stipulated that spectrum pricing would be mutually finalised between both the ministries.

Earlier this month, communications minister A Raja lifted the curtain on the 3G policy, which would enable telecom operators to offer high-end services such as video conferencing, faster downloads of music and movies, interactive gaming and high-speed internet. Mr Raja had announced a reserve price of Rs 2,020 crore for auction of pan-India 3G spectrum for GSM operators and about Rs 505 crore for pan-India WiMAX radio frequencies. As per the current schedule, the auction for 3G spectrum will be held within the next three months, spectrum allotted by the year-end and services launched by mid-2009.

The finance ministry has taken the line that DoT has breached protocol as it arrived at these figures (the reserve prices) without consulting it. Finance secretary D Subbarao, in a strongly-worded letter to the communications ministry on Wednesday, said: “The guidelines issued on August 1, 2008 by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on auction and allotment of spectrum of 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA, also known as WiMAX) telecom services, contain clauses with financial implications such as determination of the spectrum acquisition price and reserve price for auction, fixation of spectrum usage charges and penalties for hoarding of spectrum. However, the ministry of finance (MoF) has not been consulted in the matter.”

In a bid to drive home the seriousness of the issue, the finance secretary has told DoT that as per the Transaction of Business (TOB) Rules, it is mandatory to have consultations with the finance ministry “as a pre-condition to all issues which have financial implications”.

Mr Subbarao also added that the Union Cabinet, in its meeting on October 31, 2007 had decided that spectrum would be decided mutually between the DoT and the finance ministry. “The issuance of (3G) guidelines without any consultation with the finance ministry, either within the forum of Telecom Commission or outside, is inappropriate and contrary to the Cabinet decision,” the finance secretary’s communication read.

This marks the second instance of differences having cropped up between different government wings over the recently-announced 3G spectrum policy. As reported first by ET, telecom regulator Trai has asked the DoT to review the 3G policy while adding that the government’s decision to allot 3G spectrum to CDMA players without an auction was against the principles of equality.

This is because the policy gives CDMA operators one slot in the 800 MHz band — the most efficient and cost-effective frequency for CDMA players — to offer high-end services, with the rider that the largest operator in a circle would walk away with it.

Source : Economics Times

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India adds 6.42 mn GSM mobile users in July

NEW DELHI: India added 6.42 million mobile users in July in its GSM-based telecom networks, an industry body said on Wednesday, accelerating the pace of user growth from the previous month. Handsets costing as low as $15 and call rates as low as 1 US cent a minute have helped India to become the world's fastest-growing market for wireless services and the second-largest market for such services after China.

In June, 6.32 million users had signed up. India had 218.9 million GSM users at the end of July, data from the Cellular Operators' Association of India showed. The data includes Reliance Communications' GSM network as of June.

Reliance Communications, the No 2 telecoms firm, a majority of whose subscribers are its CDMA network, announces subscriber numbers separately. It had added a total of 1.74 million mobile users in June to 50.8 million.

Top operator Bharti Airtel added 2.69 million users in July, taking its total to 72.1 million, the data showed. Vodafone Plc controlled Vodafone Essar, the third largest firm, had 50.95 million users at the end of July, having added 1.76 million users in the month. No. 4 mobile firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, which is gearing up for a $10 billion public offer, added 553,219 GSM mobile users in the month to end with 37.92 million.

It also had 30.9 million fixed-line users as of June. No 5 Idea Cellular, which is buying smaller Spice Communications, got 1.05 million new users in July, taking its total subscribers to 28.2 million. Spice had 4.2 million mobile users as of July.

Source : Economic Times

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