Nokia launches advanced multimedia handset N96

MUMBAI: Nokia, the world leader in mobile communications, on Tuesday launched its most advanced multimedia device-Nokia N96 in India.

The N96 will be available in the market from September 15 and its retail price is Rs 34,999.

The N96 will offer a memory size of 16GB that can be increased to 24GB with an optional microSD card, allowing consumers to store hours of media and entertainment on the go.

"In the Web 2.0 era, the new Nokia N96 places the power to shape in internet in your hands. Nokia N96 offers the most personalised mobile internet experience to date and it defines convergence by blending phone and multimedia options seamlessly," Nokia India Marketing Director Devinder Kishore told reporters here.

The dual-side N96 is a perfect of style and cutting edge technology and represents a whole new chapter in mobile technology and is best optimised for superb web and entertainment.

The N96 can be store upto 18,000 songs, up to 20,000 images at 5 mega pixel, upto 60 hours of video or full length movies. With multifunctional media keys and a 2.8" screen, music, movies and games and will be available at the touch of a button.

"Nokia NSeries has always been at the forefront of innovation and has time and again added new paradigms to mobility and introduced devices that cater to the consumer aspirations," Kishore said.

Source : Economic Times

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Unitech mops up Rs 1,200 crore for telecom venture

NEW DELHI : Unitech has raised Rs 1,200 crore for its telecom venture from a syndicate of public sector banks led by Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank. Meanwhile, Norway’s telecom firm Telenor is learnt to have emerged the frontrunner in the race to acquire stake in Unitech Wireless, group’s telecom arm. Unitech is likely to finalise a telecom partner in two weeks.

Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra confirmed that the group has raised debt worth Rs 1,200 crore, but declined a comment on telecom partner. SBI Capital Markets organised the loan from the syndicate, which included Bank of India, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Central Bank of India and Vijaya Bank. PNB and Canara Bank contributed the major chunk of the loan.

Unitech Wireless plans to use the funds to buy telecom equipment for the first phase of its rollout. Unitech Wireless has already initiated the process to procure equipment from global telecom equipment majors ZTE, Huawei, Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia and Ericsson. The company is also looking at sharing infrastructure of the existing telecom players in the country.

Unitech plans to raise a major chunk of initial funds through stake sale. The company is in the process of finalising a European telecom player as its partner. Norway’s Telenor is said to be ahead of its competitors, according to sources close to the development.

Unitech has held talks with a number of international telcos since it began its search for a partner earlier this year. The company shortlisted three players, including Telenor, Telecom Italia and an Asian telco two months ago, and is now veering towards Telenor.

Sources say talks with Telecom Italia fell through after the two parties failed to bridge the gap over valuation. Unitech is expecting a valuation of $3 billion for its start-up, while Telecom Italia was ready for just a billion dollar.

Sources say Unitech is yet to take a final call on Telenor as the two sides are still working on valuation. Another crucial issue, sources say, is the amount of stake being offered to the foreign player.

Unitech has all along insisted that it planned to sell no more than 26% stake in its telecom venture, but potential foreign partners have been asking for a majority stake. A source claimed that Unitech may look at selling even 51% stake, but Unitech denied it.

Unitech, which has pan-India GSM licence and received spectrum to operate in six service areas, had earlier said that it expected to invest Rs 20,000 crore, including debt and equity, in its telecom business over the next three years.

Source : Economic Times

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BSNL set to allow private telcos roam on its network

NEW DELHI: State-owned BSNL has opened talks with private telcos for roaming agreements. If the talks are successful, subscribers of private operators will finally be able to roam on BSNL’s nation-wide network. While all private telcos have roaming agreements with each other, BSNL, till date, has not opened up its networks for roaming deals.

At present, only subscribers of state-owned MTNL (whose services are restricted to Delhi and Mumbai) are allowed to roam on BSNL’s networks. Private telcos have been seeking commercial agreements with BSNL on roaming for years now as the state-owned telco has a superior network in smaller towns, villages, on highways and railways.

“We are evaluating the proposals from private operators. We are open to sharing our networks with them for commercial roaming agreements. If we can do it with one operator (MTNL), we can replicate such deals with other players too. Talks are on and we may conclude some agreements soon,” a top BSNL executive told ET.

As per industry estimates, BSNL will get upwards of Rs 750 crore annually by signing commercial roaming deals with private operators. It is also learnt that BSNL wants a higher revenue sharing between operators for roaming customers, over and above the fixed 30-paise-per-minute charge the regulator has granted the operator on whose network the roaming call is terminated. The logic: BSNL feels that since all operators treat their roaming customers differently by charging a much higher tariff that is not cost-based, there should be revenue share between roamer’s home network and the terminating network.

Another reason why BSNL is opening talks with private telcos was on account of the department of telecom’s (DoT’s) plans to make it mandatory for all telcos to open their networks for roaming after the introduction of 3G services. This is because, the DoT is of the view that there would only be a limited number of 3G service providers.

Besides, 3G services are likely to be restricted to the metros and key circles initially. Therefore customers of these telcos who offer 3G will have to depend on 2G networks and services of other telcos. Another option for customers is to switch on to the 3G networks of BSNL since the PSU will be the only operator to roll-out these high-end services across all circles.

Source : Economic Times

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Norwegian telco Telenor may ring India

NEW DELHI: Norwegian telecom group Telenor today said it is looking to enhance its presence in Asia which could include a possible entry into India's growing mobile market.

"We have been present in Asia for more than a decade. As a long-term and industrial player, we have all ambitions of developing and increasing our presence in this region," Telenor Asia (ROH) Ltd Communications Director Esben Tuman told PTI. "As part of this, we naturally discuss and consider different opportunities."

Asked if the company has started talks in this regard with any firm here, Tuman said, "We do not as a principle comment on rumours and speculations. In general, however, it is part of our strategy and the way we work to constantly keep our eyes and ears open."

A team from Telenor was recently in India to assess such possibilities, sources said. The company has mobile operations in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia. Recent media reports have linked Telenor to BPL group company Loop Telecom which has a pan-India GSM license.

Analysts said India is the world's second largest and the fastest growing wireless market which could not be overlooked by any global player with an Asian presence. With revenues drying up from matured markets, India's 297 million wireless subscriber base offers tremendous scope for growth.

Telenor, the world's seventh largest telecom company, will be among the first European entrants to enter Indian telecom sector. The company added 30 million new subscribers last year and has a subscriber base of 143 million.

With a host of new telecom players looking for global tie-ups with companies like Telenor and others for funds as well as technical know-how, India offers an ideal investment destination, said an industry player.

Source : Economic Times

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Tata Teleservices emerges as least congested network : TRAI

NEW DELHI: Telecom service provider Tata Teleservices on Tuesday said its network has been judged as the least congested amongst the pan-India operators by telecom regulator TRAI.

"Tata Teleservices network has recorded the least congested point of interconnection (POI) of only five, compared to 56 POI of Airtel, 22 POI of Reliance and 19 POI of Vodafone," TRAI report on congestion for the month of April, May and June 2008 stated.

Earlier, in the TRAI report on congestion for January, February and March 2008, TTSL was ranked the best, with the least congested Point of Interconnection (POI) of only 10 as compared to 83 POI of Airtel, 41 POI of Reliance and 43 POI of Vodafone.

"Today mobile customers are very discerning and they look for quality of service rather than just cost advantage. From clear voice quality and minimal call drops our customers experience the advantages of being on Tata Indicoms network," Tata Teleservices Chief Technology Officer A G Rao said.

Mobile network is growing at a very rapid pace and more than nine million subscribers are added every month.

In order to ensure seamless interconnection, TRAI has been monitoring the level of congestion at the POI between various service providers on a monthly basis.

This parameter signifies the ease with which a customer of one network is able to communicate with a customer of another network. This parameter also reflects as to how effective is the interconnection between two networks.

The benchmark notified by TRAI is less than 0.5 per cent. This means out of 200 calls between two operators only one call should face congestion problem.

Tata Indicom has a customer base of over 27 million.

Source : Economic Times

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Apple 3G iPhone brightens up grey market

MUMBAI: The launch of Apple iPhone by Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar seems to have revived the dwindling sales of the gizmo in grey markets.

The reason: the price tag announced by the two GSM giants is too high and all those who had been waiting to buy it officially, are now rushing to the grey markets to get the 16GB iPhone for as low as Rs 20,000-Rs 22,000.

“Sales had dipped after it was announced in May that Airtel and Vodafone will bring iPhone to India. Many postponed buying the phone from us. However, since the prices announced are almost 50-60% more than at what we sell, we are getting back business,” said a dealer at Heera Panna, Mumbai’s best known grey market for all high-end phones.
The two companies are selling the 8GB version for Rs 31,000 and the 16 GB model for Rs 36,100. However, at Vodafone stores, the gadget is now available at Rs 29,640 for 8GB and Rs 34,580 for 16 GB version. This is because Vodafone is not keeping the Rs 1,500 margin in the sales made through its own stores.

According to another dealer, “We were selling the 16GB version for Rs 28,000 till July. But then sales dipped anticipating the operators would have similar price tags. So we reduced prices, which has improved offtake.”

Both these dealers have sold over around 40 units each since the iPhone was launched almost 10 days ago. Accendia Consulting principal analyst Alok Shende said, “Experience across product categories in India is that high prices create a grey market that eventually cannabalises legitimate sales of products.”

The same was true of laptops, computers and video games until prices were brought down to an extent that grey market sales became ineffective, he added.

Foreign travellers who come to India bring iPhones, which are locked to networks. They are then unlocked by the dealers. “It takes not more than 15 minutes now. Most people can unlock it on their own using softwares available in the market,” said one of the dealers, who began with charging Rs 3,000 for unlocking the iPhone last year and now takes only Rs 500.

Apart from this, those travelling from India to the US or other countries where iPhone is available, get the devices for their friends and relatives. “On my last trip to the US, I got six iPhones for my family. I unlocked them on my own and they are all working fine. I paid just $200 (around Rs 8,600) per handset,” said an analyst working with a research firm in Bangalore.

Source : Economic Times

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BSNL LAUNCHING 3G SERVICES - FIRST!

It seems, BSNL is going to be the first opeartor in India who would launch 3G services in India. With 3G spectrum auction scheduled to be completed by year end only, BSNL might be already be ready with 3G network in place as it does not have to participate in the bidding process. It will get automatically 3G spectrum in all circles.

Here is the news :-
CHENNAI: State-run telecom major BSNL on Saturday announced that it would launch 3G services across the country by the end of this year.

"We will be commencing the operations by the end of December starting from North and Eastern parts of the country and then South and West by March, 2009, so that within six months we will be able to roll out the 3G operations," BSNL Chairman and MD Kuldeep Goyal told reporters here.

"Mostly we will try to cover the state capitals in the first phase and then taking it to major cities and other towns," Goyal said.

On the demand for the services, he said, "The demand will pick up once 3G handsets are affordable. Applications suiting the people especially rural areas should be available in local language. Initially, we don't expect the demand to be very high," he said.

"Initially, we are talking to content providers for developing suitable applications, like video conferencing, video telephony, video streaming. A trial was carried out in Pune recently," Goyal said.

Talking about the company's business, he said BSNL was hoping to increase the revenue by more than 10 per cent as compared to last year.

"We are aiming to record 10 per cent growth next year", he said adding that last year the company recorded a turnover of Rs 38,000 crore.

He also hoped that the revenue would reach USD 45 billion by 2010.

Source : Economic Times

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