Indian Telecom News, Till 13-Sep-09
Posted on: September 14, 2009 – Filed under: Bangalore
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.