Reliance Communication who initiated the cheap handset offers by bringing in Classic monochrome handsets, priced at Rs 777, introduced a new color handset priced at Rs. 999 called the “Classic 732”, which it claims to be the cheapest color handset in the country.

The phone features a large phone book, SMS on call reject, and speaker phone. The phone also features a color display and FM. The handset promises too much for 999 and if it is able to fulfill these promises then the handset would soon become the entry-level handset for every new mobile user in the country.

Source: Techtree

Tata Teleservices last week launched an infotainment based services on its Tata Indicom BREW-enabled mobile phones in Hindi called “Tata Zone”.

Tata Teleservices, the country’s fastest growing telecom service provider has launched Tata Zone considering a simple fact – 66% of all Indians speak Hindi, while less than 5% understands English.

On Tata Zone-Hindi, customers will have access to applications like cricket, faith and prayers, Bollywood and Hollywood movies, news, astrology, funzone and games. The entertainment-packed zone will also feature an impressive and latest collection of ringtones and wallpapers.

To activate Tata Zone in Hindi, users will have to select Hindi as their preferred language in their phone settings. However a user will also have the option to switch back to English language.

The service is currently available on Tata Indicom handsets like the Nokia 1325, Huawei 2900 and Huawei 2801. So if you are a Tata Indicom user who uses any of the above mentioned handsets then go ahead and try the new Tata Zone – Hindi.

BPL Mobile has launched its WAP(Mobile) portal on the occasion of Ramzan a holy ocassion followed by people. In this service BPL is providing its users benefits of alerts for Sehri Ke Awqaat and Iftaar Ke Awqaat timings to indicate to the subscribers the respective times of starting and breaking of their fast during the entire month. Prayers can also be downloaded at affordable costs of Rs. 3 per download and a special Namaaz Application that render Male and female prayers virtually are also available. This comes for a price tag of Rs. 30 a month.

Apart from this BPL has also inculcate the religious aspects of prayers and images into its offerings by offering downloads of Quavalis, Images, Videos and Wallpapers to add to the auspicious month of Ramadan. We think that BPL has managed to strike the right notes at the right moment.

WAP Link:: http://wap.mizone.bplmobile.com

Tata Indicom has set its mind to give a tough fight to its competitors by giving users benefits they never even thought of. This new promotion by Tata which provides existing Tata users who have completed 6 months of usage to upgrade to a better cellphones. These cellphones are priced at a discount and are backed by free talking minutes. Thus Tata is providing double benefits to its users, which is a tempting one. Here are some of them:

If you are thinking, why doesn’t your service provider offer you such schemes, you must think of what Kajol says: “Switch to Tata Indicom”…….. It is also one of the reasons why the operator is topping branding charts and also the fastest growing telecom operator in the fastest growing telecom market in the world.

BlackBerry is ruling the charts these days in terms of new launches by our service providers. First came Reliance with its range of BlackBerrys, then came BPL mobile with its BlackBerry Curve 8300 and now Airtel and Vodafone joining the league have launched new BlackBerrys.

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Bharti Airtel is all set to revolutionize the Indian telecom market by launching mobile money transfer services in India. Airtel will be the first operator in the country to offer such services.

The company will launch certain value added services which will allow its prepaid and postpaid users to link their credit card, debit card or bank accounts to their mobile connections. Also an extension of these M-commerce applications will allow customers to pay their utility bills and also make payments for their railway tickets and hotel rooms via their handsets.

Bharti is also working with IBM to create applications like the “mobile wallet” that will turn your mobile handset into a credit card. So the user can do all those things with the handset that one can do with credit cards.

Source: Economic Times

BPL mobile adds BlackBerry services in its loop. It has launched the new BlackBerry Curve 8300 along with BlackBerry services. The handset is priced at Rs. 24,990 and for the service there are two tariff plans.

The first plan offers 500 Kb of free data usage at a monthly rental of Rs. 499 with 10p per Kb charge for extra usage. The second plan offers unlimited data usage at Rs. 999 per month. The biggest disadvantage according to us is that the handset cannot be used as a modem i.e. it cannot be used to access internet on any computer.

Indian telecom service providers are making their mark not only in the Indian market but also in the global market. Today, Sunil Mittal-owned Bharti Airtel became the first Indian telecom company to join the world’s top ten telecom operators, with its customer base crossing the 50-million mark in mobile, broadband and wireline services.

Bharti Airtel has been adding over two million subscribers every month and had 46.8 million subscribers by the end of August, 2007. Bharti’s next target is to reach the 100 million mark by 2010 and most of the subscribers in the next 50 million would come from rural areas.

At the same time, today Tata Indicom announced that its subscriber base has crossed the 20-million mark. This is remarkable achievement for the group as other telecom operators have taken over 10 years to reach the 20-million subscriber mark.

The question arises that these achievements by our Indian Telecom service providers is the result of the growing Indian market or the fierce marketing carried on by them?

Consumer durables major Videocon has applied for a pan-India unified telecom licence in 22 of India’s 23 telecoms zones or circles, except the north-eastern region. The group is in talks with a US-based telecom player for setting up a joint venture. Videocon plans to keep its capital expenditure to the minimum and avail towers on lease and rental basis. The company also believes that it needs to focus on its marketing ability to succeed in this telecom race.

The list of license seekers includes Unitech, Parsvnath, DLF, Indiabulls, Shyam Telelink, Stel, Swan, Cheetah, Datacom, HFCL and many more. DOT has received around 200 applications and it expects to receive some more during this month. It would be a tough deal for DOT to select appropriate applicants and provide licenses.

India may be one of the best in terms of wireless/ mobile subscribers being added each month. It would also be known for breaking its own records by adding more users than the previous months. But Crisil in it’s report has revealed the true picture of the Indian Telecom Industry. According to the research India is lagging behind in terms of quality, the main problem lying in the objectives of the service providers. It is seen that the operators are concentrating more on expanding their reach to new areas and thus ignoring services provided to current areas.

This is evident by the low investments made by Telecom companies in current areas of operations as compared to the injections in the new areas. This has resulted in a +ve quantity, but -ve quality scenario, leaving customers in the current areas unhappy from a long term perspective.  By this we also mean that the problems of spectrum and also congestion would be seen if not given due importance.

Telecom companies are thus trying to be the jack of all network circles and the master of none.

Source: Economic Times