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Archives for October 2008

Chant ‘BPL’ Mantras this festive season

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BPL is trying to cash in on the religious spirit with Mantra, a service which provides users access to a wide range of sacred mantras. The offering has been positioned around well being that the mantras provide. Each of the mantras on offer could help you deal with varied problems like heart diseases to bringing in luck in your business, etc.

Though Indians are staunch believers and with the religious sentiments being on an all-time high, BPL could see many takers for this one. The service is priced at Rs.30 with additional charges of Rs.3/min to listen to the mantras. You could also dedicate one to your loved one for Rs.10.

Just dial 543212 to avail this service.

3G Bid not to be delayed

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With the global economic recession and firms going bust, a huge investment at this point of time doesn’t seem quite appealing. This was the basic reason for authorities to delay the 3G Bidding process to early next year. Telecom Biggie, Vodafone also expressed concerns over having the bid this year, with the economic meltdown taking a hit on its profits.

However, contrary to this news, the Telecom Ministry announced that the bidding process would be held this year itself. December has been earmarked as the month, which will witness the act resulting in a collection of up to $8 Billion for the Government.

RCom adds super expensive Touch Diamond to its collection

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RCom signed up a deal recently with HTC to sell the CDMA version of the Touch Diamond (P3051) phone. It might be good news for some people but with the price tag it carries, it surely is way out of budget for majority of the RCom users. They are selling it for freakin 40K or Rs. 39,900 to be precise. Agreed its got all the goodness of TouchFLO 3D on a 2.8-inch VGA screen, 4GB memory, Windows 6.1 OS, 3.2-megapixel camera and much more but paying 13K premium over the GSM version of Airtel doesn’t look justified to me. Ok, you argue that CDMA radio gives good voice clarity and better data rate transfers but paying 13K more for that is not a viable decision for me. Don’t you think?

Airtel Rural Pack

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Telcos in India have finally realised the true potential of the rural markets. As most of the subscribers come from these areas, Airtel decided to roll out a dedicated prepaid plan to please them.

Quite evident by its name, Airtel’s Rural Pack is one of them. This pack is available to users residing in villages with a population of less than 20,000. Here are the details:

  • Price: Rs.50
  • Talktime: Nil
  • Validity: Nil

We Say: Rural Pack is one of a kind. This is because it provides free talktime to users over a period of 9 months in 3 installments. The user would get free talktime of Rs. 25 every 3 months. The call charges, though affordable, could have been lower. Local calls and SMS cost Re.1 and Rs. 1.5 for STD calls and SMSes.

Website

Tata Indicom’s Platinum 2500 Plan

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With corporate business phones becoming popular among the CXO’s of companies, Tata Indicom thought of giving them absolute freedom for the same. BlackBerry users or potential BlackBerry buyers would definitely opt for this one, provided they really use their phone to its limit.

This plan by Tata gives users the freedom to make as many calls, SMS’s and data usage as one can possibly dream of, because everything is free. What you would pay for would be outgoing calls while roaming (incoming is free).

We Say: On one hand the rental for the plan (Rs.2500) could seem to be exorbitant, we also need to consider that this one has been made for the classes and not the masses. For the busy Indian businessman or top executive, also the potential user of the plan, this wouldn’t be much of a concern, which is why we see this plan working well for Tata Indicom.

Aircel drops ISD calling rates to Singapore & Malaysia

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Aircel has come up with new recharge coupons for its prepaid subscribers in Tamil Nadu (TN) and Chennai that reduces your rates for calls to Singapore and Malaysia.

On purchasing a recharge coupon worth Rs 96, Aircel subscribers can make calls to these two countries at Rs 3 per minute and on using the recharge coupon worth Rs 29 calls can be made at Rs 3.5 per minute. Both recharge coupons come with a month’s validity and choosing the right coupon completely depends on one’s usage. Aircel intends to target the significant Tamil population in these two countries by introducing such coupons.

Tata Indicom launches a new ‘Radio Phone’

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Tata Indicom has launched the first ever CDMA AM/FM enabled mobile phone. This new handset also comes with volume boosters (another new feature) for loud and clear sound. This radio phone is targeted towards the rural consumers to fulfill the need for music and is positioned to bridge the gap across markets.

The Tata Indicom Radio Phone has an AM/FM recorder and separate one touch keys for both the AM/FM functions. It also comes equipped with a 1.8-inch TFT screen for enhanced visibility and has Hindi SMS facility. It is also powered with a battery that provides a super long standby time to ensure that the users have an uninterrupted mobile music experience. The radio phone will be priced at Rs 2199 and will be available in different colour options.

Note: This phone is not listed on the Tata Indicom website. So details regarding the available colour options and pictures of the handset are not available as of now.

Spice Mobile unveils a people friendly music phone

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Spice mobile added another people friendly handset to its portfolio – the S-580. This handset is positioned as a music phone and it comes with an MP3 player, FM recording, playback and supports expandable memory up to 2 GB.

It has a chess design keypad and boasts a new feature called Dazzle Ring tone that enables users to use ten different ring tones to every new call that one gets. It also comes with features like one-touch torch light, mobile tracker, GPRS & WAP functions and schedule SMS facility. The handset will be available at a price of Rs. 2249.

3G auction pushed by 2 weeks

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The ongoing liquidity crunch may not have impacted the telecom sector, but seems to have definitely affected the mindset of all telecom operators. The Department of Telecom (DOT) which had earlier planned the 3G auction by December 31 has now postponed it by two weeks to January 15 after the operators and bankers sought extension.

The major reason which comes out from the whole situation can be that our telecom operators have decided to play safe during this crunch period. Telecom operators will be able to source adequate funds in January as the institutions would be having funds available for the entire year.

Moreover, the GSM and CDMA operators differentiation of 2G and 3G revenue was also being seen as a delaying factor. DoT has decided to clarify any confusion over 3G auction by preparing the detailed schedule.