3G services are still to go commercial and we are getting predictions about the subscriber base of this next generation wireless service. Research agency Strategy Analytics has predicted that India could be the largest 3G market among emerging countries with 270 million subscribers within the next 5 years.

They even said that 3G subscribers would constitute more than one third of the total wireless users in India. The subscribers would initially come from metro and ‘A’ category cities, and enterprises and business customers would make the largest chunk of it followed by tech-savvy young generation who would drive this market.

PTI

India’s telecom market has been increasing by leaps and bounds adding around 8 million customers every month. And because of this growth, TRAI started keeping a tab on the level of congestion at the Point of Interconnection (POI) between the service providers.

The result may not be surprising because the two largest operators in India face the congestion problem. Bharti Airtel from the GSM front leads the pack followed by CDMA giant, RCom. The most congested circles are Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, North East and Himachal Pradesh.

Note: POI 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.

As per the recent amendment made by the telecom regulator TRAI, mobile users will now have the freedom to choose any operator for making long distance calls, whether domestic (STD) or international (ISD) irrespective of their subscription to a particular service provider.

So, suppose you are a Vodafone subscriber and you find out that Airtel is offering the cheapest long distance tariffs, you can simply buy a prepaid long distance pack from Airtel for a specific time duration, punch in numbers mentioned on the pack, get on to the Airtel network and make your long distance call.

This whole thing of using virtual calling cards to make long distance calls works out in three simple steps:

1. Buy a prepaid virtual calling card of your desired operator
2. Punch in the calling card code on your mobile handset
   
3. Use STD/ISD services of the new operator

Indian telecom users enjoy the cheapest call rates. And with a new move from TRAI, it is bound to get more cheaper. They have allowed ISPs to carry out unrestricted internet telephony. This means cellular operators can provide long distance telephony services at lower cost and in turn reduced rates for the consumers. Cheap rates for Voice over IP (VoIP) is also in the offing.

Source

If RCom GSM users were unable to connect to their friends and peers on other networks, then you don’t have to worry much because TRAI playing the role of a father has directed all the other GSM operators to provide an interconnection to RCom’s GSM division. The order was issued to Bharti Airtel, Idea, Spice, Vodafone and BSNL.

The interconnection will be done by Thursday but it seems the GSM operators are not happy with this bullying. Apparently, the reason behind the disconnection was the interconnection charges. The GSM players say for providing interconnection to a new network, RCom had to negotiate fresh commercial terms. The existing interconnect agreement with Reliance was limited to providing links for its CDMA network.

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It’s another milestone for the Indian telecom sector. With people having more to spend and the prices of cellphones and services getting lower by the day, the average Indian seems to be trying his hand at the mobile phone. The addition seems to be increasing every month.

With 6.32 million users being added in June, which people thought as a whopping figure, the new record has been set in July. With 6.42million (64 lakh) people signing in for GSM connections, July seems to have made the Indian market even more tempting for operators planning to enter the Indian market. Here is a picture of the current market:

• Total user base (GSM): 218.9 million
• Total addition: 6.42 million
• Bharti Airtel added: 2.69 million
• Vodafone added: 1.76 million
• BSNL added: 0.55 million
• Idea added: 1.05 million

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Monday: The week started with Airtel’s attempt to replicate Tata’s offer. This plan named as the ‘Independence Day recharge’ is available to Delhi and NCR users only.

Tuesday: Shaadi.com tied up with Vodafone to have people find a bride or a groom on their cellphones. Just SMS Shaadi to 57007 or logon through Vodafone Live. Marriages are now made on the Mobile Phone.

Wednesday: Vodafone launched a local card for Punjab, thus providing users to call locally at 50paise.

Thursday: Airtel was back into the Independence groove and launched Super Value 499 Plan, for postpaid users. This one is aimed at the high usage category.

Friday: MTNL announced Independence Day Hungama on the I-Day to give its users Freedom to access unlimited GPRS and send unlimited MMS.

Saturday: We reveal the pricing of the Apple iPhone. With the 8GB priced between 15k and 18k, the 16GB would be available close to 30k.

Monday: Indian capital saw a major player surfing in the GSM competition. RCom launched its GSM services in Delhi albeit it was a soft launch.

Tuesday: We showcased Airtel Celebrations 399 plan. Not so new but worth mentioning.

Wednesday: All hell broke loose when Airtel announced the launch date of the mighty iPhone 3G. It won’t run on 3G network right on because of the spectrum issues but the news made us excited as much as you were reading it. Pricing is expected to be out by this week.

Vodafone users will also be getting their hands on the iPhone on the same day.

Friday: Less than a week is left for Tele Gyaan’s first and India’s 61st Independence anniversary. And
Tata Indicom comes out with an Independence recharge to free all its prepaid users from recharging for a year with low call charges.

Saturday: Airtel’s been promoting mChek pretty smartly. To adopt more use of SMS based payment system, they are offering incentives to prepaid as well as postpaid users.

Monday: The first post of the week talked about Airtel’s Triple 3 Plan, which got a fair rating from us thanks to the free minutes and SMS it gives in triple 1’s

Tuesday: This day we had the MTNL Trump Jaadu Recharge post. A reletively simple plan to understand and also great rates accompanying it.

Wednesday: The 3G decision was to be out in a couple of days and this post on ‘3G policy out this week?’ brought out what can be expected from the deal.

Thursday: The Airtel Good Value Plan, a very impressive plan that Airtel users should try their hands on. This plan too got a thumbs up from our side.

Friday: Good news for International telecom players as they get to lay their hands on the Indian 3G spectrum. All the latest policy decisions were talked about in the ‘Let the 3G game begin’ post.  

Sunday: ‘Mobile Number Portability to start in 2 months’. That’s what the post talked about and what were the decisions taken about the policy. Also this was one good way of telling people to start planning for their switch.

There is some good news for all you people waiting for MNP to come in. Telecom Ministry, a couple of days back announced the confirmation of MNP in the next two months.

MNP i.e. Mobile number portability is a service that will allow cell phone users to switch their telecom service provider without changing their mobile number. Initially, this service will be launched in the four metros followed by rest of the country over the next 6-12 months.

As per the guidelines provided by the government, the whole country will be divided into two MNP zones consisting of 11 circles with two metros in each zone.

All this is fine but the big question which lies ahead is, how much will our service providers charge for MNP? At present, we don’t have any idea about the pricing structure for MNP but it is definitely expected to be on the higher end.