Idea Cellular has collaborated with Taiwan’s premium handset manufacturer HTC Corp to offer two touch phone models in India, namely the HTC Touch Pro and the Touch Viva.

HTC Touch Pro targeted at business class introduces QWERTY keyboard layout that makes typing-intensive tasks like composing email or working on Microsoft Office documents quick and easy. It also features a 2.8-inch display, TouchFLO 3D and built-in TV-Out functionality. HTC Touch Viva on the other hand is an upgrade over the original Touch with GPS and Windows Mobile 6.1 OS.

HTC Touch Pro is priced at Rs. 34,900 whereas Touch Viva will sell at Rs. 16,490 at all Idea stores across the country.

Post acquisition of Spice, Idea Cellular was eyeing new addition of subscribers to the tune of 44 lakhs. However, the revised number of subscribers can be around 34 lakhs as Spice Communications lost around a million customers within the two months. This clean up activity which Spice says was conformed to the reporting standards adopted by Idea Cellular and was carried out to wipe out those customers who have not generated any revenues for the past six months. Such large number of inactive customers will surely make a company ail but analysts claim that with the backing and expertise of Idea, Spice will soon be a profitable venture within the next year.

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This is one exceptionally good inter-circle calling plan from Idea that we came across. It is called the New Talk Free 275 plan and is available for Delhi – NCR circle subscribers. The plan details are:

• Monthly Rental: Rs. 275
• CLIP: Free
• Monthly freebie: 5000 mins local calling (Idea to Idea)
• Calling charge to all other local numbers: 50p/min
• Local SMS: Re 1/SMS
• STD calling charge to all numbers: Rs 1.50/min

We say

The whopping 5000 mins free for local Idea to Idea calling makes this plan a clear winner for the Idea subscribers. Monthly commitment of Rs. 275 makes the local calling rate to all Idea numbers come down at approximately 18 p/min.

Idea seems to have some competitive plans under its belt. We showcased one of its Idea Value Plus 199 Plan last week, and here is another equivalent albeit carrying a higher monthly commitment. This one is called ‘Mega Value 499‘. Here are the details:

• Monthly Rent: Rs.499
• Free: Rs. 500 worth of local calls free and 200 local SMS
• Local calls to Idea numbers: 30paise
• Local calls to other mobile: 50paise
• All STD calls: Re.1
• National and Local SMS: 50paise

We say: The plan has a considerable amount of free stuff although it provides half of what Airtel and Vodafone provide in their 399+ plans. The local calling and messaging rates are also cheap.

Idea Cellular have tied up with the world’s largest mobile handset maker, Nokia to take on Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar. Idea cellular and Nokia will together bring in the Nseries flagship phone, N96 which is considered the biggest competition to the Apple iPhone. iPhone as many of us are aware is available exclusively on Airtel and Vodafone networks.

N96 will be available on Idea network from September. The dual slider handset has a 2.8 inch screen and comes with 16 GB storage space, expandable to 24GB. User can store up to 18,000 songs and over 20,000 images at 5 mega pixel, 20 full-length movies or nearly 60 hours of video.

Idea’s partnership with Nokia also extends to other mid and high-end handsets from the Finnish giant’s stable besides the Nseries. Idea plans to introduce attractive offers and new tariff plans, on various devices, starting with the N96.

Idea is definitely making its presence felt in Mumbai. We came across this plan, called the Double Value 299 plan. The details of this plan are:

• Monthly Rental: Rs 299
• CLIP: Free
• Monthly free usage: 400 mins calls free (All Local), 200 SMS Free (All Local)
• Local calls to Idea mobile: 30 paise/min
• Local calls to other mobile: 50 paise/min
• Local calls to fixed phones: Re 1/min
• Local/National SMS: 50 paise/SMS

We say: This plan isn’t ‘double value’ in real terms. Idea has increased local free minutes by 100 but limited the total monthly SMSes to 200. The benefit is the same of a full value plan but this one is more call centric. If your local calls clock around 400 – 550 minutes, this plan can save some of your green paper.

Idea made its grand entry into Mumbai on Thursday and the operator was all over the place. Here is one of the plans that would be available to users in Mumbai. This one is called Value Plus 199 and the components are as follows:

• Monthly Rent: Rs.199
• CLIP charges: Free for 6 months, Rs.50 after that
• Local calls to Idea numbers: 30paise
• Local calls to other cellphones: 50paise
• Local calls to Fixed Lines: Re.1
• Local and National SMS: 50paise
• Free 300 mins of Local calls to all numbers
• Free 200 Local SMS Free to all numbers

Additional Details: To start off users would have to pay Rs. 200 (Converted to Security deposit after 6 Months) as plan enrollment and Rs.99 as activation charges.

We say: This plan is more or less the same when you compare it other full value plans. Here they give you an extra 100 mins of free calling which is then compensated with the CLIP charges which you’ll pay after 6 months. Let’s do a quick math for the remaining 100 free local mins. Effectively, Idea isn’t losing much if you call on mobiles but will suffer if the calls are made on fixed lines (Re. 1 X 100 = Rs. 100).

The Aditya Birla group-promoted Idea Cellular officially launched its mobile services in Mumbai, though they haven’t started attracting subscribers yet.

Idea Mumbai initially plans to set up 60 exclusive showrooms and a round-the-clock call center. It also plans to enter the data card and the local phone booth segment, popularly known as PCO.

Once, they are set up with the initial infrastructure, they’ll open up their services for Mumbaikars. And can we expect new tariff wars again?

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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