TELECOM TALK

India’s leading telecom major Airtel announced that it has crossed the one crore customer milestone in Karnataka Telecom circle, the highest by a single telecom circle in India.This achievement is an ample testimony of Airtel and apposes ability to offer world class network and seamless connectivity coupled with innovative, pertinent and affordable services.

Airtel added 35 lakh customers to its network in 2008-09, increasing its market share in the State to 43.6 per cent from 40.3 per cent, increasing the wireless penetration from 30 to 40 per cent, said Mr Venkatesh V Chief Executive Officer of Bharti Airtel, Karnataka. Rural Karnataka made a significant contribution to Airtel’s growth.

Venkatesh said a tie-up with India Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative (IFFCO) had paid rich dividends in Airtel’s efforts to drive into the rural market. With 2,000 cooperative societies in Karnataka, Airtel hopes to expand its coverage in Read more…

Tata Indicom has launched Missed call alert service for a rental of Rs.15 per month. Most of the telecom service providers are already providing this service over there network, but Tata Indicom Subscriber was missing this service for a long time.

Missed Call Alert (MCA) is an extended communication tool of telecom service provider for  sending information on any missed call to the subscriber. With subscribers missing calls for a variety of reasons – network coverage, out of reach situations, or a switched off phone, a solution ensuring a subscriber knows who has called. Currently the MCA service is available for Tata Indicom Postpaid Subscriber only.

To activate (Postpaid Only)- SMS “SUB” to 12722 (toll free) and start getting unlimited alerts right away. To unsubscribe Read more…

In a bid to encourage efficient use of numbering resources, DoT has been asked to charge a special levy for numbers allocated to telecom operators. A special research team (SRT) formed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has recommended that DoT “earn revenue’’ and reasonably charge for each number.The SRT has said in its report that service providers may be asked to pay the licensor a one-time charge of Rs 5 for mobile numbers and Rs 1 for fixed numbers held by them. These would be applicable for numbers already held by subscribers and for future allocations as well.

If accepted, telecom companies may have to pay DoT for all new numbers. The number fee is charged across the world. The aim is to discipline the use of numbers without cramping growth. Most regulators in Europe put a modest charge on numbers. Read more…

Aircel finally today rolled out its GSM service at Taj Lands End in Mumbai.The company announced its EDGE enable and 3G ready GSM network in Mumbai and become the 7th GSM operator to fight for market share in the city. Aircel has added Mumbai as its 17th circle on the Company’s Pan India operation. In earlier post Telecom Talk was the first website, which bought Exclusive details about Aircel roll out plan and its presence in Mumbai.

Its entry promises to create some excitement for customers with attractive tariff plans that will be valid for a year and a claim to be a superior network. With new entrants pouring into the market, Mumbai’s other six GSM mobile operators Vodafone, MTNL, Airtel, Idea,Loop Mobile and Reliance-GSM may also be forced to improve their tariff plans in days ahead. Customer care number for Aircel Mumbai is 9768012345 and 121 from Aircel.

Aircel launched specially tailored tariff plan for Mumbai with lowest local call charges as 30 paisa. They launched Lifetime Prepaid Plan for mobile customers that are Read more…

Idea Cellular today launched its GSM services in Orissa, making its foray into the eastern coast of the country.” We are happy to announce our entry into Orissa, as we expand across the country. We welcome the people of this coastal state to join Idea’s pan-India network.

Idea announced specially tailored tariff plan for Orissa with All local Idea calls at 25p, other local calls at 50p & STD at Re 1 for 6 months from the date of activation (for all activations on or before 30th April 2009) Additionally, Get Unlimited Idea to Idea free for 30 days from date of activation.

Read more…

FaceBook today launched its “Mobile SMS Notification service” and the service is only available to Tata Indicom users. Tata Indicom mobile service is integrated with FaceBook to let user stay connected with FaceBook without Internet.

User will receive Free SMS updates; can get Notifications for friend request, pokes, wall posts, messages etc through SMS. User can instantly take action for accepting friend’s requests or replying to the wall posts by replying to the same SMS by their Tata Indicom mobile. Read more…

Nokia launches its own BlackBerry Email Solution dubbed as “Nokia Messaging Service” which enables people to access their personal email on their Nokia handset with an Email alert just as BlackBerry Email solution which is very popular amongst all Mobile Email users. However for BlackBerry Service Mobile subscriber has to pay some extra amount to their operator but ‘Nokia Email Solution’ is Free, Just pay for GPRS/EDGE data Usage as per existing tariff plan.

With Nokia messaging service, when a new email arrives, you are notified with the email alert tone and then @ sign appear in the menu bar. E-Series devices also display the subjects of the latest received messages on the home screen. Nokia mobile users can now check their mail through Nokia Messaging service even with Windows Live Hotmail.

Besides Windows Media Live, this service also supports many e-mail accounts such as Yahoo! Mail, Gmail and AOL Mail. Through only one application, Nokia users can gain access to 10 different e-mail accounts on their Nokia mobile phones. Read more…

Social networking sites are lucrative medium for corporate or Brand owner to get people talking about products and generate interest. As a result India’s fastest growing telecom operator Aircel join hands with FaceBook and has launched a Voice Message Application for FaceBook users.The ‘Aircel Voice SMS FaceBook Application’ allows networking site user’s to leave each other voice messages instead of plain text posts on the social networking website. So no need to pay for Voice SMS sending to your friend if they are on FaceBook!

However, before you jump with joy, let me clarify it again – it’s Web Application for web to web usage.  Within 10 days, Aircel has managed to get 190 users to sign up for voice-Sms application.Starcom, the media agency which helped Read more…

Your wireless internet connection has just got faster up to 16Mbps after the launch of Photon from Tata Indicom and Reliance Net Connect high speed internet connections by CDMA operators now it’s the turn of GSM operators . Every day India’s broadband space is heating up with increasing number of competition this is directly helping the common man.

Telecom Major Bharti Airtel has announced the launch of 16 Mbps broadband internet access in three cities.The services will be initially available in Bangalore, Chennai, and Delhi NCR region, with a subsequent roll out planned in Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad few weeks later.

Presently Airtel Broadband offers speeds ranging from 4Mbps to 8Mbps.Company official’s claim that the 16Mbps service is the first of its kind in the country.The average broadband speed in India is 256 Kbps currently, while in countries such as France and Korea exceeds 16 Mbps mark.

Airtel 16 Mbps Tariff plans: Read more…