Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited (TTML) has rolled out Tata Photon plus, its mobile Broadband service, in Pune. It has already launched the service in Mumbai, Nagpur, Nashik, Kolhapur and Goa.
Priced at Rs 2,299, Tata Photon is accessible via USB modems and routers and is compatible with both laptops and desktops. Internet access on the device is available in India through the Tata Indicom network. Tata Photon plus subscribers can also watch live television on their laptops and personal computers using the Photon plus TV application.
According to a company statement, the service is 20 times faster than existing mobile wireless technologies.
Raja Srinivas, senior vice president, strategy and special projects, TTML, said in the statement, “With the rise of internet penetration in India, the awareness of and demand for wireless internet connectivity is increasing rapidly; and with computer and laptop sales showing exponential growth in the business and retail segments, there is a huge demand for mobile broadband service and applications enabled by high-speed connectivity. Tata Photon is ideally suited to meet these requirements.”
TTML is licensed to provide telecom services in Maharashtra (including Mumbai) and Goa. It has wireless operations on both Tata Indicom and Tata Docomo platforms and claims over 11 million customers in Maharashtra and Goa.
Tata Photon broadband launched in Pune
RCom launches social networking mobile app
Reliance Communications has announced a new mobile application named Socially. With this application, a user can follow his friends’ activities on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn through a single platform. The App also enables the user to update his status on these sites. There are plans to provide a video calling feature which, the company believes, will enhance social networking.
Krishna Durba, head, value added services, Reliance Communications, told Telecom Yatra, “At present the application is compatible with Symbian platforms and works well on LG and Samsung phones and also with phones running on Microsoft operating system (OS). We could soon see the application compatibility with Android OS as well. Similarly, the service as of now is available for GSM subscribers but soon would be extended to the CDMA subscribers as well.”
Socially also has a caller identification feature which links the user’s phonebook with his Facebook account. If the person calling has a Facebook account and is in the user’s list of friends, his Facebook update will automatically pop up with the call alert. If the caller is not on the user’s friend list, however, the app shows the caller’s location on the mobile screen.
The subscription charges are Rs 10 for 30 days, while the app can be downloaded for free from the Reliance World mobile internet site.
For developing the application, Reliance Communications entered into partnership with Antarix Networks, a Singapore-based telecom start up which creates mobile communities.
Uninor puts up assistance booths at the Maha Kumbh
Uninor, the new GSM service provider, is offering free emergency calls for visitors at the Maha Kumbh Mela that started on January 14 and will go on till April 28. Earlier last month, Idea Cellular had also announced similar initiatives at the religious festival.
Uninor has partnered with the Kumbh Mela Committee to set up a network of assistance booths that are meant to provide free emergency calls and maps of the area.
Allan Bonke, executive vice president, Delhi hub, Uninor, told Telecom Yatra, “This initiative was launched right at the beginning of the Maha Kumbh Mela in January 2010. We have set up a network of emergency booths across Kumbh Mela to help people with any sort of local information required by them.”
Bonke added, “Maha Kumbh Mela is the biggest event that happens in India in terms of the number of visitors it gets from all over the world”. The Maha Kumbh Mela is attended by over 50 million people.
Uninor, the brand name for Unitech Wireless, is a joint venture between Unitech and Norway’s Telenor Group. According to a company announcement earlier, Telenor Group has invested a little over Rs 4,113 crore through new shares in the joint venture company with an agreement to raise this value to Rs 6,120 crore to hold about 67 per cent stake. Uninor holds a pan-India license to offer mobile services in India’s 22 circles. It has also received spectrum to operate in 21 of the 22 circles. At present, Uninor’s services are available in the eight circles of UP (West), UP (East), Bihar, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.
Tata Docomo introduces rollover plan
Tata Docomo, the GSM mobile service of Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL), has introduced a tariff plan for its enterprise prepaid customers, which allows them to pay on a monthly basis and carry forward their unused free Talk time and SMS for a period of three months.
The Rollover Plan is available in four variants – RO 500, RO 799, RO 1000 and RO 1099 available at a monthly rental of Rs 500, Rs 799, Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,099 respectively. The plan will be applicable for eight consecutive cycles with each cycle comprising three months.
The plan comes with per second billing and makes available the free usage in seconds. For example, the RO 1099 offers 150,000 seconds of free local calls and 72,000 seconds of free STD calls per month. The customers can carry forward the accumulated unused free talk time and free SMS each month, for a period of three consecutive months.
Anil Sardana, managing director, Tata Teleservices Limited, said in a company statement, “Taking the first mover advantage, we have consolidated an aggressive proposition that offers transparent tariff along with the facility of carrying forward of unused free usage for a period of three months — this feature will definitely benefit and interest our enterprise customers.”
Tata Docomo has launched GSM services in 16 telecom circles, with Gujarat being the latest addition.
Vodafone rolls out app store
Vodafone Essar has announced the official launch of its application store in India. As per a company statement, the Vodafone Mobile Application Store became operational in February and the company claims that it has already had more than 10,000 downloads.
The store offers over 800 Indian and international apps under categories such as entertainment, utility, finance, social networking and games. It provides a set of customised apps as per consumers’ preferences and while browsing the list, all relevant information about a selected App is displayed. It also has an app search engine. Over 15 per cent of applications are free while the majority of paid applications are priced in the range of Rs 5 to Rs 30.
A Vodafone Essar spokesperson told Telecom Yatra, “In the app store, we have provided an improved user interface, ease of navigation and ease of downloading. We have tested it in all types of handsets and plan to keep enriching the content. We are working with a lot of VAS players and will work with more in the coming days.”
The store is available to subscribers who have data enabled handsets. To access the store, subscribers can either message to a short code or click a link on the home page of Vodafone live! Vodafone Mobile Application Store has been launched with Arvato Mobile, a Germany-based digital content logistics and service delivery company.
Tata Docomo launches operations in Gujarat circle
Tata Docomo has announced tha launch of its operations in Gujarat. The company has earmarked an investment of $2 billion (Rs 9,200 crore) for its pan-India GSM network launch. It currently operates in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Orissa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Mumbai, rest of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Kolkata, rest of West Bengal, Jharkhand-Bihar, Punjab, UP (East) and UP (West) circles. As per COAI figures, since the launch of Tata Docomo, TTSL has LED in monthly subscriber additions for six consecutive months, starting August 2009.
Tata Docomo subscribers in Gujarat will be able to use the ‘pay-for-what-you-use’ model, which includes per-second pulse as well as several applications and services. They will also benefit from special SMS tariffs, wherein the first SMS of the day will be charged at 60 paise and the next 200 SMS in that day, local or national, will be free. The company will also offer its mobile community service – Buddynet, within which members will be able to make local calls at one paisa per six seconds and STD calls at one paisa for two seconds. Buddynet members in Gujarat will also be able to access social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, LinkedIn and Nimbus free of cost.
Deepak Gulati, president, Tata Docomo said in the statement, “Our customers in Gujarat will also enjoy a special calling rate of three paise per second on international calls to the US and Canada (and to UK landlines), without any pack. We will also offer a per-second pricing model for everything, be it voice calls, value added services or IVR (interactive voice response) interactions.”
The company claims that it has already covered 487 towns and 770 villages in Gujarat along 1,969 km of the state’s highways, airports, along 1,700 km of rail routes and places of tourist interest. Coverage in the districts of Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Jamnagar will be provided soon after the receipt of spectrum from the Government of India.
Touch screen mobile sales will grow 97 per cent in 2010
Gartner, the information technology research firm, has forecast the growth of touch screen mobile devices at 97 per cent in 2010. The worldwide market for these devices is expected to surpass 362 million units in 2010. 184 million touch screen devices were sold in 2009.
Another interesting prediction is that by 2013, touch screen mobile devices will account for 58 per cent of mobile device sales worldwide and for more than 80 per cent in developed markets such as North America and Western Europe.
Asia Pacific emerges as the leading region for touch screen devices when looked at from a sales perspective. In 2010, touch screen mobile device sales in Asia Pacific are projected to surpass 129 million units, accounting for about 35 per cent of the global market. By comparison, Western Europe and North America are expected to account for 26 per cent and 24 per cent of global touch screen mobile device sales, respectively.
Looking at penetration of touch screen devices as part of overall sales in a region, however, Western Europe leads the way at 49 per cent, followed by North America at 46 per cent. Due to the much larger size of the overall market, touch screen device sales will account for just 23 per cent of total mobile device sales in Asia Pacific.
Bharti Airtel deploys smartphone-based system for Bangalore traffic police
Bharti Airtel has announced the successful deployment of the Traffic Police Force Automation system in Bangalore by providing BlackBerry smartphones to all the traffic police officers in the city.
The deployment process was carried out in phases and the last lot of BlackBerry smartphones was given out by Dr VS Acharya, home minister of Karnataka. In the first phase of the project, initiated in 2008, 280 smartphones were distributed; while in the second, 370 smartphones were given out. In all, 650 Bangalore traffic police officers are equipped with the smartphones.
Speaking to Telecom Yatra about the response towards the first phase of the initiative, Najib Khan, chief operating officer, -South, enterprise services, Bharti Airtel, said, “Initial response was that of resistance from the inspectors and sub- inspectors who were given these smartphones because they were so used to the paper challan system. The challenge was to train these people and acquaint them with the technology and its uses. Once they got comfortable with the thing, the response has been encouraging.” He added, “This system also ensures transparency as the solution allows officials to monitor their staff and generate periodical reports on performance.”
This is the largest deployment of BlackBerry smartphones for a police department in India. The officers are not only equipped with a BlackBerry device but also a Bluetooth supported printer. Carbon paper and challan books could soon become history.
The service offers many added benefits like a data base of traffic offenders, real time access to history of offenses committed by drivers etc. The database, informed Khan, has been built by realigning and digitising the paper challans. These have been fed into a common, secure data centre, which is accessible online.
To access the past information of a particular offender, his license number and the registration number of the vehicle need to be punched in. Information gets updated in real time and the system is capable of searching through over 2 million cases in less than 2 minutes. This secure login based application assists in determining if the offender has a pending fine against his vehicle. Additionally, there is a video surveillance system for traffic monitoring. The traffic violation video captures are sent to the database server which helps in identifying traffic violators.
Although BlackBerry smartphones are being used, the application can work on a non-BlackBerry platform as well. All it requires is a handset that supports GPRS.
The software has been developed by TELiBrahma, a Banglore-based mobile solutions company. Suresh Narasimha, chief executive officer, TELiBrahma told Telecom Yatra that the software was based on their platform called MobiLogix and was totally secure. He added,” The application can be built for other handsets as well but BlackBerry is very secure. Plus, you can control the calls and applications that are to run on the handset handed out to the officers.”
Loop Mobile launches customer service on wheels
Mumbai-based operator Loop Mobile has introduced a system that will allow subscribers to activate connections, buy recharge coupons and pay bills at a van positioned in their locality instead of having to go to a Loop Mobile outlet.
Designed by Indian automobile designer Dilip Chabbaria, the air-conditioned van is furnished with customer service desks and has three executives posted for assistance. Subscribers can activate new postpaid and prepaid connections, recharge prepaid cards, pay bills, activate and deactivate value added services, replace SIM cards, change their number or tariff plan and resolve billing and service queries at the van.
Sumeet Badlaney, vice-president, customer service delivery, Loop Mobile, said in a company statement, “The fully functional and well equipped van will enable us to provide all the diverse services that our Loop Mobile Stores provide. It is also a means of creating maximum visibility and brand impact across the entire city. Going ahead, we will even dedicate certain days in a month to our corporate clients; this will be a boon to office-goers who are always time pressed,” he added.
As per the statement, the van will visit different areas of the city everyday and Loop Mobile subscribers will be informed a day in advance, via SMS, of its presence in their neighbourhood. The van is equipped with GPRS to provide online connectivity to the Loop Mobile server.
The van will be stationed outside highly frequented locations such as shopping malls, theaters, and colleges. Depending on the response, the company will launch more such mobile vans. Loop Mobile (formerly BPL Mobile) launched its services in 1995 and currently operates in Mumbai with over 2.7 million subscribers.
Tata Tele to compensate for poor customer care
Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) has announced a Customer Service Charter for Tata Indicom customers, under which the company guarantees compensation if the pre-determined customer service levels are not met. The new initiative will be immediately available to Tata Indicom customers across all 20 telecom circles in which the company operates.
According to a company statement, TTSL has identified five propositions for this initiative and has built compensation clauses. The Customer Service Charter includes five customer commitments – The Bill Dispute Commitment, The Call Drop Commitment, The Handset Replacement Commitment, The VAS Commitment and The Call-Back Commitment.
The bill dispute commitment promises Resolution of every bill dispute within three working days, failing which TTSL will compensate its customers with Rs 25 for every additional day taken to resolve the complaint. The call drop commitment promises that less than 1.5 per cent of total calls made in a month will drop, failing which the company will refund 2.5 per cent of the customer’s last billed amount.
The handset replacement commitment ensures that new handsets will be issued to customers in case their current handset cannot be repaired over the counter at any of the TTSL I-Care Centres. The VAS commitment offers free trial of any chosen value added service before purchase of the product and The call-back commitment promises that TTSL call centres will be accessible to customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week and that calls will be answered within 90 seconds, failing which the company will call the customer back within two hours.
This is an industry first in India, where an operator has promised to compensate its customers for poor customer service in this competitive environment.