MTNL has announced a 3G offer in the Mumbai circle for its postpaid and prepaid GSM customers, which entitles them to unlimited free local video calls to other MTNL customers. Video calling is a service that enables a user to see the person he is talking to, on his mobile screen.
This offer is valid for a period of 22 days starting from February 22 to March 15. The initial 3G activation fee of Rs 149 will be waived during this period for all customers who send an SMS requesting to use the service. The activation SMS will be charged at Rs 2 per SMS. Also, the subscriber will need to maintain a minimum balance of Rs 25 in his prepaid account.
The GSM mobile subscriber base of MTNL includes subscribers of Trump and Dolphin and is over 24 million strong in the Mumbai circle. Those MTNL subscribers who have the necessary features on their handset will be able to avail the benefits of high speed wireless Broadband internet of up to 3.6 Mbps, which will enable mobile gaming, music/video downloads and video calls.
Recently, MTNL also launched a lifetime validity scheme for its 3G services offering local and STD calls at half paisa per second and video calls at one1 paisa per second. The state run telecom firm was the first network operator to launch 3G services in India by the name of Jadoo and is at present the only operator licensed to provide 3G mobile services in Mumbai.
MTNL offers unlimited free video calling
Mobile World Congress: Is memory the new bandwidth?
For any internet environment, be it mobile or PC, sustaining Bandwidth continues to be a challenge. If we want consumers to truly enjoy a heightened experience in mobility and communication, it is important to find alternatives that allow platforms and content to deliver that experience.
Our experience at the SanDisk bay re-affirms the fact that memory cards and micro SD cards (flash memory cards for mobile) are an option to choking networks. Before we delve into the benefits, here’s how the product works:
SanDisk has introduced a format where SD Cards are pre-bundled with a large library of the top 1,000 songs listed on Billboard in USA. These songs are broken into playlists of ‘streaming channels’ based on the genre of music. Simply purchase the card, insert it in your mobile phone’s memory slot and start playing music. ‘Streaming’ is the real highlight, as it is an embedded feature which does not require mobile bandwidth to play the music.
Each time you want to listen to the song, you are required to go through the channels and find your song to play it. This is because, the channel functions on the ‘mobile radio’ principle which does not allow you to skip directly to your music. If you like a particular song and need easy access, you can download the song onto the SD card itself in a separate memory or onto the mobile memory. The SD Card, despite holding 1,000 songs, is available with 4GB of additional memory.
All of this, comes at an attractive price point of $40 (about Rs 1,700), which brings down per song cost to as low as 4 cents (Rs 1.80). Imagine the possibilities for Indian music and entertainment companies. For consumers, they can discover new songs by adding new genre channels to the SD Card. New genres can be downloaded easily when you have bandwidth and GPRS connectivity available. They can choose to retain genres they like and do away with what they don’t like. The SD cards are also equipped with additional memory for miscellaneous use for pictures, videos and other multimedia.
SanDisk is also playing on the ‘impulse’ factor for increasing scope of consumption. While sampling content via streaming, if consumers come across something they like they may be compelled to download the music onto their phone memory, so that they have easy access for repeat listening. This would need to be done via a GPRS, 3G, or internet connection. This opens up scope of both for operators and content providers. It is perhaps interesting to see how a service like this changes the experience for consumers and maybe even change the ballgame for two important things we have been discussing at the MWC – data and streaming.
(Neeraj Roy is Managing Director and CEO, Hungama Mobile and the Mobile Entertainment Forum Asia Board Chairman)
Mid-Day enables mobile-newspaper integration
Mid Day, the afternoon newspaper available in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Pune has integrated QR technology which allows readers to view audio-visual (AV) files linked to the key stories in the paper directly on their mobile phones. QR code is a two-dimensional bar code developed in Japan.
To view AV files, readers need to capture the QR Code printed next to the stories with their mobile phone cameras. The code will automatically load the related AV files on the phone through the internet connection on it.
The application works across all GPRS-enabled phones, irrespective of the platform. Manajit Ghoshal, managing director and chief executive officer, Mid Day tells Telecom Yatra, “To use this application, users needs to download a piece of software on their mobile phones. QR is like a design, you can click a photo while you are reading the newspaper and watch videos. We have received very good response from companies, agencies, and our users are absolutely thrilled with this feature. We are promoting it through our in-house medium as well as by word of mouth.”
On monetisation, Ghoshal says, “This has monetisation potential. We are looking at embedded advertisements in the videos.”
As per a company statement, Mid Day’s web version currently has over 10 million page views per month and its cell phone news feeds have over 200,000 subscribers across the country.
Virgin Mobile rolls out GSM services in Maharashtra
Virgin Mobile India has announced the launch of its GSM services in the Mumbai and Maharashtra telecom circles, post the roll-out in five southern circles and Orissa. The company plans to launch its GSM services across India by the end of this financial year.
Telecom Yatra had first reported on Virgin’s launch plan for the two circles early last week. Virgin Mobile subscribers across Maharashtra and Mumbai circles will pay 20 paise per minute for both STD and local calls made to another Virgin Mobile number. Customers calling any other network will be charged at the rate of 40 paise per minute for local and 50 paise per minute for STD calls. Both these offers will be available to customers irrespective of any special plans.
The company is also offering two SMS packs priced at Rs33 and Rs69. The former is available nationally and comes with 2000 local and national SMSs without additional payment for 30 days, while the latter offers 500 local and national SMSs without further payment and also valid for 30 days.
Virgin Mobile had recently announced Ranbir Kapoor and Genelia D’Souza as its new Indian brand ambassadors. As per an official statement, Virgin’s GSM services will be available in 105 towns, which will cater to 77 per cent of the urban youth population across Mumbai and Maharashtra.
MA Madhusudan, chief executive officer, Virgin Mobile India said in the statement, “This launch will help us further consolidate our position as the favourite mobile services brand for India’s youth. I am confident that the brand will garner 10 per cent market share in the urban youth segment through differentiated service to consumers.”
Tata Teleservices is the franchisee for Virgin Mobile in India. Other than the brand name, Virgin Mobile India provides Tata Teleservices with expertise in designing, marketing and servicing Virgin Mobile branded products for the youth segment. Its services reach customers in over 350,000 cities, towns and villages across India.
The company, which has offered CDMA services since 2008 began by offering its GSM services in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, Tamil Nadu and Kerala circles and recently started operating in Orissa. Virgin Mobile provides only prepaid services to its subscribers and plans to spend Rs500 crore for promoting and branding its GSM services over the next six months.
Aircel to launch services in 3 more circles
Aircel, the Indian subsidiary of Malaysia’s Maxis Group is planning to roll-out its services in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan circles in April. The GSM brand has chosen Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) to supply the network and manage it for a period of four years as part of a deal valued in excess of $300 million (over Rs 1,385 crore).
Under the contract, NSN will supply the core, microwave and radio network equipment required for the expansion. An official statement released by NSN says that its offerings will not only help Aircel reduce its carbon footprint, but will also prepare it for 3G service launches in the future.
NSN earlier supplied GSM network and related services to Aircel for Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai circles. In terms of subscribers, Aircel is India’s fifth largest GSM service provider with a subscriber base of over 31 million as of December 31, 2009. It is present in 18 of the total 23 telecom circles and plans to expand across India in the next 2-3 months.
Aircel offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM services. It is a joint venture between Maxis Communications of Malaysia and Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd of India. Maxis and Apollo Hospitals have a 74 per cent and 26 per cent stake in Aircel, respectively.
Mobile World Congress: Music finds a new tune on mobile
At the GSMA Mobile World Congress so far we have discussed networks and applications and gadgets. However the GSMA Mobile World Congress is also a place of niche innovations taking centre stage with music derivatives becoming builders of mobile internet communities. One finds several music-related social tools, which bring people who love the same kind of music or artistes, together. There are several derivatives of music one can explore and each derivative can have a community behind it. A new off-shoot for entertainment, especially for the India perspective is song lyrics.
TuneWiki, a music streaming application for mobile devices, is enabling the lyrics feature to go social. The mobile application does two things. First it syncs itself to your local library on the device, searches for lyrics over the web for the songs in your library and when you play music via TuneWiki, it streams the lyrics on a screen embedded as the song plays out. Second, it allows you to choose music stations via the web. These stations are by genre or popularity. As you stream your songs, TuneWiki streams lyrics onto the screen embedded.
The lyrics streamed on TuneWiki are legalised as they are directly sourced from music labels and injected on the TuneWiki platform. If you choose to download the song, the service redirects you to various digital entertainment storefronts from where you could purchase these pieces of content. The content on TuneWiki is in the form of music tracks and videos.
The community feature comes into play with a Music Map, which indicates where else the song is playing, who is listening to it or what other music is available in the same genre. One can choose to follow a corresponding device and even share your playlists using the social feature. The service also allows you to sync your updates with social networking sites where you could tell your friends about the latest song you heard and whether you like it or not.
Currently, TuneWiki is working with BlackBerry to explore different avenues through which this service can be brought into India. Niche innovations like these will be key entertainment pieces that will help in building out the consumption of legitimate content.
We live in country that produces the largest number of films every year. We also have great lyrics in our music and these have a social following of their own. Words and meter are an integral part of Indian Music in any language. This is definitely a viable business model for not just content owners, but also mobile service providers. A service like this changes the experience for consumers, and lyrics as an entertainment derivative become the next big thing for social media.
(Neeraj Roy is Managing Director and CEO, Hungama Mobile and the Mobile Entertainment Forum Asia Board Chairman)
Comviva introduces online gaming solution for mobiles
Comviva, the New-Delhi based provider of mobile value added services, has announced the launch of an online gaming solution (OGS) at the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona, Spain.
The OGS provides users with access to a wide repository of games by downloading OGS client software on their mobile phones. It is a development on the existing online gaming model, where users need to download each game individually. The solution is based on a technology that uses existing Java 2 micro edition (J2ME) technology, an environment for running mobile applications, to run online games over low-bandwidth GPRS networks.
The new solution’s in-built intelligence ensures that users only see games that are compatible with their mobile devices. It also ensures that users are presented with relevant gaming options – a newcomer is offered games most commonly chosen by new users and regular users are presented with games that match their gaming behaviour and usage profile.
Manoranjan Mohapatra, chief executive officer, Comviva said in a company statement, “Recent reports show that (global) mobile gaming revenues are expected to grow from $4.3 billion in 2008 to $7 billion by 2013. We believe that online gaming options can drive industry revenues far beyond this, especially in price-sensitive emerging markets. Currently an upfront, one-time payment to download a game is the dominant pricing model in the mobile gaming industry. The relatively high price of downloads, together with consumer uncertainty as to whether they will like the game restricts service usage and growth. The OGS enables operators to offer ‘try first, then pay’ models. This model also drives repeat usage, greater uptake of new games and stronger revenue growth.”
Comviva is present in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa and works with mobile operators in more than 80 countries.
TTSL, Future Group launch new GSM brand, T24
Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL), the pan India dual technology operator, has entered into a partnership with Future Group to launch T24, a new telecom service based on GSM technology. The launch is expected to take place in three months.
The service will be rolled out shortly, starting with South India and the company plans to cover all telecom circles by the end of this year. Under the partnership agreement, Future Group will sell TTSL GSM connections under the T24 brand name to customers visiting its retail outlets across India.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a press conference, Anil Sardana, managing director, TTSL said, “This is a new, unique mobility brand that we have launched, which is going to be available to people who shop at any of the Future Group outlets. So when you shop you also have the opportunity to talk. We will give all details regarding the plan as we gradually launch the service. We are right now working on those details. Hopefully we should be launching in about 90 days time.”
Sardana did not divulge any details on tariffs but said that the service will provide free airtime to consumers who shop at any of the Future Group stores and that airtime will be linked to shopping in some way. He also said that Future Group stores will work as franchisees of TTSL in an equal partnership and not in an equity partnership. Future Group runs multiple retail chains across verticals. In the lifestyle segment, the group operates Pantaloons, a fashion retail chain and Central, a chain of malls. It also runs Big Bazaar, Planet Sports, eZone, Home Town, Aadhaar and a shopping portal, futurebazaar.com.
Commenting on the growth of TTSL in terms of subscribers, Sardana said, “We have added three million customers in January. Till December we had 57 million. We are still waiting for GSM spectrum in Delhi, the nineteenth circle.”
TTSL’s GSM business, Tata Docomo, has received a pan-India license and has also been allocated spectrum in 18 telecom circles. The company has rolled out GSM services in 15 of India’s 22 telecom circles and plans to launch pan-India operations by the end of this fiscal year.
Opera Mini reaches 50 million mark
Opera Mini, the mobile web Browser claims to have crossed the 50 million unique monthly users mark in January this year.
According to a company statement, the number of users has grown by 150 per cent, from 20 million unique monthly users in January 2009. This number comprises active users of the software.
Opera Mini has been developed by Norway-based Opera Software and can be downloaded free of cost on handsets. The browser offers compression from the Opera server, which shrinks web pages by up to 90 per cent before loading them on the device, for faster internet browsing and lesser data usage.
“Our original goal with Opera Mini was to make the web available to everyone, regardless of their network or mobile phone. Fifty million active monthly users is a great start,” said Lars Boilesen, chief executive officer, Opera, in the statement.
Opera Software had earlier reported that India ranks third among the top markets for Opera Mini, overtaking China. The company does not share country-specific numbers but has reported that page views in India have gone up 202 per cent since September 2008. The number of unique users has also gone up by 61 per cent in this period.
VAS player mCarbon to launch mobile music store
mCarbon, the New Delhi-based mobile media and value added services (VAS) provider, has said that it is soon going to launch a music station, which will enable users to select and download full song tracks, ring tones, caller ring back tones and music videos on their mobile phones through a single interface. The service will be launched in the next couple of months with leading telecom operators.
Speaking to Telecom Yatra, Rajesh Razdan, founder and director, mCarbon, said, “A lot of R&D was being done in the last few months on this and the product has come out very well, and it has been appreciated by the operators. It was not easy to launch this product because of some issues related to IPR (intellectual property rights), network price and payment channels. The technology that we are working on is a non-intrusive push, which senses the network’s idle time and then pushes the service.”
The company is also planning to launch a service for international roamers with a leading telecom operator and will be doing a pilot in Delhi this month. It will be a low cost Roaming product and is expected to increase traffic on international roaming.
mCarbon is also going to launch a fixed line missed call alert service for MTNL, through which wireline users will be able to get missed call alerts on their mobile phones. The VAS provider has more than 100 enterprise customers, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Bank of India and Axis Bank.
Speaking on the financial aspects of the company, Razdan said, “In terms of valuations, we should be around $15-20 million. By March, we are aiming at about $2-3 million of revenue.”
mCarbon was launched in 2007 and had raised Series A venture capital funding in December 2009 with Canaan Partners. Razdan said that within a few months, the company will be looking at the market again for raising funds. He added, “Our business model rightnow is 50:50, half of it is capex and other half is on revenue share.”