Idea Cellular has announced the launch of a value added service named PreTones. The service lets Idea Cellular subscribers in Andhra Pradesh listen to content of their choice every time they make a voice call. The content portfolio that Idea offers includes live cricket, jokes, breaking news, astrology forecast, movie reviews and Bollywood gossip. The caller can listen to this content before the call is connected.
The service is not offered by any other Indian network service provider. It can be accessed at a daily charge of one rupee and is currently available to prepaid subscribers. However, an Idea spokesperson confirmed that the service will soon be launched for Idea postpaid subscribers in Andhra Pradesh.
Customers who subscribe to the service can register their preferences on the interactive voice response (IVR) system and can resume listening to the content by dialing a number after the call is over. Normal call rates apply for the outgoing call.
Idea Cellular introduces PreTones
Indian wireless subscriber base touching 563.7 million
As per figures released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the wireless subscriber base has increased from about 545 million in January to 563.73 million in February, with a monthly growth rate of over 3 per cent. Hence, the total wireless additions in the month of February stand at 18.76 million new subscribers which is a drop from the 19.9 million new additions in the wireless segment in the month of January. The mobile teledensity stands at almost 48 per hundred as of February.
While Circle A saw 5.6 million additional wireless subscribers, Circle B added a little over 8 million, Circle C added 3.2 million and the metros saw 1.7 million subscriber additions.
The report by TRAI also states that the wireline subscriber base remained almost constant during the period with overall wireline teledensity at 3.14 per cent.
As per the figures, Vodafone Essar acquired about 16 of every hundred new subscribers to any service, followed by Bharti Airtel which has a little over 15 per cent share of the new market. Tata Teleservices has about 15 of every hundred new subscribers.
The total number of telephone subscribers (wireless plus wireline) in India increased to over 600 million at the end of February from about 582 million in January, thereby registering a growth rate of 3.2 per cent. With this, the overall teledensity in India reaches 51 per cent.
Tata Indicom launches prepaid services on BlackBerry
Tata Teleservices has launched prepaid services for Tata Indicom BlackBerry users. Subscribers can avail either weekly or monthly plans according to their requirement for email, instant messaging, social networking and internet browsing. The plans BlackBerry Messaging Bundle and BlackBerry Internet Bundle are available in monthly packages of Rs 299 and Rs 900, and weekly packages of Rs 85 and Rs 250 respectively.
Sunil Batra, president, operations, Tata Teleservices, said in an official statement, “Offering weekly services stems from our insight that prepaid segment is highly cost conscious and offering them weekly plans will liberate them from monthly commitments. Also, we do realise that customers’ service preferences change often and offering weekly plans that suit their pocket and offer flexibility to change service options and keep up with latest social trends is sure to be well received.”
According to the statement, BlackBerry Messaging Bundle gives customers unlimited access to email and instant messaging. It allows them to access the web and as many as ten POP3 email accounts. Both these plans are applicable to all BlackBerry smart phones from Tata Indicom.
Motorola rolls out its first Android phone in India
Motorola India launched its first Android phone in the country. Powered by Android 2.1, Milestone enables usage of multiple applications at a time as well as a hi-resolution pinch and zoom display. Priced at Rs 32,990, the handset comes with a five megapixel camera and an 8 GB memory card.
A suite of Google mobile applications including Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail and YouTube are integrated into the device. Users also have access to thousands of apps and widgets from Google’s Android store Android Market, as well as unified Google, Microsoft Office and Facebook contacts.
Faisal Siddiqui, country head, mobile devices, Motorola India, said in a statement, “Milestone is targeted at the well informed, socially connected individual. As an Android 2.1 device, Milestone does what other smart phones don’t. It was designed to enhance consumer experiences with its full screen web browsing experience, ability to juggle between multiple apps and suite of Google applications.”
Milestone comes preloaded with voice based street level navigable maps of 401 cities in India. The navigation service works independent of mobile network and can be used without inserting the SIM card as the maps are loaded on the handset.
Android is a software platform designed to deliver a customisable user experience on mobile devices. Other than the web browsing capability, it enables interactive web services such as email, social networking, mobile games and video sharing.
The Google Android mobile operating system (OS) was first launched in October 2008 with the HTC Dream handset. India got Android in July 2009 with the launch of HTC Magic. The Android OS has become widely popular especially owing to the fact that it is an open source platform which means that the program’s code is freely available and any developer can create applications to run on it, without having to take permission or licenses.
Currently, HTC, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and now Motorola sell Android based phones in India.
BSNL offers free WiMax trial to customers
As per a new offer by BSNL, its subscribers can now experience WiMax services free of cost. BSNL will offer free trial of its WiMax service to customers till April 15. Customers will not be charged monthly rental or rent for the Modem for 30 days from the day of activation. They will also be able to download 400 MB of data free of cost.
However, subscribers will be required to deposit Rs 2,000 as security which will be refunded in case they are not interested in availing the services anymore.
WiMax is a limited area wireless internet connectivity service which allows high speed internet access. It is similar to WiFi, but the radius of the WiMax service is larger. Currently, BSNL offers internet at speeds ranging from 512 Kbps to 2 Mbps.
The state owned telco had launched the country’s first mobile WiMax service in Kerala earlier this month.
Sony Ericsson focuses on content
Sony Ericsson has announced a partnership with production house UTV and mobile entertainment company Hungama for providing content. According to the agreement, four movies from UTV will come pre-loaded on new Sony Ericsson handsets and 100 party songs provided by Hungama will be available on the handsets as well.
Earlier, the handset manufacturer entered into content partnerships with MTV and Sony Entertainment. MTV is the company’s regional partner in Asia Pacific for providing content.
On the sidelines of a press conference, Anurag Kontu, head, channel marketing, Asia Pacific and head, marketing, India, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, told Telecom Yatra, “We are not looking at an App store immediately. However, we have around 200 dedicated developers who are working towards developing applications for us on Android platform.”
Sony Ericsson also launched five new devices priced between Rs 25,695 and Rs 35,795 and aims to garner a considerable market share in the smartphone segment.
Also, the handset maker roped in Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor as the brand ambassador for endorsing its products.
Vodafone launches IPL recharge vouchers
Vodafone Essar has launched a new recharge voucher, for Vodafone prepaid subscribers, exclusively for the IPL season. Priced at Rs 71, the IPL Bonus Recharge provides full Talk time (minus service tax) and bonus minutes equal to the highest runs scored by a batsman in an IPL match on the previous day.
These additional minutes will be valid for a period of five days from the day of recharge and can be used to make calls to local Vodafone numbers during the night.
The recharge coupon is available at Vodafone stores and retailers across the country. The operator is engaging in a few more promotional activities for IPL. It recently announced the sale of IPL tickets through Vodafone M-Shop via interactive voice response (IVR) and SMS.
It also launched a Vodafone Star of the Match competition, the winner of which will get a return air ticket and hotel accommodation at the city where the match is being played, and will be awarded by the winning captain during the post match ceremony.
MTS to launch services in 4 more circles by Dec
MTS, the CDMA mobile services brand of Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL), said that it will roll out services in four more circles by December.
Speaking to Telecom Yatra on the sidelines of a press conference, T Narasimhan, deputy chief executive officer, SSTL, said, “We will be launching our services in four circles by the end of this calendar year. The first launch will be in Andhra Pradesh in the second quarter, followed by Uttar Pradesh (West), Uttar Pradesh (East) and Gujarat.”
The company has completed one year since its launch in India, and to celebrate this, will offer free local and STD calls as well as free downloads through its Mblaze USB Broadband service to, its subscribers today.
Vsevolod Rozanov, president and chief executive officer, SSTL, said that the company will have four million subscribers by the end of the month and has been adding about 1.5 million subscribers every month. He said the company’s current average revenue per user (ARPU) is about Rs 100, and it is most successful in the Karnataka and West Bengal circles. It hopes to break even by the end of 2012.
MTS also said it is planning to double the number of exclusive outlets to more than 200 in Delhi and NCR. Rozanov made it clear that the company has no plans to foray into GSM services and is totally committed to CDMA.
The company has also announced a tie up with over 200 operators across 90 countries to offer international Messaging services. These tie-ups will enable MTS to offer its services in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Singapore, UAE, United Kingdom, and USA.
MTS India has over four million subscribers and was launched in March 2009.
Spice Mobiles to launch app store soon
Spice Mobiles, an arm of Spice Group, has revealed its intention of launching an application store soon. Anuj Nangia, head, product marketing, Spice Mobiles, told Telecom Yatra at the sidelines of a press conference that the application store will go live in the second quarter. As far as content is concerned, he said the company already has 250 content partners for music and media and will also work with Spice Digital. Spice Digital is a a value added services provider and is also part of the Spice Group.
Nangia also revealed that the company is currently working on two Android devices, one of which will be available in the market in the second quarter of this year. Spice Mobile aims to be a $1 billion (Rs 4,500 crore) company by 2014 with a market share of 10 per cent.
It plans to launch 40 products this year, which will include low cost Windows Mobile handsets. Nangia said, “We have entered into an exclusive partnership with Microsoft wherein we’ll be launching some handsets with them. These would be low cost handsets available under Rs 10,000 and would run on Windows Mobile 6.5 platform. The same would be available in the second quarter of this year.”
Spice Mobiles plans to do production trials at its manufacturing unit in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh from first week of April.
Spice Mobiles has also launched S1200, the second handset in their Picture Perfect series. The phone has a 3x optical zoom and Xenon Flash. While the first phone on the series, S7070, was a 5 Megapixel device, the S1200 has a 12 megapixel camera. Currently, only Samsung and Sony Ericsson have 12 megapixel phones in the market.
India to have 600 mn mobile subscribers by month end: Kamat
Minister of state for communications and information technology Gurudas Kamat said on Tuesday that India is expected to have 600 million mobile phone subscribers by the end of this month.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of Convergence India 2010, Kamat said that the mobile subscriber base, at a teledensity of 47.88 per cent, has reached the expected level. He added that both regulatory regime and innovation, and the enterprise of India’s private players have made it possible for the industry to witness such huge growth in the mobile subscriber base.
As per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the number of mobile phone subscribers stood at about 545 million at the end of January. Wireless teledensity was close to 46.4 per cent at that time.
The minister also said, “While formulating the policies, we keep in mind that the best telecom technologies are available to underprivileged sections also. The rural teledensity was 21.19 per cent at the end of 2009.” He added that availability of cheaper handsets can prove to be a boon for people with low income and can enrich their lives. Kamat also emphasised the need for region friendly services to enable greater penetration of mobile services.
Commenting on the need for more spectrum, he said that providing the desired spectrum will enable service providers to increase their subscriber base and added that it is important to use the spectrum judiciously.