You must have heard a lot of news surrounding MNP or Mobile Number Portability. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has finally fixed the various charges for Mobile Number Portability in India and the TRAI press release is below. If you are still wondering what does MNP mean to you read further.

• Are you sticking to the same Operator for many years just for the fancy mobile number you possess despite the poor network coverage in your area  ?
• Do plans from another Operator seem more affordable / attractive to you compared to the current operator ?
• Are you a Technology enthusiast and want to figure out whats MNP ?

If you said to any one of the questions above then you might make use of MNP to move to another mobile network operator and retain your same old mobile number. Now lets get to the charges.

You have to pay a porting  charge to port your mobile number from one network to another.

This fee has been fixed at Rs.19 only. TRAI has indicated that

The amount to be paid by the subscriber shall not be more than the per port transaction charge i.e. Rs.19. Operators are free to charge any amount less than or equal to this charge

These charges will come into effect on 31st December  and MNP is expected to be available in Metros and Category A circles by this date. It is expected to be available in other circles by March.

Are you interested in MNP  ? Will you use the service ?

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Ajay Sharma, Country Head, HTC India said, “The HTC Touch2 is a compact Windows Mobile device which delivers a familiar touch experience that our consumers relate to, have experienced in the past, and expect in the future from the house of HTC,” said . He further added, “The Touch2 expands HTC’s portfolio of touch-based phones and will deliver an advanced touch experience to a broader group of people whether it’s making a call, chatting with friends on Facebook or simply responding to an important email, the HTC Touch2 gives you an immense sense of control”.

Vrajesh Shelat, Head – Wireless Data Business said, “Through this cutting-edge device, our customers will be able to enjoy a host of Windows Mobile Applications on our 3G ready network. Our association with HTC and Windows Mobile is a crucial step towards achieving our goal of having a leading market share in the fast-growing smartphone segment.”

HTC Touch2 basic features include:

• 7.11cm touchscreen
• 3.2 megapixel camera
• dynamic messaging
• browsing and productivity capabilities
• download games
• Outlook
• Calendar
• Contacts
• Bluetooth
• Wi-Fi
• download applications available at the Windows Marketplace
• supports 3.5G and equips an internal GPS antenna that supports navigation solutions like Google Maps

Major Features:

• The HTC Touch2 ensures that everything is at your fingertips in an attractive design that fits comfortably in your hand. It integrates the upgraded TouchFlo user interface with several features. The interface includes 11 color icons and aweather clock to view local time and weather.

• In order to give the users a superior mobile internet experience, HTC touch2 Opera Mobile and IE Mobile allows users to experience desktop-style viewing of Web pages. Internet Explorer Mobile also supports Adobe Flash, enabling Flash video content, like YouTube, to be viewed easily. Offering a best in class e-mail experience complete with the ability to synchronize with Microsoft Exchange, you have the ability to check and manage multiple e-mail accounts.

• With the Zoom Bar, users can simply swipe their fingers over the Web page or a photo to get a clear enlarged view.

• The Microsoft’s new My Phone service ensures easy and automatic backup and synchronization of photos, music, contacts and text messages from the Touch2 to the Web for free.

HTC Touch2 Price  and Availability
HTC Touch2 comes with a special Free Data Usage of 200 MB per month for Reliance GSM Mobile customers as an introductory offer. The compact HTC Touch2 on RCOM’s GSM is available for Rs.24,490 for users in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh while the rest of the country can buy it for Rs.22,490 from all top authorized HTC resellers.

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Vodafone and Research in Motion(RIM) have officially announced the BlackBerry Storm2, a touchscreen smartphone device. The BlackBerry Storm2 is a thinner and sleeker device with new technology and new features to let customers stay easily connected. Customers in the UK will be able to get the new smartphone first through Vodafone. It is also expected to be offered in Ireland, followed by Germany, Netherlands, Spain, France, Italy and South Africa in November or December.

Storm2 Basic Features:

• 3.25-inch 360 x 480 resolution
• 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera
• Video recording
• 1400mAh battery that provides approximately 6 hours of talk time on 3G networks and 280 hours of standby time
• 3.5mm stereo headset jack
• 2GB of internal memory
• 256 MB of Flash memory
• dedicated volume controls
• Bluetooth (2.1) and Wi-FI 802.11 b/g
• High speed 3G
• Games,IM
• microSD card slot

Notable Features:

• Inertial Scrolling w/Snap Back
• Faster JavaScript and CSS processing as well as support for Gears and BlackBerry Widgets
• BlackBerry Handheld Software v5.0
• Enhanced SMS UI – notifications, emoticons, threaded chats
• Updated spin boxes
• Built-in GPS for maps and other location-based applications, as well as photo geotagging

Major Features:

• RIM’s Storm2 features improved SurePress technology, which gives a tactile response when pressing on the phone’s capacitive touchscreen(INFO) display. The technology responds equally to pressure placed on the screen. Typing-speed response has also been enhanced. It allows the user to type a letter with one thumb even while their other thumb may still be touching or resting on another letter, enabling faster typing and multi-key actions such as Shift or Alt -key combinations.

• Users can enjoy their music with standard headphones that utilize a 3.5mm stereo headset jack or Bluetooth for use with stereo headphones after synchronizing the music to the device from iTunes using BlackBerry Media Sync,.

• More responsive experience and includes usability and visual enhancements such as inertial scrolling, spin boxes that make it easier to set dates and times, gradient shading on buttons and more use of animation.

• Manage Microsoft Exchange email folders (Add, Rename, Move, Delete) on the handset. Allows users to access remote files shares (Windows Shares), Save, View, Edit, and Email documents from remote file shares, Forward appointments and view calendar attachments on the handset.

• Features a proximity sensor that powers down the display when the phone is next to your ear on a call. As soon as you pull the phone away from your ear the screen powers on and you can enable calling feature.

Pricing is said to depend on each country’s operating company. Vodafone UK will be offering the BlackBerry Storm2 free from £35 per month on a 24-month contract that includes 600 minutes talk-time, unlimited BlackBerry Internet Service, unlimited text messaging, as well as unlimited access to VMI (Vodafone Mobile Internet) and broadband.

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Cashing on the phenomenal growth of Twitter since a year, Airtel is launching a third-party application that allows you to receive Twitter SMS updates directly onto your phone called “tweetSMS”.

Initially when Twitter was launched, they had SMS updates option and they were sending the users their replies and their friends updates via SMS but somewhere in 2008 Twitter stopped sending free SMS updates to users, and instead started teaming up with different service providers around the world to create an economical and easy way to get SMS updates on your phone. In India, Twitter has teamed up exclusively with Airtel to offer the SMS service for an unknown period of time.

Atul Bindal, President, Airtel Mobile Services added that this is one of their consumer-connect initiative to help retain high-end customers and also bring in more subscribers, especially the youth brigrade onto their network. Kunal Bajaj, MD of consulting firm BDA Connect. agreed to Mr. Bindal’s Statement and added that the launch of tweetSMS is clearly intended as a retention and brand image play rather than a revenue play. However, after mobile number portability is introduced, it could help attract other subscribers to the Airtel network.

To signup for tweetSMS, An Airtel subscriber simply has to SMS Signup to 53000 and then follow the instructions that comes via SMS to complete the registration process and start tweeting. This application allows you to stay in touch with your twitter friends and also update your status without needing any internet connection on your phone. However note that the cost would be Rs 1/SMS sent.

(via)

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Blackberry Tour Feautures

• Dimensions : 112mm x 62mm x 14.2mm
• Weight: 130g
• 2.44 inch display with 480×360 pixels resolution
• Large QWERTY keyboard
• 3.2MP Camera with Flash and Video Recording
• 3.5mm audio jack.
• microSD Slot
• 1400mAh battery with 5 hrs of talktime and 14 days of stand by time.
• Enhanced background noise cancellation.
• Built-in GPS
• and the usual Blackberry Suport like BES , BIS and Messenger !

Prebooking Offer

Reliance users who Pre-book the Tour from Oct 7th to Oct 31st will get a 2 months of Blackberry Internet Service free of cost on Reliance’s CDMA Network. A GSM Version is also in the pipeline.

Blackberry Tour Price

The handset will be available at a price of Rs 27990 and on can consumers can get hold of one from October 12, 2009

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After the immense success of Tata Docomo’s per second pulse plan which made it the top operator in terms of user additions, TRAI is now considering the idea of introducing the same throughout all the operators now.

According to TRAI, all the telecom operators may be soon forced to give the option of paying based on the usage per second pulse instead of the current per minute pulse.

JS Sarma, Chairman of TRAI said that they will soon come out with a paper on this subject and invite suggestions on making this plan mandatory or not.

TRAI is also reconsidering the clause in current regulations which allow the mobile phone operators decide the tariffs and plans.

Some of the major Mobile Operators like BSNL and Aircel have already started offering per second pulse in select states like Karnataka, AP, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal etc and other operators like Airtel, Vodafone and Idea are expected to follow suit soon.

What do you think? Would you prefer to pay by the new per second pulse or are you happy with your existent per minute pulse rates? Do Pass on your comments.

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We are sad to see this move from the Operator as many users got a new connection just for this offer. But if you managed to get hold of an unlimited plan in the really short duration, you must be lucky.

Open question to Docomo – Why did you even release such a plan if it was going to be short term offer and Why was the information that is a limited duration pack not mentioned ?

Thanks for the Tip Shivranjan

None Found

The phone comes with a 3.2 inch AMOLED full touchscreen display and Wi-fi with access to the Android Market. The handset also comes loaded with most of google services like Gmail , Gtalk,Maps Search, Youtube. The phone also comes with a 5 Megapixel Camera and support a variety of multimedia formats. And a 1500 mAh battery powers the phone. There is about 8 GB of inbuilt memory on the phone and users can expand it to upto 32GB with the microSD slot.

Some highlights of the deal

• 500 MB of free downloads per month for 6 months duration
• Access to android market
• The Galaxy will be exclusive to Tata Docomo for now
• Targetted at tech-savvy consumers

Samsung Galaxy Price

The price of the phone will be Rs.28990 and would be sold exclusively to Tata Docomo Customers for now

We have some exclusive pics of the handset coming up soon. So keep watching this space.

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Tata Docomo currently offers two different plans for the BlackBerry data service — the “Do 299″ plan and the “Do 899″ plan.

The “Do 299″ plan offers unlimited data usage for e-mail and instant messaging, whereas the “Do 899″ plan offers unlimited data usage for Internet, e-mail and instant messaging.

However, the Voice plans have to be  subscribed separately by the user.

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Tata Docomo is doing a lot of interesting things in the Indian Telecom space. Now they have come up with a Unique Animation Contest. Very few brands in India listen to consumers actively and Docomo is one of them.If you are an animator , you stand a chance to win 1 Lakh rupees. All you have to do is create a short 2D animation clip under 60 seconds by using the Tata Docomo Logos and Tune. The winning entry picked by the jury not only walks away with the cash and also get to see their work telecast on TV channels. The contest starts on the 18th of September and the end date is on the 31st of October.

Give it a shot by visiting  create.tatadocomo.com

Chk out the Terms and Conditions of the contest , and its open for Indian Citizens only.

Where are all you the VISCOM grads and MBAs in Marketing ?

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