Category: India

News from India the most happening mobile market

Nokia and Rahman, Do the Music

Nokia is doing it again. Few days back Nokia N Series teamed up with Rabbi, the hot Sufi sensational singer for a contest and this time Nokia has teamed up with the musical maestro, A R Rahman. Nokia and Rahman together will be doing the Do the Music initiative from Nokia. For the Rabbi contest you need to upload your video but for this contest, the entrants get a chance to showcase their music to the maestro himself and make him drool to the music. Continue reading “Nokia and Rahman, Do the Music”

Number Portability further delayed

The COAI and the TRAI have stated that the number portability or NP system would further be delayed. Expected to have been launched by September this year, it has taken a back lash to early 2009 as the ministry failed to reach a consensus and create a database of the subscribers and how all the mechanism could prove vital to the subscribers. So here is another good scheme taking the back seat due to the Government.

TRAI favours number portability

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday said it was in favour of implementing nationwide ‘mobile number portability’ (MNP) by June 2009. It has now asked the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to select an operator who will be licensed for providing and operating end-to-end MNP solution.

Forwarding its ‘draft request for proposal’ to the DoT, TRAI has recommended that the MNP clearing house administrator should be licensed through a competitive bidding process. Continue reading “TRAI favours number portability”

Low end Intex Handset – An Indian offering

Intex Technologies recently launched the IN-2222, a low-end economy handset. Kaushik Mitra, Product Group Head – Mobile Communications, Intex, said: “After receiving a very heartening response to our earlier model IN 2020, which has a talktime of 7.5 hours, this is our second offering in the entry-level segment this year. Considering that pricing is a major growth driver for mobile telephony in India – the second largest market for mobile phones in the world – Intex strives to launch affordable models with best of technology features to fulfill the communication needs of the masses who form a major part of the market.” Continue reading “Low end Intex Handset – An Indian offering”

Reprieve for BlackBerry users as of now

We have been tracking the BlackBerry issue. Read our post here for a run-up on the moot controversy.

The issue may be resolved — at least for a year.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has proposed an interim solution stating that the data exchanged between BlackBerry users will be stored on the servers of telecom operators who provide the service in India for a period of one year. Continue reading “Reprieve for BlackBerry users as of now”

UnBoxing Of the Nokia N82 Black In Chennai! FoneArena Exclusive

Well am proud to be the first to own an Nokia N82 out here in Chennai(Hope So). Any ways here are the exclusive pictures. See and enjoy. Its simply superb to hold and see too. The visual appeal is simply exhilarating. Here goes . . . .


Continue reading “UnBoxing Of the Nokia N82 Black In Chennai! FoneArena Exclusive”

Two New XpressMusic Handsets from Nokia

Nokia added two more devices to its range of XpressMusic handsets: the 5220 and the 5320 XpressMusic.

“Today’s additions to the XpressMusic range up the ante with new ways for consumers to access their media, as well as interact and share content with friends and communities anytime, anywhere,” said Jo Harlow, Vice President, LIVE category, Nokia.

5220 Nokia XpressMusic


The Nokia 5220 XpressMusic has a bit of a lopsided designthat has a built-in lanyard making it easy to carry around.

Features and Specs:

• Dedicated XpressMusic keys
• 3.5mm audio jack
• External memory microSD
• 2 Megapixel camera
• FM radio
• Compatible with Nokia Music Store

Price:

Rs 10,200 approximately

5320 Nokia XpressMusic

A handset that has 3G social entertainment capabilities with Web 2.0 access.

Features and Specs:

• Say and Play feature
• Dedicated music keys
• 3.5mm audio jack
• Up to 24 hours of playback time
• 2 megapixel camera
• FM radio
• Nokia Music Store compatibility
• Extendable memory up to 8GB
• HS-USB for fast music transfer
• HSDPA
• Internet browser
• Access to Ovi
• Nokia Search 4.1
• N-Gage gaming in the landscape mode

Price:

Rs 13,980 approximately bsefore taxes and subsidies.

Insurance for LG Mobiles

Now here is help for those who have a tendency to forget their mobile phones on counter tops in stores or on public transportation.

LG Electronics has tied up with United India Insurance Co. Ltd. and is offering a Mobile Theft Insurance Plan for its customers at no extra charge.

All LG GSM handsets bought on or after April 1st 2008 will be insured against theft for a period of one year from the date of purchase.

Anil Arora, Business Group Head, LGEIL, “Loss of mobile due to theft is a major concern for handset buyers. Customers stretch their budget to purchase latest handsets, and cannot afford to lose them. LG Mobile Theft Insurance plan would provide a perfect solution to this. We not only guarantee for providing the best phones in the market but also guarantee to safeguard customer’s interest in case of mobile theft.”

The buyer should lodge an FIR within 24 hours of losing the handset, block the SIM card with the respective service provider and send the information to the insurance company within 7 days. Continue reading “Insurance for LG Mobiles”

Reliance Communications launches Educational Portal on Reliance phones

Reliance Communications launched an exclusive educational portal on Reliance mobile phones, offering services such as exam results, college admissions, event calendar of exams, admission deadlines, mock tests etc. The portal will also have the list of top universities, colleges, secondary education boards as well as career options.

To use, subscribers have to call 53030101 (Exam Guru) and they will be guided by an IVR instructing them to press 1 for exams and admission, 2 for information on top colleges and universities in the country, 3 for career options, 4 for Board Exams and 5 for SMS based subscription.

These services can be accessed at a rate of one rupee per minute for which the user will have to subscribe to the “Exam Guru” pack, which is priced at Rs. 10 and carries a validity of 10 days. Continue reading “Reliance Communications launches Educational Portal on Reliance phones”

TATA to offer JuiceCaster service to customers

In February, We had covered the story of California-based JuiceCaster’s foray into India. Read the story here.

Tata Teleservices announced that it will offer JuiceCaster 6.0 mobile social networking services. Tata subscribers will be able to access JuiceCaster 6.0 as a downloadable application on their Windows Mobile and BREW handsets.

Subscribers of Tata Teleservices will thus be able to publish multimedia content from their camera-enabled mobile phones to any person, group, Internet Web site, or desktop.

By 2010 India to have 500 million mobile phone users

Nokia’s Indian arm has predicted that India’s rising mobile phone using population will touch the 500 million mark by 2010.

In what is clearly sunny news for the Telecom sector, out of 500 million, 60 million users will have mobile video capability and 100 million will prefer mobile music services.

D Shivakumar, vice president and managing director of Nokia India, while speaking at the Goafest Conclave predicted that half the subscribers will be accessing the Internet through mobile phones. Continue reading “By 2010 India to have 500 million mobile phone users”

Nokia 5000, 2680 slide 7070 Prism and 1680 classic 4 new Economy handsets

Nokia released 4 new economy handsets at the “Growing Together 2008” conference held in Johannesburg.

The four new handsets include: the Nokia 5000 with a 1.3 mega pixels camera, which is claimed to be Nokia’s first camera phone at this price point (between Rs 3000 – Rs 5500); Nokia 2680 Slide; Nokia 7070 Prism; and Nokia 1680 Classic.

Continue reading “Nokia 5000, 2680 slide 7070 Prism and 1680 classic 4 new Economy handsets”

Videocon to bid for Motorala’s Mobile business

So screamed the headlines in almost all Business dailies.

The Videocon group is interested in buying Motorola’s handset business.

Motorola’s handset wing is struggling for survival, as was evident from their poor showing at all world events such as CES 2008 and MWC 2008.

“We have hired one of the world’s top three investment bankers who will convey our interest to buy out the mobile handset business of the US company,” Group Chairman Venugopal Dhoot told Business Standard.
According to Dhoot, Videocon is ready to launch its pan Indian GSM mobile operations at an investment of Rs 6000 crores.

“The Indian market for mobile phones is around 120 million units a year and we have our own retail chain stories (Next) that we can leverage. Also, we can transfer the manufacturing plant to India to leverage cheap labour in the country,” added Dhoot. Continue reading “Videocon to bid for Motorala’s Mobile business”

Airtel launching 3G services in India

After the Indian government gave green flag to launching 3G services in India, Airtel has taken this story further. The company will be launching 3G services soon. Airtel has recently tested 3G applications with various suppliers and will be soon launching 3G services in India. Initially the company will be launching these services in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore cause these are the 2 places where Airtel has testes their 3G applications, reports Economic Times. The DoT will be allotting 3G spectrum to various mobile service players in India and Airtel will be taking good advantage of this opportunity. Airtel has also partnered with SingTel who has experience is offering 3G services. By the way, many countries have started adopting 4G when India is on its way to embrace 3G but I am sure that India will catch up soon.