DOCOMO, Tata Unveil New Brand for GSM Service in India

TOKYO, JAPAN, June 10, 2009 --- NTT DOCOMO INC. announced today the new TATA DOCOMO brand for a GSM service to be provided in India by Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL), in which DOCOMO owns a 26 percent stake.
The new brand , developed by the Business and Technology Cooperation Committee that DOCOMO and TTSL have jointly established, symbolizes the two companies' strong partnership and their commitment to the development of India's rapidly growing mobile phone market.
TTSL plans to launch the GSM service in southern India this month and gradually expand it nationwide.

                  TTSL has created significant strengths with its high-quality network and extensive retail stores and customer-service outlets covering nearly all of India, where new subscribers have been surging with net monthly increases of more than 10 million.

DOCOMO, as part of its effort to leverage TTSL's continued growth and development, is participating proactively in TTSL's management by providing human resources and technical assistance to help realize improved network quality and the possible introduction of leading-edge, value-added services.

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India has Almost 500 mln Mobile Users

The ever swelling number of wireless connections in India will cross the 500 million mark sometime this later this (or by early next year) month, as The Times of India reports. With the country inching towards crossing the 500 million mark once an unthinkable number, India has reaffirmed its place as the country with the second largest number of mobile phone users in the world, right behind China.

Note that the figure of 500 million is for the number of mobile subscribers only. The overall number of connections (including that of fixed line) has already crossed a staggering 550 million in the country. The teledensity in the country has reached a very respectable 45 percent. In urban centres, it is almost 97 percent. The rural teledensity is still low at just 18 percent. India was at 488.40 million (wireless) subscribers at the end of October 2009 and the current projections are calculated guesses taking into account the rate of growth observed for the past few months.

While it's a rosy picture on the wireless front, the wireline sector is facing a continuous drop in the number of users. It is down to 37.25 million now. India's broadband penetration too stands embarrassingly low with just 7.5 million people having access to broadband Internet! Bandwidth IS a major issue in India, it seems! It is remarkable that India continuous to grow at amazing rates even though the telephony sector has been in a mess for the past few years owing to licensing, spectrum allotment and all other controversies.

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10 Interesting Facts About NOKIA

1) The ringtone "Nokia tune" is actually based on a 19th century guitar work named "Gran Vals" by Spanish musician Francisco Tárrega. The Nokia Tune was originally named "Grande Valse" on Nokia phones but was changed to "Nokia Tune" around 1998 when it became so well known that people referred to it as the "Nokia Tune."


2) The world's first commercial GSM call was made in 1991 in Helsinki over a Nokia-supplied network, by Prime Minister of Finland Harri Holkeri, using a Nokia phone.


3) Nokia is currently the world's largest digital camera manufacturer, as the sales of its camera-equipped mobile phones have exceeded those of any conventional camera manufacturer.


4) The "Special" tone available to users of Nokia phones when receiving SMS (text messages) is actually Morse code for "SMS". Similarly, the "Ascending" SMS tone is Morse code for "Connecting People," Nokia's slogan. The "Standard" SMS tone is Morse code for "M" (Message).


5) The Nokia corporate font (typeface) is the AgfaMonotype Nokia Sans font, originally designed by Eric Spiekermann. Its mobile phone User's Guides Nokia mostly used the Agfa Rotis Sans font.


6) In Asia, the digit 4 never appears in any Nokia handset model number, because 4 is considered unlucky in many parts of Southeast/East Asia.


7) Nokia was listed as the 20th most admirable company worldwide in Fortune's list of 2006 (1st in network communications, 4th non-US company).


8) Unlike other modern day handsets, Nokia phones do not automatically start the call timer when the call is connected, but start it when the call is initiated. (Except for Series 60 based handsets like the Nokia 6600)


9) Nokia is sometimes called aikon (Nokia backwards) by non-Nokia mobile phone users and by mobile software developers, because "aikon" is used in various SDK software packages, including Nokia's own Symbian S60 SDK.

10) The name of the town of Nokia originated from the river which flowed through the town. The river itself, Nokianvirta, was named after the old Finnish word originally meaning sable, later pine marten.

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Nokia's Cheapest Navigator Phone Debuts

Nokia

has fired a salvo at the entry level market with the announcement of its latest affordable handset, the Nokia 2710.

While you might have passed it off as just another mid range handset, this one commands a second look because the 2710 has this little tag at its end which says Navigator . That s right, you re looking at the cheapest Navigator branded handset from the Finnish company.
The 2710 Navigation Edition comes with Nokia Maps pre installed with a lifetime maps license and supports turn by turn GPS navigation with voice guidance! That s quite a lot for a phone in its class. The 2710 is otherwise a pretty basic mid range handset boasting of a 2.2 inch display and a 2 megapixel camera. A 2GB MicroSD card comes with the phone which also boasts of an 18 day standby time and a 4.3 hour talktime. As expected, you will find brand Ovi scattered all over the device with support for various Ovi services.

The phone comes with a 3.5mm jack as well as a car cradle that users can use whilst on the move. The 2710 Navigation Edition is expected to be made available by the second quarter of 2010 for US$163 (INR  7600)

 

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Another mobile service operator in the fray

Uninor, a Norwegian-Indian JV, became the latest entrant in the country’s competitive mobile telephony market, where it would offer GSM services at 29 paisa per minute.

It will be operating in seven circles. ‘The company has launched operations in Tamilnadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh East and West, and Bihar including Jharkhand,’ Telenor Group’s Tamilnadu and Kerala Hub head Stefan Kercza, said at a press meet here on Thursday.

To find its bearing in the cut-throat market, the company introduced two tariff plans. ‘Talkmore 29 paisa’ would allow users to make calls at 29 paisa a minute and STD at 49 paisa a minute.

The other plan ‘Callmore 29 paisa’ also offers local calls at 29 paise per minute and STD at 49 paise per minute with a daily rental of Rs 2.

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Samsung Corby's CDMA Version Soon

It has been not long since Samsung launched its Corby in India. The much advertised product has seen a good amount of sales in the country and Samsung has no intentions to "let go" off the product. In fact, there are reports that Samsung is readying a CDMA version of the Corby for India.

Apart from the bigger GSM based subscriber base, India also has a large CDMA users on the Reliance and the Tata Indicom networks. With the number of CDMA customers too being extremely large, it only makes sense for Samsung to enter this segment - and this is what it is doing.

If the Corby does arrive on CDMA networks, it would be the first touchscreen device to provide direct social networking access using widgets. Rest of the features will remain similar to the GSM version of the Corby. Apart from this, there is also news coming in of the Corby (GSM) getting a "W" version - that will add Wi-Fi to the handset. The Wi-Fi enhanced model will be dubbed S3650w.

As for the CDMA Corby, it is expected to be priced at around the Rs. 10,000 mark. However, for it to sell well, it should ideally be priced a notch lower than and sell for around the Rs. 7,000 to 8,500 mark.

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Your phone no. may go 11 digits

             All 500 million mobile users in the country may have to change their phone numbers from January 1, 2010, and adopt a 11-digit cellular number if a DoT proposal is accepted by the industry.
            But, all leading operators said that it would be ‘next to impossible’ for the country to move to a 11-digit mobile number by January 2010 as this would involve making massive technical changes to both software and mobile network configurations, while adding that this process could take up to 12 months.

The DoT has prepared a draft notification in which it wants all mobile users to adopt a 11-digit numbering plan by pre-fixing ‘9’ to their existing cellphone numbers. A DoT official said that the country will eventually have to move to a 11-digit cellular numbers system.

The logic: Under the current 10-digit numbering scheme, only a maximum of one billion mobile numbers can be issued and the mobile connections in the country will cross this mark in the next couple of years. Pre-fixing an additional digit will allow the Indian telecom operators to issue up to 10-billion individual mobile numbers.

The existing numbering plan that was fixed in 2003 was expected to be in place till 2030. This is because, based on 2003-projections, India was expected to touch 500 million mobile customers only by 2030, but the country has reached this mark 21 years ahead of the projected date.

India has been the world’s fastest growing cellular market for the last three years. Thirteen mobile phone firms are jostling for space in the Indian market that most analysts feel can support only 4-5 operators. India is adding an average of 15 million new cellular customers every month.

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