TRAI should let apps, websites decide on free data: Nasscom

IT industry body Nasscom has said telecom regulator TRAI should give complete flexibility to apps and websites for deciding on provisions for rewarding free data to customers. In its response to consultation paper of TRAI on free data for telecom customers, the body also said operators should not have direct or indirect influence on the content that customers view on the Internet. It said the purpose of free data or concessions on data usage as reward is to encourage users to explore Internet.

“When the reward is given by the platform and not by the individual website, it should not have any conditions attached that translate into discrimination between websites and apps or have any conditions as to which websites and apps may be accessed, either implicitly or explicitly, including stipulations regarding technology or content,” Nasscom said. (Source: Indianexpress.com)

Top Intex executive Sanjay Kalirona quits

Intex Technologies' mobile business head Sanjay Kalirona has put in his papers, making his exit the latest among a slew of senior executives leaving the No 3 smartphone player. According to sources aware of the development, Kalirona resigned late this week and will leave the company by mid of this month. One of the people said that Kalirona would be joining another local yet lesser known rival, Zen Mobiles, as chief operating officer. Intex Technologies and Zen Mobiles could not be immediately contacted, while Kalirona declined to comment on his move.

The senior executive is an old hand at Intex and will be moving on after spending more than 15 years at the IT peripherals-to-mobile phones company. He did a stint of a little over a year at Akai's mobile phone division in between his tenure at Intex. Since its foray into smartphones in 2011, Intex Technologies has played on price in an aggressively competitive Indian market, managing to shore up a 9.2% share in the quarter ended March.

However in the last few months, many senior executives have quit the company. Intex's old hand and head of product, Sudhir Kumar, moved to Itel, a top brand of African major Transsion Holdings, as chief executive officer over a quarter ago. More recently, general manager Deepak Kabu has joined a new local competitor Ziox Mobiles as its chief executive officer. (source:ET telecom)

Vivo X7 and Vivo X7 Plus both are unveiled in China, sharing the SD-652 SoC and 16MP selfie snapper

After weeks of rumors, leaks, benchmark tests and certifications, the Vivo X7 and Vivo X7 Plus have been unveiled in China. Both phones share many of the same specs. For example, the two models are both powered by the Snapdragon 652 SoC carrying an octa-core 1.8GHz CPU and the Adreno 510 GPU. The two phones feature 4GB of RAM, 64GB of native storage, and a whopping 16MP front-facing camera for selfies and video chats. A fingerprint scanner is embedded in the home button of the X7 and X7 Plus, and the two models also offer dual-SIM capabilities.

The Vivo X7 will come with a 5.2-inch screen carrying a 1080 x 1920 resolution. The Vivo X7 Plus is equipped with a larger 5.7-inch display, but keeps the same 1080 x 1920 resolution found on the X7. With the smaller screen, a 3000mAh capacity battery will suffice for the X7, while a 4000mAh juicer is on board the X7 Plus. As we said, both phones have the same 16MP selfie shooter in front. On back, the X7 sports a 13MP camera with an f/2.2 aperture. The rear camera on the X7 Plus is 16MP with an f/2.0 aperture. (Source: phonearena.com)

Thales aims at boosting its revenue in cybersecurity with Cisco

French electronics group Thales aims to increase its revenues by hundreds of millions of euros in the cybersecurity field through a strategic agreement it has signed with Cisco Systems, it said on Tuesday.
"We hope that with this agreement, we will add several hundred millions of euros in the next years," said Jean-Michel Lagarde, who heads secure communications and information systems at Thales. "It will have a multiplier effect, as this is not only about cybersecurity, but also about secure systems for cities and airports."

The two companies have been partners since 2010 and plan to co-develop a solution to better detect and counter cyber attacks in real time, it said. Thales generates 500 million euros ($550 million) annually in the cybersecurity business, notably in data protection thanks to the acquisition in March of Vormetric for 375 million euros. The jointly developed solution will be aimed first at French infrastructure providers and will then be deployed globally, Cisco and Thales said in a statement. (Source: ET Telecom)

Bharti Airtel asked to pay 5,000 to customer

Bharti Airtel asked to pay 5,000 to customer District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Mohali has directed a telecom service provider Airtel to pay a compensation of Rs 5,000 to Mohali resident in a case of mental harassment. Sukhpinder Singh, resident of Sector 71 had been using the service provider's mobile connection from last three years.
A bill of Rs 810 for the month of October was generated on November 21, 2015. Singh received an SMS on the following day stating he had an unbilled amount of Rs.750 of the credit limit allotted of Rs 1000. Singh further enquired on this to the customer care. He was informed that this was due to non-payment of bill.

He paid bill of Rs 750 on November 26, 2015 against the bill of November 21. After ten minutes he received another message stating that there is another unbilled amount of Rs.865. Feeling hassled; Singh called up the customer care. To his surprise, two days after his call, the outgoing call facility on his number was blocked. Singh in his complaint states that it is the customer care executive who disconnected connection. Singh was then asked to type an e-mail to the customer care stating the problem. The response to this e-mail stated that his unbilled usage had exceeded credit limit. (Source: Et telecom)

Indian origin student develops software to control smartphone with eyes

Indian origin student develops software to control smartphone with eyes A team of international researchers, including an Indian-origin graduate student, is developing software that could let you control your smartphone through eye movements to play games, open apps and do other stuff. The team from theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Georgia and Germany's Max Planck Institute for Informatics has so far been able to train software to identify where a person is looking with an accuracy of about a centimetre on a mobile phone and 1.7 centimetres on a tablet, MIT Technology Review reported. According to study co-author Aditya Khosla from MIT, the system's accuracy will improve with more data.

To achieve this, the researchers created an app called GazeCapture that gathered data about how people look at their phones in different environments outside the confines of a lab. (Source: Times of India)

Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and RCom, ask Trai to define net neutrality

Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and RCom, ask Trai to define net neutrality Top telcos Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications have asked the regulator to take a holistic view on net neutrality, rather than look at free data and differential pricing separately, while traditional advocates of net neutrality have largely agreed with having telco-agnostic platforms to offer free data, a move aimed at widening broadband access to consumers. Industry associations backing GSM and CDMA operators, as well as the Internet & Mobile Association of India and Nasscom, agree that regulating telco-agnostic platforms is not within the purview of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

However, they differ on the broader question of free data and how it relates to differential pricing regulation and net neutrality. "Adopting the piecemeal approach and not addressing the larger subject in a holistic manner is only adding ambiguity and uncertainty to the regulatory framework," the Cellular Operators Association of India and the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (UTSPI) said in a joint deposition to the consultation paper on free data on Friday. "We request the authority to take a holistic view on the subject of net neutrality." (source: Times of India)