Convergence Plus Journal

POLICY

BSNL-MTNL merger ruled out
June 1, 2009

Communications & IT minister A Raja, has stated that a BSNL-MTNL merger would not be possible since identical factors are not there between them.

The merger of the two state owned telecom companies had been proposed by late telecom minister Pramod Mahajan, which was revived by Dayanidhi Maran (Raja’s predecessor). The Government holds a 56.25 percent in MTNL, which provides telecom services in Delhi and Mumbai while BSNL, servicing the rest of the country, is 100% owned by the Government.

3G spectrum auctions by end 2009
June 1, 2009

Auctions of 3G spectrum will take place by the end of the year, according to Telecom Minister A. Raja. The auctions, which were to commence in January 2009, have faced numerous delays.

3G services will allow high-speed voice, data and video services to mobile phone customers in India.

DoT opposes lock in for promoters equity
May 31, 2009

The Department of Telecom (DoT) is recommending against the lock-in period for equity of promoters of new telecom companies.

This is based on a report submitted by a committee appointed by the DoT. The committee says that there is a need for valuable foreign investments and there should be no such restriction for telecom companies to raise funds in order to roll out networks across the country.

The lock in period proposal was put forward to prevent so called ‘fly-by-night’ and non-serious telecom operators from making windfall gains by issuing fresh equity after having acquired telecom licenses at reasonable rates.

Ambika Soni is new I&B minister, Sircar gets additional charge
May 31, 2009

Ambika Soni has been appointed as the new information & broadcasting (I&B) minister, succeeding Anand Sharma in this post.

In another development, Jawahar Sircar – current Secretary, Ministry of Culture – has been given additional charge of I&B.

HC criticizes spectrum allocation policy
May 30, 2009

The Delhi High Court has expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the country’s telecom policy, which has allotted spectrum on a first come first serve basis.

A division bench comprising of Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Valmiki Mehta have said that the public exchequer has lost thousands of crore (rupees) due to the spectrum allocation policy.

MVNOs get green signal for India operations
May 30, 2009

The Telecom Commission has cleared a proposal to allow mobile virtual network operators (MNVO) to launch operations in India. The government will soon issue a formal notification and guidelines for MNVOs to operate in India.

MNVOs do not own spectrum or cellular networks. They buy airtime from existing operators (who posses their own telecom infrastructure) and sell it to consumers under the MNVO brand.

Top

The month of April saw 11.75 million telephone connections added bringing the total number to 441.47 million and the tele-density in the country to 37.94.

The total number of wirless subscribers in the country now stands at 403.66 million and the number of broadband connections went up from 6.22 million to 6.28 million.

The Indian telecom industry experienced a growth of 20% to reach US$ 24 billion in revenues during the fiscal year 2008.

According to Voice & Data’s annual survey, the mobile market grew 7.9% in 2008-09. Among equipment makers, Nokia retained its number one position followed by Ericsson, Nokia-Siemens Networks, Alcatel Lucent and Huawei.

Video-conferencing got a major push last year with focus on high-value areas like telepresence.

India has become the second country in the world to exceed 100 million CDMA mobile subscribers. This makes it the second largest CDMA market after the United States which has 157 million CDMA users.

According to the CDMA Development Group (CDG), Reliance Communications has become the second largest CDMA provider in the world after USA’s Verizon Wireless.

Projections for mobile penetration in India for the next six years by the Department of Telecom (DoT) estimate a total of 1 billion mobile phones in the country by 2014.

The Indian telecom industry has been adding 8-10 million mobile phones per month. Mobile penetration in the country currently stands at 37.94% and could cross 80% by 2014 if the projections hold true.

Samsung Electronics has introduced the world’s first mobile phone model that has a 12 megapixel camera. The new Pixon12 would go on sale in Europe later this month.

The resolution of Pixon12’s camera is higher than even most digital cameras available in the world. Sony Ericsson is also working on a 12 megapixel model which may go on sale in the early 2010.

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. has launched a 2G base station (BTS) designed for use in rural communities in developing markets.

Designed in close collaboration with Vodafone, the “EasyGSM BTS” is the industry’s first All IP-based compact BTS, and is specifically designed for rural areas. Huawei’s BTS also utilizes green site solutions, and has recently been successfully tested with Vodacom in South Africa using only solar power.

The new solution provides quick and easy site deployment, easy maintenance (including radio self-planning and self-optimization functions), optimized transmission and low power consumption ideally suited to onsite green energy generation.

Vodafone has completed first trials of Huawei’s new base station, and is reviewing options for a commercial launch.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. has announced the Check Point Smart-1™ security management appliance line. The new line of four appliances are the first to offer enterprises an extensible solution that unifies network, IPS and endpoint security policy management and provide up to 12 terabytes (TB) of integrated log storage. Through Smart-1 appliances, businesses can greatly improve administration efficiency and overall security.

From one console, administrators can manage IPS, network and endpoint security policies, and through Check Point’s unique Software Blade architecture, customers can extend the standard capabilities of Smart-1 appliances by adding additional management blades as needed. Smart-1 appliances also streamline security management by offering integrated storage of log data from across multiple enterprise-wide devices. This significantly aids administrators meet compliance requirements and perform forensic analysis.

“The launch of Check Point Smart-1 appliances takes us towards culmination of our unified management vision, it represents the next step in our effort to simplify security management for the enterprise while providing the highest levels of security,” said Bhaskar Bakthavatsalu, Country Manager, Indian & SAARC, Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

BSNL has launched a Voice and Video Service on BSNL broadband in Ahmedabad, which will cover a wide spectrum of telecom services for the its customer namely – Video Telephony (Voice and Video Over Broadband) Video Surveillance & Integrated Mobile Advertising.

On the occasion of the launch, Shri Kuldeep Goyal, Chairman & Managing Director, BSNL, said, “Voice over IP and Video Surveillance are going to add additional flavour to the existing rich experience Indian consumers are enjoying on BSNL broadband service. Voice over IP will provide a long awaited video calling and video conferencing services to the people of India.”

BSNL provides connectivity to the service, while the phone equipment is offered by Sai Info Systems (SIS). The new service promises to bring international calling down to affordable rates.

Agile Financial Technologies signs with Figlo and SRE to provide Financial Planning Software
May 28, 2009

Agile Financial Technologies (Agile FT), a leading provider of software and services to the insurance, banking and financial services sector, is entering into the emerging field of Financial Planning by partnering with Figlo, the Dutch market leader in financial planning software and SRE Financial Planners.

Figlo is the market leader in the Netherlands financial industry and has pioneered the use of Microsoft’s Surface Table computing for financial planning. The Financial Planning platform called Hawanedo (Have-Want-Need-Do in action) helps Banks, AMCs, Insurance companies to graphically analyse the financial requirements of their clients and then suggest the right products to them.

Agile FT, Figlo and SRE FP have formed an exclusive consortium to take this solution to market in India. Soon after, Agile FT and Figlo will also take it to the Middle East, Africa and rest of South Asia.

InfoBuild India sets up WebFOCUS Centre of Excellence
May 26, 2009

InfoBuild India, a wholly owned subsidiary of Amtex Systems, has launched the WebFOCUS Centre of Excellence in India. The centre is the first and only authorised establishment for training and professional certification in WebFOCUS, one of the world’s most widely utilised Business Intelligence platforms, in India. The WebFOCUS Centre of Excellence will be a one stop destination both for InfoBuild India’s customers using WebFOCUS as a BI tool and for BI professionals looking to attain certification and global recognition in the BI industry.

The Centre of Excellence in Chennai will provide a complete range of courses on all InfoBuild India’s products including WebFOCUS, FOCUS and iWay. In addition, personalized trainers will also provide customized onsite training with current data and working situations to companies.