Round of Indian Telecom Industry:
Tata Tele Launches GSM Service
Tata Tele has launched GSM service in partnership with NTT DoCoMo. The service will be branded as ‘Tata-DoCoMo’ and will be commercially rolled out in South India (investment of $2Bn) by end of this month.(more)
2G Auction Plan put up on hold
DoT has put the 2G auction plan on hold, till government takes a final call on the new methodology to give spectrum to telcos.
At present, all telecom services are offered on 2G spectrum (except select high-end services of state-owned telcos BSNL and MTNL) and these airwaves have been given to telcos based on their subscriber numbers. Currently, India follows a controversial practice of allocating spectrum based on companies’ subscriber base, and is the only country in the world that follows this method.
The spectrum panel had said that only the start-up spectrum, which is the minimum amount of radio frequencies that is required to launch mobile services, should be given for free for existing telcos.- source
Worldspace Online Radio Launch Delayed
WorldSpace India India’s plans to offer streaming of audio music programmes on its Web site has been delayed owing to policies related to satellite radio services.
WorldSpace needs the permission because the Web-based service proposed by it is seen as B2C (business-to-consumer) activity by the Government.
Under the current law, Web-based service requires the Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance. – more
Also see: WorldSpace files for Bankruptcy
Reliance Partners with ‘Krishak Bharati’ to penetrate into Rural India
RCom has partnered with Krishak Bharati Cooperative Limited (KRIBHCO) for selling its products in rural India.
KRIBCO will hold 60% equity in the JV company with the balance 40% held by Reliance ADAG (interestingly, Airtel has a JV with IFFCO).
Both IFFCO and KRIBHCO have close to 100 million farmers and telcos of course, need the captive audience to expand their services.(more)
HTC to Launch Android Phone in India
HTC is planning to launch Android phones in India very shortly.
The unlocked version of Android is of course available, but is mainly meant for the developer community.
More@ India News Channel
– Indian Telecom Industry Coverage
Ashish Sinha