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3G Auction Some After Talks
Uninor Offerings In Mumbai At A Glance
Xbox In Your Inbox

Posted: 29 May 2010 05:40 AM PDT

3G Auction Some After Talks Long waited India's 1st 3G spectrum auction is over! Starting on 9 April it took 34 days. Govt-owned BSNL and MTNL are already offering 3G services over country. Now private operators also get licenses to offer high speed 3G services.

Indian Government earned Rs 67,700 crore, double than they expected to get by selling 3G airwaves.Most important thing not a single operator did win pan-India 3G license, which may lead to network sharing over circles to circles.

But it is uncertain that dual technology operator Reliance and Tata will join such sharing or not.Airtel & Vodafone mostly come to as partner, and Idea may join them via their joint venture of tower sharing i.e. Indus Towers.

But even of this partnership between three operators can't cover all circles with 3G connectivity – the trio will miss Orissa.Airtel's wining of 3G license is quite unimpressive, they won license in Mumbai but not in Maharastra Goa, won license for West Bengal but not in Kolkata, where Airtel has 2nd largest operator. But they get to cover Delhi and UP West.

Vodafone won licenses in those circles where Vodafone has good presence, like Kolkata, West Bengal, or those circles generating high revenue like Delhi, Mumbai, Maharastra or Tamilnadu.

- figure made by Randeep using GIMP, an Open Source Program

Just added as a note, Airtel and Vodafone the sole official iPhone sellers in India can not cover whole India with 3G connectivity.

The costliest Delhi and Mumbai circles, where MTNL is already present, Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance will compete against MTNL in both circles. MTNL for just 2 circles will pay a high price.

Kolkata being a metro was bid cheaper than expected, compared to other metros. All operators – Reliance, Aircel and Vodafone who get license for Kolkata won license for West Bengal also. Only Airtel is to miss Kolkata, though it will be present in rest of Bengal.

From the table below it is sure that Aircel has eaten the cake, Aircel won licenses on complete south India, eastern India and neighboring UP east. Geographically Aircel is to cover a large continuous area. But Aircel did not won a single license in western India. In southern states of India, Aircel has a good network and good subscribe base, they are to serve better in south India.

Roaming through Uttar Pradesh is going to be a problem, as Uttar Pradesh is divided into 2 parts – UP East and UP West, while they have no such geographical border, only Idea managed to offer seamless 3G offering in whole UP. It should be noted that UP West circle was bided highest as a category B circle.

Eastern states of India is covered completely again by Reliance Communications, where Reliance GSM is present for a long time under a brand name of SMART GSM SERVICE. Reliance manages to bag license in category C circles as Reliance generates revenue offering cheap tariffs.

Idea won license mostly in northern zone – they are to cover whole north India except in Delhi. Idea 3G will also be present in Gujarat and Maharastra.

Tata Tele's GSM service Tata Docomo which is already successful in creating a wave in telecom market has bagged 3G licences in 9 circles, covering 4 circles of western India out of total 5 circles. Technologically backed by Tata's TCS and Japan's Docomo as partner, Tata Docomo is do the new in 3G market.

S Tel is presently covers Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh with 2G GSM services. And STel won licenses for these 'C' circles only.

Videocon and Etisalat DB participated in the 3G auction, but did not win a single license, but they may go with Reliance for network sharing, as they are already in agreement of 2G network sharing.

Comparative Study for Circle & Operator wise 3G auction

Uninor Offerings In Mumbai At A Glance

Posted: 29 May 2010 03:13 AM PDT

If you live in Mumbai, Maharashtra & Goa, Gujarat or West Bengal, then Very Soon you will experience a BLUE WAVE at your place.

Yes you heard it right, Uninor, a joint venture company of Unitech Wireless and Telenor is all set to expand their global gsm service to all the circles above right from first week of June Company will start rolling its services.

The 2 USP's of Uninor which customers will love it are one that if you purchase your sim kit from any of the official uninor stores then you can choose your last 6 digits of your uninor number as per your choice.

To enjoy this facility the charges vary from a Minimum of Rs 100 to maximum of Rs 5,000 depending on the number and yes you heard it right! And for the first time, This sort of an option is available for PREPAID Customers. The second most loved USP of uninor is that it is offering a TRUE LIFETIME VALIDITY to its customer which means there is no liability whatsoever to a customer to recharge his account for Rs 200/6months as stated by other operators.

If we talk about the offerings, then uninor will offer its 2 popular GPRS offers which are priced attractively at 2 exciting price points, Rs 9 and Rs 90. With My connect 9, Usage limit is up to 60 MB which is valid for 3 days and with My Connect 90 you can use Up to 3GB with a validity of 30 days.

Now you will say, wat’s the new buzz in this, every operator offers almost the same tariff?

Uninor provides unlimited access to Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter for the validity of the plan, which means that you will NOT be charged for Browsing any of these sites out of your FREE usage limit.

Note: The schemes which are mentioned below will only be effective in Mumbai Telecom Circle, for rest of all circles offers will be announced after the commercial launch.

The SMS Schemes that might be launched are:

I gain SMS STV 7: The STV 7 SMS Pack offers all Uninor to Uninor SMS at 1 paisa per SMS. All SMS messages from Uninor to any other network locally and nationally will be charged at 11 paise per SMS.

I gain STV 13: The SMS STV 13 pack offers 1,00,000 FREE Uninor to Uninor local SMS. All other local & national SMS will be available at 11p. Post 1 lakh sms, local uninor SMS will be available at 1p per SMS. The STV and its benefits are valid for 30 days.

I gain SMS STV 16: After first two paid smses at 50p each (Local or National), 100 Local and 100 STD will be FREE, post free usage customer will be charged at 50p/sms.

The FRC options are:

Maximum service charge (Rs)	Total talk value on first recharge (Rs)
50	55
100	115
150	175
300	355
500	600

The Special tariff offerings POST FRC are:

PLAN	I gain FREE TALKTIME 37	I gain FREE TALKTIME 38	I gain FREE TALKTIME 197	I gain FREE TALKTIME 198	I gain 24X7 badalta discount
Easy Load Top up Price	Rs 37	Rs 38	Rs 197	Rs 198	Rs 48
Talk Value	Rs 0	Rs 0	Rs 0	Rs 0	Rs 0
Benefits	Local calls Uninor to Uninor unlimited, Local calls Uninor to others @ 49p/min, STD @ 49p/min	Local calls Uninor to Uninor unlimited, Local calls Uninor to others @ 1p/sec, STD @ 1p/sec	Local calls Uninor to Uninor unlimited, Local calls Uninor to others unlimited, STD @ 49p/min	Local calls Uninor to Uninor unlimited, Local calls Uninor to others unlimited, STD @ 1p/second	Discount on local calls 5%-60%, Local & STD calls @ 50p/min, SMS 25p
Fine Print	1.Fair usage policy of 2000 minutes between local Uninor to Uninor apply & 2. After plan validity expiry a base rate of 60p/min. for all local & STD calls will apply as per 'Uninor-60' plan	Fair usage policy of 1,20,000 seconds between local Uninor to Uninor apply & 2. After plan validity expiry a base rate of 60p/min. for all local & STD calls will apply as per 'Uninor-60' plan	Fair usage limit of 2000 minutes of local Uninor to Uninor calls per month and Maximum 700 minutes of local calls to other networks per month & 2. After plan validity expiry a base rate of 60p/min. for all local & STD calls will apply as per 'Uninor-60' plan	Fair usage limit of 1,20,000 seconds local Uninor to Uninor calls per month and Maximum 42000 seconds of local calls to other networks per month & 2. After plan validity expiry a base rate of 60p/min. for all local & STD calls will apply as per 'Uninor-60' plan	ALL TARIFF OFFERS CANNOT BE CLUBBED WITH THIS OFFER, only selected offers can be clubbed if you avail this offer
Validity	30 days	30 days	30 days	30 days	90 days

Apart from above mentioned STV, there is also another STV which is “i save 49 ” STV, in which customer gets 3 benefits which are 1. Free 100 minutes on calls from Uninor to Uninor, local calls at 29p/min, STD calls at 49p/min, 2. First SMS of the day will be charged at 99p and then 2^nd SMS will be charged at 10p/sms & 3. FREE 100 Local On-net calls.

Note:The benefits of the STV’s can’t be enjoyed while customer roams in Maharashtra & Goa Telecom Circle.

There are also FULL TALKTIME Recharges available POST FRC, one of the FULL TALKTIME voucher which is confirmed is priced at Rs 150, in which customer will get a full talktime of Rs 150..

For More, Stay hooked to www.telecomtalk.info !

Xbox In Your Inbox

Posted: 28 May 2010 08:55 PM PDT

Here’s a good news for all the Xbox geeks and freaks. Finnish handset major Nokia along with Microsoft Windows Hotmail has brought out a new contest wherein a customer who activates Windows Live Hotmail on their Nokia phone might just end up in getting a Xbox in their inbox. Sounds confusing??

Well Windows Live Hotmail and Nokia in a strategic tie up is offering customers a chance of winning a Xbox 360 every week. Game on people.

Get your thumbs up and fingers moving. Activate Windows Live Hotmail on your Nokia phone through Nokia Messaging Service and you stand a chance to win an Xbox 360 every week.

With Windows Live Hotmail in your Nokia you stay connected, share your life, access information and enjoy life with your loved ones online all on the go.For more