Indian diversity linked by “OneIndia”
15 years, 6 different governments, one vision, one direction – OneIndia. Under the able and aggressive administration of Dayanidhi Maran, India’s largest telecom service provider BSNL announced OneIndia long distance plan effective from March-1st 2006. Under this plan, any BSNL user can talk to anyother Indian from Kanyakumari to Kashmir at the rate of one rupee per minute(2.2 cents) Are we the cheapest in the world ?
Indian telcos prepare to converge TV over broadband
Business Standard reports that Indian telcos are experimenting with IPTV rollouts in select cities by the end of Q2-2006. Hats off to Shri. Dayanidhi Maran, union minister of IT & communications without whom we would be still struggling to shape our cell phone industry. Why is this a significant development in India ?
Indians didn’t have another alternative for their Cable TV programmes. The cable industry was mainly controlled by local dons with the support of netas. Efforts to privatize the cable industry had even led to the murder of some corporate executives. Also due to Cable infrastructure bottlenecks, Video on demand would have remained a dream for the Indian consumer.
Rapidly changing telecom technology has made this Convergence of TV and Broadband possible in India. If Google and Verizon are to be believed, then the world will be IP based. Its a good move by Indian telcos to directly adopt IP technology. Also Indian telecom companies like BSNL, Reliance and Bharti have unused fiber laid throughout the country which can be put to use effectively. True convergence in India 
Bharti Broadband doubles bandwidth during offpeak hours
Bharti’s Airtel Broadband is voluntarily doubling the bandwidth available to its subscribers during off peak hours without any additional charges. Subscribers with 256Kbps are likely to get 512Kbps and customers with 128Kbps are likely to get 256Kbps, thus living with the true definition of broadband(256Kbps) as defined by the Ministry of communications. The service is currently restricted to Delhi and NCR customers.
After PSoC its time for QSC
Qualcomm, the CDMA leader has come up with a QSC(Qualcomm Single Chip) solution for its CDMA service providers which will help them drastically reduce the cost of handset without decreasing the number of features. QSC is designed to can handle Music and Video. More details about QSC is available here.
Convergence.In Broadband.Out
Indian Telcos/Cellcos continue to add subscribers
The cellcos continued their growth in Jan-06. GSM providers added 3.5 Million subscribers while CDMA managed to add a thrid of them at 1.2 Million. Amongst the CDMA, Reliance added the most, 0.8 Million. At the end of Jan-06, their are 61.5 GSM subscribers and 20 Million(13.8 Reliance & 3.8 Tata) CDMA subscribers in India.
Convergence.In Broadband.Out
Telecom to be at par with Core Infrastructure ?
At last the Finance Ministry is listening to Telecom operators woes. It is reliably learnt that Telecom will be treated at par with core infrastucture like Power and Roads in the upcoming budget on Feb-28th. The significance of this will be Telecos will get a 10 year 100% tax exemption which will enable them to upgrade and invest in remote areas. The government is already being compensated for loss of revenuse by means of service taxes from consumers. Zero tax for Telcos/Cellcos means more investments in next generation technologies. Get ready to watch the next cricket match on your cell phone – true convergence atlast.
Convergence.In Broadband.Out
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