Google to power Airtel Live Mobile services
Earlier this month, during Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer’s visit to India, Hucth and Microsoft announced that Windows Live Search for Mobile will power Hutch customers’ mobile searches. Since then the search engine giant, Google Inc was searching for a partner in India and in line with it’s track record, it has found India’s largest mobile service provider – Bharti Airtel Ltd.
Google will power Airtel Live mobile portal. Airtel users will be able to use the Google search engine to easily access content. Though Airtel’s portal is branded as Airtel Live Mobile portal, please don’t confuse it with Live.Com, a MSN venture. For customers who access the Internet through their mobile phone, Airtel will bring to them the power of Google in a format that makes mobile surfing an enjoyable experience.
In a filing to the Stock Exchange Mumbai, Bharti Airtel Ltd President, Kohli, said,
In India, mobile is fast outgrowing the growth of PCs. Mobile users outnumber PC users in India by a factor of six. The first computing experience for the majority of Indians in the next few years will be on a mobile phone. Airtel is delighted to partner with Google, a Company that literally reinvented the Internet, to bring its cutting edge technology to our customers.
So we now have Reliance and BSNL up for grabs and Yahoo! is the only other giant which hasn’t teamed up with any mobile service providers in India to power, search. The BSE release is also silent about Google adSense for Mobile on Airtel Live ;-)
Tags: Mobile India, Google, Google Mobile, Microsoft Mobile
Reliance Communications $700 Million contract to ZTE
If Mukesh Ambani is lobbying with the External Affairs and Home minsitry to get clearances for 2,000 Chinese workers, his younger brother, Anil has awarded $700 Million equipment contract to ZTE for expansion of GSM services offered through Reliance Telecom. ZTE won this race over Huwaeii, Alcatel and Motorola. This is a major breakthrough for ZTE which had been trying to establish footprint in India. Just last week, ZTE secured the permission to operate in India in joint venture with the Modis.
In other developments, Reliance Communications Ltd which already owns around 60,000 Kms of undersea cable and will host Internet giants including Google, Yahoo and Microsoft has now set its sight to establish a global cell phone content distribution platform. With mobile value added services market expected to grow rapidly, Reliance is sparing no efforts in bridging the global gap. It has initially set sight on distributing mobile content [Ringtones, Monotones, Songs, WallPapers, Video Clips, etc] to the immigriant Asian community in the Western world and is in talks with all the major Cellcos and has already sealed a deal with Telus in Canada. RCom is sure to add few feathers in Maran’s cap to help him achieve record landmarks in 2007 
Tags:Mobile India, Telecom, ZTE, Mobile Content
Broadband in India gets a boost from Maran
After shaping the Indian Mobile phone industry, IT Minister Mr. Dayanidhi Maran has set his sight on the state of broadband in India. During the opening of Ericsson R&D center in Chennai, Mr Maran said,
“Goodbye 256 KBPs. The public sector telecom companies, BSNL and MTNL, are working towards proactive pricing of broadband throughout the country.”
He also spoke of unlimited broadband and quickly added, that’s all he is allowed to say at the moment. Maran said that the year 2007 will see the Indian telecom companies achieving new landmarkrs like 250 Million phone connections and deployment of low cost WiMax. Alcatel and state owned telecom research firm C-DOT are working in a joint venture on WiMax technologies.
Mr. Maran has a terrific track record as IT Minister. He functions more like a CEO and was instrumental in getting the Nokia manufacturing facility setup near Chennai. This Nokia plant which shipped its 20 Millionth handset few weeks ago produces 40 million phones a year and the overall cost of operations is 11% cheaper than in China. Delayed but not denied, Mr. Maran is all set and determined to change the face of Indian Broadband industry in 2007.
Tags: Broadband India, Telecom India, WiMax, Nokia
Aircel inches closer to PAN India coverage
Maxis Telecom controlled Aircel today secured clearances from FIBP and also Unified Access Service License [UASL] [2G] from DoT to operate in the cellular circles of Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Kerala, Kolkata, Uttar Pradesh (east) and Uttar Pradesh (west). Read about Aircel’s current operations and the licenses it secured in August this year.
With todays clearance Aircel needs to add Bihar and Himachal Pradesh to have a presence in all the 23 cellular circles. Aircel has already readied a $2 Billion warchest to emerge as one of the true Asian Telecom giants.
Tags: Mobile India, Maxis Telecom, Telecom India, Aircel
Reliance Retail plans all India GSM WiMax Network
Mukesh Ambani controlled Reliance Industries Limited has chalked out plans for a private PAN-India GSM network to power the backend of Reliance Retail and other new ventures[ Oil Retailing and Reliance SEZ]. Mukesh Ambani, the big embracer of CDMA has embarassed the CDMA community [J/K] by opting for a combination of GSM and WiMax technologies to power his Retail and SEZ dreams.
This network will be the backbone for entire Mukesh Ambani’s group operations. After the division of Reliance Empire, RIL shifted its entire Mobile communications business to Bharti Airtel Ltd and Leased and Wireline business to BSNL. RIL will invest $750 Million to build this network and should be a cake walk for Mukesh this time. But the real challenge ahead of Mukesh is to obtain the license and GSM spectrum.
Tags: Telecom India, Reliance, GSM, WiMax
3G Trials in 20 Indian cities by 8 cellular operators
Close of the heels of CDMA operators obtaining spectrum for 3G trials in India, 8 cellcos of the GSM lobby have obtained approval from the DoT to conduct trial runs in 20 Indian cities. CDMA operators have been approved to conduct trials in 1900MHz band but unsure of the cities. They are also eligible for spectrum in the 450MHz band.
The following eight GSM mobile service providers have obtained spectrum for 3G trial runs in 2.1GHz band across various Indian cities.
Aircel - Chennai and Coimbatore
Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd – Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Guragon and Mumbai
BSNL – Chandigrah, Coimbatore, Kolkatta and Pune
Dishnet Wireless – Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati, Silliguri, Shillong, Shimla, Jammu and Patna
Hutch – Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Pune
Idea Cellular – Cochin, Delhi, Hyderabad and Pune
MTNL – Delhi and Mumbai
Reliance Telecom – Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai and Howrah
Do you notice that the GSM wing of Reliance Communications Ltd, Reliance Telecom conducting trials in Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai ? Currently they don’t have 2G services in those circles but they do have licenses for Mumbai and Delhi and have promised rollout within 3 months. When the 3G spectrum is will be auctioned in India, Mumbai and Delhi are likely to receive the highest bids because 3G spectrum policy states that it can accomodate only 5 players in each cricle.
Related Reading: Check out here for chronological developments of 3G in India.
Tags:Mobile India, 3G , 3G India, GSM CDMA
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