Latest Telecom News (1st August - 8th August)

1.    RIM unveils new Black Berry handsets.

·    Research in Motion (RIM) has announced the launch of new Black Berry handsets viz. Bold 9900, Torch 9850/9860, and Torch 9810 each equipped with Windows 7 OS.

·     The Bold models come with Near Field Communication (NFC), a technology that will equip the mobiles to pair among themselves, with other accessories (which are also NFC enabled), read smart poster tags etc with a simple tap of the smart phone.

2.    Tata Walky Groove Station launched at Rs 2999.

·     Tata Indicom announced the launch of Tata Walky Groove, a CDMA fixed cordless color handset with an unparallel feature of a “Pod” docking, globally.

·    It has other features like Color screen, USB/Micro SD slot, FM station and MP3 player, thereby combining different features and brings them down to a single platform.

·    It also comes with stereo speakers, alarm, calendar etc.

·    So it serves dual benefits of a handset as well as an entertainment tool.

3.    Nokia plays traffic cop comes out with Tselina with Nokia E5.

·    Nokia has tied up with the Gurgaon Traffic police to launch a traffic management project called “3^RD EYE”.

·    The pilot project has been going on since June 2011 and the traffic cops are equipped with the software Tselina enable Nokia E5 handset.

·     The software helps the cops to capture and report traffic violations.

4.    Bharti Airtel net down 28%.

·    Bharti Airtel announced a dip in net profits for the quarter ended in June 30, 2011. Net profits dipped 28% to Rs 1215.2 Crores.

·    But the total sales, at Rs16982.8 Crores, were up by 38%.

·    Revenue from African Operations has been steady with annual growth of 21%.

·    Income before taxes reduced on account of higher interest payments (Rs 344 Crores), 3G investments and amortization (Rs 159 Crores).

·    The tax effective rate in India was increased to 29.9%, mainly due to reduction in tax holidays, which hit the net profits in a negative manner.

5.    100% mobile penetration in 97 countries.

·    Ninety seven countries have achieved the feat of 100% mobile penetration, out of which 17 countries have crossed the 150% level penetration, according to International Telecom Union (ITU), a UN body.

·    In 2002, only two countries achieved the feat of 100% penetration namely Israel and Luxembourg.

·     Those which crossed 150% include Kuwait, Oman, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Hong Kong, Maldives etc.

·    ITU said mobile spread in the developing world has reached 70% at the end of 2010, with Africa registering 45.2% growth and Asia-Pacific 69%.

·    Europe registered 118% and the Americans 94.5%.

6.    Telecom Panel Okays new licence fee for operators.

·    Telecom Commission, the apex decision making body of DOT, has given its consent for imposing a uniform fee of 8.5% on all telecom operators.

·    Currently the fee ranges from 6% to 10%.

·    For big operators in metro areas, this move will boost their revenues as currently they have been paying 10%.

·    Now, Internet Service Providers and Long Distance Telephone operators would have to pay more.

7.    Telecom Commission upholds DOT’s views.

·    Telecom Commission has upheld DOT’s claims and rejected TRAIs suggestion that the operators should cover 10,000 people with two years and 2000 to 5000 in the next 4 years.

·    DOT has said that as per the pre-existing terms, geography not population was a criteria and it would be legally untenable to change the norms at this juncture.

·    TRAI had also suggested it is seeking more powers to scrutinize spectrum usage by Government agencies like defence forces. This too was shot down by the apex decision making body of DOT and said that TRAI should only look at spectrum usage by operators.

8.    BSNL and MTNL lose to private players.

·    Mobile Number Portability launched this January has inflicted considerable ill effects on BSNL and MTNL.

·    For BSNL, due to MNP, it added 3.49 lakh users and lost 9.33 lakh users.

·    For MTNL, which operates in Delhi and Mumbai, it has added 11,593 and lost 67,198 users.

·    These two companies faced a similar issue due to the advent of mobile communications 6-7 years ago.

·    In March 2008, BSNL had a market share of 80% in landlines and 15.64% in mobile phones. In December 2010, it was 73.71% and 11.53% respectively.

·    For MTNL, it had a market share of 65% in Delhi and 78% in Mumbai in March 2008. As on December 2010, the figures are 55% and 64% respectively.

9.    ZTE ties up with BSNL.

·     ZTE Corporation, global provider of telecommunication equipment, has entered into a strategic partnership with BSNL to advance the broadband services across the country.

·     Under this venture, ZTE will deploy high speed ADSL2 + next generation VDSL2 + broadband devices across BSNLs network.