Indian Telecom Folder

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Vipul
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Post by Vipul »

AT&T close to buying out Maxis in Aircel.

US telecom giant AT&T is inching closer to buying Malaysian operator Maxis Communications’ 74% stake in Aircel. AT&T, which is seeking to re-enter the world’s fastest-growing cellular market, has valued Aircel at $5-6 billion, sources told ET.
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Post by Vipul »

Policy on 3G telecom cleared; foreign players allowed.

Government is understood to have finalised the policy for 3G telecom services in the country and foreign players will be allowed to participate in the auction of spectrum to be held soon.

According to sources, Communications and IT Minister A Raja has approved the final guidelines for 3G services after meeting Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

Government is expected to initiate bid for 3G spectrum within the next two months, sources said.

Government's permission to allow foreign players is significant in view of telecom regulator TRAI's strong opposition to such a move.

TRAI remains persistent with its argument of restricting the participation only to existing Unified Access Service Licence (UASL) holders so as to ensure faster rollout of the services.

The Finance Ministry and the Planning Commission were keen on allowing foreign companies, who do not hold telecom licences in India, to bid for 3G services.

Sources said that successful bidders, who do not possess UASL license would be issued new licenses to offer telecom services in the country.
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Post by Vipul »

Telecom services revenue up 21% to Rs 1.30 lakh cr.

With one out of four Indians owning a phone, revenue of the country's telecom services industry has swelled to Rs 1,30,561 crore in 2007-08, up 21 per cent over the the previous fiscal.
India added 100 million new subscribers in this period. The revenue of telecom services, including that of cellular, fixed line, national long distance, international long distance, broadband, radio trunking and VSAT services, has risen to Rs 1,30,561 crore, registering a growth of 21.3 per cent, a survey by Voice&Data revealed.

Among the services, cellular segment contributed a major chunk of around 59 per cent to the total revenue. The segment's topline rose to Rs 76,608 crore in 2007-08, compared to Rs 56,183 crore last fiscal, a growth of about 36 per cent. BSNL topped the survey list in terms of revenue with Rs 35,296 crore total income. However, it registered a negative growth of 12 per cent. Its revenue for last fiscal was Rs 40,135 crore.

Bharti with Rs 26,436 crore topline clinched the second slot while Reliance communications was placed at the third position reporting total income of Rs 18,638 crore, the survey read.
Fixed line business was the second biggest revenue earner for the industry, contributing more than 20 per cent. However, its total income dipped 11.6 per cent in this financial year to Rs 26,692 crore, compared to Rs 30,190 in 2006-07, it said.
Broadband business showed a huge growth of 162.7 per cent in terms of revenue. It reached to Rs 5,359 crore in 2007-08, compared to Rs 2,040 crore in the previous fiscal.

The growth in the number of broadband subscribers, however, was not appealing as the country added only 1.4 million new users in this period. The total subscriber base was up 56 per cent to 3.9 million, the survey added.
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Post by Singha »

Indian Mobile Revenues to Hit $37B
JULY 03, 2008

Indian mobile operators can expect to see continued robust growth in services revenues over the next few years, becoming a $37 billion market by 2012, according to new stats from Gartner Inc.

The research firm forecasts the Indian mobile industry’s total revenues will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18 percent as the subscriber base reaches 737 million.

That would be an addition of 464 million subscribers over the next four years from the 272.71 million reported by operators for the end of May. (See India Adds 8.6M Mobile Subs in May.) The Indian government has set a goal of reachi
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Post by Suppiah »

Have been using this nice little USB thingy from one of the Singapore mobile providers - speeds of upto 7.2MBps broadband, anywhere where cell signal exists - smaller speed, 50GB per month (which is practically unlimited) connections (384k) at hardly US$10pm - this is still faster than typical 'broadband' in India. It runs on 3G cellular network. Same is available in HK too, among other places. Business folks are rarely using anything else these days, even disconnecting home broadband wired coverage at times. In India these are on offer too but on 2G networks they offer pathetic speeds and at high costs.

There has been much talk in India about 'un-bundling' the local loop, and this forum too saw some interesting discussions. All those copper cables laid at taxpayers cost are now held by BSNL much like a pot of honey tied to a dog's rear - neither the dog can use it nor will it let others touch it. This has meant low levels of broadband penetration, high costs, slow speeds and long waiting times. A situation not only BSNL parasites are not only very familiar with, but also very comfortable with, having held India's telecom infrastructure by the neck and suffocating it for decades until competition gave it a kick on the rear. The private players too rarely bothered to lay cables to home because of prohibitive costs and crazy access charges by all and sundry. They probably knew about technology changing and pulling the rug under their feet.

When finally 3G/3.5G comes to India, any 3G tower can support these devices and making the entire argument pointless. That means BSNL's copper infra will drop in value like a ton of bricks. We are not even talking WIMAX here, just existing technology!

Hope the babu's get their rears moving and get this thing through fast.
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Post by armenon »

Here in Dubai, our construction sites are connected to the head office using 3g broadband router. Setting up the thing is so damn easy and within minutes you can be connected to HO.But not exactly cheap with AED 450 monthly rental with 10 GB cap. Very useful for the business though
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Post by Singha »

Govt to announce 3G, Wimax guidelines soon
3G and residential wimax will finally put the pvt operators on a equal-equal footing
with BSNL. having already kicked BSNLs rear in voice marketshare, the bband market
will likely be dominated by 3g/wimax plans and the subscriber count start zooming finally.

BS Reporter / New Delhi July 04, 2008, 14:58 IST

The much awaited guidelines for the pricing and allocation of 3G and Wimax auction are expected to be announced withing a week.

Speaking at the sidelines of an event, Minister for communications and information technology, Thiru A Raja today said, "broad guidelines have been devised, I need some formal consultation with the finance ministry on the issue after that the guidelines will be sent to the Telecom Commission and I expect the norms to be announced within a week"

The minister further said that consultations with the fiannce ministry were necessary for the final notification of the guidelines.

"Once it will be finalised by the finance ministry then it will untimately go to the telecom commission," he said. The approval is necessary because the finance ministry is represented in the telecom commission, he added.
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Post by Shivani »

Usually, telecom news comes from press releases or outside sources. Now, BSNL employees have taken a bold step and left the private sector behind. They are releasing news worthy internal communications on their own website. :)

As someone who has to endure the BSNL (non)-service and connection, the general theme of this mail does not come as a surprise. The story seems to be the same whether Hyderabad or anywhere else in India, as far as broadband access is concerned. Most of the problems seem to origniate because of poor planning and lethargic response to a fast-developing market.

In addition, I am rather surprised that this person seems to be demanding specific router model and a particular brand. I had imagined that PSU organization like BSNL would have proper tender process which would specify the technical requirements, and only then a particular brand and model might be chosen from the quotations.

Perhaps BSNL orders the routers from Cisco in bulk and keeps an attrition reserve?
http://www.snea-ap.org/ wrote:
SNEA(I) AP Circle/166 Date : 04.04.2008

To
The DDG ( Broad Band),
(Camping at Hyderabad),
BSNL Corporate Office,
New Delhi.

Respected Sir,

Sub: Problems being faced by the esteemed customers of BSNL AP Circle -Reg.

****

We would like to draw your kind attention inspite of your busy schedule to some of the problems being faced by the BSNL AP Customers with the Broad Band connections, and request you to kindly do the needful to improve the customer base in the interest of BSNL.

The general Problems being faced by the customers in P3 Network are

1. Subscribers connections are promptly disconnected if the bill is not paid within the due date, but is not getting reconnected immediately after payment causing dissatisfaction and disconnections from the customers,

2.There is no provision to shift from p2 to p3.

3. Some subscribers are not interested in taking the connection due to delay in provision and not allowing the field staff to install the modem also.

4. Provision is to be made to display the usage of bandwidth to the customer immediately after logon to the Internet as provided by other operators along with flashing to give approval for continuation when the customer is about to exhaust his allotted bandwidth.

5. Presently all the privileges are with NOC (Bangalore) and no proper fault escalation procedure is available to deal the faults with NOC.
Hence Authentication Server is to be provided to Hyderabad as provided to Chennai, for fault rectification, to avoid delay in creation / provisioning and to increase the customer base to several folds.

The existing routers are to be augmented / replaced along with increasing the number of Nodes to increase the internet customer base, the following suggestions are given:

1. There is only one Node at Secunderabad and one Gateway at Saifabad (Hyderabad). Secunderabad is provided with PE Router connected to Saifabad by linear STM 1 (155Mb), but more than 400 Mb Bandwidth is provided to the customers. This imbalance between the input and output is causing dissatisfaction among the customers, as they have to satisfy to the reduced bandwidth than they have actually applied for.

2. Since majority of the customers are asking huge bandwidth from Hitech City Area ( Madhapur), it is requested to have a new Node at Madhapur with CISCO router to increase the customer base and to provide excellent service.

3. The Juniper router available at Saifabad is exhausted and also outdated requires immediate replacement before its total collapse. As more than 400 customers are in this Juniper router, migrating these customers (in case of collapse) into any other router will take more time since it not only involves software configuration, but also physical wiring.

4. The available IXP Router( CISCO 7613 series) requires STM1 channelised ports since demand from MPLSVPN and Internet Leased Line Subscriber are increasing.

5. As Hyderabad has to depend totally on the unreliable international bandwidth from Bangalore / Chennai for internet customers ( BB, Dial up which Hyderabad is providing the same unreliable bandwidth to the leased customers etc) which is causing dissatisfaction and disconnections, it is requested to provide exclusive international bandwidth to Hyderbad inernet customers instead of Bangalore / Chennai because of the potential business available due to the software industries.

Hope you will take our suggestions positively and implement in the interest of BSNL AP Circle.


Thanking you,
yours faithfully,

(P.Padmanabha Rao)
Circle Secretary
Copy to : Sri T.N.Sudhindra Kumar, CGMT AP Circle.
I also discovered Sanchar Nigam Executives' Assosciation (India). Using it as a starting point, a news reporter could find a lot of material to write stories about the plight of BSNL executives.
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Post by Vipul »

Indian telephone subscriber base crosses 325 mn.

Led by the robust growth in the wireless telecom market, the Indian telephone subscriber base crossed the 325 million mark in the month of June to take its total subscriber base to 325.78 million (wireline and wireless). According to the latest data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) total 8.81 million connections were added in June as compared to 8.46 million connections added in May 2008.

Driven by the declining call rates and affordable handsets, the total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA and WLL(F)) base witnessed an addition of 8.94 million subscribers during the month to stand at 286.86 million. The net addition in the month of May stood at 8.62 million.

On the other hand, the total wireline subscribers in India continued its downward fall as the subscriber base toppled further by 0.3 per cent to 38.92 million in the month of June 2008 as against 39.05 million subscribers in May 2008.
The overall tele-density in the country rose to 28.33 per cent at the end of June 2008 as compared to 27.59 per cent in May 2008.

Meanwhile the total broadband penetration in the country rose to 4.38 million in June with the addition of 110,000 subscribers in June. The broadband penetration in March 2008 stood at 4.15 million according to Trai data.

Bharti Airtel added over 2.5 million subscribers to in June to take its subscriber base to 69.38 million--3.8 per cent growth from 66.83 million in March. Anil Ambani led, Reliance Communications saw an increase of 1.7 million for the same time period reach a total subscriber base of 50.79 million by the end of June, 2008.Meanwhile during June this year, Vodafone also added about 1.7 million subscribers. Aditya Birla Group owned, Idea Cellular added 1.05 million to their total subscriber base, while the subscriber base of Spice Communications (recently merged with Idea Cellular) rose by 50,000 to reach a subscriber base of 4.55 million.
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Post by Vasu »

The state telcos getting some help from big brother....

MTNL, BSNL jump 3G queue
Indian consumers will have their tryst with 3G telecom services in the next six months, with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) announcing that it is issuing state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) spectrum to roll out all-India services.

3G or third generation services offer consumers internet access at speeds that are at least 30 times faster than 2G.

The move will give the state-owned corporations a four-to five-month head-start in the 3G space over private sector rivals.

The government, which announced the broad guidelines of the 3G policy today, said details of the auctioning of spectrum — radio frequencies that enable wireless communications — and the number of players allowed in each circle will be finalised within four months.

The state-owned corporations, for which spectrum has already been reserved, will have to match the highest bid after the auction for private companies is completed.

Announcing the new 3G initiative, Communications Minister A Raja said: “We expect to earn Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 crore through this 3G auction.”

Industry experts predict 45-70 million 3G customers by 2012, roughly 10 per cent of the mobile customer base. New players that win bids will, however, have to pay additional cash (Rs 1,650 crore for an all-India 3G licence) for mandatorily taking a universal access service licence (UASL) also.
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Post by Rupesh »

Govt starts download of 3G bids, number switch
2 Aug, 2008, 1152 hrs IST, ET Bureau



NEW DELHI: India's 300-million mobile subscribers have reasons to cheer. From mid-2009 they will be able to access third-generation (3G) services such as high-speed internet, interactive gaming, and instant downloads of movies, video clips and music on their mobile phones. And that’s not all. They will also have the option of changing their telecom operator without having to change their mobile numbers.

After nearly two years of debate and controversy, the government on Friday finally announced its plans for a global auction of third-generation (3G) radio frequencies, a move that could bring in billions of dollars for the government. The government also announced the introduction of mobile number portability (MNP) as well as a separate auction for broadband wireless access (BWA) services spectrum, popularly called WiMAX.

All this will of course come at a price for the consumer. Monthly phone bills went up by as much as 50% for subscribers in some countries when they switched from the normal 2G services to 3G services. Moreover, many subscribers may have to upgrade their handsets to avail 3G services.

The starting price for a 3G-enabled handset is about Rs 6,000 compared to an entry level phone of Rs 700. Finally, India is primarily a ‘voice’ market and it remains to be seen how many subscribers take to 3G-driven data services. It took nearly eight to ten years for customers in Europe to adopt 3G services in a big way.

3G rollout in India may be impacted by a parallel WiMax rollout. WiMax, an evolving technology is considered a threat to 3G as it offers data download speeds that are 10-30 times faster than 3G. And so while consumers can choose between opting for the two services, telcos would probably want to offer both services.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, India’s communications and information technology minister Andimuthu Raja said that the government hopes to raise between Rs 30,000-Rs 40,000 crore from the auction of 3G spectrum. The government will try to award 3G spectrum for five players per circle in the first phase though for spectrum-scarce cities such as Delhi and Mumbai, only two to three 3G service providers may be allowed.

The minister said the DoT, within the next fortnight will issue a request for proposal (RFP) for selecting two centralised operators who will administer and implement mobile number portability (MNP). The DoT has said that the centralised agency must port the customers number within of 48 hours of the consumer’s request. ET first reported this development earlier this week.

The global 3-G auction offers a lifeline to both new entrants and international communication majors such as AT&T, Verizon and others to gain a foothold in the world’s fastest-growing mobile market. DoT has set a reserve price for a pan-India 3G licence, which is the minimum price that a company must pay for these frequencies at Rs 2,020 crore.


This is double the reserve price recommended by telecom regulator Trai. In addition, new entrants, who are successful in their 3G bids will have to acquire a telecom licence which costs Rs 1,651 crore, over and above their bid price, Mr Raja explained. “International players will have to furnish proof that they are experienced in providing 3G services, but this is not applicable to Indian telcos,” he added.

One slot of 3G frequencies will be reserved for state-owned telcos, BSNL and MTNL. “The PSUs will not participate in the auction, but will match the price of the highest bidders. They will be given the 3G spectrum immediately — as of today,” Mr Raja said. This implies that both these telcos can launch 3G services about three months ahead of private operators.

While telcos have welcomed the 3G policy, concerns of over-bidding have been expressed. COAI, the industry body that represents all GSM operators in the country has pointed out that the reservation for MTNL and BSNL may result in over-bidding in circles such as Delhi and Mumbai where spectrum is limited and demand will be more. The chairman of India’s largest private telco, Bharti Airtel, said: “Sensible bidding should be the case, but who knows,” An international operator said Friday’s policy did not shed any light on when the auction would take place, and how many slots would be available in each circle.

The 3G auctions in India also offers business opportunities for global telecom hardware bigwigs such as Nokia Siemens, Ericsson, Alcatel Lucent, Motorola, ZTE and Huawei as successful bidders are set to spend billions of dollars to set up 3G networks.

Mr Raja said the government proposes to conduct the 3G airwaves auction by the year-end. “There will be an e-auction conducted on a circle-wise basis by a specialised agency,” he said. According to him, in the first phase, the government would try to accommodate up to five operators in every circle for 3G services. At the same time, he also cautioned that the availability of 3G airwaves was limited in key circles such as Delhi and Mumbai and these zones could therefore accommodate only about two to three players. “When more radio frequencies are vacated (by the defence forces), at a later stage, we can look at the possibility of up to 10 operators per circle,” Mr Raja said, while refusing to specify a time frame for this.

The Rs 2,020-crore reserve price for a pan-Indian licence has been computed as follows. The base price of Delhi, Mumbai and A category circles is Rs 160 crore, while for Kolkata and category B circles it is Rs 80 crore and for C circles it is Rs 80 crore and Rs 30 crore respectively. India has five category A circles, eight category B circles and 6 category C circles.

Mr Raja also added that the government will auction spectrum for broadband wireless access (BWA) services, also called WiMAX services, while adding that the reserve price for this has been set at 25% of that for 3G. Initially, about three licences would be offered for WiMAX services, which will be doubled at a later date depending on the vacation of spectrum by the defence forces.


Defending the government’s decision to award 3G spectrum with immediate effect to both BSNL and MTNL, Mr Raja said that government-owned operators would require more time for clearances for their network deployment when compared to private players. “The head start would help the PSU operators have their plans in place and compete effectively with private players,” he added.

GSM operators will be awarded 3G spectrum in the 2.1 GHz band, while for CDMA players the policy lists out three frequency bands — 450 MHz, 800 MHz and 1900 MHz. A the same time, the DoT has also added a rider that CDMA players will be allotted spectrum in these radio frequencies ‘as and when they will be available’. “We are trying to get spectrum in these frequencies for CDMA players. I am confident that the auctions for both sets of operators can be held at the same time. We hope to have space for at least two CDMA players,” Mr Raja added. CDMA players such as RCOM and Tata Teleservices, who are set to roll out their GSM networks, are expected to bid for both CDMA as well as GSM 3G spectrum.

For MNP, the DoT has said that two centralised operators will be given 11 circles each. These operators will be chosen through a techno-economic evaluation. Only those companies which have a combined net worth of over Rs 100 crore and have provided this service successfully to not less than 25 million customers in a minimum of two countries during the last two years will be eligible to participate in the process, he added. The centralised operators will have to pay an entry fee of Rs 1 crore and also a license fee of 1% of their total revenues. Besides, the FDI cap for these operators will be similar to that of telecom companies, which is fixed at 74%.

Market surveys have shown that between 25-50% of mobile users in India are unhappy with their operator, and are willing to switch to another service provider if allowed to retain their number.

The introduction of MNP will result in a significant churn in the telecom market and is likely to impact well-entrenched bigger players the most. The move will benefit new entrants such as Datacom and Unitech. Besides, CDMA majors such as Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications, who are launching GSM services, also stand to benefit.

While telcos say that MNP may not impact their subscriber base as the number of exits will be balanced by the addition of new users, the introduction of this facility may hit their bottom lines as operators will be forced to increase the costs of retaining one’s subscribers

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/art ... stry-1.cms
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Post by Mort Walker »

More disputes threaten to delay India's WiMAX goldrush

http://www.mwjournal.com/News/article.asp?HH_ID=AR_6341
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Post by Shivani »

Why do they feel this need to jump to another technology? :-?
The Economic Times wrote: BSNL to offer bundled CDMA handsets

16 Aug, 2008, 0040 hrs IST,Joji Thomas Philip, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: State-owned telecom operator BSNL has invited global CDMA handset makers for tie-ups as it readies plans to launch full-fledged mobile services on this technology platform across the country. The telco, which is currently investing about Rs 2,000 crore on a CDMA network roll-out, will offer bundled handsets.

Its move spells big business opportunities for CDMA majors such as China’s ZTE and Huawei, Samsung, LG, and Nokia, among others. At present, BSNL offers mobile services on the GSM platform across the country, except in Delhi and Mumbai, and has about 38 million customers on this technology platform. The telecom company does not offer bundled handsets with GSM connections.

In a communication to all handset manufacturers, BSNL has said that it will enter into tie-ups at both the national and state level on a non-exclusive basis for CDMA devices. Handset manufacturers have been asked to submit their replies by August 19, along with technical descriptions and the price of the models they plan to offer.

“BSNL will monitor the performance of the handset manufacturer and the arrangement may be terminated if the latter does not meet the requisite standards. The offered (handset) models should be locked for use in BSNL network only. The manufacturer should also offer a 2-year replacement guarantee for all handsets. BSNL reserves the right to functionally test the offered devices. The responsibility for marketing of the scheme shall be shared by BSNL and handset manufacturer on mutually agreed basis,” the PSU’s communication adds.

BSNL has also added that if it receives limited response, then all bidders fulfilling the eligibility criterion will be selected and be allotted circles, zones or even be made pan-India partners. “In case a large number of players respond, then the evaluation of bidder will done based on the strength of the company (turnover, distribution channel, after-sales centres etc), suitability of offered product (specification, features etc), cost competitiveness etc.,” the BSNL communication said.

BSNL’s move to offer full-fledged CDMA services comes even as existing players in this segment such as Reliance Communications and the Tatas are moving to the GSM turf. In the initial stage, BSNL will limit its CDMA offerings to the top 500 towns and cities across India. Early this year, the government had approved BSNL’s proposal to offer CDMA services and granted it a full-fledged CDMA mobility licence and spectrum to launch services. BSNL is in the process of setting up 10,000 towers for its CDMA networks.
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Post by Shivani »

DoT open to auctioning 3G spectrum for CDMA too
Business Standard wrote: New Delhi August 17, 2008, 4:40 IST

The Department of Telecommunications ( DoT) has said that it is open to the option of going in for auctioning of 3G spectrum for the CDMA players also.

“If there is adequate representation and if the contention is that an operator would have a monopoly then we will make sure that there is a level playing field and will revise the guidelines,” a senior DOT official pointed out.

He also put to rest apprehensions among some players that a CDMA spectrum in 3G will also be reserved for BSNL and MTNL (which also run CDMA services apart from GSM) as has been done to them in GSM. BSNL and MTNL have already been issued spectrum in the 1800 band and will pay for the spectrum later on after the auction is completed.

The DoT guidelines state that the price of the 1.25 MHz block available in the 800 band, which can be used by CDMA operators, will be determined by the price of auction of 3G spectrum in the 1800 MHz band (it will be one fourth that price).

While the number of blocks of spectrum available in this band is still being determined, the policy states that in case of availability of only one block now, the CDMA operator with the highest subscriber base will be given the spectrum. Simply, in most of the cases that will be Reliance Communications.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) pointing out that there are already more than two players — Reliance, Tatas, Shyam, BSNL or MTNL — who have been given CDMA licence auction should be the best option. Many operators also say that the policy is beneficial to just one player and will create a CDMA 3G monopoly.

A DoT official, however, said that the guidelines were made in accordance to the recommendations made by the regulator at a time when there were only two CDMA operators. However the scenario has changed and there are around four operators now.
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Post by Nayak »

India’s indigenous speak-and-see phone
Anand Parthasarathy

Make local/international calls through Internet connection

Image

Bangalore: The Internet allows telephone voice calls to be digitised and sent as packets of digital ones and zeroes. There is no reason why the video images of the speakers cannot be sent in the same fashion as long as the Net connection is reasonably fast.

Broadband has become a reality in India (with the public sector BSNL playing a crucial role in lowering the price barrier so that all of us could afford it). So a video telephone call, harnessing what is known as Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP technology, has been a real possibility for some time — but it tethered the users to a PC or laptop with an Internet connection. And wearing a headphone-mike combo is not every one’s idea of a simple phone experience.

Last week, all that changed. India-based engineers in Bangalore and Goa of the Taiwanese networking products leader D-Link have created the first truly indigenous IP or Internet Protocol-based Video Phone — the GVC 3000. It looks and feels exactly like any standard landline handset — except that you can see the person you are speaking to, on a 5-inch liquid crystal screen. It bypasses the conventional telephone circuits and rides over the Internet — so in addition to the huge advantage of seeing as you speak, you can make local, national or international calls at the cost of just your Net connection.

How can two phones connected to an Internet cable or a wireless network, talk to each other without opening a browser? We put that question to S. Natarajan, vice president (R&D) for D-Link India. He suggested that readers could sign up at one of the many free IP Phone services available which allocates numbers to registered Net Phones like the GVC-3000. (examples: www.iptel.org , www.voiptalk.org , www.freeworlddialup.com, www.sipphone.com )

You can then call any one by dialling his or her number, just as you dial landline phones now. You can call any one with a similar IP Phone — it doesn’t have to be a D-Link — as long it meets a standard called Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

A team of 15 engineers worked for over two years to create India’s own video phone, but D-Link is likely to market it worldwide as well. It should be available in electronic and lifestyle stores in India within three months as well as through D-Link’s own reseller networks and is likely to cost around Rs.23,000. (watch the “Where to buy” link at www.dlink.co.in).

If you want the convenience of an IP phone without the video, D-Link has also created a non-video version the GLV-540 that will set you back Rs.7,000. Either way this is a telephone technology whose time has come—for India.
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TRAI makes net telephony legal news.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has removed all restrictions on internet telephony in order to make optimum use of technological advancements in the telecom sector.

The move that will permit calls from personal computers to fixed line and mobile phones will further encourage competition in the domestic long distance segment and lower STD tariffs.Currently, a voice call can travel between two computers but not from a mobile or a fixed phone. This is expected to open huge channels of revenues for Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

''The rapid technological developments and better quality of voice communications are shaping the future of telecom. The enormous increase in data traffic in international scenario, increasing acceptability of IP networks, adoptability of NGN by many countries, and global liberal regulatory regime for internet telephony require a fresh review of existing licensing conditions in India,'' TRAI said in `Issues Related to Internet Telephony'.

The present licensing framework has envisaged different types of access service providers (UASL, BSOs, CMSPs), National Long Distance service providers (NLDs), International Long Distance service providers (ILDs) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs). While access service providers are permitted to provide various services and applications to their subscribers under Universal Access Services Licence (UASL), the role of other licensees like NLD and ILD is limited to providing long distance services and ISPs are permitted to provide access to internet.

''It was expected that access service providers will provide highly popular services like internet telephony and boost broadband penetration but it has not come on the ground. As such our subscribers are denied advanced value added services in contrast to global scenario where such internet based services are popular,'' TRAI said.

ISPs are not permitted to provide unrestricted internet telephony though they have IP-based infrastructure. Such regulatory restrictions discourage technological advancements and result is grey market activities to provide these services to common masses, the regulator pointed out.

''The present regulatory framework denies fruits of technological advancements to reach to common masses. Level playing field issues were being advocated against permitting these services under various licences. Globally telecommunications are being shaped by steep growth of broadband and wireless subscribers. The regulatory environment should be dynamic, enabling, efficient and one that encourages competition. Hence regulatory framework for internet telephony has to be considered in view of convergence and other similar developments taking place across the globe.

TRAI said it its suo-motu consultation process has considered a ''regulatory framework which is technologically neutral, enables developments, innovations and growth of the telecom sector for benefit of common masses while ensuring that business models of access telecom service providers are not adversely impacted.''

While emphasising on delivering innovative and cost effective services to end-users, TRAI said it has given due importance for a level playing filed among various service providers, interconnection mechanism, interconnect usage charges (IUC), numbering, lawful interception, emergency number dialing, interoperability, quality of service etc.Overall licensing framework has been protected while permitting unrestricted internet telephony to ISPs.

The salient features of the recommendations are:

ISPs have been permitted to provide unrestricted internet telephony (termination of internet telephony calls on PSTN/PLMN and vice-versa).
National Long Distance (NLD) operators shall be permitted to connect to ISPs through public internet (internet cloud) for unrestricted Internet telephony.
ISPs and NLD shall have mutual agreement for unrestricted internet telephony.
NLD shall make suitable commercial and technical arrangements with access providers (PSTN/PLMN) for unrestricted internet telephony.
No change in existing IUC regime.
TEC shall identify distinct number resources for internet telephony subscribers.
Telephone numbers from identified blocks shall be allocated to ISPs, UASPs, BSOs & CMSPs for Internet telephony.
Emergency number dialing is not mandated to ISPs.
All ISPs interested to provide unrestricted Internet telephony shall install lawful interception equipment.
Quality of service (QoS) for unrestricted telephony has not been mandated.

These recommendations are a step forward towards developing supportive regulatory environment, encouraging technological advancements, enabling convergence, making unrestricted internet telephony available and boosting of broadband penetration. These enabling recommendations will put Indian telecom sector in tune with global trends. The grey market tendencies shall be curtailed.It is envisaged that the customers will ultimately benefit from cost effective and innovative Internet Telephony service. The business model of ISPs will improve without impacting access providers due to increase in the telephony call volumes.

Detailed recommendations are available on TRAI's website http://www.trai.gov.in.Industry body Nascom has welcomed the regulator's decision."This is a welcome step particularly for the Indian IT-BPO industry," it said in a statement.
It said, "Voice transmission over internet was permitted 'from PC to PC' and 'from PC to a phone' internationally. As a direct implication, this move will now allow voice transmission over internet for a 'PC to phone in India', which will benefit the BPO industry to a large extent."
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Vipul
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Pune is first city in country to roll out 3G services.

Third generation (3G) mobile services have arrived in India and Pune will be the first city to sample it. Beginning Tuesday, around 2,000 ‘high value’ customers of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited will be able to access 3G services at select areas of the city if their phones are 3G enabled. Third generation services will also be provided only in Pune city, not Pune rural. BSNL has three lakh mobile customers in the city.
BSNL has invested Rs 300 crore to enable over 198 city Base Transmission Stations (BTS) towers with third generation equipment, before the commercial launch six months down the line.

“We have selected 10 spots in the city where these services will be made available for around 2,000 customers of the Rs 750 plan. Within two km of the 10 BTS that are 3G enabled, customers will be able to access 3G services. There will be no additional cost for the time being as we are in the trail period, customers will be able to access 3G services at 2G rates,” said Chandra Prakash, Chief General Manager, Maharashtra circle, BSNL.

The 10 3G hot spots in Pune are the exchanges at Satara Road, Bajirao Road, Bhavani Peth, MHS – Camp, Atur Park, Shivaji Nagar, Model Colony, Janavadi, Chinchwad and Bal Gandharva. Once the 3G spectrum is auctioned, BSNL will provide this service at 56 cities in the state, said Prakash.

For the time being though, telephone users of BSNL will only be able to make video calls (as against audio calls in 2G) among all the 3G services. Principal General Manager V K Mahendra said that the rest of the 3G services are still in the testing stage at BSNL.

However, when 3G is launched commercially, it will make possible other services like video conferencing, online gaming, high speed internet, video streaming, live IPTV, video-on demand on 3G enabled mobile phones.

“We have been asked to design the equipment for 20 per cent of the customer base,” said Neeraj Sinha, Alcatel-Lucent, the vendor company for BSNL.

At present, BSNL is waiting for 3G spectrum to be officially auctioned. “The cost of the services will depend upon the auction of the spectrum. The number of people opting for 3G services will also matter, but it will still be expensive if the spectrum is auctioned at a high price,” said Mahendra.

While 3G services never took off in Europe because of high call charges, it has seen relative success in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries. In Korea,. 3G is enabling online gaming over phones. “In the APEC countries, the costs are over 20-30 per cent higher than 2G services,” said Sinha.
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Post by Rahul M »

moved.
Avinash R wrote:Tech Mahindra wins USD 250 mn order from US co
Tuesday, September 09, 2008

New Delhi:Telecommunication solutions provider Tech Mahindra today said it has bagged a USD 250 million system integration order from a US-based telecom company.

"Through this order which spans for five years, Tech Mahindra will provide all the managed services as well as the systems consolidation job for the US telecom company," Tech Mahindra President International Operations C P Gurnani said.

It has also won a similar order but of a much smaller size from a Kuwait-based company.

"The Kuwait order could be in the range of USD 10-15 million," he added.

The Indian firm would provide systems integration and managed services for both the customers.

The company has recently been very aggressive on getting larger deals and increasing its revenue share from the US and the APAC region.

It the recent past the company has secured deals from telecom Fiji and Telecom New Zealand. For Telecom Fiji the company would implement a transformation program in the OSS/ BSS domain for a period of 15 months.
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Post by Singha »

shakinah tender. probably largest single deal in history of world telecom.

LR:

All eyes on BSNL
Government-owned national operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) is set to accept multiple bids from mobile equipment vendors as the submission deadline for its monster $9 billion, 93 million-line GSM/3G expansion tenders comes to a close on Wednesday.

BSNL, which is now assured 3G spectrum, issued four separate tender documents in May this year (see BSNL Floats New Mega GSM Tender), but had to extend the deadline for vendor bids to answer questions and address concerns from the bidders. (See BSNL Delays New GSM Tender, India Edges Closer to 3G, and BSNL Trials 3G.)

Now, according to reports from the Economic Times, the hopeful vendors, including Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU - message board), Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC - message board), Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. , Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT - message board), Nokia Siemens Networks , and ZTE Corp. (Shenzhen: 000063 - message board; Hong Kong: 0763), all plan to submit their bids at the very last minute so that details can't leak out before the process closes.

BSNL, which has been linked with a potential IPO, is due to open the bid documents starting Wednesday, but the size and complexity of the deals mean the carrier won't be able to announce the winners immediately. (See India Update: IPO Plan, WiMax Auction.)

As that bid process comes to the boil, BSNL has issued a new tender, this time to support the delivery of VOIP services over 500,000 FTTH (fiber to the home) lines, for which it has been sourcing (or at least hoping to source) various passive components and systems. (See BSNL Wants GEPON, WiMax Gear and Sterlite Wins BSNL Deals.)

The carrier has set a deadline of October 14 to accept bids from VOIP equipment vendors and systems integrators that can supply and deploy softswitches, SIP application servers, session border controllers, and media gateways.

News of the VOIP gear document comes only days after Unstrung revealed that BSNL is about to launch a new Mobile WiMax equipment tender. (See BSNL Preps New WiMax Tender.)
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Post by Tanaji »

Note that the incumbent vendor for BSNL is conspicuously absent from the above list.

:rotfl:
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Post by Singha »

who Nortel or ITI ? ITI assembles for ALALU as you know...
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Post by Tanaji »

Nortel...

They suffered huge losses the last time around. For the Eastern circle, they couldnt get office space in time, so the local bosses rented conference rooms from 5 star hotels in KolKotta for months to end, and blew the already wafer thin margins that it had just to get the contract. On top of that they couldnt meet contractual deadlines that some sales guy had blindly agreed to. Result was huge penalties. In the end, it got mauled pretty bad on the deal.

I am surprised AlcaLu is bidding. They lost heavily as well, though it was not as much as Nortel.
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Post by Vipul »

The Minister Thiru Raja has now set a target of 750 Million connections by 2012, thats 250 Million new connections in two years from 2010.
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Post by Singha »

ALA as you know has deep 'relationships' with the ruling chieftains of most developing
countries. and they are french, which means they can economize on the ethics as and
when necessary. the quintiessential inside channel player. they have solid french govt
backing probably as 'national champion'. I believe they are present in India for 100+ yrs
now.

sort of the EU's Huawei :twisted: ?
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Post by Tanaji »

BTW, this deal contributed to Nortel's getting out of 3G for all intents and purposes.

Who would have imagined Nortel getting out of 3G 2-3 years ago?
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Post by Singha »

how is their VOIP products doing ?

apart from DMS100 and optical transport (sdh, wdm) what are their good selling
products at present?
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Their Enterprise VoIP products are doing a roaring business, the CS1K was always a good product and now that they have tied up with Microsoft to leverage their Communication Server and MS Office Communicator to make voice calls, its getting to be more popular. You now have the option of using MS Communicator to do your IM, voice calls, video calls, and the usual stuff. Plus, integration with Outlook. Take a look at this, its a MS video very slick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHKHVsAVVw8

Helps if you have seen the movie "Devil Wears Prada"

All that is possible now with the CS1K integration. Cisco has something similar but not well integrated with MS, active directory integration is supposedly a kludge.

On Carrier side, the DMS has evolved to CS2000, thats selling decently with good margins. On wireless side 2G/3G is dead for most part which is a huge loss, except for GSM-R where Nortel rules the roost. Good business on CDMA side as well, but that should go down soon. Nortel bet heavily on WiMax and IMS but nothing has materialized so far in terms of significant sales. Its now jumping to support LTE... but thats 2 years down the road...

On optical, there is sdh, dwm and they have the new 40G launch. There is also the new PBT they are pushing... Switches, they always play second fiddle to the big O, despite what they say. Supposedly someone buys Baystacks...

All in all, the company is like one with liquid oxygen. Liquid use jeene nahi deta, oxygen use marne nahi deta.
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Post by bart »

Don't rule out NSN. They have beefed up their manufacturing capability in India significantly in the last year, getting orders like the BSNL one being a major motivation.

Nortel's Wi-Max has been a dud...Wi-Max itself is riddled with problems. Those that do deploy Wi-Max tend to buy from Israeli vendors like Alvarion. I think Nortel has gone back to promoting higher speed data over 3G rather than Wi-Max.

Nortel data products are crap. PBX and call center products are still popular, at least with America based companies.
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Etisalat to buy 49% in Swan, Tel Italia as much in Unitech.

Dont know about Telecom, Dynamix Balwas group are partners of Sharad pawar and his family in some of their agro and property Ventures in Baramati and Mumbai respectively.
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It's a windfall for new telecom operators.

In what is a major windfall for six new telecom operators who were given the Unified Access Service License (UASL) in January this year to run pan-India mobile networks, merchant bankers estimate that they would collectively have a valuation of $15 billion (Rs 67,500 crore).

These companies have paid only around Rs 8,000 crore as licence fee to get 6.2 MHz of spectrum even though they do not have a single subscriber. In simple terms, they will make eight times the money they have invested in just eight months if they were to sell off their companies today.The reason, experts say, is simple: the government, instead of auctioning a scarce resource and undervaluing its price, gave it to new players really cheap.

Mahesh Uppal, a telecom analyst, said: “This is entirely a policy problem where the government has underpriced a manifestly valuable product which is spectrum. This is an expression of lack of transparent rule-making”.Even the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had made it clear in its various reports that the price of a pan-India licence, which is at Rs 1,651 crore, should be pushed up as it was fixed in 2004.

Merchant bankers base their valuation on the basis of the deal that was struck on Tuesday by Etilasat, which bought 45 per cent equity stake in Swan Telecom (which has a licence to operate in 14 circles) for $900 million. This means the company which has not made any major investment in even rolling out the network, is valued at $2.3 billion. Similarly, sources say, Unitech Wireless (licence for 22 circles), which is selling its 49 per cent equity stake to Telecom Italia, has been valued at over $3 billion.

Datacom (owned by Dhoots of Videocon and Mahendra Nahata), Swan Telecom, Loop Telecom (a company controlled by BPL Telecom), Stel, Shyam Telelink and Unitech were given letters of intent in January this year to operate pan-India services.Investment bankers agree that the high valuation represents the real market value of spectrum.

“The current valuation clearly reflects the inefficiency in the allocation of spectrum to the new players. If these new telecom companies, which got pan-India licences for merely Rs 1,600 crore or $400 million, are now being valued at a staggering $3 billion , it raises concern over the system of distributing spectrum,” said a leading investment banker, who is advising a foreign telecom major to buy equity stake in the telecom sector.

“One could understand a margin of 25 per cent or even 50 per cent while trading the spectrum, but not at 400 per cent,” he added.
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Fresh tariff war as Shyam-Sistema launch cell service.

Mobile telecom tariffs may see another fierce battle as one of the new telecom operators Shyam Telelink, in partnership with Russian giant Sistema, on Tuesday started its pan-India service from Rajasthan and offered local calls and SMS for just 50 paise a minute(with further reduction to 30 Paise per minute ) :)

Besides, Shyam-Sistema is also offering bundled handset for Rs 999 with lifetime validity.

"The tariffs can fall further if the telecom regulator TRAI makes the termination charge cost based, which would be less than 10 paise a minute from current 30 paise and same can be passed on to the customers," Shyam Group promoter Rajiv Mehrotra said.

Termination charge is paid by a service provider to other operators on whose network the call terminates. Even state-owned BSNL had earlier said that termination charge is due for review for long time, and in its absence, the existing operators are getting undue advantage at the cost of millions of subscribers.

The services launched under Rainbow brand would offer free calls between the same network for first six months, he said, adding the company would announce various new schemes and offers in the coming months.

Shyam Telelink-Sistema is the first operators among nine companies, who have been given new licences in 2008, to start services. The company is planning to start services next in the Southern region.Mehrotra also asked TRAI to ensure that new operators get cost-based mandatory inter-connection from the existing service providers.
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Post by Singha »

chipanda pulled the same stunt in bakistan and the customers got shafted a
few months back. suddenly their phones stopped working :wink:

ET

Govt may bar mobiles without identity code
14 Oct, 2008, 0000 hrs IST,Durba Ghosh & Harsimran Singh, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: Mobile phones which do not have a unique identity number may soon go out of circulation. The Department of Telecom (DoT) is planning to block cellphones which do not bear the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number.

Many handsets assembled locally or imported from China do not have IMEI numbers. The DoT has also proposed a bar on all mobile phones with IMEI numbers bearing all zeroes or no zeroes. IMEI numbers can be checked by dialing "*#06#" in any keypad.

Investigations into the recent serial blasts revealed that mobile phones used by terrorists did not bear valid IMEI numbers. If they had valid numbers, the phones could have been tracked from their origin to the point of purchase.

It is estimated that there about 1.6 crore handsets in India which do not have valid IMEI numbers, which is a unique 14-digit number used to identify valid devices. If the DoT move goes through, mobile operators will snap services to these phones.

Chinese handsets account for about 13.3%, or Rs 4,000 crore, of India’s total mobile market, which is about Rs 30,000 crore a year.

Every month, about 16.8 lakh Chinese and locally-assembled handsets are sold in India. A GPRS-enabled Chinese handset costs about Rs 3,500, against at least Rs 5,000 for a similar branded phone.
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Defence spectrum cost rises 10-fold.

Why should GOI incur such a heavy expenditure which will only allow Pvt players to earn money on the basis of the lisences they have 'cornered' ? The Pvt players should pay for the spectrum on actual basis.
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Post by jamwal »

All fancy services, WiMax, 3G being launched all over India, while unwashed Abduls in J&K still have even basic services like SMS blocked.
Security be damned, Indian govt arm twisted even BlackBerry to divulge its secret codes, still they find SMS in J&K to be a security risk. :twisted:
Supreme court :roll: banned it when AYSS agitation in Jammu was going on and 2 months after the agitation ended its still off. They did it to halt rumours.(State High Court disagreed though) :roll:
In 1999 long distance calls and internet were blocked, now this. Who says we live in a democracy!!
According to a friend who is working in a project for WiMax services in Delhi, this service will be launched all over India except J&K and a few N-E states. Expect groups like ULFA to present it as another evidence of Indian discrimination against North East. Wise guys in govt. find it hard to understand that these wireless technologies are the best if internet connectivity in such remote areas is to be provided at low cost
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Post by vishwakarmaa »

jamwal wrote:In 1999 long distance calls and internet were blocked, now this. Who says we live in a democracy!!
According to a friend who is working in a project for WiMax services in Delhi, this service will be launched all over India except J&K and a few N-E states. Expect groups like ULFA to present it as another evidence of Indian discrimination against North East. Wise guys in govt. find it hard to understand that these wireless technologies are the best if internet connectivity in such remote areas is to be provided at low cost
You are talking about J&K. Let me tell you situation in PUNE. [:)]

My close friend went into BSNL's divisional Office, Pune for his broadband connection. He filled the form and provided all the documents. Now, they asked him to present Original Rent agreement as address proof since he was living in a rented apartment. But, he rightly said that he has the Xerox copy of Notarized Rent agreement and his original PASSPORT on his name as well as original light bill(issued by State electricity board) showing the address.

That BSNL guy replied him like this - "You know what, do you know? There were bomb blasts. Now situation is strict. We have to answer Government. If one doesn't have proper documents, we can't issue a connection. Its dangerous. Go there. See on that wall,.. whats there.. See that! Its written there, that you need to show documents." :eek:

Now, my friend told him - "Do you think those terrorists are so stupid that they will hold an Indian passport in hand and come to you and ask for being verified? Do you really think so? If they wanted to do a bomb blast or anything, then they can goto any cyber caffe. There are 20 cyber-caffes in 100 meters area here. Why you think they will come to you? You are only harassing good people like us under the excuse of terrorism. *Bitch*(in whisper)." :rotfl:

Now, you can see the situation is same all around India. Such stupid a$$holes are not only in Government but in BSNL also. :)
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Post by vishwakarmaa »

He didn't present original rent-agreement because original are always kept by landlord and his landlord lives in Mumbai. Now, he can't goto Mumbai and bring that document just for one ****** BSNL's broadband connection.

He applied to TATA and got connection home-delivered within a week. :lol:
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