Update: Corrigendum below

Earlier: Though ring back tones are extremely popular in India, it is quite rare that you hear an advertisement as a ringback tone – the only time we can think of is when we call Pizza Hut. A whitepaper has been put together by members of the Mobile Marketing Association on how ringback tones have been harvested as a marketing channel.

Amongst the launches in Asia, two from India are in the whitepaper: Vodafone Essar India’s ‘adRBT’ and Bharti Airtel’s ‘Hello Tunes Lite’. Vodafone trialled a model that allowed customers to chose a piece of music that would play to 80% of their callers, while the rest 20% would hear an audio ad. Other Asian deployments include Turkcell Turkey’s ‘Tonla Kazan’, KTF South Korea’s ‘Save-Ring’ and China Mobile’s ‘Zhao Cai Ling’.

But Have You Heard An AdRBT Yet?
…Continue Reading

Government Approves 10 percent Sale of BSNL

There’s been talk of plans to divest stake in public sector companies: according to sources quoted in the report, the Telecom Ministry has approved the sale of 10 percent stake in BSNL. (Read more at  Bloomberg UTV)

However, keep in mind that BSNL is also mired in controversy regarding its cancelled tender and allegations of inflation of subscriber numbers. The company’s fixed line business also continues to lose money.

Tata Teleservices Has Launched Tata Photon+ In Pune

Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited has launched its wireless data card Tata Photon+ in Pune. This is the sixth launch after the device was launched in Mumbai, Nagpur, Nashik, Kolhapur and Goa and costs Rs 2299.

TTML Readies $1.9 Billion For 3G

Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited is planning on a war chest of $1.9 billion for the upcoming 3G spectrum auction and to upgrade its network in Mumbai, Maharashtra and Goa circle, according to sources.  (Read more at The Economic Times)

Singtel Ties-Up With YOU Broadband For Broadband Services

SingTel has partnered with Citigroup owned YOU Broadband to provide broadband services and international connectivity to small and medium sized businesses in India.  Last year Singtel had bagged licenses for National Long Distance and International Long Distance services in India. (Read more at Business Line)

Press Council Of India Forms Sub-Committee To Deal With ‘Paid News Syndrome’

In a response to Sitaram Yechury’s Calling Attention Notice in the Rajya Sabha with regard to the issue of Paid News, I&B Minister Ambika Soni, among other things, has said that the Press Council of India has constituted a Sub-Committee to consider this issue and collect evidence from stakeholders, including the Election Commission of India

Update: In an emailed response to MediaNama, Vodafone has said that the app store has around 200 Indian apps, and claims that thousand apps will be launched shortly. The telco will look to maintain a significant portion of applications with Indian content in the Vodafone app store.  ”Vodafone is a part of the JIL (Joint Innovation Lab) initiative wherein, Vodafone, along with 3 other global mobile companies are seeking to build & tap a community of mobile developers globally. This initiative is gradually being expanded to cover the Indian developer community. We’ve also got screenshots of the App store, below. …Continue Reading

Update: An interesting question from Kushan Mitra: if one can access YouTube’s live streaming on a laptop using a data card, why would they subscribe to the same content via Apalya’s paid subscription service in India? Not really ready for convergence, are we?

(more on subscription vs advertising models below)

…Continue Reading

Over 2 years, more than 50 volunteers, 6 cities, 80 startup saturdays and 3 national events with a total audience to 5000 entrepreneurs; Headstart team now travels to Hyderabad presenting you the 4th edition of the premier startup showcase in India.

On March 12th 2010, Headstart Foundation is organizing its bi-annual event “Headstart” along with ITsAP (The Information Technology & Services Industry Association of Andhra Pradesh) at Hyderabad International Convention Center.

Headstart will have two exciting parts. In the first part, 15 early stage companies chosen through a national selection process by an independent panel of investors and entrepreneurs will take the stage. They will demo their products live in front of an audience that comprises of investors, potential customers, media and fellow entrepreneurs. …Continue Reading

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has launched a mobile application for receiving live quotes of its SENSEX index. Called BSE SENSEX Mobile Streamer, the Java based application is a 113 kb file, which on installation asks the user to choose between two options: “Blackberry” and “other”. Pertinent segmentation. The functionality of the application is limited to only what its name suggests: live SENSEX quotes. There is no information on other BSE indices, no inputs on company announcements. Just the scrips, buy price, sell price, sell quantity etc. It is significantly limited. You may download the installation file here.

After installing the application on my Nokia N95, I realized that it’s not optimized for my handset, and the interface is terrible. The data is displayed in a tabular format like a Bloomberg trading info screen, font size is too large, and there is horizontal scrolling. Above all, there is no search function, and stocks that are not a part of the Sensex index, are not available. What’s the point of limiting access?

…Continue Reading

New entrant telco S Tel , has been asked by DoT to stop service in all of the three circles, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa it has been operating from December last year,  in the interest of national security reports Business Line. We find it surprising that the Government realized that S Tel allegedly is a security threat after two months of operational launch, and a couple of years after it bagged UAS License for 6 circles, on January 25, 2008.  According to TRAI, S Tel had 506,179 wireless connection in all its three circles at the end of January 2010, so what of their subscribers?

A source close to the company told MediaNama that all security clearance of STel has been withdrawn by DoT. All hasn’t been hunky-dory between S Tel and the DoT in the past: …Continue Reading

Reliance Communications has launched a mobile VAS application called Socially, which gives access to to social networks including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn through a single client. What’s interesting about it is that when you receive a call, the callers recent status updates are shown. Socially is downloadable from RWorld and users can subscribe to the service at Rs. 10 for 30 days without having to pay any additional browsing charges. This is not the first instance of telecom operators giving unlimited access to the social networks: Tata Docomo had done that recently for its BuddyNet users at a price point of Rs. 10 for 30 days: no additional browsing charges apply.

Socially has been developed by …Continue Reading