Micromax is readying to launch a 4G feature phone which will compete with the new JioPhone. The feature phone will be called BharatOne and will be launched in the first week of October for a price of Rs 2000. BharatOne will be launched in collaboration with state-run telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam.
The free voice and data offers will be provoded by BSNL and Micromax will take care of the manufacturing. The BharatOne is said to have a better camera, larger screen and more battery life than any other feature phone available in the market right now, including the JioPhone.
The date of launch has been intelligently decided to take advantage of the festive season. There is enough proof that Indian consumers like to shop for mobile phones during this season. Recently, Xiaomi announced that it sold over 1 million handsets during the Amazon and Flipkart sales.To believe that people will be eyeing an even more affordable phone during the season is not far fetched.
Reliance JioPhone took the industry by storm when it received over 6 million pre-orders within two days of being announced. So much so that Reliance had to close the pre-orders only a day and a half after it announced the JioPhone. The first phase of the delivery of pre-orders began on September 25th. The consumers can track their orders via the MyJio app but, as of now, the status shows ‘Created’. The tracking of delivery seems pointless right now but, the status should be clearer in the days to come.
There were reports of Airtel also launching a Rs 2500 feature phone in collaboration with one of the homegrown smartphone manufacturers like Lava or Karbonn.
The JioPhone’s popularity has forced other telcos to sit up and take notice of the vast potential in the feature phone market, especially after concentrating on the smartphone market for so long.
In an attempt to revive its landline service, Indian telecommunications company BSNL announced an unlimited scheme for its landline users. Under this scheme, users of BSNL fixed line service will be able to make free calls to any landline or mobile operator across the globe during night hours, i.e. between 9pm to 7am. The plan will kick off from 1st May.
BSNL said in a statement –
BSNL has introduced unlimited free calling during night hours from its landline phones to all landline phones and mobile phones of all service provider’s network on all India basis from 1st May. This unlimited free night calling shall be available from 9 pm to 7 am.
This scheme covers all major plans of rural and urban areas like landline general plans, landline special plans and all major Combo (landline with broadband) plans. The company said that it will review the responses of its customers after six months; however, they haven’t provided an end date for the scheme.
The Chairman and Managing Director of BSNL, Anupam Shrivastava remarked about the same, “We hope to resurrect our fixed-line business, and we hope that it will attract customers back to fixed-line. There will be some impact on revenues, but with only 10% calls made at night, it may go up to 15% with the offer. However, if we can add more customers, then, it is worth the attempt.”
Since the entry of more versatile mobile operators like Airtel, Vodafone, Tata Docomo and few more, BSNL has been losing its market slowly. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is hopeful that the new scheme will yield positive results. In the past five years, fixed landline subscriptions have fallen from 27.83 million in 2010 to 16.93 million in 2015. The latest TRAI data also shows that BSNL was the biggest loser of fixed landlines customers in February, while Airtel emerges as the top gainer. Still, BSNL’s share in the market was 62.26 percent in February.
Recently, BSNL announced that it will be setting up Wi-Fi hotspots with 3G, 4G networks across the country within the next 3 to 4 years. Read more about it here.
BSNL officially announced that it will be investing Rs 7,000 crore in setting up WiFi hotspots with 3G, 4G networks across the country within the next 3 to 4 years.
[quote text_size=”small” author=”Anupam Shrivatava” author_title=”Chairman and Managing Director of BSNL”]
Wi-fi is an obvious choice for BSNL going forward but it alone cannot be successful. It has to be integrated with 3G, 4G network so that the customer can be seamlessly transferred to WiFi. In two to three years, we will be investing Rs 7,000 crore to set up integrated WiFi across the country.
[/quote]
BSNL has already started rolling out the service in places like Varanasi and aims to extend it to more tourist spots by the end of this year. Additionally, BSNL has also partnered along with QuadGen Wireless for setting up Wi-Fi hotspots on a revenue sharing basis. QuadGen will be setting up WiFi hotspots in the South and the West Zone under the terms of the partnership. Anupam Shrivastava says they aim to set up at least 2,500 WiFi hotspots around the country.
In the words of M S S Rao, Chief General Manager of BSNL Telecom, since huge amounts have been invested in the spectrum auction, it is a high time to invest in the networks. BSNL seems to be taking the right steps in ensuring that all part of our well connected.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology, has inaugurated the Next Generation Networks (NGN technology) for the fixed line services of BSNL today at the Bharat Sanchar Bhawan, New Delhi.
According to their statement,
At present, BSNL plans to convert 14 million telephone lines with NGN technology. This is expected to cover more than 80 percent urban customers and approximately 90 percent rural customers. However, it is anticipated that the entire fixed line customers will have NGN facility by December, 2017. Initially, BSNL plans to invest approximately Rs.1,000 crores in upgrading the TDM technology with NGN technology.
The prominent feature of the NGN is that one network can transport all kinds of information or services by condensing these into packets, much like the Internet. Commending BSNL on the introduction of the new technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad said that this technology would help India in accomplishing the aims of the Digital India program of the Prime Minister. The voice calling feature on this new technology will be available at the same rate as the present BSNL fixed line service . Although, video calls may be charged a bit higher.
Currently, BSNL has more than 36000 telephone exchanges. Out of these, 28000 are in rural areas. These exchanges are working on the Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM) technology that provides only voice calls. NGN will help to provide both, the fixed line telephony and broadband from the same telephone exchange. The government has planned to invest approximately Rs 1,000 crore is to upgrade the TDM technology.
State-run telecom company, BSNL, has some great news for its mobile subscribers. In the next phase of network expansion, BSNL plans to slash 3G network rates by 50 percent.
BSNL is one of the most budget friendly operators in the market. They offer 3G rates that are at par with the 2G rates of the private telecom operators. The officials have said that they cannot reduce the rates at present as they have utilized 90% if their allotted 3G capacity but they will slash it as soon as they finish expansion. A sudden, drastic decrease in 3G rates might lead to an enormous increase in traffic, so the company wants to ascertain its capability to handle the traffic before reducing the rates.
BSNL at present is in its 7th network expansion phase that will cost Rs.4800 crores and is expected to be completed by June of this year. The company has already started working on the 8th phase and will begin the process of issuing tenders at the start of the financial year 2015-16 that begins in April.
Under phase-8 of network expansion, BSNL is planning to integrate 3G network’s with city-wide WiFi hotspots to have a better handle on traffic. With this process, 3G users will be able to switch automatically between 3G and WiFi networks. This will allow for the traffic to shift to WiFi which will help free up the 3G space. This unique approach to handling internet traffic might be good for the company but might lead to massive battery drain for the consumers. But it wouldn’t be much of a concern to folks who would be using the BSNL network at 50 percent of the cost of competing networks. Hopefully, BSNL’s initiative might encourage other telecom companies to give a break to their subscribers from massive 3G data bills.
The telecom industry is looking forward to the spectrum auction with bated breath. While the government expects to make massive profits, telecom companies will be battling each other to gain spectrum to stay in business. The competition became a little easy today as state telecom companies BSNL and MTNL have backed out of the auction.
The Indian government plans to earn about Rs.1 lakh crore. Both BSNL and MTNL have said that they would now be engaging in the auction as they have no use for any additional spectrum.
The Indian government has been criticized for the high base price for the spectrum; even TRAI had suggested lower base pricing for the spectrum. The association of GSM operators COAI and GSMA have said that the auction might end up being a dull affair because of the low availability of spectrum and high price tag.
During the previous auction too, the telecom operators had to borrow heavy sums of money from the bank to buy spectrum that led to a staggering debt for the industry worth Rs. 2.5 lakh crores. COAI has also said that the high spectrum prices will also act as a major hindrance in the audacious Digital India Project of the present government. The auction will be held on February 25.
Pantel Technologies has launched a new 8-inch tablet PC – Penta T-Pad WS802C – that comes bundled with a 3G data plan of 2GB from BSNL valid over a period of 60 days.
Priced at Rs 14,699 , it runs on Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. The tablet features an 8-inch capacitive touch screen and is powered by a 1GHz processor and 512MB DDRII RAM. Penta T-Pad Tablet PC, the WS802C, is portable and acts as a brillianthandheld tablet PC, according to the company. The tablet supports 1080P HD videos via HDMI and comes with a built-in GPS, 3G SIM slot and Wi-Fi option.
The tablet comes pre-loaded with several games such as Angry Birds and Wow Fish, and applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Talking Tom, Google Maps, and Skype video calling and e-book facilities.
State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) plans to outsource operation and maintenance (O&M) of its 40,000 telecom towers across the country.
BSNL has proposed to set up tower operating centres (TOCs) at each of its circles, a tender inviting comments from interested parties till January 23 has been issued by the company. A TOC would have a centralised web-based monitoring system and the access would be with BSNL.
According to BSNL officials this would cut costs down by 50% and therefore also free up the over worked and used up staff. This step may have come after the company recent financial situation. BSNL posted a loss of Rs 1,823 crore in financial year 2009-10 and about Rs 6,000 crore in 2010-11. Its revenue came down toRs 28,876 crore in 2010-11 fromRs 32,072 crore in 2009-10.
The contract would be valid for three years and would carry an extension for two years if required. The company hopes that private enterprise would improve overall performance from the company. Chairman and managing director R K Upadhyay had said it expected to get Rs 3,000 crore from this segment in the current financial year. The company is also hoping for an overall 15% increase in revenues from circle management and improvement.
BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) has started upgrading its existing 3G network infrastructure to compete with new private players who offer better infrastructure.
“A nationwide project to upgrade the 3G network has begun which is expected to be completed in a fortnight. Kolkata is likely to be the first circle in the country to experience the upgraded 3G network,” Calcutta Telephones Principal General Manager (Consumer Mobility) AK Garg said.
He also said that the current 3.6 mbps network will become 14 mbps network. However, the ideal speed for a customer would be at least 1-2 mbps as against the current speed of 300-400 kbps. Following this, the speed issue on the 3G network would be resolved and on the other hand revenue from data usage would also improve, he said.The project involves some minor hardware and software upgradation, but it does not involve fresh capex from BSNL.Kolkata and Bengal circle have around 75,000 3G connections.
Remember when big Bollywood names would advertise for Micromax and a great cricket catch would be known as Karbonn Kamal Catch? These names had become synonymous with smartphones in every household in India. But what happened to them? Why are these names not right next to Xiaomi or OnePlus in the sales records in India? With Micromax just having launched it’s first smartphone with a notch, almost a year behind other smartphone makers, we delve deep into what really happened. In this article we find out, from various reports, previous interviews, sales reports, online user feedback and everything else, how these companies went from being at the pinnacle of smartphone sales to losing everything.
How Did These Companies Come Into Existence?
Back in the day, the US market was starting to move towards smartphones from feature phones. In 2007, the first iPhone was introduced to the world, and it revolutionised the mobile phone industry. India was still largely a feature phone market with very few devices from Blackberry and Nokia’s Nseries phones that were called ‘multimedia smartphones’ being sold. These devices were expensive and were sold in high-end stores which almost always had a different section for the customers of such phones. Priced anywhere between Rs 25,000 to Rs 45,000, these phones were the envy of people who couldn’t afford them, and pride of people who could. Feature phones were still a large part of sales for players such as Nokia, Sony and Motorola.
The dealers could make huge profits selling these phones. Now at that point in time, the market was open to any risk taker who could afford to get into the business of making their own brand. And so they did. Companies such as Micromax, Lava, Karbonn etc were all either dealers for smartphones, software companies or telecommunication ventures who wanted to make a mark on the emerging trends of smartphones. They, however did not have the production capability or the funding to start a production unit in India. This brings us to our next point, white labelling.
What Went Right?
White Labelling
To understand white labelling, one needs to know what OEM and ODMs are. Original Equipment Manufacturers are companies that sell product made by other manufacturers under their own brand name. Original Design Manufacturers are companies that design and manufacture a product according to a different company’s needs who sell them under their own brand. Brands like Lava, Micromax and Karbonn saw this OEM and ODM relationship as a great scope for a business model for smartphone manufacturing.
Chinese phones were already available in the Indian market, but they were not well received. No one wanted to invest in a ‘Chinese phone’ because these phones had no warranty and no after sales service. What the Indian companies did was ask manufacturers in China to design and build smartphones according to their needs and these manufacturers would build it and dump it in India. The Indian companies would then add their own branding to these phones and sell them in Indian markets with warranty and an after sales service promise. This was a great business model and these Indian brans gained ground quick!
Cost Effective
One of the several reasons for the success of these phones were their cost effectiveness. They were providing feature rich phones, dirt cheap, compared to their more expensive counterparts like Nokia and Blackberry. iPhones were also seen from time to time, but were rare. Motorola was a big hit with their RAZR and ROKR series models but these were also getting sloppy. At the time, 2G phones were reigning the market and calling and texting were quite expensive for Indian consumers. But with the introduction of 3G in and around 2008, Internet users suddenly blew up.
WhatsApp’s introduction a year or two later was also a major shift. Most of the expensive international brand’s phones wouldn’t support WhatsApp, and many would not support 3G. A massive number of people had to shift and so a great opportunity opened up for all manufacturers. Indian companies cashed in on this by introducing smartphones with bright LED touchscreens, Android based OS and a host of other features. These were priced at around Rs 10,000 – Rs 15,000. There was also one more feature that these companies, along with the internet boom, made famous. Let’s talk about that next.
Dual Sim
When we say that the Indian companies were the talk of the town back then, we really mean it. From students in high schools and colleges to working professionals, everyone was a consumer of these Indian brands. Many shops even raised their prices at one point of time for the Micromax Canvas series of phones because of the high demand and low availability. These phones, among other things, introduced a feature that has stuck on even now. That feature is Dual sim cards.
When companies such as BSNL and MTNL started providing cheap internet options, people wanted to use two sim cards in one phone.This was because porting phone numbers wasn’t really something one could do easily. The Indian manufacturers went to the Chinese ODMs and asked for a phone that could use two SIM cards. Thus in 2010, Spice mobiles launched India’s first dual SIM ( 3G + 2G) phone. Although Dual SIM isn’t a technology the OEM or the ODM invented, it was definitely seen as a useful feature for a particular market and brought into use by these companies.
Faster Turnaround Time
White labelling also worked for these companies because of another reason. These phone manufacturers had a faster turnaround time, compared to Nokia, Sony or Samsung. They did not have to do their own research and development, neither did they have to design the phone, they could just bring a new model to a market much faster. A company like Nokia had to design, manufacture, market and sell these phones. These took at least a few months to achieve, from scratch. The ODMs meanwhile, did not have to worry about marketing and selling their products while an OEM did not have to worry about the design and manufacturing. This symbiotic relationship helped them bring newer models with the latest features to the market faster than many other established phone makers.
What Went Wrong?
Chinese ODMs Started Their Own Branding
Many ODMs in China understood the fact that the real money was to be made in the distribution and marketing of phones in markets like India. Working with the Indian companies, they had already learnt a lot about the market and the distribution channels. Many other established Chinese companies like Xiaomi also set their eyes on India at the time. These ODMs and other smaller Chinese brands started shipping their own branded smartphones to the country with a promise of better after sales service. But in order to compete with the already established brands, they needed o keep the pricing to a bare minimum. This is where the next turning point in the market comes.
Online Sales
Flipkart had already set up a good service channel and delivery channel owing to it’s online model of selling books and then later selling other items. Amazon entered the Indian market in 2013 when they realised the scope this market had. They also started with books and movies and slowly gained the customer’s trust. Indians were sceptical of using online channels to buy expensive products, specially electronics. But as the online revolution progressed, Indians started to slowly indulge in online shopping.
One of the other factors for this was the introduction of 4G in 2012. This made internet services considerably faster and cheaper. These Chinese manufacturers saw the opportunity of cutting costs. Costs for establishment, delivery and distribution as well as a lot of other smaller expenses that the companies would’ve incurred if they sold through offline channels such as retail stores. Online selling allowed the Chinese players to bring phone prices down a lot.
Lack Of Vision
The Indian companies were heavily invested in marketing and advertising their products and failed to realise that time and technology was moving at a rapid pace. They did not expect that the Indian market would shift so drastically. India, at that time, had come out of recession and the industrial production was growing instead of slowing down. People were slowly getting back their jobs and many started earning more than they were spending. This caused online sales to grow as well. The introduction of 4G was a huge change, and it rolled out in a matter of just a few months. Reliance Jio rolled out 4G phones and 4G connectivity and 3G suddenly became a backdated technology.
Most Indian companies had a huge order booked for a lot of smartphone units. These suddenly became extremely hard to sell to the new customers who were looking to buy 4G phones. With 4G being extremely cheap, the Chinese manufacturers were ready for the 4G wave and they jumped in to sell their phones. This lack of vision for the future affected many companies and brought many more to their knees before their ultimate shut down.
No Or Very Little R&D
The Indian smartphone companies were headed by strong businessmen but not technical or product people. They knew how to conduct a business with a given set of rules. But the smartphone market changes extremely rapidly and they couldn’t catch up. The Indian companies had no proper R&D department put in place. They had no or very few factories and relied mostly on ODMs for their products. With ODMs going their own separate ways to create new models of 4G phones, all the while, marketing and selling their own smartphones. Meanwhile the Indian manufacturers were left stranded with a huge number of smartphones to clear. This was one of the many reasons why a huge corporation like Nokia also fell short. R&D is an integral part of smartphone manufacturing and big companies such as Samsung, Apple and Huawei have a lot of manpower as well as capital dedicated to this sphere.
Bad After Sales Service
There were several reasons for Indian consumers to buy Indian smartphones. But one of the top reasons was the guarantee of repair in case of any manufacturing issues. Most Indian companies failed on this promise. If you do a quick online google search, you will see that a majority of consumers were extremely unhappy with the after sales service. There are complaints of these companies taking the phone for months and not repairing or replacing it. Moreover, bad behaviour from the staff and a rampant complaint of overcharging were pushing customers away. This was the final nail in the coffin. Almost all smartphone users shifted to the newly launched Motorola, Xiaomi and OnePlus phones.
While the Indian companies are slowly dusting off their archaic ways and slowly investing in R&D, they have a long way to go. It would be best if they skipped a few of the popular trends right now. Instead, they should try to predict what trends are to come in the near future and work on that. We surely hope these companies get to play on a level playing field in the years to come, so that the Indian smartphone manufacturing market flourishes as a whole.
Reliance Jio, one of the most famous telecom providers in India is celebrating the end of IPL Season 11. The new season of the Indian Premier League concludes this Sunday on May 27th and the telecom provider is giving away 8GB 4G data for free. The add-on offers 2GB of additional data to Jio users and the offer will be valid until May 29th. Earlier in the year, Jio unveiled a new Jio IPL 2018 pack which gave users 2GB of 4G data per day for 28 days at Rs 251.
IPL Stream On Hotstar
The Cricket Jio Pack worth Rs 101, wherein users get 2GB of 4G data is available for free as an add-on for select Jio users. The add-on can be seen under the My Plans section of the MyJio app. The company has laid down a process to avail this offer as of now. With this pack, users get 2GB of free data every day from May 25th to May 29th.
It is worth noting here that the company is rolling out this pack for free to select users. Once the 2GB data is consumed in a day, the user’s other subscribed packs kick in for the rest of the day. The 2GB data, although a part of the Cricket Plan, can be used for any other purpose such as browsing, streaming other content etc. Calls and SMS benefits, however, are not a part of the plan.
While Jio has certainly revolutionised the streaming habits in India, other telecom providers are also ready to go toe-to-toe in terms of data offers. Airtel and BSNL offered data packs to consumers to stream cricket. Recently, the CSK-SRH qualifier stream saw a staggering 8.26 million concurrent viewers logging onto Hotstar, setting a new global benchmark. With India still being a developing nation and data speeds not as fast as some other western countries, this is a huge achievement on the road for a digital India.
The tariff war between the dominant telecom providers has been waging ever since Reliance Jio was introduced in September of 2016. Since then Airtel, Vodafone and many other network operators have been pushing out multiple data plans to counter Jio’s offers. Jio’s recent plans, Jio Summer Surprise and Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan provide Jio Prime users with 4G data at reasonable prices till 30th July.
Given the increasing popularity and demand of Reliance Jio, other telecom companies such as Airtel, Vodafone, Idea etc. have been trying to keep up with the competition by launching new data plans every other week. To help you chose the right data plan for you 4G Smartphone, here’s a list of top data plans which won’t burn a hole in your pocket.
Note: These plans may change from time to time, and may not apply to some regions of service.
Under Rs 250
Airtel: offers 1 GB data per day for 70 days for Rs 244 under FUP (fair usage policy). Though the plan claims to provide unlimited free STD and local calls, only 1,200 minutes on calls made to other networks and 300 minutes of Airtel to Airtel are free. After which the users will be charged Rs 0.10 per minute.
Reliance Jio: For a price of Rs 149, users will get 2 GB 4G data for 28 days. To sweeten the deal, reliance threw in an extra 300 SMS bundled with free voice calls.
Vodafone: Joining the 4G band wagon, Vodafone recently released a Rs 250 4G data plan. The plan offers 4GB data for 28 days. The company is offering almost four times more data than the previous plans.
Idea: Offers 1GB data for 28 days. The plan is priced at Rs 249.
Telecom Providers
Data Usage for 28 days
Price
Airtel
1 GB data per day + Free 1500 minutes
Rs 244
Jio
2 GB data + Free Calls + 300 SMSs
Rs 149
Vodafone
4 GB data
Rs 250
Idea
1GB Data
Rs 249
Under Rs 350
Airtel: is now offering 2GB data per day with thea dded incentive of free 3,000 minutes for Rs 345. Waiving off the earlier restriction of data usage of upto 500 megabyte (MB) from 12am-6pm and the other 500 MB available for rest of the day, the plan now offers unlimited internet access to the user.
Reliance Jio: Jio recently introduced a new plan providing the Jio Prime customer with 1 GB 4G data per day for 28 days with a with a recharge of Rs. 309. In addition, the users will also get benefits like free voice calling, sms and Jio apps.
Vodafone: For existing customers, the company has launched a plan costing Rs. 346, which will come with 1GB data per day, free calls to any network (300 free minutes per day) with validity 56 days.
Idea: Idea has launched a Rs. 297 data pack that provides 1GB data per day for 70 days for a 4G smartphone. The offer comes with 300 minutes of free calls per day and 1,200 minutes per week to other Idea customers.
Aircel: The company offers 1.5 GB 4G data with the added incentive of free unlimited calling for 28 days. The 4G plan is priced at Rs 348.
Telecom Providers
Data Usage
Validity
Price
Airtel
2 GB data per day + Free 3000 minutes
28 Days
Rs 345
Jio
1 GB data per day+ Free Calls + 300 SMSs
56 Days
Rs 309
Vodafone
1 GB data per day + 300 free minutes per day
56 Days
Rs 346
Idea
1GB data per day +1,200 minutes per week
70 Days
Rs 297
Aircel
1.5 GB data + free calling
28 Days
Rs 348
Under Rs 500
Airtel : Under the Rs 399 pack, users will get 1 GB data per day on 4G handsets and SIM cards with free calls (upto a 3,000 minutes cap) for a 70-day period. For Airtel-Airtel calls, the limit is 300 minutes per day, but 1,200 minutes is the maximum consumption per week. The plan is quite similar to the Rs 345 data pack except the extended validity of 70 days.
Reliance Jio : Though the plan exceeds the budget by Rs 9, the Rs 509 data plans is worth the mention. The Jio prime members will get 2 GB 4G data per day for 28 days. In addition, the free voice calls, sms and Jio apps are complimentary.
Vodafone : the company has recently launched a ‘Campus Survival Kit’, priced at Rs. 352. The plan offers 1GB data per day for 56 days along with unlimited local and STD calls. However, there’s a catch, to activate the plan, you need to purchase the Rs. 445 recharge for the first 56 days period, and only after that the recharge value will be reduced to Rs. 352.
Idea : For the price of Rs 447, Idea offers 1GB data per day and additional free calling (limited to 3,000 minutes) on any network for 70 days.
Telecom Providers
Data Usage
Validity
Price
Airtel
1 GB data per day + Free 3000 minutes
70 Days
Rs 399
Jio
2 GB data per day+ Free Calls + SMSs + Jio Apps
56 Days
Rs 509
Vodafone
1 GB data per day + Free calls
56 Days
Rs 352
Idea
1GB data per day +3000 minutes
70 Days
Rs 447
Many other telecom providers have resorted to increasing the data usage but are still exploring the 3G networks. For instance, BSNL recently launched a new prepaid recharge pack with a massive 360GB data to compete with Reliance Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan Offer. Named Chaukka 444, the plan costs Rs. 444 and will offer 4GB data per day with a validity of 90 days. However, unlike Reliance, BSNL will only offer 3G network.
In a move that can be construed as a move against the idea of the free internet, the Indian Government has banned the Wayback Machine. Wayback Machine is a California-based non-profit that has been archiving the World Wide Web for over 20 years now. It has archived over 300 billion web pages, and stores nearly 15TB of data. It is one of the most utilitarian sites on the web and allows users to archive pages, access archived pages for free, and also get hold of several terabytes of music, movies, books, and software that are free from copyright.
Users who tried to access the website on last Tuesday night saw a message from their ISP that read – “Your requested URL has been blocked as per the directions received from the Department of Telecommunications, Government of India. Please contact administrator for more information.” The block as of now seems patchy, as users on BSNL, Airtel, Hathway and Tikona have reported the block but a lot of other people can still access the website. It is unclear as of now why the government felt the urge to block archive.org which many people rely on for information from back in the day.
This is the second time that the government has blocked archive.org. back in 2014, the government blocked archive.org, GitHub, Vimeo, Pastebin, and Weebly among others after a threat from the terrorist group ISIS. An Internet Archive spokesperson told Buzzfeed India, “Obviously, we are disappointed and concerned by this situation and are very eager to understand why it’s happening and see full access restored to archive.org.” Also, queries from the Internet Archive to the Department of Telecom have gone unanswered. Chris Butler, Office Manager at the Internet Archive said, “We have not been contacted by the Government of India regarding this apparent blocking of archive.org. We have no information about why a block would have been implemented.”
There are ways to bypass the block, as a Redditor suggest that it can be accessed using an HTTPS link or by spoofing your location by using a VPN.
We have all been recently experiencing something that has been termed as ‘call drops’, and as of June 30th 2015 Airtel has received the the most number of complaints (31) followed by Vodafone, Idea Cellular and BSNL as written by telecom minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. The TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has also received complaints from Reliance, Aircel, MTS and Tata users too.
The Airtel CEO had written an open letter to its customers asking for their help. He mentioned that the two most important things necessary for a good service or network were sites and spectrum. He also requests customers to identify nearby mobile sites to reduce call drops in a particular locality.
But what is the government doing about this, since customers are still paying for inefficient services?
“TRAI has been monitoring the performance for service providers against the quality of service benchmarks for the various parameters through quarterly performance monitoring reports.” – Ravi Shankar Prasad
Ideally, the call drop rate should be less than 2%. Although, service providers have cited various reasons such as equipment faults, frequent load shedding in some circles, difficulty in site acquisition, shutting of existing mobile towers due to radiation concerns and restrictions near international borders. These don’t seem to be excuses but facts of this situation.
The government promises to meet telecom service providers in April as well as the second week of July, 2015 regarding the call drop issue, wherein, they have been asked to take immediate measures to address issues of call drops by radio frequency optimization, installation of new sites and in-building solutions.
However, the results of these measures are yet to be experienced.
Source: [tw-button size=”medium” background=”#07ABE2″ color=”” target=”_blank” link=”http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Airtel-subscribers-suffer-maximum-call-drops-TRAI/articleshow/48184843.cms?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=TOITech”]Times Of India [/tw-button]
Last weekend, Nepal was hit by a devastating earthquake which claimed more than 6,000 lives and many more missing are still missing. The earthquake’s epicentre originated 17km south of Kodari, Nepal and measured 7.9 on the Richter scale. Its after-tremors could be felt in places as far as Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Many communication and technological powerhouses came forward to aid Nepal in this time of crisis. Google came up with an app that can be used to locate missing people, telecom enterprises like BSNL, MTNL, Idea, Vodafone and Airtel lowered down their call rates or made it entirely free of charge.
Facebook initiated a donation drive in order to collect money for Nepal. The social networking giant launched a donation button that reached out almost 1.4 billion users worldwide. Facebook successfully raised over $10 million (Rs. 1.2 billion) within two days. Zuckerberg stated that the company would add $2 million, bringing the total to $12 million.
We’ve seen our community come together in some amazing ways since the earthquake in Nepal. We activated Safety Check...
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday, April 30, 2015
All the money will be handed over to a non-profit organization, International Medical Corps, who will be providing medical care, medicines, food, water, and other basic amenities for the Nepalese community. Zuckerberg states this effort have been amazing.
Read more in detail about how different technological powerhouses joined hands to help Nepal here.
A picture is worth a thousand words. Click here to witness the devastation in Nepal after the earthquake.
