Tag: telecom

Vodafone to Soon Roll Out 4G services in Major Indian Cities

India’s second largest telecom operator, Vodafone, has revealed plans to roll out 4G services in major cities including Delhi, and Mumbai by end of March, 2016. The Britain based operator, which has one of the widest network in terms of reach in an official statement communicated,”Vodafone has already launched its high speed 4G services in Kerala. The intensity of its roll-out will continue with major metros like Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Delhi to be launched by March 2016″

In a bid to showcase it’s superior customer service, it has already started to issue 4G ready SIM cards in Mumbai. Vodafone India Business Head Mumbai, Ishmeet Singh said,

“The company is fully geared up to launch 4G services in 1800 Mhz band in Mumbai very soon. We want our customers to be 4G-ready so that they can start experiencing the benefits of high-speed mobile Internet services as soon as they are launched commercially. Hence, this facility to upgrade to 4G-ready SIMs in advance”

Vodafone is also planning on home delivering 4G-ready SIMs to its premium high-value customers in Mumbai, and formal communication for it is already being sent out.

January 6, 2016
Telecom Operators Might Compensate Us for Dropped Calls

Frequent call drops in the middle of the conversation must have caused anguish within customers, and telecom operators are accountable for this. The Indian Government is taking notice of the inconvenience caused to its people and has cautioned telcos to minimize call drops and strengthen its mechanism.

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad stated in a press conference –

Call drops need to be minimized. Private operators need to reinforce their mechanism. I have directed officials in the telecom department to work on a disincentive architecture (for the operators) to address the issue.

Prasad further said that The Department of Telecom (DoT) will settle on penalty clauses and measures to reduce call drops by year-end. Telecom Regulator Authority of India (TRAI) has set the maximum permissible call drop limit to 2% calls, and there is no mention of reimbursement of any sort by the independent regulator. The panel is considering re-evaluation and chances are that it may fix a lower threshold for call drops in the wake of numerous complaints. According to an official, it may be as early as the next six months.

The choked network in metros and poor broadband connectivity have always been an issue with service providers. Despite that, customers are bound to pay through their noses as the services remain unsatisfactory. It is nice to see that the government is taking notice of public grievances and is considering taking action by the end of this year. However late, the news is certain to bring a big smile on everyone’s face.

There are a few telecom companies such as Reliance and Uninor that are compensating for the glitch on their part, but other mobile operators like Vodafone, Airtel, that have a larger consumer base are still to make a move in this direction. It would not be easy for the government to make telcos agree to its conditions as it will stir their revenue, but the government seems determined in its aim. The next few months will be the deciding point that will finally put an end to call drops.

June 3, 2015
TRAI says that the current tariff is fine

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), in a move to calm worried telecom firms reeling under huge losses, has said on Monday that the current tariffs are not objectionably high and are good for competitive environment.

The major issue on the mind of the TRAi being the deactivation of inactive mobile connections, TRAI said that the recommendations for the same should be finalized by March.

[quote]The mobile tariffs are competitive. We could not find that tariffs have been in any objectionable territory, In normal course, it (the recommendations) should take one-and-a-half-month more from now,”Rajeev Agarwal, secretary,TRAI [/quote]

Recently again many firms have hiked data tariffs by 25-30% to improve margins. TRAI sought views of stakeholders on the need to review the existing regime of tariff forbearance. Views were also sought on a suitable tariff framework for data services.

While deactivation of a SIM without prior intimation and on arbitrary grounds has become an issue of debate as it deprives a subscriber of his mobile number which might have been an identity for him for a long time.

According to a consultation paper floated by TRAI, consumers can also suffer from a potential loss of activity in both personal and professional set-ups causing an adverse impact on livelihood.

Last year the telecom tribunal had also rejected the telecom operators’ petition against TRAI’s guidelines on VAS which asked operators to take prior confirmation before activating and charging subscribers for such services and asked them to comply with the directive by February 2.

In 2011, TRAI’s directives said that an operator was required to obtain confirmation from their subscribers through SMS, e-mail, fax or in writing within 24 hours of activation of VAS.

January 15, 2013
Governments enforces stringent mobile radiation standards

The government has imposed stringent mobile radiation standards which will come into effect from today.

With new guidelines coming into force, radiation emission from telecom towers will come down to 1/10th of the present level, a development that will address public health concerns. Also, the handsets to be rolled out from domestic manufacturing units or to be imported will have reduced absorption capacity, as per the new guidelines.

[quote]”Now with more stringent rules, we want to make sure that there is no violation. We told them to make required changes in all areas to meet new emission norms immediately,” Kapil Sibal said.[/quote]

Mobile phone companies would have to provide self-certification of compliance with the new norms and register with the telecom enforcement resource & monitoring (Term) cells. Term cells would conduct random audits and in case of complaints. The telecom department can impose a fine of 5 lakh per tower per telco if the rules are flouted.

September 3, 2012
Vodafone follows in Footsteps Reduces 3G Tariffs by Upto 80% – New Tariffs

Vodafone has been slow to react, but have reacted none the less. Following suit after Idea and Airtel dropped 3G tariff prices. Vodafone has been quick to jump onto the bandwagon, announcing new 3G tariff plans that are almost 80% lower than previous plans in some cases, and even lower than Idea cellular and Airtel Tariffs.

With reduction in tariffs, Vodafone also announced there will be no additional charges for roaming on data usage. “Additionally, Vodafone will now allow its customers to use data from their bundle package while on-net roaming across any location in India without any additional charge,” a company statement said.

The 3G tariff war is happening at a time when most of the operators are up in arms against the high reserve price of spectrum proposed by sectoral regulators Trai. The government is likely to take a decision on spectrum price in the Empowered group of Ministers meeting on July 21.

The operators have warned that mobile bills could increase by up to 100 per cent in certain circles if the proposals are accepted. According to industry experts, the price war in 3G tariffs may be an effort to cash huge investments made by telecom operators.

June 21, 2012
The Future Of Shopping Has Arrived

In China, SK Telecom has begun pilot testing of a new shopping cart system dubbed the Smart Cart. These carts basically have an integrated tablet which is running a proprietary software that communicates with a shoppers smart phone through an application developed for this purpose.

Once users have downloaded the Smart Cart application to their phones, they can search for product information, discounts, coupons and they can even make a shopping list. When in the supermarket, the users phone is synced to the aforementioned tablet, which has a positioning sensor which can determine a shoppers location to 1m within the store. This allows users to get information about that section of the store and also allows store owners to provide targeted advertisements.

Upon checkout, the tablet shows a list of purchased items as well as any membership points and coupons earned. SK Telecom elaborates:

We expect that ‘Smart Cart’ will become a more personalized smart shopping service when combined with customer information– like shopping history and usage pattern– managed by existing retailers. Customers will shop conveniently through product recommendations based on analysis of user’s shopping history and location information; manufacturers will be able to carry out targeted marketing for customers located in the store; and retailers will secure a new marketing channel that enables integrated and seamless communication with customers.

July 29, 2011