Tata Teleservices launches Hindi infotainment zone on Indicom phones

PLAY 2200 FREE ONLINE GAMES

Tata Teleservices has unveiled 'Tata Zone' an infotainment space on Tata Indicom BREW-enabled mobile phones, in Hindi.


The company states that the rationale behind launching this is that about 66 per cent of all Indians speak Hindi, while less than 5 per cent understands English. Hence it is trying to increasingly embrace Hindi to drive adoption of data services among the non-English speaking population.


The Tata Zone - Hindi facility hosts a variety of applications like cricket, faith and prayers, Bollywood and Hollywood movies, news, astrology, funzone and games. The entertainment-packed zone also features an impressive and latest collection of ringtones and wallpapers.


Related Post
Tata Indicom festive offers
Vodafone to bid fond farewell to animated boy-girl characters

Tata Indicom festive offers

PLAY 2200 FREE ONLINE GAMES

Tata Teleservices Ltd has announced exciting schemes for Tata Indicom customers that could potentially win a brand new Tata Indica (diesel) car, which is the bumper prize.

As a part of Pandaga Samabralu offer, this is applicable for purchase of Huawei C2285 phone and a Walky for Rs 1,199 plus EMI of Rs 99 for three months.

The scheme also has other offers that come with a Pantech Slider colour phone and a Walky for Rs 1,999 plus EMI of Rs 99 for ten months. The customer also gets other assured gifts.

Commenting on the scheme, Mr S. Ramakrishna, Chief Operating Officer, AP Circle, Tata Teleservices Ltd, said this is a follow up of similar schemes offered by the operator in the past and hope this would motivate more customers.

20 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS


In another statement, TTSL announced that it had crossed the 20-million subscriber mark, which has come through in four years, which is the shortest among operators.

Commenting on the achievement, Mr Ashok Sud, President, Corporate Affairs, TTSL, said, “We have achieved this in four years while it was about 10 years in the case of other operators.”

Related Post
Airtel crosses 50 million customers in broadband & telephone
Vodafone to bid fond farewell to animated boy-girl characters
Hutch makes way for Vodafone in India; runs roadblock on Star Network
Hutchison-Essar to be rebranded Vodafone

Airtel crosses 50 million customers in broadband & telephone

PLAY 2200 FREE ONLINE GAMES

Bharti Airtel has announced that it has crossed the 50 million customer mark.

The customer base covers mobile as well as broadband and telephone customers.

Commenting on this landmark, Bharti Airtel joint MD Akhil Gupta said, "We are delighted to have achieved this major landmark, which puts Bharti Airtel amongst the top telecom companies in the world. It underlines the strength of our unique business model and our vision to provide affordable services like lifetime prepaid to customers across the length and breadth of the country."




"This milestone highlights the emergence of India as one of the top telecom markets in the world and we are proud to have been at the forefront of this growth. Going forward, we believe this growth momentum will remain intact and we are gearing towards the 100 million customers mark," added Gupta.

To establish presence in all census towns and over 500,000 villages across India by 2010, the telecom major has plans to invest in network expansion. The company's focus will be on further strengthening the Airtel brand through better customer service, which is backed by wide national distribution.

In the Enterprise business, Bharti Airtel will invest substantially in the long distance business to achieve the scale of a global carrier within next 2-3 years.




In Broadband and Telephone SBU, Bharti Airtel will initiate large-scale deployments of broadband network infrastructure in 94 towns, with a focus on the home and SME segments. It is readying to offer triple play to its customers with the launch of its IPTV service. The company is also looking at commencing national DTH operations by the end of the current fiscal, stated an official release.

Bharti Airtel president and CEO Manoj Kohli added, "We are committed to create a world-class organization and benchmark it with the best in the world. As the market gets ready for the next wave of growth, we are committed to expanding our telecom networks wider and deeper across the country and partner India's growth story."

Related Post
Vodafone to bid fond farewell to animated boy-girl characters
Hutch makes way for Vodafone in India; runs roadblock on Star Network

Vodafone to bid fond farewell to animated boy-girl characters

PLAY 2200 FREE ONLINE GAMES

With the spotlight on Vodafone at the moment, the brand is playing its cards carefully in the Indian subcontinent. The brand started off with a simple introduction message: ‘Hutch is Now Vodafone’; knowing the repercussions of sudden shifts, it plans on continuing with this campaign for a while. The iconic pug has also been continued, and it is possible that the ‘Hutch boy’ could also be recalled, but not immediately.

The animated boy-girl duo (a Hutch hallmark), currently being used as mascots to ‘introduce’ Vodafone to consumers, will be dropped in subsequent campaigns. Rajiv Rao, executive creative director, O&M, says, “These two characters so essentially represent the old brand ‘Hutch’ that they will have to be dropped eventually.” They are likely to be replaced by a cooler, suave boy-girl couple (also animated) who will become the face of Vodafone in India.



Vodafone’s global corporate thought, ‘Make the Most of Now’, will be imported into India soon. O&M India will come up with a corporate campaign based on this thought. However, the idea used will be completely Indian, and not an adaptation of a foreign creative. Hutch’s tagline, ‘Wherever You Go, Our Network Follows’, will also be retained by Vodafone, but only for those commercials that are based around the network premise.

‘Make the Most of Now’ essentially encourages people to take time out of their busy lives and enjoy each moment of each day. This thought was arrived at after extensive research by Vodafone to gain in-depth understanding of customer perceptions and behaviour. The study – conducted in more than 13 countries – reveals that time is key to making the most of life.



Harit Nagpal, director, marketing and new services, Vodafone Essar, says, “Humans today are constantly multitasking and trying to be in 10 places at the same time.” So clearly, Vodafone’s take is that its technologically advanced products and services help people achieve this by breaking down geographical and time barriers. Essentially, the corporate campaign will revolve around the concept of managing one’s time better and, thereby, managing one’s life better.

Nagpal further adds that as humans, we all have said at some point, ‘I wish I had more time’, which will form the insight for Vodafone’s communication in India.


Related Post
Hutch makes way for Vodafone in India; runs roadblock on Star Network
Hutchison-Essar to be rebranded Vodafone

Hutch makes way for Vodafone in India; runs roadblock on Star Network

PLAY 2200 FREE ONLINE GAMES
Following Vodafone's acquisition of Hutchison Essar in May this year, the renamed entity Vodafone Essar will finally be visible as the company will unveil its brand identity in India on 21 September.

With this, the bright pink Hutch logo, will be transitioned to Vodafone across the country. The brand change over the next few weeks will be unveiled nationally through a high profile campaign spanning all media including outdoor, print and an aggressive push on television.


Vodafone Essar managing director Asim Ghosh said, "We've had a great innings as Hutch in India and today marks a new beginning for us. Not as a departure from the fundamentals that created Hutch, but an acceleration into the future with Vodafone's global expertise."

The company has tied up with Star India to run a complete roadblock of its fresh campaign on the entire network by unveiling the 24-hour nationwide rebranding campaign.

Vodafone will use all of the commercial airtime across all 13 channels in five languages (Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Marathi and English) from 9 pm on 20 September to 9 pm on September 21. This exercise will include TV commercials, transition bumpers and contest spots to promote the Vodafone Essar brand. Commercial spots have also been purchased on Sony.

Vodafone Essar marketing and new business director Harit Nagpal says the telecom player has inked deals with all television broadcasters for the launch campaign.

The Zee Network was also in talks with Vodafone but declined to accept the roadblock. Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd president and revenue head Joy Chakraborthy opines, "This strategy of a roadblock goes against our principles as it is not fair to our other clients. We don't like to be seen as opportunists."

Yet media specialists advocate the roadblock approach for Vodafone's launch campaign. Maxus MD Ajit Varghese says, "Conventionally awareness for a new brand takes some time to build. However, Vodafone wanted to achieve this task at the shortest possible time. Maxus and Star Network worked closely to address this challenge and came up with the idea wherein during the day of the launch a complete roadblock on the Star Network channels was conceptualized.

"Considering that the Star Network is the lead network in India, this was the most apt platform for Vodafone launch. This strategy helps not only in achieving build rapid brand awareness but also breaks the clutter during such an important launch in the most happening category - telecom. This is a first of its kind mega media initiative in India by any brand."


Nagpal added, "This transition is probably the largest brand change ever undertaken in this country and arguably as big as any in the world. It is even larger than our own previous brand transitions as it touches over 35 million customers, across 400,000 shops and thousands of our own and our business associates' employees."

While the campaign is heavy on television, it will also include all other media vehicles. The print campaign kicks off on 21 September, a day after the television splash.

Market reports have put the marketing spends for the monster campaign to be in the region of Rs 3 billion. Nagpal, however, dismisses these numbers as highly exaggerated."The marketing spends for our launch campaign is only a mere fraction of that number," he points out.

The Vodafone mission is to be the communications leader in an increasingly connected world - enriching customers' lives, helping individuals, businesses and communities be more connected by delivering their total communication needs.

Vodafone's logo is a representation of that belief - The start of a new conversation, a trigger, a catalyst, a mark of true pioneering.

Related Post
Hutchison-Essar to be rebranded Vodafone
Mobile boom helps India reach internet goal before time
RCom, ICICI Bank tie up for money transfer over mobiles
MTNL launches Internet telephony service

Hutchison-Essar to be rebranded Vodafone

PLAY 2200 FREE ONLINE GAMES
The much-awaited brand transition for Hutchison-Essar, India’s fourth-largest mobile service provider, is expected to be kicked off in the next three or four days.

And contrary to expectations, the new name will not be a hybrid but just Vodafone, reflecting the majority ownership of the world’s largest telecom company.

Vodafone’s worldwide CEO Arun Sarin will be visiting India to launch the transition from the deep pink logo to Vodafone’s trademark deep red speech mark in the 16 circles in which the service provider operates. The speech mark logo was introduced only in 1998.

Vodafone acquired 67 per cent in the company from Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa some months ago for an enterprise value of $12 billion. The campaign, which is expected to be in the form of a simple announcement, especially print, has been undertaken by Ogilvy & Mather, the agency that worked on the popular Hutchison-Essar campaign with a pug dog.

As part of a Rs 300-crore advertising blitz, Vodafone has booked virtually all the ad slots on Star TV for September 20. Star sells 10 minutes of commercial time per hour.

There has also been some bulk booking on other channels like Sony TV. Vodafone will spend Rs 8.5 crore across Star channels and around Rs 5 crore on Sony Entertainment Television on the first day.

This apart, it has signed a bulk deal for nearly Rs 30 crore with Star for two months, according to media buying sources.

Star executives confirmed the bulk bookings, about which Sony declined to comment. When contacted, Asim Ghosh, MD of Vodafone-Essar, merely said: “We will comment at the appropriate time.”

However, sources close to the Ruias, which own 33 per cent in the company, confirmed the development and said that the roll-out would take place in a few days. However, the date of September 20 had not been finalised, they added.

Hutchison-Essar itself went through a major brand transition a few years ago from its popular Orange brand to Hutch which was supported by an advertising blitz.

Mobile boom helps India reach internet goal before time

PLAY 2200 FREE ONLINE GAMES
India has surpassed its internet subscriber target of 40 million, more than three years ahead of time. Department of Telecommunication (DoT) had set a goal of 40 million internet subscribers through ‘various technologies’ by 2010 which has been met in 2007.

However, the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are not happy, saying that internet on mobile is not a pure play, feature rich service and thus those who access the internet on mobile phones cannot be counted among the subscribers.

As of March 31, 2007, India had about 9.2 million internet subscribers on personal computers (PCs) and 31.3 million subscribers on mobile phones (both GSM/CDMA). The DoT had set a 40 million subscribers target in its broadband policy of 2004. DoT is now planning to set a new target.

However, when it comes to broadband, India is far behind the DoT's target of 20 million broadband subscribers by 2010. The broadband target for 2007 was 9 million subscribers. But the government is still not able to fulfill the 3 million broadband subscribers target for 2005, even in 2007. As of March 31, 2007 India had about 2.3 million broadband users.

ISPs are rubbishing the achievement of internet subscriber target, saying that internet access on mobile is not a feature rich application and thus cannot be counted. "Internet on mobile is not used for downloading purpose. You cannot use full features of internet on mobile phone. It does not even promote IT literacy. So the comparisons between both (PC access and mobile phone internet access) don’t exist," says an Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) official.

ISPAI is also unhappy with the new internet service guidelines and alleges cartel among government, regulator and cellcos. "There seems to be a cartel to circumvent the pureplay ISPs. If this attitude of the government continues towards pureplay ISPs, most of them will have to surrender their licences or get acquired," says ISPAI.

The ISPs are also incensed over the new guidelines for providing Internet Protocol TV (IPTV). "Putting a limit of Rs 100 crore on net worth to provide IPTV services is in favour of the large telcos and is anti-ISPs. We all know that not many ISPs will meet this criteria," says ISPAI president Rajesh Charia.

ISPs observe that India will not be able to achieve the broadband target for 2010 if the government continues with discriminatory guidelines.

Related Post
RCom, ICICI Bank tie up for money transfer over mobiles
MTNL launches Internet telephony service

RCom, ICICI Bank tie up for money transfer over mobiles

Telecom company Reliance Communications and private financial institution ICICI Bank are close to offering money transfer services over mobile phones. The service, first of its kind in the country, is expected to be launched shortly, if not within a week.

The move is of importance as other cellular providers are likely to follow suit, ushering in an m-commerce (mobile commerce) revolution in the country.

The two companies have completed trial runs in metroes and leading circles across the country, according to sources close to the development.

The new service will enable ICICI Bank customers to transfer funds to other account holders registered with the financial institutions website.

A customer of the bank can transfer up to Rs 5,000 per transaction, using Reliance Communications’ pre- and post-paid services. The service will allow multiple transfers, enabling subscribers to transfer higher amounts to other accounts of ICICI Bank.

When contacted, a Reliance Communications spokesperson confirmed the development. He also added the company was looking at promoting mobile commerce as a value-added service (VAS).

At present, ICICI Bank has over 24 million customers and Reliance Communications has around 37 million subscribers. The Anil Ambani group company’s m-commerce services include bill payments, railway and airline ticketing, shopping, auctions, movie and event ticketing among others.

There are around 180 million cellular users in the country, but mobile commerce is still a nascent industry. This is because India is primarily a cash economy.

However, the segment is expected to post rapid growths with subscribers beginning to use SMSEs to buy, sell and book movie tickets.

Related Post
MTNL launches Internet telephony service

MTNL launches Internet telephony service

MTNL has launched India’s first legal Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service, NetFone, in New Delhi, in association with Aksh Optifibre for its broadband subscribers.

“With the launch of the VoIP service, we have managed to create a single communication platform for all Indians living in India and abroad. No more will calling international be viewed as expensive. The company will be uniquely advantaged as a solutions provider for a service that can potentially reach over four million broadband subscribers in both Delhi and Mumbai,” says Dr Kailash Choudhari, managing director, Aksh Optifibre Ltd.

VoIP allows users to call each other using the Internet. The voice chat facility that Skype and Google Talk offer is based on VoIP. Calls made from Skype and Google Talk do not come under the legal framework in India, which means no authority can monitor or track a voice chat or call that takes place through it. However, the MTNL VoIP facility is legal and can be monitored.


Using NetFone, a broadband subscriber can make a call from his computer or telephone to other subscribers on their mobile, landline or computer in India or in 150 countries, among them the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan and Malaysia. If the call is made through a telephone, the subscriber will have to attach a small device to enable VoIP. This facility will be available at all MTNL PCOs, too.

MTNL is using differential pricing for VoIP calls across geographical areas. For 35 countries (including the US, the UK and Canada), it will charge Re 1 per minute, and for 45 countries (including Japan and Malaysia), the charge is Rs 2 per minute. For the remaining countries, the call charge is Rs 3 per minute.

Registration and installation cost Rs 500, plus another Rs 1,500, which is a one-time payment for the device that enables VoIP. Two tariff plans are available: Plan VoIP 200 with a monthly rental of Rs 200, which offers 400 minutes of PC-to-PC calls free and 20 paise per minute thereafter; and Plan VoIP 400 with a monthly rental of Rs 400, which offers 800 minutes of PC-to-PC calls free and 10 paise per minute thereafter. In order to call beyond this, there are prepaid cards available in denominations of Rs 100, Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, with validity of three months, six months and 12 months, respectively.