US-based telecom equipment maker Motorola is eyeing big Wi-MAX contracts in India and is planning to bid for state-run BSNL's urban Wi-MAX project.
"We are very much focused on Wi-MAX...we had bid for BSNL's rural Wi-MAX project and our bid is in the technical evaluation stage and after this proof concept would start," Subhendu Mohanty, Motorola India Country Head, Home & Network Mobility Business, said.
Wi-MAX is a standard-based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL.
The rural project of BSNL includes offering broadband connection through the Wi-MAX network in 40,000 odd primary and secondary schools by 2008. Additionally, BSNL will set up 50,000 Wi-MAX kiosks.
The second tender valued at Rs 2,000 crore will see BSNL's plans for urban areas and will include roll out of Wi-MAX services in 70 cities across the country in 2008. Motorola is planning to bid for this as well.
These are opportunities in the range of 100-150 mn dollars, Mohanty said. The US-major is currently engaged in the trial run of Bharti's Wi-MAX project.
Motorola, which faces stiff competition from rivals like Nokia Siemens Network, Ericsson, was last year disqualified by BSNL from participating in its 3G network on technical ground. Although Wi-MAX contracts are much lesser in size, they can supplement a network vender's revenue.
Source : EconomicTimes
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
BSNL launches its EVDO facility in Rajkot
Claiming to be more quicker and cheaper than private operators, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) on Friday launched its EVDO (evolution data only) system.
Talking to reporters, BSNL General Manager (Rajkot circle) Ramchandran said, Rajkot has become the first city in Gujarat to have such facility.
The facility, includes wireless broadband, would gradually be available in Vadodara, Ahmedabad and other parts of the state, he said.
The facility will have speed up to two MBPS and no need to have landline connection.
The users need to have US port in their laptops or desk tops to use this system. BSNL will charge Rs 500 for the activation of the system, said Ayesh Siddiqui, BSNL public relation officer.
Users can use the system unlimited by paying monthly rent of Rs 550 and there will no extra charge for the additional usage of the system.
Source : EconomicTimes
Talking to reporters, BSNL General Manager (Rajkot circle) Ramchandran said, Rajkot has become the first city in Gujarat to have such facility.
The facility, includes wireless broadband, would gradually be available in Vadodara, Ahmedabad and other parts of the state, he said.
The facility will have speed up to two MBPS and no need to have landline connection.
The users need to have US port in their laptops or desk tops to use this system. BSNL will charge Rs 500 for the activation of the system, said Ayesh Siddiqui, BSNL public relation officer.
Users can use the system unlimited by paying monthly rent of Rs 550 and there will no extra charge for the additional usage of the system.
Source : EconomicTimes
Friday, June 27, 2008
Broadband Growth for May'08
Broadband (≥ 256 Kbps download) Growth: Total Broadband subscribers base has reached 4.15 million by the end of May 2008 as compared to 4.01 million by the end of April 2008. The broadband subscriber's growth is tabulated below:
Source : http://www.trai.gov.in/trai/upload/PressReleases/584/pr26june08no60.pdf
Source : http://www.trai.gov.in/trai/upload/PressReleases/584/pr26june08no60.pdf
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Govt may bring ISPs under USL net
Internet service providers (ISPs) such as Sify, Tulip and World Phone may soon have to subsidise the broadband connection in rural areas. The government is considering a proposal to bring the value-added service providers under the universal service obligation (USO) norms. Presently, telecom service providers are required to pay 5% of their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) as universal service levy (USL) to meet the USO norms. ISPs and other value-added service providers are, however, exempted from this levy.
“The government is contemplating several measures to increase broadband penetration in the rural parts of the country and levying USL on ISPs can be one of the tools for taking the programme ahead,” a source in the department of telecommunication (DoT) said.
Money raised through the initiative would be utilised to subsidise Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd’s (BSNL) rural broadband connections. DoT already provides subsidy to BSNL for spreading telecom network in the rural areas.
Progress on the front of broadband penetration has been quite low. Total connections as on April 30, 2008, stood at 4.01 million as against the government’s target of nine-million connections by 2007 and 20 million connections by 2010.
Worried over missing the target—both on the front of broadband and internet—the DoT is in the process of devising new strategy for tackling the situation. The subsidy scheme is a part of that strategy. The scheme would be implemented in phased manner across the country and would also cover remote areas including the north-eastern states. This would cover common service centres (CSCs) being set up by the department of information technology (DIT) schools, primary health centres and gram panchayats in a phased manner.
The government is also planning to subsidise its broadband initiative by using existing USO funds. The DoT has about Rs 15,000 crore of unutilised money under the USOF scheme and is finding ways to spend this in a holistic way.
“The government is contemplating several measures to increase broadband penetration in the rural parts of the country and levying USL on ISPs can be one of the tools for taking the programme ahead,” a source in the department of telecommunication (DoT) said.
Money raised through the initiative would be utilised to subsidise Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd’s (BSNL) rural broadband connections. DoT already provides subsidy to BSNL for spreading telecom network in the rural areas.
Progress on the front of broadband penetration has been quite low. Total connections as on April 30, 2008, stood at 4.01 million as against the government’s target of nine-million connections by 2007 and 20 million connections by 2010.
Worried over missing the target—both on the front of broadband and internet—the DoT is in the process of devising new strategy for tackling the situation. The subsidy scheme is a part of that strategy. The scheme would be implemented in phased manner across the country and would also cover remote areas including the north-eastern states. This would cover common service centres (CSCs) being set up by the department of information technology (DIT) schools, primary health centres and gram panchayats in a phased manner.
The government is also planning to subsidise its broadband initiative by using existing USO funds. The DoT has about Rs 15,000 crore of unutilised money under the USOF scheme and is finding ways to spend this in a holistic way.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
BSNL to start JV for manufacturing broadband equipment
State-run telecom major BSNL is planning to start a joint venture company with private firms to manufacture customer equipment for its broadband service.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd proposes to set up a Joint Venture with an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) firm for manufacture of the latest generation ADSL 2+ CPEs or customer premises equipment like modems to be used on Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited's Broadband service, at its Telecom Factory at Kolkata, a company official said today.
It is the largest Telecom Service Provider in India having countrywide presence with over 73 million subscribers.
Telecom Factories are the in-house production units of BSNL and are engaged in the production of variety of Telecom equipments. It has a broadband subscriber base of over 1.5 million subscribers.
The proposed JV will Design and Develop a range of models of ADSL2+ CPEs exclusively for BSNL as per TEC/BSNL specifications taking into consideration the market conditions prevailing in India.
The OEM would be responsible for the transfer of technology for setting up facilities for design, manufacture, assembly and testing of about 1 Million ADSL2+ CPEs per annum. The ADSL2+ CPEs would be launched by BSNL in the market under its own brand name.
The JV partner apart from investing in the production line will also be responsible for arranging of funds to meet the working capital of JV Company at competitive market rate.
After meeting the requirement of the BSNL, the JV Company would be free to sell these items in the open market or export.
Source: EconomicTimes
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd proposes to set up a Joint Venture with an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) firm for manufacture of the latest generation ADSL 2+ CPEs or customer premises equipment like modems to be used on Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited's Broadband service, at its Telecom Factory at Kolkata, a company official said today.
It is the largest Telecom Service Provider in India having countrywide presence with over 73 million subscribers.
Telecom Factories are the in-house production units of BSNL and are engaged in the production of variety of Telecom equipments. It has a broadband subscriber base of over 1.5 million subscribers.
The proposed JV will Design and Develop a range of models of ADSL2+ CPEs exclusively for BSNL as per TEC/BSNL specifications taking into consideration the market conditions prevailing in India.
The OEM would be responsible for the transfer of technology for setting up facilities for design, manufacture, assembly and testing of about 1 Million ADSL2+ CPEs per annum. The ADSL2+ CPEs would be launched by BSNL in the market under its own brand name.
The JV partner apart from investing in the production line will also be responsible for arranging of funds to meet the working capital of JV Company at competitive market rate.
After meeting the requirement of the BSNL, the JV Company would be free to sell these items in the open market or export.
Source: EconomicTimes
Monday, June 23, 2008
Delhi High Court goes wi-fi
The Delhi High Court is all set to go high-tech as its premises is soon going to get a wi-fi facility.
"We have identified 10 hot spots where the instruments would be put in place so that lawyers and others could have wireless internet access in the court premises without facing any glitches", Delhi High Court Bar association's president K C Mittal told PTI.
Apart from wi-fi, all the lawyer chambers will soon be connected through intercom and lawyers could contact their colleagues by just dialling the concerned chamber number, he said.
"MTNL is working on the projects and we hope that at the end of this month wi-fi would be functional and all the chambers would be connected through intercom," Mittal said, adding that he has been consulting various authorities to implement an e-filing system so that petitions could be filed through internet.
Mittal said steps were also being taken to spruce up the security in the court complex in view of the recent terrorist attacks on court premises in different parts of the country.
"Security is a major concern for us and it is also being spruced up with scanning machines being set up at the gates so that unwanted elements could be prevented from entering the court premises," he said, adding that a railway reservation counter was also being set up inside the court premises.
Source : EconomicTimes
"We have identified 10 hot spots where the instruments would be put in place so that lawyers and others could have wireless internet access in the court premises without facing any glitches", Delhi High Court Bar association's president K C Mittal told PTI.
Apart from wi-fi, all the lawyer chambers will soon be connected through intercom and lawyers could contact their colleagues by just dialling the concerned chamber number, he said.
"MTNL is working on the projects and we hope that at the end of this month wi-fi would be functional and all the chambers would be connected through intercom," Mittal said, adding that he has been consulting various authorities to implement an e-filing system so that petitions could be filed through internet.
Mittal said steps were also being taken to spruce up the security in the court complex in view of the recent terrorist attacks on court premises in different parts of the country.
"Security is a major concern for us and it is also being spruced up with scanning machines being set up at the gates so that unwanted elements could be prevented from entering the court premises," he said, adding that a railway reservation counter was also being set up inside the court premises.
Source : EconomicTimes
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Govt plans to subsidise internet for rural India
Worried over missing the broadband addition target, the government is now planning to give sub sidy for new broadband connection in the rural parts of the country. The subsidy would be up to 50% of the total cost of setting the system by service providers. Also, running cost of internet in rural ar eas would be about half of those in the cities. These steps are being taken in a move to strengthen the e governance network as the government has miser ably failed on this front.
“We are in the process of finalising the subsidy mechanism for rural broadband connections in consultation with the finance ministry,” an official in the department of telecommunications (DoT said.
The scheme would be implemented in phased manner across the country and would also cover remote ares including the north-eastern states, the official said adding the final scheme would be worked out taking in consideration views of all stakeholders. The new scheme would cover common service centres (CSCs) being set up by the department of information technology (DIT) schools, primary health centres and gram panchay ats in a phased manner.
E-governance is one of the key areas of concern for the UPA government. The government has not been able to achieve the desired level of efficiency in the project due to many reasons, including low penetration of internet in rural areas. In fact, the DIT could not utilise the money allocated in the last year’s budget and returned Rs 102 crore due to under utilisation. According to data available with the finance ministry DIT could use only Rs 617 crore against the allocated Rs 719 crore on e-governance projects.
The national e-governance plan (NeGP) covers 27 mission mode projects and 8 support component to be implemented at the central, state and local government levels. The project includes setting up of one lakh CSCs in six lakh villages across the country. On the front of broadband connections, total connections as on 30 April 2008 stood at 4.01 million. This is against the government’s target of nine million connections by 2007 and 20 million connections by 2010.
Source : EconomicTimes
“We are in the process of finalising the subsidy mechanism for rural broadband connections in consultation with the finance ministry,” an official in the department of telecommunications (DoT said.
The scheme would be implemented in phased manner across the country and would also cover remote ares including the north-eastern states, the official said adding the final scheme would be worked out taking in consideration views of all stakeholders. The new scheme would cover common service centres (CSCs) being set up by the department of information technology (DIT) schools, primary health centres and gram panchay ats in a phased manner.
E-governance is one of the key areas of concern for the UPA government. The government has not been able to achieve the desired level of efficiency in the project due to many reasons, including low penetration of internet in rural areas. In fact, the DIT could not utilise the money allocated in the last year’s budget and returned Rs 102 crore due to under utilisation. According to data available with the finance ministry DIT could use only Rs 617 crore against the allocated Rs 719 crore on e-governance projects.
The national e-governance plan (NeGP) covers 27 mission mode projects and 8 support component to be implemented at the central, state and local government levels. The project includes setting up of one lakh CSCs in six lakh villages across the country. On the front of broadband connections, total connections as on 30 April 2008 stood at 4.01 million. This is against the government’s target of nine million connections by 2007 and 20 million connections by 2010.
Source : EconomicTimes
Friday, June 6, 2008
BSNL pulls out of Singapore cable project
NEW DELHI: State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is understood to have pulled out of the over Rs 1,500 crore Singapore undersea cable project.
BSNL had joined hands with another state-owned telecom firm MTNL in September 2006 to build an undersea cable from India to Singapore and Malaysia.
BSNL confirmed that they would be buying bandwidth from MTNL.
Following this, MTNL will be working alone on the Rs 1,500 crore Singapore undersea cable project. However, MTNL officials declined to comment on the issue.
Scrips of the MTNL was quoting at Rs 94.65, up 1.18 per cent in late afternoon trade at the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Source: EconomicTimes
BSNL had joined hands with another state-owned telecom firm MTNL in September 2006 to build an undersea cable from India to Singapore and Malaysia.
BSNL confirmed that they would be buying bandwidth from MTNL.
Following this, MTNL will be working alone on the Rs 1,500 crore Singapore undersea cable project. However, MTNL officials declined to comment on the issue.
Scrips of the MTNL was quoting at Rs 94.65, up 1.18 per cent in late afternoon trade at the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Source: EconomicTimes
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Broadband Growth for April'08
Quickpost this image to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!Source : http://www.trai.gov.in/trai/upload/PressReleases/577/pr2june08no54.pdf
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
TATA, Reliance, NOKIA & Motorola - All Ride High On WiMAX
WiMax is planning to ride high on the Indian Market. After TATA & Reliance, it’s Motorola’s turn to endorse WiMAX. Pundits believe that given the geographical features of India, WiMAX provides a much cheaper alternative for providing internet access to every nook and cranny of the country, as compared to the wired connections. More so, the fact, that mobile networks and data cards can also be configured to access te internet using the WiMAX networks, opens up a whole new world of opportunities. It seems watching movies over the internet, absolutely smooth sound and video streaming, video conferencing on the go are no more just ideas of desire.
If one thinks on it more intently, one can visualize how easy it could be for the public sector telecom company BSNL to oust all competition from the private sectors in the Internet market. The most important reason behind companies not setting up WiMAX infrastructure is the huge costs involved and also slim chances of being able to recover the costs in a hurry. This is where a goverment funded organization do the trick! If BSNL manages to WiMAXify (I hope Oxford takes up this word too, one day :-P) a whole metropolitan city, say some place as important as Mumbai, it’s going to a a huge slap on the face of other operators. Of course, with TRAI trying to be as unbiased as it is, it might prove to be quite an issue. Yet, what do you say? Do you think there might be some solid basis to my logic?
Recently, Anil Ambani’s Globalcom had acquired a 90% share in eWave World in his efforts of providing WiMAX connections in the country and abroad. Nokia also expects data traffic to increase by a significant 75% in 2008 with future devices offering better and better services. Now it’s Motorola backing WiMAX as the next broadband technology. Experts in the field say that the rate of data transfer in WiMAX has the potential of 100 megabits per second (using Long Term Evolution technology). However, after reading about an Australian WiMAX provider scrapping the technology, you might feel apprehensive. One just needs to approach the newest technology with some caution and since devices need special hardware to be able to access WiMAX, unless it comes fitted on devices by defualt, it might get a little tough for India to catch up. Today, India lags quite a few years behind in terms of technology. If we plan to take the roads that others have taken, we shall always trail. It’s high time we took a giant leap!
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