The Cellular Operators’ Association of India, representing the interests of the major telecom operators of India including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, has issued a clarification that it is not in favor of the Government trying to override Supreme Court decisions by making laws that would apply to periods before they were made. The clarification was […]
If the boom in the smartphone market has helped any company, it is the U.S.-based Qualcomm. The chip maker’s performance in 2011 lived up to its reputation as the most viable threat to the dominance of Intel in the worldwide semiconductor (chip) market. According to full-year numbers released by technology market research firm Gartner, Qualcomm […]
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) today announced that its @WalmartLabs operation is expanding in Bangalore with the hiring of 100 additional developers and a move into a new facility. Wal-Mart plans to hire an additional 100 people to create a next-generation e-commerce platform. The new platform is designed to connect Walmart’s digital and physical properties […]
India came one step closer to having a robust mobile banking infrastructure in place with the notification of the ‘Mobile Banking (Quality of Service) Regulations’ by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today. The regulations are meant primarily to prevent mobile operators from refusing to co-operate with, or providing poor cooperation to, banks that […]
The Indian online advertising market, including classifieds, will grow by a whopping 54% in the next 12 months, a report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB said. As of March 2012, the industry was worth Rs 2,851 crores in annual revenue and will further grow to Rs 4,391 crores by […]
US mobile operator Sprint has announced its first 4G LTE handset, the LG Viper — a 4 inch, dual-core mobile phone — priced at $99.99, with a new two-year service agreement and $50 mail-in rebate. The device will go on sale on April 22. Customers can preorder the Android 2.3 phone and get it as […]
The world’s biggest mobile phone maker Nokia is likely to cut prices of its Windows phone or Lumia devices in the coming months as it tries to survive an army of cheap Android phones, most industry analysts believe. According to them, even the average selling price of Nokia Lumia devices of 220 euros (Rs 15,000) […]
The Lava Xolo X900 marks the entry of the chip-giant Intel into the phone world and promises to shake up the mobile-phone world. On Thursday, Intel and Lava will launch the Xolo X900, the first phone Intel-based phone to enter India, possibly in tie-up with Aircel and Airtel. However, since Lava has a strong distribution […]
Google’s surprisingly good results yesterday was partly the result of the tighter focus brought in by founder Larry Page after he took over as CEO. But the sharper focus also makes it tougher for Google to maintain its glamorous reputation in the tech world, analysts warned. Page had took over from long-time CEO Eric Schmidt […]
Reliance Communications, one of the top three mobile operators in India, has struck a partnership with Google to jointly promote Google’s Android operating system in the country. Reliance has become the first operator in India to enter into the special and exclusive marketing tie-up with Google, and the agreement will follow the patterns of such […]
Overruling objections by big telecom operators, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended allowing district-level operators. Anyone, including local cable operators, will now be able to offer landline and mobile, Internet and other services after paying the Rs 10 lakh entry fee per district, if the recommendations are accepted by the Government. In […]
Technology market research firm Gartner has cut its forecast for IT spending this year from 3.7% to 2.5% due to a weaker dollar. Worldwide IT spending this year will be $3.7 trillion. It said the lower growth rate has more to do with the U.S. currency than an actual decline in spending and forecast a […]
Bharti Airtel, which launched India’s first LTE-based 4G network in Kolkata today, said it will soon launch similar networks in Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra. It will launch such ultra-highspeed 4G services in Bangalore in the next 30 days. Airtel’s launch prices for the 4G services, however, are on the higher side. While most operators are […]
The promise of 4G networks in India was to bridge the digital divide by making cheap, high-speed broadband available across the country. In other words, wireless broadband was to be to landline broadband what the mobile phone was to the land phone. However, going by the first such launch in India, very little of the […]
The goods trade between India and Pakistan could zoom to $8 billion a year from the current $2.6 billion in two years, thanks to the opening of a check post at Attari-Wagah border, trade body Assocham said. With the opening up of the check post at Attari-Wagah border, the number of trucks crossing the border […]
Micromax has entered the Indian tablet market with a 7-inch ‘Funbook’ priced at Rs 6,500, making it the cheapest Android tablet in India from a prominent brand. That credit earlier belonged to HCL’s ME U1 tablet, priced at Rs 8,000. The Funbook is a good 19% cheaper than the HCL ME U1. Micromax has partnered […]
The GSM Association, which represents GSM operators and equipment companies worldwide, predicted that India will have 367 million (36.7 crore) mobile broadband connections by 2016. India currently has a total of around 20-30 million broadband connections, including about 13 million DSL connections. The exact number of broadband connections in India is not known, as 3G […]
Apple may be grabbing all the media headlines, but according to the results of a survey of 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers by comScore, it is Samsung which has the lead in mobile handset market share. Even in the smartphone market, Google’s Android beat Apple’s iOS hollow, according to the numbers for February. The survey found […]
India’s total mobile penetration is only 51%, international technology market research agency Gartner said, well below the official estimate of a teledensity of around 75% by the TRAI. The number of mobile users in India increased by just 9% in 2011, hitting 638 million (63.8 crore) at the end of last year, the agency said. […]
If the traditional, big Indian mobile operators were dreaming of increasing tariffs in what is often called the world’s most competitive market, they have got another thing coming. It was in July last year that big operators, such as Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance, proclaimed the end of the cheap-tariff era and hiked call rates by […]
