GTPL Hathway likely to deploy custom Android OS on its set-top box

GTPL Hathway, the country’s single largest cable feed provider, said it has tied up with France-based Verimatrix to deploy its video content authority system — a software solution that helps GTPL stream video content to its Android TVs securely. The moves comes as GTPL Hathway ramps up its Android TV box-based service. The company started […]

Bharti Airtel abandons ‘digital pivot’ strategy as 5G auction nears

Bharti Airtel has abandoned its plan to reorganize its corporate structure by focusing on the digital business — such as its Wynk app, Airtel Cloud, Airtel Xstream and so on — by moving all telecom infrastructure into a different subsidiary known as Airtel Ltd. The move was announced eight months ago, and was widely seen […]

Vakrangee adds stock trading, demat account service in tie-up with Upstox

Vakrangee Ltd, which runs over 13,200 digital kiosks across the country, said its franchisees will now be able to offer share trading and demat account opening services thanks to a tie-up with stock trading app Upstox. Vakrangee Kendras already offer a variety of internet-enabled services, such as bank account opening, issue of government certificates, money […]

Mukesh Ambani calls for subsidized mobile phones

India’s richest man and the chairman of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani, has called for the use of universal obligation fund money to subsidize mobile devices. USO fund was set up during the early days of the mobile phone revolution as a tax or levy on existing phone users, to be used for extending telecom services […]

BSNL starts distributing live TV via IPTV in Kerala

The Kerala circle has become the first in India to support BSNL’s commercial IPTV services, and both direct and indirect customers of BSNL can avail of the service. IPTV refers to the distribution of television content via IP or internet protocol, instead of traditional broadcasting protocols like DVB. BSNL had been testing IPTV for several […]

GTPL Android box coming in two weeks, soft-launch done

GTPL Hathway, one of the country’s largest cable feed providers, said it plans to launch its Android box by the end of this month or early next month. “The hybrid box has been soft launched,” said Managing Director Anirudhsinh Jadeja. “There are around 1,500 boxes in the market.” The box was originally set to be […]

Broadcasting sector declines as broadband gains ground in India

The latest industry numbers for the broadband and broadcasting industries seem to confirm what many industry watchers have been warning for years — the rising penetration of affordable and high-speed wired internet will displace cable and DTH services in India. While this has always been seen as a theoretical possibility or hypothesis, new data from […]

Vodafone Idea to launch free music streaming service for users

Vodafone Idea, the country’s third largest telecom operator, said it plans to launch a music streaming service in tie-up with a large content provider in the coming days. The service, said CEO Ravinder Takkar, would be available to all of the company’s prepaid and postpaid subscribers. The company currently has a free video streaming service […]

India’s new social media rules make it impossible for WhatsApp to function as before

The new rules for messaging apps announced as part of today’s digital/online media regulatory framework will make it impossible for WhatsApp to continue to operate in India in its present form. One of the key demands placed by the government in front of WhatsApp has always been that it should attach an origin-ID to all […]

Vodafone Idea to offer latest Hollywood movies on rent

Vodafone Idea launched one of India’s first per-per-view service on its Vi Movies & TV platform. The service, which will enable users to rent premium video content such as new movies, will be clubbed with what the company called ‘deals from Hungama Digital’ — an independent provider digital video and audio content. Initially, the service […]

Signal messenger down after heavy rush in India, US & Europe

Signal, the open source messaging platform, has become extremely slow and even unresponsive in several parts of India after a sudden rush of new users looking for a more secure alternative to WhatsApp. Global interest in Signal app has jumped by around 50 times since WhatsApp announced changes to its terms of use last week. […]

Sun NXT to abandon ad-based strategy?

The management of Chennai-based Sun TV Network seems to have abandoned the earlier ‘hybrid strategy’ for its digital platform and come to the conclusion that an advertising-led model will likely not work in the video-on-demand universe in the longer term. The company’s Sun NXT app has been by far the most aggressive player as far […]

Bharat Matrimony wants to lure customers from ‘all tiers’

Matrimony.com, one of the largest matchmaking companies in the world, said it continue to offer discounts and special pricing to attract new internet users who are coming online via the 4G wireless data revolution. The company, which operates the Bharat Matrimony website and others, has typically charged several thousand rupees for its paid membership. Only […]

Airtel becomes first DTH player to unbundle OTT from hardware

Bharti Airtel has become the first major DTH or cable company to free up its content app, Airtel XStream, from its hardware. All other major cable and DTH companies in India offer their app only on their own device — typically a stick or a set-top-box — and do not allow the software to be […]