Dish TV boxes to get support for Internet apps by December

Dish TV, India’s largest direct-to-home satellite television service, said it will send out software upgrades to over 4 mln (40 lakh) of its users that will enable them to install apps to watch Internet content on their TV by December. “There are almost 4 million boxes that we have which we can convert into connected […]

Star agrees to share cricket matches with Reliance’s JioTV

Star India has agreed to share the feed of cricket matches involving India with Reliance Jio’s live TV app JioTV. Till now, JioTV users had to install Star’s Hotstar app to watch any of the network’s sports channels. The sharing agreement is valid for five years, said Reliance Jio, without divulging the financial details behind […]

Airtel, Netflix sign content-sharing, billing agreement

Airtel and Netflix announced an expansion of their partnership in India through which the telecom operator will sell and promote Netflix content to its customers. Airtel TV, the video app from the operator, will have a dedicated row of Netflix content. It is not clear how much of the content will be made available on […]

India says WhatsApp giving ‘good response’ on monitoring proposal

Ravi Shankar Prasad, India’s minister for law and information technology, said the government has got ‘good response’ from WhatsApp for its proposal to install a monitoring mechanism on the platform. The government has been pushing WhatsApp to put up a monitoring mechanism that would send out alerts when messages on any one subject starts going […]

UIDAI Helpline: Google says was hardcoded into Android setup

The mysterious addition of the former hotline of UID Authority of India, which spooked out Android users by mysteriously appearing on their phones, was hardcoded into the Android set-up program, Google has said. Responding to concerns of users’ phones being hacked by some secret agency, which then ‘loaded’ UIDAI’s helpline number, a Google spokesperson apologized […]

Reliance Jio and SBI announce new partnerships

Reliance Jio and State Bank of India today announced further deepening of their financial relationship, including deeper penetration of SBI services into Jio’s customer care app MyJio. “MyJio, one of India’s largest over-the-top (OTT) mobile applications will now bring in financial services capabilities of SBI and Jio Payments Bank,” the telecom operator said. In return, […]

Bharti Airtel to be ‘careful’ about content investments, prefer tie-ups

Reliance Jio’s delays in ‘going pay’ with its content suite seems to be giving rivals like Bharti Airtel pause for thought as far as their content plans are concerned. Jio unveiled a large suite of content applications when it launched its telecom service two years ago, prompting rivals like Airtel and Idea Cellular to draw […]

Indian govt demands greater access from WhatsApp, Facebook & Twitter

India’s Information Technology Department today unveiled a new plan of action to combat fake news that would require foreign social media firms like Facebook, Twitter and Google to establish offices in India and actively help in flagging and tracking down people who post troublesome messages online. Ravi Shankar Prasad also said WhatsApp, in particular, has […]

Does Jio GigaFiber & GigaTV mark the end of Cable & DTH industry?

India’s cable company stocks have fallen by about 15%-25% since Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecom company by volumes, yesterday announced the commencement of its long-awaited fiber broadband and TV service from August 15. It is feared that the company’s entry can lead to widespread shutdowns and losses in the cable and broadband industry, similar to […]

How WhatsApp can easily fix the Fake News problem

WhatsApp, India’s largest communication platform used by an estimated 65% of the country’s online population, has come under scrutiny for providing a conduit to distribute ‘fake news’ after multiple cases of lynchings came to light. While the company has urged ‘society and companies’ to help tackle the menace, the messaging application has some more to […]

WhatsApp introduces version for desktop PC – Windows 10 & Mac OS

WhatsApp, the messaging application that is wildly popular in countries such as India, has introduced a client for PCs running Windows or Mac OS. This is the first time the company has gone beyond mobile applications. The messaging service, owned by Facebook, has almost completely replaced text messaging in India, the world’s second largest telecom […]

Career Launcher unveils DU Admission guidance service

Career Launcher, which runs a host of test-preparation services, has announced a unique service to help and guide applicants to Delhi University colleges. Upon registering on the firm’s website, “students are redirected to a panel of expert counselors, who will analyze the individual’s profile and the options available, to help in deciding the best combination […]

Porn on Phone? You could go to prison for 3 years

People carrying pornographic or other indecent material on their phones can end up getting prison terms of up to three years under a new law proposed by the ministry of women and child development headed by Maneka Gandhi. Under the ‘Indecent Representation of Women Act’, anyone possessing printed content, drawings and films “which contains indecent […]

WhatsApp starts rolling out ‘verified accounts’ with IndusInd Bank

WhatsApp, the biggest interpersonal text-messaging platform in India, has started rolling out its ‘verified accounts’ feature with IndusInd Bank as one of its first customers. For now, verified accounts are limited to businesses, and will be used to assure customers that they are communicating with the official, and authorized, phone number of a business or […]

Jio users need to click on app to extend Prime membership

Contrary to rumors, Reliance Jio is not giving an automatic extension in Jio prime membership to all its users, but existing members have to ‘express their interest’ through the company’s selfcare application. “Express your interest to get complimentary membership for the next 12 months,” the company said in a ‘how to’ statement for its existing […]

Kotak Mahindra Bank grows customer base by 50% in 9 months with Aadhaar eKYC

Kotak Mahindra Bank said its customer base increased by 50% in nine months after it launched a mobile app to facilitate quick opening of bank accounts using Aadhaar. The company launched an app called 811 on March 29, 2017, three months after the Reserve Bank of India allowed banks to establish their customer’s identity by […]

India’s T-Series becomes most-viewed Youtube channel

Thanks to the explosion of data connectivity unleashed by Reliance Jio and other operators, an Indian company has emerged as by far the most popular channel on Youtube by number of views. According to Youtube tracking service Social Blade, Indian record label T-Series today has hit monthly views of close to 2 bln (200 cr) […]

JioTV adds multi-camera, multi-mic feature; VR coming soon

Reliance Jio, the 4G operator, said users of its JioTV streaming app can now choose any of the five camera angles while watching the ongoing Nidahas trophy as part of a new ‘interactive TV’ feature. Similarly, they can also choose to listen to different mics, such as the one on the stump or the stadium […]

Tata Sky takes on JioTV with free video streaming website for users

Tata Sky, the country’s largest distributor of television content, has taken decided to take on JioTV and other emerging content distributors with an online streaming website of its own. The DTH provider’s online video and TV service can be accessed at ‘watch.tatasky.com‘ and currently has around 250 live television channels, compared to over 550 on […]