Reliance Jio is fast appointing distributors for its SIM cards across the country and giving them a working target of launching commercial 4G services early in March, according to one person who signed up as a distributor this week. “They’re promising supply of dongles and SIMs in February and saying that commercial launch will take place […]
Many fans who were hoping to buy Reliance Jio SIM cards on January 1 were left disappointed to learn that the company’s 4G launch was only for employees as of now. UPDATE: Jio has decided to go for an invite system by bundling SIM cards with LYF 4G phones. They will be available in the […]
Mukesh Ambani, son of Dhirubhai Ambani and chairman of Reliance Industries, launched the group’s latest initiative, Reliance Jio Infocomm’ 4G service in Mumbai on Sunday and urged the employees to test and give feedback on the network. Though the launch did not give any details such as when exactly the 4G service will be opened […]
Facebook, the world’s largest social media company, said it will explore the option of putting advertising in its ‘free Internet’ platform – Free Basics. Participating in a discussion on Reddit, Facebook’s Vice President in charge of Internet.org, Chris Daniels said it’s a possibility the company will look at in the future. Facebook had come under […]
Facebook’s Vice President in charge of Internet.org, Chris Daniels will answer ‘any questions’ on the discussion website Reddit at 6 pm today. The move comes in the wake of an uproar in social media in India over what many perceive as Facebook’s attempt to take over the Internet, especially in lower-income countries like India. Daniels […]
Idea Cellular, the country’s third biggest telecom operator and holder of 4G spectrum, is offering 1 GB of 4G data in 190 cities spread over eight states as part of a ‘pre-book’ offer. The scheme is applicable only to those who have Idea phone numbers. Subscribers will have to also change their SIMs to a […]
Facebook, the world’s biggest social network, is prompting its users to send a submission to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to save its ‘Free Basics’ program, urging them to fight the “small, vocal group” of net neutrality activists. “A small, vocal group of critics are lobbying to have Free Basics banned on the basis […]
The latest consultation paper by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on telecom providers charging different prices for browsing different websites — the so-called differential pricing of data — comes across as a breath of fresh air after the last one, issued under former chairman Rahul Khullar. While Khullar started with the assumption that net […]
Idea Cellular, holder of the biggest amount of 4G spectrum in the 1800 MHz band, has opened registration for its 4G service in over 150 cities across eight of 12 circles where it plans to launch the service. These eight circles are the four southern states, Punjab & Haryana in the north and Orissa and […]
Customers of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications Ltd may be able to use 4G services from next month thanks to an agreement with Reliance Jio, according to sources. Jio, as we have already reported, is scheduled to launch its services by the end of this month and the company’s subscribers will be eligible to use RCom’s […]
Back in 2011, when 3G services were starting to be launched, there would be new announcements every three or four weeks from each operator on new tariff plans. Some would offer ‘free 3G’ along with voice recharge, some would offer combo plans, some heavy usage plans such as 10 GB for Rs 999 and so […]
To counter the tremendous threat posed by Reliance Jio, the biggest telecom company in India Bharti Airtel has launched a massive network transformation program called Project Leap. “Aimed at perceptibly improving network quality and delivering the best customer experience, this strategic project will see an investment of Rs. 60,000 crore in the next 3 years,” […]
Reliance Jio has started testing its network in Kerala in cities like Thrissur, according to industry sources, and is only days away from completing its infrastructure work in most places in the state. An employee of the company was able to demonstrate decent 4G speeds using a phone made by LG Electronics. The operator will give more handsets […]
Google India has cancelled its three-year-old annual shopping event – the Great Online Shopping Festival, taking a step back to let the big giants like Flipkart and Amazon do their own thing. As Google pointed out, back in 2012, when it launched Great Online Shopping Festival to rival USA’s Cyber Monday, the total online shopping Industry […]
After bravely going where no others dared, state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has cut the validity of its Rs 68 3G recharge scheme from 5 days to just 3 days. The 1-GB-for-Rs-68 scheme was launched by BSNL in the beginning of this year and had instantly become a big hit as it was extremely cheap […]
The latest quarterly numbers released by Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular point to an interest fact — both have increased the rate of 3G deployment by 100% or more. Bharti Airtel, for example, added 9,561 new 3G towers in India during the three months ended September, compared to only around 4,060 new towers added in […]
With spectrum trading rules promulgated, all eyes are on two key players — Aircel Cellular and Tata Teleservices — wondering whether they will sell coveted 3G and 4G spectrum held with them. Operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular are known to be keen to buy spectrum from these operators. Adding fuel to speculation […]
The Indian government today implemented perhaps the most awaited reform in the telecom sector in recent years — spectrum trading. Trading will be allowed for all spectrum acquired through auctions or for which ‘market rates’ have been paid. Largely as expected, the norms however have hit MTS — owned by Russia’s Sistema — badly as […]
Idea Cellular, Vodafone India and Bharti Airtel are known to have started offering aggressive discounts on their 3G plans to their customers via promotional offers and SMSes ahead of Reliance Jio’s launch. All three are already offering 1 GB of 3G data for Rs 149 as opposed to Rs 249 earlier. However, the discounts don’t […]
Bharti Airtel is trying to address a key weakness in the lucrative market of Kerala — the lack of a 3G network — by going aggressively with its 4G roll-out. The biggest cities, Kochi and Calicut, have already got LTE services from the company, while most of the cities in the state will be covered […]
