Vodafone to enter enterprise services market as voice business takes a hit
Economic Times
Vodafone Essar, India's second-largest wireless operator by revenue, is entering the fast-growing enterprise services market in a move seen as an attempt to offset the falling voice business in the face of savage competition. The company will launch fixed-line enterprise services to cater to both small enterprises and big conglomerates next month, Vodafone Group's director for global business services Tom Craig said.

MTNL invites bids from telcos for 3G roaming in its network
Economic Times
State-owned MTNL has invited bids from operators who could not get 3G spectrum in Delhi and Mumbai, in the auction held last month, to provide roaming facility for their 3G subscribers in the PSU's network. This provides the PSU with a business opportunity to earn an annual revenue of up to Rs 300 crore, significant to make its 3G operations commercially viable, according to MTNL CMD Kuldeep Singh.

Olive Telecom in alliance with Tata Tele
Economic Times
Olive Telecommunication announced a strategic alliance with Tata Teleservices and launched two new convergence devices here Thursday. Slated to be available in the market in a week's time, the Olive Nexus V-R9 is a travel router with multiple connectivity options like EDGE, 3G, EVDO, ADSL and WiMAX. The Wi-fi buggle also allows multi users.

Tata Tele keeps Rs 1000 cr as capex for 3G operations
Financial Express
Tata Teleservices on Thursday said that its incremental capital expenditure for 3G services will be not more than Rs 1,000 crore. The company has won 3G licences in nine of the 22 telecom circles in the country for Rs 10,635.15 crore. "Our networks are already 3G-compliant, we just have to work on the 3G configuration, a part which will cost us very little. Hence, the incremental capex for us wil be less," said Anil Sardana, MD of TTSL.

PMO refers 2G issue to EGoM
Business Standard
The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has decided to refer the proposal of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to link the price of 2G spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz with the recently-concluded 3G auction to an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. The decision had been communicated to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The EGoM had been constituted to resolve the battle between DoT and the defence ministry on vacation of 3G spectrum for auction. Communications minister A Raja, among other ministers, is also part of the EGoM.

BSNL lashes out at Trai for taking only private calls
Economic Times
State-owned BSNL has accused telecom regulator Trai of conniving with private mobile firms, especially new operators that obtained licences in 2008, to destroy the company. These allegations mark BSNL's harshest-ever criticism of the country's telecom regulator. This comes within days of large private operators viz. Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular, boycotting Trai's latest consultation process to fix the price of second-generation (2G) wireless spectrum, citing lack of transparency by the regulator.

Uninor's eyes 24000 one-on-one dealer meets in Gujarat
Business Standard
Having already reached out to about 15,000 of its dealers in Gujarat, Uninor, a joint venture between Norwegian telecom major Telenor and Unitech Ltd., is targeting in all 24,000 one-on-one dealer meets. Launched in Gujarat as part of one of its strategic marketing plans to increase its market share in the 11 operators strong circle, the dealer meet campaign involves one-on-one meetings and training workshops for dealers.

Bharti Airtel launches "Talk-to-me"
MobiGyaan
Bharti Airtel has launched the first-of-its-kind revolutionary product "Talk to me on Airtel". his new product will now enable Airtel subscribers across Karnataka to connect and interact with their favorite superstars live at a touch of the button.

Tele vendors may have to submit source code
Economic Times
All telecom gear makers keen to do business in India will have to deposit source codes and detailed design for all products and services they sell here into a government-controlled escrow account to comply with the new draft security guidelines. The 26-page draft regulation says Indian mobile operators will be free to modify these vendor equipment source codes in the event of a security threat to their networks.

3G: Financing could delay services rollout
Economic Times
3G is seen as a service that will usher in new kinds of services such streaming video on the mobile at much higher speeds than 2G. So the possibility of generating high revenues and hopefully high profits has egged on companies to put in winning bids.
The recently concluded 3G auctions will contribute Rs 67,719 crore (nearly 60% of the sector revenues) with Rs 50, 968 crore from the private sector and Rs 16,751 crore from BSNL and MTNL. The government is a clear winner.

Mobile expense management-taking the big picture view
quocirca
Managing mobile costs is a challenge for all organisations, especially as responsibilities and budget authority may often sit in several places--IT, finance, personnel, managers and, of course, the employees themselves. This situation becomes even more complex and problematic for those organisations that span across countries or have to use multiple suppliers within one country. Getting to grips with these costs in a way that does not undermine the value of mobile flexibility is paramount, and organisations need to gather sufficient detail to effectively manage and analyse their mobile costs.