RBI approves proposal to allow mobile phone companies mortgage airwaves
Economic Times
The Reserve Bank of India has approved the proposal to allow mobile phone companies to mortgage airwaves, a move that will allow telcos to use spectrum as collateral and raise funds from banks for the upcoming auctions. The RBI has said that banks will be allowed to seize airwaves in the event of a default or cancellation of mobile permits. Banks will enjoy the rights to sell, transfer, assign, exchange and dispose the airwaves without any restraining conditions to protect their interests, the Central Bank said in a May 30 communication to the finance ministry. The Finance Ministry has endorsed the RBI stance. The RBI nod is significant in the light of the August 31 deadline for spectrum auction.

Government to provide preference to domestic telecom equipment
Economic Times
In a further clarification on the domestic front, even though India remains committed to manufacturing telecom gear domestically to ensure meeting security standards, it will however remain consistent with the WTO requirements. "The government will provide preference to domestically manufactured telecom products in procurement of those products which have security implications for the country and in government procurement for its own use, consistent with our WTO commitments," the National Telecom Policy document said. It will also promote setting up of telecommunications standard development organisation (TSDO) as an autonomous body to drive consensus regarding standards to meet national requirements, including security needs.

NTT DoCoMo mulls increasing stake in Tata Teleservices
Hindu Business Line
Japanese telecom major NTT DoCoMo has the opportunity to increase its stake in Tata Teleservices over the next month. NTT DoCoMo can take its share holding from 26 percent at present to up to 49 percent under a call option agreed between the two parties four years ago. Call option gives an investor the right but not the obligation to buy shares at a pre-determined price. NTT DoCoMo had acquired the 26 percent in Tata Teleservices in 2008 for $2.7 billion. If it exercises the call option now, the Japanese company will be able to get the additional stake at the same price per share, according to sources. Under the shareholders agreement, DoCoMo can also exercise this option two years later in March 2014 but at that stage the selling price will be renegotiated.

Telcos oppose move to impose one-time tax on telecom towers using subsidized diesel
Economic Times
COAI representing GSM operators, AUSPI representing CDMA operators, and TAIPA a body of tower companies came out together on June 12, to oppose TEMA's suggestion of levying a one-time tax on telecom towers for using subsidised diesel, saying it was "misleading, uncalled for, and devoid of any merit." Telecom Equipment Manufacturers' Association of India (TEMA) had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh alleging that telecom towers were using up to Rs 4,300-crore worth of subsidised diesel every year, which was meant for the rural poor, farmers and bulk transport systems. TEMA said the levy of a one-time tax would create another source of finance for the exchequer and ensure that service operators and tower firms start adopting power-efficient infrastructure operating on greener source of energy much faster.

15 Indian Telecom Companies feature in Top 500 Telecom Brands 2012
Cool Avenues
BrandFinance, the world's leading brand valuation consultancy, has revealed the list of 'Top 500 Telecom Brands 2012'. The list includes 15 Indian brands, with Bharati Airtel taking the top spot among Indian brands and 27th spot world-wide, followed by Idea, Reliance Communications, and Tata Communications who appeared at 93, 96, and 163 positions respectively. State-run MTNL was at 297. BrandFinance Global 500 employs a discounted cash flow (DCF) technique to discount estimated future royalties, at an appropriate discount rate, to arrive at a net present value (NPV) of the trademark and associated intellectual property: the brand value.

CBI probes FDI cap violation by International Long Distance service provider
Economic Times
The CBI has begun a probe into alleged violations related to Foreign Direct Investment cap by a company - Data Access India Limited - after it was issued a license for International Long Distance (ILD) telephony service in 2002. Though the government withdrew the license in 2005 due to non-compliance of terms and conditions, the matter was pending before the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) which referred the case to CBI in March this year, official sources said.

Anil Agarwal frontrunner for new Telenor JV
Economic Times
Norwegian telecom major, Telenor is in advanced talks to rope in Anil Agarwal to set up a new telecom joint venture in India after severing ties with it's erstwhile partner, Unitech, three independent sources familiar with the development said. Anil Agarwal is expected to enter the telecom venture in a personal capacity and not through any of his listed companies in Vedanta Group.

Spectrum auctioneer should get minimum fee in case auction fails
Economic Times
A prospective auctioneer for the telecom spectrum auction demanded that the government pay a minimum fee in case of a failure of the auction. "Please fix a minimum fee for the auctioneer in case the auction fails due to any reason," the prospective auctioneer said at pre-bid conference held on June 12. The Request For Proposal (RFP) floated by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has made a provision to pay maximum of Rs 10 lakh in case the auction fails only if the outcome of auction is not accepted by government.

'Money-On-Mobile' launches mobile payment services for Indian consumer
Business Standard
My Mobile Payments Ltd. (MMPL), a mobile payment service provider, has announced the launch of 'Money-on-Mobile' (MOM), an M-Wallet service which permits a mobile phone subscriber to purchase a wide range of goods and services using the mobile phone instead of paying by cash, cheque, debit or credit cards, for the Indian market. MOM allows the Indian consumer to load their mobile phones with cash of various denominations, minimum being INR 20. MOM's service operates independent of the consumer's mobile operator or bank, and hence any mobile subscriber can avail of its services through the SMS or mobile application-based platform. MOM has a strong network of 82,000 retailer touch points pan-India and a presence in 300 cities.

Amazon Cloud Player App now available for iPhone and iPod touch
Cellular News
Amazon announced its Cloud Player App for iPhone and iPod touch which is now available for Apple devices. Until now it had been an Android app only. Customers using the Amazon Cloud Player App can stream, download, and manage their music in the cloud, eliminating the need to download files before playing them. With this new app, customers have full access to their Cloud Player music libraries and also can seamlessly add playlists that are currently on their iPhone or iPod touch.

A new system architecture speeds up the use of mobile phone applications
Phys.Org
A smart phone is an interface through which a person can browse digital content embedded in the environment, otherwise known as ubimedia. For example, a ubimedia tag can be embedded in an advertising poster in place of a network address. Scanning this smart tag makes it possible to download material from the network. The architecture developed by Jantunen and his research group can be used to generate a battery-free smart tag from which the data can be downloaded directly to the phone faster and with less power use, without using the telephone network. The system architecture also allows a new type of high-speed wireless internet access that conserves the phone's battery and makes it possible to get the maximum benefit from smart phone applications. The connection was demonstrated at a speed of 112 Mbit/s, but it can be scaled to a higher speed as well.

Indian brands turn on the heat with Android, innovative features: TMI Survey
The Mobile Indian
The Android operating system has taken the smartphone market by storm, and currently enjoys a market share of around 55 percent worldwide. In India, too, consumers have been drawn to the platform, especially towards affordable Android-based handsets. Indian handset marketers seem to have capitalised on consumer sentiment quite rightly and this is reflected in the Handset Hotlist survey (June, 2012) of The Mobile Indian. Three of the 15 Android handsets that made it to the list are from Indian players Karbonn and Micromax.

Huawei and ZTE remain on top of 2011 mobile broadband modem market
Cellular News
The computing and mobile consumer electronics world is decidedly more connected after 2011. More than 132 million modems shipped worldwide in 2011 for use in personal computing (PC) and consumer electronics (CE) applications. China's Huawei led all modem vendors in 2011 with 47% of all worldwide shipments, a lead it has retained since 2007. Fellow China-based supplier ZTE continued to hold the number two market share for the fourth straight year at 30%. These modems come in four distinct form-factors: PC cards, USB sticks, embedded modem modules, and mobile hotspot routers.

Microsoft to introduce more localised apps
Business Standard
To cash in on the growing demand of smartphone in India and to have bigger pie of the market, Microsoft (Windows Phone OS) is aggressively working on apps and planning to introduce more localised applications to the users.

IT leaders open up about Mobile app trends in the enterprise
Motorola
Organizations striving to achieve or maintain a competitive edge are increasingly turning to mobile devices and applications to help them respond to business needs more promptly and effectively. Recent research supports that trend: A survey conducted by IDG Research Services found that IT leaders believe mobility will play a key role in their ability to increase efficiency, control costs, and improve customer service