Loop Mobile Announces Lowest Rate Guarantee Plans

With over 3 million GSM subscribers in Mumbai circle, City’s oldest GSM Mobile Service Operator Loop Mobile (formerly BPL Mobile) in a latest move has come out with Daily Decrement add-on packs on the lowest rates for all prepaid subscribers dubbed as “Lowest Rate Guarantee Plans”.

Loop Mobile’s Prepaid customers can club the 5 different Lowest Rate Guarantee Plans just by one SMS for plan activation as their needs and suitability.

Under Lowest Rate Guarantee Plans, subscriber can opt STD at 50p, Loop To Loop local call for 1p/6sec, Local Calls to any network in Mumbai at 30p/min, and All OwnNet calls 10p/min.

Here are the Details :

Nokia launches Nokia X1-00, Cheapest Entry Level Music Phone

Nokia’s first new handset announcement in 2011, the Nokia X1-00 is budget phone for all you music lovers.

A powerful speaker rated at 106phon (a phon is a measure of perceived loudness – 106 of them is enough to rattle your window frames, apparently) on the back that can play audio over the noisy sounds of traffic and other loud ambient noise.

It’s a good looking phone specially tailored for Indian market that combines typically smart Nokia design with some characteristic elements (such as the curved back) that mark it out as an X-series device.

There are also three dedicated music keys, 3.5mm audio jack, a stereo headset in the box, FM radio and support for microSD cards (up to 16GB) along with a single-key playlist creator.

Nokia X1-00 Specifications:

Dimensions : 112.2 x 47.3 x 16 mm

Weight : 91.1 g

128 x 160 pixels

Symbian Series 30 OS

FM Radio

3.5mm audio jack

Music Player with Dedicated Keys

Three dedicated player keys and a Single-key playlist creator

Torch Light

microSD Card slot up to 16GB

Stand-by battery life is 61 days ( Battery – Li-Ion 1320 mAh)

The Nokia X1-00 is scheduled to be available in Orange, Ocean blue and Dark grey in selected markets beginning in April. It should cost around  Rs. 2100 before taxes and subsidies.

India’s 3G Connections To Hit 400M Within Four Years

The numbers of 3G subscriber connections in India are forecast to reach 400 million within four years, representing almost 30 percent of the country’s total.

According to a new Wireless Intelligence study, India 3G rollout (forecasts and market shares 2011 – 2015).

Seven Indian operators acquired 3G spectrum last year in addition to the two state-owned operators (BSNL and MTNL) that had already been awarded 3G airwaves ahead of the private auctions.

The study notes that over 80 percent of 3G connections will be based on WCDMA in five years, with the remaining 20 percent on CDMA-based 3G networks.Operators Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) have both offered 3G CDMA for a decade; but both are also in the process of migrating to GSM/WCDMA and were the first two private operators to launch services using new WCDMA spectrum in Q4 2010.

Reliance and TTSL are set to command 3G market shares of 39 percent and 30 percent, respectively, this year (see table).However, 2011 has already seen a succession of rival launches – including Bharti (in January), Aircel (February) and Vodafone (March) – and Wireless Intelligence forecasts that all new WCDMA-based operators will have launched services by June 2011.

This means that, by 2015, 3G market shares will more closely resemble the overall national picture: Bharti – India’s largest operator – is forecast to command the largest 3G share (18 percent), followed by Reliance (15 percent) and BSNL (13 percent) (see table).

The study notes that India’s Circle A and Circle B service areas will account for 75 percent of the country’s 3G connections by 2015. Even though initial 3G rollouts are concentrated in the so-called metro areas (Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata) they will soon be outstripped by fast-growing demand for 3G in more populous regions such as Punjab, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana, the report says.

But the situation is complicated by the fact that no 3G operator is able to offer a nationwide service, which will require network sharing and roaming between operators. Pricing 3G services appropriately in a market where around 200 million prospective users live on less than US$2 a day is also set to be a major challenge.

Tata Indicom Introduces ULTA SMS Pack For Its Prepaid Customers

Tata Indicom today announced the launch of ULTA SMS PACK for its prepaid customers across India.

ULTA SMS PACK allow customers to send all STD SMSes at 5paise/SMS with this new pack, customers will be able to send all local SMSes at 10paise/SMS, thereby making the cost of STD messaging actually, even less than the local messaging.

ULTA SMS PACK is similar to Ulta Plan, where in STD calls are cheaper than local calls. By availing this pack, customers can send STD SMSes at 5 paise/SMS and local SMSes at 10 paise/SMS up to 100 SMSes per day.

Post sending 100 SMSes per day, all local SMSes will be charged at Rs. 1 per SMS and STD SMSes at Rs.1.5  per SMS. While on roaming SMSes will be charged at Rs. 3/- per SMS and ISD SMSes will be charged at Rs. 5 per SMS.

To activate ULTA SMS PACK, pre-paid customers have to send an SMS ‘SMSULTA’ to 12524. Subscription charges of this pack are Rs. 11/- for 30 days. ULTA SMS PACK will be activated and benefits will be credited to customer within 48 hours.

Uninor Launches Soochna Shakti VAS To Empower Rural Women

Uninor last week announced the launch of  ‘Soochna Shakti’, a revolutionary Value Added Service to empower rural women.

The service was launched by Smt. Pratibha Patil, Hon. President of India at an event organised at Vigyan Bhawan earlier today.

This service will not only help in empowerment of rural women but they will also benefit from other aspects of the service including English learning.

This innovative VAS by Uninor ‘Soochna Shakti’ will deliver information, expert advice and news alerts on health, education, self employment and finance on an IVR portal which can be accessed by dialing a short code from anywhere at any time.

Uninor’s ‘Soochna Shakti’ can be deployed across multiple models of handsets which require customers to simply dial into a voice portal which will be in their local languages. ‘Soochna Shakti’ is being launched as a pilot project on a group of selected Self Help Group (SHG) women in the Uninor Hand in Hand Citizen Centre initiative.

Spectranet Partners With Aircel To Deploy Wi-Fi Hot-Spots

Spectranet has partnered with Aircel to offer high speed Internet access to Aircel customers on Wi-Fi. Spectranet Wi-Fi service can be accessed by Aircel subscribers on all kinds of Wi-Fi enabled devices including mobile phones, laptops and tablets.

Aircel subscribers can access the Wi-Fi services by latching onto the “aircel_spectranet” SSID and following a simple two-step registration process.

Spectranet, as preferred partner of Aircel, will deploy and manage core & access service infrastructure for Wi-Fi services in 6 Metros enabling seamless authentication solution for both post-paid and pre-paid subscribers.

This service will enable seamless Internet access for Aircel subscribers across Aircel GSM/3G network and Spectranet Wi-Fi network. Spectranet’s mobile data offload platform enables seamless traffic handover between GSM & WiFi networks.

The system allows mobile smartphone users to be automatically logged in & out of Wi-Fi hotspots without having to enter username and password each time.The technology platform has been supplied by leading Indian OSS/BSS vendor Inventum Technologies which is also behind several other leading network deployments. It is notable that this is the first ever deployment of 2G & 3G mobile data offload to WiFi within India.

Spectranet has deployed Wi-Fi network at over 1000 hot-spots across six metros Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad. Over the next five years Spectranet plans to invest Rs. 500 Crore to expand its services across 50,000 hot spots and over 5 million households.

Google Maps for Android Phones Now With Twitter Integration

World most popular Mobile Map application Google Maps recently launched new version with the couple of exciting new features, bit similar to Foursquare.

The New Google Maps version 5.2 for Android Smartphones enables  Share Check-in with your friends connected with Latitude and also share or publish your position in your Google profile as well as Twitter. It also integrated with the a variety of locations corresponding roughly to where you were located and whats nearby you.

The improved Google Maps for Android feature ‘pings’ for Latitude, Hotpot Tweets and enhanced search results.

Previously, Google Maps for Mobile, location enabled sharing recommendations with Hotpot friends or connected network only. With the V5.2. one can post their ratings and reviews of places like shops, cafes and restaurants directly to their Twitter accounts from their Android-powered smartphone. This can be done by simply choosing the ‘Post review to Twitter’ option from the rating widget.

Instead of texting or calling close by Latitude friends when they are spotted on the Google Map, users can now swiftly ‘ping’ them. The Latitude ping feature will send a notification to the concerned person’s Android mobile device, asking them to check in at a particular place. This ‘ping’ attribute requires both friends to use version 5.2 of the app.