Category: Technology

MUMBAI: Conax, a solutions provider for protecting multi-device content distribution, has launched integrated CI+ CAM (Conditional Access Module) which along with a smart card can be bundled into one single, integrated and pre-paired solution.

CI + CAM is a result of partnership with leading conditional access modules developer SMIT Corporation. The new solution, according to manufacturers, is ideal for a secondary TV in the consumer home, is ready to use in any CI or CI+ IDTV.

Conax CEO Morten Solbakken said, “Conax has teamed up with a strategic partner to deliver a world class solution – the industry‘s first integrated CI+ Module. This new Conax partner solution will provide operators with significant benefits in terms of reduced logistics and savings on customer care, while maintaining the high level of security they have come to expect from Conax.”

“The introduction of the integrated CI+ Module represents another strategic deployment and innovative breakthrough in CAM products. We are excited to be chosen as Conax‘ partner on such an important new product that can help proliferate digital pay TV subscription through simplicity and affordability. SMIT has been supplying millions of CAM products to Conax‘ customers in the past seven years and looks forward to maintaining our close relationship,” said SMIT president Hongyu Shuai.

NEW DELHI: The government has allotted Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) Spectrum for 4G services to six different service providers through auction apart from BSNL and MTNL.
 
Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology Milind Deora informed the Lok Sabha today that BSNL has provided 50077 connections through 4G/WiMAX and Bharti Airtel 3180 subscribers through 4G network.
 
In August 2011 Trai released a consultation paper “IMT Advances Mobile Wireless Broadband Services”. Comments have been received from 23 stakeholders. The comments received are being examined by the sector regulator.

NEW DELHI: Stung by the cancellation of 2G licences by the Supreme Court earlier this year, the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) today announced that it will not participate in the 2G auction in November.

This follows the publication by the Communications and Information Technology Ministry of the Information Memorandum for the planned Auction of Spectrum in 1800MHz and 800MHz Bands.
 
Etisalat – whose headquarters are in Abu Dhabi, UAE – said in a terse statement that it believed that the Indian telecommunications industry has significant potential and it has high regard for the Indian Government, its judiciary, and its regulatory bodies and “wishes a positive outcome for the forthcoming auction”.
 
Earlier this year, Etisalat DB, the joint venture between Etisalat and India‘s DB Group, had announced closure of its services in India following the Supreme Court canceling 122 spectrum licences. These included 15 of Etisalat, which had over 1.6 million subscribers.

Etisalat has already written off its investments worth $827 million in Etisalat DB.

MUMBAI: BBC has launched mobile downloads for its iPlayer. This enables users to download BBC‘s TV programmes directly to the smartphone or tablet for free, and keep them to enjoy for up to 30 days.

For the first time, programmes on BBC iPlayer’s app are available wherever the user wants to watch them, without having Wi-Fi or 3G signal. Users can use this underground, on planes, or any location where internet access is beyond reach. Programmes downloaded from the UK can also be viewed abroad for up to 30 days. Once the user has pressed play, he/she can keep watching for seven more days.
 
BBC iPlayer has helped pioneer TV on demand by offering audiences the opportunity to watch selected TV programmes for up to seven days after broadcast. The new mobile downloads feature is initially available on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices and will come to Android devices soon.

This launch builds on BBC iPlayer’s strategy to move beyond the PC and make more quality BBC content available across mobile, tablet and internet connected TVs, delivering increased value to audiences. 
 
BBC GM, programmes, on-demand Daniel Danker said, “With mobile downloads for BBC iPlayer, you can now load up your mobile phone or tablet with hours and hours of BBC television programmes, then watch them on the road, on the tube, on a plane, without worrying about having an internet connection or running up a mobile data bill. Viewers have up to 30 days to begin watching a downloaded programme, so you can even fill up your device and take the BBC with you on holiday.”

The BBC iPlayer app can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store. Audiences who already have the BBC iPlayer app installed will be prompted to update their app via the iTunes App Store.

MUMBAI: Nebula, the cloud systems company, has closed $25 million Series B financing round led by Comcast Ventures, the venture capital arm of Comcast and NBCUniversal, with significant participation from Highland Capital Partners and included Kleiner Perkins, Innovation Endeavors and industry luminaries Andy Bechtolsheim, David Cheriton and Ram Shriram.

Investors that participated include Harris Barton, William Hearst III, Scott McNealy and Maynard Webb additionally Silicon Valley Bank is providing additional debt and credit facilities to the company.

“We‘re delighted to have the support of investors who have such remarkable track records of success as we continue on our path to make on-premise private cloud computing a reality for all businesses,” said Nebula CEO and co-founder Chris C. Kemp.
 
Nebula is now powering next-generation cloud infrastructures in market-leading biotech, financial services and media companies in a private beta program that began in March. This investment will allow Nebula to expand the number of companies that will be able to participate in the beta, continue to expand its product and engineering teams, build a petascale test system, and accelerate development and testing of its product.

“We invest in companies that innovate with open source projects and teams that are focused on creating game-changing disruption. After spending several years looking at this market, we are confident that Nebula is the company that will bring private cloud infrastructure to the enterprise,” said Comcast Ventures MD Louis Toth.
 
 
Nebula, co-founded by former NASA CTO and OpenStack co-founder Chris C. Kemp, has assembled a team of more than 50 engineers inspired by the opportunity to pioneer a new era of enterprise computing.

In addition to Dave Withers, former Dell Executive and Senior Vice President of Field Operations, and Jon Mittelhauser, Netscape co-founder and VP of Engineering, Nebula now employs four OpenStack project technical leads, and the engineers responsible for a large percentage of the code in OpenStack.

“We are very excited to have an opportunity to make a significant investment in this round. We believe that Nebula and OpenStack is at the nexus of a historical shift in enterprise computing,” said Highland Capital Partners General Partner Peter Bell.

MUMBAI: Den Networks, Hathway Cable & Datacom, Incablenet, Digicable WWIL (Siti cable), has earmarked Rs 50 million to promote its subsidised set-top box (STB) offering in Mumbai and Delhi.

The MSO body had recently launched a promotional offer for consumers in Mumbai and Delhi to avail the STBs at a subsidised price of Rs 799.

MSO Alliance has already spent close to Rs 15 million on print ads in leading publications like Times of India, Hindustan Times, DNA, Economic Times, Navbharat Times and Maharashtra Times.
 
“We (MSO Alliance) will spend close to Rs 50 million to promote the offer. We have already spent Rs 15 million out of it. We have issued ads in several publications in Mumbai and Delhi,” Den Networks CEO and MSO Alliance secretary SN Sharma said.

The MSOs will revise the price of the STBs after 30 September in Mumbai and Delhi. MSO Alliance will also offer subsidised STBs in Kolkata in within 20 days.

“We are not launching the offer in Chennai since none of the MSO Alliance MSOs are present in the city,” Sharma added.
 
The MSO Alliance is also carrying out below-the-line activities like street plays. It is engaging Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) to do live demos to educate customers about the benefits of digitisation.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting revised the deadline for full digitisation of the four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai to 31 October from the earlier deadline of 30 June to allow platforms and consumers more time to convert to digital.

MUMBAI: Direct-to-home service provider Videocon d2h has added two new High Definition channels Zee Cinema HD and Zee Studio HD on its platform, expanding its HD offering to 22 channels.

The two channels are available on the Videocon d2h platform from 31 August onwards under HD packs.

Videocon d2h Director Saurabh Dhoot said, “Videocon d2h intends to continue introducing new channels and services by recognizing the needs of the consumers.

There is a special focus on High Definition channels; the addition of these HD channels is a definite step towards that aim which provides us a definite edge. We want to be able to surpass customer expectations and bring highest quality entertainment to their doorstep.”

The Videocon d2h provides 400+ channels and services on its platform.

MUMBAI: Video-on-demand service provider BIGFlix has bolstered its Telugu offering with the addition of more than two hundred popular Telugu titles like Anandabhairavi, April 1st Vidudhala, Bavagaru Baagunnara, Devadasu, Kick, Don Seenu, and Ragada.

The addition will add to Big Flix‘ catalog of 1000+ movies across Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and other Indian languages.

Reliance Digital CEO Manish Agarwal said, “Big Flix aims to be the most preferred choice of Indians/ South Asians to watch Indian movies and we have seen a great demand for Telugu movies. We have selected the best of catalogue of Telugu movies across various genres. I am sure that our subscribers in India and abroad will enjoy watching them. Over the next few months we shall also be adding a large number of Telugu movies to keep up the excitement.”

The newly added Telugu catalogue will be available to users on all leading platforms like PCs, iPad, iPhone and Android Tablets and Smartphones. Consumers can access BIGFlix by paying subscription fee of Rs. 249 per month ($4.99 for international subscribers).

MUMBAI: Leading telecommunications Bharti Airtel has launched ‘my airtel‘ app for Airtel customers in India which will allow Airtel customers to avail of services like recharge accounts, make payment, activate deactivate any service, raise requests-complaints amongst others.

Additionally, Airtel digital TV customers can also order movies and games, without any assistance from the customer care.

Bharti Airtel President-Consumer Business K Srinivas said, “Data consumption in India has seen a sharp uptake. Today, Indian customers are increasingly accessing online content through cool apps as opposed to the conventional route of logging through browsers. In tune with these changes, we are pleased to launch our intuitive ‘my airtel‘ app that has been designed to empower our customers and help them manage all their airtel services, effortlessly. The app comes with a smart layer of intelligence that will allow our customers to discover, access and self-manage a slew of services.”

The usual download charges depending on the subscriber data connection will apply for downloading the application as well as accessing the application. For non-airtel internet users, there will also be one time SMS charge for authentication to their respective telecom operators.

MUMBAI: SatLink Communications, a leading teleport delivering content to every corner of the world, has renewed deal with Euronews to transmit the 24-hour news channel on SatLink‘s AsiaSat 5 C-band Multiple Channels Per Carrier (MCPC) digital platform.

Euronews will use AsiaSat 5 as a gateway to extend its channel coverage in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East regions. Euronews will continue to broadcast in ten languages alongside SatLink and AsiaSat 5‘s growing list of leading international news broadcasters such as France 24, NTV-MIR and Al Jazeera and leading news agencies including Thomson Reuters and APTN.

Euronews Deputy Director Worldwide Distribution Arnaud Verlhac said, “SatLink‘s state-of-the-art infrastructure, teleport facilities and strategic location has enabled us to distribute our content from Europe in one seamless hop to the Asia Pacific mass markets. As a multi-lingual news organisation that is working to connect the west to the east, we needed a partner and premium satellite that was not only able to connect us with all of the major terrestrial, satellite, cable, IPTV platforms, but that would also be able to give us immediate access to the growing pay TV market across Asia. By renewing this commitment we have the added benefit that most Asian hotels downlink from AsiaSat 5, further expanding our audience reach.”

He continued: “In renewing this agreement we know we are alongside other reputable news organisations taking advantage of the benefits AsiaSat 5 can provide; it is, reliable and well established, helping us directly reach almost two thirds of the world‘s broadcast population via one satellite. SatLink‘s ability to provide the full end-to-end broadcast solution that we required for our distribution from Europe validated our decision to continue using its unrivalled services on AsiaSat 5.”

SatLink CEO David Hochner added, “We are delighted and honoured that Euronews has renewed its agreement with SatLink to distribute its content from Europe to the Asian market. The region has seen exponential growth in recent years and broadcasters across the globe are now looking for ways to provide content to this vast audience. Working with many Tier One international broadcasters, such as Euronews, SatLink continues to provide the gateway both in and out of Asia on the region‘s premium satellite platform, meaning that news organisations can be confident that its content is available and distributed reliably and to the required high quality 24/7.”