Category: Software

In a review meeting yesterday, Dr Singh was informed that of the 66,822 villages, 48,125 have been covered till May 2007 and the remaining will be covered by November 2007.

A total of 14,183 villages will be connected through satellite technology and the rest through other technologies. In an effort to increase rural tele-density, about 80,000 towers will be installed by May 2008 to facilitate mobile and other wireless services in rural areas.

The final goal is to create 50 million rural connections by 2007 and increase this to 80 million connections by 2010 and provide broadband connections in every village by 2012.

His new responsibilities include handling the complete editorial content. Additionally, he will also oversee the on and off air marketing activities of the network and the individual channels.

UKTV CEO David Abraham told Marketing Week, “This appointment reflects the extent of creative evolution from archive-based roots into a more hybrid, brand-led and content-focussed network.”

Before joining UKTV Littleford was controller of entertainment at ITV digital channels where he was involved in commissioning shows like Xtra Factors, No Heroics and many more.

Samsung India MD R.Zutshi said, “The Samsung 19″ LCD TV, given its features and affordability, will further incentive Flat TV consumers to upgrade to the LCD television category.”

This model comes with features like 600:1 contrast ratio for crisper images, 1440 x 800 resolution for clear images, high definition multimedia interface connection, PC input and Side AV that make this LCD television, a multimedia centerpiece.

This LCD TV also comes with the option of Swivel Table top Stand or Wall Mount inbuilt, which gives the customer the flexibility to place it as per his/her space requirements and aesthetics, states an official press release.

“In addition to strengthening our LCD range offering, we are also offering consumers unique Combo offers of Home Theatres and LCD TVs packaged as a solution”, added Zutshi.

Thus, for example, a Samsung 37″ Bordeaux Art LCD TV packaged with a Samsung Home Theatre HT Q20 is available at a discount of Rs 8000 compared with the individual pricing of both these products. These offers are available till 31 July.

Samsung is also enhancing the visibility for its LCD televisions by setting up attractive LCD displays at around 500 multi brand counters across the country,states an official release.

The Samsung LCD range is available in the screen sizes between 19″ to 52″, priced between Rs 21,000 to Rs 500,000.

The competition aims to promote excellence in both applications developed for mobile and for businesses launching or promoting services in the mobile arena. The initiative is in its second year. In 2006, it was launched as the ‘Web2Mobile’ competition; the change of name reflects the increased scope, prizes and reach of this year’s contest.

Nokia director, communication solutions Vesa Luiro said, “At the heart of Nokia’s business lies innovation – both in mobile devices and in the services and solutions that will enhance the experience of mobile users. Nokia is a pioneer in ‘open collaboration’ – working with a range of academic, commercial and non-profit organisations on technology research and development to bring together the best combination of minds in our fields of interest. ‘Mobile Rules!’ is a way for us to encourage and promote innovation in mobile services and, at the same time, it reflects Nokia’s inclusive attitude towards partnering with external organizations.”

The competition is divided into two ’tracks’. The first is for qualified developers working on mobile applications for Nokia platforms in four categories: ‘multiplayer and connected games’, ‘multimedia’, ‘enterprise’ and ‘infotainment’. The second is aimed at entrepreneurs, small businesses, start-ups and academic institutions and is for business plans in the mobile space, both those designed specifically for mobile devices and those that make existing static businesses mobile.

Last year the competition focused only on business plans and the winners were: a mobile community for music fans; a peer-to-peer mobile file-sharing application; an application for estate agents to improve customer service and a service providing multiple identities on a single mobile device.

“Mobile solutions for consumers and businesses is one of the hottest development arenas in technology,” adds Luiro. But this can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, demand and the scope for innovation are great. On the other, the crowded market means it can be difficult for smaller companies, entrepreneurs and developers to get their voice heard.

Naukri.com founder and CEO Sanjeev Bikhchandani said, “We have been leaders in the recruitment space and it is natural that we would want to own the user experience pre and post recruitment. Career guidance is a natural progression, and with asknaukri.com (as our first step) we want to emerge as the definitive face of career guidance in India.”

asknaukri.com has been launched as a free to use website, and it will provide calibrated counseling to all work related queries for its users which is relevant, researched, and customized.

The website hopes to fill a gap and act as a source of ratification and provide counseling on all related areas. It allows users to submit their queries online, which are then directed to the panelists. He can also read questions posted by other users in similar areas, thus ensuring that his overall knowledge of areas in which he has questions increases dramatically.

The answers to the queries will be posted on the website within 48 hours, and an email will be sent to the user‘s inbox. To make the exercise more comfortable, the queries have been categorized into relevant clusters like ‘Career Guidance‘, ‘Interviews & Resumes‘ and ‘Office Advice‘ which are further classified in to relevant categories.

Mobility, ad sales and investments VP and national head Apoorva Kumar said, “Everyone has career and work related questions throughout their lives and are looking for advice they can trust. Career guidance and ‘work life issues‘ is a huge unorganized industry and asknaukri.com is one small initiative from our end to create exponential value in the career guidance business in the long run.”

Soon asknaukri.com will also get mobile enabled and will allow users to ask questions from their mobile. Replies will be sent to the user on his mobile, email and also get posted on the website.

Richa Saklani, Aarti Anand and Sujata Kumra of ‘Workeasy Solutions‘ are the panelists for the website who are alumni of IIM, Ahmedabad, Narsee Monjee and the University of Chicago respectively. They have experience of over 30 years of industry experience in media, banking, human resources, financial services and the outsourcing sector.

The team of Workeasy Solutions has worked with over 5,000 people across various ages in career planning, interview training, career transitions and corporate culture.

The multi-system operators (MSOs) and local cable operators (LCOs) have heaved a sigh of relief as the rampant cutting of their cables across Delhi will come to an end. They would also not have to pay the ‘astronomical’ figure of Rs 1,600 per pole per year as demanded by the companies.

The Delhi power companies are owned by the Tata (NDPL) and Reliance (BSES) groups.

The Power ministry has also assured the LCOs and MSOs, stated All India Cable Operators’ Association president Roop Sharma president, that it would write to both the Trai and the DERC to solve the issue at an early date.

The MSO Alliance had written to the state power ministry that the power companies have been rampantly cutting the wires of the cable industry, which have been there for the past 15 years or so, and when they were approached they asked for exorbitant amounts.

The letter says: “Recently the electricity companies have written to various MSOs as well as LCOs, asking them to remove their cables within 21 days. When the representatives met the officials of these companies, they demanded exorbitant and arbitrary charges as high as Rs 1,600 per cable per year.”

The Alliance had written that this hurts the subscribers and now that the cable industry has grown to the status of an essential service, the government should protect it.

To good measure, the Alliance letter points out that the Tdsat, in a recent case (SET Discovery Pvt Ltd Vs Trai), had said that “television viewing has almost attained the status of an essential service in this country.”

Till the time of filing the report, senior representatives of the two companies could not be contacted, and officials who did respond at the offices said they were not authorised to comment.

The MSOs had said that the local authorities should grant right of way on reasonable terms and conditions in public interest and the power companies should not look upon this as a major revenue generation source.

Sharma said: “These companies had been doing this off and on, and in 1997, there was a case in which the court said that the right of way charges should be fixed. Now they have again done this, and the target is clearly the cable industry.”

MUMBAI: Reliance Communications Ltd. has awarded a network expansion contract worth over $200 million to Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, a provider of CDMA, GSM and telecommunications network solutions.

An official release states that the current network expansion undertaken by Reliance is the largest wireless network expansion ever undertaken by any operator across the world.

Under the agreement, Huawei would supply and provide deployment services for CDMA and GSM base stations, including BSC and switches and help create top-of-the-line all-IP next generation network infrastructure.

The technology from Huawei is expected to bring down Reliance Communications total cost of ownership (TCO) by enabling a significantly faster and more cost-effective expansion of existing CDMA & GSM network services. It is also expected to enhance the company‘s competitive advantage in attracting new subscribers.

“We have chosen Huawei based on its established credentials as a global company producing high quality products and solutions. The relationship with Huawei will help us maintain and strengthen our leadership position in India, the world’s fastest growing telecom market,” said Reliance Communications chairman Anil Ambani.

“We are extremely proud and happy to partner with Reliance Communications which has contributed immensely to the growth of the telecom sector in India and has always led from the front in expanding the domestic market. It is, in no small measure, a credit to Reliance Communications that India is today the fastest growing telecom market in the world,” said Huawei Technologies chairlady Sun Yafang.

“We look forward to continuing this partnership with Reliance Communications by providing innovative and customer-oriented solutions and services,” she added.

Describing the one-day strike by the Joint Forum of BSNL Unions and Associations of Non-executives and Executives as unwarranted, a statement issued by the ministry said the proposal for procurement of 45.5 million lines for 2G and 3G expansion of BSNL had been examined by the minister.

The ministry noted that the strike had put the customers into unwanted hardship, and the minister expressed his unhappiness over the strike despite his best efforts and assurances to the Joint Forum.

This would help users keep their blogs up-to-date, especially while traveling.

SGH-L760 promises to have a user-friendly hardware and software menu interface, multimedia features and stylish design. It also includes a 2 megapixel camera, Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Reader, FM Radio with Radio Data System (RDS), the latest music features and other entertainment options.

An official release claims that the experience of mobile blogging and multimedia entertainment would give end users an opportunity to increase data ARPU to service carriers.

Samsung L760 will be available in major European countries beginning late July and will be expanded into Asian countries.

The consumer electronics major is awaiting a DTH licence and can expect to start the service only next year as ahead of the queue are telecom majors Reliance-ADAG (Bluemagic) and Bharti (Bharti Telemedia).

After Insat-4B has gone to Kalanithi Maran‘s Sun Direct, the next Isro satellite providing Ku-band transponders will be up only in September-October. Bluemagic is likely to get Insat-4CR (replacement) and can hope to launch its service earliest by December-January. Reliance has asked for eight Ku-band transponders and Isro is reserving the remaining four for other users like National Informatics Centre.

Bharti‘s DTH launch can get delayed to early 2009 with Insat-4G launching only by 2008-end unless Isro approves of Measat-3, a foreign satellite launched from the Astro Group. Insat-4G has 18 Ku-band transponders but the demand from DTH operators could outstrip supply even at that stage.

Measat has made their Ku-band transponders available and Isro is still studying it technically and making an internal evaluation. “The coordination with Measat is not yet complete but we are at the last leg of it. We will take a decision probably after a month,” says Isro contract management and legal services director SB Iyer.

After the launch of Insat-4G, Isro will have exhausted the spectrum. “We have filed an application with the World Administration Radio Conference (WARC), which is part of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), for orbital slot and frequency,” says Iyer. WARC determines the allocation of spectrum for various services.