Category: Software

MUMBAI: US news broadcaster CNN has announced that its site will unveil significant enhancements, creating a fully integrated online news experience.

As part of the site’s redesign, the live, streaming and archived video content accessible through the subscription-based CNN Pipeline service since December 2005 will be available for free at CNN.com starting on from 1 July.

The goal of CNN.com’s latest evolution is to make it easier for online consumers to get more news in more ways than ever before. After nearly 18 months of offering CNN Pipeline through subscription, CNN.com will begin offering users free of charge even more of the great video they expect – live and on-demand.

As with the current CNN Pipeline service, CNN.com will provide access to its video archives and up to four streams of live content but without the need to download a video player.

As the first Internet site dedicated to 24-hour news coverage, CNN.com claims to attract an average of more than 24 million unique users each month.

MUMBAI: BBC World Service and MSN India have joined hands to make the news content of the BBC Hindi website bbchindi.com, available to the users of MSN Hindi http://in.msn.com/Hindi.

BBC World Service India business development manager Vineeta Dwivedi said, “This is a really exciting development. Thanks to our partnership with MSN India, more Hindi-speakers around the world will have the opportunity to enjoy top-quality news and information from bbchindi.com.”

BANGALORE: Seagate has announced the launch of data storage and back up products to cater to the students and people on the move.

This is a change from the data hard disk and storage company‘s image of being a components supply company.

Data storage requirements have grown exponentially, what with the advent of MP3,MP4 players, digital cameras and the growth in computers. Seagate quotes figures from an October 2006 survey – The Harris Interactive Survey of US Computer Users – to prove this point. 81 per cent of the users are more likely to download and store data than a year ago, with photos taking the first place; 45 per cent of households with children who are under 18 download music; 57 per cent agree that their content and files are worth more than their computers; and 96 per cent of adult Americans own or use at least one desktop or laptop at work.

In short, content has become the center of the digital world.

The storage market is also segmenting. Seagate has two divisions – Maxtor and Seagate. Yesterday at Bangalore, Seagate unveiled their ‘FreeAgent’ Data Movers which ‘combine sophisticated design with easy to use lifestyle tools’ that let one move, work and play with one’s digital content anytime, anywhere. So laptops and notebooks out you go… Carry your digital data and use your host’s computer to share the information, data, make a presentation, etc.

Seagate refuses to label their FreeAgent products external hard drives because they say that labeling them as such would not even begin to describe what their new product line can do.

Seagate claims that consumers define the term ‘hard drive’ as a basic storage device. FreeAgents sport a ‘sleek, compact design’ for anywhere computing. Three products – FreeAgent Pro Data Mover, FreeAgent Go and the FreeAgent Desktop. The drives come in various storage capacities and have preloaded software use of the products. The products come with a five year limited warranty.

While mass communications plans about the products have to be drawn up, Seagate Singapore International Headquarters country manager-Indian and SAARC countries Vihsal Khurana, who announced the launch of the products, does not discount TVC’s for promoting FreeAgent. This is against the norm as Seagate generally uses the print media for product promotion. Currently the creative work for print ads is done at Singapore, informed Khurana.

MUMBAI: One97 Communications, a telecom solutions provider, will partner with Hewlett-Packard (HP) for setting up of a laboratory to research and develop technologies and applications for the 2.5G and 3G networks for the Indian and global markets.

HP will provide high quality mobile and ready to install applications for One97 Communications. The R&D at the new laboratory will focus on creating applications for deployment and integration of HP platform with existing telecom networks including development of VAS applications.

The research lab is powered by HP‘s Open Call Media Platform (OPMG), which has a comprehensive and mature voice service platform in the industry. HP OPMG enables rapid development and secure deployment of next-generation voice and video messaging, portals and enhanced interactive services, informs an official release.

NEW DELHI: DD Direct, Doordarshan‘s direct-to-home (DTH) service, plans to shift to the Indian satellite Insat-4B between 1-15 June.

Though DD’s contract with the five transponders on NSS 6 closes on 31 May, it has requested the Netherlands-based company to use the space on one transponder till 15 June. The broadcaster will have to pay Rs 37 million for the extended 15-day period.

“Prasar Bharati has indicated to us that DD Direct would move to Insat-4B in the period 1-15 June,” says Indian Space Research Organisation contract management and legal services director SB Iyer.Prasar Bharati pays NSS around Rs 225 million annually. The shift from the Netherlands-based NSS 6 will not only mean savings in foreign exchange but also clarity in picture since Insat-4B is better placed than the European satellite, Prasar Bharati CEO B S Lalli tells Indiantelevision.com. Insat-4B is located in a geostationary orbit of 93.5 degrees East, which is closer to Indian than NSS 6 which is located at 95 degrees East.ISRO has assured Prasar Bharati that it will not face any shortage of transponders. DD will initially be using five transponders but can ask for more whenever it needs them, says Lalli.

 DD will be able to beam up to 10 channels from each transponder. It presently beams around 32 channels of which 26 are its own. But this number is expected to go up to 50 with private FTA channels becoming available. Sun Direct, Kalanithi Maran‘s DTH service, has also booked Ku-band transponders on Insat-4B. The satellite has 12 Ku-band and as many C-band transponders for broadcasting and communication services.“There is no requirement for more transponders from DD now. If they need more, we will make the necessary arrangement for them in a neighbouring location,” says Iyer. According to a DD engineer, further compression is possible using the MPEG 4 technology but DD prefers to use MPEG 2 and beam fewer channels from each transponder “for ensuring better quality.”

DD officials have held meetings with cable operators, hardware manufacturers and multi-system operators (MSOs) to familiarize them with the changes that will have to be made to reach out to 4.8 million viewers of DD Direct.Doordarshan has circulated a four-page brochure to educate viewers and service providers about the changes to be made to their dish antennae and in the set top boxes. Though the service providers will make these changes, the engineer said this can be done even by the subscriber on his own. DD’s DTH would be available across five transponders in the KU Band on Insat-4B, on the frequencies 10990, 11070, 11150, 11490 and 11570 MHz on vertical polarisation and a uniform symbol rate of 27500 ksps.The engineer said each antenna has to be rotated (with the person standing behind the dish antenna) clockwise by 1.5 degrees to the right and tilted up by 1.5 degrees. The brochure gives details of how subscribers can adjust the STB on their own, in case the services of a service provider are not available.

MUMBAI: In its first step towards customizing email for Indian consumers, Microsoft has announced the launch of ‘custom domains‘ that allows Windows Live users in India to create any email id they want.

Commenting on the advantages that this service provides to advertisers, Microsoft head of digital marketing revenue and strategic business Rajnish said, “With this service advertisers can now look to reach out to specific user segments whose interests and personalities align with their brands. This initiative even offers advertisers the opportunity to create a custom id for their own brand loyalists.”

The initiative was flagged off by unveiling an email id for the residents of Lokhandwala in Andheri, Mumbai called www.lokhandwalarocks.com.

Microsoft promises to deliver an email id for every kind of Indian which truly reflects their identity and personality.

Email needs to connect with the user in a deeper way and this will be possible with custom domain ids powered by Windows Live Hotmail. MSN India believes that there is a need to move email from just a being a service to becoming an extension of a consumer‘s personality and identity, states an official release.

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has directed Hathway Nasik Cable Network to pay Zee Turner its dues. Alternately, Zee Turner could disconnect the signals to the multi-system operator (MSO).

The dispute relates to an outstanding amount of Rs 1.5 million. Hathway Nasik Cable Network is a joint venture company between Hathway Cable & Datacom and a local cable outfit.

Hathway Nasik Cable Network had filed a petition stating that Zee was charging it for the local cable operators (LCOs) who had migrated to rival MSO Wire & Wireless India Ltd (WWIL), Zee‘s demerged cable company. Zee was continuing to charge Hathway Nasik Cable for those LCOs.

In its argument, Hathway also stated that Zee had been asking for the list of its affiliate local cable operators (LCOs), but every time the list is given Zee poaches on them. This damages Hathway‘s business.

The MSO told the tribunal that on 31 December 2006, it had provided a list of its affiliate LCOs of whom suddenly 18 migrated to Zee, and likewise some 22 other LCOs of Hathway had been poached by Zee.

The MSO said that this poaching has been admitted by Zee, when it offered a discount of Rs 180000 in its billing for Hathway because of migration of LCOs.

Hathway also said that its appeal was on the ground that Zee had over invoiced it, including charging it for HBO when it was not giving the film channel to Hathway.

Besides, Zee was not giving them the interconnection agreement offer, Hathway alleged.

However, Zee contended that every time they ask for the list of affiliate LCOs, Hathway refuses to give it.

“When they give the list, there is no subscriber base, and when the LCOs migrate, subscriber base goes up,” Zee stated.

Zee said that the tribunal had passed an interim order on 16 November last year, which required Hathway to pay Rs 1.5 million, ad hoc, for avoiding disconnection. However, the payment came with a strange letter.

Zee senior counsel Maninder Singh showed the latter to the court, which said that this was the full and final payment from Hathway to Zee for the period September-November, as well as part payment for December 2006.

Singh said that Hathway had overturned an interim order and decided to make that a full and final payment, which incensed the court. 

When Zee wrote to Hathway about this strange behaviour of climbing over the tribunal, Hathway wrote back that they deny all such allegations, Singh said.

Rarely does the voices rise in TDSAT, but chairman Arun Kumar, visibly angry, asked Hathway: “What business did you have writing that letter?”

Hathway seemed to suggest that it was a clerical mistake but the court retorted that it had been signed by an authorised signatory and “in any case, a massive organisation like Hwthway, a man-India player, cannot say this is a mistake.”

Singh also refuted Hathway‘s ‘lie‘ that the former had not served a mandatory notice before disconnection, when it showed that a notice had been served in the leading daily of Nasik.

Hathway said that the letter was a mistake and indeed, it had made further payments after the Rs 1.5 million amount. But the judges were in no mood to tolerate this outrage, and issued the order to make the payment.

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal has ordered ETV to give its ETV Telugu feed to Ortel Communications of Orissa via decoders.

ETV has been told as a last chance to give the feed within the next seven days. The order was passed on 22nd May, while hearing a contempt petition filed by Ortel for ETV not complying with two earlier interim orders of the tribunal.The TDSAT has disallowed ETV‘s attempt to comply with the tribunal‘s earlier order by giving it through ETV-Zee TV joint venture, Variety Entertainment Pvt Ltd. 

Ortel, which has started rolling out voluntary Cas in Orissa, had been fighting for receiving the feed for its digital platform, and had filed the case some months ago, when ETV decide not to give the feed.Earlier this year, TDSAT had first ordered the Andhra-based broadcaster to give the feed for voluntary Cas, but later stayed its interim order when ETV argued that not the tribunal, but Parliament alone could roll out Cas.However, in the subsequent order, the tribunal vacated the stay and held that it had not usurped the Parliament‘s role and had not ordered Cas roll out, because it had confined to ordering giving digital feed to a player that was rolling out Cas voluntarily.TDSAT had ordered ETV then to give the feed by 9 April, though ETV consistently denied this feed.

Meanwhile, Zee TV and ETV formed a JV MSO, Variety Entertainment Pvt Ltd, which they said would give the feed via cable to Ortel. ETV had alleged to indiantelevision.com that it had been forced to take this step as Ortel was being backed by political powers and had been known to resort to strong arm tactics.Ortelt had denied such allegations.But Ortel had demanded the feed for its digital platform and that was the TDSAT order as well, which ETV refused to comply with.Ortel had then filed a contempt petition, which was heard on 22 May. Ortel reiterated that first of all, it was well known in the industry that rival MSO giving a feed usually undermines the receiving MSOs business.Besides, it pointed out to a specific order of the Supreme Court in the Sea TV case that a rival MSO could not be the agent of a broadcaster.The tribunal has now said that this would be the last chance for ETV to give the digital feed via decoder to Ortel, failing which the contempt issue would be taken up.

MUMBAI: Wire & Wireless India Ltd (WWIL) managing director Jagjit Singh Kohli has resigned. He will be relieved by the end of this month.

Deepak Chandnani has been appointed as WWIL CEO and would be taking charge in June. He comes from NCR India where he was managing director.

Commenting on the new appointment, Zee Group chairman Subhash Chandra said:“The diverse experience Deepak brings to WWIL, both as a leader in the corporate sector and as an entrepreneur, will provide a big boost to the growth plans of the company. We are confident that his leadership skills and consumer orientation would build on the lead that WWIL has created so far.”

Chandnani comes with wide experience of 27 years in the consumer non-durable, consumer banking, technology and B2B led industries, across leading organizations in the country. A management graduate from IIM Ahmedabad, he started his career with Cheseborough Ponds & Hindustan Lever in sales and went on to become general manager marketing of Ponds India. He has held leadership roles in Citibank India and later became the first country manager for Yahoo India.

A doyen in the cable industry, Kohli is planning to set up his own operations. “I am in talks with several people for starting cable TV operations and will firm up my plans within 3-4 months,” he says.

Kohli was to get a two per cent stake in WWIL, Zee Group‘s demerged cable company. “It was in the process of being transferred but I have decided to leave. There were some differences with Zee over valuations on Broadband Pacenet,” Kohli says. Zee had earlier announced that it would be buying out Broadband Pacenet, a broadband services provider promoted by Kohli, Yogesh Shah and Yogesh Radhakrishnan.

Commenting on the departure of Kohli, Chandra said: “Jagjit has already set up the initial foundation for the digital cable business, but he wanted to move on for personal reasons and we wish him success ahead.”

BANGALORE: Yatra Online (YOPL) today announced that it has tied up with Hughes, a global player in providing broadband satellite networks and services. Through the alliance, Yatra’s travel related services including air tickets and Hotels/Packages will be made available via select HughesNet Fusion centers in the country.

HugheNet Fusion Centers will act as extended retail points to offer Yatra.com’s travel services with an integrated offline cash acceptance model of Hughes. Customers who are more comfortable with an offline payment mode will be able to avail the services Yatra.com currently offers online. Through the tie up, Yatra.com hopes to enlarge its customer base by tapping customers who may be reluctant to use credit cards or do not have one.

In the first phase, customers will be able to avail the services through 28 HughesNet Fusion centres across the country by paying cash. Other modes of payments like credit/ debit cards and ITZ cash cards will also be accepted.

With this tie up, customers will have the ease to book from over 1500 hotels and resorts across 140 cities in India, and all domestic airlines with instant confirmations. For further convenience a special phone line has been set up for customers booking through Hughes centers in case they have any queries in regard to their bookings.

Says Yatra Online founder Dhruv Shringi, “We at Yatra.com are constantly looking at ways to be more accessible to our customers and help them choose the cheapest air ticket and best Hotel package. Hughes – Yatra alliance will play a significant role in strengthening our commitment to make traveling smart & simple for customers. Hughes expertise and its pan India reach will help Yatra extend its services to mass consumers in smaller cities and non metros, who are still not familiar or comfortable with internet and credit card transactions and can now on book tickets and pay by cash over the counter.”

During a telecom with Indiantelevison Dhruv revealed that HughesNet Fusion had come in as a franchisee. “Once the franchisee has the basic infrastructure in place, the Yatra team would come in and provide the products. All our inventory becomes accessible to someone who walks into a HugesNet Fusion Center. We are looking at tapping 40-50 per cent of our business from B and C class cities through the Hughes network.”

YOPL’s present top line turnover is around Rs 350 million per month, informed Dhruv.

The release also quotes Hughes director-marketing Vaibhav Magow, director-Marketing,Hughes, “HughesNet Fusion network of centers will help Yatra.com to at once Build Capacity and extend reach to more customers. With our network expansion plans this year we hope to be the largest Value Added partner for Yatra.com (Yatra Online Pvt. Ltd.). Customers can avail a complete range of services through our centers.The tie-up will offer greater accessibility of Yatra.com services to a larger section of the market and help satiate the growing appetite of travel by the Indian middle class.”