Category: Software

MUMBAI: Wire & Wireless India Ltd (WWIL), Zee Group‘s demerged cable entity, plans to raise up to $250 million (approximately Rs 11250 million) for funding its expansion programme including digitalisation and acquisition of operators.

The board which met on Monday considered all the fund raising options including issue of ADR (American depository receipt), GDR (global depository receipt), equity, debt, debentures, FCCB (foreign currency convertible bond), QIP (qualified institutional placement) and convertible warrants. The board has decided to convene a general meeting of the shareholders.

“This is is just an enabling resolution and we plan to decide on the amount we are going to raise and how within 15 days,” says WWIL managing director Jagjit Kohli.

MUMBAI: Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), a subsidiary of Loral Space and Communications and provider of high-power commercial satellites, has announced that it has been awarded a contract to manufacture a new direct broadcast satellite (DBS) for EchoStar Orbital Corporation II, a subsidiary of EchoStar Communications Corporation. EchoStar XIV will provide expanded services and flexibility for Dish Network‘s more than 13 million direct-to-home (DTH) television subscribers.

“Our long-term relationship with EchoStar is an endorsement of the performance, reliability and service that our company provides,” said Space Systems/Loral president John Celli. “With an ever-increasing amount of programming options, it is an exciting time for the DTH industry and Space Systems/Loral is well positioned to help EchoStar meet its growing demand for advanced services.”

There are currently three SS/L-built satellites on orbit in the EchoStar fleet.

“As the fastest-growing pay-TV provider in the nation and an innovator in advanced services such as HDTV, we need the power and capacity that a satellite from Space Systems/Loral can provide,” said EchoStar vice president of Space Programs Rohan Zaveri.

In addition, the company has also recently announced that Intelsat Corporation has awarded SS/L a contract to manufacture Intelsat 14, a new, high-power C- and Ku-band fixed satellite service (FSS) satellite.

Intelsat 14, to be located at 45 degrees West longitude, will be the 44th Space Systems/Loral satellite built over the past four decades for Intelsat, the world‘s largest fixed satellite services operator. The satellite will carry 40 C-band and 22 Ku-band transponders across four different beams, covering the Americas, Europe and Africa, informs an official release.

Intelsat 14 will have a design life of 15 years and will replace the PAS-1R satellite when the new satellite is delivered in 2009. Intelsat 14 is the first satellite awarded to SS/L in 2007. The company received seven satellite awards in 2006 from a wide variety of customers, including FSS operators, direct-to-home and satellite radio service providers.

MUMBAI: US media conglomerate News Corp is looking to launch its social networking site MySpace in China within the next few months.

It has finalised a deal with partners, including private equity heavyweight IDG and reports indicate that News Corp will have a 50 per cent stake in the venture.

The IDG-Accel China Growth Fund, managed by venture firm International Data Group Technology Venture Investment, will also own a stake.

The deal, if successful, will be a positive move for News Corp which has made several attempts to tap China’s rapidly growing media market.

But the venture will have to negotiate with China’s strict regulation of media content, as well as compromise on potentially sensitive content.

MUMBAI: mtvU, which is US broadcaster MTV‘s college network and the Kaiser Family Foundation have announced the “Change the Course of HIV Challenge.

This is a competition offering college students digital tools to reduce the spread of HIV/Aids among young people in the US. The challenge asks gamers, activists or any student with a great idea to propose a viral, Web-based video game concept to help raise awareness about HIV/Aids among 15-24 year olds in the US and to promote personal action in response to the epidemic.

The winning individual or team will work with mtvU and the Kaiser Family Foundation — which are committing $75,000 to the development and marketing of the game — to see their idea realised. mtvU GM Stephen Friedman, says, “No undergrad in school today has known a world without HIV/Aids and a new young person someplace in the world is infected every 15 seconds GM. Through this challenge, we hope to inspire college students to use the power of online gaming to engage their peers, re-awaken them to the magnitude of this deadly virus and effect prevention.”

Kaiser Family Foundation VP and director, entertainment media partnerships Tina Hoff says, “The competition is designed to help us reach young people in a different and engaging way to help inform them about HIV/Aids and spur action. As HIV remains the great public health challenge of this generation, it‘s essential to find new and creative ways to engage and inform young people about the epidemic.”

The two parties are looking for innovative, interactive concepts for video games that will spread rapidly online. Proposed projects should raise awareness about HIV/Aids among young people in the US, identify ways to stop its spread, and address the silence, stigma and discrimination surrounding the disease.

MUMBAI: Last year, the US telecom market grew at its fastest rate since 2000, showing that the drive towards convergence continues to stimulate the telecommunications industry, according to TIA’s 2007 Telecommunications Market Review and Forecast.

Each year, TIA’s Telecommunications Market Review and Forecast analyses the trends affecting the information and communications technology industry. The report includes an overview of the entire industry, as well as detailed sections on the landline, wireless, equipment and international markets.

TIA’s annual review of the health of the telecom industry shows that the worldwide telecom market grew 11.2 per cent in 2006 to total $3 trillion in revenue, while the US market grew 9.3 per cent to total $923 billion.

Demand for broadband and high-speed services is fueling this growth, as carriers invest in new fiber, new IP technology and new wireless infrastructure to provide state-of-the-art voice, video and data services.

Europe has the largest telecom market, measuring at $1 trillion, with the Asia/Pacific third at $715 billion. Overall, the international market grew 12.1 per cent in 2006. Middle East/Africa was the fastest- growing region, expanding at 21.6 per cent. By 2010, the global market is expected to reach $4.3 trillion in revenue.

TIA president Grant Seiffert says, “Consumers are thirsty for broadband, and this report shows carriers are rushing to meet the demand. Technologies like voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) and broadband video, as well as new mobile data services, are sparking new growth in the telecommunications industry. As a result, carriers are offering more competitive all-in-one bundled packages, and consumers are seeing lower prices and more services.”

The report forecasts growth for competing new broadband technologies such as fiber, satellite, wireless and broadband over powerline, which combined will account for more than 11 per cent of broadband subscribers in 2010.

MUMBAI: Measat Satellite Systems has announced that Measat-3 has successfully completed in orbit testing and had entered commercial service.

At a ceremony held Thursday at the Measat Teleport and Broadcast Centre, located just outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the satellite was officially handed over by Boeing Satellite Systems International Inc and the first customer, Radio Television Malaysia One (RTM-1), up-linked onto the satellite.

“Thanks to the hard efforts of the Boeing and Measat teams, the deployment and extensive in orbit testing of the Measat-3 satellite has been completed ahead of schedule with the satellite now ready for commercial use” said Paul Brown-Kenyon, Chief Operating Officer, Measat. “We are focused on managing the migration of our lead DTH, Broadcasting and Telecom customers onto the new platform as they expand their services”.

Designed to work co-located with Measat-1, the deployment of Measat-3 at the 91.5°E orbital location will boosts Measat satellite capacity at its key orbital location by some 300 per cent. The satellite will also extend the network reach to over 100 countries across Asia, Australia, The Middle East, Eastern Africa and Eastern Europe representing 70 per cent of the world’s population.

MUMBAI: American consumers are willing to pay enough for watching TV on mobile phones to justify what it would cost carriers to build a new broadcast network to guarantee quality service, according to just-released study.

The study by the Mobile Digital TV Alliance discusses the economic viability and consumer adoption of mobile TV and concludes that a successful proposition for mobile TV in the United States is high-quality video and service and flat rates of about $20 a month for unlimited viewing.

To meet those standards, the alliance suggests building a separate broadcast network, which would cost a carrier between $500 million and $2 billion.

“The Economics of Mobile TV,” authored by Yoram Solomon, discusses how open standards promote mature competition furthermore improving the economics of mobile broadcast TV, how mobile TV adds a new dimension of value to existing products; as well as why – contrary to popular belief – consumers will pay to use this added service.

MUMBAI: BenQ, a leading player in digital network devices, today announced their participation as official display partner at India‘s biggest gaming event Skoar! 2007 at Pragati Maidan, Hall no. 12, New Delhi.

Skoar! 2007 is an expo for gamers, game publishers, content providers and gaming-related hardware manufacturers.

Leveraging this platform, BenQ also announced the availability of new products in India including the BenQ FP92W, claimed to be the worlds fastest LCD wide screen monitor, and the new BenQ MP510 projector for professionals.

The BenQ FP92W will offer a completely new “viewing” experience and comes with a 5ms-response time, the release says.

Further BenQ MP510 projector is an affordable big screen home entertainment well suited for gaming. With a 1500-lumen lamp and 2000:1 contrast ratio, the MP510 adds wall color correction which gives picture quality even withoput a projector screen, the release claims.

Says Robert Dung, BenQ managing director IMEA (India-Middle East-Africa), “With the advent of hi-tech games, movies and animation there would be an increasing demand for fast and wide screen LCD monitors as compared to the CRT monitors.”

MUMBAI: The Tata Sky DTH platform has reached an agreement with Neo Sports, the channel that has rights to telecast India cricket.

An immediate fallout of this is the fact that Tata Sky subscribers will get to watch live the third ODI that kicked off in Chennai today and the subsequent matches as well.

The remaining matches of the series will be available live on Tata Sky and in digital picture quality, a release issued by the DTH service provider states.

Doordarshan is also showing the matches but with a seven-minute delay. The national broadcaster was allowed to telecast the matches ‘deferred live‘ following a Delhi High Court ruling on dispute between Nimbus and Prasar Bharti.

MUMBAI: Singapore based pay-TV operator StarHub and French company Visiware, provider of interactive TV games channels, announced the launch of Playin‘TV Triple Play -the first triple-play gaming offer in Asia that will be made available to customers of StarHub from 1 February 2007.

Games like Sudoku or Carrot Mania on Ice are some of the interactive games that customers can subscribe to through StarHub‘s mobile platform and the Internet for free due to Visiware‘s Playin‘Code technology.

This means that they will be able to enjoy the games anytime, anywhere, on any of StarHub‘s media platforms -TV, mobile and online. They can pick up from where they ended a game, without having to start from scratch. The company is also exploring ways to enhance the Playin‘TV service by incorporating contests, real-time leaderboards and multiplayer games that will allow gamers to pit their skills against other players.

StarHub vice president Cable TV services Patrick Lim said, “StarHub‘s advantage as a fully integrated information, communications and entertainment provider is its ability to offer customers access to a converged suite of services across different product lines. We have consistently worked to incorporate new technologies that allow us to present our customers more breadth and depth in content applications, and Playin‘TV Triple Play is an example of the fruit of such efforts. Customers can certainly expect more of such innovations from StarHub.”

“We are delighted that Playin‘TV Triple Play is now making its entry into the Asian market. StarHub‘s efficient and advanced network provides us with the opportunity to effectively deploy true triple-play content, to allow fans of Playin‘TV to enjoy the games even when they‘re on-the-go,” said Visiware executive chairman Laurant Weill.

Playin‘TV, a 24-hour interactive games channel, was launched on StarHub Digital Cable in August last year.