Microsoft on Monday announced that its Windows phone 7 operating system for mobile phones will be available by this Christmas season, as a whole new platform that incorporates social networking, music, video, photos and games to provide a rich, personalised user experience. At the Mobile World Congress that opened here, Microsoft’s Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer unveiled the features that the Windows Phone 7 to be manufactured to specifications laid down by the company, will offer.

The phones will support the capacitative touch interface now popular with users, and revolve around the concept of ‘hubs’ on-screen for people, pictures, office and mail applications, music and video. Making the hubs the core of the navigation system, with dedicated keys for start, search and back – the most frequently used functions – and providing the ability to display configurable individual ’tiles’ on the display screen for the people and applications that matter most to the individual user will differentiate, in Microsoft’s view, the Windows Phone 7 from the personal computer, and other phones.

Thus, a user can feature tiles for individuals, which would show connected activity for them on Facebook, Windows Live and so on. Full-featured synchronisation and integration capabilities with other Microsoft products such as Office, Outlook, the music player Zune and the gaming platform X-Box Live has been built into the new system.

[Via: unwireindia]

Samsung India has announced the launch of its Android based Galaxy Spica i5700 for the Indian market. This android based smart phone has been debuted in the UK and Russia in the month of October and now is all set to entice the Indian consumers.

Samsung i5700 Galaxy Spica is the version of the Samsung Galaxy i7500. Samsung i5700 Galaxy Spica comes with a capacitive screen measuring 3.2-inches with a resolution of 320×480 pixels supporting 16milion colors. AMOLED technology provides truly saturated beautiful colors with good image quality. It vaunts HVGA touch screen display, HSDPA connectivity, Wi-Fi, GPS and Google mobile services, Google search, Gmail, calendar, You Tube and Google talk applications etc.

This new Android based smart phone has a full QWERTY keyboard with Bluetooth activation/deactivation. The Spica runs Android edition 1.5 and comes equipped with 800MHZ processor in comparison to the 528MHz core integrated into the i7500.

The phone is incorporated with a 3.5mm headset jack and 3.2Mega Pixel auto focus camera with Geo-tagging feature. A MicroSD card slot has 32 GB expandable memory with 180 MB storage and it has a standard Web-kit based browser. Other features include Accelerometer sensor, larger capacity battery Li-Ion 1500 mAh that produce up to 650 hrs standby and up to 11 hrs 30 min talk time.

Samsung Galaxy Spica i5700 is the first Android phone to support DivX and Xvid files. This new smart phone is available in Black-Red and White-Green colors and is tagged at a price of Rs. 14,750 with one year limited warranty.

[Via: unwireindia]

In a bid to boost the Blackberry Mobile services, Bharti Airtel India’s largest GSM mobile service operator today announced the launch of Unlimited Chat and Email service over BlackBerry phones just at Rs.99 per month. Before you jump with joy, let me clarify it-The service is only for new Blackberry service subscribers and available on BlackBerry smart phones with Airtel Postpaid connections. As a promotional offer, the monthly service charge of Rs.99 is for first 6 months from the date of activation and after 6 months the regular BlackBerry plan charge of Rs.299 per month will be applicable.

The Data usage is restricted to Email and Messganges data. Internet browsing does not available with this plan.To subscriber the service Airtel postpaid customers can send SMS <take99> to 543210.The offer is valid till 19th February 2010. This service is specilly tailored to access Email via “BlackBerry Personal Mail” while on the move and stay seamlessly connected with instant messaging on your BlackBerry smartphone. “BlackBerry Personal Mail” is a unique offering to customers in India.

The “BlackBerry Personal Mail” service plan offers unlimited access to the industry-leading email and instant messaging features of BlackBerry Service, allowing Airtel customers to access up to 10 supported POP3/IMAP email accounts (including most popular ISP email accounts such as Yahoo! Mail and Google Mail) as well as various instant messaging services (including Windows Live Messenger, GTalk, Yahoo! Messenger and BlackBerry Messenger) from a single device.

[Via: Unwireindia]

India’s largest mobile operator, Bharti Airtel, has joined the race with handset makers such as Nokia, RIM (maker of BlackBerry) and Samsung among others to get a share of the mobile applications market in India. Bharti’s app store is set to go live on Wednesday (February 10) with over 1,200 applications making it the first Indian telco to attempt replicating the highly successful business model of Apple, the pioneer in this space.

Last month mobile operator Aircel had announced a tie-up with Infosys for its mobile applications platform and the telco is set to unveil its app stores by the March-end, an indicator that more operators here set to tap the business potential this space offers.Mobile apps have been a rave globally ever since Apple launched its App Store in 2008. Earlier this month Apple said that its apps which are divided into 100,000 categories such as games, business, news, sports and health have seen over three billion downloads.

Other handset makers such as Nokia who have joined the fray over the last 12 months are also seeing big business opportunities in this space. For instance, BlackBerry’s app store which is only a few months old already boasts of over 4,000 apps. Ditto with Google’s Android which as already crossed the 20,000 apps figure.

[Via: unwireindia]

S Tel which recently launched services in Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand, is betting big on the launch of mobile number portability (MNP) to further its fortunes in India’s crowded telecom arena. New entrants will be the biggest beneficiaries of MNP as it allows them to target the best post-paid customers of existing incumbents. A review of the circles in which S Tel operates shows upto seven to eight operators competing for customers.

Speaking to TOI, S Tel’s CEO Shamik Das said, “We are ready to take the MNP route to win in the marketplace . Another key priority for us is to participate in 3G auctions when they happen but for selective circles alone”. S Tel’s subscriber base was over 5 lakh at the end of December 2009. It was awarded six C-category licences in early 2008 of which it is yet to launch Assam and Jammu and Kashmir.

S Tel is battling the DoT in the High Court for licenses for a remaining 16 circles which it was denied after telecom minister A Raja arbitrarily cut off the date of award of licences to September 25, 2007 from the earlier October 1, 2007 deadline.

[Via: unwireindia]

Nokia has officially announced that they are going to provide free GPS turn-by-turn navigation service for all Nokia smartphones worldwide. There are some Nokia smart phones that are currently enjoying the free GPS navigation such as the 5800 Navigation edition and the 2700 Navigation edition. And they’re adding more phones to get the free GPS, which are listed for you after the jump.

The Nokia’s free GPS service on Nokia Smart phones is also backed by Nokia Ovi Maps, with a new version of the maps to be available that will include high-end walk and drive navigation at no extra cost, turn-by-turn voice guidance for 74 countries, in 46 languages, and traffic information for more than 10 countries as well as detailed maps for more than 100 countries. The Ovi Maps can be downloaded from Nokia website. You’ll also get free event guides, free Lonely Planet guides and Free Michelin Guides on the system.

The Nokia N97 is not in the list above, but it’ll get the Ovi Maps starting from Jan 28, whereas the Nokia N900 will probably not get free navigation. Nokia is to launch smart phones pre-loaded with the Ovi Maps starting in March. The free GPS service on Nokia smart phones surely brings great impact to GPS service providers like TomTom and Garmin.

Tata Indicom, the CDMA brand of Tata Teleservices Limited, today announced the launch of ‘Pay Per Call Flexi Plan’, an offer that takes the revolutionary ‘Pay Per Call’ concept to a whole new level, offering path-breaking benefits for its pre-paid subscribers. The ‘Pay Per Call Flexi Plan’ provides the customer the power of flexible billing, optimizing customer spends for both short- and long-duration calls.

Under the ‘Pay Per Call Flexi Plan’, customers can make local or STD calls at Re 1 and Rs 2, respectively, for a standard call of 5 minutes. If, however, the customer makes a call for less thanone minute, he or she is charged just 25 paise per minute for both local and STD calls. The product also offers all roaming calls at 50 paise per minute. New customers can avail this plan by buying a starter pack of Rs 99, while existing subscribers can opt for the offer with a one-time recharge of Rs 51.

“Customers today want the power of choice, value and savings and our Pay Per Call Flexi Plan offers exactly that,” Mr. Vineet Bhatia, COO Delhi and NCR & Head North Region, Tata Indicom said. This concept is indeed revolutionary as it optimizes the customer’s spends wisely and provides a competitive price point for both short- and long-duration calls. This is keeping withTata Teleservices Limited’s stated objective of constantly innovating to provide customers with differentiated services and products on a reliable and robust platform.”

The ‘Pay Per Call Flexi Plan’ offers SMS at 50 paise for both national and local messages. The offer is valid on all calls made by Tata Indicom subscribers to any mobile phone or land line connection, across all networks. The offer has a validity of one year.

India’s Uninor today announced its first month-end subscriber numbers since the launch in December 2009. By the end of the month, Uninor, which is majority owned by Norway’s Telenor, had secured 1.2 million subscribers in the eight telecom circles where its GSM services are available. “We are building on our launch – scaling up our network and our distribution. We will continue to focus on customer experience, and compete for every new subscriber. In a competitive market it will never be easy, but we have a long term ambition and we have made a positive start,” said Stein-Erik Vellan, Managing Director of Uninor.

The company launched in the circles of Uttar Pradesh (West), Uttar Pradesh (East), Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh on 3 December and in Orissa on 22 December. “Considering that our subscribers currently come from only eight circles, of which one was launched towards the end of the month, these numbers are encouraging. I credit a committed team and thank all our customers for choosing Uninor,” Vellan added.

“As an industrial player, the Telenor Group has a long term perspective on its operations in India. I am satisfied with the response Uninor has got from the Indian consumers, and I am confident that this will spur Uninor in their efforts to be a preferred provider of mobile services in India,” said Sigve Brekke, Executive Vice President in Telenor Group, and head of Telenor Asia.

As per guidelines, the company has submitted its monthly numbers to the Telecom Regulation Authority of India (TRAI), and the Cellular Operator Association of India (COAI).India’s Uninor today announced its first month-end subscriber numbers since the launch in December 2009. By the end of the month, Uninor, which is majority owned by Norway’s Telenor, had secured 1.2 million subscribers in the eight telecom circles where its GSM services are available.

“We are building on our launch – scaling up our network and our distribution. We will continue to focus on customer experience, and compete for every new subscriber. In a competitive market it will never be easy, but we have a long term ambition and we have made a positive start,” said Stein-Erik Vellan, Managing Director of Uninor. The company launched in the circles of Uttar Pradesh (West), Uttar Pradesh (East), Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh on 3 December and in Orissa on 22 December.

“Considering that our subscribers currently come from only eight circles, of which one was launched towards the end of the month, these numbers are encouraging. I credit a committed team and thank all our customers for choosing Uninor,” Vellan added. “As an industrial player, the Telenor Group has a long term perspective on its operations in India. I am satisfied with the response Uninor has got from the Indian consumers, and I am confident that this will spur Uninor in their efforts to be a preferred provider of mobile services in India,” said Sigve Brekke, Executive Vice President in Telenor Group, and head of Telenor Asia. As per guidelines, the company has submitted its monthly numbers to the Telecom Regulation Authority of India (TRAI), and the Cellular Operator Association of India (COAI).

After the huge success of Corby series Samsung India has launched launched Corby Speed , its first touch screen mobile handset on the CDMA platform. Samsung Corby Speed gives data speed of up to 2.4Mbps. The phone supports full Service (Voice + Data) across all CDMA operators OMH SIM Cards like Tata Indicom, Reliance Mobile, MTS and Virgin Mobile. The Corby Speed comes in bold colours and has pop-style contours and curved body design. The phone has a 2 MP camera, 2.8″ display, music player, FM with recording and 80 MB internal memory expandable upto 8GB with a MicroSD. The Indian subsidiary of the South Korean Samsung sells its CDMA phones through two channels – directly in the open market and through mobile phone service providers. “Currently, the ratio of open market sales to telecom operator sales is 20:80. We expect to change to 30:70 next year,” said company vice president Hendrick Lee while launching a range of CDMA Corby.

The Corby Speed, available on the CDMA platform, has the original Corby’s trademarks of bold colours, pop-style contours and stand-out curved body design. Users can update current status and access friends’ updates, live feeds on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. The handset also supports various social networking community sites by integrating leading User Generated Content sites such as Flickr, Picasa and Photobucket and other popular SNS sites including Facebook, MySpace and Friendster directly into the handset’s user interface. Users can upload photos and videos to these SNS and User Generated Content sites. The Corby Speed package includes 3 vibrant color fashion jackets – Yellow , White and Black and is priced at Rs. 10,400.

Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Communications (RCOM) found itself defending charges of financial wrongdoing on Monday, after the government said it had caused losses of around Rs 250 crore to the exchequer by under-reporting revenues. Telecom minister A Raja told Parliament that RCOM, India’s second-largest mobile operator, had under-reported revenues by up to Rs 1,500 crore to sector regulator Trai for the years 2006-07 and 2007-08, and the department of telecom (DoT) was examining the issue.

“There was an under-reporting of Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 1,500 crore by RCOM to avoid payment of licence fees and the government may have lost about Rs 250 crore due to this,” Mr Raja told the Lok Sabha during question hour. The minister’s statement was based on a recent report by a special auditor appointed by the communications ministry. RCOM, whose scrip fell 1.7% to Rs 175.90 on Monday, vehemently denied the allegations.

[Via: unwireindia]