News Digest: MyFM, RCOM, Shaadi, IRCTC, TringMe, Nokia, SBI, IRDA, FrontLine, Tejas, Swan, TechM

From http://www.medianama.com/2009/08/223-news-digest-db-groups-myfm-rcom-shaadicom-irctc-tringme-nokia-sbi-irda-frontline-tejas/ on August 25, 2009

By Preethi J

MyFM To Raise 15.2M

Synergy Media Entertainment Ltd, DB Group’s FM radio division, will raise Rs. 1.52 crore through preferential allotment of fully paid up equity shares. It has received approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). Synergy runs 94.3 MyFM in 17 cities.

Related: Dainik Bhaskar IPO Filing: Digital Kiosks; IndiaInfo.com; I Media Corp

RCOM Launches Antakshari

Reliance Mobile launched a new VAS – Antakshari -  on its R-World platform which will allow the subscriber to play antakshari with anyone. Charges are Rs.30 per month with 30 minutes free usage. This service is being launched on both GSM and CDMA networks. (TelecomIndia Online)

IRCTC’s Online Sales Boom

Around 34% of the 880,000 tickets sold daily by the Indian Railways are booked online, ticket sale data between April and July 2009 by the IRCTC reveals. This is not all – online booking of the tickets is also popular amongst low income groups. An thumping 63% of online tickets were booked by them. (Business Standard)

Our Take: IRCTC continues to be the poster boy of Indian e-commerce. We only wish it were more efficient – instead of spending hours standing in a queue, we now spend hours on the website – logging back in due to jittery timeouts and searching for train names and numbers.

Related: IRCTC Does $102 Million In Online Transactions In August; Payment Trends; HDFC, ICICI, Cash Cards Significant

TringMe

This Bangalore based 2007 startup has a platform that helps developers create voice-enabled widgets for the Internet. Tringme hosts some 22 million call minutes per month and expects this to soar to 40 million in the next 3-4 months. One of its clients is Indiamart. (Moneycontrol)

Our Take: Such a platform could spark off more apps and options in the VoIP domain – so far ruled by Skype and Fring. Ofcourse there is still the regulatory hurdle to cross before VoIP usage picks up.

Strike At Nokia’s Manufacturing Plant in TN

Nokia employees at its handset manufacturing factory in Sriperumbudur have demanded a wage increase of €21 for all employees. (Evertiq)

M-Banking Adoption
State Bank of India has added 20,000 mobile-banking customers in 2 months, taking the total to 33,000. M-banking is rising in popularity for small value transactions. (PTI)

All Mobile Banking posts

Shaadi.com Stats

The site has 300m page views a month. 6,000 new profiles are added every day. (Guardian)

Insurance Inst Opts For Online Exams

Complaints of malpractices has led the Insurance Institute of India to make entrance exams for insurance agents online. The institute will be aided in setting up the online examinations by NSEiT, a subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority. (ET)

HomeShop18 To Raise Funding

The retail TV channel and online site is in discussion with prospective financial and strategic partners to raise money in the next year. It has outlined three priorities – be visible in every television household; to invest in customer experience; and, to reward loyal customers. Network18 owns 65% of HomeShop18. (VCCircle)

PE Firm Frontline Strategy Picks Up Stake In Tejas

The amount and stake are not known, and the stake was picked up by Frontline through a secondary transaction. Tejas has been backed by Battery Ventures, Cascade Capital Management, Mayfield Fund, Intel Capital, Goldman Sachs and Sandstone Private Investments. (VCCircle)

Change In Regulations Deferred: DoT

International telcos in India have been dealt a poor hand by the Indian government. The Department of Telecom (DoT) has postponed plans to remove the double taxation they currently have to comply with for offering long distance calls. They pay license fees twice to the government – for bandwidth which they purchase off domestic operators and again when they resell it to enterprises and their customers. (ET)

Etilsalat Awards IT Contract To Tech Mahindra

Following the move by other telcos to outsource their IT operations, Etisalat DB, which runs new telco Swan Telecom (renamed to Etisalat DB Telecom India), may award the majority of its Rs 150 million outsourcing project to Tech Mahindra. (ET)

Other telco-IT company relationships are: Unitech Wireless – Wipro ; Idea Cellular – IBM ; Bharti Airtel – IBM; Aircel – Wipro

atom Joins Hands With Paulo Travels

From http://www.efytimes.com on June 18, 2009

Thursday, June 18, 2009:  atom technologies has tied up with Paulo Travels, a Goa-based transport operator, to provide ticket booking and payments services over the phone. This facility will be available to customers in cities such as Goa, Hyderabad, Pune, Bengaluru, Mangalore, Mumbai, Hampi (Karnataka) and Karwar (Karnataka), Ahmedabad and Mysore.

The customer can call on Paulo’s assigned number (+91-832-66377779) and book for their travel route, bus preference and seat preference date etc. On confirmation by the customer, the call is transferred to the IVR system, following which the customer has to enter credit card details. Once the verification is complete, the customer will get an automated response and the e-ticket is issued accordingly. This service offers the convenience to Paulo’s customer to complete their reservation payments in a hassle-free and time-saving manner by using phone and their credit cards.

Commenting on this initiative, Dewang Neralla, director, atom technologies, said, “IVR is one of the most convenient mode of making payments for any kind of ticketing. I am sure our solution and service will help Paulo to connect and get bookings from their customer across different states travelling into or out of Goa.”

“We have tied up with atom to increase our reach and ensure that customers from every corners of the country can avail this facility. Customer convenience has always been our priority. With atom, we will be able to provide our customers uninterrupted service even while on the move,” said Mario S Pereira, proprietor, Paulo Travels.

150 start-ups dial Bharti innovation fund

Thomas K Thomas on The Hindu Business Line on June 12, 2009

New Delhi, June 11 As many as 150 start-ups have sought seed capital from the Rs 200-crore Bharti Airtel Innovation Fund. The telecom major will shortlist entities with interesting ideas and probably pick up equity stake in these ventures.

Bharti Airtel told Business Line that the ideas received by the company include applications for mobile TV, M-commerce, wireless security, m-advertising, healthcare and social networking.

The fund was started by Bharti in September 2008 to encourage developers to come up with innovative applications for mobile users.

In response to an e-mail questionnaire, Mr Sarvjit Singh Dhillon, Group Director, Bharti Enterprises, said, “Yes, we will be open to picking up equity stakes in these companies with the primary objective of playing the role of a mentor to these potential start-ups while promoting innovation and entrepreneurship.

“We have received an encouraging response to the Airtel innovation Fund which is aimed at promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in the field of telecommunications. Till now, we have received over 150 applications from the potential start-ups.”

Evaluation on

While the company did not give the specifics of the applications, Mr Dhillon said the process to choose right candidates is on.

“We are happy with the response received by the fund as it meets our primary objective of promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in the telecom sector. However, we are still evaluating the suitability of individual submissions from an innovation and economic perspective. While we have short-listed several candidates for consideration, there is still further review/assessment and discussions to be undertaken.”

Analysts said this move could be important in the light of third generation mobile services scheduled to be launched early next year.

Mobile operators such Airtel will require a host of innovative applications if they have to make money by offering 3G services.

At present, the mobile market is driven by revenues from voice-based services. However, with the tariffs spiralling downwards, operators are on the lookout for the killer application.

Through this fund, Bharti may be hoping to have a nursery of ideas for driving up its revenues through value-added services.

Bharti’s approach is similar to the one being followed by IT major Intel, which is funding application development for WiMAX technology.

BSNL to invest Rs 15,000 cr in FY10

Virendra Singh Rawat / Lucknow June 11, 2009, 0:56 IST on The Business Standard

Public sector telecom giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will invest Rs 15,000 crore this fiscal to upgrade its infrastructure and roll out new value-added services.

“Our capital expenditure in different verticals this year would be around Rs 15,000 crore,” BSNL CMD Kuldeep Goyal told Business Standard.

BSNL will use the investment for mobile expansion and for services like 3G, broadband, wireless broadband, IPTV, WiMAX, mobile commerce (m-commerce), value-added landline, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and others.

“Our aim is to add 35 million telephone lines by the end of this fiscal across the country and to commission fresh 3G network,” he added.

BSNL had launched 3G services on February 2 and, at present, it is available in 70 towns. “We plan to provide 3G services in 700 cities by the end of calendar 2009,” Goyal said.

He added that, for achieving the targeted mobile growth, more spectrum was needed by operators.

“The availability of spectrum for mobile phone operators in general is less than other countries. However, this has not affected the quality of services being offered,” he claimed.

“We will offer wireless broadband through WiMAX technology in 1,000 blocks of the country out of the total 6,000 blocks. The state-run telecom operator will roll out franchisee-based WiMAX service in the country, starting with Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

“We have floated tenders for offering similar a WiMAX service in other states as well,” he said. “We are also working on improving our quality of service and have engaged AC Nielson to test the quality of our mobile service,” Goyal added.

Union Bank of India to Improve M-banking Platform

From www.cellstrat.com on June 8, 2009

Union Bank of India is adding new services to its mobile payment platform Umobile. New services will include fund intra-bank transfers to any account, money transfer to accounts of other banks, shopping, ticketing, bill payments, etc.

Dishtv Partners With atom

From www.efytimes.com

Saturday, June 06, 2009:  India’s atom technologies, a provider of mobile/IVR payment solutions, has partnered with Dishtv to offer phone/mobile payment solutions to over five million Dishtv subscribers across India. This service offers the convenience to the Dishtv subscribers to recharge their accounts instantly through the phone over the atom platform using their credit cards/debit cards, anytime, anywhere.

atom platform provides a secure and automated environment to end customers and they need not worry about getting their credit card details exposed to any human being, explained the company.

“To provide more convenient and risk free payment options to our rapidly increasing subscriber base, we have put into service the atom platform, which will encourage more customers to pay using their phones,” said Salil Kapoor, chief executive officer, Dishtv. “Our subscribers can now enjoy best deals in an automated and secure environment. Our association with atom Technologies for using the innovative Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology will offer more convenience to our subscribers by providing them with additional option of making payments.”

“We are confident that our solutions will help Dishtv in serving their subscribers better, ease their recharge collection process and reduce their cost overheads as cost per transaction will come down for them. The solution will also enable Dishtv to process multiple transactions concurrently thus saving the subscriber’s time,” said, Dewang Neralla, director, atom technologies.

Related stories at

• http://www.ciol.com/technology/mobility/news-reports/dishtv-ties-up-with-atom-for-m-payment/8609120648/0/

Telesoft Increases Media Platform Share In India

From www.efytimes.com

Friday, June 05, 2009:  Telesoft Technologies has won and already delivered an order to supply the OKEFORD Media Platform to a large operator in India. Working closely with a technology partner, the solution was deployed in five months.

The OKEFORD Media Platform provides interactive voice/media services for the mobile prepaid subscriber charging solution in the pan-India network.

India is the world’s fastest growing wireless market with 11.75 million new subscribers added in April bringing the total number of wireless subscribers to 403.66 million, according to the newest available data from the TRAI.

In order to attract and keep these new subscribers, a large proportion of which use prepaid tariffs, service providers install reliable and easy to use automated payment and customer care solutions. These include voice prompt, speech recognition and other media capabilities to aid interaction and improve the customer experience.

Indians more willing to try nextgen mobile services: KPMG

4 Jun 2009, 1434 hrs IST, PTI on www.economictimes.com

NEW DELHI: Indians are more willing to experiment with value-added services, including chatting, video gaming and watching live TV on mobile phones, as compared to their global counterparts, KPMG says.

Asian consumers, including those in India, seem the most willing to use their mobile phones for purchasing music, video games, and watching live TV, followed by the Middle East and Africa and Latin America, global consulting firm KPMG’s ‘Consumers and Convergence III’ global survey found.

However, the developed-market consumers of Europe and North America are apparently less willing.

The survey revealed that there exists a huge potential for mobile chat services, video gaming on mobile and watching live TV on mobile in India.

Globally, 18 per cent of respondents were very likely to use a mobile chat service in the next 6-12 months as against 34 per cent in India, showing growing demand for such services.

The survey revealed as much as 95 per cent Indian consumers were satisfied with their music-download experience on mobile phones as against 66 per cent respondents globally.

“While mobile additions exceed 10 million a month, average revenue per user’s (ARPU) continue to drop. Telecom players recognize rise in VAS revenues will be a key aspect of future growth and profitability,” KPMG India Head of information, communication & entertainment Rajesh Jain said.

About 86 per cent respondents in the country and in China indicated likelihood of watching live TV on mobile phones in the next 12 months, the survey added.

Players in value chain are innovating and focusing on the increasing market size for their products and services, Jain added.

KPMG surveyed over 4,000 consumers in 19 countries world wide, in order to understand the future for the market, revealing global trends and some regional differences.

In India, although the user-base of mobile gaming is smaller, a substantially higher proportion of 63 per cent was satisfied with the service, which reflects gaining acceptance and opportunity for mobile gaming companies as the segment moves beyond the early adopters.

Meanwhile, m-commerce applications continue to face challenges for gaining wider acceptance in the country.

KPMG’s survey revealed that there exists a huge potential for banks to grow their market with mobile phone users, as globally 53 per cent of consumers said they are comfortable with the idea of using a mobile phone for financial transactions.

About 64 per cent of Indian’s surveyed stated that they are “at least somewhat likely” to conduct banking through a mobile device in the next 12 months.

Further, 93 per cent respondents said clear pricing and 94 per cent felt download speed as an influencing factor for the purchase of video clips and mobile TV.

Interview — CDMA is better than GSM: Sistema Shyam

From http://www.ciol.com on 01 June 2009

BANGALORE, INDIA: Indian telecom sphere is all set to witness a tug of war with six new international telecom players set to enter the scenario.

Sistema Shyam Teleservices, a joint venture between Russia’s Sistema and India’s Shyam group, the only CDMA (code division multiple access) player of the lot, recently launched its services in West Bengal.

During an interview given to CIOL, Vsevolod Rozanov, president and CEO, Sistema Shyam TeleServices, said that CDMA is a better technology than GSM because it enables better utilisation of the frequencies available, and thus helps in bringing down the costs. Excerpts:

CIOL: The Indian metros and urban areas have attained saturation in terms of telecom density. So where do you see the demand coming from and for what?

Vsevolod Rozanov: If we have to grow fast, apart from expanding our footprint in new circles and getting new customers (first-time users), we have to wean away customers from the incumbents.

We believe there is a huge market for us to grow. While there are players who have the first mover’s advantage, there is still a vast chunk of existing individual users who will find higher value for money in our tariff and billing plans.

CIOL: What are your investment plans for India? What will be the focus?

VR: We plan to invest $5.5 billion in India over a period of five years. We will utilize most of this projected investment over the next two years for setting up infrastructure that will enable accessibility and better connectivity for mobile phone users.

We have already invested more than $1 billion in setting up our network. We have launched the brand in Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Kerala and Kolkata. We are planning to launch services in Delhi by Q3 this year, and looking to foray into one circle every month.

We will eventually cover UP, Haryana and Maharashtra circles by the end of this calendar year. Thus, in the next nine months, the MTS brand will be seen in half of the 22 telecom circles across the country, achieving a pan-India footprint by mid-2010.

CIOL: Do you see a possibility of M&A going forward to meet the increased challenge? What is your take on infrastructure sharing among service providers to combat frequent network disruptions owing to issues like natural disasters?

VR: We are not aware of any significant player in the CDMA segment in India who is planning to hive off its telecom business.

We will have a combination of self-owned and shared infrastructure to ensure that we provide the best connectivity across the country. We already have tie-ups and agreements with various infrastructure companies across the country to ensure superior quality of service.

CIOL: How different will be your ‘go-to-market’ strategy?

VR: In Rajasthan, the key message of our campaign is to create a churn in the market through the slogan, “Badlo life ka plan” (change your life’s plan).

Today over 50 per cent of our subscribers in Rajasthan are not new customers, but those who have switched over from other mobile service operators. They are doing so because they are frustrated with the quality of the old incumbent networks, and are willing to try our non-congested network.

We do not see much difference between GSM (global system for mobile communications) and CDMA. Customers using CDMA technology are approximately one quarter of all. Given the size of the Indian market, this is not small at all.

We have been looking at whether we should wait until we are fully ready with CDMA data offerings or we should start building our customer base and deliver our data offers a bit later. We decided to go in for the second option. We will be coming out with the data offering soon.

CIOL: With several service providers in the frame, will the cost of service be brought down further?

VR: India is a highly price sensitive market. Our pan-Indian strategy will focus on simplicity in all our marketing strategy. We will offer simple, very clear and understandable tariff plans for our customers. Our tariffs will be the lowest, with no hidden charges.

We have dropped the price of entry-level colour phones to Rs 999, and they come with six months of free calls and lifetime validity. The subsidy that we incur on every phone is going down as the price of phones is going down faster than the fall in new offers.

We will offer SMS at 50 paise unlike most other operators who charge one rupee. The tariffs can fall further, if the regulator makes the termination charge cost-based, which would be less than 10 paise a minute from the current 30 paise, the same can be passed on to customers.

CIOL: How do you see advanced mobile technologies – such as 3G, CDMA – gaining currency in rural areas as well, especially when India has very less wireless penetration?

VR: The advanced mobile technologies such as 3G have the potential to meet the digital divide between rural and urban India by penetrating into far-fetched areas, where fixed-line connectivity is sparse due to high deployment cost of infrastructure. 3G will not only alleviate the existing level of voice-based services, but also make Internet broadband access a reality for larger population.

3G will also fit well into the urban user’s plan. It will enable quality voice and address the pent-up demand for high-bandwidth data exchange on mobile phones and support high-speed Internet access on other portable devices.

The government has recognized 3G as the cornerstone for growth of the telecom sector and is expected to allocate the third generation on priority.

CIOL: What is being done to take the brand into the market?

VR: MTS is the eighth-largest telecom company in the world with over 100 million customers. In India, we are the sixth or seventh operator. We are using faces of models talking on the mobile phone to relate to the consumers and give our service the human touch. We have also decided to concentrate most of our advertising and marketing spend on local media, via regional language instead of English.

We have also recently rebranded our existing operations in Rajasthan, under the ‘Rainbow’ brand, to MTS. Rainbow was a regional brand limited to Rajasthan and what we needed was a pan-India brand name. Accordingly we painted the Pink City Jaipur to red – the colour of our brand.

The most important factor is the time-to-market – how quickly we could launch the brand across India in the next nine months. With MTS, the brand material, logo and specifications are all readymade and already available

CIOL: How do you look at the slowdown?

VR: Global economic slowdown is a business challenge for enterprises across the globe. However, Sistema is one of the largest public diversified corporations in Russia. We have sufficient funds to expand our operations, and launch our services on a pan-India basis.

India is one of the fastest growing markets for telecom, and has been relatively un-impacted by recession. As of now, the situation is under control, because the financial meltdown has not impacted Indian banks in a major way.

However, if the situation worsens, then we could be in a spot as we are not allowed to bring in foreign funds in the form of debt. We are allowed to bring money in the form of equity, but our promoters would like to have the flexibility to decide on what form they would like to pump in money into the company.

The Indian Government should consider relaxing the foreign investment norms, which will allow international players to bring in funds in the form of loan.

CIOL: What would be the newer trends in the Indian mobility sector?

VR: The year 2009 is expected to be an exciting year for the Indian mobile telephony market. With the Congress-led UPA (United Progressive Alliance) voted back to power, the sector can look forward to speedy auction of the long-awaited 3G spectrum.

A significant portion of the rural population will witness phased growth in first-time Internet access and welfare programs covering telemedicine, e-governance and distance learning – propelled by 3G mobile broadband and WiMax.

While the 3G network would infuse better services for subscribers and enhance revenues from VAS (value-added services) for operators, the introduction of MNP will offer users the convenience of retaining their mobile phone number even after switching between networks and operators.

Mobile payment and commerce for micro-transactions is also expected to attract greater user-orientation.

Interview — Bharti Airtel hopeful of 200-m user mark in 3 years

On The Hindu Business Line dated 03 June 2009

Thomas K. Thomas

New Delhi, June 2 To keep its leadership position in the fastest growing mobile market, Bharti Airtel is embarking on a multi-pronged strategy, including a comprehensive customer retention programme, partnerships with companies that offer mobile entertainment and commerce services, domestic acquisitions and a thrust on driving growth in the rural areas.

In his first interview after taking over as the President of Bharti’s mobile business, Mr Atul Bindal, told Business Line, “I do not agree with those who say Indian mobile growth story is on the verge of getting over. We will reach the next hundred million subscribers by a combination of reaching out to the huge potential that exists in the rural areas, taking advantage of the untapped opportunity in large urban areas and possibly through the organic route which we will evaluate as when opportunities come by.”

Bharti crossed the 100-million mark in May and is hoping to reach the 200-million mark in another two-three years.

Number portability

Asked on the impact on Bharti of new players and introduction of mobile number portability (MNP), Mr Bindal said the company has put in place a customer life-cycle management system which will enable it to take customer services to the next level.

“At present most operators are looking at a few broad consumer segments to create offering and services around them. We are going to take this to the next level wherein Bharti will target micro segments of subscribers to offer customised services. For example, a subscriber who travels a lot to a particular country would like to get a special international roaming tariff. The system will allow us to target products based on the user’s behaviour rather than launch broad mass offerings,” Mr Bindal said.

He added that MNP is an opportunity for Bharti to acquire customers from other operators.

Mr Bindal reckons that mobile commerce and mobile entertainment are going to be big applications.

“Value added service the way we know today is going to change drastically. We are giving a huge thrust to music, games, movies and sports under mobile entertainment wherein we plan to be an end-to-end service provider. We will also enable application providers to use Bharti’s network as a conduit to reach our subscribers. In m-commerce, we are looking at the unbanked segment and micro-finance in a big way,” he said.

Asked if Bharti was open to tie-ups with companies such as Nokia, which also is launching an entertainment platform, Mr Bindal said that such partnerships were possible.

Acquisition plan

He also did not rule out the possibility of Bharti acquiring small companies offering value-added services or a technology that will add to its business model.

“Bharti has always been in favour of strategic partnerships and alliances as long as it offers a compelling value proposition to our customers,” Mr Bindal said.

mKhoj intros mobile advertising in local languages

On http://www.ciol.com on 02 June 2009

BANGALORE, INDIA and PALO ALTO, USA: mKhoj, the leading mobile advertising marketplace for the rest of the world, today announced the ability to power relevant mobile advertising tailored to local languages in seventeen different countries. With this announcement, mobile advertisers can leverage mKhoj’s ad network to display ads in hundreds of languages, including Afrikaans, Arabic, Bahasa, Hindi, Tamil, Turkic, and Zulu.

This new technology continues mKhoj’s commitment to provide the fastest character mapping for more than 600 mobile publishers. With UTF-8 encoding, mKhoj allows advertisers to increase the power of their mobile marketing by more effectively targeting their audience, and increases the monetization as well as the value of the publishers’ mobile properties through greater localization.

How it works:

When advertisers sign up, they now have the ability to upload their mobile advertising in any local language and in any alphabet. This gives advertisers new ways to target and communicate with consumers.

“Empowering advertisers to speak to consumers in their native language enables them to make more personal connections with their target audiences.” Abhay Singhal, Head of Global Sales for mKhoj. “This provides multinational advertisers a more effective way to reach local audiences around the globe.”

mKhoj has implemented its UTF-8 encoding technology to enable advertisers to easily upload local language advertising as-is, so publishers and their users are ensured a high quality experience.

Tata Tele says ‘Yes’ to M-commerce

On http://www.ciol.com/ on 29 May 2009

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Tata Teleservices has announced its partnership with ICICI Bank to offer mobile banking services to Tata Indicom subscribers registered for mobile banking with ICICI Bank. Now these customers can avail of banking services with just a click of the button. The subscribers can now manage their finances while on the move using their Tata Indicom mobile phone via iMobile, a Brew based application.

Elaborating on the tie-up, Zubin Jimmy Dubash, assistant Vice president, Tata Teleservices Limited, said: “By having the largest private Bank – ICICI Bank we have just moved one step further towards Mobile commerce. We are glad to partner with ICICI Bank to explore a highly efficient value added service for all our Tata Indicom customers. The mobile phone has enormous potential when used as a tool for financial services, it is likely to revolutionize the sector in a similar manner that the ATM did for banking and cash, years ago.”

With the initiative we aim at offering convenience of currently accessing ICICI Bank’s financial services with the help of Tata Indicom mobile. We are confident that, mobile banking will accelerate significantly in the coming years.” he added.

Tata Indicom through mobile banking application will allow its subscribers to transfer funds to any Bank account, Pay bills, top up prepaid mobile recharge. View account balances, last five transaction history, presented bills, credit card payment due date, etc. Not only this, the customers can also, locate an ICICI Bank branch, ATM and phone banking numbers. The service also provides the subscribers the opportunity to access the credit card, demat and Loans services, to name a few.

The iMobile application can be downloaded onto the handset through, BREW catalogue on our server on all the handsets. The customers need to have a data enabled handset that supports this application. The current handsets supporting the application are Samsung T Nimbus, Samsung Bliss, Samsung NX1 LG 6335, and Pantec 715, Samsung Max.

Way2SMS launches e-mail alerts on mobiles

From The Hindu Business Line on 29 May 2009

Our Bureau

Hyderabad, May 28 SMS service provider, Way2SMS.com, has lunched e-mail alerts on mobile. Any subscriber of http://www.way2sms.com/ can avail this free service, which works with any mail box that has forward option.

“We have made sure that this feature can be easily activated as there is no installation required. Alerts can be received from multiple mail boxes if subscriber wishes,” said Mr VV Raju, Founder-CEO, Way2SMS.com, said.

A subscriber could receive alerts for only those emails, which he wants. It is also possible to customise one’s preferences, the Hyderabad-based company said in a release.

Dial your doctor, pay by phone

From The Hindu Business Line on 28 May 2009

Our Bureau

Bangalore, May 27

Patient-doctor link portal HealthcareMagic has said its subscribers now can not only consult a doctor on phone but also pay their fee by phone. The company has tied up with mobile payment service provider Atom Telecom to provide IVR-based payment option for the service.

“Patients can now interact with doctors by dialling a landline number to get medical assistance for their illness or common query,” a release by the Bangalore-based HealthcareMagic said. “The charges range from Rs 160 to Rs 999 and can be paid through mobile or landline using credit card.”

HealthcareMagic launched its ‘Doctor on Call’ and ‘Doctor on Click’ live chat service over a year back. The charges were collected online; now this extends to phone-based payment, a spokesperson said.

The option of paying over the phone will cover all 400 million telecom subscribers and 40 million landline subscribers across the country. It has tied up with insurance and telecom players including Reliance Telecom, BPL Mobile, Aircel, ICICI Lombard and Bajaj Allianz.

“Providing m-payment facility for our customers will definitely increase our subscriber base and smoothen the payment system. As the mobile penetration in India is more than the Internet, Atom’s technology will definitely help get more visibility” to the service, said Dr Abhilash Thirupathy, VP-Marketing & Business Development, HealthcareMagic.

Those seeking medical advice need to dial HealthcareMagic’s call centre number and choose from various packages. They would then be connected to Atom IVR to pay by credit card over the phone. Once the transaction is done, the customer is connected to a panel of doctors.

The service is initially available from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. in English and Hindi. The company plans to make it available 24×7 in more languages, and also bring in advice from super-specialists.

“HealthcareMagic’s service-at-your-disposal is rapidly catching up as a concept in the country. With this tie-up, we are confident that the best of health care services will now be available on call instantly, thus benefiting entire population,” said Mr Dewang Neralla, Director, Atom.

Atom is the digital, retail initiative of the Financial Technologies Group and is said to have handled over 100 crore similar transactions in India and West Asia.