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

BSNL to outsource customer-care to BPOs

Thomas K Thomas on The Hindu Business Line on June 18, 2009

New Delhi, June 17 To ramp up its customer service capabilities, state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is scouting for private call centre units that can operate contact centres for addressing complaints from fixed line and broadband subscribers across the country.

BSNL has invited expression of interest from private players for setting up the contact centres.

According to the expression of interest floated by the company, the private player will set up, operate and maintain the contact centres, including agents at their own premises. The agents will be required to handle queries from customers and provide solutions. This will also include obtaining customer feedback.

Initially, the contract will be for three years and will be extendable for the next two years on year-to-year basis at the discretion of BSNL. The PSU may expand the scope of work to include BSNL’s other services apart from landline and broadband services.

Eligibility

Only companies with experience in operation of contact centres in India for the last two consecutive years with minimum of 1,000 operational seats deployed for domestic clients and with at least 500 operational seats at a single location are eligible to bid for the contract.

The call centre company should also have experience in servicing a telecom service provider operating in more than three States. The company should have at least four contact centres/call centres in India at different geographical locations for the last one year.

Outsourcing route

BSNL is increasingly outsourcing its operations to private players. To save on capital expenditure and roll out services faster, BSNL is taking the outsourcing route in a big way for new projects.

The PSU has invited bids from private players for at least five of its projects including offering WiMax services, Internet Protocol Television and setting up Internet Data Services. It recently sought expression of interest from large retail chains to sell BSNL products and services. The trend is in line with what private telecom operators are doing. Majors such as Bharti Airtel have outsourced most of their operations to third party vendors.

ECI Telecom bags $70 mn contract from Tata Tele- Telecom-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times

17 Jun 2009, 1925 hrs IST, ET Bureau

via ECI Telecom bags $70 mn contract from Tata Tele- Telecom-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times.

NEW DELHI: Tata Teleservices on Wednesday awarded a $70 million contract to Israel-based ECI Telecom to deliver fixed-broadband access network across the country.

ECI has already rolled out the service for Tata Tele in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Vizag, Vijayawada, Surat and Baroda.

ECI’s broadband solution would enable TTSL to offer triple-play services and applications such as IPTV, video on demand, high speed broadband internet, VoIP and other bandwidth intensive services.

Related stories at

• http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Tata-Teleservices-in-pact-with-ECI-for-broadband-services/articleshow/4667773.cms

RComm in exclusive talks with Alcatel-Lucent for Rs 2,500 cr outsourcing deal- Telecom-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times

17 Jun 2009, 1128 hrs IST, ET Bureau & Agencies

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NEW DELHI: Reliance Communications (RCom) is in exclusive talks with French telecom infrastructure provider Alactel-Lucent to award a $500million (Rs 2,500 crore) operations and maintenance contract.

Last year, Reliance and Alcatel formed a joint venture for network management services, with the Indian company holding 33 percent and the French company owning the rest.

Last week, Reliance Communications entered into a marketing JV with Krishak Bharati Cooperative Limited (KRIBHCO) for selling its products in rural India.

The JV company known as KRIBHCO Reliance Kisan Ltd is aimed at synergising the strengths of both companies to create a rural distribution model for sales of telecom and non-telecom products.

KRIBCO will hold 60% equity in the JV company with the balance 40% held by Reliance ADAG.

RCOM’s tie-up aims to be a counter to that of Bharti Airtel, which has a similar JV with Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO), the country’s largest fertiliser PSU unit.

In May, Bharti and IFFO had formed IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Ltd (IKSL) and said that the JV would harness the power of telecom to add value to the farm sector. Here IFFCO has a 50% stake while Airtel and Star Global have 25% each.

via RComm in exclusive talks with Alcatel-Lucent for Rs 2,500 cr outsourcing deal- Telecom-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times.

Related stories at

• http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Reliance-Communications-in-talks-with-Alcatel-Lucent-for-a-500-mn-outsourcing-deal/articleshow/4667231.cms

CBI arrests 2 senior MTNL officials on graft charges

From The Financial Express on June 16, 2009

New Delhi: The CBI has arrested two senior officers of the MTNL for allegedly demanding a bribe for releasing pending bills of a complainant.

A CBI spokesperson said Vinay Kanwal, Deputy General Manager (Finance), posted at Rajouri Garden, and R K Gupta, Chief Accounts Officer, were allegedly caught while accepting Rs 32,000 — the first part payment of bribe amount of Rs 60,000.

The CBI said a private contractor was given contract for house keeping work for the office of GM, MTNL, Rajouri Garden for the period from July 2008 to May 13, 2009.

“As the two accused officials were demanding a bribe of Rs 60,000 to release the payments of pending bills and also for extension of the contract work, the contractor lodged a complaint with the CBI,” the official said.

He said searches were also conducted at the residence of accused persons.

“Cash amounting to Rs four lakh, five bank pass books having a balance of Rs 3.2 lakh, documents of two flats and other incriminating documents were recovered from the residence of Gupta, while certain incriminatory documents were recovered from the residence of Kanwal.

“Both the accused persons were produced in the court of CBI Special Judge, Tis Hazari, and remanded to judicial custody,” the official said.

Wireless Expertise Launched!

From http://www.efytimes.com on June 16, 2009

Tuesday, June 16, 2009:  Wireless Expertise has launched, with a focus on the rapid development and delivery of mobile value added services and applications to a wider global market. Founded with the intention of bridging the market gap and speeding up the delivery of mobile services, Wireless Expertise’s offering will include international consultancy, service design and development solutions to help brands overcome barriers to reach out to their customers via the mobile channel, said the company.

According to Anuj Khanna, founder and chief executive officer, Wireless Expertise, “Brands are hindered in delivering wireless services by poor user metrics, segmentation, development skills and product marketing expertise. Diverse handset operating systems and standards add to this conundrum.”

“Wireless Expertise has been founded to solve the problems of wireless service development, application design and systems integration. We aim to expedite the deployment of mobile services by bringing together cohesive solutions for our customers, and adding key competencies from the entire spectrum of the telecommunications, internet and IT solutions value chain,” said Anuj.

“Wireless Expertise will deliver end-to-end solutions working with growth partners to offer a ‘one-stop-shop’. We are proud to be part of a company which has risen from the ashes of a recession and is focused on taking the wireless applications industry to the next level,” Anuj concluded.

The company provides strategic business consultancy, marketing research, product development, project management and system integration services. Wireless Expertise has signed its first contracts for European based wireless application services, to help with an imminent market launch.

Wireless Expertise is headquartered in the UK and has expansion plans to cover North America, Middle East, Asia and Africa in the next 18 months. The company is also working on secure mobile banking, money transfer and payment projects which are in deployment phase across Africa, Middle East and Europe.

BSNL opts for franchisee route to reduce costs

Thomas K Thomas on The Hindu Business Line on June 16, 2009

New Delhi, June 15 In a bid to save on capital expenditure and to roll out services faster, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is taking the franchisee route in a big way for new projects.

The PSU has invited bids from private players for at least five of its projects, including for offering WiMax services, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and setting up Internet Data Services.

According to BSNL officials, the company may be saving more than Rs 10,000 crore of capital investment by adopting the franchisee model. Take for example the controversial WiMax project wherein the company is planning to allow a private player in each circle to utilise its spectrum and back haul infrastructure to offer high-speed broadband on a revenue share basis. The franchisee will make all the investments required to set up the network and also undertake marketing and sales on behalf of BSNL. It is following a similar business model for IPTV services.

Risks minimised

According to BSNL officials, this model also minimises risks for the state-owned company especially in areas where the technology or the service being offered is relatively new and untested.

“While we are offering our traditional businesses like mobile ,fixed line and long distance telephony on our own we are seeking private participation for new services like IPTV and WiMax-based services where we are yet to see an uptake in demand across the world. In the franchisee model, we let private entrepreneurs take the risk,” said a BSNL official.

Most of the deals being worked out by BSNL include transfer of business operation to the PSU after a certain period of time which means that if the service does succeed then BSNL gets to run the show at a later date.

BSNL is also now slowly beginning to use private players in marketing and sales activities. It has recently sought expression of interest from large retail chains to sell BSNL products and services over their counters.

Private operators

The trend is in line with what private telecom operators are doing. Most big players such as Bharti Airtel have outsourced most of their operations to third party vendors. While BSNL being a Government-run company cannot outsource its operations to a private player, it is using the franchisee model to create efficiency in its operations.

BSNL officials said that depending on the successes of these projects which have been launched the PSU will evaluate further opportunities to partner private players on a franchisee model.

RCom, Alcatel to enter into Rs 3,000cr deal

From www.ciol.com on June 9, 2009

MUMBAI, INDIA: In what could be one of the largest outsourcing deals in the Indian telecom space, Reliance Communications is close to awarding a $500-600 million (Rs 2,500-3,000 crore) operations and maintenance contract to French telecom infrastructure provider Alactel-Lucent, says a report in Business Standard. The contract would be either executed independently by Alcatel-Lucent or by the joint venture between Alcatel-Lucent and RCom formed in May 2008 for managed network services that would take on outsourcing contracts from global telecom operators.

On the GSM front, RCom will initially outsource the operations of five circles — Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir and Chhattisgarh — to Alcatel-Lucent.

The outsourcing deal also includes managing and strengthening RCom’s 175,000 km global optical fibre cable systems. The OFC system, of which 80,000 km is in India, is also used to carry international telecom data.

Related stories at

• http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Reliance-Comm-may-give-contract-to-Alcatel-Report/articleshow/4634278.cms

BSNL looks for global OEMs to bid for WiMax operations

6 Jun 2009, 0056 hrs IST, Joji Thomas Philip, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: State-owned BSNL on Friday issued fresh tenders to run its WiMax operations, even as it tightened the eligibility criteria and introduced a slew of additional safe-guards in the wake of the telco being forced to abort its previous tender in light of dubious operators making it to the final shortlist.

“We have issued fresh tenders for companies to run our WiMax services across 16 circles on a revenue share franchisee basis. This time around, only original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and system integrators can bid. We are confident that shell or paper companies will not be eligible to bid,” BSNL’s chairman and managing director Kuldeep Goyal told ET.

According to Mr Goyal, the telco was looking at global OEMs, such as Ericsson and Cisco, to bid for its WiMax tenders. The logic: OEMs have the technical capabilities to launch and operate such networks especially since they manufacture the same. “We are also looking at system integrators, such as IT companies, to run the operations. All bidders must have a minimum turnover of Rs 100 crore each for the last two years,” Mr Goyal added. In fact, the tender documents will be issued only after proof of turnover is shown.

ET had first reported on June 3 that BSNL would seek fresh bids for franchisees across the country to roll out technology that allows users the wireless access to high-speed internet and other data applications over a large area. BSNL expects WiMax to generate multi-billion dollar revenues over the next 10 years.

The telco had cancelled the earlier tender after its own investigations revealed that five of the six shortlisted companies — WiExpert Communications, SV Telecom Systems, Digitelco Communications, Spectrus Communications and Technotial Infoways — were acting as ‘fronts’ for certain individuals. It was found that these companies shared the same corporate details, notaries, auditors and dates of incorporation, and even their last annual general body meeting was shown to be held on the same day. BSNL had also come under pressure from its labour unions to scrap the tender following reports of wide-scale corruption in the methodologies adopted to shortlist successful bidders.

Companies, which want to participate in the new tender, have been given a deadline till August 4, 2009, to submit their bids. A host of companies, which were mysteriously disqualified from the earlier tender, are expected to place fresh bids — these include Soma Networks, Cisco-backed Terracom, Unwire India and Welcomm Communications, which has a tie-up Huawei and Aricent.

BSNL already has a tie-up with US-headquartered Soma Networks, which runs WiMax services for the PSU in the circles of Gujarat, Maharashtra (including Goa) and Andhra Pradesh. The deal with Soma has also raised concerns considering that BSNL had appointed this franchisee without going through a bidding process.

Besides, the WiMax forum has also pointed out that Soma Networks was deploying mobile WiMax in FDD format, a technology standard that is not recognised by the forum globally.