India’s Maoist insurgents destroyed two mobile towers and have shut down six others in the country’s east, blaming the network for revealing their movements to the police, officials said.
Rebels, fearing mobiles are being used by informers, have banned the use of mobile phones in villages under their control in India after hundreds of suspected insurgents were arrested this year.
Police said armed rebels set two towers of Bharti Airtel Ltd on fire on Thursday in Bihar state, snapping communication lines in the region.
“The Maoists are angry since the police were able to locate their movements through the mobile network, leading to many arrests.”
June 29, 2008
I have been pondering over ever increasing hue and cry about mobile marketing, for a while.
I have been going around to people from US to Europe to India to Australia etc. etc. etc. asking about their views on top 10 points to consider in Mobile Marketing area. Received numerous responses.
To give out the results of this survey, I am putting my views and the results together in a white paper on the same…which will be out soon…
If any of you would like to get the same…please get in touch with us and we will send it promptly. Till then…keep reading and sharing your views/ comments…
VS
June 26, 2008
Businesses always make more profits when they get early mover advantage in the market for new technologies and ideas. Individual/ end users many a times get benefited when they adopt a technology in later stages of its development. Because by then, most, if not all, lacunae would have been filled by the manufacturers. I sincerely hope that the reader of this post is getting, what I am pointing at…Yes…U guessed it right…I am talking about Apple’s new 3G iPhone…
In India especially, there is a huge market for second hand phones and Chinese duplicate versions. When iPhone was launched first time by Apple, it became an instant hit everywhere around the world. But since it was on costlier side (Approx. Rs.30000+ in Indian currency), it could be afforded only by either business class people or people in high positions in companies. Surprisingly, it didn’t take even months or weeks but just a few days when iPhone came into market with no guarantees or warranties what so ever. These were imports from United States where iPhone was released first. Many people lost huge sums of money in buying these models just in hope that these may work just as good as the original one. There were hacking programs available in market which claimed to break the iPhone lock and make it work on the usual GSM carriers (similar story occurred in China).
And now…here you go…Apple has launched an all new upgraded version of iPhone and that too at less than half the old price (Approx. Rs.8000 - Rs.12500) in two storage versions i.e. 8GB and 16GB capacities. It has come out with more storage, better features and more affordable rates for everybody. Its 3G iPhone…and more
With fast 3G wireless technology, GPS mapping, support for enterprise features like Microsoft Exchange, and the new App Store, iPhone 3G puts even more features at your fingertips.And like the original iPhone, it combines three products in one — a revolutionary phone, a widescreen iPod, and a breakthrough Internet device with rich HTML email and a desktop-class web browser. It redefines what a mobile phone can do — again.
All these features are making the old iPhone users fume as they spent more to get less and now even if they want to resell their models, they will not be able to get even Rs.5000 for the same as the new upgraded 3G iPhone version with 8GB capacity will be just Rs.8000 approx. so why will anybody buy an old one for almost the same price…This justifies the title of this post…
VS
June 14, 2008
One of the senior officer’s of Department of Telecommunication in India has informed media that “There is no problem with the BlackBerry handsets or services and BlackBerry services are not going to be discontinued in India.” This is inspite of the fact that Research in Motion — the Canada-based maker of the push-mail device — is yet to resolve India’s security concerns.
The issue rose due to recent terrorist attacks in Rajasthan. Indian security department officials had raised an objection on encrypted messaging that happens from Blackberry devices which is being used by terrorist groups regularly for communication.
RIM’s spokesperson in India informed that they are still in talks with senior government officials over this issue but he also said that till date outcomes of these meetings have been positive.
Thus, I can say that many Blackberry enthusiasts in India will now be able to buy the device and fulfill their wishes to be among Blackberry users.
VS
June 13, 2008
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has a love-hate relationship with wireless carriers. Sometimes he is known to help them with corporate plans and growth strategies, at other times, he gets into their cross-hair and creates what mobile carriers may consider obstacles.
Recently he spoke about regulating ETF (Early Termination Fees) fees which carriers charge when customers leave before the end of their contracts. Typically these fees range from $125-$250 per subscriber and are levied when the customer decides to disconnect her or her service before the usual 2 year contract ends. The fee is levied to recoup the discounts provided on phone sales. If a customer gets a discounted cellphone, they have to sign a contract promising to remain loyal to the carrier for a set no of years, typically 2 years. If the customer breaks the contract and leaves before the end of the contract term, they are liable to pay the ETF.
Mr Martin wants to regulate the ETF amount and tie it to the price of the device. It may be logical to suggest that a $200 device does not warrant the same ETF as a $500 device. Also Mr Martin wants to reduce the length of the contracts and let consumers jump ship sooner. It is all about consumer choice.
There have been lot of class action lawsuits recently on ETFs and per Mr Martin’s plan, states won’t be allowed to entertain class action lawsuits on these topics once FCC starts regulating the ETF and contract practices.
On this one, FCC is with the consumers..
MT
June 13, 2008
The new 3G iPhone is creating substantial buzz. Check out Om Malik’s interview with Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility.
http://gigaom.com/2008/06/09/att-mobility-ceo-new-3g-iphone-game-changer/
One of the concerns is that increase in mobile data usage for social networking, LBS or streaming video apps is going to cause a lot of network congestion on AT&T wireless network. Mr de la Vega is confident that AT&T network can handle it. For more power users of mobile data, the hope is that they are smart enough to use WiFi connection on the iPhone to download large data files instead of congesting the wireless network. A future filled with FMC devices like Femtocells only makes sense here. Femtocells will allow bandwidth hogging home wireless to pass on broadband wireline connections allowing the wireless network to remain somewhat available.
AT&T is taking some hits on its earnings estimates due to the lowered iPhone price and Apple is taking a hit as well as AT&T will no longer share the subscription revenue. But overall sales volume is expected to increase dramatically with the lower price and that is expected to more than compensate for the lower price on the device.
The new iPhone is loaded with good stuff. The App Store will allow for a slew of cool consumer and enterprise apps. The enterprise support is great with MS-Exchange integration. GPS is cool for LBS accuracy.
Nokia and RIM need not fear however. iPhone will only increase smartphone penetration increasing the size of the market for everybody. We feel the smartphones will cannibalize the non-smartphone cellphone market to some extent.
MT
June 10, 2008
Steve Jobs of Apple announced today the availability and details of 3G iPhone. It is available in the US from July 11 for $199. Not sure if if AT&T is discounting it or Apple is willing to sell it at a lower price (compared to $399 for the previous iPhone version). The new iPhone is a 3G device with GPS Mapping, a loaded App Store which houses some cool iPhone apps, MS-Exchange integration (attack on RIM turf - the enterprise?), and GPS. Apparently it is a 8GB device at $199. There is a $16 GB version at $299.
GPS is cool - it will drive Location Based Services and related applications like advertising, finder services and social networking.
MS-Exchange support is cool too as it will help in more enterprise adoption and cause some headaches to the folks at Research in Motion (Blackberry manufacturer).
The price is great too for cost-conscious customers.
Apparently 3G iPhone will be released in 20 countries.
We are excited and cannot wait to lay our hands on the new 3G iPhone.
MT
June 9, 2008
As we reported yesterday, Verizon signed a deal to acquire Alltel for $28.1 billion. Wow..are things fast. The rumor arose yesterday and the deal is done today. Possibly Verizon kept it under the wraps to thwart any competitive bidding. As we suspected, Alltel walked away with a billion dollars more than the figure mentioned yesterday. The two private equity firms behind Alltel - Goldman Sachs and Texas Pacific Group were able to recoup their $27.5 billion and some more in seven months. Nice deal for them. With credit markets in crisis, these firms probably want more cash on hand and they walked away with a nice profit (albeit not a large one) in a short time.
AT&T lost its No 1 leadership mantle. But these things hardly matter. Too much M&A to pin No 1 mantle on any one firm for too long…
MT
June 5, 2008
Wow.. just read the The Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com) alert that Verizon may try to acquire Alltel for 27 billion dollars. This southern/midwestern carrier has 13.2 wireless customers and many million wireline customers. A combined entity of Verizon plus Alltel would boast 80 million wireless subscribers as opposed to the 71.4 million subscribers that AT&T has. It would create a wireless giant in Verizon (as if it is not already too big) and give it the bragging rights to being the largest wireless carrier in United States; a right which Verizon lost to AT&T when Cingular acquired AT&T Wireless.
We think Alltel is hot telecom property and may invite a bidding war. There are others who would want additional wireless coverage in USA like Deutsche Telekom or Sprint. Vodafone is another one which is rumored to be wanting to break from Verizon and would like to create a fully owned US subsidiary. We think Alltel may invite a higher valuation and may bargain as such with Verizon. Also it would be interesting to see how the antitrust dept reacts though we presume that Verizon has quizzed them on this topic.
Alltel is currently owned by a group of private equity firms led by Texas Pacific Group (TPG Capital) and Goldman Sachs who bought it earlier for 27.5 billion dollars.
US wireless space continues to be interesting for M&A..
MT
June 4, 2008
