Ad spends in print and television in India grew 28% year-on-year during the April-June quarter, Mint reports, citing a Nielsen study. Ad spends growth in India led a resurgence in the Asia Pacific region, which overall grew 11% to $29.96 billion during the period. The story has differing voices from…

State-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) has said that it plans to launch 3G telecom services in national capital New Delhi in next 10 days. MTNL plans to launch 3G services in the commercial capital Mumbai by first week of February, reports PTI (via Business Standard). MTNL has not tied…

India’s 3G auction may be headed for more delays after its finance ministry decided that the base price of the sale should be doubled, reports the Economic Times. The bidding for the country-wide licenses was set to open on January 30, with a reserve price of 20.2 billion rupees ($412…

The original iPhone generated a lot of interest in India, selling well on the grey market, so it went to reason that when the 3G version launched officially in the world’s fastest growing wireless market, that it too would sell well. But apparently, that’s not what happened, with sales of…

Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), which operates as Vodafone Essar in India, is seeking to postpone the country’s 3G auctions, currently scheduled for December. The reason? The global financial crisis, reports the Economic Times. In a communication sent to India’s Department of Telecom (DoT)Emerging markets director Neil Gough said, “Mobilising financial commitments…

Merely days after the announcement of the 3G policy, ET reports the Wireless Planning and Coordination (WPC) wing of DoT has cleared allocation of 3G spectrum to state owned BSNL and MTNL. We had covered this in our thoughts on 3G, pointing to the four month head-start this would give…

At last! Maybe we needed something as dramatic as an eclipse, but dear readers, its finally here. The guidelines for the auction of allotment of spectrum for 3G services and WiMax were released on August 1. Service roll-outs are expected to occur mid-2009. The government is auctioning 5 licenses over…

If you can’t compete, legislate. In terms of telco, the policy seems to be giving a clear hand-out to PSU’s MTNL and BSNL. A report by the Standing Committe on IT this year stated BSNL was losing 8% market share every year to private telcos. Both telco’s perform averagely on…

Updated Here India is planning the launch of 3G networks, a little late but at least the country is going with established standards. The government is auctioning 5 licenses over 60 Mhz of spectrum by the end of the year, and may offer a further 5 licenses at a future…