Consultant KPMG just released the results of a worldwide survey of mobile users and here are some of the highlights: 86% respondents in India are likely to watch live TV on mobile phones in next 12 months >95% Indians surveyed were satisfied with their music download experience >63% respondents were…

Direct-to-home service providers, who together have a customer base of over 10 million households, as per industry estimates, are all now offering recharge facilities through mobile. Increased adoption owing to this may help greater familiarity with mobile payment systems and help boost m-commerce. Dish TV, India’s leading DTH service provider…

Spanish mobile content company ZED and Indian telcoms software and services provider Tanla Solutions have entered into a joint venture to focus on developing mobile products and services in India. Zed said that it would offer marketing reach and its experience in content services to the JV, while Tanla said…

Its existing backers - KPCB, Sherpalo Ventures and Nexus India Capital - have also participated in this round. Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) Ventures, the venture capital arm of wireless technologies and data solutions firm Qualcomm Inc, has invested $9 million in CE Infosystems, reports PTI (Via Economic Times). For Delhi-based CE…

ValueFirst raised its first round of $250k in 2006 from Rajesh Jain’s personal investment firm Emergic Ventures. ValueFirst Messaging, a Delhi-based mobile messaging services provider, has raised series B funding of $6 million from venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA). In 2006, the company raised its first round of…

In what could be the beginning of the consolidation of mobile value added services companies, Mobile2Win, a leading VAS player, has been acquired by another VAS player, Chandigarh-based Altruist Group. As part of the all-stock deal, the venture capital investors and promoters in Mobile2Win will pick up a 10% stake…

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has taken an undisclosed 20 percent minority stake in Singapore-based mobile marketing company Affle in its second round of funding, reports the Economic Times. Affle said that the partnership would help it quickly scale up its business globally and help it expand into the US, Europe and…

Malaysia based media conglomerate Astro Group has acquired a 50 percent stake in online firm Mogae Digital for $5 million. Mogae Digital is promoted by Sandeep Goyal and Tanya Goyal, the Indian JV partners of Japanese giant Dentsu, the single largest ad agency in the world. The proceeds of the…

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has moved to increase access to its services in India by forming a joint venture with ICT system integration company HCL Infosystems to sell mobile entertainment and value added services direct to consumers in India, reports Trading Markets. D Shivakumar, vice president and managind director for Nokia…

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…

According to sources, more than half the $23M investment has gone to mobile VAS player One97 Communications. Intel (NSDQ: INTC) Capital, the corporate venture capital arm of chipmaker Intel, has invested a total of $23 million in three Indian companies. The investments are in One97 Communications (a Delhi-based mobile value…

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…

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) has acquired a 30 percent stake in Indian telephone-directory search service called Call Ezee, which is owned by Network Management Co., reports Reuters. Yahoo’s cash infusion will help the company expand its reach from covering 14 cities to up to 50, and grow its information data base…

Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) has suffered a setback in its plans to expand its business in India after the Mumbai High Court threw out the company’s challenge against a $2 billion capital gains tax bill for its $11 billion acquisition of Hutchison Essar. Vodafone is planning to appeal to the Supreme…

Hyderabad-based mobile-content distributor IMI Mobile is buying digital music distributor DX3 of London as a beachhead into European and non-mobile markets. The UK company distributes music to white-label platforms like that of UK broadcaster ITV (LSE: ITV) and handled mobile download marketing for EMI’s pop band Alphabeat, but wants to…

In a major move and a first by a Japanese telco into India, NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM) is taking a 26 percent stake in local telco giant Tata Teleservices, for a price of $2.7 billion. This is surely to spur more rivalry with other local giants like Reliance, Vodafone (NYSE:…

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…

Reliance’s push into the mobile entertainment space continues…The Indian media juggernaut is now launching its own application storefront to distribute more than 900 ad-supported games on mobile. Pulling from Reliance’s online gaming site Zapak.com, the company has tapped Greystripe to add a mobile advertising component to its games, which will…

TeleDNA Communications Pvt Ltd, a US and Bangalore-based mobile value-added services (VAS) solution provider, has raised $10 million from Hyderabad based private equity firm Peepul Capital. TeleDNA plans to venture into managed services/MVNO offerings for mobile network operators (MNO), especially in areas like MMS and cell broad cast. It also…