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…

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…

India’s second largest telecom company, Reliance Communications, has decided to call off the merger talks with South Africa’s MTN. The decision to call off talks is a mutual decision. RCOM and MTN started a 45-day exclusive negotiations on May 26 which was extended till July 21. Reliance Communications has said…

—- The DoT has begun allocation of start-up spectrum to new GSM entrants. Videocon-promoted Datacom, Idea Cellular, Unitech, Swan Telecom and Ruias-owned Loop Telecom have been given start-up 4.4 MHz GSM spectrum in the Tamil Nadu circle reports ET. It appears to be trying to please all new entrants, allocating…

According to an HSBC Global Research Report, public sector telco MTNL may also do a branding deal, similar to that between Virgin Mobile (NYSE: VM) and Tata Teleservices. However, this offering is for its CDMA based service - Garuda. The report voices scepticism over whether a foreign player would like…

Well, it’s not DVB-H or Media FLO, if you were expecting that…PTI reports that MTNL has launched a mobile TV service on its 2G network in Delhi, which allows users to watch seven channels over GPRS. The service is priced at Rs. 50 per month for five channels, and I…

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) appears to have backed down on it’s earlier recommendation of unbundling of last mile, since the government has clearly stated that they’re not keen on unbundling - former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran had said so at TiE Con in 2006. TRAI has, instead,…

MTNL’s Delhi intends to launch a mobile application that will allow customers to send SMS’ in 11 Indian languages, reports Sify. The application, called Sarv Bhasha Sandeshwhich would enable its customers to send SMSes in 11 Indian languages, supports Kannada, Malayalam, Assamese, Tamil, Telugu, Oriya, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, and…

IOL Broadband, which provides IPTV content to public sector telcos MTNL and BSNL, has expanded its deal with MTNL to include Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. MTNL also has a tie-up with Aksh Optifibre for VoIP services, and BSNL has plans for VoIP as well. IOL Broadband is planning…

- The Hindujas are believed to be eying a national level telecom licence in India, after others like Videocon, HFCL, BPL, Parsvnath, DLF, Unitech, Indiabulls and others, reports Moneycontrol. The Hindujas had sold their 5 percent stake in Essar for $200 million in 2006, and later tried to buy Hutch…

Public sector telco MTNL will deploy Novatium’s thin client solution netPC in Delhi and Mumbai, reports the Economic Times. The PC will be priced at Rs. 4500 (around $115), and comes bundled with an Internet connection. I think this tie-up works rather well for both companies - MTNL has been…

Bharti Airtel and Hutchison Essar and BPL Mobile have been allotted maximum spectrum of 10 Mhz in Delhi and Mumbai respectively in the latest round of subscriber-based allocation of radio waves by the government. [via Mint] Department of Telecom Spectrum Allocation Figures as on March 31, 2007 Delhi GSM MTNL…

If someone understands the strategy behind this tie-up, do let me know. MTNL and AOL India have launched a co-branded site - mtnl.aol.in, reports PTI…by the looks of it, it’s the same as aol.in, but with an MTNL banner where an advert is placed in the regular site, and one…