Oneindia.in launches Indian language SMS alerts

The Indian mobile user base is growing at a very impressive rate.

Few basics,

• All latest Handsets “manufactured for” India have atleast 2 local languages enabled
• Number of wireless subscribers has reached 217.14 million (Oct 2007)
• Number of wireless subscribers being added every month is around 8 million
• Opportunities in the Tier II cities are huge
• Mobile VAS services estimated to touch USD 926 mn at the end of 2007 (SMS, Ringtones/CRBT, Voice VAS will continue to be the highest revenue generating services - TRAI) [link]

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Posted in indian languages, mobile | No Comments »

Happy Republic Day..

While we were growing up as kids, I never recall we wishing each other “Happy Republic Day” or “Happy Independence Day”. It is very good to see the euphoria of these two holidays. Since morning there have been so many emails wishing everyone a “Happy Republic Day”. I received this email from my classmate Freddi,

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Kudos to Govt, they were quick in awarding Tendulkar

Recently British Prime Minister Gordon Brown [Video] suggested that Sachin Tendulkar might soon be honoured with knighthood, making him the first Indian player to receive the title. That very night all TV channels went gungho about calling India’s favorite cricketer “Sir Sachin Tendulkar”. One of the topics of discussion was “Should India award its civilian awards to foreigners?” It was interesting to see what a British journalist had to say. He doubted if any of our Padmashree awards would have any value in UK. At the same time he said very few Britishers cared about the “Sir” title. Most Indians were not in favor of the govt waiving the import duty on his Ferrari car, he could easily afford to pay the tax.

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Hindu Gods bitten by telecom revolution in India

Yesterday I was reading about Bill Clinton running for President in 2008. The banner on that page was..hmm..you decide - funny/ok/offending/tasteless.

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Posted in india, online advertising | 2 Comments »

Has blogging arrived in India?

I was notified by Kamla Bhatt about a program being aired on NDTV’s “We The People”, the topic was “Should Blogs Be Regulated?” [Video]. I made sure I saw the entire program but I must admit it was a total let down

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CPC statistics are not a true reflection of performance

I was reading “Why Call Centers & Live Chat Are Killing Paid Search Conversions” today. I agree with the contents of that blog post, it applies to India for sure.

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Posted in online advertising, print media | No Comments »

For a change Aussies are on the receiving end..

The Sydney Test match has been (un)eventful. Unfortunately for the Aussies in this TV age everyone could see how unfair they were and also the umpiring. To beat it all the third umpire was also blind. Was it necessary for the Umpires to be as desperate as Ricky “Integrity” Ponting to make sure Aussies won the 16th Test in a row? Aussies might have won the game anyway but what was the need to cheat in broad daylight?

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Mint - it is refreshing!

Bangaloreans recently got yet another newspaper - Mint. I must say it is refreshing. The size of the newspaper is good and thankfully it has a white background. The newspaper is unbiased and you don’t get the feeling of article s being ’sponsored’ by the corporate world.

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What is 3G? Does India need it?

Current WAP speed in India is nothing great but it has improved. I understand from my friends who are experts in telecom that you cannot improve the speed performance of WAP any further on a GSM network (which is 2G). I am told only 3G can improve things. So what is 3G?

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Posted in mobile | 28 Comments »

What does allocation of spectrum for telcos really mean?

These days you read a lot about telcos having a war with the Government about allocation of spectrum. So what does it actually mean?

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Posted in mobile | 10 Comments »