VARINDIA IT MAGAZINE

The senior officials of public-owned Bharat Broadband Network (BBNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) has been notified for failing to operate the government's ambitious BharatNet network by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). In a letter to BBNL and BSNL top executives— Sanjay Singh and Anupam Shrivastava, dated November 2, telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan said that a disciplinary action would be taken against officials responsible for non-operational network in village blocks and attributed lack of professionalism on the part of two public sector companies which has led to poor planning and coordination between the two. Sundararajan has further warned that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious project is being monitored by highest levels in the government and any failure to comply with or disregard of instructions shall invite exemplary disciplinary action. BharatNet, originally conceived under the UPA-II regime in 2012, aims to connect 2.5...

Due to the rapid growth of smartphones in the market, fixed line connections declined steadily down to 22.81 million connections. Though state-run firm BSNL dominated the market with highest share of 12.26 million customers, it lost 5,304 customers. RCom lost 169,052 fixed line connections and MTNL 10,157 connections. Airtel topped the chart in terms of market share with 304.19 million subscribers, followed by Vodafone 222.69 million and Idea with 211.2 million customers. Indian telecom industry in a stage of consolidation. Vodafone led new subscriber addition by adding 12,280 fixed line connections, taking its total subscriber base to 220,981. With this the number of broadband subscribers increased to 412.6 million in March from from 392.06 million in February. The mobile segment accounted for over 95 per cent of the total broadband connections.... Read More

State-run telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and SAP SE have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly offer innovative GST solutions to enterprises across India. The collaboration leverages the capabilities of BSNL as GST Suvidha Provider (GSP) and SAP as Application Service Provider (ASP). BSNL, through its network of approximately 115 million customer base currently connecting 646 districts, 4,519 cities/towns and 6.25 lakh villages across India, will provide enhanced accessibility to companies of all sizes, specifically SMEs, to create, consolidate and file GST returns through SAP’s ASP solution in an easy, secure and smooth manner. The alliance will, thus, help realize the full potential of GST on the back of BSNL’s countrywide reach and SAP’s expertise in providing robust technology offerings. “As an intrinsic part of the Government’s Digital India initiative, we see GST as an important tool in the process for nation building,” said Shri...

A directive reportedly issued by the Department of Telecom (DoT) to all the telecom operators in the country has asked them to start issuing 13-digit mobile numbers to customers. A senior BSNL official has confirmed that the directive from DoT had come on January 8, 2018, post which the company has started working on it.  Under this latest development, starting from October 1, 2018 the existing mobile users’ numbers will be ported to 13-digits. The last date to complete the process would be December 31, 2018. “It is decided that 13-digit M2M (Machine-to-machine) numbering plan will be implemented from July 1, 2018. From this date onwards, all new M2M mobile connections will be allocated 13-digit numbers only. Migration of existing 10-digit M2M numbers will start latest by 1 October 2018 and shall be completed by 31 December 2018,” the official was quoted saying in the report.... Read More

State-owned telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has come up with voice and data plan of Rs.429, which will give prepaid users 1GB data per day for 90 days with unlimited voice calling.  The pack offers both local and STD calling to any network with daily 1GB data translating into 90 GB of data for 90 days on a pan-India basis, except the Kerala circle.... Read More

In order to promote GST and assist in various procedures involved, Masters India has entered into collaboration with BSNL to provide a set of veritable solutions for GST compliance. These solutions are exclusively crafted for BSNL users – both landline and mobile, available on a pan-India level.  The solutions are ready-to-use with ease in registrations. BSNL users can register themselves using their respective account numbers in the given website (www.bsnlgst.mastersindia.co). Post which, they can straightaway file returns without the hassle of waiting in a queue. The solutions can be divided into three categories:  · Basic Plan (free of cost, comes with 2,000 invoices) · Plus Plan (Rs.1,999, comes with 6,000 invoices alongside other benefits) · Pro Plan (for enterprises) .... Read More

In a recent report released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) ,The total telephone subscriber base in the country rose marginally in March to 105.88 cr. on the back of growth in wireless as well as wireline users. The overall user base stood at 105.18 cr. at the end of February.The wireless subscriber base increased by 0.68% to 103.36 crore at the end of March, from 102.66 crore last month. As for the wireline, the subscriber base arrested its decline and rose marginally to 2.522 crore at the end of March, from 2.521 crore in February. The overall tele-density in the country went up to 83.36% at the end of March, from 82.89% last month. The urban tele-density grew to 154.01% and rural tele-density to 51.37%. In the wireless space, private access service providers held 91.30% market share whereas BSNL and MTNL accounted for only 8.70%.In wire line though, the two state-run companies enjoy a market share of 72.42% while private operators’ stood at 27.58%...

Aircel and BSNL have signed 2G ICR agreement on a pan-India basis. This is a first agreement between a state-owned operator and a private telecom player that will see the culmination of an intra-circle roaming (ICR) agreement with the private operator for all circles. With this strategic tie-up, both organizations will be able to enhance customer’s experience, besides utilizing each other’s assets and network strength. Besides reducing call drops, this deal is expected to improve the quality of services to mobile subscribers along with better connectivity. Starting this financial year, BSNL expects to earn Rs.300-Rs.400 crore a year through signing various ICR arrangements. In ICR agreements, passive infrastructure such as base transceiver stations will be shared among the operators when a subscriber of an operator roams in that circle... Read more

BSNL has announced its unlimited free calling schemes during night hours would be operational between 9PM and 7AM from its fixed line phones to any operator, including mobile phones anywhere in the country from May 1. All major landline general plans of rural and urban areas, landline special plans as well as major combos are covered under this scheme. As per the latest TRAI data, BSNL which dominates the landline market was the biggest loser of fixed-line customers in February, while Airtel emerged as top gainer. The company had over 1.66 crore landlines at the end of February... See more

Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Tata Docomo, Uninor, Idea Cellular, Aircel and Reliance Communications have submitted applications to participate in the upcoming spectrum auction in March. Sistema Shyam TeleServices (MTS India), BSNL, MTNL and Videocon Telecom are however not participating in the spectrum auction. Industry watchers are currently looking for the participation of Mukesh Ambani, the billionaire promoter of Reliance Jio Infocomm, which could not launch 4G services after buying BWA spectrum in 2010. The presence of Reliance Jio Infocomm, which has pan-India spectrum to launch 4G services on TD-LTE and spectrum in key cities for using FD-LTE, is anticipated to escalate the spectrum price. In December 2015, seven licenses each of Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications, four licenses of Bharti Airtel and six licenses of Vodafone will complete their 20-year term after which they have to be renewed. The government plans to sell the second-generation or 2G and...

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   State-owned telecom operator, BSNL in partnership with Champion, has launched its latest range of next-gen smartphones targeted at masses. Bringing smartness beyond imagination, these phones feature sensitive capacitive multi-touch screen and auto focus along with a stunning picture quality. Shree Anupam Srivastava, DIR (CM), BSNL Board, said, “With the evolution of Internet, the usage of Internet-based applications has tremendously grown as it has now become convenient to carry out daily business tasks like banking and other tasks and the Champion products are a perfect solution for the same. BSNL also has an agreement for sale of bundled devices with Champion Computers and have also launched a special 3G Data plan for tablets which include 500MB free data + 50 Minutes On-Net Voice calls per month for six months.” BSNL Champion Mobile My Phone SM3512 and SM3513 come with a dual-core processor. They are enhanced with the latest s...

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE BSNL  in association with  Pantel Technologies Private Limited (PTPL)  has launched the next generation of Smart Devices - the  "Bharat Phone" PF300 , the Penta Smart models  PS501 & PS650 and the next generation Penta T-Pad WS707C respectively. Dual SIM PentaBharat Phone with 3 inch large screen display is priced at Rs. 1,799/- and features 1,200 minutes of BSNL talk-time bundled free.  It runs on JAVA Operating System which makes it suited for applications like mobile banking, tele-medical care delivery and streaming data delivery – in addition to being a Voice Phone. It additionally comes pre-bundled with a highly attractive 1,200 minutes of Voice Plan from BSNL (100 minutes of talk-time free every month for 12 months). R K Upadhyay, CMD, BSNL said, We are delighted to offer latest technology products in a reverse data bundling marketing alliance with Pantel Technologies. Products like the Penta...

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   Intending to strengthen  BSNL's  summer vocational training programme for engineering students, BSNL has collaborated with  Oracle . This is the first time that BSNL has engaged with an external organization such as Oracle and introduced new curriculum content to enable students’ exposure to the latest technology trends relevant in the telecom industry. Only last year, over 100,000 students across India were trained through BSNL programmes. As part of its industry-oriented academic initiative, BSNL runs programmes related to telecom technologies for engineering students during their summer vacations. These programmes are aimed at providing exposure to relevant telecom technology trends and practices to students as they prepare to enter the  workforce in the telecom industry . They give students an overview of working in the telecommunication sector and include field visits to telephone exchanges, mobile towers a...

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)  and  Dimension Data  have jointly announced the launch of their Enterprise Cloud Services in India. Based on Dimension Data's Managed Cloud Platform  (MCP), BSNL forays into the Enterprise Cloud services space through its Internet Data Centers (IDCs). Based on a standardized architecture, the MCP offers enterprises the advantage of being able to support public, private and hybrid cloud models. All MCPs are enterprise-ready, offering multiple layers of security, administrative controls, highest availability SLAs, 24/7 phone support and integrated management capabilities. R. K. Upadhyay, Chairman & Managing Director, BSNL , said, "The IDC and Cloud Services have not only enabled us to build and add new strategic capabilities to our portfolio, but it has also benefited our clients who can leverage our flexible sourcing options or simply host their entire IT assets within o...

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   WishTel, in association with BSNL, has launched a latest  ultra-mobile and durable tablet PC , the IRA ICON.  WishTel is a leading manufacturer of Tablet PCs, Netbooks and mobility solutions.  The Triple Play 7inch Tablet PC, IRA ICON is a 800X480 pixel full angle TFT LCD capacitive multi-touch screen that runs on Android 4.0 with 1.2 GHz processor and a non-standard 1GB of RAM.  IRA ICON is powered by built in 3G Sim Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). The IRA ICON supports calling features 3G, Wi-Fi and bluetooth connectivity and also comes with built-in stereo speakers and a microphone.  Speaking of the partnership with WishTel, R K Upadhyay, Chief Managing Director of BSNL said: “The 7’’ Triple play tablet PC has been designed to best suit the needs of avid tech.... See More

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will be launching video on demand for its mobile phone subscribers in a month's time. The announcement was made by BSNL Chairman & Managing Director Rakesh K. Upadhyay, while inaugurating VAS ASIA 2012, 12th International Conference & Exhibition at New Delhi, organized by Bharat Exhibitions. "The MVAS industry is expected to create a business opportunity worth around INR48,000 crore by the year 2015. This, in itself, is a clear indication of the future of VAS services in India. No doubt, this has created a new excitement for all those who are in this space and for those who are entering," said Shashi Dharan, Managing Director, Bharat Exhibitions. "The  emergence of the mobile phone as the single device for a host of services has changed the paradigm in the communication and entertainment industries with several discreet devices being displaced in favour of a single ...

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   ZTE has bagged India’s largest GSM deal from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL). ZTE will now support 10.15 million BSNL’s GSM lines across the country and thereby help increase its subscriber base.  Under this partnership, ZTE will be involved in planning, financing, engineering, supply, installation and testing, commissioning and annual maintenance of the GSM lines. The procurement of these lines for expansion of 2G and 3G services will cover all BSNL telecom circles in the Northern and Southern zones Cui Liangjun, Chief Executive Officer, ZTE India, said, “We are excited to partner with BSNL to support their ambitious growth plans in North and South India. We are confident that this association will help BSNL to offer competitive mobile communications that can meet the present and future telecommunication needs, and help ZTE boost its business in the Indian subcontinent.”  For More Details See www.varindia.com ...

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) is believed to set up a call centre in West Bengal for registration of complaints by its landline and broadband users. Somnath Maity, CGM BSNL (Calcutta Telephones) said, “BSNL has geared up to streamline and resolve complaints issues with a new call centre specifically for landline and broadband subscribers. By end of July, we will have one call centre for entire West Bengal for landline and broadband subscribers. Similarly, call centres for other states will also come up. The centralised call centre can sort out problems of any subscriber irrespective of circle he belongs to in Bengal.” For More Details See www.varindia.com

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE Intelenet has launched a new delivery centre in Lucknow as part of a strategic arrangement with BSNL. Intelenet will provide inbound and outbound customer support services for BSNL's operations in the telecom circle for Eastern UP. The delivery centre in Lucknow has a seating capacity of 261 seats and is said to service BSNL's base of prepaid, postpaid and 3G cellular subscribers. With an initial headcount of 385 FTEs, the centre will offer multilingual support in English, Hindi and other local regional languages. Bhupender Singh, CEO, Domestic Operations, Intelenet Global Services said, "We are delighted to further our capabilities to provide end-to-end outsourcing solutions and expand our domestic footprint to support BSNL, one of the frontrunners in the telecom industry in India. With a superior set of capabilities and domain expertise, the move further strengthens our position as the largest BPO business in the Indian domest...

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE Sterlite Technologies Limited has bagged a contract from BSNL to deploy central office broadband system in the telecom service provider's pan India telecom circles. This contract, valued at about Rs. 114 crores, is said to be a part of a total bank of new orders valued at about Rs. 560 crores that Sterlite has received since July 1, 2011. Sterlite claimed that the company is to install and commission the system within FY13 and manage this network for seven years thereafter. The system, once completed, is believed to be capable of handling about 1.6 million broadband connections. For More Details See www.varindia.com