India's Mobile Network Capacity Not Able to Match Growing Subscriber Needs

An analysis by Crisil Research reveals that the number of base stations installed by Indian mobile service providers is not sufficient enough to provide high-quality services to the rapidly growing population of Indian subscribers.

Indian subscribers, on an average, talk 50% more than those in the rest of the world - the average minutes of use (MoU) in India is around 1.5 times the world average. However, the number of base transceiver stations (base stations) per million subscribers in India is only 25% higher than the global average. Base station inadequacy is one of the key causes of poor quality of service such as network congestion, call drops, and poor voice quality.

Although network traffic has grown exponentially in India over the last two years - an annual subscriber growth of 73% and an annual 17% growth in average minutes of use (MoU) - operators have continued to focus on rolling out networks in newer areas over augmenting the capacity of existing networks.Regulator needs to expand their focus exclusively from increasing coverage to promoting a balance between increasing coverage and improving QoS in covered.

Source: Cellular News

Apple Warns Hacked iPhone Users

iPhone owners who have unlocked their handsets to be able to use carriers other than official carrier AT&T Inc. may end up with a phone that does not work after the company's next software update. Apple executives say they have discovered that many of those unauthorized unlocking programs cause some software damage to iPhones.

Software update planned for later this week will add features such as accessibility to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store may end up making the touch-screen cell phone completely inoperable if it has been hacked into.

Source:Cellular News

Palm Treo for Airtel Subscribers in India

Palm Treo 750 smartphone is available in Indian market on Bharti Airtel. It is the first Windows-based Treo smartphone to be launched in India.

The Treo 750 is multi featured mobile phone with e-mail, messaging, web browsing and organisation software. The new smartphone is capable of 3G for fast data access.

“Our alliance with Palm to introduce the stylish and power-packed Treo 750 smartphone underlines our commitment to innovation. We are very excited at the opportunity to bring to our Airtel users a best-in-class product that delivers a rich experience that makes it an essential mobility, productivity, and business tool. This phone will be available exclusively on Airtel for a period of time,” said Sanjay Gupta, Chief Marketing Officer, Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel.

Source: ET

MySpace Mobile

MySpace has launched MySpace Mobile, a free advertising-supported mobile phone version of its popular social networking website. MySpace Mobile users can send and receive MySpace messages, friend requests, comment on pictures and profiles, post bulletins, update blogs, find and search for friends, and view or change mood status.

Source: Cellphone Digest

Nokia 6301- UMA Enabled GSM Phone

Nokia 6301 is not only stylish, but offers seamless voice and data mobility across GSM cellular and WLAN networks via Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) technology.UMA technology integrates the benefits of landline and a mobile phone, including seamless indoor coverage, sound quality and affordability.

Features:

• 2-inch QVGA screen
• USB/PC Synchronization
• Internal user memory of 30MB and 128MB in-box microSD card, with support for up to 4GB microSD cards
• Voice dialing, voice commands and voice recording
• MP3 player, FM radio
• Integrated hands-free speaker

Source: Cellphone Digest

Google Adsense for Mobile

Google is coming up with AdSense for Mobile, a program that contextually targets ads to mobile website content.

AdSense for Mobile also allows AdSense publishing partners the ability to earn revenue from their mobile websites through the targeted placement of mobile text ads. AdSense for Mobile is intended for AdSense partners who have created websites specifically for mobile browsers, and who want to monetize their mobile content via contextual advertising. Like Google's other AdSense products, mobile text ads run on an auction model. The system automatically reviews the content of publishers’ mobile websites and delivers text ads that are relevant to the websites’ audience and content. Publishers earn money whenever mobile users click on the ads.

Source: Cellphone Digest