UnwireIndia

The BBC World Service Trust has launched a ringtone campaign to promote the use of condoms in India, where about 2.5 million people are living with HIV.

The central message of the “condom condom” campaign being run on radio, TV and the Internet is that “smart men use condoms”.

A scene in the TV ad, a mobile ringtone buzzes with a loud refrain “condom! condom!” during a wedding. Though the man holding the mobile feels it embarrassing, those around him consider him to be a smart and responsible person.
Read the rest of this entry »

Aiming for a double digit market share in the mobile segment during the current fiscal from its existing share of eight per cent, consumer electronics major Samsung India on Monday said it plans to launch 4-5 new models in the next three months.

The company on Monday introduced an ‘ultra-slim’ all touch-screen mobile phone - Samsung TouchWIZ - priced at Rs 20,990.

“We aim to take our market share to a double digit figure this financial year. To achieve this target, the company is planning to launch 4-5 new mobile phones in India within the next three months,” said Samsung India Electronics Country Head (Mobile Business) Sunil Dutt.
Read the rest of this entry »

India’s government is understood to have finished the plans to introduce limited mobile number portability in selected regions of the country from next year. The Economic Times newspaper says that the formal plans will be announced within the next few days by telecom’s minister, A Raja.

Under the plans, customers in the main metro circles and A circles will be the first to have mobile number portability (MNP) from the middle of next year and it is estimated that around a quarter of subscribers are unhappy with their current provider. However, a report early last year by Analysts noted that while MNP has been in place for several years in many countries, despite the high level of churn in the mobile industry there are few examples where more than 10% of mobile numbers have been ported.
Read the rest of this entry »

The attention-grabbing mobile gadget, MoPod, which took the UK, Europe and Japan by storm last year, is ready to be launched in India. HitPlay Devices, a Mumbai-based start-up gizmo company, will roll out the gadget next month, under a licence from the UK-based giftmaker, The Monster Factory.

MoPod comprises a glass capsule with a battery-powered light and a character sealed inside. It interacts with mobile phones, causing the character inside to light up and dance on receiving a call or SMS. After its launch in October 2006, the gadget has been a runaway success.
Read the rest of this entry »

The DTH licence of Delhi-based Bharti group’s direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting company — Bharti Telemedia — may be suspended by the government for non-compliance with the foreign direct investment (FDI) norms and breaking the cross-media ownership regulations.

This follows the show-cause notice that was issued to the company last month by the Ministry of Informaton and Broadcasting (I&B) and the response given by the company.
Read the rest of this entry »

Planning to buy that fancy smart phone? A word of caution: Internet-enabled phones have gaping security weaknesses waiting to be exploited, warn cyber security experts. Any smart phone — including Blackberry, Windows Mobile, iPhone and Symbian phones — can be hacked by a nerd with a little bit of code and some cunning.

And they don’t stop at data and identity theft alone. Nor are they content with unleashing viruses on the operating system of your mobile. (Even Bluetooth makes your phone a potential target here.) New Age mischief makers have learnt how to bug your phone and remote-control it. They can steal your bank information, send out a mischievous SMS to your girlfriend (who might just dump you!), copy your top-secret files or simply spy on every call/SMS you make from your phone. In fact, they can even ‘modify’ your SMSes before these are sent out to your contacts — and you wouldn’t even know it.
Read the rest of this entry »

NDTV Convergence, the digital arm of NDTV, has announced the launch of the Mi (My Mobile Internet) SMS service. Mi is the industry’s first mobile 2.0 platform, which delivers live, personalized, socially networked, interactive and multi-media channels on mobile devices.

Simply put, Mi™ SMS unleashes the power of GPRS for traditional mobile users, helping them access WAP through the SMS.

Consumers can access service by sending the SMS MiNEWS, MiCRI or MiSTO to 56388, the NDTV short code. In response, they receive a link that connects to the mobile internet for detailed multimedia content: news with images and video, cricket scores with auto refreshing ball-by-ball commentary, stock quotes with symbols, graphs and company news.
Read the rest of this entry »

The Indian Value Added Services (VAS) is expected to log in a turnover of over Rs 20,000 crore by the year 2015 noted telecom experts during the, 4th International Conference & Exhibition of VAS Asia 2008. The event was organized by Bharat Exhibition Pvt Ltd.

Currently the industry which is pegged around a revenue of US $1.2 billion will see major growth in the music and mobile gaming segments suggests a PricewaterhouseCoopers report. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers for the moment, the Indian VAS industry is being driven by SMS with about 44% of the share, followed by new applications Ringtones & RBTs, GPRS, CLI and other VAS.
Read the rest of this entry »

Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson is in talks to acquire India’s Spice Mobile, the Economic Times said on Friday, citing sources close to the development. Sony Ericsson is owned by Ericsson and Sony Corp.

Spice’s founding BK Modi Group, which owns 64 percent in handset maker Spice Mobile, had asked for 80-100 rupees per share, the newspaper said, which would value the company at up to $174 million.
Read the rest of this entry »

Most retired mobile phones are left in drawers instead of being recycled, according to a global survey conducted by Nokia.

A mere 3% of the 6,500 people interviewed for the survey recycled their mobile phones. Fortunately, only 4% end up in landfills, according to the survey. About 44% are simply stored at home. Many consumers also give phones to friends and family or just sell them.

A lack of awareness is the biggest challenge, according to Susan Allsopp, Nokia spokeswoman. Some 74% of consumers said they don’t think about recycling their phones, and half aren’t even aware that phones can be recycled.
Read the rest of this entry »