MTNL launches Blackberry services in Delhi

TeleGyaan recently brought you a post on BSNL coming out with Blackberry services in April.  Now it’s the other public operators turn to offer the same. Yes, MTNL announced the launch of Blackberry services in Delhi yesterday. The service will be made available through MTNL’s postpaid arm - Dolphin. 

As for the phone, the operator will be selling the Blackberry Bold as a part of its initial offerings. Also the operator is trying to take due advantage of the 3G spectrum, by offering this 3G enabled phone. This will give both the operators an edge over others. Along with the above phone, MTNL will also be offering Blackberry Curve 8310/20 and Blackberry 8700. The prices of these handsets are:

• Blackberry Bold: Rs. 34,000
• Blackberry Curve 8310/8320: Rs.24,000
• Blackberry 8700G: Rs.14,000

We Say: Reiterating the fact, the two public operators will have an edge over other players as they will be offering the Blackberry service along with 3G to users. However, it solely depends on the plans being offered by MTNL and BSNL.

Tata Indicom unleashes two new cellphones

Tata Indicom has added two new cellphones in its offerings - the Samsung MPower 309 and Mpower 569. These two are well equipped with music, bluetooth and camera. Here are the specs for each of them:

MPower309:

• Mobile Tracker
• SD Card - 4GB
• Large 1.9″ - 65k color TFT screen 
• Stereo Bluetooth support
• 1.3MP camera
• Approx. Price: Rs.6,300

MPower 569:

• Mobile Tracker
• SD Card - 4GB
• Even larger 2.1″ - 262k color TFT screen 
• Stereo Bluetooth support
• Surround Sound
• 2.1MP camera
• Document Viewer
• Approx. Price: Rs.9,900

We Say: If CDMA is what you prefer, these two cellphones are a good bargain. If you are a current Tata user looking for an upgrade, we think this is the way to go. The phones offer everything you need at a sensible price tag.

9.18 million additions in Feb’09

The month of February turned out to be quite positive for Indian Telecom, with GSM operators adding 9.18 mn users in the month. This has taken the total count to 277.11 mn. In percentage terms, the industry clocked a healthy growth rate of 3.43%. 

Getting into specifics, here is how some operators contributed to the figure (additions and growth rate):

•  Airtel: 2.7 mn @ 3.09%
• Vodafone: 2.58 mn @ 4.07%
• BSNL: 1.5mn
• Idea: 1.5mn
• Aircel: 0.7mn @ 4.27%

We Say: Going by the figures, nothing seems to be obstructing the growth of Indian Telecom, making it even more lucrative to more giants. However, we hope to see this growth accompanied by a simultaneous growth/ improvement in the management and service quality.