DIGEST: INDIA

Xora Intros Voice Navigation

US-based Xora, location-based mobile resource management solution
provider, has partnered with Garmin to provide audible turn-by-turn direction on
GPS phones. With Xora's GPS Time Track solution, companies can easily and
inexpensively track and record start times and the location of their mobile
employees through their GPS-enabled mobile phone. To deliver its services, Xora
has tied-up with service providers and charges on the basis of pay per user per
month model.

RelCom to Premier Movies

Reliance Communications is foraying into premiering of movies over
cell phones, even as it showcased the first movie-'Ctrl+Alt+Del'-on a
mobile platform. The special 25-minute clip was produced by Phonethics Mobile
Media. A user can log on to R-World, the data applications services of RelCom,
and download the movie. The cost of a five-minute online streaming video would
be around Rs 15, while Rs 10 is being charged for movie video clips.

GTL to Raise Rs 340 Crore

GTL Infrastructure is planning to raise Rs 340 crore through a rights issue
that would be open for subscription in the next two-three months. The company,
which is a subsidiary of telecom solutions provider GTL, intends to use the
proceeds for its pan-India network rollout. The company's board has approved a
rights issue at par (Rs 10 per share) in the ratio of 1:1 (one rights share for
every share held).

MVAS Market to Double, End-2007

The mobile VAS (MVAS) industry could be worth of Rs 4,560 crore by
the end of 2007, from its current size of Rs 2,850 crore, according to the 'Mobile
Value Added Services Report' jointly prepared by the IAMAI and IMRB
International. A break up of the total market size of Rs 2,850 crore reveals
that person to person SMS or text messaging, continues to dominate the industry
with Rs 1,140 crore, followed by ringtones, including caller ring back tones at
Rs 1026 crore; person to application and application to person at Rs 428 crore;
and others at 257 crore.

New Yr Bonanza for BB subscribers

The government has asked all state-owned and private ISPs to provide
2Mbps bandwidth as broadband (BB) in place of the existing 256 kbps to
residential subscribers for the existing price with effect from January 1, 2007.
Along with MTNL and BSNL, You Telecom is the only private operator who has
announced the 2Mbps plan. The Citigroup Venture Capital International owned
Broadband service provider has the necessary infrastructure and technology to
provide 2Mbps bandwidth to its customers.

Lehman Bros Invests in Cellebrum

Cellebrum, announced an investment by Lehman Brothers in the company. Dilip
Modi, president, MCorp Global Group, parent company of Cellebrum, says,
"The Indian VAS industry, estimated to be around Rs 2,500 crore and is
growing at approximately 25-30% y-o-y. Globally, we believe that mobile VAS
services with potential 2.6 bn customers, is still in infancy, and India and
Cellebrum have an opportunity to lead the VAS revolution."

Avaya's Deal with TCCS

Avaya GlobalConnect and The Contact Centre School (TCCS) have entered into
an agreement to offer contact center consultancy services to contact centers in
India and assist them in optimizing their contact center operations and
technology utilization. TCCS will bring its expertise in this domain and Avaya
GlobalConnect will offer these services as value added solutions to the contact
center customers in India. Facilitated by industry specialists, courses will be
conducted in an interactive environment to ensure successful transfer of newly
acquired knowledge and skills to call center managers and supervisors.

Tech Mahindra's Contract with BT

Tech Mahindra has announced the signing of a five-year deal to
provide BT with strategic sourcing services. This contract is expected to create
new revenue for the company in excess of $1 bn over this period. The company
will support BT's planned growth of managed services to business customers
around the globe and continue to provide ongoing services related to BT's
internal systems, processes and re-usable platforms.

Time Launches 'MY TIME'

Time Broadband Services, today launched its IPTV services, MY TIME. MY TIME
will service the customers of multiple telecom operators offering broadband
services accessible on both TV and PC. For this purpose, the company has tied-up
with most of the top broadcast channels, film production houses, music labels
and game developers in India and abroad for content partnership. The bouquet of
services will include interactive games, chat, SMS, poll/voting through
television and soon to be launched videophone through a common delivery
platform.

MTNL's Integrated Billing, March

MTNL will be introducing integrated billing from March 2007, minister for
Communications and IT Dayanidhi Maran has said. The minister said that the
process of integrated billing would begin from January 2007, though the
consumers will be receiving it only by March. The convergent billing will be
introduced by MTNL in Delhi and in other cities, in phases.

NXP Partners with SRV Telecom

NXP Semiconductors, formerly Philips Semiconductors, and SRV Telecom have
announced a collaboration to design, develop and manufacture digitally enhanced
cordless telephones (DECT) in India. NXP will provide its proven three-chip DECT
chipsets, including an RF amplifier (RF-PA), a transceiver (TX-RX) and a
baseband IC designed on an ARM7 core. SRV will design, manufacture and market
the phones in the country. This facility is due to open before the end of April
2007 and will have an annual production capacity of around 2,000,000 phones.

RelCom Plans to Expand FLAG NGN

Reliance Communications announced plans to expand FLAG Telecom's
global optic fibre network. Over the next 36 months, FLAG Telecom will build the
world's largest IP network termed FLAG Next Generation Network (NGN) over
submarine cable systems. FLAG Telecom is currently the world's largest private
undersea cable system, would invest $1.5 bn in laying 50,000 km of undersea
optic fibre.

HP Inaugurates SOA Center

HP inaugurated the India SOA center at Bangalore as part of a $500 mn
global investment strategy to deliver world-class SOA to enterprise customers.
The India center will support capability creation and service delivery for HP
globally. The center will be a critical component of HP's service offering
portfolio and project delivery capabilities to enterprise customers. In addition
to the India center, HP had unveiled 2 more SOA Competency Centers based in
Cupertino, California and Singapore.

Aperto to Set Up WiMax Facility

Aperto Networks is said to locate a manufacturing facility in India that
would produce WiMax modems and then, ultimately, base stations. The company is
considering either Bengaluru or neighbouring Chennai in Tamil Nadu. Aperto has
said that its products were being deployed across India by a state-owned telecom
operator. The company wants to manufacture in India chiefly to meet the needs of
the Indian market, where it anticipates the demand for hundreds of thousands of
WiMAX modems in the next two years.

Vodafone, Essar Submit Offers to Buy
Hutch

UK-based Vodafone and India's Essar have made their offers to
acquire Hutchison Telecom's stake in the venture, news agencies reported
quoting the British media. The reports follow the visit of top brasses of both
Vodafone and Essar to the UK. Quoting sources, British media said that Essar has
offered $11 bn for the 67% stake of HTIL, putting the enterprise value of the JV
at $16.5 bn.

ISRO Puts 4 Satellites Into Orbit

ISRO's PSLV today successfully launched four satellites into a polar orbit
at an altitude of 637 km with an inclination of 97.9 degrees with respect to the
equator. It was in its 10th flight conducted from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC)
SHAR, Sriharikota, that ISRO's PSLV-C7 launched the satellites, India's
CARTOSAT-2 and Space capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1), Indonesia's
LAPAN-TUBSAT and Argentina's PEHUENSAT-1 into a 635 km high polar orbit.

VSNL Launched GDC at Pune

VSNL launched its Global Delivery Centre (GDC) at the EON SEZ near Pune. In
the first phase, 140 employees have started working in the center; this will be
increased to around 400 during the next 12 months. VSNL's GDC will enable the
company to offshore several critical support functions from international
locations to India. In future, VSNL also plans to use its GDCs in India to
undertake outsourcing activities for other global companies.

Bipasha Basu in Gaming Arena

Zapak Digital Entertainment, a Reliance ADA group venture company, today
announced its association with Bollywood actress, Bipasha Basu. A Bipasha Basu
zone would be created on Zapak.com, which would host games on her. Bipasha would
also work closely with the Zapak Team to conceptualize some of the games. On
this occasion the portal also unveiled a new feature, called Zapak.tv. The first
in the line of many games would be "BeachBlaze".

TCS Q3 Net up 48%

TCS posted a 48.20% increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,116.10 crore
in third quarter ended December 31, 2006. It had posted a net profit of Rs
753.08 crore during comparable period of previous fiscal. The company's total
income rose to Rs 4,911.62 crore (over $1 bn) during the period under review, as
against Rs 3,247.58 crore recorded during the third quarter of FY '06.
Offshore contributed 41.6% of the company's total revenues in the third
quarter, while 4% was from global delivery centres, and the remaining came in
from onshore.

Bharti Commits Rs 200 cr

Bharti Airtel has embarked upon a series of social initiatives with a Rs 200
crore corpus for providing education to unprivileged sections of the society.
The corpus is aimed at improving the quality of education in the country,
particularly in the rural areas. Besides setting up primary schools in backward
areas, the company has also launched library program, computer centers and
scholarship schemes. 'Bharti Foundation' joined hands with 'Pratham',
'Kalakar trust' and 'Adharshila' to initiate computer centres in schools
and community centres.

TRAI to Revise Cable Prices

TDSAT has allowed TRAI to revise prices of cable TV channels for 2007.
"TRAI is free to consider, if it requires, to pass some orders on revision
of rates," telecom disputes settlement and appellate tribunal chairman
justice Arun Kumar says. Dismissing the appeal filed by 'Grahak Hitvardhini
Sarvajanik Sanstha' in 2005 against TRAI's order of a 4% hike beginning
2006, Kumar said as 2006 has ended, "TRAI has to consider the matter of
revision of rates afresh".

SingTel Targets Vodafone Shares

Singtel has said it will consider raising its 31% stake in Bharti Airtel if
it is offered Vodafone shares in the Indian company. Vodafone, the world's
largest cell-phone company, said last month it would like to raise its 10% stake
in Bharti. "If the shares are offered to us, we'll consider under the
right terms and conditions,'' says Andrienne Tho, a spokeswoman at SingTel.
Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin says that he would bid for Hutchison Essar early next
month.

Tatas May Hive off Tele Tower Biz

The Tata group is planning to hive off its telecom tower business
into a separate company. Tata Teleservices (TTSL) is in talks with private
equity firms, tower companies as well as some operators to hive off its 5,600
towers across India. TTSL is looking at setting up a tower venture where PE
firms or tower companies could have a stake. TTSL is also talking to other
telecom companies keen to come together for hiving off their towers. Company
officials say that the company's towers are robust and could accommodate three
to four operators.

India's Teledensity Reached 17%

The number of annual additions of subscribers in 2006 is three times
the additions in 2004 while teledensity has increased by nearly 100% over the
same period, from 8.62 at the end of December 2004 to 17.16 at the end of
December 2006, according to recent figures released by the TRAI. The wireless
segment added 6.48 mn subscribers in December 2006 as compared to 6.8 mn in
November 2006. At the end of December 2006, total wireless (GSM, CDMA and WLL-F)
subscribers were 149.5 mn. The gross telephony subscribers in the country
reached 189.93 mn as on December 2006.

HCL Tech Q3 Net Shoots 58%

HCL Technologies has announced that its net profit for the quarter ended
December 31 was up 58% y-o-y and 14.4% sequentially to Rs 286 crore. Revenue for
the quarter went up 39% y-o-y and 6.2% sequentially to Rs 1,465 crore. HCL will
also pay Rs 4 a share as mid-year dividend. This quarter also saw HCL win its
second largest order of $200 million from Skandia UK. HCL's revenue for the
quarter went up 39% y-o-y and 6.2% sequentially to Rs 1,465 crore.

Firms Fined Rs 75 Lakh

The Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has imposed a
fine of Rs 75 lakh on the cellphone company Airtel, the ICICI Bank and American
Express for making unsolicited calls, messages and telemarketing. The fine was
imposed in response to a complaint filed by one customer against Airtel, ICICI
and American Express Bank. Airtel and the Cellular Operators Association of
India have been told to pay a fine of Rs 50 lakh while the ICICI and American
Express have been issued a penalty of Rs 25 lakh.