DIGEST/INDIA

Rs 451 cr for Rural Telephony

The central government has proposed to provide Rs 451 crore to set up public
telephones in rural India. The minister of State for Communications and
Information Technology, Shakeel Ahmad stated that Universal Service Obligation
Fund had entered into agreement with BSNL in November 2004 to provide VPTs in
remaining 66,822 eligible unconnected villages by November 2007. This excludes
villages having less than 100 population and villages in thick forest area/Naxalite-infested
areas. Subsidy support is being provided for these VPTs towards capital and
operational expenses. Out of the 66,822 by December 2005, 17,182 VPTs have
already been provided.

Extra Revenue for Mobile Operators

Mobile operators can provide Internet services to their subscribers without
paying any additional fee to the Department of Telecom. Large corporate houses,
having branches in remote areas, mostly use the Virtual Private Network (VPN)
services. Currently, mobile operators are offering Internet services, which
include only surfing and mailing. This facility can make the ISPs virtually
redundant. Adding to the worries of the ISPs the department had recently imposed
a license fee and an entry fee on ISPs wanting to offer VPN services.

VSNL, TCS and TTSL Form Alliance

The Tata-controlled Videsh Sanchar Nigam along with the group's IT and
telecom companies including Tata Consultancy Services and the Tata Teleservices
will tap the global market jointly. It would be a purely business-to-business
relationship. VSNL had recently completed its acquisition of Teleglobe
international for $239 mn to create one of the world's largest voice, data,
and mobile-phone networks.

FLAG's London NOC to India

Reliance Infocomm is planning to move FLAG Telecom's London-based network
operating center (NOC) to its NOC at Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC) in
Navi Mumbai. FLAG also operates a disaster recovery center in London. The
Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan says that the acquisition
would allow India to monitor Pakistan's electronic data communications. FLAG
has a landing station in Karachi and provides bandwidth and international
connectivity to Pakistan.

RCVL Declares Q3 Financials

Reliance Communications Ventures Ltd (RCVL) has announced consolidated Q3
financials. Revenues of Rs 3,327 crore ($749 mn) have been made. EBITDA of Rs
848 crore ($190 mn). Cash profit of Rs 720 crore ($162 mn). Net Profit of Rs 310
crore ($70 mn) for the quarter that ended December 31, 2005.

STD, ISD Tariffs to Fall more

The tariff cuts will again be effected on long distance (STD/ISD) calls.
This time the tariffs cuts will be for all subscribers, unlike the recently
announced One India plan by state-owned firms BSNL and MTNL. The peak STD rates
are expected to fall to below Rs 2 per minute (from Rs 2.40). ISD rates are
likely to be cheaper by Rs 1.50 or more for calls to the US, UK and the rest of
the world, which range from Rs 6.60-15 depending on the destination called. The
new rates are expected to follow the announcement of new ADC (access deficit
charge) and IUC (interconnect user charge) regime, by Trai.

Qualcomm to Increase Headcount

Qualcomm has hired 150 developers in India in 2005 and plans to maintain the
rate of growth this year too. The India team of Qualcomm collaborated in a big
way in development of three new chipsets designed by the company for mobile
phones. The chipsets, which have all the components on them required in a mobile
phone, will be provided to mobile phone manufacturers to design phones around
them.

Sabeer Bhatia Promoting VoIP

The creator of Hotmail, Sabeer Bhatia, is planning his next venture out of
India. Bhatia-promoted VoiFi Technology will debut its maiden application in the
voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) space in India. An instant messaging Skype-like
product, the application, incidentally also 'Made in India', will
additionally offer gaming and entertainment along with features like instant
messaging and VoIP, which others such as Skype, Yahoo, and GoogleTalk offer.

BSNL Adds 1 mn Phone Users

BSNL has commissioned an additional capacity of 1 mn Cellone GSM mobile
lines in West Zone. Union Minister for Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food and
Public Distribution Sharad Pawar and Union Minister for Communications and
Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran launched the additional capacity by
making an inaugural call between them. The additional lines will be distributed
over Maharashtra and Goa(4.5 lakh), Gujarat (3.5 lakh), Madhya Pradesh(1.5 lakh)
and Chhattisgarh(0.5 lakh).

5 lakh mobile connections

The Bharat Sanchar Nigam's Cellone mobile telephony coverage in the Tamil
Nadu Telecom Circle will get a boost with the commissioning of nearly 1,800
towers in the next three months. TS Kuppusamy, principal general manager
(Operations), and Tamil Nadu Telecom Circle, said BSNL would provide 5 lakh
fresh mobile connections. Our aim is to make the Tamil Nadu Telecom Circle and
the Chennai Telephones attain the number one status in the all India network.

74% FDI in Telecom Sector

The Department of Industrial Policy and promotion has issued a four-month
extension to comply with the new guidelines for 74% foreign direct investment in
Telecom. The new deadline is July 4. The 74% foreign investment can be made
directly or indirectly in the operating company or through a holding company.
The Union Government had increased FDI cap in Telecom sector to 74% after
persistent demand from the industry.

IDEA crosses 7 mn-Subscriber Base

Idea Cellular has announced that it has crossed the 7 mn customer mark. In
less than 12 months, the company has added nearly 2 mn subscribers (Feb05-Feb06)
reflecting a stupendous growth of 40% and maintaining leadership positions in a
majority of its operating circles. Idea continues to occupy 1 or 2 positions in
5 out of 8 circles.

Airtel's "All For one" Plan

Airtel Broadband has launched the 'Airtel All For One' plan for its
customers. Under the new plan, Airtel fixed-line customers can now call anywhere
in the country-STD or local-at a flat rate of Re 1 per minute. The 'All
For One' plan is available at a monthly rental of just Rs 299 per month.

The plan also offers a special tariff of Re 1 for three minutes
for Airtel fixed-line to Airtel fixed-line local calls. But Cellular Operators
Association of India has challenged TRAI's directive to private cell operators
to stop charging differential tariffs for calls terminating on the BSNL CellOne
network in neighbouring areas of four states in the telecom tribunal TDSAT.

TRAI Against Differential Tariffs

Trai has restrained private mobile operators from overcharging the
subscribers for calls terminating in BSNL network and other service providers
networks. The regulator has asked them to immediately discontinue such
differential tariffs. TRAI has asked mobile service providers not to charge
differential tariffs in Maharashtra, Tamil-Nadu, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.

$10 mn Investment in Mauj

Mauj Telecom has announced an investment of $10 mn by WestBridge Capital
Partners, Intel Capital and Sequoia Capital. Mauj Telecom a mobile entertainment
company with focus on mobile music, gaming, mobile commerce and mobile
messaging. Mauj Telecom develops services on all leading platforms including
J2ME, Smartphone, BREW, Symbian, SS7 and I-Mode and is partnered with the
leading wireless operators and portals in the world. Mauj is part of the People
Group.

Wipro Acquires cMango

Wipro has signed a definitive agreement to acquire cMango, a Sunnyvale,
California, and US-headquartered Company in an all cash deal. cMango has
multiple offices in the US as well as offices in the UK, Singapore and a
delivery center in Pune, India. Under the terms of the agreement, the
consideration to acquire 100% stake in privately held cMango includes cash
payment of $20 mn on closure of the transaction as well as earn-outs based on
achieving targeted financial metrics over a two-year period. cMango, a company
focused on Business Service Management (BSM) Solutions, has annualized revenue
of around $13 mn. cMango will be part of the Technology Infrastructure Services
(TIS) Service-line of Wipro Technologies.

Trai Call on Number Portability

Trai has announced the recommendation for implanting number probability
regime in India. Under the recommendation, mobile number portability (MNP) is to
be introduced within a year. Initially, the subscribers will be able to retain
their numbers within the same service area (say, within Delhi). Later, this
facility will be allowed between two or more service areas (even if you move out
of the city). TRAI has suggested that the facility is to be introduced in a
phased manner- from the metros to the smaller cities.

Temasek Takes 9.9% Stake in TTSL

Tata Teleservices announced that Temasek Holdings through its wholly owned
subsidiary, Aranda Investments has taken a 9.9% stake in the telecom company for
an undisclosed amount. The investment by Temasek coincides with Tata
Teleservices' addition of over 5 mn net subscribers and its nationwide
commercial launch of services over the last year.

Rediff.com Launches WAP News

Rediff.com announced the launch of Rediff Newshound service on WAP enabled
mobile phones. A first of its kind service, Newshound provides a capsule of news
headlines across categories such as business, entertainment, cricket and health,
updated every five minutes. These headlines are aggregated and categorized from
over 1,000 news sources. The Rediff Newshound service can be accessed free of
charge using WAP, on any GPRS enabled phone.

IMS Lab From Tech Mahindra, Intel

Tech Mahindra and Intel launched a "Next Generation Telecom Solutions
Lab" at its Pune development center. The lab showcases Tech Mahindra's IP
Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) based Video on Demand (VoD) with real time charging,
IP conferencing, and Universal Personal Number hosted on Intel Carrier Grade
Servers.

VSNL Wi-Fis Pizzas and Coffee

Tata Indicom Wi-Fi Service, Pizza Corner and Coffee World tie up to make
this new customer speak a reality. VSNL and GFA India has entered into a tie up
to provide Tata Indicom Wi-Fi Service in all 500 outlets that GFA India plans to
rollout across the country over the next five years. Customers can download
mails in few seconds, upload heavy presentations in the blink of an eye. And not
only that, users can download music, watch movies and the latest videos, play
games, share ideas and much more.

Nokia's Global Component Units

Even as the Finland-based mobile phone major Nokia formally kick-started its
Indian manufacturing operations, it has roped in two global component suppliers
to co-locate their manufacturing base in the Nokia India Telecom Industry Park.
The two companies-Aspocomp Group and Perlos are expected to invest a total of
around $82 mn in the Nokia Park. Aspocomp Group will expand its high-density
inter-connection (HDI) business while Perlos will set up a production base.

Essar's Telecom Site Infrastructure

Essar Group has floated a new company, Telecom Tower and Infrastructure (TTIPL),
to build telecom site infrastructure and share it with various telecom
operators. This will push down the cost for telecom infrastructure. The company
has already built 150 sites for Hutchison Essar in the BPL Communications'
circles of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Kerala. TTIPL will acquire, design and
construct the Base Transceiver Station (BTS) site and provide the tower-allied
facilities including civil, electrical and other requirements. Provision of
stable power and air conditioning for housing the equipment will also be
undertaken by the company.

Guidelines for ILD, NLD Services

After the new guidelines were issued on licensees for International Long
Distance (ILD) and National Long Distance (NLD) services in December 2005, five
applications for ILD services and 13 applications for NLD services have been
received. No license has been granted so far. The total teledensity stood at
11.8%, out of which rural accounted for 1.8% while the urban was 36.3%.

Telekom buys Stake in Spice

Telekom Malaysia, has acquired a stake in Spice Telecom. Telekom Malaysia
Berhad (TM) acquired 49% stake in Spice Telecom for about $179 mn. The deal
involves sale of equity held by a consortium of Deutsche Bank and Ashmore
Investment Management. At the end of February, Spice had 1.82 mn subscribers.
The company currently operates in the Punjab and Karnataka telecom circles.

Teledensity Crosses 12%

During February 2006, about 4.55 mn new phones were added, with an average
daily addition of 1.6 lakh lines. The total number of telephones in the country
crossed 135.5 mn, as against a total of 131 mn as on January 31, 2006. This is a
growth of 3.43%. The growth in February 2006 was 39% over that of February 2005.
Almost the entire growth has been in the mobile segment, with GSM contributing
3.17 mn and CDMA contributing 1.13 mn. The additions in the fixed line segment
have been about 0.25 mn.

RCoVL to Merge Infocomm

Reliance Communications Ventures, a holding firm for Reliance's telecom
business unveiled a restructuring plan aimed at fully owning its operating arms,
including Reliance Infocomm. Reliance Communications Ventures (RCVL), which
listed on March 6, was spun off to shareholders of energy conglomerate Reliance
Industries after settlement of a dispute between the Ambani brothers who run the
Reliance group. RCVL holds 45.3% of Reliance Infocomm, 45% of Reliance
Communications Infrastructure and 35.6% of Reliance Telecom.

Nokia's Manufacturing Unit

Nokia has inaugurated its manufacturing facility in Sriperumbudur, Chennai,
India. Nokia commenced commercial production of mobile handsets at its India
factory on January 2, 2006, and has achieved the milestone of manufacturing over
1mn handsets in India to-date. The Chennai manufacturing facility currently
employs 1100 people and expects to significantly expand its work force in India
over time.

UTStar to Expand Portfolio

UTStarcom, provider of IP based infrastructure to telecom service, is
planning to broaden its service offerings by providing services such as managed
services and hosted services. Currently, the company provides traditional onsite
services such as repair and return, maintenance services. The company's
product portfolio includes converged broadband wireless and wire line products,
an integrated IPTV solution, and a line of handset and customer premise
equipment to operators in both emerging and established telecommunications
markets worldwide.

US Acquisition for Subex

Subex Systems is set to acquire a US based company, Mantas. Subex is paying
around $2 mn for this asset acquisition. Mantas is a pioneer in behavior
detection that enables businesses to identify risk and opportunity. The company
provides analytic applications powered with behavior detection technology to the
global financial services and telecommunications markets.

Operators to Share Infrastructure

Cellular operators have agreed to share their infrastructure. The
infrastructure sharing would begin in Delhi and then in Mumbai, after which the
model will be replicated in other parts of the country. A working group under a
joint secretary in the Department of Telecom will work out the modalities of
infrastructure sharing. Sharing infrastructure would mean having a single tower
where all the operators can install their equipment. GSM operators currently
have about 6,000 towers in Delhi and Mumbai.

Reliance Deals with Motorola

Reliance has put together a network and infrastructure equipment deal with
Motorola, at a price that sets a new benchmark for such equipment in a
cost-conscious Indian market. As part of the deal, which is estimated to be
worth under $100 mn, the US telecom vendor's Indian arm is expected to supply
mobile switches, 3,000-4,000 base stations and related infrastructure to
Reliance Telecom. Motorola's equipment will come with switches made by Chinese
telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei. Motorola and Huawei have a worldwide
agreement for mobile switches, the core of a network.

Shop on SifyMall

SifyMall.com has announced that millions of mobile phone users on GPRS
services would be able to buy a wide range of products and services over their
phones. To enable this SifyMall has tied up with JiGrahak, a mobility solutions
provider, and will be using JiGrahak's m-commerce/m-payment platform 'NGPay'
(Next Generation Pay). Users can call their service operators to enable the GPRS
facility on their phones so that they are able to shop over their phones, book
airline tickets online, browse websites etc. Anyone with a GPRS enabled mobile
connection can log on to www.ngpay.com,
and download the NGPay application on to their mobile handsets.

TRAI's Recommendation on NGN

TRAI has issued recommendations on matters pertaining to Next Generation
Networks, which are meant to highlight the need for converged/ unified licensing
regime to enable NGNs to be utilized to their full capabilities and promotion of
broadband in the country. Items for review include reconsideration of local loop
unbundling which can expedite the uptake of broadband through existing copper
loops by bringing in competition, de-licensing of spectrum in 5.1-5.3 GHz band
for outdoor usage and also identification of some additional spectrum for
Broadband access. TEC should be entrusted the task to study and analyze various
international developments pertaining to NGN in a time bound manner so as to
incorporate the same in Indian context and develop interface requirements for
the same.

Quality of Service Questioned

TRAI had issued show cause notice to six mobile companies viz Bharti
Televentures, Reliance Infocom Reliance Telecom, Tata Teleservices BPL Mobile
Cellular and Spice Communications on March 6, 2006 in the matter of increasing
congestion between their networks to other operators. These companies were given
time of 10 days from the date of issue of the notice for submitting their
replies. Till date, none of the above named service providers have submitted
their reply to the Authority.

India, Mauritius Sign MoU

India and Mauritius have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to set
up a Pan-African telecommunication network connecting 53 member-states of the
African Union with New Delhi.

Bids for Long-Distance Call Rights

The Indian mobile unit of Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa has sought a
license for national long-distance calls. Hutchison Essar, and five other firms,
including Tulip IT Services, have applied for both permits. India slashed the
entry fees paid by companies wanting to offer national and international calls
in a bid to reduce call rates and boost growth in a sector that has lagged
behind mobile services. It cut the fee for national long-distance telecom
services to Rs 2.5 crore ($561,670) from Rs 100 crore and lowered the entry
charge for international services to Rs 2.5 crore from Rs 25 crore.

Income Tax for Bharti

Bharti Airtel and the Income Tax Department, Department of Revenue,
Government of India have completed the first phase of the all India TAXNET
project. The TAXNET project is an initiative of the Ministry of Finance and one
of the largest Information Technology projects undertaken by the Government of
India. On completion it will be India's largest ever Virtual Private Network (VPN)
connecting all the Income Tax offices -745 locations in 510 cities-on the
Bharti MPLS backbone. Airtel Enterprise Services is partnering IBM for
implementing the project.

GAIL Selects ECI

ECI Telecom has announced that GAIL has selected ECI's optical networking
solutions for the expansion of its nationwide Gail-Tel South Expansion network.
ECI's equipment will support this long-haul SDH regional network that will
span thousands of kilometers and increase GAIL's capacity to deliver services
as a carrier of carriers. GAIL will deploy ECI's converged optical solution,
which includes the XDMR Multi-Service Provisioning Platform, the BroadGate(TM)-40
platform for bandwidth management utilization.

Tender for 2.5 mn Mobile Lines

Bharat Sanchar Nigam plans to float a tender for 2.5 mn new CDMA 1xEV-DO
mobile lines to replace its cancelled order for a million lines. After the
agreement with China's Huawei Technologies for supplying 1 mn lines failed
BSNL has come up with this new tender. BSNL has already scrapped its agreement
with Huawei due to delays in the delivery of equipment. Lucent, Nortel,
Motorola, Ericsson and ZTE are expected to bid in conjunction with local
partners. BSNL has said that the bidder must have the experience of supplying a
minimum one million lines of CDMA equipment, including mobile switching centers,
base stations and core network technology. The EV-DO network will offer typical
speeds of between 300kbps and 500kbps, with theoretical top speeds of 2Mbps.

Cisco Takes to Infozech

Infozech Software, a transaction processing company focused on the telecom
space, has joined hands with Cisco Systems for its Technology Development
Partner program. As a Technology Development Partner of Cisco, Infozech will
work on the concept of customer self service, by integrating voice and IP
technologies. Cisco and Infozech will focus on creating self-care applications
using Cisco's Customer Voice Portal (CVP) and its IP Contact Center (IPCC)
platforms.

Marico Picks Comnet

HCL Comnet has signed a deal with Marico, an Indian based FMCG to manage
their network and security infrastructure. As part of the engagement, HCL will
also upgrade Marico's existing VSAT network to a terrestrial MPLS (Multi
Protocol Label Switching) network. With the signing of this deal, HCL Comnet
becomes Marico's single point contact for its Major part of Network and
complete Security infrastructure requirements. In addition HCL Comnet would also
proactively manage Marico's network and security infrastructure, integrate
their systems, link procurement and management, manage trouble shooting and
vendor management in order to drive efficiency and productivity in its IT
Infrastructure.

31 TV Channels Get Notice

The ministry of information and broadcasting has issued show-cause notices
to 31 satellite TV channels for telecasting surrogate advertisements of 13
categories of liquor and tobacco brand extensions. The government said this was
in violation of rule 7 (2) (viii) of the advertising code. The code says,
"No advertisements shall be permitted which promotes directly or indirectly
production, sale or consumption of cigarette, tobacco production, wine, alcohol,
liquor or other intoxicant."