DIGEST/INDIA

Bharti Surrenders CDMA Spectrum

Bharti Airtel has surrendered the CDMA spectrum in Madhya Pradesh to
the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). Bharti Airtel had received the CDMA
spectrum as part of licensing agreement in the year 1997, to offer services as
applicable under the license. Post the introduction of Unified Access Service
regime, Bharti Airtel had converted its cellular license to UASL and the license
granted in 1997 to offer fixed line services was surrendered to the DoT.

Tata Indicom's Retail Plans

Tata Teleservices has announced major expansion plans to enhance its
retail presence in India by investing Rs 80—100 crore. It plans to increase
its outlets from the current 2,700 to 3,500 by March 2007. Under the plan, TTSL
will also be launching new outlets in city malls, high streets, kiosks and super
markets. The company also announced attaining a remarkable milestone by entering
The Limca Book of Records 2007 edition for being the First telecom operator in
India to inaugurate 100 True Value Shoppes across the nation in a single day.

Cellebrum's Caller List Application

Cellebrum has come up with an application that will check unwanted
calls to mobile phones. With this application, a subscriber can define his or
her caller list for incoming calls. If the customers choose to black list the
numbers from which he does not want to receive call, he can do it by himself. It
is a process through which a customer can choose the phone numbers from which he
does not want to receive calls.

3G Services in 2007

India expects to launch 3G mobile telephone services in the second
half of 2007, according to the Union Telecom Mnistry. The Department of
Telecommunications (DoT) has also been deliberating on the 3G spectrum issues
for quite sometime. Considering the nature of the issue and its impact on India's
long-term growth, TRAI has been requested to study the same in depth and give
their recommendations.

TRAI's 3G Auction Prices

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended a
maximum base price of Rs 80 crore for allocation of 3G spectrum to operators.
The base price for allocation of spectrum for 3G services has been recommended
at Rs 80 crore for Delhi and Mumbai, Rs 40 crore for Chennai and Kolkata and Rs
15 crore for other C category cities. The regulator has also recommended for
setting up a National Frequency Management Board (NFMB) for long-term vision and
planning for spectrum availability.

Samsung on Mid-end Phones

Samsung Telecommunications would now concentrate on driving the
market towards smart phones and especially the mid-end business phones. Samsung
Telecommunications would launch a credit card sized SGH-P310 phone, to be
followed by some more business class as well as multimedia mobiles in the coming
months.

Qualcomm Establishes Chair at IIT

Qualcomm has announced the establishment of a Chair at the Indian
Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras. This is the first academic donation by
Qualcomm in India and is endowed by a grant of $175,000.00. The grant, which was
announced at the IIT Madras annual technology festival "Shaastra 2006"
would fund a Qualcomm Chair in the electrical engineering department. The
funding will bring reputed experts in wireless technology from all over the
world to the Institute and provide engineering students at IIT Madras an
opportunity to learn and contribute to wireless innovations.

BSNL to Slash STD Rates

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) is planning to cut the STD
rates from Rs 2.40 per minute to Re 1, to woo its subscribers during this
festival season. BSNL sources said that the operator is planning to slash the
STD rates up to 60% of the prevailing tariffs. According to industry experts,
the optimistic dream of targeting a major chunk of subscribers through its
OneIndia scheme failed to bring laurels for the telecom operator with around
1.14% of its total subscribers opting for the scheme, made the operator to
introduce a new business proposal by cutting down the STD call rates.

GlobalConnect to Acquire Sirius

GlobalConnect Australia, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Avaya
GlobalConnect, has sid it would acquire the converged solutions division (SCS)
of Sirius Telecommunications for AUD$ 1.2 mn. GlobalConnect, a leading
convergence and contact center solutions provider in Australia, has executed an
agreement to acquire the Converged Solutions Division of Sirius
Telecommunications, one of only four Tier-One Avaya partners in Australia.

Sterlite Wins ELCINA Award

Sterlite Optical Technologies has announced that it has been awarded
the ELCINA award for Research and Development 2006. The company received this
award for its invention of low water peak optical fiber (Sterlite OH-LITE) that
is specifically designed to increase the transmission capacity of the optical
fiber. The ELCINA Award for R&D was judged on the improvement in performance
of the product, its quality and reliability, patents and inventions.

OnMobile Receives $27.8 mn Fund

OnMobile has announced that it has secured strategic financing of
$27.8 mn from Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs & Polygon Investment Partners.
OnMobile is one of the market leaders in value added services, mobile content
distribution, interactive media portals, 1-to-1 direct marketing via mobiles,
and M-Commerce in the fast growing 150 mn plus subscribers in the Indian telecom
market. OnMobile was spun out from Infosys to build and deploy innovative
software applications for the wireless Iinternet industry.

Operators to Invest $6 bn on 3G

Indian mobile operators are on course to spend up to $6 bn to offer
3G mobile services to users. According to initial estimates, which do not
include the spectrum fee (at least Rs 1,050 crore each for a national rollout),
operators are planning to set up 75-80 mn 3G-enabled connections. Bharat Sanchar
Nigam alone is setting up 30 mn lines, while the other operators will add
another 45-50 mn lines over the next 2-3 years. With an expectation of doubled
subscriber base, the operators' investment can be assumed at an average $80
per subscriber.

Huawei to Apply to RBI

China's Huawei Technologies is planning to abandon its application
to Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to implement local manufacturing of
CDMA-based terminals. Huawei, along with rival Chinese telecom equipment company
ZTE, will instead apply to the Reserve Bank of India for permission to invest in
India directly, which is permitted for telecom manufacturing.

GTL Eyes Buys in US, West Asia

GTL has informed the BSE that the company has prepared the blueprint
of the inorganic growth. Currently, there are three companies in the US, Europe
and the Middle East, which are in consideration for the same. The firm is
already in advance stages of talks with companies that strategically fit in its
value-chain and the due diligence process should be completed soon. If all the
three companies are acquired, the revenue addition is expected to be around Rs
800 crore.

Subex Azure Bags Omantel Contract

Subex Azure has announced that it had bagged an order to implement an
interconnect billing system for Omantel, the Oman telecommunications company.
According to a Subex statement, its Subex Azure Interconnect Billing System (SAIBS)
was chosen to provide interconnect billing for both Omantel and Oman Mobile.
SAIBS enables operators to settle interconnect agreements with their network
partners. SAIBS provides operators with visibility of CDRs (call detail records)
and costs across all lines of business.

Essar to Raise $530 mn

The Essar group has pledged a portion of its holding in Hutchison
Essar, its joint venture with Hong Kong's Hutchison Telecommunications
International, to raise $530 mn (around Rs 2,425 crore). The diversified Essar
group holds 33% and Hutchison the balance, in the country's fourth-largest
mobile company. Investment banking sources said the group had appointed Standard
Chartered to arrange the loan, which would be repaid in two years.

TeleDNA to Raise $10 mn

Bangalore-based TeleDNA, a provider of mobile VAS infrastructure is
currently in the process of raising $10 mn venture capital fund to expand its
sales and support outside India. As part of its expansion, the company plans to
set up an office in Singapore within three-four months. TeleDNA currently has
offices in Bangalore and Hyderabad in India, and Dallas and Texas in the US. Its
clients in the mobile VAS infrastructure products segment include BSNL, BPL,
Airtel and Hutch.

BSNL to Spend Rs 400 crore in AP

BSNL has decided to spend more than Rs 400 crore in the Andhra
Pradesh circle during the next fiscal to increase the cell phone connections.
This is in line with the objective of adding another 15 lakh new cellphone
customers by 2007-08. Currently, BSNL is having 14 lakh cell connections in the
circle. This number was expected to increase to 18 lakh by March 2007. BSNL
would set up 800 new cell towers across the state. It would also increase the
capacity of some of the existing towers.

20,000 Villages to Get Broadband

BSNL is planning to provide broadband connection to 20,000 villages
that are at present connected through optical fiber. The operator will soon
submit a proposal to the Department of Telecom to provide broadband connectivity
for the project. According to initial estimates, the project will cost about Rs
400 crore. BSNL has earmarked an investment of Rs 1,500 crore to expand its
broadband service to 1,000 more cities in the next two years. However, the
proposed investment of Rs 400 crore for the project will be in addition to Rs
1,500 crore, the official added.

Telecom Security Deadline Extended

The Union Cabinet has extended the period of compliance with the
conditions of Press Note 5, 2005, by three months to December 31, 2006. The note
proposes enhancing FDI in telecom services from 49% to 74%. The previous
deadline was October 2. Press Note 5 was issued last November and has already
been extended thrice. It was extended to March 2006, then to July, and later
again extended to October 2.

Easy Recharge for BSNL Subscribers

Prepaid subscribers of Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) can now avail
easy-recharge options, anywhere in India. This was introduced as a pilot project
for prepaid users who bought a BSNL connection in West Bengal, North-East, Assam
and Sikkim. If the project is successful, BSNL would roll the facility out to
all over India. Earlier, the user of a pre-paid BSNL connection in Kolkata could
not use a BSNL recharge voucher bought in any other state. This was because the
BSNL marketing codes for recharge vouchers in different states were different.

PMO Concerned over MTNL-Motorola Deal

The Prime Minister's Office has raised concerns over the purchase
of GSM equipment by Mahanagar Telephone Nigam, but MTNL has maintained that it
had made payments to vendor Motorola according to the tender norms. After
receiving the PMO's observations on the issue, the Department of Telecom had
asked MTNL to clarify whether there was any violation of payment clause linking
payments to validation testing.

MTNL had floated a global tender to purchase GSM equipment and
signed a pact with Motorola for the same. The company gave Motorola an expansion
order for 800,000 GSM lines in Delhi and Mumbai.

Qualcomm Licence to HFCL for Handsets

Qualcomm has licensed Himachal Futuristic Communications (HFCL) to
manufacture 3G CDMA2000 mobile handsets, fixed-wireless phones and line modem
cards. This is the first time Qualcomm has given a licence to a company in India
to manufacture its products. HFCL will invest Rs 25-30 crore to upgrade its
plants in Solan (Himachal Pradesh) and Chennai to manufacture over 4 mn handsets
and fixed-wireless phones annually. Prices of entry-level Qualcomm phones,
around $40 in June, have fallen to $38 due to technological innovations, and
could decline by another $2 as a result of the agreement with HFCL.

Tata Tele Lines Up Rs 140 crore for
Bengal

Tata Teleservices has firmed up plans for expanding its network in
West Bengal, doubling its presence in towns across the state and increasing
switch capacity at Durgapur and Siliguri. The company will be investing Rs 140
crore in this fiscal in Bengal. Currently present in 110 towns in the West
Bengal circle, TTL will be increasing its reach to 220 within this fiscal with
entry into 30 new B category towns within the next one month. This is expected
to increase TTL's subscriber base in this circle from 2.75 lakh at present to
about four lakh by the end of the year. TTL has recently installed a pay
telephony service at a height of more than 10,000 feet above sea level at Tsango
Lake in Sikkim.

BSNL Waives Transit Charges on Pvt
Players

BSNL will exempt transit charges on the termination of calls to its
cellular customers from private fixed and mobile operators that have signed with
it interconnect agreements.

However, for operators that have not signed interconnect
agreements, the existing method of routing calls through its public switch
telephone network (PSTN) will continue, and BSNL will levy transit charges of 19
paise a minute. The Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) had
earlier opposed the levy of transit charges by BSNL, filing a case with the
Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal.

Zee Seeks Spectrum for Radio Service

Subhash Chandra's Zee group has applied to the DoT for spectrum to
launch digital public mobile radio trunking services in Bangalore. Mobile radio
trunking is a walkie-talkie service through which users can talk to each other
in a closed group. In its analogue form, the phones are bulky and every member
of the group can listen in on the conversation. But in its digital format, the
walkie-talkie set looks like a mobile phone, allows broadband access, and allows
private conversations within the user group.

Tata Elxsi Partnership with DiBcom

Tata Elxsi has announced a partnership with DiBcom to help customers
in realizing innovative mobile TV products with faster time to market. Tata
Elxsi has developed a full DVB-H stack, compliant with the DVB-CBMS
specifications. The software is OS agnostic and independent of the base band
processing sublayer. It features an intuitive API layer, allowing easy and quick
integration with various multimedia engines, decoders and applications, while a
seamless abstraction layer provides for integration with different CA modules.

Star Launches Entertainment on Mobile

Star launched its new service Star 7827 voice to provide mobile
entertainment anywhere anytime. This entertainment service is based on the
concept of non-linear radio and uses "hinglish" as the medium of
interaction. Like a true universal service it does not require the user to be
technology savvy and takes the content to the masses. Viewers can view "
real entertainment" within one hour of telecast on TV. Among other
attraction this service offer mobile "audiosodes" of the popular Star
network TV serials along with humour, cricket, bollywood and bhakti content.