Researchers combined two chemical engineering approaches to address two major battery limitations - energy capacity and charge rate.Besides better batteries for cellphones and iPods, the technology could pave the way for more efficient, smaller batteries for electric cars.The technology could be seen in the marketplace in the next three to five years, the researchers said. - TelecomLive

In a hard hitting blog post on its website, Cisco claims that this is the third time in two years HP has sued former employees to stop them from working at Cisco. Chandler says HP is in "the chaos of executive turnover" and it's now resorting to below-the-belt "desperate moves". He claims that in another case, HP sued an employee in its financial services group to block her from working in Cisco's customer finance group.HP recently ended a dreadful fourth-quarter as earnings dropped 91%. The company said it wrote off approximately $3.3 billion in 2011 fiscal year costs due to "the wind down of HP's WebOS device business." In September, HP named former EBay head Meg Whitman as its new CEO, replacing former CEO Leo Apotheker after less than a year on the job in the company's seemingly endless leadership carousel. However, the change at the top is yet to make any significant impact as the company continues to suffer from a mass exodus of key staffers. - Digitcom

"The decision on the 3G roaming issue will be taken as per the current licence agreement and arrangements between Department of Telecom (DoT) and telecom companies before the 3G spectrum auction last year," a senior DoT official said. "The examination related to the 3G issue is almost completed. We will be able to come out with something in a week or so," he added.The issue pertains to the pact among major service providers, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular, for providing a 3G roaming network on a pan-India basis. other service providers, like Tata Teleservices and Aircel, had entered into a similar agreement to offer services in six circles. Recently, the CEOs of three leading telecom firms -- Bharti, Idea and Vodafone -- had sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention to resolve the dispute over the 3G roaming pact, failing which they threatened to surrender spectrum.. - Telecomnews

The move comes two days after FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski circulated a draft order, which, if approved, would have referred the case to an administrative law judge. That was widely seen as a major blow to AT&T's chances at the agency. As a result of withdrawing its application, AT&T told investors it could lose as much as $4 billion in break up fees to Deutsche Telekom. Critics of the deal said AT&T will be hard pressed to ever gain approval in the future. "After today's actions, the chances that AT&T will take over T-Mobile are almost gone," Public Knowledge's Gigi Sohn said in a statement. Andrew Schwartzman, senior vice president at the Media Access Project, called the decision an act of desperation in an attempt to prevent the FCC from holding a hearing. "This turkey is too big to be hidden by releasing it on Thanksgiving," he said in a statement. "Withdrawal of the FCC applications should be seen for what it is: a concession that the deal would create a duopoly in the national wireless market that will result in higher prices and reduced choice in handsets." In calling for an administrative hearing, the FCC said AT&T's claims of new jobs didn't stand up to scrutiny. - Techdaily

The staff cuts come as part of a global restructuring programme undertaken by Nokia Siemens Networks through which is aims to refocus its business on the mobile broadband space. "The future of our industry is in mobile broadband and in services," said Suri. "The first leg of our strategy will be to focus on end-to-end mobile network infrastructure and services, with a particular emphasis on mobile broadband.Business areas that do not fit into this new strategy will be "divested or managed for value," Suri added. However, he sidestepped repeated questions on which of the company's various businesses are considered non-core.Citing an internal communication from Nokia Siemens, Mobile Europe reported that fixed-line VoIP, broadband access, WiMAX, narrowband, carrier Ethernet, BSS and communications and entertainment solutions (CES) will be exited or put in maintenance mode.The vendor offloaded its microwave transport business to Dragon for €15 million in cash and shares earlier this month and Suri said talks are ongoing regarding other business areas. He was reluctant to talk about expected proceeds from any sales, but his comments suggested that there will be no mega-deals on the horizon: "It's about getting some proceeds but it's also about reducing the burn rate," he said. - TotalTele

India's central bureau of investigations (CBI) raided Vodafone and rival Bharti Airtel's offices on Saturday. It registered a case against the companies and two former telecoms ministry officials claiming "criminal conspiracy" in the granting of additional 2G spectrum."If you wanted an example of the uncertainty surrounding Vodafone's investments in India, look no further," James said in a note. "Subscriber growth has been matched by painful price wars between competitors, with Vodafone far from immune. Add constantly moving regulatory goalposts and a well-documented dispute with the Indian government and it's not a given that Vodafone will ever see an economic return on the $12bn we estimate it has sunk to date."The case has dragged Vodafone into the scandal surrounding successive mobile spectrum sell-offs in India, which has seen former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja remanded in custody, accused of taking bribes during the controversial 2008 auction of 2G airwaves. A state auditor has said the 2008 under-selling of licences for kickbacks – Vodafone has not been linked to that episode – may have cost $39bn ($24.9bn) in lost taxpayer revenue. Vodafone is already at loggerheads with Indian authorities, which claim it owes $2.5bn in tax and as much again in penalties on its 2007 acquisition of Hutchison Essar, a company which had its operations in India but its headquarters in the Cayman Islands tax haven. The case has led to a court battle in which Vodafone is accused of an "artificial tax avoidance scheme".A source at the CBI told local press: "Executives of both the companies will be questioned in some time. We have already questioned Ghosh and Gupta during the preliminary inquiry."- Gaurdian

For those who are not aware what IMEI is: An IMEI is a International Mobile Equipment Identity which identify mobile handset with unique serial code assigned with that mobile handset GSM/WCDMA. Every mobile has its unique IMEI code which can be obtained by pressing *#06# on most of mobile phones or checking back panel of mobile phone after removing battery. Technology of Blocking mobile phone by IMEI is nothing new to world and already implemented in some countries. Where user can block their mobile phone, upon requesting to their mobile operator to prevent unauthorized access of mobile in case if it gets stolen or lost. In United Kingdom changing IMEI code of mobile handset by any process is an serious offence - Telecom News India

However, China's smartphone market is led by Nokia, which claimed a 28.5% share in Q3, thanks to 6.8 million units shipped. Samsung is some way behind in second place, its 4.2 million shipments giving it a 17.6% share of the market. "China has become a large and growing smartphone market that no hardware vendor, component maker or content developer can afford to ignore," said Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics, in a statement. In the U.S. the market leader is Taiwan-based HTC, which shipped 5.6 million smartphones in the three-month period to claim a market share 24%. Apple came in second with 4.8 million units shipped and a 20.6% share. - TotalTele

"We would like to categorically state that all the spectrum alloted to us from time to time has been strictly as per the stated government policy," a Bharti Airtel spokesperson said. "We are providing all details and correspondence to the authorities and shall provide complete support as needed in the matter," the spokesperson said. When approached, Vodafone said they would comment on the developments later. The CBI had registered a Preliminary Enquiry to look into the allocation of spectrum under Mahajan to certain companies beyond the prescribed limit. The CBI alleged in its FIR that Department of Telecom had increased the base spectrum for telecom companies from 4.4 MhZ to 6.2 MhZ during Mahajan's tenure from 2001 to 2003 and also allocated extra spectrum on subscriber-based criteria. The agency has already filed a case with regard to alleged conspiracy in the Aircel-Maxis deal during the tenure of the then Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran. Vodafone said all their documents related to the spectrum allocation were in compliance with the governing laws and regulations and it was cooperating with the agency officials. "There was a visit by CBI officials this morning at our office in Mumbai and Delhi seeking information related to the spectrum allocation to operators during 2001-02. All our documents are in complete compliance with the governing laws and regulations," a company spokesperson said in a statement. "Vodafone India is completely co-operating with the officials and will provide them all the required details as part of their checks," the spokesperson said. - Telecom News India

"The fact that our critical infrastructure could be used against us is of serious concern," Rogers said in the release. Huawei's efforts to expand in the US have been repeatedly blocked by lawmakers concerned about its alleged links to China's military; in February, the US Committee on Foreign Investment forced the company to unwind its acquisition of California-based 3Leaf System's patents, citing a "serious risk" to US computer networks - TelecomTiger

"The commission recognizes that no billing model will satisfy all the objectives and concerns of all parties," the regulator said in its decision. The CRTC said a capacity-based charge model "is more consistent" and "appropriate" than volume-based billing. Speaking to reporters after the ruling, the regulator's chairman, Konrad von Finckenstein, said higher volumes do not necessarily translate into higher service costs."There is no direct correlation between the cost of providing access and usage," he said. Reaction was mixed. Some industry watchers say the ruling represented a setback for BCE."The decision is a clear loss for Bell--its hopes to charge based on volume are out, which keeps the door open for independent ISPs to offer unlimited plans," said Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa who specializes in Internet law."But the bigger question is whether Canadian consumers are winners." Mirko Bibic, Bell Canada's senior vice-president of regulatory and government affairs, said the decision "at least ensures we can now charge our ISP customers for the network capacity they consume." He added, though, the ruling required further study. - Totaltele

There's no doubt that the lack of iPhone 5 is hurting Apple. A lot of customers opted for Android devices over the summer even as Apple refused to divulge the launch date for the new iPhone. Though Apple sold 4 million iPhone 4S devices on its launch weekend, it would be interesting to see if it can slow down Android's momentum throughout the holiday season. Gartner predicts that Apple will bounce back following the last month's release of the iPhone 4S. We'll see. As for other players, there were no major surprises. Symbian accounted for a decent share of smartphone sales with 19.5 million Symbian devices sold, thereby 16.9% of the overall smartphone market – a significant drop from its 36.3% market share a year ago. RIM continued its dwindling fortunes as its share went down from 15.4% to 11.0%. Microsoft went down from 2.7% to 1.5%, however that's likely to change as the Windows Phone platform begins to find its feet this quarter. Geographically, China and Russia witnessed strong smartphone growth, thereby increasing overall volumes in the quarter, but demand for smartphones stalled in advanced markets such as Western Europe and the U.S. - Digitcom

The study, conducted in association with research company IMRB, says, with the affordability of internet-friendly devices increasing, the number is expected to reach 121 million by the end of December."A 100 million internet users is considered a critical landmark for the country. With this, internet use in India is expected to enter a critical period of growth, with the possibility of the country becoming the largest internet user in the world in this decade," said IAMAI President Subho Ray. The numbers assume importance because the Indian government has for long been trying to make internet accessible to the masses.Earlier this year, IT and communications minister Kapil Sibal had said his ministry was bringing out a policy on rolling out mobile governance and electronic service delivery bill as part of its e-governance initiatives.Interestingly, though the number of Internet users has increased significantly, the number of broadband subscribers in India remains quite low. According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the country's broadband subscriber base stood at 12.69 million in August. This indicates that people access the internet not only from their homes but also from offices, cyber cafes, schools and other common centres. - Business Standarad

or August the figure was 2.51 million. Interestingly, in India, whatever little shifting is happening under MNP is of subscribers , for the most part, moving to large operators or amongst them, which is exactly the reverse of what happens in other parts of the world, where MNP-led subscribers move from incumbents (due to bad service) to new entrants. Uninor is perhaps the only exception amongst new entrants.This largely suggests that subscribers of new entrants are actually concerned that some of these licences could be cancelled owing to legal complications, or that they dislike their service/customer care or prices, and are therefore moving to safer bets such as Bharti, Vodafone, and Idea. With MNP in place for close to a year, the new GSM entrants had a combined market share of 4.88%. Further, going by VLR, their active subscribers are far fewer. So while the subscriber base of new entrants is roughly 45 million out of a total of 865 million, the active subscribers are lower still. Clearly, MNP has not worked as expected. - Times of India

"Our Dynamic Discounting solution will enable airtel to grow traffic and revenues at a lower marginal cost by achieving higher network utilization through the loading of incremental traffic. The solution will further optimize their marketing costs by reducing the need for reactive churn prevention and win back efforts," said Manoranjan Mohapatra, CEO, Comviva said "As we expand our footprint in Africa, we continue to focus on value added services to increase our customer base in the region. Dynamic tariffs will improve affordability of telecom services for our customers in base of pyramid segments, who conventionally use the phone for outbound rather than inbound calls, opening up an entirely new target segment. With this solution our customer will further experience reduced congestion at peak traffic times and improved service quality"said Andre Beyers, Chief Marketing Officer, airtel Africa. - Telecom Tiger

Based on the trend, the operators can also push "hot" contents in the menu to end user's handset by the display arrangement defined by brand. "The whole system has been developed in such a manner that it is user friendly. There is no need to remember codes for various services. Users can navigate easily", said Arun Gupta CEO and Founder, MoMagic.- Telecom Tiger

According to Peter Chou, the Chief Executive Officer of HTC Corp, the company will stick to the strategy, which has enabled them to develop strong ties with carriers in the US and across the globe.Customization and incorporation of the latest technologies has helped the company forge ties with over hundred wireless operators across six continents. The firm has been posting record profit for five consecutive quarters and has managed to almost double its revenue over the past year.
During an interview in New York, Chou said that building a great brand is very difficult, especially for a company that lacks resources and experience. So it is important for the company to be friendly and develop strong relationships. HT Cho, Cher Wang and Chou established HTC Corp in 1997. Currently the chairwoman of HTC, Cher Wang, is the richest woman in the country. She is the daughter of Wang Yung-ching, the founder of Formosa Plastics Corp, who was the richest man in Taiwan until he died in 2008.
Analysts believe that in the current quarter, HTC is likely to post the slowest sales and profit growth in last 2 years, which means losing the leadership in the US market. According to Chou, global growth and the creation of cutting edge devices are the top priorities for the company, not maintaining the top spot in the US.- Digitcom

"With 3G now and other advanced wireless technologies based on 4G wireless technology standards this reality is set to become rampant on the broadband users radar. Unlike 3G which offers an average usable data transfer speed of 1-3 MBPS, our new broadband technology will offer speed of 4 MBPS complemented with features like bill limit guarantee, anti-virus for security and world class customer response services", said Heramb Ranade, Head of Marketing, Tikona Digital Networks.- Telecom Tiger

Both these companies, Bharti Airtel and Tata Communications, had said that they were not privy to this alleged misuse, but in April this year, the DoT had formed a committee to review this issue and now, it has decided to slap the two companies with a notice and penalty. The committee found, from submissions made Bharti, that the company had raised the invoice to SingTel at its Singapore address for the portion of circuit provided by Bharti Airtel. Airtel paid the applicable licence fee on the revenue earned by providing the Indian half circuit. While Tata Communications Ltd (erstwhile VSNL) had said in its reply that SingTel has not submitted any document showing that the customer was acquired outside India and Tatas have not felt any need to check this because as per the agreement, SingTel can acquire customers only in its own licenced territory and not in India. Tatas have, however, taken immediate corrective steps and took confirmation from all foreign carriers that they are neither contracting nor billing the customers in India under such agreements. The committee had also observed that Tatas too have paid the licence fee on revenues earned by them for providing half leased circuits to Singapore Telecommunications Limited and observed that the Tata Communications Ltd is not liable to pay any penalty in response to the show cause notice issued by the DoT. - Telecom News India

For Hynix, having a company with a stable cash flow as a top shareholder will help the loss-making chipmaker close the gap with bigger rivals Samsung Electronics Co (005930.KS) and Toshiba Corp (6502.T), analysts said."Despite share dilution, this potential capital increase will significantly lower market concerns of financial/liquidity problems," Citi analyst Henry Kim said of Hynix.Kim estimated that Hynix's net debt would halve to around 2.4 trillion won ($2.1 billion) after the share sale.Optimism on the deal finally going through after years of aborted sales attempts pushed Hynix shares up more than 5 percent on Friday.Shares in SK Telecom closed up 3.1 percent versus the broader market's.KS11 2.8 percent rise. Hynix finished up 0.2 percent."The offered price is reasonable and a win-win for SK Telecom and creditors," said Koo Ja-woo, an analyst at Kyobo Securities.SK Telecom bid between 3.3 trillion-3.5 trillion won for about 21 percent stake in Hynix, according to the source with direct knowledge of the deal.The source said SK Telecom had proposed a price of 22,000-24,000 won per share for 101.85 million new shares to be offered by Hynix, and 23,000-25,000 won per share for 44.25 million shares held by nine shareholders.The offer represents a premium of up to 16 percent on Thursday's closing price.Lead shareholder Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) (004940.KS) said on Friday that Hynix's major shareholders agreed to pick the sole bidder as a preferred investor, confirming earlier Reuters story.Ratings agency Moody's said after the announcement that it would put SK Telecom under review for a possible downgrade, as the investment is likely to be, at least in part, "debt funded."Moody's said the inherent volatility in the semiconductor business will bring a degree of volatility to the mobile operator's credit profile.SK Telecom, the sole bidder in the auction that closed on Thursday, submitted the final proposal, defying doubts that it may withdraw following a prosecutor raid on parent SK Group over allegations that its founding family members may have used funds from SK affiliates to fund their personal investments.. - Telecom Tiger

A number of BlackBerry users yesterday complained about slow responses, particularly on BlackBerry Messenger (BBM). Several others complained that they were unable to send/ receive email on their BlackBerry devices. For a start, the company's PR regime has done a better job this time around. It was quick to acknowledge the issue, clearly communicate the extent and cause of the issue and assure customers that it continues to monitor the situation. Based on its probe, RIM claims any interruptions that BlackBerry users experienced were due to a wider internet problem unrelated to their infrastructure. On Tuesday, Juniper Networks acknowledged that a router update could be to blame for the problems experienced by internet users in North America and parts of the UK and Europe, but it did not comment on whether this is specifically related to the BlackBerry email delays and poor BBM response time. Even as RIM was working on squashing reports of these new delays, comes another bad news that Google will discontinue the Gmail application for BlackBerry, in an attempt to disassociate itself from the dwindling fortunes of the Waterloo giant. To put things in perspective, RIM's stocks have dipped by two-thirds of its value so far this year, and on Wednesday reached rock bottom since August 2004. - Digitcom

Bharti Airtel Ltd., in which SingTel owns a 32.3% stake, was the worst performer of the six associates, with its contribution falling 37% on year to S$131 million because of continued losses from the operator's African operations and a 9.1% decline in the Indian rupee against the Singapore dollar. Telkomsel's contribution rose just 1.4% to S$233 million as the Indonesian Rupiah depreciated 6.3% against the Singapore dollar. However, contribution from Advanced Info Service PCL (ADVANC.TH) was up 17.3% to S$78 million, despite a 5.6% decline in the value of the Thai baht against the local dollar. Singtel has signalled its confidence in its Thai associate by indicating it will raise its stake in Advanced Info Service to 23.32% from 21.27% at a cost of about S$328 million, a move seen as part of its strategy to maximize value from its existing businesses. The slowing income growth from its regional mobile associates has fed into SingTel's results for the past few quarters, with the challenge of operating in mature markets in Singapore and Australia an added factor in the company's steady, if unspectacular, performance. A continued rise in the value of the local currency, except against the Australian dollar, has also hurt its earnings, expressed in Singapore dollar. - Totaltele

Schmidt yesterday met with South Korean President Lee Myung Bak and executives from companies including Samsung Electronics Co., Google's biggest Android partner. Schmidt told Lee the company will start a video::streaming service on YouTube for South Korean pop music and initiate a program to support local software makers.:: Bloomberg

Microsoft has already extracted per::device royalty agreements for Android products from at least 10 companies, including Samsung, the world's largest smartphone maker, HTC, Compal Electronics (whose customers include Dell, HP and Toshiba), Quanta Computer, Wistron, General Dynamics Itronix, Velocity Micro, Onkyo, Acer, and Viewsonic. In a blogpost in October Microsoft's Brad Smith said that the licence agreement with Compal meant that "companies accounting for more than half of all Android devices have now entered into patent licence agreements with Microsoft". Xu suggested that Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility, which is still underway, might lead to more protection from Google for Android licences. The Shenzhen::based company is the world's second::biggest maker of networking infrastructure such for mobile phone networks, behind Sweden's Ericsson and ahead of Alcatel::Lucent and Nokia Siemens Networks. Huawei pronounced "Hoo::wah::way" has big ambitions in the smartphone market: "Over the next three years we are aiming to be in the top five smartphone makers, and in the top three in the next five years," said Xu. "We have established very aggressive targets in the market." Presently the fifth::largest smartphone maker is RIM with its BlackBerry range, which in the third quarter of the year shipped 11.8m phones worldwide. The third largest was Nokia, with 16.8m. Huawei intends to open a design centre in London which will employ "dozens" of people who will work on the design of products for the company. Mark Mitchinson, Huawei's UK vice::president, said that it should be open by the beginning of 2012. :: Gaurdian

"Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter also allow users to leverage their social networks to find answers to their questions. Google is therefore competing with all methods available to access information on the internet, not just other general search engines," Schmidt wrote. "The source of Facebook's competition with Google is not only through using Bing to search the internet but, also by offering users a fundamentally different way to discover and connect with information on the internet." Respected technology site TechCrunch has already described Siri, introduced last month, as Apple's "entry point" into the search engine business, while a Forbes commentator has called the service a "Google killer." Schmidt's response comes as Google, which according to internet marketing research firm ComScore has a 65.3 per cent share of the US search engine market, is under investigation by US and European antitrust bodies. But he insisted that Google was not "dominant" in internet search, as lawmakers have contended. "Google has many strong competitors," Schmidt wrote. "So inferring that Google is in any way 'dominant' in search would be incorrect." He also said the company "has none of the characteristics that I associate with market power." In September, Schmidt had already told lawmakers that Google was worried customers would quickly switch to other services. - Telecom Tiger

The carrier announced a $326 million net profit for the third quarter, compared to $251 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Net income rose by 12% while overall revenue increased by 7% to $2.62 billion. Telus would take heart from the fact that it performed well across all major product lines. Both earnings per share and quarterly revenues beat analysts' expectations. Given its impressive quarterly showing, Telus also reaffirmed its revenue guidance for the full year 2011."TELUS remains committed to our strategy of focusing on data solutions that we initiated in 2000. Our ongoing investments in broadband networks are generating operational and financial momentum as evidenced by strong sales of smartphones, Optik IPTV service and 440,000 new customer connections in the last year. Moreover, TELUS delivered industry leading data revenue growth in both wireless and wireline services at 53 and 15 per cent, respectively, in the third quarter," President and CEO Darren Entwistle said in a statement.Telus did especially well in two segments : wireless and TV. The company's wireless revenues increased by $115 million or 9.0% to $1.4 billion in the third quarter, compared to the same period a year ago, thanks largely to increased subscriber penetration and higher average revenue per customer. Overall, ARPU increased by $6.37 or 44 per cent to $20.90. In fact, Telus is the only carrier among 'Big Three' to report an increase in ARPU, thanks largely to a 53% jump in wireless data revenue.Telus outbid its rivals in the postpaid segment by adding 133,000 contract subscribers last quarter. Though the number was substantially lower the analyst prediction of 150,000, it still beat Bell (126,854) and Rogers (74,000).Telus added 50,000 new TV customers in its third quarter, thereby taking the total number of Optik TV subscribers to 453,000.. Digitcom

On an adjusted basis, BCE's earnings rose 14.8 percent to 93 cents per share, beating average analyst expectations of 74 cents. Bell attributed the increased earnings largely to higher tax adjustments from the favourable resolution of various tax matters and the fair value loss on the Bell Aliant fund unit liability in the third quarter of 2010.Bell witnessed strong growth in television and wireless sectors. The company would take heart from its strong showing in the TV segment where it added 26,037 new television subscribers, primarily in the Montreal area, where Bell is betting big on its Fibe TV service. Bell's overall Television revenue increased 3.9%. CTV generated sales of $435 million in the quarter.Despite the increased competition, Bell performed decently in the wireless segment as well. It added 126,854 customers on contract and lost 41,105 lower-value pre-paid customers in the quarter – a much improved performance considering that it added 94,000 post-paid contract customers last quarter and lost nearly 58,000 pre-paid users. However, churn postpaid and prepaid churn increased to 1.5% (from 1.4% same quarter last year) and 3.9% (from 3.4% same quarter last year). The company's wireless data revenue jumped 34% year-over-year. Bell says smartphone users accounted for 43% of its postpaid subscribers, as compared to 26% last year. On the other hand, BCE lost 110,629 landline subscribers and revenue from landline division fell by 3.1% in the quarter."Bell's strategy of heavy investment in world-leading broadband networks to deliver the best media and data services across all four screens is underpinned by a strict focus on customer service and cost efficiency, and it's driving strong performance in our broadband wireless, TV and Internet growth services," said George Cope, President and CEO of BCE and Bell Canada. BCE has increased its full-year 2011 guidance to between $3.10 and $3.15 per share of adjusted earnings, up from the $3.05 to $3.10 range given in May. - Digitcom Source

India is the world's second-largest mobile market but Sibal lamented it was just the wealthier segment of India's population, mainly in urban areas, who use modern communications technology.He also expressed concern about content supplied by telecom players that he said served the elites, rather than needs of "ordinary people"."You can bring in a mobile device but if you don't have the content, there's no point in having a device. All stakeholders must come on board to develop content beyond entertainment," he said.Experts say demand in India for 4G may be held back by lack of demand, with poorer consumers seeing little need for applications provided by the ultra-fast system.Major operators such as Verizon Wireless in the United States are already offering 4G service while China Mobile Communications Corp is carrying out trials for a new fourth-generation mobile network.Construction of super-fast mobile networks is also under way in countries including Germany - Google Source

"According to TRAI, a porting request cannot be rejected on the basis of contractual obligations except if the subscriber has entered into a contract getting a bundled handset with a postpaid connection having an exit clause and the subscriber has not complied with the same, or in cases of corporate connections with exit clause with which the customer has not again complied with. TRAI said that porting requests also cannot be rejected if a customer's outstanding dues are less than Rs.10. Mobile number portability (MNP) is the service which allows a mobile phone user to switch subscribers without changing his mobile number. It was launched on Jan 20 across the country. - telecomnewsindia

"The company helped create the smartphone market a decade ago with its first e-mail device and now must compete against Apple Inc. (AAPL) and devices that run Google Inc. (GOOG)'s Android software. The market-share decline has put pressure on RIM to shake up management, and investors such as Jaguar Financial Corp. (JFC) have called for RIM to divide split up, seek a merger or sell itself. "The market, at book value, seems to be saying not only is RIM going to not get bigger in the future, but it's actually going to shrink," said Richard Fogler, of Kingwest & Co. in Toronto, who personally manages about C$1.5 billion. He sold his RIM shares in the third quarter. "Everyone's frightened of what's going to keep happening tomorrow."
Asset Liquidation
Peter Misek, a Jefferies & Co. analyst in New York, cut his price target on the stock to $18. He rates RIM "underperform." If a private-equity investor were interested in buying RIM, book value would be a useful indicator to gauge the company's worth if the buyer then sold the assets, said Matt Thornton, an Avian Securities LLC analyst in Boston. "It really comes into play for somebody looking for downside protection," said Thornton, who rates RIM "neutral." "If we liquidate or sell off the assets, what's our downside protection, that's when it becomes a more meaningful metric." The Waterloo, Ontario-based company's U.S. market share sank to 9.2 percent in the third quarter from 24 percent a year earlier as consumers opted for Apple's iPhone and Android phones from Samsung Electronics Co. and HTC Corp. (2498), according to research firm Canalys.
‘No Faith'
RIM posted its first quarterly revenue decline in nine years in September and is struggling to move its BlackBerry lineup onto a new operating system and reignite interest in its PlayBook tablet computer. The PlayBook went on sale in April without dedicated e-mail, stirring criticism that RIM said it would remedy this summer. RIM last month said that e-mail software upgrade won't come until February. "The market has no faith in its current model, that is what the market is telling you," said Neeraj Monga, an analyst at Veritas Investment Research Corp. in Toronto. Monga, who has a "sell" rating on RIM, says there's a 50 percent chance the stock will drop below $10 within 12 months. The stock had already dropped 67 percent this year before today, cutting RIM's market value to $9.91 billion. RIM had a book value of $9.92 billion on Aug. 27, the end of its most recent quarter. Major investors who have sold all their shares in recent months include Brookside Capital Investors Inc., Greystone Managed Investments Inc., Janus Capital Management LLC and Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc., according to Bloomberg data.
Former Leader
John Goldsmith, a money manager with Montrusco in Toronto, said the declines show RIM has lost its competitive advantage. "RIM was a market leader in terms of smartphones," he said. "There are a lot of guys out there able to commercialize a product at a significantly lower cost." Goldsmith said the book value may be artificially high because it includes technology patents that might not be worth as much now, considering there are so many competitors. "The book value, is it well stated? A lot of stuff has happened over the past five to 10 years," he said. RIM last traded below book value in 2002, when it was losing money. The company earned $329 million, the least in four years, in the quarter ended in August. RIM shares peaked at 24.3 times book value in November 2007.
Fighting Nokia
The MSCI World Information Technology Index trades for 2.7 times book value, with 19 of 147 of its stocks below 1, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. RIM's rival Apple costs 4.8 times book value. Analysts estimate RIM's book value will rise 7.7 percent to $20.38 a share in the quarter ending this month, according to the average of seven forecasts in a Bloomberg survey. Nokia Oyj (NOK1V), which has also been losing smartphone market share, saw its shares fall briefly below book value in August and now trades at about 1.4 times that level. Nokia said it would shelve its Symbian operating system in February and struck a deal with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) to build handsets on its Windows Phone platform to try to regain market share from Apple and Google. Nokia Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop told Bloomberg News on Nov. 1 that he plans to introduce Windows phones with multiple U.S. carriers in early 2012. RIM had said that it planned to have the first BlackBerrys built on its new BBX platform early next year. However, co-CEO Mike Lazaridis didn't reiterate that goal at a BlackBerry conference last month in San Francisco, and analysts say those new phones may come too late. Apple and Google are the dominant smartphone platforms and there is really only room for one more, said Veritas's Monga. When Nokia was reorganizing, RIM had its chance to establish itself as the third. It may have lost the opportunity, he said. "Eighteen months ago, RIM was fighting but had a fighting chance," he said. "Now, the problems RIM has on its software platform seem to be insurmountable.".

"We think that, given this was during the launch of the iPad, (Apple) was trying to keep as many tablets from entering the market as possible," Pedro David Pelaez, a founding partner of NT-K said. "We're nothing; let's be realistic. I don't think they were looking just for us, but the sum of all of us together was something," he said, referring to other makers of similar products. Apple is locked in a bruising legal fight with Samsung in 10 countries to protect its position in the lucrative smartphone and tablet market. Last week, Samsung won Australian court approval for fast-tracking its appeal against a ban on the sale of its new Galaxy tablet computer in the country. As for NT-K, the company from the Valencia region of Spain is demanding compensation from Apple for losses during the ban of its product and is suing the U.S. giant for alleged anticompetitive behaviour. NT-K, which is also developing a software for computerized ordering at restaurants, had before the legal problems forecast the sale of 15,000 tablets in 2011 for a total of between 4.5 million and 5.0 million euros (3-5 million pounds), Pelaez said.

What these figures don't show you is that the entire market is growing; Kantar ComTech WorldPanel, which provides the statistics, declined to give absolute sales figures (they want to have something to tempt clients to buy the full reports). A minor note: these figures go up to 2 October, just before the iPhone 4S launch; expect that Apple's share will recover slightly. Even so, Android is just going to keep growing.It's very likely that in the next two years you'll see smartphones reach something like 90% penetration in the UK - if only because fewer shops and carriers will be selling feature phones, for two reasons: (a) they make less money selling them in the first place (b) carriers get less money from phones that don't have data plans. Android is almost certain to sweep the board here: it could hit up to 70% market share in one or two years (remember, market share is "share of handsets being sold", not "share of handsets in peoples' hands"). That's because Android handsets from cheaper manufacturers such as China's Huawei and ZTE will come in at the bottom of the market (it's noticeable how the "Other" segment has fallen to zero in the past year). Pretty soon you're going to be able to get a smartphone for almost nothing in your local supermarket. And you can already get really cheap PAYG data options from Three or GiffGaff.