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| Wednesday, November 19, 2008 |
| Google Local SMS Search Live + Patented |
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 Innovator of the decade, Google Inc is striving hard to make its presence felt with 300 million mobile subscribers in India and the fastest growing Wireless market in the World.
Google Mobile in India has launched an innovative search product powered by SMS. You can search and get local business search / yellow pages information, cricket score, Indian railway PNR status, train schedule, stock quotes, horoscope, news, movies, flight information, currency calculator, world facts or any other reasonable query that can be sent to the Google Core Search Engine can now be sent Via SMS and receive information on your cell phone.
For example, to get Reliance Stock Quote, you can just send an SMS reliance stock to 97733-00000 and receive reply within seconds. You can personalize this service by associating a Location to your mobile number (the city which you reside in).
Google inventors have already filed for patenting this product in India on June-6th-08. Their patent application abstract is as follows,
A computer-implemented method is disclosed that includes receiving on a mobile device a search query associated with a geographic location, providing one or more search results in response to the search query, the search results each being associated with a geographic location, and presenting on a graphical display of the computing device icons corresponding to each search result and also corresponding to a key on the computing device. Google is not yet inserting any advertisements into the result SMS that it sends to users. They may later go for location based Ads targeting. You can test out this service on the web here and then save the number 97733-00000 on your mobile for searching on the move.Labels: SMS-Stock-Quotes, SMS-Train-Info |
Published on Wednesday, November 19, 2008 at 3:45 PM  |
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| Friday, November 14, 2008 |
| Top Handset OEM - WorldWide |
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 Nokia continued its lead as the Top Mobile Handset OEM in terms of Quarterly Revenues. Apple with its 3G iPhone was the biggest gainer. Apple also has the highest gross margins on handsets upto 50% and have plenty of room to slash retail prices.
The Top 8 Mobile Handset OEM [Revenues in USD for Q3-2008] on worldwide basis are as follows,
- Nokia ~ $13bn
- Samsung Mobile ~$6.9 bn
- Apple Inc - $4.5 bn
- Sony Ericsson ~$4.2 bn
- LG Mobiles ~3.3 bn
- Motorola ~3.1 bn
- RIM ~ $2.1 bn
- HTC ~ $1.1 bn
Latest Converged Device MarketShare [Q3-2008]:
- Nokia continus to lead the pack with a 35.1% market share, down from 50% in Q3-2007
- Apple is in the second spot with 15.6% market share
- RIM - 13.9%
- HTC - 7.7%
- Plam 2.6%
- Other 25.1%
Labels: Converged-Device-MarketShare |
| Published on Friday, November 14, 2008 at 1:23 PM |
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| Wednesday, November 12, 2008 |
| 2G Spectrum Charges Rise from 2009 |
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 The Telecom Secretary of India, Telecom Commission has approved the revision of annual 2G spectrum usage charges payable by telcos, starting January 1,2009.
The spectrum usage charges, payable quarterly by telcos as a percentage of their Adjusted Gross Revenues (AGR), will rise across the board by 1% for spectrum up to 8 MHz and 2% for spectrum allocated above 8 MHz in any Wireless circle under consideration. Just yesterday we had written about the Spectrum Charges paid by cellular operators to the Government in Q2-FY09 totaled to USD 164 mn]
Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular will be the worst hit as they have spectrum in excess of 8 MHz in some circles. RCom will be the least hit.
The decision on the quantum / timeline of the one-time SEC, proposed to be payable by operators in receipt of 2G spectrum in excess of 6.2 MHz, has been deferred for now.
Proposed 3G Spectrum Charges in India:
3G services, if offered on a stand-alone basis (i.e. without 2G services), the annual charge would be 3% of AGR. Existing 2G operators which, going forward, also offer 3G services, would have to pay another 1% of their AGR as an annual spectrum charge.
Tags: Mobile India, 2G Wireless, 3G, Spectrum India
Labels: 3G-Spectrum-Charges |
| Published on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 1:37 PM |
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| Tuesday, November 11, 2008 |
| 2G Wireless Spectrum Charges Paid by Operators |
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 We have compiled data from various sources - TRAI, DoT, Telecom companies and presenting to you the 2G mobile spectrum charges paid by Cellcos in Q2-FY09.
- Bharti Airtel - Rs 270 cr
- Vodafone Essar - Rs 168.4 cr
- Idea Cellular - Rs 98.6 cr
- BSNL - Rs 86.82 cr
- Reliance Communications - Rs 44.62 cr
- Tata Teleservices - Rs 36.29 cr
- Aircel - Rs 23.74 cr
- Spice Telecom - Rs 10.53 cr
- MTNL - Rs 8.18 cr
- BPL - 6.37 cr
- Shyam Tele - 0.31 cr
- HFCL - 0.16 cr
In all, GSM + CDMA Mobile operators paid Rs 754.09 crore [USD 163.9 mn @ Rs 46 / $] as spectrum charges to the Government in Q2-FY09 [Sep-June] |
| Published on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 at 1:19 PM |
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| Monday, November 10, 2008 |
| Reliance Communications Data Disparity - TRAI + Stock Exchanges |
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There is a disparity between the data reported by Reliance Communications to TRAI and to the Stock Exchanges. Morgan Stanley has investigated the matter and here is a brief excerpt from the same.
Revenues reported for all the operators in the quarterly results for individual companies were similar to that reported by TRAI baring RCOM where in there was close to 25% differential. Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) based on TRAI data in comparison to those reported by the Companies too were similar for all Companies except RCOM which was 23% lower at Rs208 level. And finally License fees payment was similar at 9-11% for other operators and while that for Reliance it was 6%. Interconnect as % of total TRAI Revenues was as high as 24-37% for various cellular service providers while that for RCom was just 7%.
Wait a minute, this is not like erstwhile Sr. Ambani who manipulated books of accounts. This has led to confusion amongst various analysts in the Telecom sector.
RCom clarified on two fronts - Revenue disparity is between these are on account of revenues relating to Data Cards, R World, Value added services as well as revenues from Rural telephony which do not entail license fee. Since RCom has the highest on-net calls, this lowers its Interconnect costs. |
| Published on Monday, November 10, 2008 at 3:52 PM |
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| Friday, November 07, 2008 |
| SMS Push Advertising Grows - ROI measurable |
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 Mobile Push advertising is growing faster than other mediums in India because this helps the Advertisers measure the ROI on his campaign more accurately than any other forms. Especially true in the economic downturn when Brands are cutting marketing budgets.
Navin Tiwari of mKhoj said,
Today, every advertiser wants to know where each dollar is being spent and the result of it. Mobile advertising is more ROI driven.
Vinod Thadani of Group M media said,
While a year ago it [SMS] was considered too new to be used and had the image of being spam, it constitutes 15-20% of a media plan today. mKhoj is getting advertisements from companies as diverse as DTH players, Honda, M&M, Reebok, Yamaha, etc. An advantage of going with Mobile advertising platform is the small budget which Advertisers can allocate which is not possible with TV.
According to MediaTurf, Mobile advertising beats all kinds of platforms. The click through rate has been as high as 15-18% on certain campaigns, not heard of on any other platform
Small Budget Advertising is possible on the Internet but then due to lack of will from the DoT, India has pathetic internet infrastructure and small lot of discontent subscribers. |
| Published on Friday, November 07, 2008 at 11:53 AM |
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