Aircel announces free Facebook access for its customers for two months

Aircel has announced that it will offer Facebook free of charge to all its customers in India for the next 60 days. The Facebook for All service includes all the official applications of the social networking website as well as Facebook Messenger. You can even browse through the SNS via your mobile browser without shelling out a single penny.

The main reason behind introducing this service is to increase the internet penetration amongst subscribers. Anupam Vasudev, Chief Marketing Officer, Aircel says that almost 60 percent of the carrier’s customers have data enabled on their smartphones and this step is being taken to augment data proliferation in the country.

However, there are a few limitations to it. Apparently, the SNS will be free for 2 months only for the new Aircel customers, while the existing ones will get it only for a month. Also, you get merely 50MB of free data every month and if the usage crosses this limit, you will be charged accordingly.

And if that’s not enough, Aircel has introduced Facebook-specific plans for Rs 14 and Rs 5. The former gives you 100MB with a 28-day validity, while the latter brings 25MB usage for 7 days. Facebook for All is slated to be introduced in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir and will then arrive in Aircel’s other circles.

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Micromax teams up with Aircel and MediaTek

On the back of growing sales of its affordable and entry-level smartphones, Indian handset maker Micromax expects to hit $1 billion (over Rs 6,100 crore) in revenues this fiscal, ending March 31.

The New Delhi-headquartered company’s revenues were Rs 3,168 crore for the financial year 2012-13. Micromax, which is the second largest smartphone player in India, held about 16 per cent market share in Q4 2013. Some of the top selling models were the entry level smartphones like A35 Bolt and A67, IDC data showed.

The Canvas range of devices has also done well in terms of volume contribution owing to the marketing campaigns launched around them. ”We have seen huge growth in business, especially in the smartphone category (mid and entry-level). We expect to close this fiscal will a billion in revenues,” Micromax co-founder Vikas Jain told PTI.


The firm will continue to launch innovative and affordable products for the market across platforms, he added.  ”We will introduce a product based on Android Kitkat with in the next 60 days,” Jain said.


Asked if the company would introduce a device with Windows Phone OS, he said the company is in discussions with Microsoft on bringing out “products relevant to the Indian market”.

Micromax today announced a strategic partnership with chipset maker MediaTek and telecom services provider Aircel. ”This is aimed at offering the best out-of-the-box experiences for the Indian users and the partnership will see a unique amalgamation of the expertise of the three companies,” Jain said.


While, Aircel will offer one stop solutions to address the increasing data demands, MediaTek along-with Micromax’s expertise in product design and performance will redefine the user experience creating a win-win ecosystem for the Indian users, he added.


Under this alliance, Aircel will team up with Micromax to introduce a range of offers for the consumers which will be almost equivalent to cost of the device.


Powered by MediaTek chipsets, the devices promise to deliver a seamless and a powerful user experience, while the bundled Aircel offers will drive data growth in the country. The offers initially will be available across 4 Micromax devices — MMX 377G, Funbook Mini 410i, A090 and X070 — to be available next month.


The co-developed smart devices by the three pioneers will deliver seamless experience for consumers, driving enhanced performance and data experience for customers across the country.

Swipe Halo Fone specifications run-through:

- 6.5-inch 800 x 480p touchscreen
- Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2 OS
- 1.3GHz Cortex-A7 dual core chip
- 512MB of RAM
- 4GB onboard storage
- 32GB microSD card support
- Dual SIM slots
- 2MP and 0.3MP cameras
- 2800mAh battery
- 6 hours talk time

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Aircel offers ‘Holi’ roaming plan at Rs 83 with talk time of Rs 90

Aircel has launched special national roaming pack ‘RC 83′ for Holi festival next week, which will offer talk time of 90 rupees, for a validity of 28 days.

“RC 83 will offer convenience to our customers and enable them to stay connected during their travel anywhere in the country,” said Anupam Vasudev, chief marketing officer, Aircel, in a statement.

Roaming tariff under the plan for both outgoing and incoming calls will be 1 paisa per second in home as well as visiting circle.

The company provides pan-India voice services and has got 3G spectrum in 13 circles and 4G airwaves in eight circles.

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DoT directs Airtel, Vodafone, Idea to end 3G roaming pacts

The government on Friday ordered Vodafone, Idea and Airtel to stop 3G roaming services outside their licence areas within three days and imposed hefty penalties on the first two operators for violating the norms.

The Department of Telecom slapped Rs 550 crore penalty on Vodafone and Rs 300 crore on Idea Cellular for violating 3G service roaming norms, officials said.


The DoT notice directing the operators to terminate their 3G roaming pacts came a day after the Delhi High Court set aside its single judge order, which allowed Bharti Airtel to continue providing 3G inter-circle roaming facilities with other service providers.


"It (notice) has been issued today," DoT officials said, confirming the penalty amount on the two companies.

They also said that while Airtel has been asked to stop services within 24 hours, the other two companies have been asked to stop 3G services under the roaming pact with other operators within three days.


Comments were not received immediately from the three operators.

Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular entered into roaming agreements for providing 3G services in telecom circles where they did not have the spectrum.

DoT had earlier issued a Rs 350 crore demand notice to Airtel, but the company has not yet paid the fine.

The company has approached Supreme Court seeking a review of the High Court order and hearing in the matter is likely to be heard on Monday.

Industry sources said that Vodafone too has applied to be a party in the case before the apex court to defend the pact.

In 2010, of the 22 service areas, Airtel acquired 3G spectrum in 13, Vodafone in 9 and Idea Cellular in 11 circles.

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How Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Aircel are trying to woo young customers

Indian mobile operators are aggressively wooing the youth with low-cost data tariff plans and freebies as they bet on increased data use by youngsters to revive their sagging profits.

Aircel, owned by Malaysian telecom firm Maxis, for instance, now offers free talk time for each purchase made at online shopping portal Yebhi.com, while Reliance Communications has tied up with Facebook and Whatsapp for monthly plans at rock-bottom prices.

The top three players, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, have tied up with RIM to offer BlackBerry instant messaging service at 129 a month to college students, a massive discount over the handset maker's actual tariff plan.

"Young people spend more time on mobile phones consuming data than consuming voice," Bharat Bambawale, global brand director at Bharti Airtel said. "They hardly ever speak to anyone on a paid call and would use Whatsapp or BlackBerry Messenger to keep in touch with their friends," he told ET.

After the initial boom years, Indian mobile service providers have been facing severe margin pressure.

Over the last year, they have cut dealer commissions, distribution costs and purged inactive customers to drive profitability in business.

Now, these firms have realised that they will have to rely on data services-oriented models to bring in revenues as the Indian youth takes to internet-on-mobile and social media at a lightning pace.

Reliance Communications this week announced a partnership with social media giant Facebook to offer unlimited messenger service at 16 a month for its GSM subscribers.

The Anil Ambani-owned telco has also tied up with instant messaging provider Whatsapp for a similar plan at the same tariff.

Aircel subscribers recharging their connections will get cash back for shopping at Yebhi.com, while non-Aircel customers shopping at the portal will get a free Aircel connection along with talk time.

Falling prices of smartphones contribute heavily to this trend.

Mary Meeker, partner and analyst at Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Byers, said India reported the sharpest surge in the number of smartphone users at 44 million people using smartphone in the fourth quarter of 2012, 52% more than a year earlier.

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