Free Wifi In Delhi

The Aam Aadmi Party has begun it's talk with companies, including Facebook, for setting up free Wi-Fi facility across Delhi, at a total cost of about Rs 150-200 crore, sources said.

The initial talks are being held by party volunteers, many of them holding senior positions in IT companies, to make the process easy for the bureaucrats once the new government starts implementing the promises made by AAP.

"We have had a round of talks with Facebook, which has installed such a service in Mumbai. Similarly, we are also holding talks with other companies and will try to get a better deal," said a party volunteer.

The volunteers said that the free service will come with an advertisment for thirty seconds, a feature which they were not sure that Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal would agree to, and which would enable the government to earn around Rs 100 crore.

"We are not sure whether Arvind (Kejriwal) will agree with advertisments coming on a government launched programme even if it fetches revenue. We will brief him with all the aspects and let him take a call on this," they said.

AAP leader Manish Siodia said that they will strive to implement the party's 70 point programme.

The party, in its manifesto, has promised to give free Wi-Fi across the national capital for first 30 minutes, after which users have to pay for the services. The issue helped the party attract a lot of youth, considering the number of smartphone users in the national capital.

The party also intends to launch a mobile application for the security of women, who can press the button when in distress and seek police help. It also wants to make internet an important medium of governance and a free Wi-Fi service will help execute the party's plan.

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Government plans to access your mobile data

NEW DELHI: The government plans to put in place systems and regulations that will allow law enforcement agencies to trace cellular phone users and provide access to targeted communication, text messages, information data and even value added services on a real-time basis, according to the draft guidelines of the country's telecom security policy.

The telecom department (DoT) has proposed comprehensive norms in the draft policy after the ministry of home affairs expressed strong reservations since the department had not created provisions for law enforcement agencies to intercept communication.

In a version of the draft policy that addresses national security concerns, which was accessed by ET, the DoT has said that the policy would 'put in place effective systems, processes and regulations to ensure the traceability of telecom users or devices in terms of identity, permanent address and current location with specified accuracy and resolution in the case of need.'

India intends to deal with telecom security issues in an in-depth manner as the open telecom environment has made it easier to intrude on networks and cause damage to information they contain.

Besides addressing challenges for law enforcement agencies from complex encryption techniques, an overall telecom policy will factor in implications on other aspects related to the telecom security.


The policy also envisages providing analysis of information and data including decrypted messages, flowing through the telecom network, stored in systems and devices. Abilities of security agencies to analyse information quicker will be enhanced by making latest technology and systems available which will cut down delays and minimise information leakage.


However, security agencies will uphold privacy rights of Indian citizens, the draft norms said. A Telecom Security Directorate (TSD) has been proposed for implementing and updating this policy. Meanwhile, security certification centre for testing telecom equipment, centralised monitoring system for interception and monitoring and emergency response team (Cert) for detecting and analyzing cyber attacks, internet traffic hijacks and telecom sectoral frauds would be created.


DoT is of the opinion that the sector requires a separate security policy since the cybersecurity policy is not sufficient to deal with security issues specific to the telecom industry that has created critical information infrastructure.

The government will largely depend on mobile phone companies that will implement the security instructions as a key stakeholder and also share the cost with the government. Telecom operators would have to build systems, procedures and methods to make their network resilient so that any damage has a minimum impact on the network and it can be revived quickly.


According to the draft norms reviewed by ET, telcos would have to share information on attacks on their networks, intrusion and frauds with government agencies, including telecom sectoral Cert, the national Cert and the National Cyber Coordination Centre, that may monitor all web traffic passing through internet service providers in the country and issue 'actionable alerts' to government departments in cases of perceived security threats.

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iGate claims damages from Phaneesh Murthy

BANGALORE: The iGate vs Phaneesh Murthy battle is getting uglier. iGate has filed a counter-complaint against its former CEO alleging the firm had suffered significant damages from the events following Murthy's failure to disclose his relationship with a subordinate employee, and has claimed compensation. The complaint alleges "secret mediations" between Murthy and the employee, and another sexual harassment case against Murthy that was not brought to the company's notice.

The counter-complaint, a copy of which is with TOI, has been filed before the same Alameda County Superior Court of California where Murthy in December had filed a defamation and breach of contract case against his former employer. iGate has alleged that Murthy participated in a secret mediation with the subordinate employee without notifying the company, and only when the mediation was unsuccessful did he notify iGate about the employee's claims against him and the company. The mediation, it said, was done under the names "Jane and John Doe" and a retired Superior Court judge Richard Bennett was the mediator.


iGate said it wants to recover damages caused by Murthy's irresponsible behaviour, including recovering its attorney's fees and other costs incurred in connection with resolving the subordinate's claims against Murthy and iGate. The company said Murthy's employment contract obliges him to "indemnify the company for any loss suffered as a consequence of a breach" of the company's rules and regulations. iGate says a broad-gauged indemnification clause was introduced in Murthy's contract partly because of the history of sexual harassment cases brought against him when he was head of sales at Infosys. Two Infosys employees had levelled charges that were settled in 2003 and 2004.

When TOI contacted iGate, the company spokesperson said, "Beyond the cross-complaint itself, we are not commenting on this ongoing litigation."


The Nasdaq-listed company had fired Murthy in May last year on the grounds that he had failed to report his relationship with the company's investor relations head Araceli Roiz as was required by the company's policy. In December, Murthy filed a defamation and breach of contract case, and charged iGate with withholding his vested stocks and various benefits due to him.

Reacting to iGate's counter-complaint, Murthy said, "It is quite the norm to file counter-complaints, so this was anticipated when we filed the lawsuit. Like I told you earlier, I had put in years of hard work to turn around the company. I do think it was wrongful and unfair termination and hence I am entitled to the vested stocks and the medical benefits. I am confident that the truth will come out in the court." Murthy has claimed that the company Board knew about his relationship with Roiz all along, and has even alleged that there have been a number of similar consensual relationships in iGate, but the company had not acted on any, barring his.


On the contrary, iGate in the complaint says Murthy didn't disclose his affair to the chair of iGate's corporate governance committee, Goran Lindahl, even when Lindahl had raised the matter with Murthy twice in 2011 following some anonymous internet postings in 2011 alleging that the then iGate CEO was having an affair with an unnamed subordinate. Murthy, the complaint says, rubbished the internet posts saying that "anyone can write what they want on internet posts."

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Free Wi-fi on tech city streets - Bangalore offers 5 public hotspots

Bangaloreans who do not subscribe to data packages will no longer have to meet their mobile browsing needs by visiting cyber cafes or restaurants with Wi-fi hotspots.

India’s infotech capital today became the first city in the country to launch a free public Wi-fi facility, which will be available at five specific locations for now.

The Wi-fi hotspots went live at 3.30pm after a brief launch at the MG Road shopping area. The other areas covered are CMH Road in Indira Nagar — an upscale residential-cum-shopping area — and the bus terminuses in Shanti Nagar, Yeshwantpur, and Koramangala.

On offer is free connectivity of 512kbps for 30 minutes every 24 hours to any single Wi-fi-enabled device — a laptop, mobile phone or tablet.

Some 2,000 people can concurrently use the facility — made available through one or more powerful routers installed in a particular location — without affecting the speed, sources said.

The “Namma Wi-fi” facility was a budget promise by chief minister P.C. Siddaramiah and has been launched by the state infotech department in collaboration with D-Vois Broadband Pvt Ltd, a city-based firm.

State infotech minister S.R. Patil said the facility would gradually be expanded to 10 more spots in Bangalore and to other Karnataka cities and towns such as Mysore, Mangalore and Hubli-Dharwad.
 

Jagadish Shenoy, director (operations) of D-Vois, said: “There are two ways of connecting to Namma Wi-fi. One way is through an Android app, which is already available. The other is by opening your browser, which will automatically go to the Namma Wi-fi page where you can enter your mobile phone number and receive a pass code as a text message.”


Once a user enters this pass code into the page, he or she can go online for 30 minutes on that particular device.


“We have power back-up, so no issues if power fails around the hotspot areas,” Shenoy said.

Within weeks, iOS and Windows phone apps are likely to be launched for devices on those platforms.


The idea of free Wi-fi at public spaces was mooted by the Karnataka Information and Communication Technology Group (KIG-2020), headed by T.V. Mohandas Pai, who was formerly with Infosys and is now a director with the Manipal Group.

“We are all very happy that Bangalore has scored again. But it’s now time for cities like Calcutta, Delhi and Mumbai to follow suit,” Pai told The Telegraph.


“It’s not expensive at all and very easy to install and offer. Free Wi-fi in public spaces would also give a tech-savvy image to cities. This is a great feature to attract tourists.”


Pai said private companies, especially telcos, should sponsor such facilities across the country. “It doesn’t cost much for telcos, who already have fibre-optic networks running all over the place.”

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70% high school students take to smartphones; userbase more in small cities

About 70 percent students today own smart phones with a larger user base in smaller cities than the metropolitan cities, says a survey by software services firm TCS.

Nearly six out of 10 post-millennial respondents own a smart phone, but what is remarkable is that the difference in ownership patterns between metros (58.50 per cent) and mini metros (59.36 per cent) is not much with the smaller cities scoring over the larger ones, TCS said in a statement.

The survey was conducted on nearly 17,500 high school students across 14 Indian cities, which revealed that smart devices and unprecedented levels of online access are making this generation the most connected yet.

This is changing the way they communicate with each other and transforming both their academic and social lives, it said.

Samsung emerged as the most popular brand with 48.28 percent respondents agreeing, while Nokia and Apple followed with 46.46 percent and 39.56 percent respondents saying they owned electronics products of these brands.

While nearly seven out of 10 high school students said they own mobile phones, about 20 percent said they use mobile phones to access internet (compared to just 12 pc in 2009).

Mobile phones also emerged as fastest growing mediums for accessing internet among post-millennials (18.17 percent). About 62 percent said they bought movie tickets online, while 47 percent purchased books, DVDs and music.

Facebook is the most popular social networking site with 83.38 percent saying they are registered it, while 91.54 percent said this was also their most preferred portal.

"The survey shows the increasing comfort levels that the Post-Millennial generation exhibit with digital technology, social networking, smart phones and gaming, which helps us create conditions to unleash their creativity and innovativeness," TCS Executive Vice President and Global Head HR Ajoy Mukherjee said.

"This can help us not just attract the best of talent but also aid in keeping them engaged and energised," he added.

Facebook /Twitter also emerged as the preferred mode of communication over SMS with 73.68 percent opting for the former compared to 53.84 percent agreeing in favour of messaging.

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System in place to counter global cyber attacks: India

India has put in place systems to counter global cyber attacks that could impinge on national security – both physical and economic. 

This assumes significance in the context of revelations that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had been helping itself to data from just about every major American internet company. 

Sources said the Union Cabinet and the Cabinet Committee on Security had cleared two policies – National Cyber Security Framework and National Cyber Security Policy – that would involve public-private partnership to tackle any threats from the cyberworld and related emergencies. 

Such a cyber network infrastructure was necessary in the wake of possible attacks from state and non-state actors, corporates and terrorists as the internet world has no geographical barriers and was anonymous in nature. 

On the reports about leaks by a former technical assistant of CIA about the US National Security Agency gaining access to information from billions of internet users, the sources said governments do what they want to do notwithstanding agreements not to do so.

"We don't live in a perfect world. You sign agreements and feel everything will be set right. No it doesn't happen that way," the sources said adding countries have to be prepared to face any such problems. It could be America's way of showing their capacity to use a system, they said. 

According to sources, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology would formally release the policy in public at a workshop later this month to enable a national debate and awareness on the issue. 

However, they declined to go into the nature of the protective system incorporated or the way they function in the interest of national security. 

Cyber incidents including phishing and malicious URLs, virus and malicious code propagation and spams have been on the rise and touched new levels in 2010 when the internet and smart phone penetration in the country crossed new heights. 

These incidents are mainly sourced to 20 countries including US, Russia, China, Iran, Ukraine and Australia.

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‘Global’ Internet slowdown barely affected India: Sibal

Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal has said that India was largely unaffected by the Internet slowdown caused by what is being called the ‘largest ever’ cyber attack along with an unfortunately timed under-sea cable cut. “Only BSNL services were affected in south India; websites slowed down by 3 to 4 percent”, said the Telecom Minister to NDTV.

The cyber attack which affected Internet services in large areas of Western Europe and some parts of Asia, occured when Spamhaus, a London and Geneva-based non-profit group which helps weed out unsolicited “spam” messages for email providers, said it had been subjected to “distributed denial of service” (DDoS) attacks on an unprecedented scale for more than a week.

Spamhaus publishes blacklists used by internet service providers (ISPs) to weed out spam in email traffic. The group is directly or indirectly responsible for filtering as much as 80 per cent of daily spam messages, according to Cloudflare, a company that said it was helping Spamhaus mitigate the attack.


“We’ve been under this cyber-attack for well over a week,” Steve Linford, chief executive of Spamhaus, told the BBC. “They are targeting every part of the Internet infrastructure that they feel can be brought down.”

However, despite reports that there was a “global” slowdown of the Internet as a result of the attack, many countries including the US and India were not affected.


The bigger threat to Indian net users was caused by an undersea cable cut — the South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4) cable which caused a slowdown in and around Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia. The cut was said to be near Alexandria in Egypt.

Tech site Gigaom said, “While the cut was on a single cable, it came at an unfortunate time as a few other major cables were in “maintenance mode” and that has resulted in problems for service providers across the region. Our sources in the telecom community confirmed that two other cables — Europe India Gateway (EIG) and India-Middle East-Western Europe (IMEWE) — were in ‘maintenance’ mode when the SWM4 got cut. The result is downstream congestion on networks that are going to India and around the Indian Ocean.”

However Sibal said that Internet speeds were not affected in India.

Not that India’s Internet speeds are anything to be proud of. Google’s Chairman Eric Schmidt who was in India earlier this month said that a severe lack of fibre optic connectivity in India, which has been widely acknowledged to be the future of high speed Internet was affecting the country’s ability to be a part of the “Internet revolution”.

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Indian IT companies like Infosys, Wipro, TCS, HCL to go on shopping spree in Europe

BANGALORE: As corporations in Europe's two largest economies shed inhibitions about offshoring and aggressively try to trim expenses, Indian outsourcers are scrambling to build a local front and be in the reckoning. Companies such as Infosys, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Technologies, for whom success in continental Europe was limited to the UK and Nordic countries so far, are now actively looking to buy service providers in France and Germany.

At least three planned acquisitions, each valued at under $50 million (Rs 270 crore) in Germany and another in France valued at a little over $100 million, are in the final stages, according to people with direct knowledge. They did not name the acquirer or the target as they are advisors to the deals and are bound by non-disclosure agreements.

"None of the Indian companies is in the top 30 list from a market share perspective in the IT services market in Germany or France," said Christophe Chalons, chief analyst and member of the board at Pierre Audoin Consultants, a French consultancy and market research firm.


"An acquisition would be the quickest route for the Indian companies to get a local workforce and client relationships," Chalons said.


Germany, France big markets

Chalons said Germany and France together represent nearly half of the European IT services market, which industry body European Information Technology Observatory pegs at about 155 billion euros, or more than Rs 10 lakh crore. Currently, local service providers such as T-Systems of Germany, Atos and Capgemini of France and Tieto Oyj of Finland as well as IBM, HP and Accenture dominate this market.


Europe contributes a little under 30% of the $76 billion in exports that the Indian IT-BPO industry is expected to clock in the year to March 2013, with most of it coming from the UK and Nordic region. Analysts agree that there is greater openness to offshoring in Europe not only due to rising sourcing maturity but also because of the prevailing profitability pressures. "Earlier, they could afford to say, 'I'm a German, and I will do business only with a German'," said a senior executive at a large Indian IT firm who did not want to be identified.

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C-DAC may help upgrade India's supercomputer

PUNE: Floods, cyclones and tsunamis could be predicted two days in advance with more accuracy as India plans to upgrade its supercomputing capacity from teraflop to petaflop. For the record, one petaflop is equivalent of 3,000 computer servers put together.

The Union ministry of information and communication technology (ICT) has planned to commission this project to the city-headquartered Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) once it gets the Prime Minister's nod. Kapil Sibal, the minister for information and communication technology, has forwarded the project plan to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) after discussions with senior officials of C-DAC recently.

C-DAC officials apprised Sibal of the capabilities of the Centre in supercomputing and what could be done in the next five years with petaflop capacity supercomputer. The project may cost about Rs 5,000 crore and if it gets the go ahead now, can be realised by 2017. Other countries currently having petaflop supercomputing facility includes Japan, the US and China.

Pradeep K Sinha, senior director, high performance computing group of C-DAC, said, "If we have a petaflop facility, the nation will benefit a great deal. Predicting weather could be very accurate and natural disasters like cyclones and tsunamis could be done as soon as two days in advance. If that is done, people who are in danger of getting hit by these natural disasters could be alarmed in time." Sinha said that modelling for a particular weather condition takes several years. However, a faster supercomputer would reduce this to a few weeks with more accuracy.

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India may clip telco regulator's powers on license enforcement

India's telecommunications department (DoT) is considering clipping some powers of sector regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on framing license guidelines and enforcement of license terms and conditions.

Citing unnamed sources, The Economic Times reported Tuesday that a DoT internal committee, working on the TRAI Act Amendment, proposed the department should be the one organization carrying out the task of enforcing license terms and conditions, such as monitoring of quality of service and parameters for telecom networks.


The sources said the committee recommended making changes to the TRAI Act which empowers the regulator to make recommendations for revocation of licenses due to non-compliance of the license terms and conditions.


The report noted on Jan. 2 TRAI recommended, among others, the 2G licenses set to be given to the telco winners of last November's 2G spectrum auction be subject to cancelation after the fourth major violation. This recommendation from TRAI contained certain points that were different from what DoT committed in the legally binding document, 'Notice Inviting Application', to bidders at the auction.

Currently, TRAI lays down the standards telcos need to follow in providing services to consumers, and also monitors deficiencies in areas such as calls, Internet speeds and cunsumerr compliant redressals.


Sources said the internal committee viewed that TRAI can recommend quality of service and network parameters. However it deemed the task of measurement of quality of services and network parameters as something to be done by the DoT, and can be removed as one of the functions specifically mentioned in TRAI Act 2000. 

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Airtel increases 2G data rates, Vodafone, Idea expected to follow

India's biggest mobile phone company by revenue and customers, Bharti Airtel, has increased 2G data rates late last week, and its closest rivals, Vodafone and Idea Cellular, are expected to do the same as cash-strapped telcos are pulling out all the stops to cover costs and improve margins.

The Sunil Mittal-promoted company, that has been cutting down on freebies to its customers, has increased the price of its 1GB 2G data plan by 25%, and Airtel 2G customers will now have to pay Rs 125 for 1GB of data, which was Rs 100 earlier.

Bharti Airtel said the latest revision is subject to "rate elasticity, customer demand and supporting cost structures", echoing its chief executive (India & South Asia) Sanjay Kapoor's recent assertion that both pricing of voice and non-voice services will need to move up for the telecom industry to remain sustainable, invest in future technologies and generate returns for its shareholders.

Airtel, however, did not reply to ET's specific query on whether it would also raise call tariffs and high-end data prices (3G) in the weeks ahead. The present increase in 2G data rates is restricted to only the 1GB plan, which is by far the most expensive among the six 2G data plan variants.

Vodafone and Idea, which have made inroads into Airtel's dominance in the mobile turf, are also expected to increase select 2G data plans this week. "We are aware of some of our competitors increasing tariffs for 2G data recently. We see this as an encouraging step for industry and are taking corrective measures accordingly at our end," said a Vodafone India spokesman, without divulging the details.


Vodafone India executives acknowledge that the 2G data market has boomed although it is yet to catch on in rural India where there is lack exposure to data plans. Idea Cellular did not reply to ET's email but industry executives, aware of the development, said the company is planning to increase its 2G data rates following Airtel's move.

The CEO of one of India's biggest mobile phone companies claimed that 2G data constitutes roughly 3-4% of operators' revenues. Accordingly, analysts believe the 2G data business possibly generated close to Rs 577 crore for Airtel during the quarter ended September 2012 as its total India revenues for the period stood at Rs 14,419 crore.


By that logic, the 2G data business is reckoned to have garnered nearly Rs 700 crore for Vodafone India during the first six months ended September 2012, given that Vodafone India's service revenues during that period stood at Rs 17,418.9 crore.

Using the same yardstick, 2G data operations possibly contributed about Rs 212 crore to Idea during the three months ended September 2012 when its total revenues stood at Rs 5,314 crore. Neither Airtel, Vodafone nor Idea agreed to reveal the share of 2G data to their respective revenues. 

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Noida police launches new software to check cyber crimes

To ensure cyber security in the city, Noida police today directed 70 cyber cafe owners to install a new software that will secure their computers from being misused.

Noida police in association with Ideacts Innovations today launched a new software 'iCafe Manager' to be installed in computers to check cyber crimes.

"Cyber cafes in Noida can avail this software free of cost and improve the user experience along with assisting in national security by securing their cafes," Deputy Superintendent of Police (Crime) Triveni Singh said.

"The objective is to ensure cyber security and management in Noida city. It is our attempt to contain cyber crime as cyber cafes are the common targets for misuse and need to be well regulated," said Singh.

The software helps in all aspects of management like accounting, terminal management and user data storage providing a convenient environment for users, he said.

"Digital photo capture, name, address and photo ID archive data can be easily searched without any problem of storage," Singh added.

'iCafe Manager' software is in compliance with the new Information Technology Act (Guidelines for Cyber Cafe) Rules, 2011 under the IT ACT, the DSP said.

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2012: The year social media came of age in India

Sambhavi Saxena, 19, was at Jantar Mantar on December 25 protesting against Nirbhaya's brutal rape when Delhi Police swooped down, rounded her up along with other agitators and took them to the Parliament Street police station. Sambhavi fired tweet after tweet even as she was bundled into a van.

She went on broadcasting to the world all that was happening around her. "Illegally being held here at Parliament St Police Station Delhi w/ 15 other women. Terrified, pls RT," she tweeted. It worked. In a flash, more than 1,700 people retweeted her SOS. Social media analytics firm Favstar later said the message reached over two lakh people.

Police later contested many of Sambhavi's claims. Yet, there was no denying it was her voice that was heard. Her tweets triggered a social media frenzy. The media reacted swiftly. Lawyers volunteered, activists landed up at the police station. Celebrities condemned the action. The police stood no chance.


For the government and keepers of law, it was a PR disaster. They had lost a battle they were accustomed to winning hands down. Now, there was a pesky entity — the public — seeking to change the rules of the game. A teenager armed with a smartphone had used the magic platform called social media to devastating effect, catching the agents of the state flatfooted.


India might have tasted the power of the smartphone first in 2011 when Anna Hazare's stinging anti-corruption message rode the social media wave. But this year saw social media creating a new phenomenon — the rise of the virtually connected Indian youth — which is likely to redraw the terms of engagement between the state and its urban population. 

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Internet industry irked on India's support to web regulations at UN

India's supportive for International Telecom Union's proposals to a UN-backed body to regulate internet has irked the stakeholders in local internet industry, which has warned government to refrain from voting in ITU on issues other than telecom.

Earlier this month, ITU, a body under United Nations for the first time introduced proposals seeking to define spam, and cyber fraud in a way that would have brought the some aspects of regulating the 'international network' under its ambit. While India is yet to sign off on the proposals, the state's public posturing indicated a supportive stand.


"ITU should only focus on telecom sector and not get into information and communication technology as they have tried to do through the Dubai convention last week," said Subho Ray President of Internet and Mobile Association of India. IAMAI has Indian arms of multinational internet firms such as Ebay, Google, Facebook and Yahoo! as members.


The proposals have also created an international stand-off with US, UK and other large European economies rejecting the need for such UN-backed regulation of the internet, while Russia, China and United Arab Emirates found it useful to have such control. Some analysts have even called it the new cold war. 

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FinMin wants DoT to act fast on abolishing roaming charges

The Finance Ministry has asked the Department of Telecom to speed up the implementation of its policy to abolish mobile roaming charges.

Once roaming charges are waived, mobile users will be able to get incoming calls free of charge and outgoing calls at local rates while travelling anywhere in the country.

The policy was approved by the Union Cabinet in May but the Telecom Department has not yet moved on implementing it. At the time of announcing the policy, the Telecom Ministry had not specified any time frame for making roaming free.

The move by the Finance Ministry is being seen as a step to reduce pressure on the Government, which has been criticised for taking anti-consumer decisions such as increasing diesel price.


According to Government sources, all departments are being told to expedite policies that could bring some cheer to consumers. In this context, the Finance Ministry’s dictat to the Department is significant as it comes at a time when mobile operators are looking to increase tariffs in general.

Mobile companies are against abolishing roaming tariffs as this will impact their revenues. Operators charge Re 1 per minute for incoming calls and Rs 1.50 per minute for outgoing calls while roaming. SMS is also priced at Rs 1.50 per message. Once the roaming charges are abolished, then consumers will get free incoming calls and outgoing calls will be at local call level. Mobile firms get about 8 per cent of their overall revenues from roaming services, which could get wiped out.


But before this is implemented, the Department will have to take a decision on pan-India unified licensing. It will also have to take TRAI’s views on key issues such as numbering plan and interconnection to facilitate free roaming services.
The EU experience

Market watchers, however, said that this was not the first time roaming charges are being abolished. The European Commission has implemented a scheme wherein a mobile user in Europe can travel in any country in the continent without paying roaming fee. Although the European operators had also opposed it, the Commission went ahead with it.

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Why falling mobile subscriber base is good for Indian telcos

Amid talk of India’s subscriber base hitting a stonewall and stagnating, following the drop in the number of wireless subscribers in India for the first time in July this year, the Cellphone Operators Association of India’s (COAI) latest statistics only seemed to confirm that the telecom revolution has hit a plateau.

But, Rajan Matthew, director general of the Cellular Operators Association of India told Firstpost that the figures were actually a good sign that sanity is returning to the market amid competitive pressures.


According to figures released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the number of wireless subscribers in July 2012 fell to 913.49 million from 934.09 million in June, a fall of 20.61 million  or 2.21 percent. This steep fall in the number of wireless subscribers was majorly due to Reliance Communications— a CDMA operator—shaving off a whopping 20.49 million subscribers (or 13 percent of its user base) who were inactive.


The GSM operators seem to have followed suit in this new approach of concentrating on increasing the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) and not just notching up subscriber numbers.

Data released by COAI for August 2012 shows a dip of 7.1 million subscribers in India’s GSM subscriber base. According to its data,  the total number of GSM subscriptions as of August 2012 stood at 671.95 million vis-a-vis 679.05 million in July 2012. Of the 7.1 million lost subscribers, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea Cellular —which account for more than 68 percent of the total market—lost over 5 million subscribers in August.


The recent approach by operators to boost ARPUs is a deviation from the approach they have so long taken of adding subscribers to their network. Industry experts say that this approach can only be beneficial for the operators as well as for subscribers.


“In India we have this problem of multiple SIMs with a single subscriber. So, we have people sitting on a number of SIMs to avail a scheme available in market or because they got it for free,’ says Matthew, adding, “This creates a lot of unused numbers and a load on the operator network. So, it’s a good thing that the sifting has begun.”


Matthew says much of this excess of SIMs with a single subscriber was generated because of the insane competition in the industry but as business slows down and operators concentrate more on earning more revenue, the ARPU approach is a good one.


“As a general rule members are now focussing on revenue generation per user because ultimately the valuation of a company is based on it. This will also bring a lot more sanity to the market amid competitive pressures,” he said.


Ankita Somani,  IT and telecom analyst at Angel Broking, agrees.

“The increasing subscriber base every month was misleading in the first place and it’s good that inactive users are getting cleared,” Somani told Firstpost, “This trend gives us a clearer picture of every telecom player, its actual subscriber base and the teleldensity of every circle.”

And while Somani  thinks that the operators’ new approach will help improve their ARPU profile, it will not make much difference to their bottom line in terms of revenue.


She said that operators’ revenue profit will neither be given a fillip nor dragged down as the operators are only sifting out inactive users who were in any case not getting them any revenue.

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C-DAC may help upgrade India's supercomputer

PUNE: Floods, cyclones and tsunamis could be predicted two days in advance with more accuracy as India plans to upgrade its supercomputing capacity from teraflop to petaflop. For the record, one petaflop is equivalent of 3,000 computer servers put together.

The Union ministry of information and communication technology (ICT) has planned to commission this project to the city-headquartered Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) once it gets the Prime Minister's nod. Kapil Sibal, the minister for information and communication technology, has forwarded the project plan to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) after discussions with senior officials of C-DAC recently.


C-DAC officials apprised Sibal of the capabilities of the Centre in supercomputing and what could be done in the next five years with petaflop capacity supercomputer. The project may cost about Rs 5,000 crore and if it gets the go ahead now, can be realised by 2017. Other countries currently having petaflop supercomputing facility includes Japan, the US and China.


Pradeep K Sinha, senior director, high performance computing group of C-DAC, said, "If we have a petaflop facility, the nation will benefit a great deal. Predicting weather could be very accurate and natural disasters like cyclones and tsunamis could be done as soon as two days in advance. If that is done, people who are in danger of getting hit by these natural disasters could be alarmed in time." Sinha said that modelling for a particular weather condition takes several years. However, a faster supercomputer would reduce this to a few weeks with more accuracy.

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Database to check drink driving!

HYDERABAD — In a one of its kind initiative, the Hyderabad Traffic Police, faced with the growing number of drunken driving cases, is planning to create a database of drivers involved in such cases to help in keeping a close watch on them.

According to Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) C V Anand, the database of the offenders would be integrated with the hand-held PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) devices of the traffic personnel.

“This will enable us to know the details on the kind of repeated offence and pending fines, among other details, of such drivers,” he said. The traffic police also proposed stringent measures like imprisonment for habitual offenders and cancellation of their driving licenses as part of a special drive against drunken driving.


The drive against drunken driving in the city was launched in November last year. Till now, over 9,000 cases have been registered.


“But, till date, we do not have a database of such offenders. We are now planning to create a database of repeat offenders,” Anand said, adding that the drive would be further intensified.


“Enforcement of steps against drunken driving will be further intensified with increased checking to bring down road-crash related accidents and number of deaths. Besides, efforts are on to bring in more stringent measures against these offenders,” the ACP said.


“We are asking for awarding of imprisonment for repeat offence and are working with the road transport officials seeking to cancel the driving licenses of such drivers, as the courts apart from imposing fines can also order for suspension of licenses,” Anand said.

As per the provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act, if the reading of Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) is found above 30 mg per 100 ml blood in the breath analyser test, it is considered drunk driving. “After detecting drunken driving, we do not arrest the drivers but we will detain the vehicle and ask them to come for counselling where we educate them on the dangers of drunken driving,” the police official said.

Later, the drunk drivers will be produced before a local court which can fine them up to Rs3,000. It has been found that majority of drunk drivers are in the age-group of 20 to 28 years.

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CBI likely to chargesheet Bharti, Vodafone

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to chargesheet telecom operators Bharti Airtel (earlier known as Bharti Cellular) and Vodafone India (earlier known as Hutchison Max & Sterling Cellular) in the first week of October in a case related to additional spectrum allocation in January 2002, according to senior officials of the investigative agency.

This would be the first time in the 2G spectrum allocation case that the role of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government will come under scrutiny. The telecom minister in 2002 was Pramod Mahajan, who was killed in 2006.


In the course of the investigations, CBI has found irregular allocation of additional spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz to 10 MHz to GSM operators, including Bharti and Vodafone during Mahajan's rule. The agency has alleged favouritism and arbitrariness by some officers in the DoT (department of telecom), bypassing the opinions of the member (finance), the wireless adviser and even the highest decision-making body in the DoT, the Telecom Commission.


Apart from the telecom companies, CBI is also building a case against senior government officials who were involved in the decision making process at the time. The agency is expected to charge the accused telecom companies under Section 120-B and 420 of the penal code and the government officials are likely to be charged under section 13 (2) and section 13(1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The investigating agency had registered a case against Shyamal Ghosh, the then telecom secretary, and has found that the senior officer, along with other DoT officials, had bypassed the wireless advisor and a technical committee at DoT on the issue of pricing and allocation of additional spectrum to telecom companies.


CBI, in its FIR of November 2011, alleged that Ghosh and other DoT officials caused loss to the exchequer and a corresponding gain to Bharti Airtel and Vodafone. .


The agency had then said that Ghosh along with the then DDG telecom, J R Gupta, and the beneficiary companies, approved the allocation of additional spectrum up to 10 MHz at minimal incremental revenue share, when even 8 MHz was not justified on the recommendations of the technical committee. According to CBI, this caused an “undue pecuniary benefit of Rs 506 crore” to the beneficiary companies which the department of telecom would have earned.

CBI alleged Ghosh had ‘dishonest intentions’ when he did not seek any justification from the technical committee in effectively bringing down the requirement of subscriber base from 0.9 million to 0.4 to 0.5 million for the allocation of additional spectrum.

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Consumer cyber crime cost India $ 8 billion in last 12 months

Mumbai: Software security services provider Norton on Wednesday said consumer cyber crime has cost the country around Rs 42,000 crore in the past 12 months, impacting 42 million people.

Releasing the findings of its annual cyber crime report, it is estimated that over 42 million people fell victim to cyber crime in the past 12 months in the country, incurring around $8 billion in direct financial losses. In terms of cost, this is a full 18 per cent increase. Against this, the global loss has been pegged at $110 billion.


The study further notes that as many as 66 per cent of adults have been a victim of cyber crime in their lifetime in the country. 


During the past 12 months, as many as 56 per cent of adults who go online here have experienced cyber crime - that is over 1,15,000 victims per day, 80 victims per minute and over one every second.

The study is based on the findings of self-reported experiences of over 13,000 adults across 24 countries, Norton by Symantec said in a statement.

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