Aakash tablet: After six months, only 366 reach students

For all the fanfare that accompanied the launch of the Aakash tablet, only 366 units of the tablet have reached students. The units were given to students at the time of the launch on October 5 so that they could test them and provide their feedback. The information may not be widely known but it has been in the public domain since March 14 when minister for human resource development Kapil Sibal replied to a question about the Aakash project in Lok Sabha.

These 366 tablets are part of 650 units that IIT Rajasthan had accepted from the lot of 6,440 tablets that were supplied to it by Datawind. According to Sibal’s statement in Parliament, IIT-Rajasthan “rejected rest of the lots as the number of defective LCADs (Aakash tablets) in those lots exceeded the stipulated 5% of devices”.
In reply to a question if there was any criteria based on which distribution was made, Sibal said the tablets were just for the testing. “The first phase of 1,00,000 tablets were targeted to the students in higher technical education institutions so as to further ascertain technical feedback on its operation and usability,” he said. “Since these LCADs were for the purpose of testing, no norms for distribution of LCADs to students were laid down.” The minister also informed Parliament that Datawind has now been asked to supply better tablets at the same price.
“Datawind is still to supply 1,00,000 LCADs of higher specifications at the same price. These higher specifications (which include 700 MHz Cortex A8 processor, 3200 mAH Battery and capacitive touch screen) have been necessitated to overcome the initial difficulties observed in the devices,” he said.
The minister was also asked what the government was doing to recover the money back. “No payment has yet been made by IIT-Rajasthan to the vendor (Datawind), and hence, the question of getting back the money does not arise,” he said.

Tata DOCOMO’s offers 20 Hours per day of calling for 30 days @ Rs 123

Tata DOCOMO has launched a new product for its customers to enjoy long calling on their network. The new RCV 123 is the latest offering by the company for its CDMA and GSM pre-paid subscribers.

The RCV allows customers to talk for 20 hours in a day on local Tata network (Tata DOCOMO CDMA, GSM, Virgin Mobile and T24) from 10 PM to 6 PM till 30 days. The call charges for rest four hours in the day (between 6 PM to 10 PM) will be just 1 paisa/ 6 seconds. The RCV is priced at Rs.123.
Mr S Ramakrishna, Chief Operating Officer, Andhra Pradesh Circle, Tata Teleservices Limited said “We are excited to launch this unique easy-on-pocket product for our valued prepay customers. By providing free calling benefit for 20 hours in a day, this product will help our customers to always stay connected with their near and dear ones and we are quite certain that it will be well received by all our customers.”

Uninor offers new STVs and talk plans for Mumbai | local, STD and ISD calls at cheaper rates

Uninor has today introduced some new Special Tariff Vouchers and new talk plans for its subscriber base in Mumbai which offer users to make local, STD and ISD calls at cheaper rates.

The Uninor Special Tariff Voucher (STV) 21 offers Mumbai customers local calling rate at 30 paise per Minute with 30 day validity and the STV 22 allows user to make local Uninor to Uninor calls at just 2 paisa per minute. Both plans are valid for calls within Mumbai and Maharashtra and Goa.
The STV 36 STD plan offers call rates of 30 paisa/ per minute across the country and the STV 18 ISD pack gives Mumbai’s globally connected subscribers the opportunity to make ISD calls to friends and families across the globe for as low as 1 paisa per second. Under this plan, which comes with 30 day validity, Uninor customers will be able to make calls to USA, Canada, UK Fixed Telephones, Hong Kong, China and Singapore at 1 paisa per second.

DoT makes it mandatory for mobile phones to display radiation levels

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has made it mandatory that all mobile phones that will be sold in India from September onwards will have to show radiation levels. According to a report published by the Economic Times, all handset makers, mobile phone companies and tower cos will be informed of the deadline before April-end.

DoT will also make it compulsory for all handsets to be sold with a separate hands free device such as headphones as the government believes this step will help reduce the exposure to radiation significantly.
Mobile phones emit radiations and are usually measured in terms of specific absorption rate (SAR) which is actually the amount of radio waves absorbed by the human body tissue when a handset is in use. Many researches have proven that these radiations often lead to horrendous medical conditions such as brain cancer and cerebral palsies.
With DoT’s new rules, mobile devices can only be imported and sold in India only if the SAR level is below 1.6 watts per kg (W/kg). So from September onwards, users can look out for the SAR value of a particular handset on the box or the manual or on the vendor’s official website.

First Intel processor equipped smartphone, Lava Xolo X900

Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini told investors that the company’s first smartphone running Medfield processor is ready for launch ‘later this week’ but it seems that we don’t have to wait that long.

Around speculations at to which device will launch first, Lenovo K800 or Lava Xolo X900 it will be Lava Xolo X900 which goes on sale first. Intel and Lava are readying an event to launch the Lava Xolo X900 on April 19 i.e. tomorrow.
That’s right; Lava’s Xolo X900 is going to the first smartphone to arrive with Intel Inside it.
The Lava Xolo X900 was announced back at MWC 2012 and packs in great features.
The Lava XOLO X900 features

• 1.6 GHz Intel Atom Processor (based on Medfield Z2460), 1GB RAM
• 4.03 inch LCD touchscreen with a display resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels.
• 8 MP camera with flash at the rear and a 1.3 MP front camera for video calls
• Burst mode in camera that allows capturing 10 pictures in under a second
• Android 2.3, upgradable to Android Ice Cream Sandwich
• Full HD 1080p video playback @ 30Mbps
• HDMI TV out
• Dual speakers for outstanding audio quality
• 400 MHz Graphics Clock with dual channel memory
• HSPA+ connectivity, NFC ready
• 1460mAh battery

With the launch of the X900, Lava will become the first OEM to launch a smartphone with Ibtel’s processor, which is quite credible. We really hope that the devices goes on to be a true performer as there are loads of expectations tied up with Intel’s processor.

TRAI – No need to refund 2G licence fees | Uninor – focus is on staying and not quitting

The telecom regulator has told the government that there is no need to refund the fees paid by 122 2G licence holders whose services will be terminated following the Supreme Court order. While dismissing the demand for an exit policy for these licences issued in January 2008 by jailed telecom minister A Raja, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has said that the existing system of non-refundable licence fee should continue.

In a recommendation to the government on Wednesday, Trai said: “The present status is that as per the judgment of the Supreme Court, they (122 licences) stand cancelled after four months of the date of judgment (which was February 2). The authority does not agree with the argument of one of the stakeholders that the licensees have the option of filing a curative petition to the Supreme Court and also file clarification application/s and in the event they are successful in getting relief from the Supreme Court, the original considerations which led to the proposal of an exit policy would become relevant once again. The authority cannot formulate a policy based on the stipulations or likely outcome of a futuristic event. Accordingly, the authority is of the opinion that, at present, there is no need for an exit policy in respect of these UAS Licensees.” The proposal, which will have to be accepted by the government, will come as a new setback for the eight companies that stand to lose their licences following the Supreme Court verdict as several of them will lose the Rs 1,650 crore that they had paid in the rigged licensing exercise.
Etisalat, Loop and S-Tel, who are exiting the Indian market, stand to lose the most, market players said, while most telecom companies did not comment on the recommendations.
“While we study the Trai recommendations, for us, the focus is on staying and not quitting. We hope Trai will come out with auction recommendations that help keep new competition in the market,” Unitech Wireless said. For the government, however, it is a straight gain of at least Rs 8,000 crore at a time when the finance ministry is on the lookout for every single paisa to improve the fiscal health. It is banking on fresh auction of spectrum and licences to mop up around Rs 40,000 crore during the current financial year.

TRAI says no need for exit policy

In a major setback for telecom operators, especially those who want to shut operations in India, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Wednesday said there was no need for a exit policy.
“Presently there is no need for a separate exit policy for all types of licences and the entry fee paid by the licensees will continue to be non-refundable as per their license terms and conditions,” TRAI said in its response to the Department of Telecom’s (DoT) request last year for recommendations on exit policy.
“Present conditions in various licences with regard to their surrender (licensee can surrender its licence by giving atleast 60 days notice, 30 days in case of ISP license) shall continue to be applicable,” it added.
TRAI’s move will virtually shut doors for firms who plan to shut operations in India and have sought refund of their licence fee after the Supreme Court ordered cancellation of their licences.
On Feb 2, Supreme Court ordered cancellation of 122 telecom licences issued in 2008 affecting nine firms.
Companies like S Tel, Etisalat and Loop who have announced plans to exit the Indian market have sought refund form the government. Loop has sought Rs.2,800 crore as refund from the government in entry fees, bank guarantees and other investments.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had earlier issued a pre-consultation paper on exit policy in January on issues like implications, advantages and disadvantages, to individual licensees, to the government revenues and to the telecom sector as a whole.