Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) launches Instant Audio Conference service

Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL), India’s fastest-growing pan-India dual-technology telecom service provider has launched ‘Insta Conference’ – a unique audio conferencing service using XOP Network’s Universal Service Node (USN) platform. Insta Conference service allows a customer to instantly convene a voice conference with a pre-selected group of individuals at the press of a key. The service is available to all existing as well as potential customers of Tata Walky, Tata Indicom and Tata DOCOMO.

The service is unique in its offering; making voice based conference calling an extremely easy process. By dialing a single number, from their registered phone, TTSL subscribers will be able to simultaneously reach a group of pre-defined users.

Speaking at the launch, Mr. Sukanto Aich, President Enterprise Business, Tata Teleservices Limited said, “We are delighted to introduce another revolutionary value added service for our customers across the Tata World. Our collaboration with XOP Networks has enabled us to offer Insta conferencing service based on XOP’s Firebar application. It is aimed at large, small and medium enterprises, wherever there is a need for instant, voice-based group communication. The service is hassle-free, easy to connect anytime, from anywhere, can connect any number of people at one point in time, and above all is cost-effective with no additional rentals.”

Mr. Sudhir Gupta, CEO of XOP Networks said, “We are very pleased that Tata Teleservices has selected XOP Networks platform to power its Insta Conference service. It is a great honor to be included in Tata Teleservices Limited’s network and to be able to assist in bringing this unique audio conferencing service to Tata Teleservices Limited customers across the country.” Insta-conference significantly reduces the effort required to set up an audio conference call.

This Conferencing service is a cost-effective, efficient and convenient. A customer can simply dial in to the bridge to automatically start a conference. The application dials out to one or more numbers belonging to each individual and as people pick up their calls; they are automatically placed into an audio conference. The service also allows them the flexibility to dial in and join/re-join as necessary. The charges for calls using Insta conferencing are based on flat billing and will be independent of the voice plan / add-on packs, which the customer has subscribed. Charges will be levied based on the actual number of participants in the conference and the respective duration for which each of them participated.

Expansion of Olive mobile phones in Andhra Pradesh

Market and production of Olive mobile phones

Olive Telecom has announced that in the coming future, it is going to launch many new mobile handsets. Olive telecom sells their products in various countries and recently entered the Indian market. This Indian company has launched its various mobile handsets in the Andhra Pradesh market on 10th August.2010. It has launched India’s first 3.5G olive pad and 3G enabled Olive Zip Book along with 14 new model mobile phones in Andhra Pradesh market. They have also introduced for the first time in the national market, GSM and CDM dependent triple SIM mobile phone.

The prices of these phone ranges from Rs.999 to Rs.25,000. Olive Zip Book is offered along with Tata Tele services. According to the company representatives, 2 or 3 models will be launched every month. These phones are sold to various Telecom Service providers worldwide. 2 Crore mobile sets were sold till now. These mobile hand sets are designed at two centers in China and R and D center at Gurgaon.

Olive mobile phones are manufactured at leading companies of China Foxconn and Haier. Android operating based Olive pad provided various telecom services including 3G. This year’s target is to sell one crore mobile sets. 20 distributors are appointed in Andhra Pradesh. Olive mobile phone sets will be sold through 750 sales points in Andhra Pradesh.

Tata DOCOMO launches its 24X7 Live Chat Customer Services

In order to provide good customer service to all its prepaid and postpaid subscribers, Tata DOCOMO has recently come out with its new initiative which is known as “Live Chat Service”.

This latest service from DOCOMO will help the subscribers with their complaints, queries and requests through option of Live Chat. The services of Live Chat by the company will be available 24X7 for the convenience of the subscribers.

In order to avail the services of Live Chat, the subscribers will have to go to the website of the company which is www.tatadocomo.com and then select the option of “ Dive –In” and go to the “ Customer Care Section”.

Once the subscriber reaches the Chat service area he will have to fill the “Pre Chat Form” which will be then transferred in real time to the representative of the company.

The Head Marketing of Tata DOCOMO, Gurinder Singh Sandhu on the launch stated that this is the first of its type services in the industry of telecom and will prove to be very helpful for the customers and will save their time as well.

Samsung Galaxy i7500 mobile phone launched in India

Samsung has launched its Android-based smart phone the Samsung Galaxy i7500 in India with Tata DOCOMO.

The Samsung i7500 Galaxy Android phone is the first handset to be release by Samsung that is powered by Google Android operating system.

The Samsung i7500 is by far one of the most impressive Android smartphones announced to date. Featuring an impressive 3.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen display, the Samsung i7500 is a purely touchscreen device similar to the HTC Magic in form.

Along with the large AMOLED touchscreen display, the Samsung i7500 also includes other impressive multimedia features such as a 5 mega-pixel camera that supports a number of various codex formats, a high capacity 1500mAh battery, and a huge memory capacity of some 40GB's (Internal memory storage of 8GB, with up to 32GB external microSD card support).



Samsung i7500 Features:

* HSDPA 7.2Mbps / HSUPA 5.76Mbps (900 / 1700/ 2100MHz)
* EDGE / GPRS (850/ 900/1800/1900)
* Display: 3.2" HVGA(320x480) AMOLED
* Camera: 5 MP Camera (Auto Focus), Power LED
* Video: MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV
* Audio: MP3, AAC, AAC+, e-AAC+, WMA, RA
* Features: Full Web Browser Google Search, Maps, Gmail,
* YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Android Market
* Connectivity: Bluetooth® 2.0, USB 2.0, WiFi, MicroUSB, 3.5mm ear jack
* Memory: Internal memory: 8GB
* External memory: Micro SD (Up to 32GB)
* Battery: 1500 mAh * Size: 115 x 56 x 11.9mm

O2’s been selling Samsung i7500 Galaxy in Germany and its UK division has announced that they’ll handle the retail duties within the UK from August. This confirmation however, does not come with a price but according to O2, it will be available on contract.

Mobile number portability: Will you change your operator?

After a long wait, Indian mobile phone users will soon have the option to switch their service provider and retain their number.

After much debate, mobile number portability will be introduced in the country in December. How will it impact service providers? Customers unhappy with the service but attached to their number are likely to switch first.

Overseas, the churn has lasted two to six months after portability was introduced.

Thus, within the first half of 2010, service providers could end up with lesser market shares if they don't guard against the marketing moves of rivals.

IMRB, the market research outfit, has come out with a syndicated study called Switch to forecast the behaviour of mobile phone users after portability.

The survey was conducted across 40,000 subscribers who have owned a connection for at least three months (since subscribers can't use portability within 90 days of getting a connection, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India), across all operators and the seven cities in which portability is slated to roll out first -- Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and Hyderabad.

IMRB quizzed users on the importance of their numbers, their satisfaction with service providers and if the criteria set by TRAI such as paying Rs 250 and going without a network for two hours would deter a switch.

They were then asked if they wished to change and why. Thus, the study was able to track the likely churn or the number of subscribers who will shift from one service provider to the next, GSM to CDMA, pre-paid to post-paid and so on.



Who'll switch?

As many as 70 to 90 per cent subscribers feel it is extremely important to retain their current mobile number. After portability is allowed, the survey expects an average 20 per cent of the people to move out of their existing operators.

Delhi could see the highest churn of 24 per cent and Ahmedabad the lowest of 8 per cent. It says that 25 to 35 per cent subscribers will switch operators due to network congestion and another 17 to 25 per cent due to tariff options -- grievances that often top the dissatisfaction list of Indian subscribers.

Service providers say that with prepaid customers comprising more than 85 per cent of the Indian mobile telephony market, they are no strangers to churn. Says Idea Cellular chief corporate affairs officer Rajat Mukarji: "We already have a vibrant prepaid market where customers switch service providers periodically."

Surprise of surprises, only 10 to 20 per cent prepaid users on average told IMRB they want to switch. Portability, IMRB found out, will hit the relatively loyal and stable market of postpaid consumers harder.

This is crucial because such customers turn in higher revenue. Market estimates suggest the average revenue from a postpaid user is up to twice that of a prepaid user.

Fifty per cent of the postpaid users in the survey were willing to switch once portability is activated.

Ernst & Young Leader (telecommunication) Prashant Singhal points out that portability will appeal more to users in socio-economic categories A and B -- people who opt for a postpaid connection that requires a certain credit criteria and stronger address proof.

Subscribers in socio-economic categories C and D, Singhal feels, will not be affected much because they are primarily tariff-sensitive and don't dwell much on customer service or convenience of use.

Among post-paid users, reveals IMRB Group Business Director Sanjay Pal, there is a feeling of getting less from service providers than what they deserve.

There are satisfied subscribers also who might get tempted to switch to a new service provider if they can carry their number along, according to the survey.

Pal observes that despite a satisfaction rate of around 60 to 65 per cent among GSM users, the percentage of satisfied customers willing to move after portability could range from 6 to 20 per cent.

Only 6 per cent of Delhi's satisfied customers are willing to move, while Ahmedabad clocks the highest at 20 per cent. Pal attributes it to an "anti- incumbency factor" -- the tendency of users who still want to choose another operator even when it has nothing special to offer.

Switch estimates that for most players, the maximum movement of inflow and outflow (nearly 65 per cent) would occur in the first two months because those who have waited for portability will do so immediately.

It also underlines the importance to brace for churn in a brief span of time. It would trigger the need to pull customers as it would the need to retain existing customers.

Mukarji of Idea says: "In the first phase, users who have been less than six months with an operator will be most likely to port their numbers to other operators because they haven't yet developed a sense of comfort with their operator the way users with over a year's subscription would have."

Hence, Singhal says this will bring the quality of service to the fore in marketing campaigns of operators. "More and more players will talk about their network and what their customer service means, rather than harp on tariff schemes which most players have been doing till now."

Abdul Khan, head of marketing, Tata DoCoMo, says, "Both incumbents and challengers will have to shore up their overall customer experience measures."

It won't be inexpensive, mind you. Portability will require operators to share data and agree on porting charges and timelines as well as upgrade their technology. Singhal puts the investment at a few hundred million dollars. "The cost will work out to around $70 per subscriber that is acquired," he estimates.

Operators' bandwidth, service and accounting would be put to test with the extra inflow and outflow of subscribers. The survey also identifies outflow and inflow patterns that will help operators fine-tune their post-portability strategy.





CDMA vs GSM

Playing spoilsport for the operators will be disproportionate outflow and inflow ratios. In Mumbai, the survey found, a leading GSM player might get more subscribers than it loses, but the outflow is expected to take place at a faster pace.

Another GSM player in the city stands to gain 128 per cent (if 100 subscribers move out, 228 will move into its network from other operators).

In the same market, a CDMA player will experience a net impact of 80 per cent (will lose 180 subscribers for 100 it gains). The upshot is that CDMA users are more than willing to port to GSM networks. "High-revenue CDMA users are most likely to migrate to GSM," says Pal.

"A general shift from CDMA to GSM is too simplistic. CDMA operators issue handsets with connections that are locked to the operator's network. So when migrating to GSM, it would cost CDMA users more than just the cost of a SIM card.

They will have to invest in a handset as well," says Tata Teleservices Chief Marketing Officer Lloyd Mathias. "We are in the process of profiling users on their usage and handsets. For instance, we will contact those who have been with us for two years and have a monthly bill of Rs 1,000 and more with special offers such as discounts. This could be a group of a few hundreds or even 10,000."

While CDMA operators are expected to be hit the hardest, market leaders stand to gain the most because of their strong brand equity.

Players in the middle rungs, who don't lead yet, could be in the eye of the churn too, according to Pal. Singhal differs: "Players who are neither leaders nor newcomers will gain subscribers because of less congested networks (unlike leaders) and stronger customer service and infrastructure than new players, so they can handle the traffic better."

Brand pull and customer service will decide the drift for the operators. In Delhi, IMRB found that a GSM operator has a very strong pull over its rivals. Its market share is set to increase after portability, according to the survey.

"High-end customers will be more sensitive to branding and customer experience. Branding power in telecom becomes clear when users are ready to forgive their operator for its errors because the brand resonates with them," says Mukarji.