Do you still remember the early years of cellular phone services in India? You tied up with a service provider in one state – in my case Spice Telecom in Bangalore. When I travelled to the neighbouring state of Kerala, as I did quite often, Spice was not among the providers there. But one went into the network-select mode of the phone and chose one of the local service companies -- BPL or Escotel or Airtel if I was in Kochi. Any one of them quickly provided me the connectivity as long as I was in their area of coverage. That was because all the providers cooperated to ensure that the customer could roam free all over India… and did not have to bother how they adjusted the revenue amongst themselves.
That was in the 2G era. Now it is a new 3G age.
So what has changed? You and I might think, the change is only in technology which now provides far faster speeds of communication. Not so, according to the Indian government. Having acquired the rights to 3G spectrum after a high priced auction, telecom providers like Idea, Bharti and Vodafone came to an understanding a few months ago, to share each other’s 3G networks so that their subscribers could enjoy seamless coverage where ever they moved in India. As far as customers were concerned this was no different from the roaming agreements in the 2G days. But the telecom companies find themselves accused of all manner of legal violations and hardly a day passes without some smart person in government bad mouthing them and threatening heavy fines and penalties. What government seems to be saying to the telecom companies is : You bought the right to offer 3G services only in some regions. By joining hands with other operators and offering it elsewhere you are violating your contract.

As arguments go, this is as foolish as it gets. The 3G service will still be finally provided in every region by the company that paid for that right. If service providers help each other and ultimately the consumer, by sharing their coverage, and covering the country more effectively, that would seem like something government must encourage. But no; having been hit hard by the unearthing of scam after scam, fraud after fraud in their own working, government and its regulatory agencies, are now lurching to the other extreme -- of nitpicking and paranoia -- to prove how clean they are. All they see in front of their eyes is a large rupee symbol, preceded by a lakh and a crore ( which together, for the benefit of my non Indian readers, is a round trillion).
In one of the more bizarre manifestations of this disease, some genius has computed that India’s defence forces should be billed something like Rs 1.20 lakh crores ( Rs 1.2 trillion rupees) for the military use of spectrum since 2004. According to the New Indian Express last week, the telecom department is said to be demanding this money and is fighting a waiver.

Somewhere in this crass commercial attitude to telecom spectrum, India’s leaders seem to have forgotten their promise to harness computers and communication for serious social purpose, for empowering India’s millions and helping them improve their quality of life. I was there in the audience in 2003 and again in 2005 when an Indian minister made this solemn promise before 150 nations, at the UN sponsored World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva and Tunis.

Today many of the same politicians and bureaucrats are involved in milking resources like wireless spectrum for all it is worth, completely oblivious of any obligations to the Indian taxpayer. It is time for us to tell them:

You have sold our wireless waves for money beyond any one’s dreams. Now let those who paid for it, get on with the job of using this resource to give every single Indian, a connection to the world – and a means of of upliftment.

Get out of their way .. that is the best service you can do us.

Silicon valley, be very afraid of India, says US columnist India’s information technology sector may have started by running call centres and maintaining old computer code for American companies. But, today, instead of starting more I.T. services companies, a new breed of Indian entrepreneurs are developing high-value technology products based on intellectual property, writes Vivek Wadhwa in his column in the Washington Post .
http://www.indiatechonline.com/vivek-wadhwa-in-washington-post-620.php  
Indian government to roll out nationwide fibre network; BSNL to implement http://www.indiatechonline.com/india-broadband-network-plans-616.php
Dell India R&D marks its first decade Dell is celebrating More than 1600 invention disclosures, over 150 published article/papers and 50 enterprise software products have flown from the India team during the decade.
http://www.indiatechonline.com/dell-india-r&d-607.php  
Bihar fuels e-shakti project with NFC technology-based smart cards. Glodyne Technoserve, the technology service provider of the Indian State Government of Bihar, has joined hands with NXP Semiconductors , to fuel the e-Shakti multi purpose identity, employment and bank card with Near Field Communications (NFC) contactless technology.
http://www.indiatechonline.com/bihar-e-shakti-project-with-nfc-technology--614.php  
Sabeer Bhatia unveils free mobile SMS tool Some 17 years after he revolutionised web based mail by creating Hotmail, the world’s first free emailing tool, Sabeer Bhatia looks set to do likewise for text messaging. He unveils JaxtrSMS - the world's First free and open mobile to mobile texting application. http://www.indiatechonline.com/jaxtrsms--free-tool-619.php  

For the Microprocessor, a happy 40th birthday ( and time to recall the India part of Intel’s chip saga) http://www.indiatechonline.com/40-years-of-intel-chips-114.php  

IT People: NASSCOM honours Bharat Goenka, creative genius behind Tally biz tool http://www.indiatechonline.com/nasscom-lifetime-award-for-bharat-goenka-611.php

IT People: Change of guard at Acer India
Harish Kohli, currently the Chief Sales Officer, Acer India will take over as the new Managing Director from December. http://www.indiatechonline.com/change-of-guard-at-acer-india-66.php

World’s first bollywood mini-film auditioned at Facebook
Over 1,50,000 fans have signed up to the New Star of India campaign at Facebook to help Ranbir Kapoor and Nissan find the next Bollywood superstar. http://www.indiatechonline.com/bollywood-audition-on-facebook-622.php

Huawei launches first ‘Made in Indi’ phone – a 3G handset which doubles as WiFi hotspot: The Indian developers of China-headquartered global wireless products leader Huawei, have crafted a world-first 3G feature phone -- the U5510 -- that doubles as a wireless hotspot for up to five other devices. Another first for the company’s Bangalore R&D centre is the just-launched Message+ service -- an instant messaging service just for Huawei smartphone owners
http://www.indiatechonline.com/huawei-madeinindia-phone-613.php  

HDFC, Vodafone join hands, offer m-banking solution After m-pesa in Africa, m-paisa in India
http://www.indiatechonline.com/hdfc-vodafone-mobile-nanking-solution-for-india-354.php

Buffalo CloudStation: Hitch your phone to store in the cloud The Buffalo CloudStation, provides a place to securely store and share data for all the Android phone / tablet PC and iPhone / iPad, giving access to Photos, videos, music, documents at home from Smartphone/Tablet PC, or computer anywhere in the world.
http://www.indiatechonline.com/buffalo-cloudstation-112.php  
Greenest laser printer from HP Hewlett-Packard has launched in India, what it characterises as the world’s most energy efficient laser printer : the HP LaserJet Pro P1108, a single function monochrome LaserJet costing Rs 6599.
http://www.indiatechonline.com/hp,energy-efficient-laser-printers-353.php  

Indian software product biz on a roll:NASSCOM study

Data indicates that over 1100 software product start-ups have emerged in the last five years. http://www.indiatechonline.com/nasscom-product-conclave---study-609.php 

 http://www.indiatechonline.com/internet-in-india-608.php

Plus all the numbers in our exclusive India Snapshot: http://www.indiatechonline.com/snapshot.php

46th National Annual Convention of the Computer Society of India.Ahmedabad, 1-3 December 2011 “ICT4U: Touching the Lives of Everyone”, focuses on use of ICT in various aspects of life. http://www.csi-2011.org  

e-Commerce and Payments World India 2011 Mumbai, 6- 9 December 2011 Hyatt Regency Hotel
Conference aims to bring together top e-commerce industry players to share their expertise, concerns, knowledge & needs in addressing the top priorities and challenges for organisations in India's e-commerce and payments industry. www.terrapinn.com/ecommercepaymentsindia  

India Telecom 2011 International exhibition and conference, New Delhi, 7-9 Dec 2011, Pragathi Maidan
FICCI-Govt of India Dept of Telecom. www.indiatelecom.org  

NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference, Beijing, China, 14-15 Dec 2011 China National Convention Centre http://www.gputechconf.cn/en/home.html    

7th e-India 2012
Gandhinagar, Gujarat, 15-17 Dec 2011
e-gov, digital learning, e-health http://www.eindia.net.in/2011/  

International Convention of Human Resources Professionals Bangalore HR Summit Learning & Development Strategies for HR Effectiveness
Bangalore, Dec. 16 & 17, 2011, Le Meridien hotel www.hrsummit.in  

ClickAsia Summit, Mumbai, India, 15-17 Jan 2012, Taj Land’s End
“The power of digital marketing event in Asia” www.clickasiasummit.com  
Internet and Mobile Association of India’s India Digital Summit NewDelhi, India, 18-19 Jan 2012 http://www.iamai.in/events/india_digital_summit_2012/?utm_source=newsletter375&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=india_digital_summit_2012%2F-375

India Digital Awards 2012 New Delhi January 18 2012
http://www.iamai.in/india_digital_award_2012/  

Mobile World Asia 2012 mHealth, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Enterprise, Mobile Cloud, Augmented Reality, mPublishing, Mobile TV, Mobile Money, etc.
Shanghai, Feb 21-23 2012 http://www.szwgroup.com/2012/mobile/  

Convergence India 2012
South ASIA’s largest IT show New Delhi March 21-23 2012 http://www.convergenceindia.org/  

InfoSecurity World Exhibition and Conference.
Incorporating three other dedicated showcases: Data Storage Showcase 2012, Cloud Computing Showcase 2012, andSoftware Development Showcase 2012
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Putra World Trade Centre March 21-22 2012 http://www.infosecurityworld.net/  

Mobile Payments and NFC World Summit 2012
Hong Kong, April 19-20 2012, Eaton Smart Hong Kong
Encompassing: Mobile Payments, NFC Technologies, Mobile Money Transfer & Mobile Remittance, Mobile Banking, Banking the Unbanked & Microfinance Services & Sustainable Mobile Payments Services
http://www.symphonyglobal.com/index.php/event/page/mobile_payments_nfc_world_summit_2012/overview  

Are you organising an upcoming conference or trade show in the Middle East/Asia/Pac region that will interest the Indian infotech community? Send us the details in a mail to feedback@indiatechonline.com  with Event Watch in the subject line and we will be happy to feature it in this section.

The iPhone 4s has reached India.

The iPhone 4S with 16GB memory can be had for Rs 44,500 ($865). The one with 32G is available for Rs 50,900 ($990). The one with 64GB is available for Rs 57,500 ($1,120). Aircel and Airtel are launching iPhone 4S in the country on Nov 25. Meanwhile sites like nCarry.com http://ncarry.com/  are taking orders for delivery by the same date, but say the 64Gb version is sold out.  Customers are somewhat taken aback by the stiff pricing of the new iPhone -- and early twitters say this is one of the highest anywhere in the world

POSTED 2011-11-30

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