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There are 5 new posts in "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India" Idea Announces Mumbai Operations - Plans To Spend Rs. 800 crore
With this announcement, IDEA now becomes the 5th GSM provider in Mumbai, competing directly with Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, BPL and the state-owned MTNL. The city is the fastest growing telecom circle in the country, adding over 3.5 lakh customers every month. Speaking to Business Standard, Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, said:
The company plans to invest Rs. 800 crore in its Mumbai Operations, of which Rs. 600 crore has been spent for the telecom services’ license itself. The remaining Rs. 200 crore will be spent on building the infrastructure required for its operations in the city. As per a report, the company plans to have an initial network of over 1000 cell sites spread across the city. Services will be offered and operated on the 1800 Mhz frequency on a pooled core switching core network with 2.75G capabilities. The company will also have over 60 ‘My Idea’ exclusive service centres and 15,000 retail outlets around the city. According to Mr. Birla, the company expects to break-even within 4 years of Mumbai operations. This launch gives the advantage that the company has been long looking for. The company has a strong presence in many states with over 28 million customers spread across 11 circles. After Mumbai, Idea now covers over 70 percent of the country’s subscribers. Having acquired Spice Mobile a while back, the company aims to raise the figure from 70 percent to 90 percent. However, with the Department of Telecom (DoT) eyeing the deal, it’s not going to be a smooth ride for the operator. Additional spectrum has been allotted to Idea in states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Tamil Nadu and it plans to begin operations before April next year. Idea has pinned high hopes from the Mumbai circle and will try to attract 20 percent of the new subscribers. For that, the company has planned a long line-up of value added services to its new subscribers, including high-speed internet, dialer tones in 19 languages, a huge collection of one lakh songs in 21 different languages. The company also has a portal with a wide collection of wallpapers and games. However, Idea’s launch in Mumbai has set dark clouds for the existing GSM subscribers and 3G in the city. With the DoT announcing the guidelines for 3G auction, it was realized that there was only enough spectrum available for one additional operator for Mumbai, other than MTNL. This now means that Airtel, Vodafone, BPL and Idea will now go full force to the spectrum auction. Knowing that only one operator would initially be allotted spectrum for 3G services, irrespective of the rentals of plans, would you be willing to change your service provider, now that Mobile Number Portability is going to be implemented? Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult Exclusive: Sociali.com Rediff’s Own Social Network? - Updated: Rediff Says Its Just A Sandbox For Developers!Updated: Rediff has denied that Sociali is a social network. They have said that Sociali.com is just being used as a sandbox to test the applications by developers for the Rediff API platform till they actually open up verticals like iShare, QnA and others for applications to be plugged in. On quizzing them further whether sociali.com could be anything in the future they said there are no concrete plans on that as yet. Zaki Ansari Head of Rediff platform said “We would not be launching another brand when Rediff.com is such a strong brand in itself” Original Story: You are reading it here first - Rediff.com which recently launched its api for developers (We had also got an exclusive interview with Zaki Ansari of Rediff Platforms then) and code named the project Sociali has now launched (by the looks of it) its own social network called Sociali.com. This seems like its just been live for a few hours now. On browsing the social network here is what I discovered.. 1) One can sign in with Rediff ID.. That means all rediff users can instantaneously be part of this network. 2) One can import ones profile/friends from orkut & facebook 3) There are already applications available on the platform which can be added by users. So this is where the apps that developers create for rediff would be used. 4) One can import ones contacts from gmail, hotmail, yahoo and rediffmail. According the site here is their own description “What is Sociali? SOCIALI is a network of friends and people you know. You will love discovering them. And they will discover what makes you, you.” Rediff has had a social network since sometime in Rediff Connexions and its puzzling as to why would they launch one more?
We have got in touch with the guys at Rediff and will get more updates on Sociali.com and its purpose as soon as we get them. Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult Funding Updates: Ojas Funds Mango & Seventymm Raises 50 Cr From NEA-Indo US VenturesWell its raining investment news today with two companies raising funding but at different stages. Its always better to hear of seed/early stage investments happening in this space as thats where the most money is required albeit in smaller chunks compared to middle and late stage funding. So here are the top funding news stories for today..
Ojas Ventures which is a seed and early stage venture firm has made its 3rd investment (post Tyfone and Ziva both of which were in the mobile space) in a mobile tech startup by the name of Mango Technologies. VCcircle reports that Mango has developed a thinnest modular application & UI framework, which considerably reduces engineering effort and time spent on development and integration. The details of the deal have not been disclosed yet but Rajesh Srivastha sounds upbeat on the mobile space in India. We shall soon have a video interview with Mr. Srivastha with regards to Ojas and its investment strategy up on WATBlog soon. Well on to our second funding story..
Seventymm has raised 50 crores in C series which was led by NEA-Indo Us Ventures and also participated by its earlier investors DFJ and Matrix Partners. Seventymm is pitted against the likes of BigFlix of Reliance which ofcourse has no dearth of cash and is ramping up aggressively in this space. Seventymm seems to have raised this round to invest in brand awareness as afaqs reports that Seventymm has already deployed about 8 crores for the year in the branding exercise which would include TV, radio, print and mobile. The mobile marketing would be handled by MGinger (No surprises here. MGinger is funded by the same VC.. Think DFJ.. helps in getting customers!). Well thats its for the funding news for today.. Do send us tip off’s on info (at) watblog (dot) com on any funding news that you hear of. Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult Yahoo-Intel Channel - Coming Soon To a TV Near YouThe big news today is that Intel and Yahoo have partnered to launch a new interactive TV channel. I went WoW after reading the news. I have always believed that TV, as a consumer device has a lot more potential. Whenever I hear companies (or people) doing some innovative stuff for TV, I am hopeful of a new connected and more responsive scenario. Last time it happened was the with the announcement of “The Venice Project“. The team comprising of the people that made Skype and Kazaa got togather and promised that what they are doing had “something to do with TV”. I had great trust in the team and was sure what they meant was Web on TV. Few months later, The Venice Project (TVP) was renamed “Joost” and it was revealed that they want to bring TV to the Web. With a stand-alone software, ofcourse. Although, the end result was, likable, it was not something that could have excited a large number of people. So What Are They Doing? And what is Intel doing here? When will it be? Our Thoughts ? Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult Computer Education - Any Time, Any Place, Any Where: Wingslive.com Review
Wouldn't life become easier? Yes, it would. Probably this is what the Chennai based company must have thought and went live with their e-learning portal Wingslive.com. Wingslive.com specializes in IT e-learning materials and has programming section covering topics like .net, Ajax, C++, C, databases. Also there is a multimedia section on Photoshop, flash, CorelDraw and a generic section which has content related to computer beginners like PowerPoint, xls, pc -assembling and trouble Shooting. The website however talks of a registration fee of Rs. 5000 annually. But for initial few months the company is running a promotional offer of Rs.2500 for a course annually (once you pay for a course you can practice it time and over again till one year) and in Chennai it comes down to Rs.1500. The content follows a step by step explanation process with help of video leassons. It’s quite impressive. The content is divided in three series for easy focusing
Each e-learning module has index, glossary and advance search option. Besides detailed explanations of the topic; learning modules also maintains a synopsis library for a quick review. The demo of the courses available on the site can give you a better insight on how easy or difficult it would be to be an e-learner on wingslive.com. Speaking for myself, I am planning to get a few e-courses for myself which I wanted to learn but could not due to time crunch and non availability of coaching centers near my residence!!! Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult More Recent Articles
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Idea Cellular, one of the major telecom companies in India led by the Aditya Birla group have announced that they have begun their operations on Mumbai. The company so far has heavy presence in the Northern and Southen parts of the country.
Ojas Ventures Invests in Mobile Tech Startup Mango Technologies
Seventymm raises 50 Crores from NEA-Indo Us Ventures in C Series Funding
What if a housewife could learn basics of computers at her own convenient time? What if a professional could schedule his/her own class to fit in a hectic week schedule? What if students even in remote areas could have access to the best coaching in the IT field?
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