The revised norms for imported telecom equipments were announced by DoT in July, which drew large-scale protests from vendors worldwide. The new rules required equipment suppliers to provide government access to the equipment’s source code and design. Also, the suppliers will be held responsible for any security breach and hefty fine levied.

As the relationship between DoT and vendors were straining with the deadline for 3G rollout looming large, the Prime Minister’s Office is believed to have intervened, leading to rollback to earlier less stringent rules. Nokia Siemens was the first beneficiary under this last month. However, it was unclear whether this was a one-off case and will extend to other vendors, especially Chinese ones.

In the 3G auction held earlier this year, Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) had won in nine circles. Both Nokia Siemens and Huawei were selected by TTSL as suppliers for its 3G rollout. While Nokia will rollout 3G network in four circles, Huawei will do so in five. The clearance from DoT based on liberal norms has enabled the Chinese vendor to land the second order in the country for 3G gear. Huawei’s first deal was signed with Reliance Communications.

Confirming the news TTSL Chief Technology Officer and President (Enterprise Business) A G Rao said, “The company will provide superior 3G technology and services to all our esteemed consumers, and to this end, we are getting the latest LTE-ready technology from our technology partner, Huawei.”

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Most important among the service providers who are issued notices are Google and Skype, the internet phone call provider. The notice asks the firms to make suitable arrangements to provide access to their services within the next 60 days.

Meanwhile, Research In Motion (RIM), the BlackBerry maker averted an imminent ban on its services by agreeing to set up a server in India and provide partial access to its encrypted data. Home Minister P Chidambaram confirmed that RIM has already begun providing access to some of the communications transmitted through its system. The government has given the smartphone maker a 60-day extension of August 31 deadline for complete compliance. The minister added that there won’t be any compromise on national security with regards to BlackBerry, Google or Skype.

“Discussion on technical solutions for further access is continuing and the matter will be reviewed within 60 days,” the minister concluded. “Our stand is firm. We look forward to get access to data… There is no uncertainty over it.”

Mr. Pillai said, “People who operate communication services in India should have servers in India as well as make available access to law enforcement agencies, whatever communications passes through telecommunication network in India and that has been made clear to RIM of BlackBerry but also to other companies.”

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“In smaller cities, where English language is a big hurdle for communicating your thoughts while texting a SMS, this handset will act as an apt medium for the people to express themselves in Hindi in a better way,” said Arvind Vohra, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Wynn Telecom.

The model named Y45 is a dual-SIM handset and is equipped with a 2.2-inch (5.6cm) 262 TFT color screen, 1.3 MP camera, Bluetooth with A2DP connectivity, email facility, PC Sync, video recording and expandable memory up to 8GB. Another attraction is that the mobile phone supports social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Nimbuzz, Opera Mini and MSN.

Y45 has an in-built soft key for 160by2, a free SMS service provider. This feature allows users to send free SMSs across India, UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines.

The latest offering from Wynncom is a blessing for mobile users in smaller towns and rural areas in the Hindi-speaking regions of India. This enables easier communication via SMS without losing the heart and soul of the language in translation.

Wynncom’s Y45 is priced at Rs 3,395 in India.

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“In India, it is half a billion US dollar business e-commerce today. There is no reason why that cannot double in the next three years and then double in the following three years after that,” said Mr. Donahoe.

One of the reasons pointed out for this sudden explosion in e-commerce is the imminent arrival of 3G and mobile broadband, leading to mobile commerce. “What you are going to see in India…is with things like mobile devices, people accessing the internet seven days a week, 24 hours a day. You don’t have to be at a laptop, you don’t have to be at a desktop, you don’t have to be at a computer, you can be standing in line at the coffee shop or waiting for the bus with the smartphone or be standing in a store and use an SMS or text to discover where the price of an item you are thinking of buying is online. Things like that are pulling people into internet and e-commerce. As a result of that, line between online and offline is blurring,” he elaborated.

Mr. Donahoe added that eBay has at present 2.5 million registered users in India. He said that e-commerce sites like eBay not only offers a platform to buy and sell products, but also create direct and indirect jobs and help people earn a livelihood. For almost 12,800 sellers, eBay India is the primary or secondary source of income.

Regarding payment issues Mr. Donahoe said, “India is getting better on all the key friction points that reduce things like e-commerce… PaisaPay has been the way we have done that at eBay… Trust is growing online in India.”

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The subscription charges for education and entertainment services are fixed at Rs 30 per month, while that for agriculture service is Rs 60 per month. The pay-per-use rate is set at Rs 3 per request. Reliance Communications is also planning to offer mobile data bundle of 1.2 GB on Nokia GPRS-enabled phones. This is in addition to the offer of up to 1,800 free on-net minutes with Nokia 1800 that comes with six-month validity.

“We have seen sales of smartphones on our network increase manifold. With the rollout of 3G, we see a huge opportunity in fostering a mutually beneficial business relationship to offer customers unique voice, data as well as VAS innovations with Nokia,” said Vrajesh Shelat, RCom Head (Wireless Data Services and Alliances).

“To take mobility to the next level, Nokia is moving beyond products to add services like Ovi Life Tools and Ovi Music Unlimited on its devices. These services have the potential to positively impact livelihoods on the one hand and provide entertainment platforms to our consumers on the other. Our association with Reliance Communications is an important step in the direction of creating a strong ecosystem that will take these services to a larger consumer base,” said V Ramnath, Nokia India Director (Operator Channels).

This partnership also brings to consumers attractive offers on Ovi Music Unlimited (OMU) for specific Nokia models. This will enable faster download of music up to 12 GB. Also available to RCom consumers is the exclusive offer of Reliance broadband data card for Rs 1,999 when purchased along with Nokia’s OMU-enabled handsets.

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