Nine telecom companies are in the race for the much-awaited 3G (third generation) auction, and 11 for broadband wireless access (BWA) bidding

On the final count, nine telcos are in the race for the much-awaited 3G (third generation) auction, and 11 for broadband wireless access (BWA) bidding.

Although it looks like a keen contest, when the auction starts on

April 9, any of these applicants are free to stay away from the process.

While submission of applications to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had begun three days ago, the process culminated on Friday with all the established telecom service providers entering the fray.

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, RCom, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices, Aircel, Etisalat, S Tel, and Videocon are learnt to have submitted their 3G applications. The companies to have applied for BWA auction are Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, RCom, Idea , Aircel, Tata Communications Internet Services, Qualcomm, Spice, Tikona, HFCL and Augere.

Among the notable absentees is Uninor, though it had maintained all along that it was not keen on a pan-India 3G auction as it’s still to get the spectrum that it deserves for 2G service.

India’s entry into 3G, or high-speed internet access and multimedia services on mobile handsets, is coming at a time when the country has close to 600 million phone subscribers (581 million end of January 2010), out of which at least 560 million are mobile users. The second largest telecom market by subscribers after China, India adds over 15 million mobile users every month.

In January, India added close to 20 million mobile subscribers.

Although the government had targeted Rs 35,000 crore revenue from 3G and BWA bidding in the financial year 2009-10, the auction had to be deferred due to non-availability of spectrum.

Subsequently, when the Defence Forces agreed to vacate some of its unused airwaves to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for allocation of the same to telcos, 3G auction dates were rescheduled.

Now, though the finance ministry has set a target of Rs 35,000 crore revenue from 3G and BWA auction, the internal projection of DoT is to raise Rs 50,000 crore from the process.

Telcos are looking for opportunity to monetise 3G and BWA services at a time when the industry is caught in the midst of a price war and falling tariffs.

The all-India reserve price for 3G auction has been set at Rs 3500 crore, while that for BWA is Rs 1750 crore. Three slots (excluding BSNL/MTNL) each across 17 service areas, and four slots in the remaining five areas, would be thrown open for auction.

State-owned telcos, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), which were given 3G spectrum ahead of others, are already offering the service.

For the past several years, 3G has been stuck over dearth of spectrum, disagreements between the defence and the communications ministries over vacation of airwaves, and the number of 3G slots that could be allotted. Many high-level committees and GoMs (group of ministers) later, the government has decided to conduct the 3G auction in April.

Bright Telecom has launched India’s first dual SIM, dual mode phone (G-588) under 'G-Fone' brand

Bright Telecom has launched India’s first dual SIM, dual mode phone (G-588) under 'G-Fone' brand. The dual SIM, dual mode means, the phone can have GSM + GSM or GSM + CDMA.

The G-588 dual mode phone is a full QWERTY keyboard loaded device having a nice 2.2-inch screen display. It comes with Nimbuzz preinstalled that makes it more useful for social networking for the networking buffs.

This G-Phone is incorporated with many features like Bluetooth, FM radio, WAP/GPRS, MP3 / MP4 player, Video recording, playback and expandable memory of up to 8GB.

There is also a 1.3 MP camera for the camera buffs to take nice snaps. The company has also customized the set to suit the Indian customers by putting an Indian Calendar having major festivals and cultural events of India.

This dual SIM, dual mode G-Phone is a strange gift for the Indian customers that comes for Rs. 4,799.

Reliance Communications has tied up with Polycom Inc.

Reliance Communications has tied up with Polycom Inc., the global leader in tele-presence, video and voice solutions, to introduce the world's first wireless, high-resolution video conferencing service. The service will be marketed through the Reliance ADA Group's retail arm, Reliance Webstore.

Bundling the easy-to-use Polycom QDX 6000 system with dedicated VPN connectivity through the Reliance Netconnect Broadband+ wireless broadband data card, the service significantly lowers the price barrier to adopting video conferencing and is expected to be a mass enabler of video conferencing usage across multiple industry verticals in India. The offering will be available at a price point below Rs.2 lakh and a connectivity plan of about Rs.1,500 a month has been specially designed for this service. This plan covers 10 GB of usage in a month. Additional usage will be billed at the rate of 50 paise per MB. The jointly developed offering will extend affordable, plug-and-play video conferencing to organisations of all sizes, enabling them to realise immediate productivity and efficiency benefits from real-time, face-to-face visual communication. According to Reliance Webstore Director and CEO Sarup Chowdhary, “with Polycom alliance, we are making video conferencing a simple plug-and-play operation that can be deployed and used virtually anytime, anywhere.” The Polycom QDX 6000 video conferencing system delivers high-resolution video and CD quality audio, along with simple-to-use content sharing capabilities even at a bandwidth of 256 kbps. Using this service, even family events can be webcast live by event managers on a pay-per-use basis.

INQ Mobile has launched its “Social Networking” phone in India at a price point of about 7.5K

INQ Mobile has launched its “Social Networking” phone in India at a price point of about 7.5K. We just reviewed PEEK Email-only Mobile device, and many commenter’s pointed out that if PEEK had Social Networking also built into it, it will become very attractive.

Aircel, who have incidentally launched PEEK have also forged partnership with INQ Mobile and launched its Social Networking phone in India.

INQ Mobile is specifically targeted at Social Networking, with specific thrust on popular social networking sites like Twitter, Skype, Facebook, Instant Messaging & Widgets. This device also has push email – INQ mobile being a QWERTY keyboard based phone can be an excellent mobile phone for heavy email users as well !

Another great feature is that it is a 3G phone, Although currently only BSNL is providing 3G services, sooner or later all currently mobile service providers will start offering these services as well..

Aircel have also been offering some great Internet plans like Rs. 98/- for unlimited GPRS connectivity INQ Mobile fits perfectly in the scheme of things here.

Tata Docomo has launched "Daily Plan" which is one step forward

In a bid to lure the youth with innovative plans Tata Docomo has launched "Daily Plan" which is one step forward than what other providers are providing.These packs are specially tailored to suit the needs of subscriber on per day basis.Further the facility to activate packs sitting at home is helpful for subscribers as it saves the time to go to the retailer.The packs are divided into various categories namely Talkathon,Night Birds,GPRS,World Calling and Entertainment.

Dial *141# from your Tata Docomo mobile and choose from a wide range of packs.

Following options are available for the subscriber to choose:

1.Talkathon

30 local minutes @ Rs.5 on Tata DOCOMO Network

30 local minutes @Rs.12 across Networks

30 local/National minutes @Rs.14

10 local minutes @Rs.5

2.Night Birds

This pack gives 60 local Tata Docomo minutes @ Rs.5

3.GPRS

Now get 10MB Browsing free @ Rs.5 only.

4.World Calling

10 minutes to USA/Canada @ Rs.20

5 minutes to USA/Canada @ Rs.10

3 minutes to Gulf @ Rs.20

5.Entertainment

15 minutes FREE music @Rs.5

Cricket alerts @ Rs.5/day

Terms and Conditions

Daily implies active till 12 midnight on the same day of pack activation. Ex: A subscriber activated the pack on 16th March 2010 then the pack with daily validity will expire at midnight of 16th March 2010.

In case on night packs the expiry of the pack will be 12 midnight of the next day of activation of the pack.

Ex: A subscriber activated the night pack on 16th March 2010 then the pack with daily validity will expire at midnight of 17th March 2010.

The pack will get activated within 15 minutes of request receipt on the system. You will get an automated confirmation SMS once the same is configured on our systems

You can activate multiple packs in a day

Facebook plans to open an operations and support center in India

Facebook said Monday it plans to open an operations and support center in India in order to better serve its U.S. and international customers.

"As more and more people share and connect on Facebook, we are growing our operations and teams to support them around the world," said Don Faul, Facebook's director of global online operations, in a blog post.

Facebook's new center in India will be based in Hyderabad, which is home to numerous, multinational tech companies.

"By having multiple support centers in a variety of time zones, we can provide better round-the-clock, multi-lingual support," said Faul. He did not specify how many workers Facebook plans to hire at the Hyderabad center.

News of Facebook's plans to open a center in India comes less than a week after the company said it will open a new facility in Austin, Texas.

That center will eventually house about 200 sales and operations workers. Facebook, which is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., was lured to the area by $200,000 in economic development incentives from local authorities.

"Both of these offices will allow us to better serve the more than 400 million of you now using Facebook worldwide, as well as our growing numbers of advertisers and developers," Faul wrote in his blog post.

"We are now hiring people to join the online sales and operations teams that we're forming in these locations," wrote Faul.

"The new offices come at a significant time in our international growth," Faul said.

"Seventy percent of the people using Facebook are outside the U.S. and are accessing the service from more than 70 languages," said Faul, adding that the social networking site has more than 8 million active members in India.

Micromax has come out with its latest gadget dubbed G4 Gamolution

Micromax has come out with its latest gadget dubbed G4 Gamolution, which is all about games and is the first mobile from Micromax with core focus in Gaming arena.

The brand ambassador of the new gaming solution would be stunt star Akshay Kumar, who could be seen running around with the Gamolution hand set in his hand during the IPL matches. Micromax is depending upon aggressive marketing strategy targeting the youth especially during the IPL 3 season.

Already, Micromax has made a good name for itself in crowded market with its mobile phones like Micormax Q3 and Micromax Q5. The company is offering Bluetooth games, Dongle, Lanyards Wrist band, Games CD, Game Codes and Game Manuals, specifically for gaming needs.

Micromax G4 Gamolution that comes from Gaming Evolution is capable of acting like a Wii like wireless motion controller for PC games.

Measuring 112 x 49.6 x 12.8 mm, Micromax G4 Gamolution comes along with 2 MP Camera. The 2 Mega Pixel camera is another unique feature Micromax G4 Gamolution carries, which also doubles as a web cam to a personal computer via the USB cable that comes along with the pack. An expandable memory of over 4 GB is added bonus that comes along with Micromax G4 Gamolution.

"Micromax G4 Gamolution comes with a 262K, 2.4" TFT, QVGA display. Micromax G4 Gamolution has a phonebook and sms memory capacity of 500 and 200 respectively. Micromax G4 Gamolution Li-Ion 850 mAh battery provides a good 5 hours talk time and 8 days standby. The device supports 3D motion sensor gaming and is enabled with GPRS and Bluetooth," said the company.

There has been no word on pricing and availability of Micromax G4 Gamolution.