Weekend News-5

Presented By- Neelam Monga

Bharti Airtel ends dependence on western vendors for telecom gearBharti Airtel, India’s largest telecom company by revenue

and customers, has ended its dependence on western vendors by awarding China’s Huawei a part of the telecom gear contract to supply 3G equipment.

Bharti said that it had chosen Ericsson India , Nokia Siemans Networks and Huawei Technologies as Networks partners to launch 3G services in India .

In the 3G auctions that are ended in May, Bharti Airtel had bagged 3G airwaves that allows it to offer high end services such as video conferencing and ultra fast internet on mobiles in 13 of the 22 telecom circles in the country.

It had paid about Rs.12300 crore for these airwaves.

For Ericsson and NSN, this marks their second major 3G contract in India.

3i to invest $150 million in Soma EnterprisesGlobal private equity firm 3i group is likely to invest

$150 million (Rs.684 crore)in the road business of Hyderabad-based construction and engineering company Soma Enterprises.

London-based 3i’s infrastructure fund will invest the large part of the money in Soma Enterprises.

ZTE bags $200-m RCOM contractZTE Corp., a leading Chinese telecom equipment

supplier, has bagged two contract worth nearly Rs.1220 crore.

ZTE has clinched a near $200-m(920 crore approx) contract from RCOM to supply a mix of 3G and 2G gear in eight circles.

The deal effectively means that mobile operators are now comfortable placing their orders with Chinese companies.

ZTE had recently clinched a Rs.3oo crore WiMAX deal from BSNL.

RCOM is likely to source 3G networks gear for its Delhi and Mumbai circles Huawei.

Airtel users may get to pay bills up to Rs.5000 via mobiles.Bharti Airtel customers will soon be able to

make virtual payments at retail outlets and restaurants using their cell phones.

Semi closed wallet are prepaid payment instruments that are redeemable at a group of clearly identified merchant.

RBI’s move to approve Semi closed Wallet will be the first step towards democritisation of mobile commerce in the country.

New mobile cos enter Rs.700-cr Handset market.Driven by high margins and easy accessibility

to imported mobile handsets, new companies are foraying into affordable handset business.

MCC Group is working on tying up with agri retail chains to tap the upcountry markets.

The dwindling tariffs due to paise per second tariffs are boosting the demand for the entry level mobile sets.

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