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airtel Gadgets

Launch Of iPhone 4 In India Imminent

The launch of Apple’s latest iPhone 4 in India looks imminent. The company has just revamped the iPhone section on Apple India website to include details about the iPhone 4. The section now also contains a ‘Notify Me‘ link for users willing to notified in advance of the iPhone 4 launch details.

The development is in line with an announcement by Sanjay Kapoor, the CEO of Bharti Airtel for India and South Asia in July this year when he confirmed the availability of the phone by October of this year. The price of the new phone back then was speculated to be around Rs.40,000. For a perspective, Samsung Galaxy S is available for a price of Rs.29,000 in most Indian cities.

No details with respect to the carriers is available right now. But one can expect the new phone to be at least available with Vodafone and Bharti Airtel – the two carriers who have also carried Apple’s earlier iPhone models. While recent rumors have pointed out to the possibility of the iPhone arriving on CDMA carriers like Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications, it is not clear if any announcement whatsoever in this regard shall be made anytime soon.

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airtel Business Featured

Vodafone To Sell Minority Stake In Bharti Airtel

Vodafone Group Plc. (NASDAQ:VOD | LON:VOD) may be planning on selling off its minority 4.39% stake in Bharti Airtel – the India based telecom service provider who recently became the fifth largest network carrier in the world in terms of subscribers after its acquisition of Zain’s Africa operations. The value of its stake is worth to be over Rs.5,200 crore ($1.1 million).

This is not a Airtel-specific strategy. The UK based company, it is learned, has been weaning itself away from all the minority stakes that the company has been holding in several entities across the world. You may remember statements from Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao during the Q1 announcements when he said, “We are not here to manage minorities,”.

The company early held close to 10% stake in Bharti Airtel which was diluted to less than 5% after former Vodafone CEO, Arun Sarin purchased the 67% stake held by Hutchison in India’s rival network operated by the Hutchison-Essar group.

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airtel Featured Gadgets

iPhone 4 On Airtel Launch By October

The world may be talking about bumpers, antennagate and proximity sensors. But here in India, most people are still oblivious of that fact primarily because of two reasons – Apple is virtually non-existent here and iPhone 4 has not launched as yet.

That could change by September or October. This is according to Sanjay Kapoor who is presently the Bharti Airtel CEO for India and South Asia. While Kapoor did not delve much into the specifics about the launch date and pricing, it is believed to be priced close to 40,000 a piece (oops!).

A launch in October will also mean users will not be receiving the famed free-bumper that Apple has now been sending to all its customers after their new phone was found to be incapable of making phone calls. As Steve Jobs had noted, these bumpers will only be made available through September.

So there you go. Will you be shelling out 40K for an iPhone 4? Or will you go for the vastly superior Samsung Galaxy S that is priced much more reasonably?

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airtel airtel dth Consumer Electronics Featured

Internet TV Recording On Airtel Digital TV Recorder Launched

Bharti Airtel has been offering live TV recording via mobile phones to its Airtel Digital TV subscribers for quite sometime now. The company has now announced that Airtel Digital TV subscribers may now also browse TV shows on the internet and schedule recording over the internet.

An announcement in this regard was made by Mr.Sugato Banerji, CMO – DTH, Bharti Airtel recently. As with the mobile TV recording service, use of the internet based TV recording will require customers to be signed up to the Airtel Digital TV Recorder service.

Bharti Airtel is only the second DTH company in India to offer the TV recorder service. The feature was first made available on Tata Sky. Airtel’s offering comes with a capacity of up to 100 hours and 160GB of hard disk that is also equipped with HDMI port to allow connectivity with the TV display panels.

Will you be signing for the latest service?

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airtel airtel live Featured Telecom

Free Facebook For Airtel Live Customers

Bharti Airtel has announced a new offer by which customers can keep in touch with friends and family on Facebook for free. Accordingly, customers accessing Facebooks’s mobile page – http://m.facebook.com from their Airtel connected phone can browse through news feed, post status updates and view friend profiles without charge.

To access the service, users must first enable Airtel Live services which is activated for free by texting ‘LIVE’ to 543210 (toll-free). Once done, users may get the Facebook link by texting ‘FACEBOOK’ to 54321 (toll-free).

Airtel’s offer is clearly in a move to encourage more users to use their mobile phone for accessing internet. Also, this is not an unlimited time offer. Airtel has noted that free access to Facebook will end on August 15, 2010.

Nevertheless, this is a wonderful offer which I believe many of you may be interested in.

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airtel Featured Telecom

Bharti Airtel Uganda Investment To Cross $100 Million

Bharti Airtel will take its first steps on African soil in the country of Uganda. Speaking to Ugandan publication, the Daily Monitor, Manoj Kohli – the CEO of Bharti Airtel Africa spoke about his plans for Africa in general and Uganda in particular.

Uganda is among countries with the lowest tele-density in the world – at 30%. Bharti Airtel is learned to be investing over $100 million over the next two to three years to improve this tele-density by investing in the rural segment.

However, there are quite a few challenges for that to happen. The Ugandan market has one of the highest inter-connect fees in the world. Kohli has however indicated that the company shall partner with the government to reduce interconnect fees in favor of increasing penetration. He says that the company is aiming at becoming a market leader in the long term.

It will be interesting to see how that pans out.

Also read : Bharti Airtel Zambia Investment To Cross $150 Million

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airtel Featured Telecom

Bharti Airtel Zambia Investment To Cross $150 Million

Bharti Airtel, one of India’s leading telecom service providers that is currently the world’s fifth largest network in terms of the number of subscribers has said that the carrier will be investing over $150 million in Zambia to improve the network’s infrastructure in the country. This was informed by Manoj Kohli, the recently appointed CEO of Bharti Africa. The investment is expected to spread over the next 2 to 3 years.

Bharti Airtel completed its $9 billion acquisition of Zain Africa earlier this month. Despite the landmark acquisition, the network still lags behind MTN when it comes to the spread. However, Bharti Airtel is now the largest carrier in the Zambian market and is expected to consolidate this position by investing further in the infrastructure. The company has close to 3 million subscribers in Zambia.