Spice in March

Spice Telecom, the oldest cellular service provider in Karnataka, has lived up to its reputation of continuously being in the news...

Last month, the company announced its foray into the handset market with four new handset models. This month, Spice has announced the launch of a few interesting schemes like "Calling India," an offer giving attractive STD rates. Spice customers - both prepaid and postpaid, can now make calls anywhere in the country for just Rs 1. It will cost Spice customers 30 paise to make calls to other Spice phones, and Rs 1 to other phones.

Spice has also announced an offer on SMS services, proposing a charge of 30 paise for every local or national SMS on a package involving a Rs 49 monthly rental. The ISD rates are charged at Rs 7.2 per minute.

Navin Kaul, chief operating officer, Spice Telecom, said that the drive behind this tariff is to give the best of the rates in the industry to Spice customers.

Further - according to latest reports - Spice has added new cell towers across the state of Karnataka covering areas including Yarmal, Uchila, Hejamadi, Mulki, Karkala Road, Paradise Island Resort, Malpe Beach, etc, to offer clarity in voice and coverage to its subscribers.

Apparently the company has also carried out a new system doubling of the switch capacity, thereby increasing the network's capacity to accommodate more subscribers as also helping in maintaining service quality.

Paypal Going Mobile

aypal - the online payment service owned by eBay, is reportedly testing a new offering that allows consumers to make purchases and money transfers using simple text messaging through mobile phones.

The latest service dubbed "PayPal Mobile," is currently being tested by several eBay employees, and is slated to launch in the next couple of weeks in USA, UK and Canada - with over 55 other countries expected to follow suit.

PayPal Mobile promises to allow people make payments, buy various items, etc, using mobile devices. PayPal Mobile offers two options for transferring funds by phone; payments can either be sent over the phone via a text message, or a call can be made to an automated customer service system, and funds can be transmitted using voice commands.

In case of either option, users have to first register their mobile devices with PayPal's Web site and select a code to protect themselves against unauthorized users.

If the user opts for text messaging, he/she has to send a text message containing the amount to be transferred and the recipient's phone number to PayPal. The sender is then called back by a PayPal computer, and asked to confirm the transaction. Post this, PayPal immediately notifies the recipient and tells him/her how to claim the payment online.

In the event the user chooses the second option, he/she has to call 1-800-4PAYPAL for the transaction to be realized.

PayPal says that its PayPal Mobile service might effectively transform mobile phones into electronic wallets of sorts...

Microsoft Delays Vista

In an announcement, the company has pushed-back the launch of its already delayed Vista to consumers - from late 2006 to early 2007, quoting the reason that PC manufacturers need sufficient time to test the running of this platform on their systems. But yes - the business version will arrive till November 2006, though home users will have to wait until Jan 2007.

Jim Allchin, co-president, Microsoft Corp, said that the industry requires greater lead time to deliver Windows Vista on new PCs during the holiday season, and that hence the company has decided to separate business from consumer availability.

Windows Vista is being awaited with baited breath - especially since it is Microsoft's first major update to its operating system - since the launch of Windows XP in late 2001.

Currently available in limited beta version, Microsoft plans to make available six versions of Windows Vista. Vista promises to be an improvement over Windows XP in terms of security functions and a quicker start-up. Yet it is believed that when Vista releases, some of the key features that were originally intended - will be conspicuously absent.

Although disappointment hangs in the air post Microsoft's announcement, most users are in agreement over the premise that it is better for Microsoft to ship a completed product rather than one like the much criticized Windows XP.

Sify introducing Mobile Shoping

Things just got better for mobile phone users on GPRS services! Sify Limited's online shopping portal, www.sifymall.com, has announced a tie-up with JiGrahak - a mobility solutions provider, to enable millions of mobile phone users on GPRS services to buy a wide variety of products and services over their phones.

SifyMall will utilise JiGrahak's m-commerce/m-payment platform "NGPay" (Next Generation Pay), in order to provide the new mobile shopping service.

Speaking at the launch, Surya Mantha, senior vice president - interactive services, SifyMall, said, "We are happy to be working with JiGrahak in bringing secure M-Commerce services to the millions of mobile subscribers using GPRS services in India. With the Indian mobile subscriber base growing at the rate of about 2 million users a month, and expected to touch 200 million by 2007, the potential for mobile shopping is huge. We expect to grow the mobile shopping service space with this 'one-of-its kind' offering, and work towards being a leader in this area. In addition to buying products and services from SifyMall, Sify broadband users can now also renew their broadband subscriptions through this application, using their mobiles for convenience."

Sourabh Jain, partner, JiGrahak Mobility Solutions, said, "JiGrahak is excited to have Sify on board the NGPay platform. The potential of 'Anytime, Anywhere' commerce has been talked about since quite some time, but technology and business challenges have remained. We believe that NGPay would help realize this immense potential, and define the world of mobile commerce and mobile payments. End-users from around the world can download and use (free-of-cost) the NGPay application on their mobile handsets from anywhere in the world, provided they have a J2ME-enabled phone and an appropriate GPRS subscription."

Other than basic models, most mobile phones are GPRS compatible. Users can call their service operators to enable GPRS facility on their phones, so that they can shop over their phones, book airline tickets online, browse websites, etc. With a GPRS-enabled mobile connection, users can log on to www.ngpay.com and download the NGPay application on to their mobile handsets.

Once installed, this application can then be used to shop "Anytime, Anywhere" for various products such as flowers, books, Movie DVDs and VCDs on SifyMall.com.

To start with, payments can be made using credit cards; later users can graduate to making payments from bank accounts.