In a bid to bypass the controversial first right of refusal (RoFR), which Essar says it enjoys if its JV partner Hutchison were to sell its 67 per cent stake in Hutch Essar, some of the bidders in the fray are said to be exploring the possibility of picking up Hutchison Whampoa's 49.8 per cent stake in Hutchison International (HTIL).

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has asked the Group of Ministers (GoM) on telecom spectrum to direct the Ministry of Defence to immediately release 20 Mhz spectrum in the 1,800 Mhz band for mobile phone operators. Further, it wants the defence ministry to commit to releasing complete spectrum of 75 Mhz pairs in the 1,800 Mhz band over the next three years.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has issued a notification where by the accounting separation reports of mobile operators will have to be put on the Net for the public to view. Consumers will now be able to inspect the costs, revenues and profits of mobile operators under different heads of services including basic, roaming and other value added services.

The government-owned telecom service provider, BSNL has slammed all private operators for demanding that the government allow them to use the government-owned service provider's infrastructure for a price. In a strongly worded communication to Trai, BSNL has said that private operators had taken licences well aware of the risks, opportunities and returns in the market and should have prepared their business models accordingly, rather than demand that the government-owned service provider share its network.

Even as the UK based Vodafone is looking to exit Bharti and pick up stake in Hutchison Essar, SingTel has evinced interest in increasing its stake in Bharti Airtel. Singapore's leading telecom operator Sing tel on January 16 said it was committed to the long term potential of the Indian market and would consider raising its stake in Bharti Airtel if it was offered right terms and conditions.

The Rs 28 billion mobile value added services (VAS) industry is complaining of high handedness from operators on billing issues and revenue sharing. According to VAS providers, the number of downloads (of games, themes, wallpapers, movie clips etc.) reported by operators every month are at least 20-30 per cent lower than what they (VAS providers) claim. Operators, on the other hand disagree with these accusations.

For private telecom players, Delhi and Mumbai continue to be the two largest revenue generators. According to latest data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), one of the two metros is the top revenue earner for all leading private telcom. If Delhi is the top market for Bharti Airtel, Mumbai leads the pack for Reliance Communications RCL), Hutch Essar (HEL) and Tata Teleservcies.

There is value locked in telecom towers that's what India's cellular operators have realised. Bharti Airtel has plans to hive off its wireless towers (which are used to transmit cellular telephony signals) into a separate company, Reliance Communications (R-Comm) is spinning its infrastructure into a fully owned subsidiary, and the Essar group, which holds 33 per cent in mobile operator Hutchison Essar has, created Telecom Tower and infrastructure to construct telecom towers, which will be leased out to private operators.

Sony Ericsson K-8OOi perfectly fits into the slot of a "dream phone". It includes almost all the features that a digital camera has. It also has got FM radio, mp3/aac /mpeg4 player and 3G, USB, Bluetooth, Infrared complete with a 64 MB internal memory which can be expandable with an additional memory micro card.

China Netcom Group, the smaller of the country's two fixed line operators, said on January 16 it will sell its loss making telecoms assets in China's Guangdong province and Shanghai to its state owned parent for 3.5 billion yuan ($449 million). The company is expected to post a profit of 711 million yuan from the disposal of the fixed line telephone services units based on the assets' net asset value of 2.79 billion yuan as of end June last year, it said.