Posted by: Aadisht on: February 5, 2008
(Cannot… resist… virgin… joke) Mint comes up with a perplexing paragraph: While this will be the first time Tata Teleservices will be partnering with a brand such as Virgin, Branson has already formed two similar alliances globally. (emphasis mine) So, it’s not Virgin’s first time, but it is Tata Teleservices’? I’m confused.
Posted by: Aadisht on: January 21, 2008
This Boston Globe oped (free registration might be required) is astonishing. The author, somebody named Jeremy Kahn, has violated the Sominism-cheat-sheet and Neelakantan’s guide to writing about India left, right, and centre. He appears to have actually understood the nuances of what he’s writing about! And he doesn’t mention caste, growing inequality, pollution, or elephants on [...]
Posted by: Aadisht on: October 17, 2007
Does anybody actually use EDGE on Airtel? If so, what do you actually do with it? what kind of speed do you get? how do you activate it? Your answers will help me form a decision about whether I should break the habit of four years and buy a high-end phone. (Specifically, is it feasible [...]
Posted by: Aadisht on: September 19, 2007
The much-hyped, long-in-development mChek seems to have gotten a little closer to mainstream commercialisation. Okay, it’s much hyped only if you follow the telecom sector and read BusinessWorld every week, but within that set of people, it’s hyped enough. mChek is basically this company/ product which allows you to use your mobile phone as either a [...]
Posted by: Aadisht on: January 17, 2007
Three months ago, I blogged about Airtel not coming up with anything new, and wondered if they’d been left behind in the innovation race. Very embarassing, considering all that they’ve been doing the past month. First up, there’s the Songcatcher service. The technology was invented in Europe a year or two ago, if I recall [...]
Posted by: Aadisht on: October 9, 2006
Although I’m a diehard Airtel loyalist- back in my Patiala days, I was a beneficiary of the price war dividend- I criticised them a few months ago for not doing what a tyro like Spice was doing. Now, I’m going to ask if they’ve dropped the innovation ball altogether. Their last major new VAS was [...]
Posted by: Aadisht on: October 7, 2006
Three months ago, I pointed out that telecom is a bad poster child for reform because it has an unfair advantage- the network effect. I wrote about how retail is a better poster child, and also sidetracked into services retailing, but left one question unanswered: is there another industry which could benefit as much from [...]
Posted by: Aadisht on: August 5, 2006
Caller ringback tones are not being utilised to their greatest possible extent. Their true value will be unlocked only when they become customisable. Right now, everyone who calls you hears there same ringback tone. For unmitigated fun, the tone would change depending on who was calling. Smita would call Ravi, for example and hear ‘Humein [...]
Posted by: Aadisht on: July 25, 2006
Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal have done more for lovers than he ever did.
Posted by: Aadisht on: March 3, 2006
Spice, the also-ran cellular operator in Karnataka has been trying to rebrand itself over the past few months. It doesn’t have the muscle or subscriber base of an Airtel or a Hutch, so it’s been fighting where it can: innovation in VAS. I’m not sure how much of a market some of their stuff would [...]