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• Bharti Airtel Plan Best for 1 Year Validity
• Street Furniture to Reduce 5G Network Rollout Cost in India: COAI DG, SP Kochhar
• BSNL Rs 470 Crore Land Asset Monetisation Didn’t See Success: Report
• MacBook Pro With M2 Might Not Feature 120Hz Refresh Rate Display
• Best 100 Mbps Broadband Plan for Work From Home in India
• What is BSNL Vanity Number and How to Get One
• Bharti Airtel to Prepare India for 5G With Rs 1.17 Lakh Crore Investment
• 500 Mbps High-Speed Broadband Plans to Improve Productivity
• iQOO 9 SE Arriving in India Could be a Rebranded Version of Another iQOO Smartphone
• Tecno Pop 5S Budget Smartphone Launched With Unisoc Chipset, Dual Cameras and More
• Reliance Jio Is Compensating Users With Two Days of Free Service

Bharti Airtel Plan Best for 1 Year Validity Posted: 07 Feb 2022 01:12 AM PST Bharti Airtel's prepaid plans are similar in benefits when it comes to what Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio are offering to their customers. Many users want a prepaid plan for long-term validity, such as one year, so that they can escape the hassle of recharging again and again. Airtel offers multiple recharge plans to users, which come with one-year validity. It all depends on the amount of data that a user wants from his/her plan. Let's check these plans out. Which Airtel Plan is Best for 1 Year Bharti Airtel plan that is best for 1-year for an average consumer with average data needs is the Rs 2999 plan. While this sounds very expensive, this is the best data-centric plan that you can get from Airtel if you are looking for yearly validity. Airtel also offers a more affordable option than this for one year, which costs Rs 1799, but with this plan, users get only 24GB of data. However, with the Rs 2999 plan, users get 2GB of daily data, which means the total about of data offered by this plan is 730GB. Further, with the Rs 2999 plan, users get 100 SMS/day and truly unlimited voice calling throughout the year. Users are also entitled to get Airtel Thanks benefits with this plan. Airtel Thanks benefits include a free trial subscription to Amazon Prime Video Mobile for one month, Airtel Xstream Premium, Wynk Music, and more. What is Airtel Rs 3359 Plan The Rs 3359 prepaid plan from Bharti Airtel comes with the same benefits as the Rs 2999 plan. This means, with the Rs 3359 plan as well, users get 2GB of daily data, unlimited voice calling, and 100 SMS/day for 365 days, along with Airtel Thanks benefits. The only extra benefit that Rs 3359 plan offers over the Rs 2999 plan is a bundled subscription of Disney+ Hotstar Mobile Edition for one-year. If you plan on purchasing the Disney+ Hotstar Mobile Edition plan, which costs Rs 499 and also has prospects of purchasing the Rs 2999 plan from Airtel, you will save a little money by going for the Rs 3359 plan, which brings both together.

Street Furniture to Reduce 5G Network Rollout Cost in India: COAI DG, SP Kochhar Posted: 07 Feb 2022 12:30 AM PST Street furniture is really important for the 5G network rollout in India, believes Lt. General, Dr SP Kochhar, DG, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). 5G networks would involve frequencies in high-spectrum bands such as 3.3 GHz – 3.6 GHz. With high frequencies, the reach of network signals can be disturbed through basic objects, people, trees, and more. Thus, to ensure that 5G networks are available with proper coverage with high-capacity, one way to go about it is setting up mobile towers at a distance of every hundred metres or something near that range. However, that doesn't make sense, believes Kochhar. "We have to look around in the environment and what we find is electricity poles, and telephone poles, are approximately set up at distances of 100 metres. If we are permitted to just mount our antennas onto these poles, then we have an environment which is readymade, where we can roll out 5G of a very high standard at lower power output, and it will cover about 10 metres to hundred meters, but the capacities will be huge," Kochhar told TelecomTalk. "The capacities may go up to 100 times of what we are getting now. Speeds will go up substantially, and therefore we are asking that we should be permitted access to these towers, which we locally call street furniture. It also includes other things such as rooftops of government buildings, and such nature." TRAI and DoT Working on Policy for the Use of Street Furniture Since the electricity poles, mobile towers, and more haven't been used for setting up small cells as street furniture; the telcos don't have a clear guideline or a way in sight which can help them in understanding how to best utilise the resources available for rolling out 5G networks. Thus, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) are working to roll out regulations and policies for the same. "It will not increase the cost for the rollout of 5G. We are asking the government to not charge levies and taxes, and rentals for the use of these poles. A policy and regulation need to be put in place, which is non-existent today to determine how these poles can be used to rollout 5G," Kochhar added. But street furniture won't be required everywhere. In rural areas, mobile towers are sufficient as there's no real need for high-capacity networks there. "Both TRAI and DoT are working on this to roll out regulation and a policy. In areas where the capacity doesn't matter that much, such as rural areas, there we will go for traditional towers as we have been doing so far."

BSNL Rs 470 Crore Land Asset Monetisation Didn’t See Success: Report Posted: 06 Feb 2022 11:34 PM PST Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) was trying to monetise its non-core assets and was assessing that it could potentially raise Rs 470 crore through that. But reportedly, the move from the telco has gone unsuccessful. The state-run telco was selling its land assets on multiple locations, but it hasn't seen much positive response for the same. According to a Business Standard report, an official from the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) said, initially, a lot of interest in such assets was expressed, but now, the specific issues and problems are being determined to overcome the challenges of sale of these assets. BSNL Needs Money Through These Assets for 4G Capex and More The state-run telco needs money from the sale of these assets so that it can meet the 4G capex expectations. In November 2021, DIPAM had listed six properties of BSNL and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) for sale which included land parcels of BSNL along with land and residential flats owned by MTNL in Mumbai. From these six properties, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) was expecting a revenue of Rs 3,000 crore. However, it wasn't anything like that since only a few MTNL flats got a positive response. The land parcels in Hyderabad and Rajpura estimated at Rs 400 crore and Rs 70 crore did not get any response. The bidding for all the unsold assets will happen again. The DoT will also be infusing around Rs 45,000 crore in the coming financial year into BSNL which will help with the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) along with purchasing 4G spectrum. The money would also include a grant-in-aid for tax which will be put on the purchase of 4G spectrum. BSNL is working with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) along with the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) for rolling out homegrown 4G. For that, the telco will have to make a ton of investments and increase capex on networks. Thus, the monetary help from the government is going to make a big difference.

MacBook Pro With M2 Might Not Feature 120Hz Refresh Rate Display Posted: 06 Feb 2022 10:57 PM PST Apple's new MacBook Pro with the M2 chipset is reportedly not going to feature the 120Hz refresh rate display. Apple calls its 120Hz refresh rate display as 'ProMotion Display'. For the first time with the MacBook Pro 14-inch and the MacBook Pro 16-inch launched with M1 Pro and M1 Max chipsets in 2021, Apple had introduced the ProMotion display for Macs. It makes working on the laptop a seamless experience for the users. But according to a new update from Mark Gurman from Bloomberg, Apple is not going to bring the ProMotion display technology for its M2 powered MacBook Pros. Why Will MacBook Pro With M2 Not Feature ProMotion Display The reason could be to differentiate the premium and more powerful MacBook Pros from the entry-level MacBook Pros. Just look at today's MacBook Pro lineup. The M1 powered MacBook Pro doesn't have the ProMotion display while the M1 Pro and M1 Max chipset powered MacBook Pro comes with ProMotion support. Thus, it is more likely that the M2 Pro and M2 Max powered MacBook Pro in the future might come with support for ProMotion. Then again, the alleged MacBook Air with M2 chipset that is expected to launch later this year might also lack support for the high-refresh-rate support on its display. A clear distinction between the M1 chipset and the M2 chipset is yet to be seen. The M2 powered MacBook Air and MacBook Pro are still expected to deliver a powerful experience to the consumers. Apple is expected to launch a wide range of Mac products in the coming year. However, it is hard to say that the company will launch the M2 powered MacBook Pro in 2022. The last time Apple launched the M1 chipset, it launched it with both the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. It's worth the wait to see whether Apple will launch two new MacBooks this year or whether the MacBook Air 2022 will be the sole release from the company.

Best 100 Mbps Broadband Plan for Work From Home in India Posted: 06 Feb 2022 09:01 PM PST There are many internet service providers in India which offer 100 Mbps broadband plans. But today, we are going to talk about one plan from a particular operator which is the best in terms of providing benefits with its 100 Mbps plan. Before we jump into the plan, let's talk a little about why the 100 Mbps plan is perfect for most people working from home. While it is not the fastest speed that fiber broadband connections can offer today, the 100 Mbps plans can easily carry out the demand for most of the basic internet activities. Not just basic, but with a steady Wi-Fi network, users can also do heavy data downloading or uploading activities very easily. Even if there are multiple users in a home or multiple devices connected to the same Wi-Fi network, the 100 Mbps plans can fulfil your data needs. 100 Mbps Broadband Plan that is Best in India Excitel, a fast-growing internet service provider (ISP) in India, is offering its 100 Mbps plan for Rs 699 per month. While this is the same cost that JioFiber users will have to incur for the 100 Mbps plan, Excitel's plan has a few edges that JioFiber can't cut through. First of all, Excitel's broadband plan comes with truly unlimited data. This means users don't need to worry about the amount of data they can consuming every month, so the possibilities are endless. Further, if users go for the long-term plan options, the monthly price of the 100 Mbps plan from Excitel can drop to Rs 399, which is arguably the lowest in the market. Excitel doesn't bundle in free over-the-top (OTT) benefits, but the company does offer the 'OTT Entertainment Plan 2.0' with the 100 Mbps plan in partnership with Playbox TV for Rs 799 per month plus taxes. Note that even JioFiber users don't get any free OTT benefits. However, JioFiber users don't get paid OTT plans either. This makes Excitel's 100 Mbps broadband plan one of the best in the market.

What is BSNL Vanity Number and How to Get One Posted: 06 Feb 2022 08:20 PM PST Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) offers vanity numbers to its users. If the word sounds a little alien to you, don't worry, it is only a substitute for fancy numbers. All the telcos offer fancy numbers of VIP numbers to customers. A vanity number is BSNL's fancy or VIP number that it offers to subscribers. The special thing about these numbers is that it has a combination of digits that is unique and easy to remember. These sorts of numbers are not offered for free to the customers, though. Here's how you can get a BSNL vanity number. How Can I Get BSNL Vanity Number BSNL offers vanity numbers or fancy numbers to customers through e-auction. Note that these numbers are available for every citizen of India, regardless they are prepaid or postpaid customers of the state-run telco. If you want to grab a BSNL premium number, you need to register yourself on the e-auction page of the telco. BSNL e-auction is a page of the telco where you can see unit numbers being offered to the customers via an auction process. The bidding, in some cases, can be very heavy and isn't meant for everyone. There are different patterns and kinds of numbers available on the BSNL e-auction page so that users get plenty of options. These numbers keep on getting updated, so if you don't find a BSNL vanity number that's of your interest, you can keep checking for the new ones. Users can sign-up for free on the BSNL e-auction website offers free sign up to customers. But for getting a number, users need to bid and pay to BSNL. The great thing about BSNL's vanity numbers is that it allows customers to choose their own numbers. Even the private telcos offer these numbers; you can check them out by going to their website. The base price of each number is determined by the state-run telco.

Bharti Airtel to Prepare India for 5G With Rs 1.17 Lakh Crore Investment Posted: 06 Feb 2022 06:50 PM PST Bharti Airtel, India's second-largest telecom operator, will be spending about Rs 1.17 lakh crore in the next five years on its subsidiaries, namely Nxtra, Indus Towers, and Bharti Hexacom. This money is largely to prepare the digital infrastructure of India, which will help the telco in rolling out 5G services efficiently. Airtel plans to spend about Rs 88,000 crore out of the Rs 1.17 lakh crore on Indus Towers alone. Indus Towers, a mobile tower company, will be able to proliferate the number of towers across the country, which will help the telcos with providing a better 5G coverage and ready the digital infra of the country. According to a PTI report, the telco will be spending about Rs 17,000 crore per financial year until the next four years and Rs 20,000 crore in FY2025-26 on transactions with Indus Towers. This will take the total tally of investments of Airtel in Indus Towers to Rs 88,000 crore. Bharti Airtel to Also Spend Money on Nxtra Nxtra by Airtel is the telco's data centre business and is also the company with the largest network of data centres in India. Bharti Airtel will be spending about Rs 15,000 crore for availing services of Nxtra along with Rs 14,000 crore with Bharti Hexacom. Nxtra by Airtel is investing aggressively in increasing the capacity of its data centres as the demand for cloud services is going up. Further, Nxtra is also making investments in green energy power plants and aims to fulfil more than 50% of its energy requirements through solar power or green energy. Airtel's board is also scheduled to meet on February 26 for seeking approval to sell 1.28% of the stake in the company to Google for a $700 million investment. For the unaware, Airtel will be getting an investment of up to $1 billion from Google, out of which $700 will be for equity and $300 million for forming multi-year deals.

500 Mbps High-Speed Broadband Plans to Improve Productivity Posted: 06 Feb 2022 05:33 PM PST With the ever-growing competition across industries in India, the internet becomes a crucial infrastructure. While most enterprises tend to ignore it, high-speed connectivity can actually help increase the productivity of the company/firm. Slow internet speed results in the loss of productivity which when calculated on a yearly basis, can be really significant. Hence, it's always recommended to have a high-speed connection from a business point-of-view and internet service providers (ISPs) in the country have just the broadband plans. While users can always go for 1 Gbps broadband plans, it might get expensive sometimes. Mentioned are the 500 Mbps plans offered by a few of the major ISPs in the country – Reliance Jio, ACT and Tata Play Fiber along with the pack details. JioFiber 500 Mbps Plan When it comes to a 500 Mbps plan JioFiber has a pack that comes with multiple benefits. JioFiber offers a 500 Mbps plan at a cost of Rs 2,499 per month. The plan offers a symmetrical upload and download speed of 500 Mbps and provides seamless connectivity across multiple devices. In addition to this Jio offers a ton of OTT subscriptions which include access to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar and thirteen others. The Amazon Prime Video that comes bundled with this plan has a validity period of one year. It is to be noted that the price of the plan is excluding GST and it will be charged as applicable. Users can access the plan from the official website of Reliance Jio. ACT Broadband The Internet Service Provider based in Bengaluru provides multiple office plans available on the company's website. One of these plans is a 500 Mbps plan. Users can get access to the 'ACT Enterprises Ultrafast Plus' plan from the company that offers 500 Mbps of internet speed at a price tag of Rs 7,000 per month. The plan has a FUP limit of 2.8TB beyond which the speed reduces to 3 Mbps. Using state-of-the-art fibre technology, the connection provides incredible speed and equal upload and download speed. Tata Play Fiber 500 Mbps Plan Tata Sky recently changed their moniker to Tata Play Fiber, the plans, however, remained the same. The unlimited 500 Mbps plan from Tata Play Fiber comes at a monthly cost of Rs 2,300. Users can get this plan for the long term too, as the company offers the 500 Mbps plan for different validity periods. For a period of three months, users can get the plan for Rs 6,900, for a validity period of six months, the plan costs Rs 12,900 on which users actually save Rs 900 and lastly for a period of one year the plan costs Rs 24,600 saving Rs 3000 for the users. Tata Play Fiber uses a 100% fibre network to ensure end-to-end connectivity with fibre optics directly running from the service provider to users' homes. This results in a seamless and consistent internet experience with high-speed connectivity. Users receive 3300GB or 3.3TB of Fair Usage Policy (FUP) data along with this broadband plan after which the speed is reduced to 3 Mbps. It is also to be noted that this plan is available in only selected cities across the country due to technical feasibility and users must check with their provider to know about the availability.

iQOO 9 SE Arriving in India Could be a Rebranded Version of Another iQOO Smartphone Posted: 06 Feb 2022 07:27 AM PST The Chinese smartphone manufacturer iQOO, originally founded as the subsidiary of Vivo is gearing up for the launch of its iQOO 9 series of smartphones in India. The company has announced an iQOO 9 SE model for the series along with iQOO 9, and iQOO 9 Pro. The iQOO 9 SE model wasn't launched along with the other devices in China. There have been a few reports regarding the iQOO 9 SE smartphone in the past, however, a new report suggests that it might be a rebranded version of another iQOO device. Details on Upcoming iQOO 9 SE As per the previous reports, iQOO 9 SE is going to be launched with a 6.62-inch AMOLED panel that offers a Full HD+ resolution as well as a triple rear camera setup. On the other hand, iQOO 9 SE will feature a Snapdragon 888 chipset whereas the flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen1 will arrive with the Pro model of the iQOO 9 series. It is expected that it will have a starting price tag of somewhere around Rs 35,000 meaning that it could compete with other devices from the brands in the same segment such as OnePlus 9RT, Xiaomi 11T Pro, and Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G. Based on the above-mentioned specifications and details, it seems like the iQOO 9 SE to be launched in India could very well be the rebranded version of iQOO Neo 5 SE launched in China back in December 2021. Specification Details for iQOO Neo 5 SE iQOO Neo 5 SE comes with a display featuring a 6.62-inch full-HD+ LCD display with a 144Hz refresh rate. The device operates on Android 12 based OriginOS and has dual nano sim slots. The handset features a Snapdragon 870 chipset under the hood which is paired up with up to 12GB of RAM and up to 256GB UFS 3.1 storage. The processor on iQOO Neo 5 SE, however, is not the same as expected for the iQOO 9 SE model. The handset also has a unique cooling feature. Talking about the camera module of this model, iQOO Neo 5 SE features a triple rear camera setup as well but with a 50MP primary camera and an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera as well as a 2MP macro lens. The device is backed by a 4500mAH battery and supports 55W fast charge technology.

Tecno Pop 5S Budget Smartphone Launched With Unisoc Chipset, Dual Cameras and More Posted: 06 Feb 2022 03:43 AM PST The Chinese smartphone manufacturer Tecno has just launched a new device in Mexico. The brand is known for its smartphones in the affordable price segment. To recall, the company launched its Tecno Pop Series last month which consisted of three devices – Tecno Pop 5, Tecno Pop 5 Pro and Tecno Pop 5X. Now the brand has come up with its Tecno Pop 5S which has been officially launched in Mexico. Mentioned below are the price and specification details of the latest smartphone in the Tecno Pop series. Tecno Pop 5S Specifications The newly launched Tecno Pop 5S comes with a display featuring a 5.7-inch LCD display with a teardrop notch and a thick chin. The display of the handset offers an HD+ resolution of 720x1520pixels with 292 PPI density and has an 84% screen to body ratio. The device doesn't offer a fingerprint scanner but comes with an in-display face unlock. The all-new Tecno Pop 5S features a 1.4GHz quad-core Unisoc SC98632E processor under the hood and comes with 2GB of RAM along with 32GB of onboard storage which can be expanded via a microSD card. As far as the software is considered, the smartphone operates on Android 10 Go Edition out of the box. The handset also comes with dual SIM card support. Talking about the camera module of the device, Tecno Pop 5S comes with a dual rear camera setup headlined by a 5MP primary camera along with an AI lens. The front of the device features a 2MP selfie camera with an LED flash. The handset is backed by a Non-Removable Li-Po 3020mAh battery. Connectivity options on the device include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS, Bluetooth v4.2, a 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio, and a micro-USB port. Tecno Pop 5S measures 148 x 72.3 x 9.9mm and weighs 160 grams. Price Details of Tecno Pop 5S The all-new Tecno Pop 5S launched in Mexico comes at a price tag of MXN 2,239 which is somewhere around Rs 8,081 falling in a super-budget smartphone category. The device has been made available in two colour options – Green and Purple. The brand is yet to announce the availability of the handset.

Reliance Jio Is Compensating Users With Two Days of Free Service Posted: 06 Feb 2022 01:37 AM PST Reliance Jio users in Mumbai had to face a network down scenario on Saturday. According to some users, the network was down for them for almost eight hours. To compensate for the same, Jio is giving users two days of free service which will be added to their number automatically. The current plan that the users have subscribed to will be extended for two more days. Reliance Jio users who were affected by the network going down are getting a text from the company which says, "As a goodwill gesture, we are extending a 2-DAY RENTAL CREDIT that will get applied to your number automatically. The complimentary rental credit will reflect in your next bill." The Second Time Jio is Offering Such Benefit to Customers Reliance Jio had offered users two extra days of services the last time the telco's networks were down in 2021. This benefit will only be offered to the customers who were affected and not the entire user base of the telco. What's sad is that Reliance Jio never came out with an official statement explaining the reason why its networks went down. The company didn't respond to the queries of TelecomTalk, and it was the same case last year. This is the second time in two years that Jio's networks have gone down for hours. Two days of extra service for most people would mean that they are getting a benefit of Rs 20 – Rs 40 from Jio. While against the same, they lost network connectivity for hours which is just not the same in value for what they are getting. However, something is better than nothing. Hopefully, Jio has addressed the issue properly, and this doesn't repeat as the telco is regarded as the largest operator in the country. Note that the company hasn't confirmed that this benefit is being extended to every user affected.

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