T20 World Cup 2016:Reliance Jio offering free unlimited Wi-Fi at 6 stadiums

There’s good news for cricket fans in India planning to watch the upcoming T20 World Cup matches live at stadiums. Reliance Jio today announced free high-speed Wi-Fi with unlimited downloads at six stadiums across the country.

The service offered by Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited’s Jionet will be available in Bangalore (M Chinnaswamy Stadium), Dharmashala (Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium) , Kolkata (Eden Gardens), Mohali (Punjab Cricket Association Stadium), New Delhi (Feroz Shah Kotla) and Mumbai (Wankhede Stadium). The service provider has fixed a certain range to allow only spectators inside these stadiums to have access.

Here’s how spectators can connect to Jionet services:

*Activate Wi-Fi on the smartphone and select ‘Reliance JioNet WiFi’
*Visit the login page
*Enter mobile number and generate OTP (sent via SMS)
*Log-in with the OTP

The OTP is valid for 24 hours only. The user will be automatically logged out if there is no internet activity for 30 minutes. Jionet claims to offer download speeds of 50 mbps. 

Recently, it claims to have tested the same during a match at Wankhede in which downloads of over 22TB occured on its networks.

“To make this possible, Jionet’s Wi-Fi access points (APs) will cover the entire stadium with a seating capacity of minimum 20,000. Jionet High Density is designed to provide stable high-quality Wi-Fi coverage to individuals in a densely packed groups, at which standard Wi-Fi deployments fail. High-Density Wi-Fi (HD Wi-Fi) creates lots of small radio footprints so as to be able to cater for pockets of clients in localised areas across the stadium. Thus, keeping the radio traffic between the user and the AP low, avoiding interference and congestion both,” the company said in a statement.

Vodafone extended “Double Data offer” to all circles

Vodafone announced that it has extended ” Double Data Offer ” to all its circles. This announcement came when other operators are hiking data tariffs, and after Airtel launched 4G services in more than 296 cities, providing 4G data at 3G rates.

Double Data Offer is a limited period offer for Vodafone India subscribers across all the circles. Under this offer, the subscriber will be eligible for receiving double the quota of their original data pack that is availed from 121 platform during the offer period.

Unlike the older offer, this new offer is available for recharges done through either electronic mode at retailer, using paper vouchers, or using the online mode or debit mode (direct debit or USSD). This is surely quite delightful for Vodafone India data users. Hurry! This offer expires on the 30th of October 2015.

Continuing with its endeavour towards improving overall customer experience, Vodafone India invested over Rs 1000 crores in Mumbai to strengthen its network by putting up over 950 new 3G sites and expand its retail footprint with the opening of 11 new Vodafone Global Design Stores.

Airtel launches 4G Services Pan India in 296 towns

After rolling out 4G trials in many cities, Airtel has just commercially launched its 4G services in 296 towns across India. This makes it the first company to make the fast new 4G services available to the public.

Airtel is giving away free 4G SIM cards to all compatible users, and promises to provide SIM cards within four hours at the users’ doorstep. To request for a free 4G SIM card, head over here http://www.airtel.in/4g/ get your free 4G SIM. Delivered at your door step for free here

The company is offering its 4G services at very low rates starting at Rs 25. Additionally, Airtel is offering six months of unlimited music streaming and downloads on ‘Wynk Music’ and five free movies per month for six months on the Eros Now channel of ‘Wynk Movies’.

It has also introduced the new Infinity Plan that starts at Rs 999. This plan offers unlimited voice calls on mobile, along with data benefits. It has also entered into alliance with Samsung and Flipkart to promote its new 4G service.

Airtel has launched a dedicated website, where users can check if their number is eligible for a 4G upgrade, and whether they can request for a free 4G SIM card or not. The company has also introduced 4G dongles, and home Wi-Fi modems starting at Rs 1,400 and Rs 1,500 respectively.

The company has just released an ad which boasts of really fast speed with Airtel 4G, while also claiming that a full movie can be downloaded in just three minutes.

Watch the ad below:

DoT panel report recommends to regulate WhatsApp,Skype,Viber supports net neutrality

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has released its final report on Net Neutrality after months of intense debate and discussions on the internet freedom over the past few months.

An internal panel of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has recommended domestic VoIP (voice over internet protocol) calls offered by WhatsApp, Skype and Viber be regulated, in line with voice calls offered by telecom operators. However, the committee has a “liberal approach” when it comes to international VoIP services and messaging apps. As per TRAI’s calculations voice calls offered by telecom companies are about 12.5 times more expensive than those through OTT services; in the case of messages, the difference is 16 times. For a one-minute phone call, a customer is charged about 50 paise, while a one-minute call made through the internet costs four paisa.

Where OTT services like WhatsApp, Viber, Facebook Messenger are concerned, the recommendations of the committee say that such application services should be actively encouraged and that regulatory norms are not required for messaging OTTs. The panel has opposed projects like Facebook’s Internet.org, which allow access to certain websites without mobile data charges, while suggesting that similar plans such as Airtel Zero be allowed with prior clearance from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or TRAI.

According to the report, the primary goals of public policy in the context of Net Neutrality should be directed towards achievement of developmental aims of the country by facilitating “Affordable Broadband”, “Quality Broadband” and “Universal Broadband” for its citizens. Together, the DoT panel’s report and Trai’s recommendations will decide the final norms on net neutrality. 

Videocon offering Free 750MB Data for first time users

Videocon Telecom,  announced free Data for its all Non data users subscribers as an initiative to educate and encourage them to start using data and get digitally connected. The telco also sets up a free helpline and extends demonstration stations at all its Exclusive branded ‘Videocon Connect’ Retail to educate them on the knowhow of data usage. With a trial offer of 750 MB of free data for all such subscribers valid for 2 months, the telco plans to give away over 1,500 Tera byte of free data to such subscribers.

Mr. Arvind Bali, Director & CEO, Videocon Telecommunications Ltd. said, “Its said charity begins at home, and as a part of PM’s ‘Digital India’ initiative, we wanted to initiate something for our own customers to start with. We have been taking initiatives to increase our data penetration month on month, and as we speak we have a good mobile internet penetration of 64% odd on customers with data enabled handsets. Yet there is a set of customers who despite owning a data enabled handset have not used data since they came aboard on our Network.

The telco conducted a study on these non-data users to understand their reasons for not using data, and found out that over 86% of these non users having data enabled handsets aspire to use data but are reluctant to do so. The study suggested the 2 key reasons being 1) Inadequate knowledge and that initial hesitation to ask someone on knowhow. 2) Perception of data cost being high.

The telco’s plans to address both these concerns by educating such first time users thru a newly setup Digital helpline and demonstration stations at its exclusive branded ‘Videocon Connect’ stores. These first time users will be extended basic knowhow of using mobile data including browsing the net, using search engines, setting up various social media accounts etc. The telco will also be offering free data of 750 MB valid for 2 months as a trial offer for all such subscribers. To avail this free data, subscribers will just needs to give a missed call on a pre-defined no, and based on eligibility, subscriber will be extended free data followed by a call from the Digital Helpline on the knowhow. With the initiative, the telco is also expecting customers to upgrade their handsets to data enabled handsets.