Truecaller on Tuesday at its ‘Stay ahead’ event introduced Truecaller 8 with a redesign of the Android app and new features. The company has tied-up with Airtel, Google and ICICI Bank to introduce new features to the app.

The app will allow users to identify SMS from unknown numbers among other feature additions.

The app makers have partnered with Airtel to launch ‘Airtel Truecaller ID’ extending caller ID feature to Airtel’s non-data users using feature phones which will be delivered to users via Flash SMS before the call hits the users mobile. The service is subscription based.

In a strategic agreement with Google, Truecaller will be integrating within the app which will be available in the coming months for Android and iOS as a permission-based service, where users will be able to opt-in and out at any time.
Users can now send pre-defined messages to any Truecaller user to let them know if they’re in distress.

Another feature called ‘Truecaller Pay’ in collaboration with ICICI Bank, will allow users to send or receive money over their mobile phone.

“We have been able to build a mobile identity platform and ecosystem that more and more people are relying on a daily basis to build safe and meaningful services on top of it – and today we’re finally able to showcase the true potential of Truecaller,” said Alan Mamedi, CEO and Co-founder, Truecaller.

“ While the Truecaller journey is full of new features to help you solve your daily communication needs, for the first time, we are venturing into a territory that goes beyond knowing who is calling, but once again, it’s an adventure that touches millions of users,” added Mamedi

Also, TrueSDK will support iOS and web platforms, making it easier for developers to create unified experiences across platform for their end users. The company said that the number of apps leveraging TrueSDK has grown by over 8 times.

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Reliance Jio’s Happy New Year offer is going to end on March 31, after which the subscribers will have to start paying in order to continue using the network service. Following the announcement of Jio as the latest entrant in the telecom sector, more than a 100 million subscribers were added to the network. But according to a new report, as the offers are nearing an end, the response to the network has been lukewarm at best. TV channel ET Now reported that not many customers have opted for Reliance Jio’s Prime offers.

Jio Prime membership is the latest offering by the company which has been aimed towards softening the blow on the consumers who will have to pay for the service before March 31. From April 1, the new offers will start, but users are required to recharge their numbers with Rs 99, in order to continue using the Happy New Year offers.

According to the report in ET Now, Reliance Jio has added more than 20 million new customers in the last 4 weeks itself. This is after the announcement by RIL Chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani that the network had witnessed over a 100 million new subscribers within just 170 days. But now, according to the channel, Jio has managed to lure in only 16 million customers for the Jio Prime membership offer. With the end of freebies, a huge percentage of subscribers seem to have turned their heads from the service.

Additionally, with the downward pressure on tariff along with the end of free offer, the tariff wars with rivals Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular might end. It can also result in a boost in return on capital. Meanwhile, ET Now said that Reliance Jio replied to this report, saying that the numbers which has been mentioned are way off the mark. But if only 16 million people have opted for the network out of 120 million, it means only 13 percent of customers have selected to join the offer.

Meanwhile, Reliance Jio is said to be evaluating options to extend the Prime offer, in order to boost the uptake for its network. The report also suggested that the industry may now focus on quality and network expansion and not just the post offered. Additionally, telecom companies like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, jointly increased their total subscriber base by 2.27 million in the month of February to reach 817.42 million, according to Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) data.
Also read | Reliance Jio’s big worry: Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Celluar & Aircel together add over 2 million subscribers in one month

Meanwhile, the government revenue, lenders and shareholders in the Telecom market in India has been hit badly post Reliance Jio, and the reported debt that the sector is facing has been valued at Rs 3.5 lakh crore. According to a report in ET Now, the government is very concerned at the debt of telecom companies against the spectrum instalments. The report said that the government is worried about the decline in licence fee receipts because of a fall in telecom companies’ revenue.

Meanwhile, the cabinet secretary has called for an urgent meeting on March 29, with an aim to discuss the problems faced by the telecom sector. The meeting will be attended by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and officials from the department of telecommunications.

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Apple has officially released iOS 10.3 update that has major updates regarding its newly launched AirPods, WiFi calling and SiriKit.

Apple released seven betas of iOS 10.3 to developers and the public before rolling out the final version. The first beta was released back on January 26, Forbes magazine reported on Monday.

Since Apple’s new Bluetooth earbuds, AirPods, are small they can be easy to lose. The update lets a user find the misplaced AirPods using the “Find My iPhone” app.

Using the “Find My iPhone” app a user can command the AirPods to make a noise so they could be found.

The other way to find the AirPods is you can mute audio playback on each of the individual AirPods in case one of them went missing and the “Find My iPhone” app would show a user where it is located on the map.

With the update, a user can now make and receive Wi-Fi calls through iCloud connected devices such as iMac, Mac mini, MacBook, iPad, iPod Touch and Apple Watch. This feature is useful if the battery on iPhone is low.

The 10.3 update adds a new Apple Podcasts app that looks similar to the Music app widget. Moreover, Apple adjusted the app animations when one opens and closes apps.
A new “Apple ID” menu has been added in the Settings app. This menu shows Apple ID information and all the devices that a user is logged into.

Apple has also updated SiriKit so that developers can build apps that allows Siri to pay bills, check payment statuses and schedule future rides with Uber.

Other minor updates include new security features and a new iCloud section under the Apple ID Settings menu. The new section shows a breakdown of cloud storage usage. This feature also shows which apps use iCloud.

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OpenSignal, one of the pioneers in testing the mobile data speeds has been working on the report of India’s fastest mobile network. And to show a sneak peak of what they are working on, the company has released a short report showing the fastest network area in the country and the most covered LTE area in the country.

OpenSignal has conducted the tests over the previous three months in India’s biggest cities. According to the report, Mumbai came out on top of the speed test ranking with LTE speeds of 6.9 Mbps. Apart from Mumbai, Kolkata is another city with LTE speeds of over 6 Mbps. Hyderabad and Bangalore follow the two with 5.5 Mbps and 5.4 Mbps respectively.

The report also claims that speeds in capital city Delhi are not up to the mark with just 4.6 Mbps, which is underwhelming. Gujarati metropolis Ahmedabad ranked lowest with a speed score of 3.9 Mbps.
Furthermore, the report also released the LTE availability in India’s ten biggest cities. According to the OpenSignal, the users of Ahmedabad and Surat were able to latch onto an LTE signal 85 percent of the time. With that said, nine out of ten cities have landed above 75 percent in LTE availability scores and the only city missed was Pune with 73.2 percent LTE availability.

OpenSignal claims that ‘Indian operators appear to be doing an excellent job making LTE consistently accessible in the big cities. According to OpenSignal’s State of LTE report, the typical LTE download speed globally is 17.4 Mbps, and we’re starting to see many countries push their average speeds well beyond 30 Mbps. In India’s cities, the signals are there, but they’re still underpowered.”

OpenSignal will continue to publish more data from India and also they will releasing their first public report based on the speeds offered by Indian telecom operators. Meanwhile, if you’re a smartphone user, you can download the OpenSignal app from the Google Play Store to be part of the report.

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Telenor has a relatively small 4G base in the country, but that isn’t stopping the Norway-based company from introducing new tariff plans. The company is providing an insane offer for Rs. 47 which gets you 56GB of data valid for 28 days.

But wait, there’s a catch. What, you ask? Well, this plan is only for segmented customers of Telenor under its 4G circles. The customers eligible for the scheme will be notified by an SMS.  Speaking about the new plan, Telenor seems to have introduced it especially to take on the Jio Prime subscription scheme. Similar to the Jio’s offer, the Telenor’s offer also has a daily data cap. But, instead of 1GB, Telenor users will get 2GB per day.

However, unlike Jio’s offering, you won’t get any voice calling benefits as the offer is strictly limited to data benefits.

When compared to the plans offered by its rival operators, Telenor’s plan is miles ahead in the competition. Reliance Jio charges you Rs. 499 and offers 2GB data per day for 28 days. Whereas Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea Cellular are offering only 1GB of data for around Rs. 350.

BSNL, on the other hand, recently rolled out the same plan offering 2GB of data per day and unlimited voice calling, but at Rs. 339 it costs a lot more than Telenor’s offering.

Besides this plan, Telenor also has other attractive offers. The Rs. 11 plan offers 1GB of 4G data per day and costs Rs. 147 for 2GB of 4G data. The plans of Telenor are attractive, but their 4G coverage is limited to only some circles.

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Just yesterday, BSNL started offering free 1GB of data for every prepaid consumer who is not using BSNL GSM mobile data services. And now, the company has extended the validity of their super affordable broadband plan BB249 until June 30, 2017.

According to a report from Kerala Telecom Info, BSNL has extended the validity period of the Experience Unlimited BB249 plan until June 30, 2017, for all the circles, minus Jammu Kashmir & Andaman Nicobar areas. This essentially means that customers can choose the plan up to June 20, 2017.

Nonetheless, the company is not making any changes to the plan. It offers the same 2 Mbps speeds up to 1GB and 1 Mbps speeds after crossing the FUP of 1GB. The speeds will remain 1 Mbps till the end of the month irrespective of the data you consume.

The best part of the BSNL BB249 plan is that it comes with a validity period of six months and later on, the plan will be converted to BSNL BBG Combo ULD 499 plan that offers 2 Mbps speeds up to 2GB, and 1 Mbps speeds beyond the FUP.

The terms and conditions also remain the same. This plan is applicable only for the new users of BSNL Broadband connection and is also available with the BSNL Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) service. Also, BSNL will waive off the installation charges if a consumer willing to opt the BB249 scheme.

To recall, BSNL, back in September 2016 introduced the BB249 plan alongside the BBG Combo ULD 499 plan. However, at that time, the government owned telecom operator said that the promotional plan is valid for only six months and later on all the users will be migrated to the Rs. 499 plan.

Besides the data, the BB249 plan also offers free voice calling to any network in India between 9 PM to 7 AM on weekdays and Sundays, there’s no time limitation.

That said, BSNL might be making this move because of the tremendous response the plan received. Apart from this promotional plan, BSNL currently running a Rs. 339 promotional plan for prepaid consumers offering 2GB data per day and unlimited calling to any network for 28 days.

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Reliance Jio users will be aware that the Jio Happy New Year Offer will be ending on March 31, after which customers will have to start paying for data and bundled services. To ease customers into this, Reliance Jio launched the Jio Prime Offer that requires Rs. 99 to subscribe and continue to enjoy services at a discounted prime. The Jio Prime offer is supposed to end on March 31, but according to a new report, Jio might just extend the Prime deadline a bit further.

This report comes from TeleAnalysis, who spoke to a source at Jio and found out that the company may extend the deadline to subscribe to Jio Prime by another month, which effectively means April 30. Reliance Jio yet to finalise this decision though. The source reportedly said that the Reliance Jio has achieved 50 percent of its target for Prime subscribers.

Reliance Jio hit the 100 million subscriber mark last month, which was announced at an event along with the new Jio Prime subscription plan. According to the source, Jio has so far only managed to attract around 22-27 million users onto Prime, and a March 31 deadline doesn’t give the company enough time to rope in more.

A research conducted by brokerage firm Bernstein concluded that Jio users are likely to continue with the service even after the Happy New Year offer ends. Another survey by Bank of America-Merrill Lynch found that 84 percent of Jio customers will likely take up the Prime Offer, which means it’s possible that many people might have left it to the last minute to subscribe to Jio Prime in the hope for even better offers.

The Jio Prime membership requires Jio users to pay an annual subscription fee of Rs. 99. Once this is done, subscribers can choose any one of the Jio Prime plans on offer. The Rs. 303 plan includes unlimited calls (like all other Jio plans) along with 1GB of free data per day for 28 days. Additionally, the company also announced its Buy one get one free offer earlier this month which gives an additional 5GB data on recharge of Rs. 303 and 10GB data on recharge of Rs. 499 or higher.

There are other plans as well on offer to Jio Prime subscribers, and people have found ways where you can get back the Rs. 99 subscription fees as well.

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BSNL, the state-run telecom operator, recently introduced a new pack of Rs. 339 offering unlimited voice calls and 2GB of data per day. It is worth noting that this new data plan from BSNL is the best one in its price range as private telcos are offering only 1GB of data per day while charging the same amount. It’s been just one week since BSNL introduced the plan, but the results are evident in the usage of customers.

According to report from KerelaTelecom info, BSNL’s total data usage clocked over 400TB on March 19, 2017, with Kerala subscribers consuming the most amount of data, i.e., over 101TB from the overall 400TB consumption. The report further claims that South Zone users consumed 227.08TB of data, which is followed by North Zone with 73.75TB usage. Whereas, West Zone and East Zone secured last two positions with a consumption of 68.58TB and 39.13TB data respectively.

South Zone breaks down to areas which include Kerala, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. Like mentioned earlier, users of BSNL in Kerala circle, with 101TB are the ones who have consumed more data than anyone else with the rest of the data consumed by subscribers in other circles.
Furthermore, giving us deeper insights, the report also classified the data usage of Kerala BSNL based on 2G and 3G technologies. While 2G users consumed 5.28TB of data on a single day, the 3G data usage was recorded at 95.73TB which adds to a total data consumption of 101.01TB.

The BSNL Rs. 339 plan is a promotional offer introduced recently to combat the private telco’s offerings including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, and Idea Cellular. Reliance Jio has started the trend of 1GB data per day with their Jio Happy New Year Offer and has been continuing the same with JioPrime membership scheme with the Rs. 303 pack.

Days after the announcement of Jio Prime membership scheme, Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea came out with their plans providing the same benefits as that of Reliance Jio’s with price tags ranging in between Rs. 340 to Rs. 350. BSNL was pretty late to join the party. However, these results certainly indicate how the consumers of BSNL are waiting for offers.

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Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecom operator has introduced two new offers of Rs 3200 and Rs 4000 for customers purchasing a new Airtel 4G hotspot, according to a report by Telecom Talk.

For Rs 3200, the telco is providing 10GB of 4G data per month for three months along with a free hotspot device. For Rs 4000, the telco is giving 6GB of 4G data per month for six months along with a free hotspot device.

Although, the Rs 3200 offer comes bundled with the Rs 999 plan that offers 10GB data per month, on the other hand the Rs 4000 offer comes bundled with Rs 650 pack which offers 6GB data per month. The only advantage that the customers are getting with the new offers is the free hotspot device.

The telco also has other 4G hotspot plans starting at Rs 450 for 4GB per month and go as high asRs 4000 for 60GB 4G data per month.

The offer is available only at some retail stores since the company is currently running the campaign in the offline market.

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Bharti Airtel is trying to match the new entrant Reliance Jio is every aspect possible. Airtel, after matching Jio in the tariff plans segment is now looking to take on the latter by rolling out VoLTE services. According to our sources, Airtel is currently working with various smartphones vendors to test the service.

Our sources also said that Airtel has done with deploying the required infrastructure for the service, but is conducting service trails before rolling out the service. The service will be launched in the major markets and later on will be expanded to other cities as well.

Currently, Airtel is testing the service in various Indian 4G handsets that are already available in the market, and it is also said that some smartphones have passed the test successfully. So, expect a roll out shortly.

Last year, Airtel handed over a contract to Finnish brand Nokia to deploy the VoLTE infrastructure in the country. With Airtel scrapping the domestic roaming, the rollout of VoLTE services might happen next month itself.

Airtel is currently offering voice calling on the legacy circuit-switch technology. “VoLTE will be very relevant in the major markets or big cities in next 12-18 months, and even as the sub-GHz band is best in deploying voice, the 1800MHz band is also excellent, ” claimed Gopal Vittal, some months ago.

As of now, Jio is the only operator in India to offer VoLTE services, with which the Mukesh Ambani-led company is providing free voice calls to any network in India. The decision to offer free voice calls was backfired then by the incumbent operators, but they are now looking to implement the same service. Incidentally, Reliance Jio’s VoLTE services are deployed using Nokia’s IMS technology.

Besides Airtel, Vodafone India also said to be working on the VoLTE services, and the roll out might happen by the end of this year. Idea Cellular also in talks with Ericsson and Nokia to award a deal for deploying the service.

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It’s raining data offers. Every telecom operator in India wants to compete against the new entrant Reliance Jio. And it’s time for Aircel to step up and provide some offers to their customers. Aircel has come up three new data plans for the residents of Bihar claiming the plans as ‘Lowest Tariffs and Longest Validity.’ As touted, the plans are attractive and much better than other telecom operator’s plans.

Under the three new plans introduced, the best one is the Rs. 999 scheme that offers 36GB of data for 12 months with a FUP of 3GB per month. Other plans are of Rs. 35 and Rs. 65, which gives 1GB of data for three days and seven days respectively.

If we compare these new plans with other telecom operator plans, Aircel is far ahead. For example, Bharti Airtel’s Rs. 1499 yearly plan offers 10GB of 3G/4G data at the time of recharge, and after that, a user has to recharge per month with a data pack. These data packs include 1GB of 3G/4G data at Rs. 55, 2GB 3G/4G data at Rs. 97, and 5GB of 3G/4G data at Rs. 259 per month.

On the other hand, Vodafone also has a Rs. 999 plan, but it is offering only 10GB data per month. Clearly, Aircel has the upper hand when we look on a yearly basis.

However, if we look on a monthly basis, Aircel falls short of the competition. The JioPrime subscription plans offer much better value than the Aircel ones with 1GB of data per day and unlimited calls at just Rs. 303. BSNL is offering 2GB data per day and unlimited voice calling at just Rs. 339, whereas Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea also have similar plans ranging from Rs. 340 to Rs. 350.

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