News from Canadian companies iseemedia and RedKnee, as well as market and trade updates from one of the the world's most exciting telco markets, Pay Pal's Indian banking headache, and the last breath of a Nortel outsourcer.

Iseemedia provides tech for Indian email service across cellphones

Toronto-based iseemedia Inc has announced that it is providing messaging and content handling technology for Indian communication services provider Reliance Communications, which is rolling out an SMS-based email service across its wireless network in India. This helps address one of the ironies of the Indian market: mobile phones are widespread, but few people have internet access.

Iseemedia said its technology "effectively empowers... subscribers to have their mobile phones to behave like smartphones and receive all their desktop email via SMS."

"With Reliance we have the opportunity to promote mobile email to its 92 million subscribers and as a mass market solution to provide full email functionality on nearly 100 per cent of devices used in India," said iseemedia president and CEO Anthony DeCristofaro.

"This will allow RCOM to increase its customer base as well as drive the adoption of mobile email usage through new value-added services."

Reliance Communications has over 92 million subscribers. Iseemedia said it will receive a percentage of revenue from every user transaction employing its technology.

Redknee launches data services with India's Loop Mobile

Toronto-headquartered Redknee, a provider of software solutions for communications service providers, announced that India’s Loop Mobile had launched Redknee's Next Generation Rating and Charging (NGRC) solution. Recently rebranded from BPL Mobile, Loop Mobile has invested in Redknee's NGRC solution to offer differentiated, value-added data services. Loop Mobile will provide these services to its subscribers through Redknee's real-time charging platform, which allows subscribers to take advantage of varying types of service packages.

India sets target of 250 million broadband connections by 2012

As broadband penetration in India hasn't picked up in proportion to the growth of mobile subscribers, the Indian government has set a target of 250 million broadband connections by 2012.

Currently there are 500 million mobile users and only 8 million broadband subscribers and another 12 million users.

“The idea is to put every village on the broadband highway by May 2012,” said P.J. Thomas, Secretary of India’s Department of Telecommunications, speaking at a conference organized by the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI), which spearheads the campaign for promoting internet and broadband. 

“The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has drawn a scheme for deployment of wireless broadband technology using broadband wireless access for providing last mile connectivity in the villages,” said Mr. Thomas. “In India there is still a vast population which is to be connected on the wireless. Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) is widely recognized as one of the catalysts for economic development.”

He also referred to recent studies conducted in three countries in Asia which confirm that the penetration of wireless in telecom has enabled a growth of 0.06 percent of the GDP in India whereas it has contributed 0.04 percent of GDP in China.

India's Central Bank stops some PayPal services

Thousands of small companies in India faced a cash crunch recently after India's top bank regulator suspended some PayPal services. In particular, small Indian information technology companies and freelance computer professionals rely on PayPal to receive payments from overseas clients.

They do this because PayPal allows them to bypass cumbersome and expensive international bank transactions. But the Reserve Bank of India determined that despite the online payment service's ubiquity in India, it is not properly registered. The act, adopted in August 2008, regulates payment and settlement methods in India.

Payments to other countries are a growing business for PayPal. Cross-border payments account for about 25% of PayPal's total $71 billion payment volume last year. PayPal does not have a domestic business in India — all payments are from other countries. PayPal does not consider itself to be in the remittance business in India because accounts are online only. Recipients must transfer the money to a bank account to withdraw it.

People and companies in India can still receive "commercial" payments for goods and services, but they are unable to move money from PayPal into their bank. The company said it may take several months to resolve issues over personal payments with Indian regulators, but it hoped that customers would be able to withdraw their funds to Indian banks sooner.

The Reserve Bank sent PayPal a list of questions, focusing on whether or not personal payments to people in India qualify as remittances, or wire transfers of cash. The regulators told PayPal that they had revised remittance licensing rules.

India and Canada discuss FTA/MFN trade treaty

India and Canada are at an early, exploratory stage of entering into a free trade agreement (FTA) and most favoured nation status (MFN).

Quebec premier Jean Charest recently addressed the State officials and captains of industry in Bangalore, the technology hub in the south of India. Premier Charest said current discussions are on a basket of trade items.  Charest said the dialogue includes trade, investment, reducing barriers and other areas of mutual cooperation.

Quebec is the second most important destination for Indian exports to Canada, with India being Quebec's fifth largest supplier. The Province would be putting in place a Certification of Selection policy to ensure students could stay over in Quebec after their education.

Charest also noted that Quebec was exploring strategic relationships with Indian firms in IT & ICT, biotech, life sciences, renewable energy, science & technology, microelectronics, optics, telecom, and multimedia.

India is adding over 19 million mobile subscribers a month

Mobile firms in India added a record 19.1 million subscribers in December, 2009, taking total users in the world's fastest-growing, and second-largest, wireless market to 525.15 million, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India reported.  In November, the firms had added 17.65 million users.

Mobile subscribers grew at a monthly average of nearly 15 million in 2009 to be 51% higher from 346.89 million at the end of 2008. Sixth-ranked operator Tata Teleservices (26% owned by Japan's NTT), led additions for the fifth month in a row with 3.34 million new users during the month of December.

India’s 3G auction may be delayed

India, the biggest economy in the world without nationwide third-generation mobile-phone services, may not hold the auction of 3G licenses by March 31, Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla has said.

The government had set Jan. 14 as the tentative deadline to start taking bids for the airwaves as per its schedule announced in October. On Jan. 19 Communications Minister Andimuthu Raja told reporters in New Delhi the auction would be completed before the next fiscal year begins on April 1.

Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti Airtel Ltd, India’s biggest mobile-phone operator, has said he and other  likely bidders and equipment vendors are concerned that market growth could slow. Bharti, Reliance Communications Ltd (India’s second-largest carrier), Vodafone Group Plc’s local unit and other operators are in the middle of a price war, where the companies are offering calls for as little as half a Canadian cent a minute. The 3G services could help boost revenue by helping them improve voice and data services.

Quadrangle Capital-led group to invest in India’s Tower Vision

Quadrangle Capital Partners, the private-equity firm co-founded by Steven Rattner, has led a group of investors in buying stakes in Tower Vision India Pvt, the nation’s second-largest independent manager of wireless towers.

The equity capital and some additional debt financing will provide Tower Vision with $300 million to add to its portfolio of transmission sites, the companies said in a joint press release. The New York-based private equity fund, which manages $3 billion in assets, will take a “significant minority” stake in Tower Vision, Jessie Hsieh, who handles media enquiries for the fund, said without giving more details.

Tower Vision, based in Gurgaon, has more than 5,000 sites in India, the world’s second-largest wireless market by subscribers, where it competes with Indus Towers Ltd, a venture controlled by Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Vodafone Group Plc.

Youth in India and China are reshaping corporate IT: Study

Companies and organizations in India and China stand to capture a global competitive advantage on the strength of young workers and students, who are the world's most intensive users of corporate information technology, said a study conducted by consultancy Accenture.

The research is based on a survey of over 5,000 students and young workers (between 14 and 27 years) in 13 countries around the world. The research found that the technology practices of new hires and students from the 'Millennials' (Generation Y) in India and China, have leapfrogged their counterparts elsewhere, especially in much of Western Europe, where many Millennials feel that technology consumes too much time.

Millennials in the Americas (Brazil, Canada, and the United States) and Asia-Pacific (Japan and Australia), meanwhile, have positive perceptions of technology, but not at the same level as young people in China and India.

Gary Curtis, Accenture's chief technology strategist said, "The demographic shift from the baby boom generation to the Millennials can be either frightening or exhilarating, maybe a bit of both, but it can't be ignored.”

Nortel sells stake in India-based R&D outsourcer

Bankrupt Nortel Networks has sold about 10% of its stake in telecom R&D outsourcer Sasken Communications Technologies. The telecom equipment maker sold 600,000 shares of Sasken, worth about $2.5 million, as part of its efforts to sell its assets and pay off creditors.

Nortel funnelled $10 million into the Bangalore-based supplier in April 2005 to better target customers in India and the Asia Pacific region. The two companies already had worked together for 15 years. At the time, Nortel billed the transaction as key to its R&D and market success.