Telecoms

Verizon is recalling 2.5 million mobile hotspots after some reports of overheating and two reports of minor burns. The 4G hotspots were used by schools and sold by stores. They are called Ellipsis Jetpack mobile hotspots and were imported by Franklin Wireless in San Diego. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission said Thursday that the lithium

Reliance Jio is celebrating IPL 2021 by introducing a list of offers for its prepaid and postpaid users. The Mumbai-based telecom operator has continued its partnership with Disney+ Hotstar to provide livestreaming of IPL matches through select prepaid recharge plans and Jio Postpaid Plus plans. It has also updated the Jio Cricket Play Along app

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has announced the extension of its Rs. 398 special tariff voucher (STV) unlimited prepaid plan for its subscribers. This plan was originally introduced in January on a promotional basis and the offer was slated to end on April 9. However, the telco has announced an extension of this plan for

Tata Sky HD set-top boxes are currently available at discounted prices. The direct-to-home (DTH) operator brings discounts of up to Rs. 400 on its HD set-top box models that include the Tata Sky Binge+ as well as the premium Tata Sky+ HD set-top box. Customers can also avail a discount on the standard Tata Sky

JioFiber annual and six-month unlimited internet plans are now being offered with extra validity. Reliance Jio is offering 30 days extra validity on JioFiber annual packages and 15 days extra on its six-month plans. The annual packages for JioFiber start at Rs. 4,788 (plus GST) with a validity of 365 days (for the Rs. 399

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel announced a spectrum trading agreement on Tuesday. Jio has acquired the rights to use Airtel’s 800MHz band in the Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, and Mumbai circles through spectrum trading. The addition of the spectrum rights will help Jio enhance its network capacity and bolster its footprint in the telecom sector. Airtel,

Airtel and Apollo 24/7 have partnered to bring Airtel Platinum and Gold customers healthcare benefits of Apollo Circle. Apollo Circle is a membership plan that includes benefits such as priority access to Apollo services, discounts, cashbacks, and more. This membership will be granted free-of-cost to Airtel Platinum and Gold customers under Airtel Thanks customer programme.

iPhone 12 series is slower than smartphones by Samsung, OnePlus, Google, and LG when it comes to 5G and 4G speeds in the US, a new report by Opensignal claims. Though Apple saw the biggest growth going from 4G to 5G speeds, Samsung offered the best 5G speeds overall, with majority of the phones in

Bharti Airtel added over 300 percent more wireless subscribers than Reliance Jio in January 2021, according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data. The monthly data released by the regulator shows that the New Delhi-headquartered Airtel added more than 5.89 million wireless subscribers during the month, whereas the Mumbai-based Jio added over 1.95 million

Huawei Technologies announced royalty rates for the use of its 5G phone technology for the first time, in a move its chief legal officer said was an effort to increase transparency at an event on Tuesday. The company was put on an export blacklist by former US President Donald Trump in 2019 and barred from accessing

Amazon entered the Indian market as an online marketplace but has now branched out with a multitude of services to offer. It lets you pay utility bills, book flight tickets, buy movie tickets, buy and sell gold, and even purchase vehicle insurance. Another common service that users look for – mobile recharge – is also

The Biden administration this week amended licenses for companies to sell to China’s Huawei, further restricting companies from supplying items that can be used with 5G devices, sources said. The changes could disrupt existing contracts with Huawei that were agreed upon under previous licenses that have now been changed, two of the sources said. The

Reliance Jio has started to tag its plans with new banners or labels like Best Sellers, Super Value, and Trending. These banners aim to help subscribers understand what others are purchasing and make more informed decisions regarding their next recharge. For instance, the Super Value banner seems to indicate that the prepaid plan offers a

Vi (Vodafone Idea) has partnered Disney+ HotStar to offer live sports, exclusive HotStar specials, movies, and more to its subscribers. The telecom operator has introduced new prepaid and postpaid plans that come with a one-year Disney+ HotStar VIP subscription. The subscription on its own costs Rs. 399 but will be bundled with select Vi recharge

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Tuesday decided to temporarily suspend the Telecom Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR), 2018 that were aimed to reduce spam SMS messages. The delay has come due to the massive disruption in SMS services that troubled a large number of people in the country, people familiar with the

Several users are facing issues in receiving one-time passwords (OTP) through SMS today from banks, e-commerce and other companies due to a massive disruption in SMS services. This is an industry-wide issue affecting everything from CoWIN registration OTPs, bank OTPs for debit card transactions, and even systems like two-factor authentication OTPs to log into accounts online.

PhonePe is a digital payments platform that was founded in 2015 and acquired by Flipkart in 2016. The app was released in the same year and became the first Unified Payment Interface (UPI) based app to cross 10 million app downloads, according to PhonePe. It allows its users to make payments, transfer funds, pay their

Day One of the spectrum auction is done with bids worth over Rs. 77,000 crores in four distinct rounds from participating bidders, namely Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, and Reliance Jio. The latest spectrum auction by the government comes five years after the last auction, which took place in 2016. Instead of bringing airwaves for 5G

Reliance Jio is working on a low-cost laptop called the “JioBook”, according to a report. The new laptop is said to be based on a forked Android build that could be dubbed JioOS. The firmware could come along with Jio apps. The JioBook is also said to have 4G LTE support. Report going back to

BSNL PV1999 prepaid plan now comes with a new promotional offer that increases the validity of this popular annual plan by 30 days. Instead of the 365 days validity it normally offers, the BSNL PV1999 plan will now offer a total validity of 395 days to subscribers in India if they recharge before March 31.

Vodafone Idea (Vi) has partnered with Aditya Birla Health Insurance to launch the Rs. 51 SMS and Rs. 301 Combo prepaid recharge packs with health insurance benefits. The two packs cover Rs. 1,000 worth of hospitalisation expenses per day on medical exigencies including COVID-19 for up to 10 days per event, and Rs. 2,000 per

Spectrum auction 2021 was concluded on Tuesday, after lasting for two days and six bidding rounds in total. Reliance Jio emerged as the biggest bidder, with Rs. 57,122.65 crores for 488.35MHz spectrum, the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology said in a statement. The operator noted that with the fresh bidding, its spectrum footprint increased

How to check your Airtel prepaid balance using the app, or star codes is a question many people have asked us and the good news is that it is quite simple. Bharti Airtel is on a spree as the telecom giant has been adding millions of customers in the last few months. As per a

How to check Vi prepaid balance with using the app, or even without the Internet? If you have a Vi (Vodafone Idea) number, it’s fairly easy to know how to check Vi balance, plan, and validity for your prepaid account. Vi has been expanding its services like Wi-Fi calling to Delhi and other regions and

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has introduced three new DSL broadband plans, as per a report. The plans include Rs. 299, Rs. 399, and Rs. 555 options, all of which come with 10Mbps speed and will be rolled out starting March 1. Since there are DSL broadband plans, they offer slower speeds compared to BSNL’s

Jio Phone 2021 offer has been announced by Reliance Jio that brings unlimited voice calls and data access for 24 months along with a Jio Phone at a combo price of Rs. 1,999. The telecom operator has also offered a 12-month version with the same list of benefits at Rs. 1,499. Jio claimed that it already

Airtel gained the highest number of subscribers due to better network quality by the end of 2020. Latest data from Opensignal, an independent global mobile analytics company, shows Airtel and Jio gained new subscribers by the end of 2020 but Vi (Vodafone Idea) lost subscribers to churn. Opensignal also stated that while Airtel continued to

Airtel Ads has been launched as the telco entered the Indian ad tech space with a brand engagement service targeted at its subscribers. Airtel looks to allow brands of all sizes to curate campaigns aimed at its pool of 320 million customers. Airtel Ads will be consent-based, that means that Airtel subscribers will have the

Vi (Vodafone Idea) has expanded its Wi-Fi calling service to Delhi, according to a report. The telecom operator initially brought the service to its subscribers in the Maharashtra and Goa as well as Kolkata circles last year. The Wi-Fi calling service allows subscribers to make and receive voice calls on a Wi-Fi network instead of

Airtel added 4.05 million wireless subscribers in the month of December 2020, retaining its top spot when it comes to monthly subscribers. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released latest data for the last month of 2020 which shows Reliance Jio added only around 479,000 wireless subscribers. Airtel also beat Jio in terms of visitor