Jun 01 2010

BSNL Double Speed again in June 2010

Category: Broadband,BSNL,India — Kamlesh @ 6:45 am

In April 2010, BSNL introduced promotional offer of Double Speed to all its Unlimited Plan broadband customers.  This promotional offer was available only for the month of April 2010.

Yesterday (31st May 2010) midnight, some of the 256kbps Broadband Users are reporting double speed around the country.  They are finding that their Broadband speed is doubled to 512kbps.  The existing 512kbps users are not seeing any change in their speed.

Recently AirTel has upgraded all its 256kbps users to 512kbps.  They plan to offer Broadband plans 512kbps onwards.  There is a rumor that BSNL is also going to follow the same, and that is why the 256kbps users are noticing double speed.

Nothing is confirmed officially by BSNL; there is no news on the company’s official website.  Is this a permanent Double Speed for 256kbps users or is it again a limited time Promotional Offer!  Lets wait for the official news soon.

Update – 01-Jun-2010 01:35pm: Some of the 256kbps Users are reporting that they are not getting any more double speed now.  Was the Double Speed offer only for few hours to certain users last night?  There is still no Official news on BSNL website.

Update – 02-Jun-2010 06:51pm: Finally BSNL reveals the Broadband Double Speed offer details on their official website – Change in the nomenclature and Upgradation of Speed/Bandwidth of certain Home Unlimited Broadband.

Mar 31 2010

BSNL Broadband 75Mbps and 100Mbps plans introduced

Category: Broadband,BSNL,India — Kamlesh @ 2:17 pm

After 2 days Airtel introduced its 30Mbps and 50Mbps plans; its time for BSNL to chase its competitors.  Today, BSNL introduced 75 Mbps and 100 Mbps plans for both Home and Business users.

75Mbps – Rs.8,500 per month

100Mbps – Rs.9,999 per month (WOW that used to be LAN/Ethernet speed)

Although the rates are very competitive, but the download limit still exist for the Unlimited Download users.

The detailed tariff chart is available at this link.  Its time to buy bigger Hard Disks!  Thanks for visiting.

Update (23-Mar-2013):

I realized few months that my above joke has become reality.  BSNL now offers a product called FTTH Broadband.  Check the below link for details on their plans which are up to 100 Mbps speed.

http://www.bsnl.co.in/opencms/bsnl/BSNL/services/broadband/bb_ftth.html

 

Jan 19 2010

Dial/SMS 139 for Indian Railway Information

Category: India,Travel — Kamlesh @ 8:11 am

Finally a good news for Non-BSNL Phone Subscribers!  The Railway Information # 139, which was available so far only on BSNL network, is now extended to all types of mobile/landline/wireless local loop (WLL) service providers.  Passengers can either call or send an SMS to the number to obtain information with regard to the PNR status, availability of berths, arrival/departure of trains and train running information. As per the Railway Release notice (DNA Newspaper, Bangalore Edition, 19-Jan-2010, Page 2) , prefixing STD code is not required to call this information cell.

Service Queries?

1) Is this service Toll-Free (both calls and SMS) from all networks?

2) How reliable/real-time is this service? Does it really works from all networks.  Please leave your comments.

Update (25-Nov-2012):

After almost 3 years, I used this blog post as a reference and became victim of my own Toll-Free question.  Although the service worked from my Tata Docomo mobile, it charged me Rs.8 for a 187 seconds call.

Railway Enquiry 139 - PNR Status, Departure/Arrival Information

Jun 11 2009

Indian Railway Enquiry SMS 139

Category: India,Travel — Kamlesh @ 9:08 pm

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) is proud to announce the launch of their latest initiative in Customer Satisfaction, “Railways on SMS”. Now you have the power of RAIL ENQUIRY on SMS 139. You can avail the following services:

- Accomodation/Seat availability
SMS “Train [Train Number] [Date of Journey - DDMMYY] [Station From - STD Code] [Station To: STD Code] [Class] [Class Type]” to 139.
Example: Train 4257 160708 0542 011 3A G

- Fare enquiry
SMS “Fare [Train Number] [Date of Journey - DDMMYY] [Station From - STD Code] [Station To - STD Code] [Class] [Class Type]” to 139.
Example: Fare 4257 160708 0542 011 3A G

- Ticket Status / PNR enquiry
SMS “PNR [10 Digit PNR Number]” to 139.
Example: PNR 1234567890

- Current Train running position
SMS “Fare [Train Number] [Date of Journey - DDMMYY] [Station From - STD Code]” to 139.
Example: Train 2012 010509 011

The services is currently available on AirTel, Vodafone, Idea, Aircel, Loop(BPL), Tata and MTNL. This service will be launched soon on BSNL and Reliance network too. Premium Charges of Rs.3 per SMS is applicable.

Source: IRCTC website.

Mar 23 2009

Heavy traffic for Tata Nano – The people’s car & the world’s cheapest car

Category: Automobiles,Bangalore,India — Kamlesh @ 10:57 pm
23-Mar-2009 will be considered as one of the big milestone in the history of India and Tata Motors, as it is launcing the world’s cheapest car. The detailed specitifications of this car is available here. Booking amount for the Nano, the world’s cheapest car, can be done by just paying Rs 2,999 upfront while the rest can be secured by way of loan. The delivery of the first lot of Nano cars will begin in early July-2009. Applications for booking of the car would be available in 30,000 locations in 1,000 cities across India. State Bank of India has an exclusive tie up for providing finance for the Nano. The promise that has been made to sell the car at around Rs 1 lakh would be kept despite the fact that commodity prices had shot up, Tata said, adding that the fall in commodity prices now may provide some cushion. The first one-lakh customers will be selected by draw of lots from the bookings, he said, adding that those not allotted would have the option to retain their bookings.
Tata Motors, which is launching the ultra low-cost Nano car, plans to have a US model in the next three years. The United States has certain additional requirements that no other country needs and as result needs some redesign, Ratan Tata said at a news conference.
Nano, will be priced between Rs 1.34 lakh and Rs 1.85 lakh (ex-showroom Mumbai), although the car’s claim to fame was its Rs one lakh tag. To book the Nano, customers will have to shell out Rs 95,000 for the base model BS II and III, Rs 1.2 lakh for the mid-range model and Rs 1.4 lakh for the top end all across the country.
Below is the Bangalore pricing details from Tata Motors website:

Today’s launch event shooted up the web-site hits on company’s official website (http://www.tatanano.com/) which was developed within a short timeframe of 1.5 months. The entire portal has been built on open source technologies. The hasty software development without sufficient planning on Load Testing has caused the website to go down, with following error:
The prefix “nano-” derives from the Greek root ‘nanos’, meaning dwarf. “Nano” also means “small” in Gujarati, the native language of the Tata family, founders of the Tata Group.
Links:

Mar 09 2009

Indian Rupee could soon get a Unique Symbol

Category: Finance,India — Kamlesh @ 11:48 pm

Major currencies of the world e.g. US Dollar, Pound Sterling, Yen and the Euro have an Identification symbol. The Government of India also proposes to have a symbol for the Indian rupee to be selected through public competition. Accordingly, all Resident Indians (both Professional artists and Non-professionals) are hereby invited to participate in a Competition for design of the ‘Symbol for Indian Rupee’.

Submission of Entries:
Interested persons may send their entries, along with a bank draft of Rs.500/- (Rupees five hundred only) in favour of the Pay & Accounts Officer, Department of Economic Affairs, New Delhi, drawn on a scheduled commercial bank/nationalised bank at New Delhi as registration fee, to the Under Secretary (Currency), Department of Economic Affairs, North Block, New Delhi – 110 001 to reach him latest by 1300 hours on 15th April 2009. Entries received after the stipulated time shall not be entertained and returned unopened. The Department shall not be responsible for delay by postal service s, courier agencies etc. The entries can also be deposited personally at the Information & Facilitation Counter of the Department, near gate No. 8, North Block, New Delhi. The entries should be sent in a properly sealed envelope labelled “Entry for Symbol for the Indian Rupee”. The entry should be accompanied by a brief explanation of the Design and how it best symbolizes the Indian Rupee and also the bio-data of the applicant with a passport size photograph affixed on the top right hand corner. The guidelines for preparing entries, other conditions and selection process are available on the website of the Ministry of Finance.

Mar 07 2009

SBI proposes hardware tokens for additional layer of security

Category: Banks,India,Security — Kamlesh @ 10:01 pm
State Bank of India proposes to provide hardware tokens (see image) as an additional layer of security for Internet banking. A hardware token is a tamper proof device, similar to a USB. The token is assigned to a specific Internet banking user, and generates a unique one time authentication password to complete a transaction. They are conducing a survey on their Online Banking website, to check if the customer is interested to avail this additional security feature and also bear the one time cost of hardware token (Max Rs. 1000).

Feb 23 2009

"Jai Ho" – A R Rahman

Category: India — Kamlesh @ 11:59 pm
The Indian movie “Slumdog Millionaire” won eight Oscars at the 81st Academy Award function in Los Angeles (22-Feb-2009). A R Rahman scripted history by becoming the first Indian to win two Oscars for the Best Original Score “Slumdog Millionaire” and its foot-tapping song `Jai Ho`. Rehman shares the best Song award with lyricist Gulzar. He has become the first Indian to win two Oscars.

Congrats to A R Rahman and the entire team of Slumdog Millionaire to make this a proud event for India. Jai Ho!

… More in tomorrows print edition of all Indian Newspapers :-)

Feb 08 2009

Hello Kaun? Pehchaan Kaun!

Category: India,TV Shows — Kamlesh @ 11:55 pm

Being the pioneers in original comedy concepts and after the grand success of “The Great Indian Laughter Challenge”, Star One has come back with a new show “Hello Kaun Pehchaan Kaun“. This show is the hunt for India’s best mimic. The show is looking for celebrity impersonators – mimics who can walk the walk and talk the talk of a celebrity. Contestants will be judged on the basis of Likeness Quotient:

  • How closely does the contestant resemble the celebrity?

  • Voice Similarity – does the contestant sound like the original?

  • Entertainment quotient – how entertaining is the act?

Star One is on the look out for celebrity impersonators who look, talk, walk and come across like the original celebrity or their on screen characters. (Mimics are those who can impersonate one or multiple characters but may notnecessarily look the part). The Categories of contestants are Actors, Singers and Public Figures. The best impersonator will be found through a rigorous search over 4 levels – prelims, quarter finals, semi finals and the grand finale. So sit back and be ready to face the best fakes all across the country only on Star One.

The show is hosted by none other than Pechaan Kaun (Naveen Prabhakar) and Aishwariya. The judges for this show are Chunky Panday and Suresh Menon. The contestant’s profiles are available on the website too. Put a reminder and sit back n enjoy the show on every Saturday at 9pm on Star One channel. The show also repeats on Star TV channel.

Jan 20 2009

NEFT Transaction Fee from 01-Apr-2009

Category: Banks,Finance,India — Kamlesh @ 11:35 pm

Have you used NEFT online? While RBI has waived the processing charges till March 31, 2009. With a view to rationalize the service charges levied by banks for offering various electronic products, a broad framework has been mandated as under: –

a) Inward transactions – Free, no charge to be levied
b) Outward transactions –
Upto Rs. 1 lakh – not exceeding Rs.5 per transaction.
Rs. 1 lakh and above – not exceeding Rs. 25 per transaction.

National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system is a nation wide funds transfer system in India, to facilitate transfer of funds from any bank branch to any other bank branch.

Source: NEFT FAQ Page on RBI Website

Next Page »