Airtel customers face network outage in Mumbai

Customers of Bharti Airtel in the western part of Maharashtra are experiencing a service outage due to a technical glitch in the service provider's systems that cropped up.

"A technical outage has affected our network in the western region, resulting in disruption of some services. We are working toward rectifying the outage at the earliest. We deeply regret the inconvenience caused to our customers," an Airtel spokesperson told PTI.

Services are also affected in adjoining areas, including Pune, according to people close to the development.

Customers are sharing their grievances on the official Twitter account of Bharti Airtel.

According to people close to the development, it has resulted in a network problem and badly hit BlackBerry and data services provided by the company.

According to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ( Trai), the country's largest private operator, Bharti Airtel, had a user base of 173.73 million at the end of October, 2011.

Bharti Airtel is a leading global telecommunications company, with operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa.

The company offers mobile voice and data services, fixed line, high speed broadband and national and international long distance services.

Recently, Blackberry users faced similar outage in email transactions all over the world.

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Airtel offers free Twitter access till March 1, 2012

Web Release from Airtel:

Now airtel customers can enjoy twitter for free on their airtel mobiles till 1st March 2012

This is a first-of-its-kind initiative in India which allows customers to enjoy free access to Twitter through mobile browsers by visiting http://mobile.twitter.com and enjoy posting Tweets, keeping up with what’s happening in the world, and finding and following friends, celebrities, news and more.

Whats more even without activating GPRS, customers can sign up for Twitter or subscribe to SMS updates of specific users (via shortcode 53000) on their mobile phones for free.

how to use

Go to http://mobile.twitter.com from your mobile browser and enjoy free browsing till the promo period ends. You can also SMS NOW to 53000 to receive the link on your mobile.

For more details on how to use twitter on sms pls visit http://support.twitter.com/groups/34-apps-sms-and-mobile#topic_153

This service has been welcomed my most of the Airtel users across the country. "Airtel's this new edge in Social networking access can drive other service providers to offer such free Social networking access" , our experts guess.

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Ericsson to manage 70% of Airtel networks

It has been reported that the Swedish firm Ericsson has finalized a deal with Airtel in order to handle more than 70% of Airtel’s network in India, whereas Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) will be handling the rest of the parts, though the authorities have not disclosed the amount as of now.

“This unique multi-technology managed services partnership with Ericsson will help us focus on creating a compelling service proposition for our customers, as we look to ramp up our market access”, said that Airtel’s Chief Executive Officer for India and South Asia, Sanjay Kapoor, while briefing the contract. Under the spell of the contract, Ericsson will be liable for surplus 15 service areas such as managing Airtel's networks in regions of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, UP, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, the North East, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chennai and Kerala.

In a statement, the company said that Bharti Airtel is one out of the leading global telecommunication companies that successfully delivers its services in around 19 countries across Asia as well as Africa. The service provider has refined its managed services agreement with Ericsson, especially for Indian operations.

In addition, the company authorities have also notified that the five-year contract will support multi-vendor and multi-technology, where Ericsson will be liable for operating maintaining as well as providing its services across 70% of Bharti Airtel's network across India. Simultaneously, Ericsson will be employed to manage Bharti Airtel's prepaid customer base.

Sanjay Kapoor has claimed that India can be observed as the third largest internet market with a noteworthy increase in the data traffic, higher number of smartphones as well as wireless networks. Ericsson is believed to have a significant role to create Airtel’s 3G networks in Indian service circles.

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iPhone 4S Price in India - Rs. 57,500 - launched by Aircel & Airtel

The Lowest priced model of iPhone 4S in India is Rs 44,500 which is a bit shocker for iPhone fans in India.

The handset's prices were out after Bharti Airtel revealed them on its website and launched pre-bookings on Friday, prior to the official launch on November 25. The 32 GB model is priced at Rs 50,900 and the top-end 64 GB model for Rs 57,500.

Aircel, the other operator to announce the iPhone 4S on its network will also sell this phone at the same price band.

Apple's earlier model, the iPhone 4 sells in India for Rs 35,500 for 16GB and Rs 41,900 ($816) for 32GB.

On November 24 (12am, Nov 25), select stores in all big cities across India will be opened for sales of iPhone 4S. But unlike the US and other markets such as Japan and Singapore, the midnight launches have failed to draw crowds in India.

The iPhone 4S is launching in India more than a month after it was unveiled in the US market.

After the prices were revealed, potential customers took to social media, especially twitter in protest. By Friday evening, 'Things Cheaper Than iPhone4S' started trending on twitter as users termed the pricing as 'bizarre' and slammed the company for the huge differential in costs when compared to other markets such as US and Singapore.

At this time, it is not clear whether Airtel and Aircel will be offering any special data plans or reverse subsidy offers for the 4S - but plans for the existing iPhone 4 are already in place, and if no new plans are announced, they will likely continue.

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iPhone 4S to be launched on Nov 25 in India

Aircel has announced on its Facebook page that it is bringing the iPhone 4S to India on November 25. The post on the the Aircel's official Facebook page reads as, "ANNOUNCING the date Aircel is bringing iPhone 4S to India : NOV 25 !"

According to sources, the iPhone 4S will be comparatively expensive and will start from close to Rs 40,000 for the 16GB model and cross Rs 50,000 for the high-end 64GB model.

Earlier, Airtel and Aircel were the two carriers, which launched the iPhone 4 in India. The 16GB and 32GB variants of the iPhone 4 would cost Rs 34,500 and Rs 40,900, respectively in India.

It is also rumored that Airtel is also set to launch iPhone 4S on November 25. Yet, We didn't have any official word from Airtel about the release.

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