Samsung Star Nano 3G

Samsung India has launched it’s cheapest 3G touchscreen phone in India the Star Nano 3G. The Star Nano 3G is the latest addition to the Star series which had the SAMSUNG STAR and Star3G and WiFi.Samsung is calling this phone ‘My first 3G touch phone’ and is aimed at the youth

The S3370 is known in Russia as the Corby 3G and with too many Corby’s in the Indian market , Samsung decided to call it the Nano 3G. With this launch the company has over 21 touch screen devices in the country.

Speaking at the launch, Mr. Ranjit Yadav, Director- Mobile & IT, Samsung India Electronics Pvt. Ltd. said, “The launch of Star Nano 3G is significant as it represents our most affordable 3G touch screen handset as well as strengthens our portfolio of 3G enabled handsets as the country gears up for the roll-out of 3G services very soon.”

Samsung Star Nano 3G Features

• 2.6 inch screen
• compact and curvilinear design
• 1.3 megapixel1.3 megapixel camera with video recording
• FM radio
• Music recognition
• Full Screen Video playback
• 35MB internal memory
• 2000 contacts phonebook memory
• 800 SMS memory
• microSD card slot expandable upto 16GB
• SNS 2.0 Social Networking
• Pop Up SNS
• Downloadable Apps from Samsung Apps
• English dictionary
• Vocablite, Sudoku, OC2ps, Shorthand, Rocketalk, MBA lite.
• Mobile tracker, fake call and mobile prayer
• The Touchwiz 2.0 Plus UI with home screen widgets, Gesture control and 4 page menu
• GTalk, AIM, Palringo chat
• Active Sync Google Push email service and sync calendar

Samsung Star Nano 3G Price and Availability

This touchscreen phone will cost you Rs.7320 and it comes with a 2GB memory card, stylus leather pouch free in the box

What 3G telephony promises the Indian consumer

New Delhi: YouTube experience on your mobile phone, video chats, internet TV, streaming music and near-instant data transfers -- these are some of the numerous applications Indian consumers can look forward to with third generation (3G) telecom services.

Even though the two state-run firms -- Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd -- have already started 3G services in India, the competition is now set to hot up, following the auction of airways to private players to start such service.

They hope their 3G networks will be up and running over the next six months, adding another feather to the world's second largest mobile phone network, which has some 600 million phone subscribers, adding over 20 million new users every month.

The main enabler is the technology, since both the second and third generation telephony services use airwaves -- also called frequency spectrum -- to carry signals. Only that, airways are better exploited in 3G telephony, making applications several times faster than 2G.

Globally, the first commercial launch of 3G services was by NTT DoCoMo in Japan in October 2001, followed by SK Telecom in South Korea in January 2002 and by KT, also of South Korea, in May the same year.

So the next time you access the Internet with a 3G-enabled phone, the page-view will be near instant, unlike a half-a-minute or so you may take today. For the same reason, you can also watch TV, play online games, download videos and listen to streaming music on your 3G phone.

Of course, the service will come for a cost, especially after the auction has resulted in a licence fee of over $5.5 billion for the government for the 71 slots available in 22 circles into which the country has been geographically divided.

Depending on how much of download you intend to do, measured in mega byte, the service may cost anywhere upward of Rs.1,000 to Rs.4,000 per month, as per initial estimates available with telecom operators.

"The numbers are mind boggling and it is going to be a big challenge for operators to leverage high costs and still be able to offer the service at low cost," said Prasanto K. Roy, chief editor with CyberMedia's, referring to the high fee for spectrum.

"Companies will use part of this spectrum for voice services, but it will also help in the spread of data services throughout the country," Roy told IANS, hoping for service cost to eventually fall, as was the case with 2G services.

The handset for 3G must also be compatible and may set you back by Rs.15,000 or so, though analysts like Sanjit Chatterjee, director with the Singapore-based mobile internet solutions provider REVE Systems, expect prices to drop.

"While all 600 million Indian mobile subscribers don't own handsets that support data services, it is a matter of time when some cheaper 'copycats' will be within every mobile user's reach for one-tenth the average price of a smart phone," Chatterjee said.

Already there is a wide choice of 3G-enabled handsets to choose from, like the Apple iPhone 3GS, Samsung i900 Omnia, Nokia E71, Nokia N96, BlackBerry Bold 9000, Nokia N85, Motorola Q9h, Sony Ericsson C702 and Samsung Corby PRO.

At the same time, China's Huawei is planning to sell its entry-level phones within $80 to $100 (Rs.3,600 to Rs. 4,500), while South Korea's LG intends to priced a few models at $100 a piece

Revenue from 3G auction now over Rs.51,000 crore

New Delhi: India Saturday concluded 143 rounds of an auction to award spectrum for third generation (3G) telecom services in the country, with the government's provisional revenue from the sale of airwaves reaching Rs.51,833.46 crore ($11.4 billion), which is well above the amount it expected.

The government had hoped to rake in Rs.55,000 crore ($12 billion) from both the 3G auction and the rolling out of broadband wireless internet services in the country. But with the agressive bidding in few circles, the government is poised to get more than the estimated amount from the 3G auction alone.

At the end of the 25th day of the auction, which began April 9, the provisional winning price for a pan-India 3G licence stood at Rs.12,850.66 crore ($2.82 billion), up around 267 percent from the Rs.3,500 crore reserve price.

Slots for three-four players are available in each of the 22 circles into which the country has been geographically divided for the 3G services, which will facilitate faster connectivity and enable applications such as Internet TV, video-on-demand, audio-video calls and high-speed data exchange.

Nine telecom companies - Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Vodafone Essar, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices, Aircel, Etisalat, S Tel and Videocon Telecommunications - are participating in the online auction.

The government has already given Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) spectrum for 3G services on the condition that they pay the same licence fee as would be levied on private players after the auction.

Along with the fee that will be eventually paid by the two state-run enterprises for the licences, the government will provisionally get at least Rs.51,833.46 crore ($11.4 billion) from the auction.

According to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the 3G auction will conclude next week.

Data on the DoT's website showed Mumbai continued to attract the highest bid at Rs.2,315.79 crore. The provisional winning price for Delhi stood at Rs.2,208.59 crore, followed by Karnataka at Rs.1,374.51 crore, Tamil Nadu at Rs.1,171.75 crore and Maharashtra at Rs.1,127.47 crore.

While Bihar, Mumbai, Delhi and Karnataka witnessed more players in fray than the number of slots available, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and the northeast still could not attract enough bidders.

This 3G auction is a simultaneous auction for the 22 circles over a secure website. At each round, the price is hiked from between 10-1 percent based on demand.

The auction is being held on all days except Sundays and national holidays. The bid data, including the winning companies' names, will be made public after the auction's completion and approval by the government.

The winning firms will have to deposit the money within 10 days after the auction and the successful bidders would be allowed to offer 3G services on a commercial basis from Sep 1.