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The latest name to join in LTE league is Sistema Shyam Teleservices which operates under MTS brand. SSTL recently secured its operations in 9 circles of India, which are accounted for 60% data market, 40% of total population in India and 75% of SSTL’s current revenue.

In a global press release Sistema said: ‘The spectrum in 8 circles is technologically neutral and is valid for 20 years. This provides an opportunity to strengthen SSTL’s data driven strategy through a possible LTE roll out in the future.’

Currently SSTL has 3 slots of 1.25MHz block in all of 9 circles. Earlier SSTL has 3.75 MHz spectrum in Rajasthan only, and 2.5 MHz in other circles. In Rajasthan circle SSTL rolled out world’s first EVDO Rev B phase II network using two slots of 1.25 MHz to offer upto 9.8 Mbps downlink.

Though I expected that MTS India would roll out of Rev B services (MTS Ultra) in other circles with recent winning of spectrum, but it seems MTS will cover more cities in these 9 circles with EVDO rev A with the rev A equipments from circles where it closed down services. And later MTS will go for LTE roll out.

Earlier Videocon, which has 5 MHz spectrum on 1800Mhz band in 6 circles of the country announced that the company will roll out LTE services by the end of 2013. Both MTS and Videocon will use LTE-FDD technology. But MTS will have coverage advantages as they are using 800MHz spectrum. In Germany LTE-FDD is deployed over 800MHz to cover the ‘white-spots’ with zero broadband coverage.

In 2010 when India sold 2300MHz band for 4G/BWA services, everyone thought that India will be a major hub after China for LTE-TDD technology. But recent Govt. policy towards spectrum & unified license help operators to think about LTE roll outs.

I would not be surprised if next operators annoucing LTE plans are Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices, as both have 800MHz spectrum in 22 circles and 19 circles respectively and in coming years they are going to renew it. Also Vodafone and Idea may also think about LTE roll out, as they bagged some amount of 1800MHz spectrum and worldwide LTE1800 accounts for more than 30% of commercial LTE roll outs.

In an attempt to attract new customers and keep existing BlackBerry customers connected with the latest one, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) special Unlimited and Limited plans for BlackBerry Z10 smartphone running on latest BlackBerry 10 operating system.


BSNL is the first mobile service operator which has  revised its existing BlackBerry plans  for BlackBerry 10 based BB Z10 Smartphones users  and introduced with additions of host of freebies.  BSNL also launched three all new advance rental data plans for prepaid and postpaid customers using BlackBerry Z10 smartphone.

BSNL all new advance rental data plans (Annual Plan) for BB10 users dubbed as BB10 Silver , BB10 Gold and BB10 Platinum comes with advance rental for 12 months options, offer 1 GB, 3 GB and 5 GB free data usage per month respectively. Beyond free usage postpaid subscribers will be charged 1p/10Kb and prepaid subscribers at 2p/10Kb (2G and 3G / Home and Roam).

BSNL BlackBerry BB10 Plans for BlackBerry Z10 Smartphone (MICRO/NANO SIM) :

Plan Name	Free Data Usage (Home and Roam)	Postpaid (Advance Rental in Rs.)	Prepaid (STV in Rs.)	Charges beyond free data usage
BB10 Silver	1 GB/Month for    12 months	Rs.1780	Rs.1999	Rs 0.01 for Postpaid and Rs 0.02 /10KB for Prepaid
BB10 Gold	3 GB/Month for    12 months	Rs.3560	Rs.3999
BB10 Platinum	5 GB/Month for    12 months	Rs.6230	Rs.6999

BSNL also revised and opens its existing BlackBerry plans for BlackBerry Z10 users by adding new benefits in all plans (see table below).

BIS-I/Lite / Social plan will now offer Unlimited e-mail, Social Networking + 1GB Data + 100 On-net Local and National SMS . While BIS-C plan will offer additional 2GB of FREE data usage apart from the existing benefits.  BlackBerry BIS-III plan will now offer Unlimited e-mail (PO/IMAP) + Instant Messaging + Internet Browsing + 10GB off device data usage + 500 On-net Local and National SMS.

Plan Charges		Existing BlackBerry Plan		BSNL BB10 Migration Plan
Postpaid (FMC in Rs.)	Prepaid (STV in Rs.)	Plan Name	Freebies	Freebies	Charges beyond free data usage
Rs.299	BB Lite- Rs.305 BB Social- Rs. 303	BIS-I/Lite/Social	Unlimited instant Messaging / Social Networking	* Unlimited e-mail, Social Networking + 1GB + 100 SMS On-net  Local and National	Rs 0.01 for Postpaid and    Rs 0.02 /10KB for Prepaid
Rs.362	Rs.410	BIS-C	Unlimited e-mails (PO/IMAP)+Instant Messaging	*Unlimited e-mail (PO/IMAP) + Instant Messaging + 2GB data usage
Rs.999	Rs.1009	BIS-III	Unlimited e-mails (PO/IMAP)+Instant Messaging+ Internet Browsing + Off devices GPRS upto 2GB	*Unlimited e-mail (PO/IMAP) + Instant Messaging + Internet Browsing + 10GB for Off Device Usage + 500SMS On-net  Local and National
* Unlimited internet browsing (2G / 3G) access limited to Blackberry Z10 Smart phones.

Note : The above tariff plans for BlackBerry Z10 will be applicable for a promotional period of 90 days w.e.f 18.03.2013.