As per the Telecom Subscription Data report from TRAI, as on 31^st October 2010, the wireless telecom subscription in India has crossed 700 million. This account to about 70% of the total Indian population and means that every seven out of 10 Indians now owns a cell phone connection.

The data also reveals that 19 million new connections are added in the month of October. The total telephone subscriber base including landline connections stood at 742.12 million, Broadband subscription stands at 10.52 million and overall tele-density reached 62.51. Source: TRAI

Intex is planning to launch a low cost android phone for the Indian market. Priced at Rs 5,500 the phone will have Android 2.2 OS (Froyo) and also features a 3.2 megapixel camera, a 2.8 inch resistive Touchscreen, Wi-Fi and GPS.

“We will launch an Android 2.2 phone in the first week of February and it will priced at around Rs 5,500.” reports Telecomyatra.com, as quoted by Sudhir Kumar, Assistant general manager, Telecom division, Intex.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs has been selected ‘Man of the Year’ by Financial Times, Britain’s leading business paper. FT noted that Apple’s unveiling of iPad is a “remarkable comeback in modern business history” and that Jobs-led Apple had reinvented itself by offering products such as iPhone, iPod and iPad after its demise in the 90s.

“Long-time nemesis Bill Gates may be richer and, at his peak, arguably exerted greater sway, thanks to his monopoly over the world’s PC software. But the Microsoft co-founder has left the stage to devote his life and fortune to good works. It is Mr. Jobs who now holds the spotlight”, Financial Times said.

Fujitsu Ltd, the Japanese electronics manufacturer is set to release its smartphones in India and China in 2011 and 2012.

The handset models will be compatible with Long Term Evolution (LTE) 4G services, capable of offering quick data transfers. [via]

Techcom India launched its range of affordable GSM mobile handsets in Uttar Pradesh. The dual SIM mobile phones are priced from Rs 1,500 to Rs 4,000.

Initially five major zones comprising Allahabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Gorakhpur and Varanasi will be covered. Techcom will setup over 90 service centres in the next six months to cover all the 72 districts of UP.

Sales of mobile phones loaded with Microsoft Windows Phone 7 operating system had crossed 1.5 million sales, reports Msnbc.com. Windows Phone 7 operating system for mobile was launched in October this year. Manufacturers incorporating Windows Phone 7 on their mobile devices include HTC, Dell Inc, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics.

Windows Phone 7 features a new user interface made up of “Tiles”. Tiles links to applications, features, functions and individual items in your mobile, and Tiles can be added, rearranged and removed according to user’s wish.

Other features in Windows Phone 7  include spell checking and prediction supported Text input, Web browser featuring an Internet Explorer Mobile version with up to 6 tab support, Multimedia with Zune application for entertainment and synchronization between PC and Phone, Games with Xbox Live, an intelligent Search and Office suite with Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile, OneNote Mobile and SharePoint Workspace Mobile.

DigiTimes reports that, Logitech has temporarily suspended shipments of Revue set-top boxes (STBs) for the period from December 2010 to January 2011. This is anticipation of Google’s complete updates or to launch a new version of its software for Google TV. Logitech Revue is based on Android operating system. Google’s Android 3.0 is expected by February end or March 2011.

According to a proposal put forward by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), stolen mobile phones will soon become useless. The proposal asks telecom operators to track and block stolen mobile devices by means of IMEI number of mobiles.

IMEI is the International Mobile Equipment Identity number which can be called as the unique identification number for a mobile device. Every service provider can know your IMEI number when you make a call. Thus once the IMEI number of the stolen phone is tracked, it will be blocked further from interacting with any networks.

This system is likely to get implemented as most operators now have the facility to track IMEI number; after telecom department, in 2008, asked operators to implement facility to block mobiles without IMEI number.

Earlier in 2004, TRAI had issued a consultation paper to telecom operators regarding IMEI blocking, but was not implemented since most service providers then do not have the facility to track or block IMEI.

Chinese telecom company Huawei Technologies will invest more than USD 2 billion in India in 5 years as part of its expansion of research and manufacturing capabilities in India, reports Reuters.

The company will be utilizing USD 2 billion to set up a new R&D campus in Bangalore, a production base for networking and communication equipment in Chennai and for establishing training centres for engineers in main cities. Through the new facility, Huawei plans to increase the number of research engineers from 2000 to 3000. Huawei currently employs more than 6000 people in the country, of which about 90 percent of staffs being Indians.

Content-sharing site Delicious entered the list of services which Yahoo plans to close in the near future. This move can be seen as a continuation to the recent lay-off of 600+ employees in Yahoo.

Delicious, the social bookmarking web service meant for storing and sharing web bookmarks, was started in 2003 by Joshua Schachter, but was later acquired by Yahoo in 2005. Other services which are in the list for closure include MyBlogLog, Yahoo Buzz, Yahoo Picks and Yahoo Bookmarks, reports The Financial Express