AIRCEL OFFERS ISD CALLS AT 1P/SEC New Delhi The Times of India

Aircel has launched a new international calling Aircel ISD 54444 plan, offering special calling rates for ISD calls to its customers. Users would not need to pay any additional charges under the new plan. Under the ISD 54444 plan, Aircel will offer international calls to select top called destinations including USA, Canada, Singapore, China, UK at 1p/sec without any additional charges. Subscribers opting for the plan will need to prefix a 5-digit toll free short code "54444" followed by '00 - country code - customer number' to avail the benefits of discounted international calls at 1p/sec to these 5 destinations. The prefix dialling code 54444 is common across all Aircel circles. However, this service will not be applicable while on roaming.

INT/E-COMM TATA COMMUNICATIONS TO SET UP DATA CENTRE AT GIFT Gandhinagar The Hindu Business Line | The Economic Times

| Financial Chronicle

Tata Communications Ltd, leading telecommunication services provider, will set up a major ultra-modern green data centre at the Gandhinagar-based Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT), Indias first globally-benchmarked International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), to provide communication services. The centre will be built and managed by Tata Communications, a consortium member of Smart ICT Services Private Ltd, the concessionaire appointed by GIFT for undertaking the establishment, management, and operation of ICT infrastructure, services and platforms within GIFT on a Build, Own and Operate (BOO) basis.

BSNL, POWER GRID SET TO SIGN PACT ON NORTHEAST CONNECTIVITY

Kalyan Parbat, Kolkata The Economic Times

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd will shortly sign a bandwidth-sharing agreement with Power Grid Corporation of India to boost telecom connectivity across the Northeast, says a telecom department note. Power Grid, the state-run power transmission utility, operates an overhead opticfibre network using its powertransmission infrastructure. Power Grid will provide 400 gigabit per second of bandwidth to state-run BSNL for building a network path to improve connectivity in places close to the Chinese and Bangladesh borders. The bandwidth sharing pact is a cost-optimisation move "aimed at preventing duplication of resources with central public sector enterprises," says the note, seen by ET.

APPLE, GOOGLE EYE BIG PIE IN EDUCATION SPACE Anuj Srivas, Chennai The Hindu

Technology giants Apple and Google are looking to dabble in Indias lucrative education market, with both companies recently having rolled out programmes that make a foray from both the hardware and software angles. Google, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, has rolled out a pilot programme in Andhra Pradesh, distributing close to 50 of its trademark Chromebook laptops to a few schools. Yes, the Chromebooks were just delivered last month. Its at a pilot stage right now, we have to wait and see the success of it [the programme], said S. Rajendran, Chief Marketing Officer, Acer India, whose company makes the Chromebooks that were sent to the schools.