Country's largest cellular operator Bharti Airtel has informed that it would launch direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television service christened 'Airtel digital TV' initially in 62 cities from October 9, 2008.

The company claims that Airtel digital TV uses the latest MPEG4 standard with DVB S2 technology, which translates into exceptional picture clarity and consistent high quality audio for the customer. 

In addition Airtel digital TV also uses 20% larger dish antenna that offers better performance during rain.

Tehran - The Iranian capital Tehran on Tuesday opened the Milad Tower which is said to be the world's fourth highest building for telecommunications.

Only the telecommunication towers of Toronto (553.3 metres), Moscow (533.3 metres) and Shanghai (500 metres) are higher than the Milad Tower in western Tehran with a height of 435 metres, media reports in Iran said.

The tower, owned by the Tehran municipality, is also supposed to serve as a commercial and entertainment centre.

Recently the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) was requested by CDMA operators to put a stop on the auction of spectrum for the much awaited third generation (3G) services, till the time there is no clarification on some vital issues on charges of the spectrum. 

The Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (Auspi) sent a letter to the Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura, in which they briefed, “It is not possible to segregate the revenues earned through 2G services from that of 3G services. Auspi reasons that such bifurcation provides an arbitrage for operators to lower spectrum charges.”

A committee has been formed by Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in order to separate the income made by the 2G and the 3G services. Just two days before, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had expressed its concerns regarding the same, and DoT came up with this committee well in time. 

The function of the committee would be to find out a way or mechanism to segregate the revenues of 2G and 3G for a service provider, once the 3G services commence with its operations. Other than this, components like voice and data would also be studied along with roaming that will constitute a part of 3G revenues. 

Sterlite Technologies, a leading global provider of wire and cable solutions for the power and telecom industry, has pocketed a contract worth Rs 24 crore from Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL), to supply fiber optic cables with the highest density ever to be deployed in the country.

Under the arrangement, the company would supply ribbon-liter 288F ribbon fiber optic cables to BSNL, which BSNL would initially install at nearly 100 city sites across the country. This is the first time ever that, fiber optic cables higher than 144F would be deployed in India.