New York - Verizon Communications Inc, the second-largest US phone company, had better-than-expected profits of about 3.2 billion dollars in the first quarter as customers laid out more money for text messaging and other services. Sales rose 12 per cent to 26.6 billion dollars, bolstered by the purchase of Alltel Corp. But global business revenues dropped 3.4 per cent as companies fired workers and delayed new purchases, Bloomberg financial news service reported.

The directive by the Department of Telecom (DoT) - whereby Internet Service Providers in India have been compelled to surrender spectrum falling in the Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) space - has become a contentious issue. Taking a hard line stance against the edict, the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) has filed a petition with the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal.

Idea Cellular, the telecom arm of the Aditya Birla group, has posted a net profit after tax of Rs 274.26 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2009 whereas the same was at Rs 276.69 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2008.

Further, the company has posted total income of Rs 2936.49 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2009, against Rs 1985.26 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2008.

As per the most recent data from TRAI - Telecom Regulatory Authority of India - mobile operators in India added an all-time high of 15.87 million subscribers in March, largely because of spreading out of mobile networks in smaller towns and rural areas. The record marks a step ahead of the February subscriber-addition figures of 13.82 million, and the January figures of 15.41 million.

OnMobile Global Ltd and Vodafone Group have entered into an agreement to deploy OnMobile's Ringback Tones, Voice Portal and Speech-enabled Value Added Services to the Vodafone Group emerging markets operating companies.

The agreement enables Vodafone operators and Partner Networks across the world to rapidly deploy OnMobile's products which have achieved remarkable success for Vodafone in the fast growing Indian VAS market

A new, location-based service has been launched by Tata Teleservices Ltd on Monday. Called the 'Quickfinder Assisted Global Positioning System' (A-GPS) service, it aims at facilitating for the CDMA subscribers the pin down of locations of interest, and the en-route tracking of vehicles and consignments.

The latest offering from Tata Teleservices is powered by Qualcomm's 'QPoint' solution and 'gpsOne' technology incorporated into its chipsets. The Navigator application of the service will provide end-users with driving instructions, and information about the shortest route to a preferred destination.