Reliance Jio in talks to outsource call centre, back-office operations

  Reliance has started talks with half a dozen BPO companies to outsource call centre and other support work for its Jio telecom operations in what could potentially become one of the most lucrative contracts for the IT-enabled services industry. The service is expected to be commercially launched in the first half of next year. The deal is expected to include customer voice support, know-your-customer and activation services, two people with direct knowledge of the plans said. "The process to outsource this has already begun. The deal will be split between three or four providers and should be concluded in January," a person with knowledge of the outsourcing contract said. Reliance has shortlisted five companies — Serco, Concentrix, Wipro, Aegis and WNS — for the deal, a second person with knowledge of the discussions said, adding that French business process outsourcing company Teleperformance could also be in the reckoning. "Jio is a building a robust infrastructure that will deliver an unmatched customer experience and create new benchmarks in the industry. To achieve this, Jio works with several partners across various functions. As a policy, Jio does not share information about its partners and associates," a Reliance Jio spokesperson told ET in response to an emailed questionnaire. Serco, Concentrix, Wipro, Aegis and WNS had not responded to a request seeking comment at the time of going to press. Though ET could not establish the exact size of the deal, sources said it would initially be in the 'hundred crore range'. "It is hard to pinpoint deal value because Jio isn't fully operational yet. Deal sizes will depend on the number of full-time equivalents needed and that will depend on how much the company grows. But similar deals with telecom companies can go to over a thousand crores over five to seven years," a third source with knowledge of the outsourcing contract said. A full-time equivalent is effectively the number of people required to fulfill a contract. Telecom outsourcing has been a cornerstone of the BPO industry and deals are split across several outsourcing providers.

LG starts rolling out Android Marshmallow update for G3

The South Korean smartphone maker LG has started rolling out the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update for its LG G3 smartphone. LG's Poland unit disclosed this on Twitter. LG launched G3 in 2014 with Android 4.4.2 KitKat operating system, and the smartphone is skipping the 5.1 Lollipop update and is directly getting Android 6.0. The Ultimate Cheap Flights Finder is Here!Save70.com Stormfall: The Addicting Game Of The Year! Wage Epic BattlesStormfall - Online Game Recommended By Colombia The update is reportedly being rolled out in Poland as of now and the company has not divulged any details about the global roll out of the Android update. In order to update the device the user has to connect it to the PC as the manufacturer has not introduced the OTA update. Both 16GB and 32GB variants of LG the smartphone will receive the update. On the specifications front, LG G3 features a 5.5-inch HD display with 1440x2560 pixels resolution protected with a coating of Corning Gorilla Glass 3. Powering the handset is a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor clocked at 2.5GHz coupled with 3GB of RAM. The internal storage of the device accounts to 16GB/32GB which can be expanded further up to 128GB using a microSD card. The smartphone comes equipped with a 13.0-megapxiel rear camera with LED flash and a 2.1-megapxiel front facing camera for clicking selfies. The connectivity attributes of the device include 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, NFC and it packs in a 3,000 mAh battery.

PM Narendra Modi the most talked about person on Twitter: Report

 With more than 34 lakh tweets, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the most talked about person on Twitter in India, according to data compiled by social media analytics firm Blueocean Market Intelligence. Politics, sports and Bollywood led the chatter in India, the study shared with ET showed. Modi led with 34,16,000 tweets, followed by actor Salman Khan with 27,29,000. The India vs Pakistan Cricket World Cup match had 17 lakh tweets, the Indian Premier League almost 15 lakh and the intolerance row 800,000. According to the study, social media users relied heavily on the micro-blogging site this year to keep themselves abreast of the latest developments and expressed their opinions through quick and witty hashtags. US President Barack Obama's visit to India as the Republic Day chief guest was considered a major coup for Modi, who generated positive chatter with his continuous engagement with world leaders and CEOs for his "Make-in-India" and "ease of doing business" pitches. He also stayed in the limelight due to campaigns such as Digital India and Swachh Bharat. Modi also attracted criticism from Twitterati for his trips to countries ranging from Seychelles, Mongolia and Mauritius to the US, UK, UAE and China. His leadership was often seen as raising people's expectations and hopes and reflected in online conversations. In terms of media distribution, 94% of the conversations on 'Namo' were on Twitter, with the remainder generated publicly on other social media platforms such as Facebook.

Two to die for killing blogger Rajib

A tribunal in Dhaka on Thursday sentenced two people to death in the case filed over the murder of blogger Rajib Haider Shovon. The two are Foysal Bin Nayeem alias Dipu, 22, and fugitive Redwanul Azad Rana, 30. The court also fined them Tk10,000 each. Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal 3 Judge Sayeed Ahmed pronounced the verdict. Besides, the court ordered life imprisonment for Maksudul Hassan Onik and fined him Tk10,000. In default, he will have to be behind bars for one more year. A total of 35 out of 55 prosecution witnesses testified in the case. The accused were indicted on March 18 this year.

Japan state-backed fund to support Toshiba's restructuring: Nikkei

 Toshiba is looking to merge its white goods segment with its counterpart at Sharp or another Japanese home electronics manufacturer.Toshiba is looking to merge its white goods segment with its counterpart at Sharp or another Japanese home ele... Read More A Japanese state-backed fund will help Toshiba rebuild its home electronics division and other operations by facilitating tie-ups with Sharp and others, the Nikkei reported. Toshiba is looking to merge its white goods segment with its counterpart at Sharp or another Japanese home electronics manufacturer, the newspaper said. Support would come from the industry ministry and public-private investment fund, the Innovation Network Corp of Japan (INCJ), the report said. The fund could also help Toshiba restructure its nuclear power business as the manufacturer hopes to find a partner for boiling-water reactors, the paper reported. Toshiba was not immediately available for comment. Reuters reported earlier this month that INCJ was looking to inject funds into Sharp and was pursuing a broader restructuring of the troubled firm including a possible merger with Toshiba's consumer electronics arm.

Nasscom and IAMAI join net neutrality fight

 Two industry bodies representing several major national and international corporations said that they are opposed to a blanket enablement of differential pricing of data services, in response to a telecom regulator paper seeking comment on the practice. One of them, however, said that there may be certain situations that warrant allowing discounted tariffs for some online services. "The differential pricing issue is important, because it has implications for net neutrality," R Chandrashekhar, president of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) president told ET. "Differential pricing as a blanket enablement is out of question. It should not be done because it will completely erode net neutrality," he added. Nasscom member companies include technology services companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro. The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), which includes members such as Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, said it was opposed to differential pricing, as it violates net neutrality. "In addition to being against net neutrality, the differential pricing models suggested by Trai prima facie also violate the regulator's own stated principles of intervening in pricing," said Subho Ray, the president of IAMAI. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had asked for suggestions on differential pricing of data services in a consultation paper it released on December 9. In the paper, it describes differential tariff plans as those offered by telecom companies at "zero or discounted tariffs to certain contents of certain websites/applications/platforms." While both associations opposed blanket differential pricing plans, Nasscom said that there was a case for considering such plans in special cases. "However, we have recognised that there may be a need for differential pricing in certain contexts. For example emergency services," Chandrashekhar said.

China Telecom chief resigns amid investigation

The chairman and chief executive of one of China's largest mobile service providers, China Telecom, has stepped down days after authorities said he was under investigation. The firm said Chang Xiaobing had resigned in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Authorities had announced on Sunday that Mr Chang was being investigated for alleged disciplinary violations. Several Chinese executives have been embroiled in a crackdown on corruption. Mr Chang was the latest executive that was reported missing by local media before the country's anti-corruption watchdog - the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection - said he was under investigation. Top Chinese executives investigated Jiang Jiemin, former chairman of leading energy group China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) jailed for 16 years in October for graft Xu Jianyi, former chairman of top automaker China FAW Group expelled from the ruling Communist Party in August for embezzling funds and taking bribes Shen Hao, former president of financial media group 21st Century jailed for four years last week for extortion and blackmail Cheng Boming, president of China's largest brokerage, CITIC Securities, under investigation in September for alleged trading on insider information Meanwhile in the filing, China Telecom said president and chief operating officer Yang Jie would take over as chairman and chief executive until a new appointment is made. State-owned China Telecom is the country's third largest telecom service provider after China Unicom, where 58-year-old Mr Chang was the chairman before he joined China Telecom in August. There were reports earlier this year that the government was considering merging the two telecom giants. Many critics have also said that Beijing's anti-corruption drive has more to do with getting executives of leading firms to toe the Communist Party's line. The company's shares closed down 0.3% on Thursday after news of the management shake-up.