Freedom Pop (Startup) offering free voice and data plans getting investment fund from LetterOne

http://www.freedompop.com/

FreedomPop, a U.S. startup challenging the mobile industry by offering free voice and data plans, has received a $50 million investment to fund international expansion from LetterOne, the investment vehicle owned by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman.
Luxembourg-based LetterOne (L1) said on Tuesday it had received national security clearance from the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to complete the $50 million investment.
FreedomPop announced the investment earlier this year but did not reveal the identity of the investor.
FreedomPop, founded five years ago in Los Angeles, supplies voice and data services for mobile users by leasing wholesale network capacity from established mobile network providers such as Sprint and Hutchison's Three UK.
The company offers packages of voice calling minutes, text messages and data plans of around 200 megabytes free of charge, making money when consumers use up their free capacity and by charging for add-on services.
FreedomPop offers mobile voice and data services in the United States, Britain, and Spain. It now plans to enter eight more countries by the end of next year, followed by a fast roll-out across Asia, Europe and Latin America.
The company has introduced a variety of novel offers to the telecom industry including a low-cost Wi-Fi calling and data service across the United States and offers that give callers free access to WhatsApp in 30 countries.
LetterOne will help forge strategic partnerships in emerging markets for FreedomPop, the investor said. It seeks to fund late-stage high-growth Internet companies and announced a $200 million investment in Uber earlier this year.
L1 Senior Partner Mustafa Kiral will join FreedomPop's board of directors. He previously oversaw mergers and acquisitions at Altimo, the telecom investment arm of Fridman, including a joint venture between Russia's Vimpelcom and Wind Italy.
FreedomPop has raised around $109 million to date from a variety of top-tier Silicon Valley and European venture funds, along with Malaysian telecoms conglomerate Axiata Group .

Source :ETtelecom

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Mumbai Local Station (Churchgate, CST) will have Free Wi-Fi in 1 week

Seven local stations, including CST and Churchgate, will have free Wi-Fi facility in a week.

The railways have decided to set up the facility like it has been at Mumbai Central. As many as 50,000 people connect to the free Wi-Fi facility that was started at Mumbai Central in partnership with Google on January 22.

Railway minister Suresh Prabhu tweeted: "7 more stns Panvel, Thane, Byculla, Khar, Bandra, Churchgate, CSTM are under validation available to public in week."

Some of these stations were supposed to get Wi-Fi on August 15 but the work has got delayed. Other stations where Wi-Fi work is in progress include Vashi, Wadala, Dombivli, Badlapur, Mulund, Belapur, Chembur on Central Railway and Virar and Borivli on Western Railway.

For the first one hour, users will get full speed after which the speed will gradually decreased.

The Wi-Fi can be accessed in concourse areas and on platforms of suburban and long-distance trains.

Users will have to select Railwire as soon as they switch-on to the Wi-Fi mode.T he user will have to feed in the mobile number to get a one-time-password on phone.

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Bharat Net to cover 870 gram panchayats in Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh)

Union minister of state for telecommunication Manoj Sinha announced that 870 gram panchayats of Varanasi, including Jayapur and Nageypur villages adopted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will be covered under Bharat Net Project by December 2016.

Sinha marked the launching of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited's landline scheme on pan India basis at a function organized at DLW campus on Saturday. He also dedicated 87 new BTS under next generation value added service and also the plans, including free telephonic conversation on BSNL landline on Sundays and providing landline connection on payment of Rs 49.

Addressing the function, he announced that the Wi-Fi hotspot services in Jayapur and Nageypur villages had been started while works of covering 870 villages under Bharat Net project by connecting them with of cable would also be completed by December 2016 in the district.

He said that these projects are being undertaken to enable rural masses utilize all these modern facilities of communication.

What is Bharat-Net?

The Narendra Modi government's ambitious project of bringing village panchayats on the digital roadmap is struggling to meet the target. While the government has aimed to digitise total 2.5 lakh gram panchayats by the end of 2018, only about 8,000 have been connected with the Internet.

According to the latest data till July 31, the network has been integrated and tested in 7,607 gram panchayats. A senior official of the telecom ministry said that lack of planning, equipments and delay in tendering process were some of the reasons for project running a bit slow, but, the work of laying optical fibre in villages is in full swing.

A special purpose vehicle, Bharat Broadband Network Ltd (BBNL), under the telecom ministry is handling the roll out of optical fibre network. The project known as 'Bharat net' is being executed by BSNL, Railtel and Power Grid.

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Facebook Plans Commercial Launch Of Rural WiFi In India

Social networking giant Facebook is in talks with internet service providers (ISPs) to expand its Express Wi-Fi program into a commercial launch in India, having completed a pilot roll out of 125 rural public Wi-Fi hotspots in a tie-up with state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.

Express Wi-Fi is a Mark Zuckerberg-headed Internet giant's initiative aimed at taking affordable broadband to the rural areas of the country in partnerships with internet service companies and small entrepreneurs.

"We are testing Express Wi-Fi program in India currently that allows customers to purchase fast, reliable and affordable data packages from their local ISP (internet service providers) to access the Internet via local hotspots," a Facebook India spokesperson said.

Facebook, however, did not reveal the names of service providers that it is in discussions with, and has left it to its partners to come up with a scalable business model. The social media company on its part has developed customized software for rural markets which will help ISPs and/or entrepreneurs to run a business within their localities, helping bridge coverage gaps in the India's rural cellular data networks.

"Facebook is investing in the development of the connectivity ecosystem by providing techno-commercial assistance to local ISP partners and entrepreneurs," a person aware of the matter said.

Facebook's previous initiative to connect the unconnected through Free Basics had to be pulled out from India after the telecom regulator banned discriminatory pricing of data services, which included zero-rated services.

But India continues to remain key for Facebook's future, with 462 million, or around a third of the population with Internet access in June, according to an IAMAI report. An Akamai Technologies report puts India at 131 out of 189 countries in terms of broadband penetration, underlining the potential.

India's telecom regulator is also seeking to give a push to public Wifi in the country for the spread of affordable broadband through a consultation process.

Citing industry data, the watchdog added that the increase in the number of Wi-Fi hotspots from 2013 to 2016 has been 568% worldwide while India has demonstrated a growth of a mere 12% during the same period.

"For India to reach a goal of one hotspot for every 150 people, 8 lakh additional hotspots will have to be installed," the regulator said. 

Source:ET Telecom 

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