A venomous header from Vidic gave United their second goal.

Injury crisis again – Vidic this time. Oh my god. If this continues, then we have to buy some defenders come January. But what we most need is a left winger. The creativity is not just there. We have an out and out goal scorer in Owen, but there doesn’t seem to be enough service.

Coming to the goals. The first one was a straight forward penalty. Well taken though, taking Rooney to 13 already. Then came a venomous header. What force! The keeper couldn’t keep the ball. I have not seen too many headers hit more powerfully than that one.

Special mention to the third goal. Only Berbatov can even imagine such an outrageous pass, forget about executing it. The finish was superb by Valencia no doubt, but just can’t stop admiring the set up. If at all there was a player of grace, it has to be Berbatov. Brilliant. Just brilliant.

Can’t wait for the Fulham game now. Its an away game, so a bit tricky, but away form has been good of late. I imagine we will again play 4-5-1, with Rooney up front. But I sure think we should try Owen up front, with Rooney on the left. Any other ideas?

Ryan Giggs - BBC Sports Personality of the year 2009.

The week that went by was ordinary to say the least. Having a rough time with some personal issues, and to upset matters, United lost to Villa. Horrible. I am now just looking forward to the game against the Wolves. I hope we get it right this time. And Fergie SHOULD play 4-4-2! Even if the back four is weak.

I can’t help thinking that United is atleast one striker short. Berbatov seems to be more of a nicks and nudges player. He can set things up, but can’t score. Rooney tries to do a bit too much every time he has the ball. Inspite of all the good work that Villa have done, United should have won the match comfortably. Rooney and Giggs wasted a lot of opportunities by trying a tad too many flicks. Where is the Torres kind of striker who can kill balls off?

Talking about Giggs, its amazing what the old fox has been doing. Playing well for a season or two, sure. But in a team like United, to be playing for so many years is just awesome! And the guy’s attitude just rubs off onto the youngsters. If not for his playing abilities (although he has been United’s best player of the season so far), his contract should be extended for his presence in the dressing room. Imagine the amount of good he will be doing to the likes of Welbeck, Macheda and Obertan.

I am now looking forward to the midweek game against the Wolves tonight. Can someone do something about the timings please? The match kicks off at 1.30 AM IST! I will be up though. All the best United. Get back to winning ways. Take heart from the fact that Chelsea also dropped points. We are better than what we were same time last season.

Although Torres scored the goal, I thought Dirk Kuyt and Benayoun were good. They created the real hurry. Rio was awfully off color, and I thought we should have played Neville and Valencia on the right.

John O’Shea had a decent game, but he is more of a sedate right back. You should have seen the chances created by Gary Neville in the game against CSKA Moskova.

Well, that was a very ordinary day at office, and we should not let it cover the fact that we have had a pretty decent start to the season, that too in the absence of Ronaldo – without whom, even Moneybags Real Madrid are finding it difficult.

I am now waiting for Owen Heargreaves and Gabriel Obertan to come in. I hope Sir Alex will buy a good forward – someone who can convert those half chances. Michael Owen was very slow, and Berbatov seems to be more of a midfielder than goal scorer. He is creating a lot with his deft flicks, but no finishes. And Wayne Rooney seems to be finding it difficult to play the role of a single striker.

Fergie, if you are listening, why not buy someone like a Niklas Bendtener (who seems to be unhappy at Arsenal)? Or someone from the Bundesliga – the front two of Wolfsburg were good in the game against us.

According to the Economic Times, the Telecoms Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has unveiled proposals that could see operators forced to bill subscribers on a per-second basis. ‘We plan to ask operators to charge customers on a per-second basis so that consumers can enjoy the benefit of paying only for their usage,’ said TRAI chairman JS Sarma of the plans, adding, ‘We will first issue a consultation paper on the subject. According to existing regulations, the TRAI can issue a directive only after seeking the industry’s view on the subject.’ No timeframe has been announced for the implementation of any new billing regulations, although it is understood that the TRAI consultation paper could be issued within the next month or two. Currently only Tata DoCoMo, Sistema Shyam Teleservices (which operates under the MTS India banner) and Aircel offer billing on a per-second basis, although the latter only follows this billing method in a few select circles. Investors in some of the country’s largest mobile network operators have expressed concern at the plans, especially in light of a study conducted in August 2009 that indicated the enforced introduction of per-second billing could see annual revenues fall by between 10% and 15%.

Dell have come up with a smart-phone like solution – a system that never sleeps. Check out this article by David Pringle, Freelance Media Relations Consultant/Mobile Innovation Exchange Moderator at “Mobile Innovation Exchange”.

Dell has come up with an innovative, if rather inelegant, solution to the dilemma faced by many road warriors. With ten minutes to kill at the airport or hotel, do you power up your laptop to write a few emails and endure the lengthy boot-up process or do you painstakingly punch out the messages on the small keypad of your Blackberry, or even worse, the virtual keyboard of the iPhone.

Dell’s solution? Produce a laptop containing both an ARM-based microprocessor running Linux and an Intel processor running Windows (Wintel). If they are in a hurry, the user will be able to wake up the Linux operating system and get on the Web, access email and read (but not edit) documents almost immediately, according to Dell. Apparently, the ARM/Linux combination will also be frugal with battery life, addressing one of the other perennial frustrations of business travellers. But when the user needs their full-suite of PC software, the 16-inch screen Latitude Z laptop will be able to run in conventional Wintel mode.

The move, which is the kind of innovation we might have expected from smartphone pioneer Nokia, is a clear signal that Dell doesn’t expect the Wintel alliance to soon achieve the same kind of always-on experience associated with smartphones, nearly all of which use ARM-based chips. It also appears to be a partial validation of the “smartbook” format being touted by Qualcomm and Freescale, which see the ARM architecture as the basis for always-on devices with displays of up to 12 inches on the diagonal.

The downside with the Dell approach is that two microprocessors and two operating systems will inevitably add to the complexity, cost and size of a laptop. The Latitude Z, which also boasts many other high-end features, will retail for about $2,000 and weighs two kilograms. Still, the computer market’s tilt towards always-on machines with long battery lives has to be the right direction for an increasingly mobile workforce.

Indian mobile network operator Sistema Shyam TeleServices (MTS India) has been valued at USD3.5 billion by an independent appraiser, according to Reuters. The valuation of the operator comes on the back of the Russian government’s decision to acquire a 20% stake in it, which on the back of the valuation will cost the state approximately USD700 million; in its 2009 budget Russia set aside RUB23.7 billion (USD707 million) for the purchase. It is understood that the Russian government will look to acquire the stake from Sistema Shyam’s majority owner, Russia-based Sistema, which holds a 73.71% stake in the joint venture; India’s Shyam Group has a 23.79% stake in the cellco; the remaining 2.5% is publically held.

Previously indications have been that, should the sale go ahead, it may be used by Russia as part of a plan to settle New Delhi’s outstanding Soviet-era debt to Moscow. As a result of India’s significant debts to Russia, stemming from purchases made prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the two governments have agreed that Russia can utilise this rupee debt to finance its investments and joint venture projects in India.

This one got me wondering on how the “debt” system between nations works. Is it as simple as the ones we do daily, only on a larger scale?

On the back of the regulatory changes Vodafone has revealed it will acquire 49% of the holdings of Analjit Singh, who has a 7.58% stake in Vodafone Essar through three separate holding companies, and Asim Ghosh, who has a 4.68% interest in the cellco, again held through three companies. The Vodafone Group will pay a total of INR8.62 billion (USD180 million) for the stake – INR5.33 billion to Mr Singh and INR3.29 billion to Mr Ghosh – which will see it increase its share in Vodafone Essar to 58%, up 6% from the 52% it currently holds. Both Ghosh and Singh applied to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) on 11 September for permission to divest their stakes.

© Commsupdate from TeleGeography

State-owned telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and software solutions provider HCL Infosystems have entered into a partnership aimed at accelerating the uptake of information technology in India. According to The Indian News, the two companies have signed an agreement to work together on the National Broadband Penetration Programme (NBPP), and BSNL has revealed it will benefit from funding from the country’s Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) for the project. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has approved subsidies for the telco of INR4,500 (USD92.93) per broadband connection that is rolled out through any of the operator’s 27,789 rural exchanges. For its part HCL will offer subsidised computer hardware, as well as setting up four call centres, two each for enquiries and technical support. For those looking to sign up for a broadband service, HCL will offer computers through its ‘Touch’ outlets in more than 4,000 towns, with hardware costing an initial INR2,250 plus a further INR300 per month; the cost of the broadband service itself post-subsidy will be between INR99 or IN150 per month. Commenting on the development, Kuldeep Goyal, BSNL’s chairman and managing director, said: ‘This is indeed one of the major initiatives to bridge the digital divide by offering personal computers plus broadband at subsidised rates to our customers.’

Source: Telegeography’s Commsupdate

India’s Intelligence Bureau (IB) has reportedly called on the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to block all internet telephony services in and out of the country until the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is able to track such calls, the Economic Times reports. The IB claims that India currently lacks the necessary technology to track VoIP calls, and argues that this presents a national security issue, with the bureau noting: ‘In the absence of Caller Line Identification (CLI) parameters of calls landing from abroad, it is next to impossible to identify the country of location of the caller. Moreover, of late a number of service providers in India have started providing VoIP solutions for making calls both domestics as well as foreign. The calls passing through the VoIP/IP route contain inadequate parameters rendering it impossible to trace the actual callers. As DoT had conveyed that it is not possible to mandate transmission of CLI from abroad, we had approached DoT to block such calls till a technical solution is found.’
Should the DoT act on the recommendations, hundreds of thousands of VoIP subscribers would be affected; according to the latest available statistics from the Telecoms Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) there are 34 companies providing commercial VoIP services at the end of March 2009, and more than 130 million minutes of calls using internet telephony were logged between January and March 2009.

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