Wednesday, July 25, 2007

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)

Make phone calls at cheap rates through VoIP

There are number of reason to switch to VoIP technology for telephone service is cost reduction. From that base, VoIP is able to provide some compelling features which makes switching even more attractive.You can make cheaper calls from gulf countries to asian countries like India pakistan,bangladesh etc at cheap rate.

The Economics of VoIP
VoIP has become popular largely because of the cost advantages to consumers over traditional telepone networks. Most Americans pay a flat monthly fee for local telephone calls and a per-minute charge for long-distance calls.

VoIP calls can be placed across the Internet. Most Internet connections are charged using a flat monthly fee structure.

Using the Internet connection for both data traffic and voice calls can allow consumers to get rid of one monthly payment. In addition, VoIP plans do not charge a per-minute fee for long distance.

For International calling, the monetary savings to the consumer from switching to VoIP technology can be enormous.

VoIP Telephones
There are three methods of connecting to a VoIP network:

Using a VoIP telephone
Using a "normal" telephone with a VoIP adapter
Using a computer with speakers and a microphone
Types of VoIP Calls

VoIP telephone calls can be placed either to other VoIP devices, or to normal telephones on the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network).

Calls from a VoIP device to a PSTN device are commonly called PC to Phone calls calls, even though the VoIP device may not be a PC.

Calls from a VoIP device to another VoIP device are commonly called "PC-to-PC" calls, even though neither device may be a PC.

Friday, June 8, 2007

Free BSNL Numbers for Immediate Information!




Dial the following numbers in case of Assistance/ Help without paying for it (from BSNL telephones) :



Some of the services are available in select cities only. Please check the
availability in your city.
Services written in blue color are available on STD also.






Services
<>BSNL Number
PSTN Call Center (for any queries related to landline telephone, ISDN etc. Also accessible from CellOne, Excel & Tarang phones) 1500
Kisan Call Center (for any queries related to agriculture) 1551

Police

100

Fire

101

Ambulance

102

Billing complaint center

166 / 1660-69

Trunk booking

1580

Trunk assistance

1581

STD complaints

1582

National Directory Enquiry (NDQ) Service

1583

International trunk booking

1586

International trunk enquiry

1587

International Trunk delay information

1588

Telex complaints

1589

Directory enquiry service

197

Telephone Complaint Booking 198
Emergency Relief Centre on National Highways 1033
Relief Commissioners of Central/State/Union territory 1070
Control room of District Collector/Magistrate 1077

Public Grievance Cell Telecom Circle HQs

1094

Public Grievance Cell Kolkata/Chennai

1095

Crime stopper cell of police in Kerala, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh & Mumbai

1090

Women crisis response

1091

Earth-quake Help line service

1092

Natural disaster control room

1096

AIDS help line service

1097

Children in difficulty/ Child Distress Service

1098

Catastrophe & Trauma service

1099

Free Phone Enquiry 1600
India Telephone Card Enquiry 1602

Billing Complaint Center (Interactive Voice Response System)

1671-73

Maritime Search and Rescue control room of coastal guard 1718

Blood bank information Service

1910

Dial a doctor

1911

Leased Circuits Fault Booking

1918

Eye bank information service

1919

Change number announcement (Hindi)

1951

Changed number announcement (English)

1952

Changed number announcement (Regional language)

1953

Changed number announcement (in case of shift)

1954

Sancharnet Internet Help desk service

1957

Leased Circuit Fault Booking (WTR)

1958



Thursday, June 7, 2007

Indian Railway Ticket Reservation Through SMS

Indian Railway offers online railway reservation through www.irctc.co.in (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited) web site. IRCTC also offers rail reservation through mobiles using Speech recognition, GPRS and CDMA technologies available on various mobile Operators. IRCTC also introduced the simplest way to book your Railway ticket using just two SMS messages (Short Messaging Service). This service is introduced with the following mobile operators across the India.
  1. IDEA Cellular - Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi & NCR
  2. MTNL /Delhi - Delhi & NCR
  3. Reliance Infocomm - All circles
  4. Other operators like BSNL, Hutch,MTNL-Mumbai and Tata Indicom will soon integration with Indian Railway for SMS booking.

How to Book Tickets using SMS

In order to book rail tickets using SMS, the following are a must:

  • The user needs to be registered with www.irctc.co.in and opted to use the mobile reservation services.
  • User should have created at least one "Passenger List" in his profile registered with IRCTC. This list will be used for the SMS booking process.
  • The customer has to be registered for the Mobile Banking services of ICICI Bank (Other banks will be integrated soon)
  • The user must have a mobile connection with any one of the operators listed above (more operators are also being added.)
  • The entire process of "book ticket" can be done through two SMS messages, using IRCTC’s short code 7245

How to Register?

You need to sign up in www.irctc.co.in in order to avail this service. The User has to select "mobile booking" option in the profile / registration page to avail all types of Mobile Booking facilities including SMS booking. The user needs to input mobile number, mobile operator, and preferred payment option (At present ICICI Bank only). ICICI Bank will be charging Rs 10 for this service for each booking. You will need to be registered to the "Mobile Shopping Service" provided by ICICI Bank and enter the 'mShop Name' through SMS.

For more details please visit IRCTC Mobile Booking web page.

Service Provided Operators

RELIANCE
  • PNR Alert Service on 7245
  • Ticket Reservation through R-World( Payment through Credit Cards)
  • SMS Booking on 7245
IDEA
  • PNR Alert Service on 7245
  • Voice Based Ticket Reservation on 456( Payment through Credit Cards)
  • SMS Booking on 7245
MTNL Delhi
  • PNR Alert Service on 7245
  • SMS Booking on 7245
MTNL Mumbai
  • PNR Alert Service on 7245
HUTCH
  • PNR Alert Service on 7245
  • Voice Based Ticket Reservation on 123( Payment through Credit Cards)
  • GPRS Based Ticket Reservation( Payment through Credit Cards)
TATA INDICOM
  • PNR Alert Service on 7245
  • Voice Based Ticket Reservation on 12900( Payment through Credit Cards)
AIRTEL
  • PNR Alert Service on 7245

Already registered users of www.irctc.co.in can use their existing user id and password to log in and transact through Hutch / Idea/ Tata Indicom / Reliance handsets

First time users can avail the registration facility offered by the mobile operator or visit www.irctc.co.in and use the normal registration form.

How to Identify the Indian State / Union Territory / Metro a BSNL cellphone belong to?

I came across this table below to identify the home state (Indian) to which a a BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd) cellphone belong to. For example, if the cell phone number is 9447100100, its first 4 digits are 9447, which belong to Kerala state as per the lookup table given below.

Andaman & Nicobar Islands (A&N) 9479, 9432
Andhra Pradesh (AP) 9473 , 9440, 9441
Assam 9478
Bihar 9475, 9431
Chennai 9470, 9444
Kolkata 9481
Gujrat 9457,9426
Haryana 9450, 9416
Himachal Pradesh (HP) 9451,9418
Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) 9452,9419
Karnataka 9471, 9448
Kerala 9472, 9447
Madhya Pradesh (MP) 9458,9425
Maharastra 9456, 9422
North East (NE) states 9477
Orissa 9476, 9437
Punjab 9453, 9417
Rajasthan 9459, 9414
Tamil Nadu (TN) 9480, 9443
Utter Pradesh (UP) East 9455, 9415
Utter Pradesh (UP( West 9454, 9412
West Begnal (WB) 9474, 9434

As of now, I do not have the similar kind of information for other mobile providers in India. I will publish it as soon as I get the information.

Hope this helps. Please post more BSNL numbers if I am missing any in this list.