ele-service providers neck-to-neck

KATHMANDU: One service that telecom service providers are facilitating customers with is Caller Ring back Tone (CRBT). With growing competition, service providers are busy upgrading their services along with number of schemes and offers every now and then.
Nepal Telecom (NT), Spice Nepal Pvt Ltd (SNPL) and United Telecom Ltd (UTL) — the three major telecom service providers — are constantly upgrading their services.
Nepal Telecom (NT) started its Caller Ring Back Tone (CRBT) service two years ago
in Kathmandu Valley and
seeing its popularity NT has started CRBT service outside the valley recently.
It is now a week that CRBT service is available to all NT users everywhere. “It was two years ago when CRBT service was launched for the first time in Kathmandu. It is now available to all users of NT. A week ago, we completed the distribution of CRBT service to NT users everywhere,” said NT spokes-person Surendra Bahadur Thike. Mero Mobile started the
Personalize Ring Back Tone (PRBT) in 2006 and the service is available in all regions where Mero mobile service is available. UTL started its CRBT service since Baishak. Along with NT and Mero Mobile, UTL too has extended its CRBT service to all UTL users in Nepal. “The market is very competitive now, so we are going on with service upgrading and planning more new schemes for our customers,” said UTL general manager Madan Singh. With the CRBT service customers of NT, Mero Mobile and UTL can download their favorite songs, music, and clips.
CRBT is an intermittent audible indication to the calling party that a dialed telephone number is ringing.
A ring back tone is a status
indicator that the dialed number is available and that
all connections through the appropriate network or networks between the originating and destination devices either have been made or are to be made available, and that the call can be connected if someone answers the call.
The service generally is on
a subscription basis and carries an additional charge per tone selected. According to NT,
except charges for SMS and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) the charge per CRBT will be
Rs 10. Mero Mobile charges Rs 10 per song excluding taxes
and a monthly charge of Rs 30 excluding charges for its
PRBT service.
UTL’s CRBT service charges Rs 12.43 per per song while the monthly charge is Rs 37.29 and song selection charge per minute Rs 3.73.

NT to start NGN

KATHMANMDU: NT will soon start its new converse service under the Next Generation Network (NGN). Through the converse service under NGN, three services that is Voice, Data and Video will be conversed at a single place — through landline telephones. “With this service under NGN, the problem of using different cables for internet, telephone and television will be solved,” said NT spokesperson Thike. This service will be more economical and effective. “Recently, tender has been forwarded and we hope the service will be available in a year,” Thike said. The television service through Internet is called as Internet Protocol (IP) TV. The entire project is supposed to get completed within two years. — HNS

Slashes rates

KATHMANDU: NT has slashed international call rates effective from September 17. It has put countries in four categories, A, B C and D. Budget call that can be done dialing excess codes 1425 and 1445 for A countries America, Canada, Malyaisa, China, Singapore and Hong Kong iss now one-third. B countries’ rate is reduced by half. Japan, South Korea and Thailand are in the group. C countries Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Israel and Australia’s rate is reduced by Rs 5 and by Rs 1 in call rate of D countries. Earlier the budget call was Rs 25. NT calls to India that will cost Rs 6 per minute. For SAARC countries — Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka — it will cost Rs 12 per minute in dialing country code. — HNS

McDonald's takes McCurry to court again in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: US fast food giant McDonald's, which has waged an eight-year legal battle with local restaurant McCurry, will Monday petition Malaysia's highest court in its campaign to strip the eatery of the "Mc" prefix.In April, a Malaysian appeals court overturned a 2006 high court decision that McCurry -- whose menu features local delicacies such as fish head curry -- had illegally infringed on the burger chain's trademark."They (McDonald's) have said that we are passing off as McDonald's. But the food we serve is different," McCurry owner Kanages Suppiah told AFP on Sunday.On Monday, the federal court will decide if McDonald's can contest the appeals court decision.Kanages said the family-owned business is hoping the April decision in its favour will be upheld so that they can so they can go ahead with plans to open other branches."I am keeping my fingers crossed. I hope we will win. We have only one shop. Because of this (legal) problem we have been unable to expand," she said.The McCurry restaurant, which owners say is short for Malaysian Chicken Curry Restaurant, was established in 1999. McDonald's has 185 outlets in the country.

Huge rise in mortgage fraud, report cops

LONDON: London police have reported a 72 per cent increase in cases of financial fraud largely driven by a jump in mortgage scams over the previous year.The force said allegations of mortgage fraud had reached double figures and were one of the largest areas of activity for its officers. The number of investigations is expected to increase over the next year as frauds came to light and lenders sought to recover their losses, it said.Last week Chelsea Building Society became the second lender to be hit by mortgage fraud after Bradford & Bingley said it was the target of criminal gangs.Chelsea estimated its losses at GBP41 million, which pushed the mutual into a first-half loss of GBP26 million. The building society (savings and loans company) said gangs with the support of professional advisers were behind fraudulent buy-to-let loans made between 2006 and 2008 on hundreds of properties in Manchester, Leeds and several other northern English cities.This month Bradford & Bingley, the nationalised buy-to-let lender, set aside an extra GBP100 million for potential losses from mortgage fraud.Detective chief superintendent Steve Head, the chief of the City of London’s economic crime directorate, said mortgage fraud “was happening all over the country” and “has jumped from nothing 18 months ago to being one of the biggest areas of investigation”.Head said he expected the number of investigations to rise, though lenders were being slow to report cases to his unit, which has taken the lead in tackling financial crime since 2003.“While the amounts of money we are dealing with are significant, I don’t think we are seeing the full picture. It is a fraction of the fraud that has taken place. It is the mortgage lenders that are hit by the crime and they usually see it first. It would be good if the lenders were coming forward more than they are at the moment.” Most of his work centres on potentially fraudulent mortgage applications or professional negligence on property valuations.Last year the Association of Chief Police Officers estimated that mortgage frauds rake in GBP700 million a year.“Greed is the driving factor in fraud,” said Head. “There are some where there are family links, some cultural links and some where the only link is greed. But a valuer is a key figure in the process.”
Anatomy of a scam
LONDON: Gangs would buy a property, typically in a large development, at a deliberately inflated price. Once purchases appeared on the Land Registry website, they would be used as a basis for further valuations, enabling fraudsters to obtain inflated mortgage applications on other homes, often in the same development. So, if a property was valued at £250,000 but was only actually worth £200,000, the gang could pocket £50,000 to fund further deposits. The gang would usually include a solicitor and surveyor “on the payroll” to ensure that the funds from the lender were siphoned off.The frauds went undetected because, at the height of the boom, lenders were happy to hand out mortgages without carrying out their own due diligence but relying on third-party valuations. — The Guardian