Amazon.com, in an apparent switch in its pricing policy, said over the weekend that it will allow purchasers of its new Kindle Fire tablets to pay $15 extra to turn off advertisements that are built into the devices.

The change came barely a day after Amazon on Thursday unveiled larger Kindle Fire tablets, priced from $159 to $599, to challenge Apple Inc's dominant iPad on price and additional digital content.

Amazon had said the tablets would come with ads known as "special offers" that appear when screens are locked and in the corner of the home screen, helping keep prices low. But criticism of the company mounted in online forums after reports that the company would not allow buyers to pay to block the ads as it had done with earlier tablets.

By Saturday web sites engadget.com and cnet.com were reporting that Amazon had changed its policy.

In an email response to questions from Reuters, Amazon spokesman Kinley Pearsall said only: "With Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD there will be a special offers opt-out option for $15. We know from our Kindle reader line that customers love our special offers and very few people choose to opt out. We're happy to offer customers the choice."

Amazon unveiled the new wireless tablets without having received approval for their sale from the Federal Communications Commission, which requires that products operate safely and won't interfere with other signals. The company said it expects to receive the approval in time to meet its planned shipping date of November 20.

NEW DELHI: Telecom subscriber base fell to 944.81 million in July from 965.52 million a month ago, the first ever decline in the country.

The subscriber base report for the month of July released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) shows that overall telecom user base of the country dropped by 20.71 million subscribers over June.

"This is the first time we have seen decline in overall subscriber base," a Trai official told .

The decline in total subscriber base for the first time was led by the wireless segment where users declined by 20.61 million.

The biggest loss in user base came from Reliance Communications that lost 20.48 million users, followed by Tata Teleservices, Uninor, Videocon, Loop and MTNL.

RCom said the drop is due to removal of inactive customers from its user base.

"With an objective to release the substantial blocked resources of number series and in context of DoT's stringent guidelines on issuance of fresh numbers, RCom has decided to deactivate the inactive prepaid subscribers who have not had any usage in the last 60 days," a RCom spokesperson said.

The total subscriber base of RCom declined to around 134 million in July from over 154 million in June.

Tata Teleservices lost over 2.4 million wireless customers, Uninor lost over 1 million subscribers, Videocon 0.41 million, Loop Mobile and state-run MTNL each lost around 0.15 million subcribers in July.

No immediate comments from these companies were received.

Bharti Airtel, however, lead the growth in mobile subscribers in July by adding over 1.5 million new customers, taking its total subscriber base to over 188 million.

Vodafone added over 1.2 million users, taking its total subscriber base to over 154 million. Idea Cellular, Aircel, Sistema Shyam and HFCL added 0.45 million, 0.28 million, 0.16 milion, and 23,000 new users respectively in July. State-run BSNL added 0.47 million subscribers in July.

Nokia Corp. expanded its apology for using misleading marketing materials for a new line of phones.

The company last week acknowledged that it didn't use the PureView camera of its forthcoming Lumia 920 to shoot a portion of a video used in promotional material for the phone. The company on Saturday said other pieces of the marketing material, such as still photography, also were simulated.

In both cases, Nokia was called out by independent blogs for not having disclosed that the images weren't captured by a Lumia.

Nokia used a hand-held video camera and lighting rig rather than the Lumia to create the material in question. Then it used that material as evidence that the technology in its new phones, set to go on sale this year, was superior to competitors' technology already on the market.

Nokia's initial failure to fully represent how it shot the images deals a blow to the company's credibility when it is struggling to regain its footing in the global smartphone market. Nokia was once the dominant player in mobile handsets but has been hit hard by the success of Apple Inc., AAPL +0.62% Samsung Electronics Co. 005930.SE +4.52% and others.

Nokia introduced its new phones, which use Microsoft Corp.'s MSFT -1.26% Windows 8 operating system, on Sept. 5 in New York following a move by Samsung in August to show off its own Windows 8 phone. Apple is expected to introduce its next iPhone on Wednesday.

Nokia Chief Executive Stephen Elop said that unlike Samsung's Windows 8 phone, Nokia's phone was functional. But the Finnish company didn't disclose the cost and release schedule for its new line, leading to criticism and a decline in the company's stock price.

The need to simulate the camera capabilities of the Lumia 920 rather than wait until the real technology was ready showed the urgency facing Nokia.

"Nokia recently apologized when it became clear that a video, which had been produced to demonstrate the benefits of optical image stabilization, failed to make clear that it was a simulation only and not shot using the new PureView camera on the Nokia Lumia 920. This video was produced when the Nokia Lumia 920 was in preproduction," the company said. "While there was no intention to mislead, the failure to add a disclaimer to the video was obviously a mistake, and we apologize for the misunderstanding it did cause."