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Mobile Numbers to start with 8 and have 11 digits soon

Saurabh Agarwal — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:31:12 +0000

It seems that every Indian is trying to grab a mobile phone leading to a humongous requirement of new mobile numbers. Mobile numbers starting with 9 have come to an end and DoT has given permission to telecom companies to allocate new numbers starting with 8. According to TRAI, India has 415 million cellular subscribers at the end of May 2009 compared to 277 million a year ago, a whooping growth of 50 percent.

Since mobile numbers starting with 9 are coming to an end TRAI has allowed operators to allocate numbers starting with 8 which means addition of around 380 million new numbers if the number of digits are still kept to 10. It is also excepted that DoT will increase the number of digits in a mobile number to 11 which will add substantial numbers for disposal. DoT has also ordered the stopping of the usage of 95 in STD and trunk calls, which has freed around 10 crore numbers half of which will be allocated to the operators and rest will be reserved by DoT.

How will it impact operators:

1. Operators will be able to add new users without any number crunch.

2. Operators will be able to open a new stream of revenue as VIP numbers have always been in the limelight and people are willing to pay a good amount for them. Amit Malhotra from ludhiana paid whooping 15 lakh for a VIP number.

Various operators have already been selling VIP numbers for a huge sum. Tata Indicom hosts a site named Ichoose where users can bid for a mobile number .

3. Operators may have to invest in new hardware as some telecom systems have been hardcoded for 10 digit number system which may bring some huge costs specially for the operators who have just joined the telecom revolution.

Users of course, will only benefit from it. It will also benefit the telecom industry in the long run, since more people can apply for a connection without being overly affected by the number crunch.

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Idea to Launch Idea Madhur - Will Grass Roots Music Tap in at the Grass Roots?

Maneesh Madambath — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:23:38 +0000

Music and entertainment have been the most prolific VAS in use in India amongst the many available. In a bid to make the most of the scenario, Idea has launched Idea Madhur. It is a music driven value add that focusses on forgotten artists and folk/grass roots music.

The focus of course is to move beyond the urban markets as has been the trend since some time (UTV launching audio movies for instance). Idea is essentially looking it Rural India to source content as well as find markets for this initiative. The focus is on folk music and authentic ones at that which can touch a chord with the masses in those specific region. They will be beginning with Andhra Pradesh during the Filmfare awards (Southern) of which Idea is the Title sponsor.

According to Afaqs, Idea’s CMO Pradeep Shrivastava said, ” Idea had identified select markets to unearth authentic folk music and had already started a pilot in Andhra Pradesh. “At present, we are working with music companies and grassroot-level artistes to create content based on seven genres of folk music in the state. However, it will take a couple of months for us to introduce this content on the mobile as it requires high-quality music recording and then converting the content to the mobile format, before launching it in other regions,” he added.

So essentially the VAS itself will take a few months before it reaches the masses, so it would be too early to judge on how this might be received. Idea with its innovative marketing efforts (on traditional media if not digital) has struck a strong brand chord with the nation and can therefore find itself in a position to market this one better. The fact that it is entering more circles with their own specific regional characteristics would mean this move can actually be a masterstroke.

This is so because the myriad cultures in India find its definition in the music that they play. They carve a special identity not only for themselves as folk genres but also for the people there. And we all know how much of a social part regional and linguistic identity plays in today’s India (sons of the soil anyone?). These music based services will obviously be used as caller tunes, message and ring tones, etc. One doesn’t need a hypothesis and proof to see that the reason CRBTs have worked is not just because people love music but they find it identity defining. And in that context Idea already has a winner on its hand.

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TRAI issues draft guidelines for mobile number portability

Raghav Soni — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:38:27 +0000

It seems TRAI wants to leave no stone unturned for smooth implementation of Mobile Number Portability in India. It has therefore issued a draft legislation to clear the uncertainty surrounding the introduction of mobile number portability.

The draft guidelines describes the rights, obligations and duties of both the telecom operators in consideration for the changing of telecom operators by subscribers.

The draft guidelines lays down major rules such as:

A mobile subscriber shall be eligible to make a request for “porting” (changing) his mobile number upon expiry of a period of ninety days from the date of activation of his present mobile connection.

The recipient operator, within five days of receiving a written request, has to carry out subscriber verification according to the guidelines for acquiring a new user.

Upon verification, the request is to be forwarded to the donor operator (to whose network such mobile subscriber number currently belongs) for seeking its clearance.

This draft guideline mainly implies that a user would be able to switch telecom operator in a week (upto five days). The question regarding the charging of MNP still remains unanswered by TRAI. TRAI has asked for comments from stakeholders on the proposed draft guidelines by July 14.

MNP allows a user to change their telecom operator without changing the mobile phone number. TRAI had earlier indicated that it expects MNP to be implemented by 20 September 2009 in all metros and some states,the MNP charges are rumored in the range of Rs. 250-400. DoT has already selected two companies – Syniverse Technologies and MNP Interconnect – to implement and manage MNP.

What remains to be seen is how many people will actually avail of this facility to shift operators. In a competitive telecom market like India’s it’s unlikely that people would change unless they are extremely dissatisfied with the service. Also, since almost all the players provide similar services and prices, the Rs. 250-400 transfer cost might prove to be a deterrent.

This however could serve as an opportunity for new entrants in the industry. New telecom operators might decide to bear the cost of transfer on themselves in order to lure users to change. Of course, the implementation of MNP would only improve competition between service providers, the benefit of which will come to the user. It could also urge providers to initiate “loyalty programs” which could offer benefits to users who agree to a long-term contract with the provider.

The MNP reform has been hanging for a long time and with its implementation in sight, better guidelines would only help the cause. WATBlog earlier reported the benefits which could be accrued by Telecom VAS players through the introduction of MNP. Now the attention would be mainly on the pricing of MNP and fingers would still be crossed so that it finally sees the light of the day.

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Citibank To Launch A Trial Project For Mobi-Payment With Vodafone And Nokia

Raghav Soni — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:10:11 +0000

It looks like payment gateways has become a main attraction for financial services giants as Citibank India, consumer banking arm of Citigroup, has tied-up with Vodafone Essar Ltd and Nokia India to launch a pilot project testing its Mobi-payment solution in India.

The pilot project is said to be one of the largest ever taken and is currently launched in Bangalore.The mobi-payment technology which the Citibank is testing is called NFC(near field communication) allowing users to make payments by just intercepting their mobile phone against a reader terminal.Thus the mobiles in future could be used in the same way as wallets.

The technology was also tested in New York and has undergone similar trials in other countries like Singapore although has not seen much success off lately. Near Field Communication or NFC, is a short-range high frequency wireless communication technology which enables the exchange of data between devices (MOBILE AND READER TERMINAL) over a 10 centimetre distance.

NFC as a mobi-payment technology has not seen much success in India despite being deployed by few other companies. Citibank is banking on 400+ million cell phone users to drive demand for m-payment gateways. The tie-up with two big telecom players may also provide the right kind of exposure to this ambitious project.

WATBlog earlier did a story on feasibility of Mobi-payments and also the various technology that could be utilized to proliferate Mobi-payment uses. According to Gartner, the number of users making payment via mobile will be more than 190 million by 2012.

In India the success of NFC as m-payment gateway largely depends on users who find other mobi-payment solutions like SMS based and auto-IVR etc cumbersome to use. The technology has also seen security concern raised by few users in the past.

Telecom companies through such tie-ups are looking at increasing their offerings which may accrue financial benefits in the future.Thus it could be said that India is leading the race in M-commerce although it has seen laggard performance in E-commerce till now.

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Growth Predictions - Online at 44%, Mobile at 600% in FY ‘09-10 - Digital Media Outlook Report

Rajiv Dingra — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 04:44:32 +0000

Webchutney - The Digital Marketing Agency has released the first edition of its annual report which looks at the future prospects of the Digital Media Industry in India. This report analyzes the digital medium by analyzing the ad-spends of the Top 500 marketers who control two thirds of all advertising spends in India. The interview was conducted with the sampled marketers, who were typically C-level executives (13% of them were Brand Heads, 15% were Marketing Communication Heads and almost 72% were Marketing Heads).

The report is made in association with JuxtConsult. Some numbers from the report are as follows:

The report also does some crystal ball gazing into the future. Here are the future growth predictions:

As the statistics show above both Internet and Mobile show increased spending in year 09-10. Infact mobile is expected to grow faster than any other medium.

Our Take: These are interesting findings but the credibility of the same is questionable as Webchutney itself is a digital agency and hence a pro-digital media report is expected. We would really like an independent body or research agency to carry out such research reports to give a fair as well as credible insight into the digital media space. Nonetheless the report is quite informative and it does give insights into the reasons for digital media spending and media spending by top 500 advertisers.

The report can be read below:

The report is available for a free download at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/16945866/WebChutney-Digital-Media-Outlook-Report-2009

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Native Mobile Apps Vs Web Based Mobile Apps - An Analysis

Pradeep Kumar — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 04:14:23 +0000

Mobile apps have taken the world by storm be it Apples iphone apps or growing number of Anrdoid apps or Palm pre apps. Apple has already seen one billion mobile app downloads, Palm pre app catalog hit 1M downloads in less than three weeks of it’s release and Piper Jaffray estimates that mobile app spending will top $13 billion worldwide by 2012,nearly fivefold increase over 2009. It’s like heavens are raining gold over mobile apps, especially native app developers and app stores.

Amid all this the question that makes me think over and over is what are the odds in favor of mobile browser over mobile apps, Let’s have a look at the status quo.

Status Quo is Native Mobile Apps Rule

Native mobile apps can work offline and they don’t need an internet connection to operate.

Native apps deliver great experience to the user, especially with the recent developments in multitouch capabilities providing richer gaming and multimedia experience.

Native apps can access GPS, calender and address book effectively using PIM data delivering superior functionalities.

Alike web apps native apps do have a sustainable business model. The app store distribution model has been a great success. Ex: iPhone and palm besides others.

…and Mobile web apps?

There are some advantages associated with mobile web apps too viz.,

The cost of development is very less compared to the native apps

no upgrade installations required on the user front

cross platform support is easily achieved by supporting different web browsers

and these reasons obviously were not enough for the proliferation of web apps, but here’s a good news.

For local content browser still rules

It has been recently found that when it comes to finding local content, browser still rules, ComScore reported that the number of people in the U.S. who sought local content on mobile devices grew 51 percent from March 2008 to March 2009 and that mobile browser is most popular way to find local content with 20.7 million browser users in March 2009, up 34 percent versus a year ago. Only about half as many people use downloaded apps to find local data.

What will possibly trigger the proliferation of web apps?

Google Gears

Google gears is one of the most important development in the mobile web browser front. Google gears will not only eliminate one of the main hurdles, the offline functionality,it could add richness to the web applications. Google gears though cannot access PIM data it has a geo-location API which let’s the applications access the location data.

Google gears is already available on IE Mobile, Opera Mobile and Android Devices.

HTML5

HTML5 is probably going to be the native app killer, a ground breaking upgrade to the existing specification, will probably change the way we use web. HTML5 not only enables a browser to play multimedia without any plugins but also brings richness to the web apps without a Flash or Silverlight plugin.

Some of HTML5 features are already available on Firefox 3.5, IE8 and iPhones Safari browser

Flash 10

Full featured flash will be soon available on smartphones running Windows Mobile, Android, Nokia S60/Symbian and Palm beginning 2010.

ARM, the company with the most widely used processors in mobile devices is working with Adobe to optimize Flash 10 for it’s processors pushing it for wider adoption.

Full featured flash obviously implies rich applications and multimedia on web apps.

So what are the odds in favor of web apps?

If further developments happen soon enough, which is quite probable, we will see more web based mobile apps and cloud computing and less native apps, until then you just have to download the mobile apps from the app stores.

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Mobile Tie Ups - Airtel - Babajob / RCom - BBC

Rajiv Dingra — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:38:32 +0000

Content and Carriers seem to be gelling well these days as two more tie up announcement sprung up with regards to telecom providers tying up with content providers. Here are the updates:

Blue collar Jobs on Airtel Powered By Babajob

Airtel has tied up with Bangalore blue collar jobs service Babajob to launch as sms based service for low-income groups in search of non-skilled jobs in the market.

Customers need to dial *321*666 on their Airtel mobiles to access local jobs. Jobs like that for drivers, cooks, guards, nurses and housemaids is available through this service. Users can choose their desired salary range, job locations change profiles, browse unlimited jobs for free using this service.

This service is charged at Rs 10 for 10 days of job alerts. Customers get to receive alerts every day for 10 days. After the completion of 10 days, to extend the validity of this service, customers need to dial the same number. We had covered babajob on WATBlog sometime back. The sms route for these kind of jobs seems like the best way to reach out the target audience.

BBC Content To Be Available On RWorld

Reliance Mobile and BBC have tied up to offer BBC’s Live Audio service via R-World platform. Now BBC’s content shall be available live across India to Reliance subscribers. The service will offer news in a choice of five different languages every week. Reliance subscribers can access the BBC World Service Radio by dialling 51234378.

These content tie ups between providers and operators signify the growing importance of VAS to telecom players. This shows that they do see VAS being the USP given the impending roll out of MNP (Mobile number portability) and 3G auction.

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RCom To Offer Mobile TV & Sachet Based Payment For VAS

Maneesh Madambath — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:29:10 +0000

Reliance Communications is on a roll when it comes to VAS and VAS related initiatives. They have recently announced their intention to launch mobile Tv offerings for their newly launched GSM Network. RCom is reportedly in advanced stages of discussions for an alliance with Apalya Technologies to offer mobile television (MobiTV) on its network.

RCOM already offers Mobile TV services on its CDMA network and with this tie up it will be able to offer the same on its gsm network as well. RCOM will be using apalya’s proprietary platform Mimobi to enable Mobile TV services.

“In order to offer the Mobile TV application on its GSM network and to increase the number of handsets that can support the Mobile TV application, we are tying up with Apalya to enhance the width of usage”, said Krishna Durbha, Head - VAS, Reliance Communications.

While on one hand RCom is busy tying up for offering VAS on the other hand its planning to launch unique payment mechanism to drive the uptake of VAS in the Indian market. Economic Times reports the introduction of Sachet payment for VAS on RCom. It reports that the company is moving away from the monthly consolidated subscription pricing module to a more shredded subscription module and is introducing a host of sachet pricing plans.

The sachet pricing plans basically give the option for users to try services on a time based measure. For example, if you want to use CRBTs currently everyone needs to subscribe for a month at around 30 40 Rupees. Now Sachet pricing will let you buy this for a day at price of Re. 1 instead of the monthly subscription. The move is targeted towards the the 85% pre paid subscribers of Rcom’s users.

Both these news suggest an aggressive foray into VAS by RCom, and perhaps will push a similar approach by other players in the market. Especially with number portability looming and the staggerring growth mobile subscription sees every month, such flexible solutions will become a prime mover for many carriers. RCom being amongst the few players to offer both GSM and CDMA can stand to gain from both sides with these innovative efforts.

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Google Announces Adsense For Mobile Apps - Opens New Dimension For VAS Players to Look at

Maneesh Madambath — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:59:42 +0000

We want to contribute to the growth of these mobile applications, which is why we’re happy to announce our beta launch of AdSense for Mobile Applications. And so saying Adsense has sort of opened gates for a mini revolution of sorts in the mobile applications field. It’s a revolution for not many reasons and it is mini for a whole lot more, nevertheless it is an important step.

The Adsense for Mobile Apps was rolled out into Beta (another one gone into never ending beta) last night. It is currently accepting applications for Beta testing from app developers though it hasn’t quite opened up for marketers. If you are an app developer you can head over to http://www.google.com/ads/mobileapps/ and apply for the Beta program.

Wait. Not so fast.

The Adsense for Mobile Apps unfortunately is only for high end phones, which means only app developers for Android and IPhone can make any use of it. Also, Google predominantly plans to accept applications for Apps which have a predominantly North American use. Though in exceptional cases they do accept apps from other countries.

There also a couple of questions which sort of remain unanswered as of now. The first being if these apps can deliver ads only on Internet enabled apps? And if so where does that leave mobile apps that are downloaded and don’t quite need the web, how can Google display ads dynamically on them every time the app is refreshed or used?

The flaws if any are alright

The program all said and done is just launched in Beta. And it holds a lot of promise. The biggest being that apps can now be free, and there there is the advertising model app developers can pursue without worrying about a revenue model for some while. It also brings mainstream advertisers (the big ones are anyway advertising on Google) on to mobiles opening up avenues of mobile advertising like no other platform can.

It is surely going to change the VAS play once Google opens up for other platforms. App developers can also cross sell and upsell ads using this channel if they can’t purely bank on advertising for money. It also helps them depend a lot less on Carriers and service providers and their sometimes unfair revenue shares. The fact that Adsense is keeping referrals open unlike the traditional Adsense tool for which they have discontinued refrerall income is also a good move.

On the whole this is a very good news.

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Nokia Ties-up With Intel For A Global Alliance

Raghav Soni — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 04:06:39 +0000

In a tie-up which could have far reaching effects on working of mobile device Industry, Nokia-world’s no.1 cell phone maker and Intel-seller of majority PC chips has announced a tie-up covering chips, hardware, and software for mobile devices.

The companies under their agreement would focus on joint-development of new chip architectures and software’s for mobile devices.The alliance would also see Intel taking over the Nokia’s HSPA/3G modem IP license for use in future.

Nokia is currently suffering a set-back from the recent rise in market share of Smartphone players like HTC, Apple-iPhone and palm-pre unlike previous competition faced mainly from Motorola and Sony Ericson. The move could be a strategy to capture higher market share in Smartphone segment and by aligning with Intel, Nokia can be rest assured of a superior product from its fold .

Intel through this deal is looking at a re-entry into the smartphone segment as earlier it sold a business manufacturing ARM-based chip series for Hewlett-Packard iPaq. The recent success of palm pre and ‘iPhone 3G S’ showcases the consumers need in acquiring fast processing speed on handhelds and the same has attracted the attention of the chip major.

Nokia earlier announced its intention to enter laptop market, this deal could be a pre-cursor for larger alliance and may help Nokia’s case in attracting a bargain in between both the products. The deal between two giants also tells about their likely perception of saturation in their particular industries.

The alliance results may however be doubted by critics as both the companies have not divulged any further information regarding the tie-up. Even then tie-ups of such magnitude could very well help in converging the PC experience onto mobile devices.

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Airtel To Launch HTC Magic - First Google Phone In India

Saurabh Agarwal — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:36:03 +0000

Around a week back we blogged that HTC will soon launch Google Android based phones in India and here they are, HTC is launching HTC magic in India today in strategic partnership with Airtel. HTC magic will be priced between 26,000 and 28,000 and will not be locked to any operator unlike Apple Iphone thus making it a go-go for users with any operator. The phone may be bundled with talk time, data plans, micro sd card etc making it more lucrative for the customer.

HTC Magic have a huge list of features making it a compelling buy for the users opting for a smart phones, giving stiff competition to Nokia N97, Blackberry and Iphones.

All Google services like Gmail, Google Search, Street view etc comes inbuilt with G2.
Smart Dialer with on screen touch keyboard making it easy to type.
Microsoft exchange server integration making it lucrative even for business users.
Wifi Connectivity so that one can use WiFi connection while in office,home. G2 also provides easy network switching capability, so that users can switch from Operator provided network to office/home WIFI in a click of a button giving them better speed and saving some pennies .

Though the price tag may look little bit on the heavier side but it may be able to pick up cashing on the Googlemania . Users will be happier with their Gmail, Calendar, contacts all syncing up regularly.

Will it be trigger real smart phone usage?

Most of the smartphones in India are used without actually harnessing their capabilities to the fullest and most of they just become one more jazzy device in user pocket mostly because of absence of lucrative data plans by the providers.How many users will be ready to pay more than Rs 2500 for using 3G services ?

Hope Airtel and other providers put some deep thoughts into this and provide some good plans that can leverage the real use of smart phones making smartphones really useful to the users and not just a jazzy device to flaunt.

Its up to the operators how they push the smartphone use in India and how much they can forsee the future. Once the users get addicted to smartphones and advanced applications they will push operators bottom lines generating more Average Revenue Per User(ARPU ) which is currently one of the prime concerns of the operators in India.

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Indian Telecom Sector Future Growth Predictions By Gartner

Raghav Soni — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:10:35 +0000

Indian telecom sector is on the path to prosperous growth till 2013 at least that is what can be said through the recent research study conducted and made public by Gartner.

Future projections by Gartner :

The Telecom sector revenues would touch $30 billion by 2013 registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.5 percent between 2009-2013.

The Telecom subscriber base is also expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.5 percent and would cross 770 million by 2013.

Mobile market penetration is projected to increase to 63.5 percent in 2013 from 38.7 percent in 2009.,

The churn rate - the rate at which a subscriber switches their operator - would cross 59 percent in 2013 from 53 percent currently.

The number of people with prepaid connections,accounting for 93 percent of the subscriber base in 2008, will continue to swell to exceed 96 percent by 2013, surpassing 740 million.

The revenues from data services will significantly contribute to mobile services in India, with a CAGR of 16.8% from 2009 to 2013.

Gartner further quotes,”Growth will also be triggered by increased adoption of value-added services, which are relevant to both rural and urban markets.”

According to the a recent revised estimates by the Cellular Operators Association of India, the mobile subscriber base is expected to zoom to 1019 million by 2013.This shows the discrepancy in projection data available.

The report despite showing the bullishness in telecom sector also points out few riders.The postpaid to prepaid ratio will not see major up move as it is forecasted to exceed 29 million by 2013 just a small CAGR growth of 2.5 percent from 23 million in 2008.This could be a big dampener as it reflect the inability of Telco’s to garner post-paid users .

The introduction of 3G in future could well land a helping hand in increasing Telecom sector’s revenues.The churn rate is also not expected to shoot to a high level despite introduction of Number portability.

80% active internet users will have a ’second life’ - Gartner

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A Look At Rural VAS Services - Set To Change Lives

Pradeep Kumar — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 06:24:29 +0000

The other day I was discussing “Rural VAS business in India” with couple of my friends, and one of my friend argued that information about the right prices is always available with the farmers and making market price information available on mobile is little if not of no value addition to the farmer.

Another friend of mine Ashok, An IIT KGP graduate pointed out that he used to go sell vegetables in Jaipur city and he never knew what the correct price was, there it was one of the problem’s Rural VAS is trying to solve, making information easily accessible to farmer because information put’s him in a power position and helps him get more profit for all the hard work he has put into.

Innovations in Rural VAS:

It is quite amusing to see how mobile phone has already changed and still continues to change the lives in third world countries for better,be it Grameen phone in Bangladesh providing employment and connectivity to millions of Individuals in that country or the socially evolved banking solution,Sente in Uganda. (If you haven’t already seen Jan Chipchase’s video of his presentation in TED conference, do watch it.)

Sente of Uganda makes a very interesting innovations in the rural VAS space, where in people buy mobile recharge coupons and transfer money calling up the destined villages mobile kiosk and giving them the topup code. Sente brings the basic banking services to people where even the banking services are not available and to the people who probably are not eligible to have a bank account and the greatest thing is it is completely community evolved solution and not controlled by any organization.

IBM’s HSTP is probably the most important innovation in this space as it could solve the basic barrier rural VAS could encounter, illiteracy. Most of the rural population in Emerging and third world markets can’t read and write and that’s where IBM’s talk to web technology fit’s in,a person can switch on a phone and just use IVR access all the information and perform banking too.

Challenges in Rural VAS:

Apart from effective implementation of IVR and making services affordable, local information aggregation makes up a serious challenge in rural VAS. Reuters,the UK based news service company is already working on this problem with it’s pilot project “Reueter’s Market light” where in Reuters is providing commodity prices,crop and weather data to Maharashtra farmers on their mobile phones and it costs them only 60 rupees a month, recently launched Nokia’s life tools services also get’s local information from Reuter’s market light.

Future of Rural VAS:

Though rural telecom market went un-adressed until now with all of the attention going to latest VAS advances like Mobile TV, Multimedia streaming, Mobile social networking and location based services,it is getting lot of attention lately especially with the increasing mobile penetration in the country and with a major part of the growth contributed by the rural India.

With Urban and semi-ruban markets getting saturated,rural India is for sure the only place to grow and decreasing TCO (total cost of ownership)for mobile phones (less than 5USD) makes Rural VAS is one of the next big things and apart from making big bucks,businesses can add a great amount of value addition by providing farmers the right kind of information and banking solutions.

As Iqbal Quadir of GrameenPhone quotes it “The Cure to Poverty Is Connectivity and Individual Empowerment” and Rural VAS is just going to do that, empowering the farmers and the poor, making mobile phone more of an investment for them than an expenditure.

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Finally! Govt Fixes 3G Spectrum Reserve Prices At Rs 4,040 Crores! - A Look At The Great Indian 3G Saga

Raghav Soni — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:56:20 +0000

(With Inputs from Siddarth Raman)

It seems that the conflict between the finance and telecom ministry related to the fixing of reserve price for 3G auction has finally come to an end. The Government has decided to fix the reserve price for 3G auction at Rs.4040 crores. It’s a collective sigh that we all heave, with bursts of applause thrown in, as we commend (though a little skeptically) the DoT on finally getting its act together.

Here, at WATBlog, our attempt to keep you updated and forewarned about upcoming news in the mobile world has been frequently punctuated by news about the 3G category, most of which has been news about the delay in the auction process. 3G, for those who don’t know about 3G, it is the term given to third generation mobile technology. And for those who have not kept abreast of the latest happenings, allow us to fill you. The latest news, the headline of which is above, marks the culmination of at least a YEAR of speculation regarding the 3G spectrum.

The Great Indian 3G Saga

Rumours about 3G coming to India and the future it held for the mobile industry were on the buzz since last July. With everyone excited over high-speed internet accessible over the once humble mobile “phone”, telecom providers were all up in arms in preparation to capture as much of the spectrum and the market share as possible. 3G, was obviously an inevitability, the question was when. Unfortunately, most of us, overestimated the efficiency of our Government. Announcements of Pune being the first 3G-enabled city were accompanied by news about the auction being delayed by around 3 weeks. The news, however, did little to dampen expectations, analysis and prediction. After all, delays are indications that the project has at least been initiated. Amidst reports of changes to the existent policy, of not allowing new entrants eager to enter the booming telecom market access to the spectrum to allowing foreign players to make a bid for the Indian spectrum, the Indian Telecom Ministry was possibly the most prolific and Mr A Raja, the most sought minister.

The recession and the economic downturn started sparking news of further delays and true enough, the auctions were put off again. What was most disconcerting was that the competitors and official distributors of the iPhone 3G, Vodafone and Airtel were left in the lurch by BSNL and MTNL. With strained mutters of restriction and inhibitions to a laissez faire system, private players were hopeful of an early launch, but were again dismayed when TRAI put off the auction citing administrative changes as the due cause. The affair seemed almost comical as this time as the auction was put off indefinitely. The reason, this time, was the price of the spectrum. The finance ministry was insistent on hiking up the slab of the spectrum to 4,040 cr as opposed to DoT’s estimate of 2020 cr. The prices rose by as much as 70%, however it seemed that the FinMin-DoT struggle was far from over.

Meanwhile, Govt. telcos BSNL were busy launching 3G as the private players watched mutely, in hopes of an early settlement. In March, BSNL had expanded to 11 cities with still no final date on the deadline of the auctions . What was extremely surprising was though they had an early start, the public players were not making waves as high as expected, even with MTNL attempting prepaid services. The one piece of good news though, the government stayed, thereby avoiding any chances of the new government undoing the plan of what seemed now an enterprise doomed to failure. However, Telecom Minister A Raja reassured the country that by 2009, 3G would definitely morph to a reality.

It was by mid-june that news started pouring in of a possible settlement between the two ministries. The 3G auction would definitely take place now, with only the final day and price to be decided. What was essential to the Government was the prospect of this auction lowering the fiscal deficit of the economy. A sale of around 4000 cr would be more than beneficial to reduced the country’s strained debt-ridded economy. This would explain the Government’s interest in raising the prices yet again. A final tentative date, an intentional oxymoron considering past experiences was set at. Of course, the price issue was left undecided, with the Government still uncertain about the price.

What is most surprising is that the news was out today, on the 19th of June, about the final slabs set by the Government, but a day ago, the ministry was still undecided about the course of action to take with speculations still ranging on HOW many operators the government could accomodate with numbers gravitating towards 11.

With the price finally confirmed at 4,040 cr, the Government is expected to earn at least Rs 32,320 crores from 3G auctions. There would also be a limit of six operators in first phase. The auction pricing would further see clarity in upcoming Budget on July 6. The Final reserve price for pan-India wimax license,wireless broadband services is also fixed at Rs 2020 crores doubled from telecom ministry’s earlier recommendations of 1010 crores - A big dampener for Internet penetration in India.

How expensive would 3G be for telecom players?

The fixing of the reserve price is just the beginning in the price discovery process of 3G licensing. The price of Rs.4040 crs is not the final price but just the base price at which the telecom players would start their bid from to get 3G license. We shall surely witness further hike in prices as Telcos put in their bids to outbid their competitors.

Telecom experts feels that the final bidding process may see the 3G licenses getting allotted at around $1-1.5 billion (around 4800 crores - 7050 crores). Add to that the added cost of Advertising, pre-Launch publicity and the Launch itself, 3G is bound to be a very expensive affair for telecom players. Also, forking out such huge amounts money in the initial phase will cause their capital expenditures and cash flows to go haywire. MTNL would be the biggest loser as it was given 3G license well in advance and may have to match highest bidding prices in Mumbai and Delhi circles. Arranging such large amounts at short notice coupled with the high gestation period of 3G technology could make it difficult for other telecom players participate in the initial auction.

How much time will it take for a pan-India 3G Rollout ?

A.Raja earlier promised that 3G auctions would indeed see light of the day in 2009 itself. The clearing of pricing issues will now set the ground for 3G auctions in few months. DoT had earlier conveyed that they would be ready to conduct auctions within 72 days of the price issue being resolved. The final outcome of 3G service may take further time as telecom companies may take at least one year to roll out pan-India 3G services.

Why has it been delayed in the first place?

The whole bone of contention for the 3G roll out in India was the pricing conflict between the telecom and finance ministry. The delay was also marred by the elections and controversy surrounding cheap auctioning of new telecom licenses. Also, the Government is obviously viewing the Telecom Sector as a potential cash cow. The scope for telecom in India is only poised to grow. The Governments attempt to set prices as high as possible emerge from their to reduce fiscal deficit. The fiscal deficit estimate for 2008-2009 has risen to 6.2% from the earlier expected 2.5% with the President’s inaugural speech including several social and welfare reforms to be initiated by the current Government. Revenues from the telecom sector have been astonishingly high in recent years, hence a possible attempt to generate earnings through the sale / disinvestmnet of spectra and other public assets led to a delay in the auction.

What does it mean for consumers?

Telecom subscribers would be finally getting 3G services after a long wait which would enable in-take of high speed internet, videos and numerous value-added services on mobile phones. The negative offset of the increased pricing, however means that it is the consumer who will possibly bear the brunts of the additional costs incurred by the providers.

The success of Blackberry, the recent buzz around the iPhone and other smart-phones, Mobile TV and other VAS services have already highlighted the huge market for other Value additions in the mobile arena.

The introduction of 3G by telecom biggies would also mean development in other sectors. High-speed internet and availability of updates-on-the-go will lead to the development of a good eco-system giving impetus not just to the entertainment industry, but also to trade, finance and commerce.

We’ve seen one year of delays, of promises, expectations, analysis and now finally, the speculation is at an end. What remains to be seen is the end-result and the hopes that 3G will hopefully usher in a promising era of development.

We hope to hear your views of the same? Would the increased price make it to expensive for the common man? On the other side, with around 11 players in the market, will intra-industry competition lead to better services and a reduction in prices? Will we finally be able to use the iPhone 3G or (s) with our existing connections? We shall wait.

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Accell & mChek Showcase Contactless Payment System

Saurabh Agarwal — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:24:37 +0000

Soon current payments methods like credit card,debit cards,sms mobile payments will become history. Accells and mChek showcased a revolutionary patent pending technology which can make contactless payments possible with the help of mobile phones. This solution uses a variant of Near Field Technology which is the most advanced technology for mobile payments.Using this solution users can make the payments at shopping malls, toll bridges, vending machines,parking etc with the help of mobile phones. This is most advanced solution as user don’t have to swipe a credit card and unlike the current RFID systems it can be used anywhere whereas RFID cards(toll cards) had limited scope. It also enables authentication making them much safer than credit cards and more versatile than RFID cards.

How it works*:

1. Users makes some purchase and then press Pay button* on their mobile and the nearby mID( mobile identification device) terminal will find the mobile device using near field GSM signaling.

2. The mID terminal will then send the request to the bank for authentication and payment ( this service will be enabled with the help of mChek SIM tool kit).

3. The bank authenticates the user and completes the required transaction.

4. User is notified about the payment.

This whole cycle is fully secure and user is aware of every step in the cycle building user confidence on the system.

Advantages of the solution:

1. There has been lot of talks about NFD( Near Field Detection) system but none could have been practically implemented as most of the proposals required changes in the hardware in Mobile phones and its not possible to change 4 billion Mobile at once.

This new payment system don’t require change in the Mobile devices and also no change is required in the banking system hence it can be deployed very easily and seem to have a great outlook ahead.

2. This solution will bring major changes in how payments are made as payments can be made anytime,anywhere and users dont have to worry about the security.

A mobile phone can provide the security which is not even available at the banks, Application including Biometric identification like retina scan are available for various smart phones like Iphone ,this biometric identification technique can be very easily integrated with mobile payment making it one of the most secure payment system.

Oops I went way ahead in Future, Nups future is now

3. mCheck have a huge customer base in India and Srilanka and has partnerships with many service providers like Airtel,Indiatimes,Homeshop 18,Futurebazaar etc which gives them a huge consumer base and places where solution can be deployed easily. More than 25 million sim cards are already shipped with mChek applications and several banks have issued visa cards based on mCheck applications which provides them enough playground to roll their solutions.

It needs to be seen if the payment solution is able to prove itself in the practical environment. If the payment solution proves itself it will mark the begning of the new payment solution era.

*this is just an imagination, how it will actually work on mobile ie user interface can differ on actual system

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Indian Goverment Bans Import Of Mobile Phones Without IMEI Number

Saurabh Agarwal — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:41:59 +0000

Indian government has banned the import of mobile phones without IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number. IMEI number is used to uniquely identify a mobile device. It corresponds to SSN or PAN number used to identify people.This move will majorly impact Chinese and Taiwanese companies whose phones flooded Indian market. The penetration of such mobile phones can be judged from the fact that there are more than 25 million phones present in India without an IMEI number.

Is it important to have an IMEI number?

IMEI number uniquely identifies a mobile device. It can be used to track the mobile like in which area the mobile is present right now and can also to help in billing and other services. It can be helpful in various life saving operations. With the help of IMEI number operators can pin point a mobile device with in one km of radius. Many cases of missing people and kidnaps have been solved with the help of mobile phones.

In recent terrorist activities mobile phones without an IMEI number have been used thus causing difficulties for the police to track the call.

Will this ban affect you?

If you already posses a mobile without an IMEI number you can get an IMEI number assigned from around 1600 outlets that Cellular Operators Association of India is opening in tie up with Mobile Standard Alliance of India. The users who don’t have IMEI number assigned to mobile phones will be denied service by operators from June 30.

I think that 1600 outlets is too small number and there is cost associated which will be coming from taxpayers money. Instead this service could have been provided with the help of telecom operators. Telecom operators already have outlets in every corner of the country. They can be leveraged to help in fast and easy allocation of IMEI numbers.

Geodesic Launches Mundu IM App For Android

Raghav Soni — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:12:39 +0000

Geodesic, Indian owner of widely acclaimed Mundu IM has launched its universal chat app for android platform. The app is a paid one and Geodesic would be charging 11$ alike its app on other platforms like Windows mobile, symbian, blackberry(free app for iPhone). Geodesic had earlier tied up with Indyarocks for universal IM product.

The universal IM app supports AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ and Jabber within a single interface. File transfer and Photo sharing is also allowed along with Message archiving and chat history. There is also a provision for Direct calling of number in chats and Customized alerts by different methods.

In times of free apps Mundu IM has still logged success with its product due to wide availability across many platforms. The entry into android platform also shows the gaining importance of android among cell phone makers and third party developers.

Geodesic also owns a bouquet of services like Munduradio, a free radio app for mobile and MunduTalk, an upcoming app for economical calls through mobile internet. The company also seems to be doing good on the financial front as its revenues for Q4-FY09 stood at Rs. 1857.9 million registering a significant increase of 72% YoY,the net profits too witnessed similar jump.

Some Other services:

Fring:

Fring is widely known for its free mobile app which supports free internet calls as well as universal IM supporting many services.It also supports twitter,facebook,orkut,skype and many such networks.

Palringo:

Palringo is another credible alternative to fring although it supports less features along with facebook chat integration.

ebuddy Mobile:

ebuddy also has app for android platform along with some great support for browser based chatting requirements.It also supports Sony psp & Nintendo DS.

The requirement of the day is to make India the hub of similar tech products rather than just an outsourcing base.The financial results of Geodesic also speaks of money which companies can make through their niche paid offerings rather than just rely on advertising.

Smart Phone Race Continues.. LG-Android Phones, Nokia-Samsung Give iPhone Competition

Saurabh Agarwal — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:03:38 +0000

It seems that the worst for mobile market is over and every player is revamping its inventory to capture a portion of the increasing smart phone market. Various players are expecting a boost of 10-20% in the smart phone market.

LG to launch three Android models:

LG is planning to launch three Android based phones in 2009. LG is world 3rd largest mobile manufacturer in terms of shipment and is targetting around 10% of the market share. LG has been able to report a growth of half percent capturing 9.2% of market. LG may give Samsung a tight fight for second position by 2012. First Android phone by LG may be launched somewhat around June 2009 and rest two phones may be launched around November cashing the holiday season.

Samsung , Nokia launches various phones to compete with Apple Iphone and Palm Pre:

Samsung and Nokia are also fully loaded up to compete with Iphone 3Gs and Palm pre offering many similar products at a much lower cost fueling up the smart phone market.

Samsung added four new models in the Omnia range namely Omnia II, the OmniaLITE ,Omnia Pro B760 (Louvre) slider and Omnia Pro B7320 candybar, all shipping with Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0. These phones boasts features like 3.5-inch AMOLED display with 800×480 pixel resolution, 5.1 megapixel camera, 7.2Mbps HSDPA data, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 etc.

Samsung also launched some models for its Jet series that features a full touch screen, WIFI,GPS,5Mp camera etc, Jet phones will be more like mass phone that will be shipped with a lower price tag.

Nokia also launched three new handsets including 5530 Xpressmusic , E72 and a full featured touch-screen model costing around $280. 5530 Xpressmusic will start shipping in third quater while 3710 fold will be shipping in the fourth quarter.

Its certain that the smart phone market is going to explode in the future and consumers will see a whole new lineup of devices at much competitive prices. Also the ongoing battle in smart phone market will decide if an open source system like Android will be able to prove itself in the market.

Dada Ki Duvidha - An Idea That Doesn’t Quite Add Up

Maneesh Madambath — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:11:01 +0000

Idea has launched a new initiative in a bid to go viral on the web with a character based animation. Based on a Bengali character which eerily resembles Kishore Kumar in Padosan (then again which stereotyped Bengali character doesn’t), Idea has launched a Microsite called - DadakiDuvidha.com. This is Idea’s attempt to promote its entry into the eastern circle and this particular viral is targeting Orissa.

About the Viral

It is based on a typical paan chewing dhoti wearing Bengali babu called Dada. The video involves Dada acting as a tour guide on an Orissa darshan trip with as one can expect already not knowing anything about Orissa. The pun of having no idea about any of the destinations because Idea isn’t in Orissa is totally lost and completely cliche making the whole effort kind of un-viral. There is just no compelling reason for me to share this and therefore no reason for it to go viral.

So yes, in my personal opinion this campaign from Idea doesn’t have elements to go viral and given the fact that it’s been a day since the campaign is live and no one is talking about it means it doesn’t have much chance anymore either. The traffic stats I have no idea but Dada has only 29 fans on Facebook and has got just 1 tweet till now. Considering a press release is out for the campaign these are dismal numbers on social media in general leave alone for a brand like Idea.

What I do however think and hope is that they have other potential virals in store that they will make live on the site soon. Hopefully they will be more entertaining and engaging than this one, though a bad first step severely impacts the chances of a good show further. I think the disappointment also stems from the fact that IDEA has had such a huge success with its earlier campaigns both online and off while this effort doesn’t come close. The quality of the viral in terms of execution is good, the animation loads quickly, and the caricatures are decently sketched out so the overall look is certainly up to the mark. So I am sure with a better script the brand and the guys behind this can surely bounce back.

We are hopeful that the beloved character of Dada will engage a large number of people in the digital space, thus helping us gain mindshare and establish connect with our target group. We see the digital space as a good way to engage with the youth, and expect to create strong connect,” says Idea Cellular CMO Pradeep Shrivastava - That is a good idea sir, but unfortunately this isn’t. Knowing very well how hard it is to create engaging virals I personally also appreciate the effort put in here, perhaps it’s just campaign that was just not meant to be.

Having said this, I’ll actually leave the judgment to you guys. The site is located at www.dadakiduvidha.com go check it out and let us know what you think of it.

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