Monthly Archives: June 2005

Content Services

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Telecom “revolution” needs mobile phone instruments. It appears to be a lop sided growth because worldwide trends appear to be more towards the fixed line phones, and hence the Broadband, rather than mobile phones. They would come with their own attendant problems of spectrum and long term usage effects. Medically speaking, it is the realm of controversies. However, it has been shown in some studies on rats that microwaves do induce some degree of brain damage. Oh well, they even caution not to keep the mobile phones in your pants. Or else….

Frankly, mobile handsets have a person spoilt for choice. There is mind blowing array of phones of all shapes and sizes. In part, choosing the phone is like looking for a “perfect woman”; someone that would pamper your senses. I know it sounds chauvinstic, but heck thats the way it is. However, I have seen people jumping on the next available “model” the moment it appears.

Jokes apart, gaming, music and digital cameras have all come on a single platform. I really fail to understand that some individuals go gaga over such “toys”. As a camera it fails miserably with lousy picture quality. It’s much better to buy a sperate digital camera for that matter. For all the specifications, the convergence debate seems to much to digest. I believe that it may be more plausible to opt for each unit seperately, rather than compromise on quality.

A fancy gadget looks good- but minimalistic on performance.

Herein, there are lot of applications that are being ported on to the mobile phones. Content is going to be the future driver of growth as plain vanilla messages fade out and make way for feature rich applications. Yet, this remains limited to a miniscule percentage of the mobile owning population. For example, BSNL needs to step up gas on the quality of services- clearly it’s deficient. I really wonder whether the recent shift to 3G services would have any major impact on the mobile phone owners- much of it’s clientele is lower end of the spectrum from usage point of view.

Does it have any future? And where is it heading to? As the mobile phone operators scramble for the “next killer app”- it would do them much good to try and improve the basic service parameters. Something that can crow about in their advertisements.

Oh well, Reliance does talk about it’s “superior network”. Airtel has tried to do the same. BSNL? Nowhere in the sight.

Behind Reliance

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Few details have trickled out in the media. Thats the testimony to the fact that these brothers have an iron grip over what is reported and what isn’t.

The settlement hungama over, it was a sob story that was dragged in public. Perhaps one of the most damning exposures was the shareholding pattern of Reliance Infocomm. Frankly, it is beyond me as to how they managed to swindle the shares. No word of it now. Anil Ambani has made sure of that.

Once the hoopla settles down, I personally believe that splitting up Reliance was a folly. Why so? International lenders across the world were more happy to lend to a consolidated company- Reliance India Limited is a cash rich company. In any case, it was funding the infocomm venture. Fragmenting it means that they would be wary of lending it huge sums- leaving no option except to go in for an IPO. Incidentally that is being planned for, by the end of this year. Fund raising would be an important issue this year. There is another factor. Anil has “inherited” cash guzzlers. I really wonder whether he can pull off the “miracles” to make sure that Infocomm venture remains profitable. By last estimates, it was worth almost with losses and expensditues worth several thousand crores( some say almost upto 3500). The truth may never be known anyway.

Then, as I had mentioned earlier elsewhere, Anil has inherited the infocomm full of troubles. The regulatory mess, CBI enquiries( for the compromise of national security by rerouting calls), accusations over TRAI handling and infamous nexus with Pradeep Baijal- the TRAI chief;Broadband roll out mess and the battering on the Fixed Wireless- no one would be keen to get in the hot seat. It seems that Anil is looking out for CEO’s for his company. I wouldn’t like to stake for the top job under any circumstances! Yet, the name doing the rounds would be in a better position to leeway with the government and get the things done on their terms.

In any case, I would be following the Reliance story keenly. Why? Because, for the first time in my life I have been able to say that cheap calls are a reality. One day its going to be even cheaper than this. Backed by excellent infrastructure, they have managed to strike where others failed to do so(30% of the market share in what is keenly contested consumer pie.It’s been less than 2 years since the entered the scene). Plus, they have been able to learn from their mistakes(The earliest DAPO scheme was an abject failure-I heard that they are still honouring their commitments though they have discontinued the scheme). Who would have known that mobile handsets would be sold at neighbourhood grocery stores? Reliance made this possible to a large extent.

A lot goes behind the Reliance name indeed.

Personal Perspectives

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There are many ways to access Broadband. Some of them are described here in an article that appeared in The Tribune It isnt written well but would give a general idea about the same.

One thing is for sure. Metro Ethernet isnt a viable option since it hasn’t been validated anywhere. Since VSNL wants to ride on the same, Cisco India managed to convince them about the merits. I am looking forward for their roll out and would comment on the same again then.

At the back of this argument, a certain skunk who writes on Telecom from US was overjoyed about reading this news. It would come as no surprise to me because his blog is teeming with references from Industry sources. I am anti corporate sector- somthing that I disclaimed right from the start.

Anyway, Content Sutra has an interesting write up on telemedicine. Wish he had read my earlier articles on the same. Telemedicine is an old hat. Plus it’s languishing because of high costs involved. Apollo was in the fray earlier- no one knows for sure as to what happened to their huge fanfare and hoopla behind the same. They even got Kalam to inaugrate a couple of projects like those. I really wish that someone could have guts enough to follow them instead of printing out the press handouts in the media.

Are people really benefitting from Telemedicine?

Ramesh Jain has an interesting article on IPTV. This is something that India is looking forward to. Some kind of a demonstration that Indian Telecom scene has “matured”. Read it for what it’s worth.

This link on Business Week is what I stumbled on quite by accident. it details the Reliance Fiasco. Interesting.

Finally, Sify supposedly crosses 100,000 mark That’s 100,000 miserable customers- incase you are not aware of the same. Oh well, did anyone know that there is whole website of ardent Sify haters here online? No company would ever be able to generate so much of hatred for itself as Sify has done.

Some quirks in life. Strange, people seem to hold their head high up and still commit crimes.