Monthly Archives: April 2007

Mobile growth

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It is the same thing again and again. The same hacks were crowing about the “fastest growth” in mobile ownership. So far, no concrete numbers have come up.

The mobile companies have had to follow the directive of the Ministry to identify and verify the credentials of it’s subscriber base. This was done in house and so far the compliance has been patchy. It is a no brainer that the “defaulters” would only survive a small rap on their knuckles for their failure to comply with the directives. I am wondering whether they would hand over the data to the Government. One may easly tally the numbers (of the verified customers) and the claims in the media by the “spokespersons”. We could then analyse the trends in telecom and the growth of the subscribers. It would not happen and is just a wishful thinking.

The ministry has announced the auction of 3G spectrum; hold you breath, while following the directives of TRAI! It came as a shock to me specifically when they make a song and dance sequence of following the regulator. Mr Moron’s (sorry for the intended pun) contention is that there is no “serious international” player in the market. This is horse crap and much of the “technology” in India is either European or American. It is the sidelined players elsewhere who wish to become a “part of the growing” subscriber base. Much of the 3G spectrum is planned to be used for voice calls. So you could kiss your dreams of a “mobile broadband” good bye. It is not happening.

More number of players would only mean that our home grown advantage would be lost. If there is any hope of defining our standards for mobile telephony, that too is gone. Moron and his retinue of babus have effectively killed the Indian Telecom party.

Value added services(VAS) is defining the growth part of the mobile phone companies. Yet, I am not getting to see the shake out or consolidation of the market. There are a few defined players in the market but few avenues where they can exploit the ideas. I liked the concept of “ask the question” service which relays back the answer for a question sent across. (via Emergic)

Speaking of VAS, the media companies are seeing the next growth oppurtunity from there. Here is the link from a useless business daily called as The Mint (promoted by Hindustan Times). Excuse the over the top marketing blurb but it should give you an idea where the market is heading next. The mobile companies are no doubt excited about this. (source)

Would your mobile phone be the next computer? I have reasons to doubt. Expensive handsets come crippled in choice of menus, they cannot be tweaked for optimum performance, restricted OS and inability to install software to your liking. We are restricted by what we are offered. At best they excite pre pubescent boys with their ‘toys’ and fuels legions of websites who promote these “gadgets”.

Nevertheless, mobile internet is clearly not happening. With pathetic speeds and access including lack of uniform standards to code the websites optimised for mobile viewing, we are not going to see a suffusion of “mobile broadband” as yet. At best, a few portals here and there. The handset prices still have to come to realistic levels including the taxes payable on them.

Mobile growth needs more success stories.

Ubuntu Linux

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I would take a break from the regular broadband bashing and instead focus on the new imminent release of Ubuntu Linux, code named as Feisty Fawn. With cutting edge software, Ubuntu’s version promises to be better than ever before by incorporating huge support for Wireless networking cards, on demand installation of codecs and Windows migration tools.

For long, the manufacturers had not released their drivers and most of the wireless drivers had been “hacked” and made backward compatible to the network cards in laptops or desktops. This only translated into user frustration and hence a bad name for Linux when it was never it’s fault. Much of the reduntant hardware is now supported out of the box with Linux and much credit goes to the community who have collaborated on the development of the drivers to support it.

Why should you shift to Linux? Windows XP is being retired from early next year in order not to cannibalise the sales of Windows Vista. This means that you would have to pay the price for overpriced software and hardware in order to run the same. Windows has incorporated Digital Rights Management systems which infact cripples the music or content that you wish to play on your systems. Which is totally unfair for a simple reason. If you have paid for the content, then using it should be your prerorgative and not otherwise. Even otherwise, the end user license agreement with Microsoft means that they are the owners of the operating system that you have paid your hard earned money for. You don’t effectively own your own system!

Most of us don’t realise the potential implications of privacy concerns while dealing with an evil corporation. Microsoft has activated encrypted back channels which communicate the specifications of your computer to the Redmond. This was subject of much debate in recent times and this assertion has not been proved yet. Still, it makes no sense to shift to the so called “Aero interface” which is a rip off from Mac OS desktop. Seriously, beyond the eye candy, it is of no use to an average computer user.

Arguably, there is not much of a demand for Linux systems because people are not aware of the same. Ubuntu promises to change that. You could go on their home page and order free CD’s for yourself. You can tweak the source code in case you wish to add functionality. Installing this operating system on any standard hardware is a breeze and the whole process takes about 40 minutes flat. For any Windows user, the difference would be stark. And free of the restrictions imposed on us otherwise. You don’t unnecessary drivers for your digital cameras, your USB sticks, Printers et al. Much of the hardware is supported out of the box. Just plug and play.

Ubuntu has everything going for it. The forums have become better and if you post the query in the right place, someone would surely respond to the same. Apart from this, Ubuntu has an active India chapter with a dedicated Wiki. You could catch someone from the team online on the IRC (Join the Ubuntu support and discussion IRC channel: #ubuntu-in on irc.freenode.net) and they would go all out to answer and fix your queries if any. (Freenode’s FAQ answers your queries in case you wish to join them) Or you could join their mailing lists. Help is never away and all you need is your working Internet connection. (Here is another link from the Ubuntu India Wiki website which details as to how you could configure your Broadband in Ubuntu )

No other system provides the ease of use as Ubuntu Linux does. Arguably, Linux has it’s hitches (command line terminal may be intimidating for a newbie)- however, the best way to learn swimming is to get into water. Moreover, the graphical user interface takes care of most of the adminstrative work. You may not even ever need the command line (just like the DOS of yore but infinitely advanced and addictive!) Installing software is a matter of few clicks. You could check out excellent Ubutu Guide online which details everything step by step for a total newbie.

Ubuntu Feisty Fawn makes it’s debut on April 19th when it would be released to the public via it’s servers. You could directly download or use torrents. For those who donot have a stable Internet connection, you could order the CD’s to be shipped from it’s home page. FREE.

I have finally made the switch to Gnome; I am waiting for the KDE 4 release. KDE 4 promises to revolutionise the desktop experience; but till then I wanted something different and fresh from the old and trusty desktop that I have been using for the past three years. Arguably, Gnome has become better from it’s previous avatars but it still suffers from unintuitive interface;it’s a matter of getting used to it. It is lighter on system resources as compared to KDE but that is not the sole argument in it’s favour. I still use KDE’s applications like Amarok (cannot be a better music player than this) and KTorrent for my torrent needs. Gnome still has to come up with something better than them. Using Gnome or KDE desktops is a personal preference and you can use both depending on your mood or preference.

Here’s hoping that more users would want to know about Ubuntu and Linux in general. You could head over to the IRC channels or the Ubuntu Forums; there are thousands others like you who have discovered the joys of using free and open source software.

(There are many other distros; however, my current favourite is Ubuntu Linux. It is free; they send over the CD’s free to your place; installing programmes is a snap; it is based on Debian which is the most stable version of Linux and it has an excellent support forum. Further, it has a predictable 6 monthly release with commitment to support your installed version for atleast 3 years (long term release) and 5 years for the server installs before you need upgrading to the newer versions. And it promises to remain free for ever).

Update: Surprise surprise. I just cross posted this on Desicritics. I never expected that this article would make it to digg! And at the last count, I got 198 diggs! That’s cool. Thanks one and all! In case you could help, please do consider posting it across. I have sent across the article to Ubuntu to be included in their monthly magazine. Let’s hope that they would consider it for the next months release. I shall keep you posted about it!

If only I could get the same exposure for highlighting the Broadband mess!

Broadband in India: Taxation!

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The extent of Broadband in India is miniscule given the reach of the computers. Literacy isn’t widespread which makes it useless for applications and content development. Ironically, India is supposed to be “intellectual engine of the growth” of the world.

People are not generally aware of the fact that we are being ruled by mentally challanged incapacitated idiots who have no clue as to what raj dharma is. I was forwarded a link by Aaman Lamba (one of the editors of Desicritics) about the proposed taxation of broadband in Karnataka.

In the report, the Committee pointed out that such companies have to pay sales tax of thousands of crores of rupees to the government and steps should be taken to issue notices to the companies to pay the tax. The Committee, headed by legislator N Yogish Bhat, also sought information from the Commercial Taxes Department about number of companies offering broadband services in the State and the VAT to be collected from them. According to the Committee, the broadband lines work on light energy, which transmit data or information from one place to another.

The Committee said that the light energy has to be treated as a “commodity” like the electricity and the authorities should levy sales tax and VAT on the companies offering broadband services.

Light energy indeed!

Karnataka is going through one of the worst crisis in 35 years in form of a drought. The rural folk from North Karnataka are making a beeline to Bangalore adding to the utter chaos and confusion. However, this isn’t the focus here. Broadband ought to be subsidised for all that is worth it so that people are able to take advantage of the possibilities it opens up. Computing platforms can be giving tax breaks and encouraging the setting up on ancillary hardware units to package the electronic components. All to bring down costs. Unless one is thinking in terms of distibuted computing- which involves setting up of mother server with dumb terminals connected via broadband.

This is a remnant of the socialistic era where computers are supposed to be “elitist” and hence taxable to the max. Nothing could be far from truth and it becomes next to impossible to drill some sense in the morons.

Taxation would only have a cascading effect on the prices. The broadband market is being dominated by a few players who would not hesitate to pass on the tax burden to the consumers. It totally beats the logic presently; but then law is an ass.

Unfortunately, Broadband isn’t the focus and priorty of the media. They are more keen on reporting non issues which is a sad reflection on the present trends. If we don’t highlight these issues now, we would be nowhere for the famed “intellectual capital” that we gloat about.

Update: This post earlier had some inconsistencies. I have edited this to iron out the faults.