Monthly Archives: May 2010

3G Mess: New engine of growth?

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There is no authoritative verdict on Indian Telecom scene. In the absence of any concrete statistics, it becomes difficult to pin down the exact number of subscribers, the actual growth of the telecom sector and value added services.

TRAI releases it’s numbers from the industry proclamations; it has not thought to independently audit the claims. Neither does the Department of Telecom (or may be that I am unaware of any such publication in the mainstream media). I have criticized 3G on many occasions and I see no merit in sinking in huge amount of funds on a technology which would get outdated in rapidly evolving 4G standards. All the more, India missed a golden opportunity to set up it’s own standards for mobile telephony thus forcing the mobile operators to set up an ecosystem of not only the entire gamut of the telecom equipment but handsets also. It would have spurred on demand for quality and generated much better employment prospects than importing the crap dip shit that we are forced to put up with now.

No handset comes closer in terms of oomph and style; something of the likes of an Apple iPhone with it’s iTunes store. While it is profitable, something similar is next to impossible to find here in India- the market of apps is right there but there is no serviceable product.

Nokia has failed terribly; I am definitely impressed by the new layout of it’s Ovi Store but trying to find an app that works across all platforms is like looking for a needle in a haystack. To worsen the matters, the price quoted is in Euros. If any asshole from Nokia India is reading this, please understand that its not possible to pay in Euros here because THAT is NOT the national currency. Besides that, none of the applications are a must have. No wonder, the Finns are getting clobbered left right and centre; the market share has definitely slid down to 60% as per the estimates.

This brings me to the final question. If we dont really have apps or the snazzy and the jazzy handsets, what are we really fighting for? Why should 3G should really be auctioned?

If Internet connectivity is the SOLE criterion, then public Wifi’s should be set up. The Wifis should be free for access upto a certain speed limit; beyond that a price mechanism be set up for higher access speeds. Or broadband initiative be accelerated with the huge amount of Universal Service Obligation Fund (last heard it had swelled up to 18,000 crores). But well, since the lobby market exists in a big way, we can only hope.

For a better round up of the telecom scenario, please read an insightful write up on Knowledge@Wharton write up.

Telecom Scandal India: More details

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From the world of mobile phones…. to the real life scandals.

Rajeev Srinivasan has a list of the write ups detailing this “scandal” of monumental proportions. It is rumored to be worth…hold your breath….22 billion dollars!

Imagine the kind of money, if invested in broadband or community Wifis would truly make us a “superpower” indeed!

I quote the relevant text (emphasis mine).

Documents available with The Pioneer show that Central Bureau of Investigation DIG Vineet Agarwal had on November 16, 2009, sought call detail records of Nira Radia from Director General of Income Tax (Investigation) Milap Jain. “It has been reliably learnt that certain middlemen, including one Ms Nira Radia of M/s Noesis Consultancy, were actively involved in the above-mentioned (spectrum scam) criminal conspiracy,” Agarwal’s letter to Jain, seeking the detailed call records, stated.

On November 20, 2009, as per Jain’s instructions, Joint Director of Income Tax Ashish Abrol provided the details of conversation between Radia and key players in the spectrum scam, including A Raja.

“There are some direct conversations between Ms Radia and the Telecom Minister. In some other conservations, Ms Radia boasts of having helped some of the telecom operators in their efforts to obtain licences/spectrums. Ms Radia has also been in regular touch with Shri Chandolia,” confirmed Abrol to the CBI. RK Chandolia was Raja’s private secretary during the time of spectrum allocation and has since been elevated as an economic adviser in the Department of Telecommunication.

Nira Radia is the person who is under scanner for lobbying in the Ministry of Telecom.

Radia is an NRI, who landed in India in early 2000 for some liaison work for aviation companies. Of the nine companies that benefited from the dubious spectrum allocation by Raja, the CBI found that four companies were “serviced” by Radia.

Highly-placed sources said the CBI was denied permission by top authorities to interrogate Radia even though the telephone intercepts clearly exposed her role in the scam, which cost an estimated Rs 1,00,000 crore to the exchequer. “There are some direct conversations between Ms Radia and the Telecom Minister. In some other conservations, Ms Radia boasts of having helped some of the telecom operators in their efforts to obtain licences/spectrums.

CBI is now probing the scam. But then, CBI has been used as an instrument to intimidate rather than be of any “benefit”.

The idea is to screw up the alliance partners and make them more amenable to persuasion in the electoral political compulsions. Everyone was AWARE of the “scam”, the likes of Swam Telecom (promoted by Anil Ambani) who made a windfall fortune and and Unitech which erstwhile had interests ONLY in real estate.

….real estate companies Swan and Unitech bagged the spectrum license at a throw away price and they off-loaded their shares at a whopping price to multi-national telecom giants. The Swan Telecom bagged the license for Rs.1537 crore for operating in 13 circles. Within months (September) it sold its 45 per cent of shares to Etisalat, the telecom giant in UAE for 900 million US dollars (Approximately Rs.4500 crore).

Similarly, the Unitech, another real estate company too entered into a bumper deal, without investing anything in telecom infrastructure. The company got license to operate in 22 circles for Rs.1651 crore. Within weeks, it sold 60 per cent shares for Rs.6120 crores to the Norwegian company Telenor, who is currently a major telecom player in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

More here.

This is just another media circus. Raja is just another player in the game. We are all suckers AS USUAL.

Nokia: Dying a slow death

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It dominates the low end market. It dominates the developing countries. It’s made efforts to work towards opening up Symbian. It’s making forays in Linux and assorted phones. Yet, the largest phone maker in the world is still not able to make a serious dent in the smart phone category.

Opinion is like an asshole. Everyone has got one. In same vein, your choice of a mobile phone may be distilled by either looks or form factor or even aesthetics. You may choose practicality or some chutzpah to flaunt your handset.

What Apple did everything right, Nokia screwed it up big time. I am impressed by Apple’s hardware; yes at some point of time, I have written extensively about it too. Yet, I believe that the “promise of future” has somehow not materialized. You can side with Apple and say that everything about it “rocks”; but on the other hand, it’s wayward policy of introducing the bottom of pyramid handsets and “improving” it all the way up with new releases doesn’t cut ice with me. Apple has sold it’s hardware in the same manner in order to keep itself relevant.

Nokia, surprisingly, despite it’s huge portfolio of products has not been able to get that ‘killer phone’. For example, Apple releases only one or maybe two versions of it’s popular product. It does not try to address EVERY segment of the market. It knows it can command a premium. It has a brilliant marketing strategist behind it. It manages to stay in news even when there is NO imminent product launch. Everything about it is hotly anticipated so much so that there are legions of website devoted to “rumors”. And it has zealous fanboys dotting all around the net and mainstream publications which keeps the chattering classes busy to have this “must have” product.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, one could argue that you don’t want a walled garden approach to apps. You pay for the product and the ecosystem should come “free” for you. In effect, the software ought to be “free”. No company has the right to “lock you” down with absurd patents or “standards”.

Nokia has been bereft of this. I own a Nokia E63 but that’s about it. It’s the “low end” of the smart phone because the screen sucks. Ovi store sucks. There are no apps to speak of. It has a weird “signed” and “unsigned” policy which doesn’t allow me to load in any kind of an application I need. Yet, the Wifi is a great addition even though it has a restricted range. My mail is configured; is a boon when I am not around my laptop. In general, it works the work but then there is nothing that I exude my enthusiasm about owning this.

Ultimately, there are no easy answers to this. I feel that it would definitely take a worthwhile investment and understanding of marketing dynamics to get Nokia to sell or crack the smart phone market. I am fussy about Open Source and Linux in particular. I feel that Windows mobile is outdated junk. Web Os or Android is something that I never tried but needs a lot of spunk to give it some credibility. Nokia’s Maemo platform has to become “cheaper” because those assholes are trying to milk it for all that is worth it.

I am linking to Rashmi Bansal (author of two books now!) who writes about owning Nokia AND an Apple Phone. The difference is obvious. From a woman’s perspective, she chooses an iPhone.

Truth be told. Even I need an iPhone!