ITV

Category: Telecom

  • Data tech, telecom & auto-driven India’s battery mkt to reach US$ 8.6bn by ’22

    MUMBAI: Emergence of new data transmission technologies such as 4G would require upgradation of technological infrastructure such as establishment of new telecom towers, etc. This is projected to buoy growth in India’s battery industry in the coming years, as batteries form an integral part of operational telecom towers and associated infrastructure.

    ‘Research and Markets’ has recently released a report “India Battery Market By Application, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2011 – 2022.” The battery market in India is projected to reach US$ 8.6 billion by 2022, on account of growing demand from automobile and industrial sectors, the report stated.

    Companies studied in the report included Amara Raja Batteries, Base Corporation Limited, Exide Industries, HBL Power Systems, Luminous Power Technologies, Okaya Power, Samsung SDI Co., Southern Batteries, Su-Kam Power, and TATA Autocomp Gy Batteries.

    The battery market in India is mainly driven by growth in power sector, surging transportation needs, increasing battery integration in consumer electronics and rising fuel saving initiatives. In India, several government measures such as promotion of solar power and clean fuel based automobile technologies are anticipated to propel demand for batteries in the country over the course of next five years. Moreover, rising investments in infrastructure developments coupled with growing telecom sector is projected to bolster growth in the country’s battery market during 2017-2022.

    Strong growth in domestic production and exports of automobiles, coupled with expanding vehicle fleet is projected to drive demand for batteries from OEMs as well as replacement segments through 2022. Moreover, rising penetration of two-wheelers in semi urban and rural India is projected to surge replacement demand for two-wheeler batteries during the forecast period.

  • Jio brings Rs 309 all-unlimited plan, new Prime sops

    MUMBAI: Reliance Jio Infocomm announced that the Jio Summer Surprise has been fully withdrawn, following the advice of Telecom Regulatory authority of India (“TRAI”).

    Jio further announced new all-unlimited plans with special benefits, exclusively for its Jio Prime members and aimed at encouraging Jio subscribers to live the Digital Life without restrictions – Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan!

    The plans start with the most affordable Rs. 309 which provides Unlimited SMS, calling and data (1GB per day at 4G speed) for three months on first recharge.

    The company also announced the Rs. 509 unlimited plan for daily high data users offering Unlimited SMS, calling and data (2GB per day at 4G speed) for three months on first recharge.

    Considering the special benefits that are available to Jio Prime members, customers who were unable to subscribe to Jio Prime for any reason, can continue to do so by paying Rs. 408 or Rs. 608 (Jio Prime + recharge price) to avail these benefits.

    These plans will be available starting on 12 April, 2017. Existing Jio customers who have not done their first recharge so far, need to do so by 15 April 2017 to avoid degradation and/or discontinuation of services.

    Jio is currently implementing the world’s largest migration from free to paid services in such a short period of time. In order to smoothen the migration from free to paid services, Jio has implemented simple, affordable and regulatory compliant plans in customer interest. Jio looks forward to customers making full use of this opportunity to avail the most attractive tariff plans in the industry, which are unparalleled globally.

    With this, Jio extends the benefits of a superior and advanced technology to take India to global digital leadership. Jio’s unmatched data strong network is capable of meeting the burgeoning data requirements of hundreds of millions of Indians. The announcement also marks another step in Jio’s commitment to continuously delight its customers and enable them to live a fully digital life. Jio is thankful to the millions of customers who have taken up Jio services.

  • Tele-war: 10GB per day BSNL data at Rs 249 a month & unlimited night calling

    MUMBAI: Enjoying internet services may not get cheaper than this. The telecom tug-of-war is under way. Jio is proving to be undefeatable, but BSNL 4G has made a strong new pitch.

    In an attempt to give a fillip to broadband, adoption BSNL has announced a new “unlimited” wired broadband plan which also offers voice-based telephony packs.

    BSNL announced the new wired broadband plan on:

    https://twitter.com/hashtag/BSNL?src=hash

    BSNL customers will get 10GB of data daily at 2Mbps connectivity speed only for Rs 249 a month. The new plan also offers unlimited voice calling on Sunday and unlimited night calling between 9pm and 7am – not only on BSNL network but on others as well.

    Jio may have extended free services for three months. But, BSNL is giving tough competition. The only thing that remains to be seen is the Internet speed

    Also Read :

    Jio extends Prime deadline, freebies period

    BSNL launches FMT & Ditto TV; 4G planned this year

  • Jio extends Prime deadline, freebies period

    MUMBAI: Reliance Jio Infocomm has announced that, in a month, over 72 million Jio customers have signed up for Jio Prime.

    This is the largest migration from free to paid services in history in such a short period of time.Considering the demand for enrolling to Jio Prime and doing the first recharge, Jio has extended the deadline for purchasing Jio’s Rs 303 (and other) plans till 15th April. This extension will provide the necessary breathing room for users to avoid service disruption during the transition from free to paid services.

    Customers who could not enrol for Jio Prime by 31 March for whatever reason can still do so by paying Rs 99 along with their first purchase of Jio’s Rs 303 and other plans till 15 April.

    Jio also announced the Jio Summer Surprise for its Jio Prime members. Every Jio Prime member, when they make their first paid recharge prior to 15 April using Jio’s Rs 303 plan (or any higher value plan), will get services for the initial three months on a complimentary basis. The paid tariff plan will be applied only in July, after the expiry of the complimentary service.The Jio Summer Surprise is the first of many surprises for Jio Prime members.

    Mobile Number Portability (MNP), which allows customers to retain their existing mobile number when they switch to Jio, is available across the country for all customers. For international travellers, Jio’s International roaming service is available.

    Reliance CMD Mukesh D. Ambani told Jio customers, “I want to personally thank you for choosing Jio, and for being a founding member of the
    Jio movement. A movement to transform India. A movement to empower and enrich each one of you with the revolutionary power and possibilities of Digital Life.”

    “I am conscious that this is the largest migration from free to paid services in history. We are committed to doing this gradually, so that both Jio and Jio customers have the time to adjust, fine tune and perfect this transition. I want to assure you that Jio will walk alongside you all through this transition to paid services,” he said.

    “Jio,” he said, “has created the world’s largest greenfield 4G LTE wireless broadband network, with over 100,000 mobile towers. And we will add another 100,000 towers to our network in the coming months. This greenfield investment – of over Rs 200,000 crore – is the largest in the world.” He added, “I commit that Jio will always strive to provide you the highest quality – and the world’s most affordable – data and voice services.”

  • Home ministry working on ‘cyber crime prevention’ project

    NEW DELHI: The Parliament was told today that the home ministry is executing a project on Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC), which will also act as specialised central institutional mechanism for online cyber crime reporting platform particularly cyber crime against women and children.

    Minister of state for electronics and information technology P P Chaudhary said that no study had been done the point made by the questioner about rampant misuse of social media by paedophiles and sex offenders to intimidate and harass women and children.

    However, the minister said the data maintained by National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) showed a total of 749 and 792 cases were registered under publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act, etc. in electronic form (section 67 & 67A IT of Act) and a total of 5 and 8 cases were registered under publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in sexually explicit act, etc. in electronic form (section 67B IT of Act) during 2014-2015.

    In addition, a total of 40 cases in 2014 and 94 cases in 2015 were registered under Sections 14 & 15 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.

    He said cyber world is anonymous and universally available. Most of the child pornographic websites are hosted from outside India. INTERPOL maintains and updates list of “worst of list” on extreme child sexual abuse.

    The Government periodically blocks this list shared by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as the national crime bureau of INTERPOL. More than 3000 such websites/URLs have been blocked so far.

    Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 has provisions for removal of objectionable online content. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules 2011 notified under section 79 of the IT Act require that the Intermediaries shall observe due diligence while discharging their duties and shall inform the users of computer resources not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, update or share any information that is harmful, objectionable, affect minors and unlawful in any way.

    The Government is in regular touch with intermediaries including various social media websites to effectively address the blocking/removal of objectionable content. Further, Social Networking sites hosted anywhere in the world are monitored by the law enforcement agencies in order to check / remove objectionable contents from the web sites in accordance with the provisions of IT Act, 2000.

  • Jio says Ookla has admitted to flaws in speed measurement system

    NEW DELHI: This is one ad war that refuses to die. Even after Jio on the one hand and Airtel and Ookla on the other have had their say, the argument goes on.

    In yet another statement by Reliance Jio, it has been stated that Ookla has now admitted to ‘limitations in its application and that it “does not always indicate the actual data provider in devices with multiple SIMs.” 

    Jio has already filed a complaint with the Advertising Standards Council of India about the ad by Airtel claiming on the basis of Ookla to be the fastest network.

    Both Bharti Airtel and Ookla had issued statements seeking to defend the claim. 

    Jio said: “Jio had been repeatedly pointing out this flaw in Ookla’s Speedtest methodology.” 

    It added: “This admission by Ookla reinforces Jio’s submission that there is a clear contamination in primary data collected by Ookla in India, where nearly 90 percent of smartphones are dual SIM devices.” 

    “Any results that are based on incorrect and contaminated primary data cannot be definitive, only probabilistic. It is a travesty that such results are being passed off as “official” results by a market-leading operator. We will continue to expose such misleading practices and raise it at suitable forums”, Jio added.

    Ookla had said, “The carrier displayed in the Speedtest Android application is based on the “Active Carrier” value returned by the device. Due to limitations of the Android platform, the “Active Carrier” does not always indicate the actual data provider in devices with multiple SIMs. In these situations, Ookla applies additional data sources and mechanisms during post-processing to help determine the actual data carrier being tested. 

    Jio in a statement yesterday had said: “The core issue is that the speedtest results are attributed to the primary sim even though the sim for which the data speedtest is conducted is the secondary sim in the case of dual-sim phones. In India, more than 90% of 4G phones are dual-sim. Therefore, there is no guarantee that the speed which is attributed to Airtel is of the Airtel data network. We are surprised that Ookla in its press release has not talked about this issue even though they had acknowledged the blunder to us earlier. Ookla has baldly stated that they stand by their results and has skirted the main issue. We will initiate actions as we deem fit at appropriate forums. The public should not be misled by these false claims based on the Ookla results.”

    Earlier yesterday morning, Speedtest (Ookla’s app) COO Jamie Steven said in a statement: “When analysing markets like India, we take many factors into consideration, including dual SIM devices, network technology, device types, and more. In addition to what the user sees on their mobile application as they take a test in real-time, we apply a rigorous methodology when aggregating the data which uses a variety of internal data sources that control for potential variability in the market.”  

    Also Read:

    Airtel hits back at Reliance Jio, Ookla stands by its findings

  • Airtel hits back at Reliance Jio, Ookla stands by its findings

    NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel today accused Reliance Jio of making a deliberate attempt to “malign the brand” and “misguide customers.”

    A day after Reliance Jio wrote to the Advertising Standards Council of India against Airtel’s advertisement claiming it was officially the fastest network based on a finding by Ookla, Bharti Airtel chief brand officer Rajiv Mathrani said the company is “rather amused” by the allegations being made against its campaign.

    Meanwhile, Ookla has stood by its earlier finding about mobile internet speed. “Ookla fully stands behind Airtel being named ‘India’s Fastest Mobile Network’,” Speedtest (Ookla’s app) COO Jamie Steven said in a statement. Ookla has named Airtel as the “Fastest Mobile Network” in India based on data from Q3 and Q4 of 2016 which has been challenged by Reliance Jio.

    Jio had alleged that the advertisement was “misleading”, and done in “mala fide manner in collusion with” Ookla.

    Jio also alleged that Ookla, the owner of Speedtest app, charges money for giving such awards and the company has also approached Jio for the same for the very quarter it issued certificate of fastest mobile network to Bharti Airtel.

    But, Steven said: “When analysing markets like India, we take many factors into consideration, including dual SIM devices, network technology, device types, and more. In addition to what the user sees on their mobile application as they take a test in real-time, we apply a rigorous methodology when aggregating the data which uses a variety of internal data sources that control for potential variability in the market.”

    He alleged that “this is a deliberate attempt to malign our brand and misguide customers through a campaign of misinformation, which is something we now come across on a regular basis, in particular, on social media platforms.”

  • Idea-Vodafone India merger creates leader with 42% market share

    MUMBAI: Britain’s Vodafone Group’s Indian subsidiary and Aditya Birla Group’s Idea Cellular, after eight months of discussion, have merged to create a new market leader better able to contest a brutal price war. The merger, expected to be completed in 2018, was necessitated due to the launch of Jio Infocomm that shook the Indian wireless telephony market with its low rates.

    Idea Cellular on Monday approved the merger with Vodafone Mobile Services Limited and Vodafone. According to a statement, promoters of Idea and Vodafone will have the right to nominate three directors each.

    The combined company would have almost 400 million customers, 35 per cent customer market share and 42 per cent revenue market share.

    According to reports, Idea Cellular will hold 25% stake in the merged company. Vodafone will hold 45.1 per cent stake, and will transfer 4.9 per cent stake to Idea founders. The merger will require regulatory approval.

    The equity value of the companies was estimated at Rs 40,000 crore each while the combined entity would have debt of around Rs 89,000 crore.

    In a BSE filing, Idea Celluar announced its approval of amalgamation of Vodafone India Ltd (VIL) and its wholly owned subsidiary Vodafone Mobile Services Limited (VMSL) with the company subject to receipt of necessary approvals of shareholders, creditors, SEBI, RBI and other governmental authorities.

    Idea release stated the proposed amalgamation may result in: Creation of the largest Indian telecom operator with widest mobile network in the country and pan India 3G/4G footprint. Sufficient spectrum to complete with major operators in the market while offering innovative priced mobile services to customers and acceleration of expansion of wireless broadband networks.

    “The combination of Vodafone India and Idea will create a new champion of Digital India founded with a long-term commitment and vision to bring world-class 4G networks to villages, towns and cities across India,” said Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao.

  • RCOM gets SEBI approval for demerger of wireless biz into Aircel

    MUMBAI: Reliance Communications has received approval of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), BSE Limited (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) for the proposed scheme of arrangement for demerger of the wireless division of the company into Aircel Limited and Dishnet Wireless Limited (the Scheme).

    Pursuant to the same, Reliance Communications has filed an application with National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Mumbai Bench, for approval of the said scheme. The proposed transaction is subject to other necessary approvals.

    Post closing, the company and the present shareholders of Aircel Limited will hold 50 per cent each in Aircel Limited.

  • We-Media: UCWeb enhances focus on content, invests Rs 50 million

    MUMBAI:  Leading the user-generated content ecosystem in India, Alibaba Group’s UCWeb Inc has announced the launch of We-Media Reward Plan 2.0, a self-creating content platform in India with an initial investment of Rs 50 million. The internet major is investing Rs 2 billion for driving content distribution in India over the next two years. UCWeb’s content distribution platform UC News, launched in June 2016, has registered a new milestone by becoming one of the fastest growing apps in the country with a Monthly Active Users (MAUs) of over 80 Million in India (as of February 2017).

    Announcing the initiative on his visit to India, UCWeb co-founder and Alibaba Mobile Business Group president He Xiaopeng said, “Dominance of mobile and digital proliferation is leading to an increased adoption of mobile internet and is making India ‘Digitally Ready’. UCWeb is realising its vision of “Serve half the population of the planet” and we are moving forward to the era of “GUF” (Google, UCWeb and Facebook). The investment falls under Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment Group’s targeted investment of $7.2 billion in content over the next three years.”

    “Content consumption on mobile is rapidly rising while the We-Media ecosystem is still at a nascent stage. According to our data, there are at least 400,000 self-publishers in India already with a huge scope to grow the market, especially in the niche categories. UC Browser was launched with an aim to solve browsing-related problems while UC News and We-Media program aim to meet the increasing demand of varied content by users and build a well-established ecosystem. With our strengths in technology like Big Data AI and vast experience in markets like China, UCWeb will augment its focus on digital content aggregation and distribution in the world’s second largest internet market, India. We aim for UC We – Media to open a gateway to more opportunities in India’s content industry and emerge as the No. 1 content generation and service platform in 2017,” Xiaopeng added.

    UCWeb is also upgrading its content and services portfolio by adding more short video-related content. Short Videos are fast becoming the most popular form of content consumed in China today and UCWeb sees huge potential for this concept here in India as well. UC News aims to provide upgraded content and services to its users and, going forward, will make significant investment in this category. According to the company’s latest Content Consumption Trends Report, video content has risen 30% in the last quarter alone. The company is in the process of setting up a separate team to handle the Short Videos section and is scouting for relevant partners to support this for UC News India.

    “The latest data on UC News shows that we generated over 3,100 million page views in January, 2017 alone, which translates to 100 million page views daily. Moreover, we are experiencing a fast rise in the average time spent on UC News. As of this quarter, an average user spends over 23 minutes on UC News. Our strong user base number indicates the success of our strategy of moving ‘From Tool to Content’. We had said that content is booming and 80 Million MAUs of UC News is a clear reflection of that. Users are embracing diverse -digital content and their appetite for such content is being met by UC News”, said Alibaba Mobile Business Group GM-Overseas Business Kenny Ye.

    Game-changer in the content ecosystem

    Besides an upgrade in Ad revenue sharing model, We-Media Reward Plan 2.0 will open the door of opportunity to the most talented writers in the country. 1000 We-media writers will be recruited in India and Indonesia who will be able to earn at least INR 50,000 per month through the UC News platform. UCWeb has been setting new trends under the UC We-Media program where people get an opportunity to create, to write, share thoughts and engage with their followers on UC News. The Program saw an increase of 200% and 350% (MoM) in its page views of English and Hindi We-Media content respectively in the past quarter.

    UC News is a big-data powered content distributor, serving as a one-stop source of trending and curated news content covering all popular categories that Indian users can consume on the go, with featured channels including news, cricket, technology, entertainment, movies, lifestyle, health, humor, etc. UCWeb’s strength in technology is helping UC News process millions of data request and content of massive origins everyday with the help of its three big data clusters set-up in India. The cluster combines over 5000 machines handling millions of data-request with a response time of less than 10 milliseconds for each, thereby boosting the content generation and distribution on UC News to meet the demands of 80 Million MAUs.

    Late last year, Alibaba Holdings announced its new digital media arm, Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment, in a major reorganization of the company’s entertainment assets. The transformation marked a total consolidation of Alibaba’s media businesses, including video website YoukuTudou, UCWeb and Alibaba Pictures Group as well as the company’s sports, games, literature, music and the digital entertainment divisions.