Category: Software

NEW DELHI: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is to launch video on demand for its mobile phone subscribers in a month’s time.

This was announced by BSNL chairman & managing director Rakesh K Upadhyay while inaugurating VAS ASIA 2012, the 12th International Conference and Exhibition organised by Bharat Exhibitions.

During his address, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) executive director (Wireless Service) A. K. Bhargava said the story of the value added service on the mobile phone is just the beginning. All products on the mobile phone are for the masses, there is a requirement of creative innovation which should be cost effective and for masses, he added.

“The MVAS industry is expected to create a business opportunity worth around Rs 480 billion by the year 2015. This in itself is a clear indication of the future of VAS services in India. No doubt this has created a new excitement for all those who are in this space and for those who are entering,” said Bharat Exhibitions MD Shashi Dharan.

The emergence of the mobile phone as the single device for a host of services has changed the paradigm in the communication and entertainment industries with several discreet devices being displaced in favour of a single device, said Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) director general Rajan S. Mathews. He drew attention to some emerging problems in the telecommunication area where customer charges needed to be as low as possible for the mass communication device to be affordable to the last man.

“The exploding cost of regulation is a critical issue. The increasing introduction of regulatory issues into what is actually market driven service is affecting the growth of this sector, “said Mathews.

In his keynote address, Velti CEO Alex Moukas said: “Mobile internet users are expected to surpass the desktop Internet users 2014. The disparity in the time spent on mobile (10 per cent) and the advertisement spend (1per cent) would also rebalance soon, thereby boosting revenue from the mobile VAS for the operators. With advertising revenue rising by at least three times in two years from now this sector will also bridge the social media and location based marketing with personalization that was not possible till now.” He added that explosive mobile Internet adoption will surpass the desk top users.

“India’s Internet users penetration will rise to 35 per cent by 2015 and more than three quarters will choose mobile phone access,” said Mr. Sukesh Jain, head VAS & Content, Bharti Airtel.

The total Internet access capability by 2015 is expected to rise from 100 million to 450 million, of which 41 per cent will be using mobile only and another 38 per cent both cell phone and PC. Data service on the mobile is expected to broaden and deepen customer experience with the cell phone with the consequent improvement in the operator revenues. Revenue contribution from current VAS service is expected to come down as revenues from data increase as a percentage of total revenue.

It was noted that the slow growth of the smart phone base until recently had been holding back the prospect of huge revenues from mobile VAS. In the first quarter of this year, smart phones constituted only 2.7 million out of 50 million new devices sold, and the total smart phone base in the country is around 27 million, while the total subscribers base have crossed 950 million. The population that needs to be addressed is the regional language speakers who are the large majority compared to only 7 per cent knowing English speaking population.

“Mobile VAS has huge revenue potentials, the global average share of MVAS revenue is leading user countries is pegged at approximately 23 per cent ,” said Mr. Chandan Ghosh, Head -Global Wholesale & Carrier Business , Aircel Limited. The drive to increase average revenue per user and gain customer loyalty in a highly competitive market has led operators to liven up their mobile portfolios. Operators are looking at various means to use MVAS as a growth driver and key differentiator. According to him the industry falling prices of handsets and increasing competition was forcing manufacturers to shift focus to services. For operators falling voice revenues, increasing competition and heavy investments in 3G have made them to turn to VAS to secure their business.

New opportunities were emerging for banks, educational institutions and health care providers to use value added services over their mobile. This could be the game that operators would have to address to improve their revenues. The broad categories for successful monetization of MVAS were in M-education, M-commerce, M-Health and M-Infotainment. “The end game is not about generating new revenues. It’s about delivering compelling customer experience in order to extract new value from existing customers”, Ghosh added.

“The opportunity for the technology players to play a critical role in the further expansion of the Indian VAS Market has become more crucial now”, said DONJIN Communication Technology Co. Ltd. CEO John He.

MUMBAI: Close on the heels of entering into a distribution deal with Yash Raj Films, Novex Communications has become the exclusive distribution of cable TV rights of Shemaroo Entertainment‘s film and programme library.

Earlier, Novex was the licensee of Shemaroo’s film content since 2008.

Shemaroo’s library consists of more than 1000 titles spanning new and classic films besides titles in various other regional languages like Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, and Bengali. Besides Shemaroo, it also has rights to distribute 53 films from the Yash Raj stable.

Meanwhile, Novex has warned multi-system operators (MSOs) and local cable operators (LCOs) against unauthorised use of the libraries of the two companies.

“It is observed that many MSOs and cable operators are violating the copyright Act by unauthorised use of content of these films and programmes on their cable network rampantly. This is considered direct infringement of Cable TV copyrights of these two libraries,” Novex‘s founder-promoter Ketan Kanakia said.

The company has warned cable operators to stop using the two movie libraries illegally failing which it will take legal action against guilty operators.

“Novex is in process of taking legal action under the Act against those MSO’s and cable operators who are using the content recklessly without authorisation. They are advised to desist from unauthorised use of movie content of these libraries,” Kanakia added.

MUMBAI: Eutelsat Communications has announced major improvements to its Tooway satellite service with the aim to enhance the speed and affordability of consumer satellite broadband across Europe and the Mediterranean Basin.

Offering higher bitrates, increased consumption profiles and lower entry costs, the latest generation of Tooway broadband services is now available and is being commercialised by distributors integrating the new offers into their service portfolio.

The Tooway portfolio of services delivered via Eutelsat’s KA-SAT High Throughput Satellite now offers download speeds of up to 18 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 6Mbps, with consumption profiles of up to 50 Gigabytes per month, the company stated.
 
This move towards a faster, higher volume service has been facilitated by an upgrade of the digital modulation scheme of the KA-SAT infrastructure, from 8PSK2 to 16APSK, generating a significant increase in the system’s total throughput.

In order to lower entry costs, Eutelsat’s broadband affiliate, Skylogic, is also rolling out an attractive hardware rental programme in certain countries to enable distributors to opt to rent user equipment to new customers.

“Today‘s announcement shows our commitment to further enhancing the performance of the Tooway service which is fundamentally about connecting people – both those in areas unserved and underserved by ADSL,” said Eutelsat CEO Michel de Rosen.
 
The update last month of the EU‘s Digital Scorecard shows that as many as 10 million homes in the EU27 are still not broadband-equipped. This means there is still work to be done to meet the objectives of the Digital Agenda in Europe and at a broader level across the full KA-SAT footprint.

“We believe that the enhanced Tooway service and the improved user equipment programme will forward the move to satellite broadband for those still struggling with mediocre Internet access, depriving them of the social and economic benefits of broadband,” added Rosen.
 

MUMBAI: Arsenal Football Club and Airtel Africa, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, have signed a three-year partnership which will provide the telco with opportunity to utilise the cub‘s merchandising, hospitality and content rights in five markets: Nigeria, Zambia, Ghana, Uganda and Rwanda.

Airtel customers in these markets will have the opportunity to win match tickets to watch this summer‘s pre-season tour fixture and receive exclusive club content and news direct to handsets.
 
The 2012 visit will feature a game between the Arsenal first-team and the Nigerian National Team the Super Eagles on 5 August.

Airtel is in the process of finalising arrangements that will give selected consumers in the five countries a chance to watch the match and interact with the team in Abuja.

In addition to the agreement, Airtel will be designated as the official mobile operator of the 2012 Arsenal Tour to Nigeria.
 
Arsenal will also support the Airtel Rising Stars football programme, an annual grassroots training initiative that offers young boys and girls the opportunity to play football and compete in a safe environment.

Airtel donates money for each goal scored at the tournament to support the players‘ education to ensure those involved don‘t only get best-in-class sports training and opportunities, but also have better opportunities to further their academic studies.

The Gunners will provide Uefa-trained coaches to assist with training in each of the five markets and at an Arsenal Coaching Clinic for up to 50 footballers in London.
 

MUMBAI: Hurt by forex losses and a rise in operating costs, India’s leading direct-to-home (DTH) operators have decided to up prices of their channel packs and set-top boxes (STBs).

Dish TV has from July increased the price of its channel packs by Rs 20 across the board while new consumers will have to cough out Rs 200 per STB. The base pack will now come at Rs 200 while STBs will cost Rs 1,790 from Rs 1,590 charged earlier. The last price revision in the base pack was in November 2011.

Tata Sky is in agreement with Dish TV’s decision. “We will also match what others do in the marketplace. Prices had dropped by 30 per cent over the last one year and any increase is only going to be partial recovery of it at a time when the rupee has weakened against the dollar, softening from Rs 46 to Rs 56 against the US currency. It doesn’t make business sense to add more subsidies and surmount our losses,” Tata Sky MD Harit Nagpal tells Indiantelevision.com.

Tata Sky had dropped its base pack price last year from Rs 240 to Rs 180 amid stiff competition from the other DTH operators.

Airtel digital TV is also expected to follow suit. However, Bharti Airtel CEO of DTH/ Media Shashi Arora did not want to comment on the issue.

The route Videocon would take could not be confirmed as its CEO Anil Khera was not available for comment. Videocon d2h, which manufactures its STBs, plays the volume game and has the fastest growth in incremental subscribers.

Sun Direct, the Sun Group DTH company, will have less of competitive pressure to hike prices as the tendency (like Dish TV) is to leave the South India packs untouched. The south market is very price sensitive and Sun has based its rapid subscriber growth on low ARPUs.

The move by DTH operators comes at a time when the sector is facing slow volume growth compared to the last few years of explosive subscriber expansion. In FY‘12 the sector is estimated to have mopped up 9.5 million, down from 12 million in the previous year. Industry estimates peg the DTH sector to add up less than 9 million subscribers this fiscal.

“The time has come for the industry to balance between volumes and price points. We were waiting for the rupee to appreciate but there are no signs of it yet. The cost of STBs has been affected by 17-18 per cent,” says a Dish TV official.

Dish TV reported foreign exchange loss of Rs 510 million in FY‘12. In fact, the company had forex losses for the last three quarters of the previous fiscal. Dish TV will announce its first-quarter fiscal results on 19 July and the forex losses are expected to stay. The other DTH companies are not listed but all have suffered due to the softening of the Indian currency.

DTH companies who take a price increase run the risk of a higher churn rate. Dish TV has a churn rate of 1.1 per cent per month. “We will try to arrest the churn rate by adding more channels in the pack,” says the official.

There may be a marginal rise in ARPUs (average revenue per user) as consumers will have to pay more for their packages. Market estimates expect the ARPUs to go up by Rs 3-4 per subscriber. Dish TV’s ARPU for FY’12 stood at Rs 152 (exit quarter ARPU in the fiscal was lower at Rs 151).

“The primary aim, however, is not to increase revenue but to lower costs,” avers Nagpal.

MUMBAI: The internet giant Google has announced closure of few of its products including -iGoogle, Google Mini, Google Talk Chatback, Google video, and Symbian Search App.

The search engine company had started a “spring clean” last year, and since then it has closed or combined more than 30 products.

The personalised Google page, iGoogle, will cease from 1 November 2013. “We originally launched iGoogle in 2005 before anyone could fully imagine the ways that today‘s web and mobile apps would put personalised, real-time information at your fingertips,” Google‘s official blog read.

The company feels that with modern apps running on platforms like Chrome and Android, the need for iGoogle has eroded over time, so it is winding it down. The users will have 16 months to adjust or export their data.

Google Mini, which was also introduced in 2005, had a good run, but beginning 31 July the product will be discontinued because its functionality can be better provided by products like Google Search Appliance, Google Site Search and Google Commerce Search. “We will of course continue to provide technical support to Mini customers for the duration of their contracts, and will reach out to them shortly with more details,” the company said.

Google Talk Chatback allowed websites to embed a Google Talk widget so that they could engage with their visitors. Google feels that it is now outdated and hence it is turning off Chatback and encouraging websites to use the Meebo bar.

Google Video is also shutting down on 20 August and users have time till then to migrate, delete or download their content. It had stopped taking uploads in May 2009. Google will be moving the remaining hosted content to YouTube as private videos that users can access in the YouTube video manager.

The company will also be retiring Symbian Search App to focus efforts on mobile web search experience. “Switching from the app to the web experience will enable users to make the most of the web-wide improvements we make for search all the time,” Google said.

MUMBAI: In a bid to tap into Facebook‘s soaring popularity among Gen Next, sportscaster ESPN Star Sports has launched “My Country, My Cheer” Facebook application to engage Indian sports fans into supporting their national athletes.

Launched to welcome the countdown to the London 2012 Olympic Games, the application is hosted on facebook.com/espnstarsports, and enables visitors to post words of encouragement for their Olympic Games representatives.

In addition to providing a platform to cheer on the Olympians, the application also provides a detailed programme schedule for the lead up, and duration of the Games, to ensure that no sports fan misses any of their favourite athletes or Olympic Games moments!

Fans can also win exclusive ESPN Star Sports London 2012 prizes for writing the most creative and passionate cheer.

In addition to “My Country, My Cheer” Facebook application also launched a London 2012 Olympic Games dedicated page on its website, espnstar.com/london2012, featuring news, videos, TV programme schedules and Games highlights.

ESS is also building up hype towards the Games by broadcasting top class Olympic Games archive programming from over 30,000 hours of historical footage chronicling the last two decades of the Games.

As an official broadcaster of the London 2012 Olympic Games, ESS will offer more than 1,200 hours of coverage across three channels including round-the-clock coverage on ESPN, Star Sports and ESPN HD during the Games.

ESS had secured the exclusive non-standard television rights including cable & satellite television from the International Olympic Committee for the Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 Olympic Games for 22 countries across the Indian subcontinent and South East Asia.

The London 2012 Games will be the biggest sporting event this summer covering 302 events in 26 sports, and will feature over 10,000 athletes from more than 200 countries around the world.

MUMBAI: CSG Systems International, a global provider of software and services-based business support solutions, has said that it is offering new ways to accelerate Indian cable operators’ evolution into the digitization era.

CSG, which works with cable companies like Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Dish Network in US, plans to bring its product portfolio, expertise and a variety of delivery models including licensed and a new managed service offerings for CSG Singleview, its real-time, convergent customer management, charging and billing solution, to the Indian market.

According to CSG International’s Vice President and MD Asia Pacific Ian Watterson said, “Digitization of the cable networks is building momentum across India, driven by rapid changes in consumers’ digital consumption behaviour. Cable service providers will need to rise to the challenge and transform the way in which they offer new services and support customers.”

Globally, and particularly in India, the cable industry is seeing dramatic growth and increasing complexity as a result of regulatory changes and the move from analog television offerings to digital.

Digitizing the cable platform allows the release of spectrum for hundreds of channels, enables multi-play services and stimulates services such as pay-per-view, subscription and interactive television.

To move from today’s analog video services to a digital television offering with voice and data services, India’s next generation cable operators will need to create a whole host of new tiered bandwidth, high speed data and content offerings to accommodate a wide variance in customer usage patterns and preferences.

Such initiatives must be backed by technology, with Business Support Systems (BSS) at the forefront of vital back-office functionality.

MUMBAI: Telecom Major Bharti Airtel has launched its Cloud Enablement Platform (CLEP) based on the HP Aggregation Platform for Software-as-a- Service (AP4SaaS).

Bharti Airtel will offer hosted SaaS and IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) applications to the small and large enterprises on a pay-as-you-go model.

Initially, Airtel will offer solutions like ERP, accounting packages, storage and compute on the Airtel CLEP Platform. Going forward the company will introduce diverse SaaS applications on the same platform especially for SMB customers, thereby helping them to meet the ever evolving business demands.

Airtel asserts that its Cloud Services will enable businesses of all sizes to optimize their IT costs while providing security, scalability and flexibility.

Bharti Airtel CEO (India & South Asia) Sanjay Kapoor said, “Cloud computing market in India is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 40 per cent by 2014. Bharti Airtel, with our end to end telecom solutions bundled with the latest technologies like 3G and 4G, is uniquely poised to lead this space by offering a wide range of Cloud based services /applications to our customers.

HP Enterprise Services built a CLEP using the HP AP4SaaS, integrated into Bharti Airtel‘s existing network system. A key component of the HP Cloud Services Enablement portfolio, the AP4SaaS is a common platform from which Airtel can not only deliver IaaS but also Communications as a Service and SaaS, either hosted on operator premises or integrated with third-party SaaS providers.

It provides a flexible set of web service interfaces for enhancing the Cloud Service Provider’s (CSP) customer portal and facilitates distribution, subscription, and consumption via a marketplace portal.

“Communications service providers need flexibility, innovation and speed to market to attract new customers and drive new revenue streams,” said HP India MD Neelam Dhawan. “HP Aggregation Platform for SaaS eases the integration of SaaS and IaaS into the CSP environment, expediting the delivery to Airtel’s small and medium business customers.”

HP will offer implementation and management of the end-to-end Cloud Enablement Platform.

MUMBAI: Hathway Cable and Datacom has decided to procure an additional 1 million set-top-boxes (STBs) to meet the demand for digital cable even as the government has pushed back the deadline for digitisation in the four metros by four months.

This is in addition to the previously planned deployment of 2 million boxes. The leading multi-system-operator (MSO) is expecting a surge in demand in the four metros and, with the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting pushing the deadline to 1 November for the switchover to digital cable TV, it wants to be prepared.

Hathway said that over the next four months it will scale up availability of STBs and by infusing additional boxes in the market, it is poised to meet the fresh deadline as well as ensure a smoother transition from analogue to digital for consumers across the four mandated cities – New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

“We anticipate that there will be a need of 3 million boxes in both Delhi and Mumbai (including multiple TV homes) and we want to have 50 per cent of these two markets. We have already seeded 1-1.1 million boxes in these two metros and are ready with adequate boxes,” Hathway Cable and Datacom MD and CEO K Jayaraman told Indiantelevision.com.

He added that the modified deadline has presented a unique opportunity to reach out to and impact a greater segment of the market. “Hathway plans to procure the additional 1 million STBs to gear up and leverage this opportunity. Therefore in total, we plan to deploy 3 million digital set top boxes across the two metro cities of Mumbai and Delhi. The rush for digital services will peak around the last fortnight of October and we do not want to disappoint the consumers and drive them towards the costlier option of DTH services,” he said in a statement.

Hathway gives a net customer subsidy of Rs 1000 on boxes and the subscriber acquisition cost comes to be around Rs 1,100, Jayaraman said. He added that in case the boxes didn’t get deployed, they can be used in the second phase of digitisation.

Talking about having an edge over DTH players, Jayaraman said that Hathway digital cable is at least 25 per cent cheaper than the traditional DTH players. Moreover, cable will have more bandwidth and, thus, can show 500 channels, while DTH players have limited transponders and bandwidth problem.

He said that momentum is high on digitisation and only in June over 200,000 boxes were shipped for Mumbai and Delhi.

Talking about HD service, he said that the HD offering is more popular in Mumbai and Bangalore and Hathway is seeding around 1000 HD boxes every month at present.