Category: Software

MUMBAI: Only five per cent of US broadband users (approximately five million) use the mobile Internet, according to a report by Media-Screen.

Although more than 60 per cent of users currently own an internet-enabled mobile device, they are reluctant to partake in online mobile activities due to extra fees and difficulties establishing and maintaining Internet connections.

The report also reveals a significant gap between accessing the internet on mobile devices and computers when comparing the number of online activities performed through each. Users perform an average of 3.3 online activities on their mobile device versus 13.4 activities on their laptop/desktop, reinforcing the fact that online activities have yet to migrate into the pockets of broadband users.

Media-Screen’s director of research services Jean Durall says, “Broadband users represent an important audience to track as they have historically driven innovation of online applications by being the first to adopt and embrace new services on the Internet”.

“Although the mobile internet is still in its infancy due to technological and pricing hurdles, understanding this group of influential consumers will help carriers, content providers and marketers develop new offerings.”

Among broadband users, the most popular mobile activities are communications-related –similar to the drivers during the early days of the Internet. And, even though mobile is touted as the “third screen”, less than one in five users access news or television shows from a mobile device; however this is likely to grow when pricing and packaging issues are improved.

The top mobile internet activities are sending email 47 per cent, Playing games 27 per cent, Read the news 16 per cent, Watch TV programmes 13 per cent. Furthermore, the marketing and advertising messages surrounding the mobile Internet do not resonate with most users. Over 50 per cent of respondents say that the mobile internet access does not “fit with their lifestyle.”

Durall adds, “The persistent media portrayal of mobile Internet users as either carefree youth or hard-driving professionals may be reinforcing perceived lifestyle differences, unintentionally delaying broader consumer adoption.

“Providers and manufacturers must reevaluate their marketing messages to make sure the benefits of mobile access are directed beyond the ‘Road Warriors’ and ‘MySpacers’ of the world.”

MUMBAI: Apple Inc. announced that it had started shipping its new Apple TV box, a device that lets viewers take music and video stored on a computer and play it on a television set.

At the core of Apple TV is the iTunes software so familiar to iPod users. Better yet, the sleek device lets you stream music and shows to your TV wirelessly over your home network.

Apple TV works through a wireless connection and is touted as delivering entertainment to a TV screen with nearly the same quality as a DVD player.

From your TV, you can take in movies, TV shows, podcasts and music stored in iTunes on a PC or Mac. You can also display photos stored on your computer, including slide shows backed by a soundtrack.

The box can store up to 50 hours of video, 9,000 songs or 25,000 photos, or a combination of the three formats.

Apple said its suggested retail price for the device is $299

MUMBAI: The Walt Disney Co. will test a “watch-and-chat” feature next week on its ABC Family Channel Web site that lets groups of viewers watch TV shows on the internet and chat about them at the same time.

Disney, whose ABC broadcast network was the first to offer free streaming videos of its prime-time shows on the Web, now hopes to build buzz around its ABC Family cable shows through the social networking feature.

ABC Family will test the feature on the season finale of its prime-time show “Wildfire” on Monday night. The streaming video of the show will go live on abcfamily.com an hour after it airs on cable, and will be available through April 1.

The feature lets groups of up to 10 people set up “screening rooms” to watch the episode on laptops and write a running commentary that will appear on one side of the screen.
Each screening room host can pause, rewind and fast-forward video while they watch.

Paul Lee, president of ABC Family Channel, said “Wildfire” was chosen for the test because its audience of predominantly 14- to 28-year-old females is “the most passionate audience of any show on the network.”

“There is a new generation here …. They are changing the way people watch TV or use other technology,” Lee said. “When you link (social networking) to TV programming, it‘s almost like word of mouth on steroids.

MUMBAI: Cablevision Systems Corp. has lost a legal battle against several Hollywood studios and television networks to introduce a network-based digital video recorder service to its subscribers.

The New York-based cable operator said in a statement late on Thursday it is currently considering an appeal. Cablevision was sued last May by several Hollywood studios and television networks, including those owned by Time Warner Inc., News Corp., CBS Corp. and Walt Disney Co., which charged that the planned service would violate U.S. copyright laws.

Cablevision had hoped a network-based DVR system, called Remote Storage DVR or RS-DVR, would have done away with the need for the installation of hundreds of thousands of digital set-top boxes in subscribers‘ homes.

This would potentially have saved Cablevision significant administration and maintenance costs. It already has installed over 500,000 set-top boxes in homes in its area.
Other cable operators had been vocal in their support for such a system.

But the studios and TV networks argued in two suits filed at the U.S. District Court in Manhattan that because the proposed service would allow subscribers to store television programs on the cable operator‘s own computer servers, it would be breaking copyright agreements by effectively retransmitting the programs.

The judge agreed with the studios and networks. “The RS-DVR is clearly a service, and I hold that in providing this service, it is Cablevision that does the copying,” Chin said in his ruling.

He also dismissed a countersuit by Cablevision.

Cablevision had argued that DVR technology based on its network is as legal as digital video recorders in the living room, such as those produced by TiVo Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. “The RS-DVR is not a stand-alone machine that sits on top of a television,” said Chin. “Rather, it is a complex system that involves an ongoing relationship between Cablevision and its customers.”

Cablevision said it would be considering all its options and would continue to install conventional set-top boxes.
“We are disappointed by the judge‘s decision, and continue to believe that remote-storage DVRs are consistent with copyright law and offer compelling benefits for consumers – including lower costs and broader availability of this popular technology, Cablevision said in the statement.

Cablevision shares fell 20 cents, or 0.65 percent, to $30.36 on the New York Stock Exchange.

NEW DELHI: President APJ Abdul Kalam laid out his vision for the Commonwealth Connect programme at Vigyan Bhavan here today, stressing the call of the hour is to shift from information to a knowledge society.

Inaugurating the Commonwealth Connects summit Kalam said, “The telecom revolution in India has opened multiple windows of opportunities and the benefits of this revolution are in the process of percolating to the vast majority of our villages. It is through this network that people living in the villages would be able to access modern education, healthcare services and employment opportunities. And I believe, this would be true for many countries in the Commonwealth spectrum. Broadband connectivity is key to realising the stated socio-economic goals.”

He stressed that large scale utilisation of local languages would enable people of the Commonwealth to create content with ease and authenticity which, when shared, would have a positive effect in the growth of economy of all the countries of Commonwealth through the benefits of telecom revolution and related internet and multimedia tools.

“Bandwidth is demolisher of imbalances and a great leveller in the knowledge society. Making the bandwidth available is like the government laying the roads,” he said.

“In the modern digital economy driven by knowledge products, bits and bytes traverse the network and create wealth and this will recover the cost of investments in the bandwidth. Thus, a singular action of making the bandwidth available to all our people will bridge the perceived divide. The free bandwidth will make economic sense if we appropriately cost the services offered using the bandwidth,” he added.

India has the fiber infrastructure ready up to block level, last mile wireless technologies are being implemented and the VSAT technologies for the unreachable are in place in the form of satellite services. “Hence, we are well on course to bridge the digital gap. We are in the midst of convergence of digital technologies,” Kalam said.

The total installed bandwidth capacity in India is in the range of 19-20 Terra bytes and lit-up capacity is progressively increasing with enhanced economic activity.

Explaining that 70 per cent of Indians live in villages, he said: “We are in the process of a societal transformation towards sustainable development for our growth. This we propose to realise in a time-bound manner through a knowledge society for empowering the entire nation. Electronic and knowledge connectivity is the key to realise this goal. Connecting a billion people gives multiple challenges.”

Sharing the Indian experience, he said that in the proposed model in this country, the inter-connectivity among the three sectors of the economy is brought about by four grids.

He said these are the Knowledge Grid, Health Grid, e-Governance Grid and the Rural Grid.

“Each grid is a system of multiple portals. This system of grid will bring prosperity to 700 million people in the rural areas and 300 million plus people in the urban areas. In the process, it will ensure that the lives of 220 million people are transformed from below the poverty line.”

Though India has rich knowledge institutions, what needs to be added is connectivity.

“This connectivity today is technologically possible but would need creation of high bandwidth reliable network infrastructure to the extent of minimum 10 Gigabits per second all through the country to provide uniform access of knowledge in different regions leading to the creation of Knowledge Grid,” Kalam held.

The mission of telemedicine with healthcare Grid is gaining momentum and it will spread to all the equipped primary health centres in the country, medical colleges and research institutions. Connectivity between 35 urban super-specialty hospitals with 165 remotely located healthcare centres has been established through Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) telemedicine grid, he informed.

Good governance is being recognised as an important goal by many countries across the world. They have taken up specific initiatives for open and transparent governance. Freedom of information is being redefined and supported by detailed guidelines, he said.

“The internet revolution has proved to be a powerful tool for good governance initiatives. An important dimension of the internet potential is the possibility of providing services any time anywhere. Along with this there is a conscious effort to put the citizen as the centre of focus of the governance.

“Citizens are being perceived as customers and clients. E-governance has to be citizen friendly. Delivery of services to citizens is considered as a primary function of the government.

“Particularly in a democratic nation of a billion people like India, e-Governance should enable seamless access to information and seamless flow of information across the state and central government in the federal setup crossing the inter-departmental barriers.

It is on this point that he took up the future vision, with election as the model, and using a presentation he had developed, showed how everything can be done – including voting – from homes and offices, and the audience went into splits with his side remarks on politicians, their education levels, bank balances and credits taken and said, using all the indices, an officer would be able to decided who would make a successful politician!

“Typical scenario: I visualize an election scenario, where a candidate files his nomination from a particular constituency. Immediately the election officer verifies his/her authenticity from the national citizen ID database through multifactor authentication, through a multipurpose Citizen ID card.

“The education credentials of the candidate come from the university records. Candidate‘s track record of employment comes from various employers with whom the candidate had worked. His or her income and wealth resources come from the income-tax department, and other sources. Candidate‘s property record comes from the registration of land authority across the country. Candidate‘s credit history comes form various credit institutions like banks. Candidate‘s civic consciousness and citizenship behaviour comes from the police crime record. Candidate‘s legal track records come from the judicial system.

“All the details arrive at the computer terminal of the election officer within few seconds automatically by the act of e-Governance software agents which crawls across the various state and central government web services directories through the network Grid and collects the information automatically and presents the facts in real-time without any bias.

“Artificial intelligence software analyses the credentials of the candidate and gives a rating on how successful he or she will be as a politician.”

“Election officer sitting at the remote block of the country decides on the spot and the election process starts. All the voters vote from their home through virtual polling booths. If we consider the breakthroughs and expansion in telecommunication and internet in the last five years, this visualization is no longer a dream and is possible to be achieved by many nations.

“To establish a system what I have visualized, we need a high bandwidth broadband connectivity across the many Government departments such as State and District Administration, Election commission, Universities, Banks, Home/Police Departments, Insurance companies etc.,

“This scenario requires vertical and horizontal e-Governance grid established across various institutions and the Government. Hence, we can draw information and feed information from these GRIDs for seamless flow of data to achieve the goal of good governance. Now let me discuss the significance of the sustainable development through establishing Rural Grid,” Kalam said.

India with six hundred thousand villages and seven hundred million people living in the rural areas needs an unique rural development model called PURA. PURA envisages provision of three connectivities namely physical connectivity, electronic connectivity and knowledge connectivity leading to economic connectivity, Kalam said.

“For providing the knowledge connectivity to the PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) complexes, Village Knowledge Centres will act as frontline delivery system. The Village Knowledge Centre should provide the essential data required for the targeted population such as farmers, fishermen, craftsmen, traders, businessmen, entrepreneurs, unemployed youth and the students.

“Now the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology is in the process of establishing 100,000 Common Service Centre (CSC‘s) across the country through public-private partnership model.

“We have so far discussed all the four connectivities at the national level required for the societal transformation leading to empowerment. Now, I would like to share with you the experience of establishing a Pan African e-Network for providing connectivity among 53 African nations,” he said.

During the year 2003-04, Kalam had visited African countries such as Sudan, Tanzania, Zanzibar and South Africa.

“I addressed the Pan African Parliament on 16 Sept 2004, at Johannesburg, South Africa which was attended by Heads of 53 member countries of the African Union. Based on my study of the communication, healthcare and education needs of the African countries, I proposed the concept of Pan African e-Network for providing seamless and integrated satellite, fibre optics and wireless network connecting 53 African countries,” he said.

The Pan-African e-Network project is estimated to cost around US$100 million. As part of the project 12 universities (7 from India and 5 from Africa), 17 Super Specialty Hospitals (12 from India and 5 from Africa), 53 tele-medicine centers and 53 tele-education centres in Africa will be connected, he explained.

The pilot project on tele-education and tele-medicine in Ethiopia has already been commissioned. One of our Indian Universities has taken up the MBA Course for 34 Ethiopian students of Addis Ababa and Harmaya Universities. As regards, tele-medicine, the specialists from CARE Hospital, Hyderabad are providing one-hour live tele-consultation to doctors in Black Lion Hospital, Addis Ababa in Cardiology and Radiology since November 2006.

The Pan African e-Network will primarily provide Tele-Education, Tele-Medicine, internet, videoconferencing and VOIP services. It also supports e-Governance, e-Commerce, infotainment, resource mapping and meteorological services. Each remote location will be able to access the internet through the network by linking the HUB to internet backbone. Using this network the Heads of the State in all the 53 countries will be connected for instant communication.

The network is designed to have 169 terminals and a central hub to deliver tele-education and tele-medicine services. The proposed network will utilize state-of-the-art technology and can be integrated with the latest broadband technologies like Wi-Fi and Wi-Max. The network is scalable to support different applications catering to increased number of users. “I am happy to inform you that 22 countries will be connected in the first half of 2007 and the rest will be operationalised by early 2008,” Kalam informed.

“I am sure many Commonwealth countries participating in today‘s summit have several experiences to share and Commonwealth connects programme can formulate a plan to integrate the core-competence of nations for mutual benefit.

“This power of networking can definitely be used by Commonwealth countries for sharing their core competencies and building a knowledge platform for serving the development aspirations of the individual nations through collective wisdom,” he said.

He concluded his delectable speech with several suggestions.

Evolving guidelines for common telecommunication policy to share resources, network, infrastructure, without any barrier and facilitate implementation through a Commonwealth co-ordination centre.

Evolving guidelines for Common Information Security policy in IT.

Modernising education through state of the art skill development programmes among the Commonwealth nations leading to skill certification and acceptance among the countries for global employment opportunities.

Undertaking study of e-governance implementations across the Commonwealth nations and suggest the best practices for the G2G and G2C implementations.

Creating a mechanism which will facilitate pooling of core competence of nations for developing knowledge products and systems for serving the global market in education, healthcare and e- governance.

Identifying gaps in educational standards of IT professionals in the Global business scenario in IT, ITES and BPO services and creating institutional mechanisms for training, accreditation and grading based on performance. Creating a common web portal for sharing information and knowledge among Commonwealth countries.

Creating a Commonwealth Connects Fund and Institute a Commonwealth committee to address the above mentioned suggestions.

The 53 countries of Commonwealth constitute a population of 2 billion i.e. one third of the population of the planet. This network of independent nations in the past has taken up many initiatives for interconnecting their heritage in art, culture, science and technology, history, sports and way of living.

Such a strong base of relationship and the core competence of the countries can be further integrated into a very useful partnership by providing connectivity through the Evolution of a Commonwealth Knowledge Grid.

“This can address many common challenges for development such as developing a knowledge society through quality education, providing affordable quality healthcare to all, sustainable rural development through cluster approach, providing transparent people-friendly-governance and above all evolution of an enlightened society for improving the National Prosperity Index of all the partner countries. The model developed by the Commonwealth Nations will have the potential to be extended to the entire Planet,” he said.

Incredibly, he said in the end: “In just a few minutes, my paper will be accessible on my website. www.presidentofindia.nic.in. If any of you have any suggestions, send them to me and I will reply back within 24 hours.”

The first day of the two-day meet was devoted to moving from digital divide to digital opportunities and to successful public-private sector partnership (PPP).

Delegates from Mozambique, South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, and Sri Lanka related various instances where PPP had very successfully helped transform societies through greater use of IT. The information minister of Kenya M Kagwa related the instance of collaboration with the multi-national Vodaphone to create e-banking and money transfers through ‘m-pesa’ which had helped his government to change the situation in the country in just 18 months. He said that attempts had now been made to set up computers in every village in the country and help people access information. He said the gaps between revenue and literacy created digital divides, but an attempt was being made to overcome this.

The delegate from Mozambique referred to shortage of financial resources, but said the entry of private partnership had helped to overcome this.

Sri Lanka‘s science and technology minister Prof. Tissa Vitarana said recent initiatives had helped the country through PPP to take science and technology to the villages with the use of computer technology.

T Chakravarty of Tata Consultancy Services which sponsored the meet said that a collaboration with the company affairs ministry had made it possible to put all information on a website and help any individual set up a company within an hour compared to 80 days until just over three years earlier. He also referred to the successful experiment in Andhra Pradesh where technology had been taken to the villages through Common Service Centres where computers were available for any person to access and get information on any subject.
He said the key lay not in innovation, but in replication. This meant that other states within the country and other countries should learn from the success stories and replicate the experiments in their own countries.

CII director general Lieutenant General S S Mehta said in his concluding remarks that there was need to move from pilot projects to fruition of such experiments, He said IT was the oxygen of the new world of cyberspace, and people should not be wary of breathing it. He wanted nations to draw up their own priorities and use modern technology to realize their goals.

MUMBAI: National economic gains from a new approach to investment in cable TV infrastructure could deliver a 54.6 billion rupee ($1.2 billion) increase in economic activity and Rs 18 billion in new tax revenues within five years, according to the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (Casbaa).

However, even with a target of 20 million cable broadband subscribers by 2010, the Indian market would remain less than half the size of the China market which, like India, is experiencing national economic growth of more than nine per cent per year.

Casbaa executive director India Anjan Mitra says, “To achieve this goal we will need a new approach to capital investment in pay TV, including abandoning the view that cable should be treated as a utility with commodity like price controls. Today, the approach is more in line with old style thinking on electricity services or traditional political battlefields like print media.

“The fact is that if we don‘t change our entire attitude to cable, we could suffer nothing less than a ‘digital failure‘. However, if policyrnakers get the environment right, there will be huge rewards for the economy, first in the big cities, but then rolling out to the still needy rural areas.”

According to Casbaa, India‘s cable TV networks are a huge national asset built over more than a decade by private investment. “We should recognise this important fact and use those networks to create significant new economic activity” said Mitra. With around 70 million homes wired, cable TV already plays a bigger role in India than in any other major market.

The industry organisation called on the Government of India to learn the lessons of telecoms liberalisation and to let consumers decide “what they want to pay for cable TV services and what they want to watch. After that, for digital networks, it‘s a matter of “build and they will come‘.”

Casbaa suggests that senior leaders must adopt a new vision for the contribution the cable television industry can make, and a new regulatory approach designed to make that vision a reality. This is the most important single step: the overall approach must take account of the unique economic asset and window of opportunity for digital broadband development provided by India‘s cable television networks. Simply continuing regulatory policies designed for the broadcasting industry of yesterday will not produce an upgraded and dynamic digital industry for tomorrow.

Casbaa VP for regulatory affairs and government relations John Medeiros says, “Digital broadband is changing the face of the economically crucial global communications sector and India will benefit hugely if it joins that revolution.”

Medeiros noted that global experience shows that while the adoption of digital TV may start slowly, the pace of change picks up quickly.

“The very nature of digital cable broadband provides consumers with rlore content choice and more price options, on demand services become pervasive, allowing people to choose exactly what they want to watch and when, as well as yet more choice in terms of linear (traditional) TV channels,” he said.

According to Mitra, the greatest opportunities for economic growth will only come when the investment ciimate is right for consolidation of India‘s thousands of small cable operators in the big metros and rural areas which are then able to upgrade their last mile networks.

“Today, MSO cash flow the bloodline of the communications business is constrained, leaving the industry handicapped when it taps into the capital markets. The exciting experience of other countries and already seen in the Indian telecoms industry is that domestic and overseas investors are ready and able to generate the large sums necessary to deploy cable broadband if there is a chance of reasonable returns,” said Medeiros.

But most importantly, “government funds are not needed to achieve these goals. What is necessary is a supportive environment.” The stakes are high to get it right, and senior policyrnakers as a first step must decide to take an active interest in setting the course for the regulatory framework of for this strategically important industry. Allowing bureaucracies to implement their own agendas will be stifling in the long run.

Casbaa notes that despite its status as India‘s leading last mile connector, the cable TV industry in India has not been able to enter the next stage of evolution network upgrades and deployment of digital television and broadband services. Penetration for broadband digital services by the cable networks is, for instance, minimal. Of 68 million cable homes, only 350,000 have broadband, and hardly any subscribe to a bundle of broadband and cable TV.

Industry revenues illustrate the same point. India‘s cable television sector generates $4.3 billion per year in turnover (subscription and advertising), making it one of the largest in the Asia Pacific. Regrettably, only a fraction of this figure less than $100 million flows from broadband digital services.

Nevertheless, the cable industry, as India‘s leading last mile network, will continue to hold the key to exponentially increasing the country‘s broadband take up.

The reach of the cable industry will continue to grow, as it is projected to further consolidate its status as the leading last mile service provider. The cable industry, for instance, is expected to serve more than 100 million homes by 2010. This size and scale, if harnessed, presents a great opportunity to drive broadband digital deployment.

Analysis from advanced markets as well as India suggests that digital television over cable networks will be one of the most important drivers of innovation and growth in the information and communication technology sector, with digital television providing a platform: (1) to stimulate growth in the local content industry leading to a diversity in programming never witnessed before; and (2) to enable a narrowing of the digital divide, opening the full potential of interactive services to parts of society that otherwise may remain excluded from a purely PC based digital world.

In addition, the advancement of digital television and broadband services over cable networks will afford consumers the ability to choose from more than one infrastructure provider to buy advanced converged services.

Consumer choice, as it stands today in leading countries, is largely between the competing infrastructure players: telecoms companies via Digital Subscriber Lines, cable operators via hybrid fiber coaxial cable, and, to a more nascent degree, Direct to Home Satellite (DTH) operators in partnership with xDSL, cable, or wireless broadband operators.

The development of broadband digital services in countries in Asia and elsewhere is strongest where infrastructure based competition is most prevalent. Further, as in other infrastructurebased areas of the economy, knock on investments follow providing other participants an opportunity to flourish, including content providers, software companies and technology firms.

If India could achieve half of China‘s current level of GDP contributlon from broadband digital services (a reasonable target, given that India‘s growth in other areas, including mobile phone subscribers, has overtaken China‘s), the addition to India‘s GDP would be roughly Rs 54.6 billion which in turn would likely generate an estimated 100,000 new jobs. The government would be reaping about Rs 18 billion in new tax revenue.

In addition to the broad macroeconomic benefits, such an operating environment would bring about a major increase in activity within the television/entertainment sector alone, with massive stimulation of India‘s creative industries, financed by dual financial flows from consumers who have in India and abroad demonstrated that they are prepared to voluntarily pay for content when it is compelling, and advertisers, who would benefit from the ability of digital architecture to deliver more targeted messages.

This last feature of the digital entertainment marketplace greatly increases participation in the advertising industry, as smaller advertisers can improve their marketing to niche targets at relatively low cost, thus generating further economic activity and spreading the benefits of digitalisation to a broader range of economic actors.

In a more fully digital environment, other follow on effects would flow. A broad range of niche television products would be made available to meet the desires of smaller groups of Indian consumers than are now targeted by mass market media. E government channels could be extended to the regional/state level. New channels might be developed to satisfy devotees of particular sports or even Bollywood news.

NEW DELHI: Foreign direct investment in telecommunications
is to be raised from 49 per cent to 74 per cent and the Press Note 5 of 2005 which had imposed stiff monitoring needs for telecom service providers will be amended suitably.

The union cabinet in its meeting also announced that remote access to networks in India would be permitted from approved locations. Briefing the media after the meeting, information and broadcasting minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi said such access will only be allowed to equipment suppliers, manufacturers and affiliates and not for monitoring calls and content.

Operators will be required to keep an audit trail of all remote access activities for six months, send a compliance report twice a year to the government and maintain a “mirror image” of all remote access information for online monitoring.

In the note sent earlier to the cabinet, the Department of
Telecommunications (DoT) had sought the setting up of a centralised lawful interception and monitoring system through which service providers can be monitored from a centralised location.

It was also decided that the chief officer dealing with network operation (network administrator) has to be a resident Indian national, while the chief technical officer may be a foreigner cleared by security agencies.

Vigilance technical monitoring cells of the DoT will be augmented and will have a Director-level representative from security agencies, and will carry out both technical vigilance functions and security aspects of telecom service operators.

The DoT has proposed that it will extend the date of compliance with Press Note 5 (a note on FDI enhancement, which incorporates these security issues on remote access) for three months from 2 April 2007.

A high-level group set up by the Cabinet last December formulated these conditions. The group had been asked to suggest safeguards and examine security conditions on allowing remote access to the country’s telecom network from foreign countries. The National Security Advisor, the Cabinet secretary, and Secretaries of Home, Defence, Telecom, and Finance were members of this group.

Press Note 5, adding pre-conditions for enhancing FDI in telecom to 74 per cent, had been issued in November 2005 but telecom firms opposed various clauses, including one denying remote access to their networks.

Meanwhile, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India has lauded the decision of government to hike FDI ceiling in telecom to 74 per cent. ASSOCHAM President Venugopal N. Dhoot said this will result into massive flow of investments in telecom.

NEW DELHI: Business deals worth over $ 100 million were inked during the ‘15th Convergence India 2007‘ which also saw the launch of a wide arena of products and futuristic technologies for the first time in India.

The three-day IT and Telecom event was visited by over 19,000 business visitors across the globe since it commence on 20 March.

Representatives of several telecom giants like UTStarcom, ZTE and others announced deals they had struck during the meet, organized by Exhibitions India in collaboration with the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).

UTStarcom announced its mega deal with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited to deploy 1.3 million broadband lines across 900 cities in the country.

Two new software items were launched by a Delhi-based entrepreneur, ‘One 97 Communications’: Mobicast (Mobile Broad Cast) and Video SMS.

One 97 said Mobicast would help people to tune from their mobile phones into any radio channel that was streamed over the internet. The application will allow the users to access numerous feeds from across the world, including audio feeds of various Indian languages such as Bhojpuri, Tamil, Punjabi, Malayalam etc. The other software, Video SMS, will allow users to personalize self-expressions with built over voice to create a talking video message.

The multi-national Trimula of Philippines introduced ‘Nemo’ – a navigation software. With this GPRS-based software, one can navigate to find places, people, roads, and vehicles. Interestingly, one need not buy the device, and the technology can be downloaded on to a mobile phone.

Motorola director (marketing) Lloyd Mathias announced that the company was about to launch a new handset – ‘Rocker‘ – which would act as a web cam. It could be used as a web cam while chatting through the phone.

On the second day of the meet, Mathias had told a seminar on ‘Mobile Handset and New Innovations‘ that handsets were an integral part of people‘s daily life, and are extensions of their personality. People now use phones for purposes beyond talking and messaging – they look for cameras, radio etc. There are at present a total of 32 million camera users/150 million mobile users, but there will be more camera-enabled phones than cameras, and more people will listen to songs on their phones than through CDs by the end of this calendar year.

Expressing his satisfaction, Exhibitions India managing director Prem Behl told indiantelevision.com that Convergence India had emerged as the largest meet of its kind anywhere in the world, with a global participation. He added that this was not surprising, since “the year 2007 had been declared the year of the broadband and the year of ICT – rural connectivity, Broadband, 3G, enterprise and entertainment bulge, mobile content, e-governance, increase in PC penetration, Information Security and telemedicine, On-line education, telemedicine, IT applications in financial services, and e-commerce and the meet reflected a surge in industry confidence.

Convergence India was inaugurated by former Indian ambassador to the United States Abid Hussain who said India had emerged as a power by breaking the aristocracy of knowledge once confined to a few countries.

The Expo was held in Hall No. 8 to 12A in Pragati Maidan here, showcasing convergence of telecommunications, voice and data networks, fixed and mobile networks, internet, computing, delivery of content, satellite communications, television and entertainment applications, etc.

COAI director general T. V. Ramachandran said: “Today‘s ICT marketplace is shaped by the integration and convergence of information processing, telecommunications, networking, Internet solutions and services, IT security, bank and card technology, as well as research and technology.”

The Expo spread over an area of 20,000 sq meters, with over 450 participants from over 30 countries with 1500 delegates was the third such gathering in recent weeks.

After the international Convergence Exhibition and Conference organized by the Broadcast Engineering Society (India) in Delhi from 1-3 February, the Fourth International Converging World 2007 Exhibition and Seminar was held at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata from March 9 to 11, organized by the Delhi-based Zeal Broadband Solutions.

The first Convergence India had been organized 15 years earlier jointly by Exhibitions India and BES (I) but the two had parted ways after two shows and have been organizing separate events.

There was a three-day panel discussion during the meet on various aspects of ‘Convergence: The Future – Fuelling the Indian Economy’. Panelists included former Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Chairman Pradip Baijal, Software Technology Parks of India Director-General S N Zindal, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited Director (finance) S D Saxena, Qualcomm Chief Technology Advisor Nikhil Jain, UTStarcom Vice-President Brian Caskey, and Alcatel-Lucent Worldwide CMO John Giere.

A workshop was held on e-governance, and the conference brought together industry leaders, investors, government officials and users on a single platform to discuss all aspects of the ICT industry. Subjects included ‘Next Gen Telecom’, ‘Wireless Delivery: Broadband for all’, ‘Services on Demand: Business and Infotainment’, ‘Towards Mobile Information Society’, ‘Security Challenges for the Enterprise ’, and “Enabling SMB’s and SME’s for tomorrow’s growth”. A round-table on ‘Broadband Revolution and Rural Connectivity’ was cancelled for technical reasons.

The meet saw participation from Korea, Taiwan, China, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, Hungary, Portugal, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Russia, Latvia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, the United States, and India .

Exhibitions India also publishes the monthly ‘Convergence Plus‘ journal to publicise the advantages of convergence of information communication, telecom and broadcasting.

MUMBAI: The push for change is coming from all angles as the cable TV sector in India is caught in the wave of digitalisation. Rajan Raheja-promoted Hathway Cable & Datacom is in the process of roping in a new investor while Star Group continues to be an equity partner.

Mauritius-based venture capital fund Monet Ltd is coming in as the third partner with a 10.83 per cent stake in Hathway Cable & Datacom. Star Group had earlier acquired a 26 per stake in the cable company.

The foreign investment promotion board (FIPB) has given its approval to the proposal of “an increase in foreign equity by 10.83 per cent by Monet Ltd.”

Hathway‘s relationship with Star, according to some industry watchers, had been strained for a long time. But in the last board meeting significant progress had been made on working out a growth chart for the cable company.

With conditional access system (Cas) kicking off in the three metros of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, multi system operators (MSOs) have been under pressure to line up investments. Hathway Cable & Datacom MD & CEO K Jayaraman had earlier told Indiantelevision.com that it would be raising a debt of Rs 1 billion to fund its digital expansion plans in the initial phase.

Hathway Cable & Datacom‘s focus has been on having an integrated revenue model from digital and analogue operations, broadband and cable channels.

MUMBAI: Private equity funds are eyeing investment opportunities into cable networks in India. Citigroup Venture Capital International-owned You Telecom India Pvt Ltd wants to acquire up to 49 per cent stake in a cable TV company.

“We are looking at acquisition opportunities and are in talks with some cable networks but nothing has been finalised yet,” says You Telecom CEO EVS Chakravarthy.

You Telecom has recently got approval from the foreign investment promotion board (FIPB) to “make downstream investment up to 49 per cent in an Indian company engaged in the cable network business.”

Citigroup had acquired 85 per cent stake in the Mumbai-based broadband company from British Gas in 2006. Bennett & Coleman Company Ltd (BCCL), the holding company of the Times of India, picked up a five per cent stake in You Telecom last month.

You Telecom is exploring opportunities to launch a Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS) platform and recently made a presentation to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on alternate ways of digitisation. “We see opportunity in the digital cable segment because of conditional access system (Cas). HITS could be an option for us,” says Chakravarthy.

You Telecom (earlier Iqara Broadband under British Gas) has pumped in Rs 4 billion towards the broadband business and has 145000 subscribers spread over 11 cities across the country. The company has a turnover of Rs 800 million.

You Telecom (which holds the ISP licence) will be merged into You Broadband Networks India Pvt Ltd (holds IP licence) as part of the restructuring. You Broadband Networks would, thus, become an operating-cum-holding company. “We expect to complete the conversion process in the next 2-4 weeks,” says Chakravarthy.

Citigroup Venture Capital International launched a $1.6 billion fund in 2005 to make private equity investments, primarily in companies seeking to profit from the growth in India, Greater China (particularly in the People‘s Republic of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) and emerging Europe.

Among the cable companies, Zee Group‘s Wire & Wireless India Ltd (WWIL) is listed and has expressed intent to rope in a minority investor.

Rajan Raheja-promoted Asianet Satellite Communications, Kerala‘s largest multi-system operator (MSO), is in talks with US private equity giant Providence for diluting a minority stake but sources say no conclusive agreement has been reached. Raheja also owns Hathway Cable & Datacom where Star Group bought a 26 per cent stake.