Category: Software

MUMBAI: In a bid to get a global presence, Gemini Communication Ltd, a provider in networking, systems integration and RFID solutions, is buying out the US-based PointRed Technologies for an undisclosed amount.

The acquisition of the wireless product company will help the Chennai company foray into a new segment. “We were implementing solutions on other product providers. Now we can provide solutions and offer an innovative product range. The buy out will help make us the largest broadband wireless access company in South Asia,” says Gemini Communication chairman Vijay Kumar.

PointRed Technologies has a presence in 12 countries with a turnover of $1.5 million. The company has been funded by Acer Technology Venture America to the tune of US $9.7 million.

“We will be getting into the DSL (digital subscriber line) segment. It will also help us in expanding rural connectivity. We will be aggressively targeting ISPs (internet service providers), telecom operators and corporates with multiple points,” says Kumar.

Gemini Communication is acquiring the entire share capital of Clear Blue Llc, the holding company of PointRed Technologies. The company owns IP‘s and IPR‘s products in the wireless broadband space.

PointRed has been commercially deploying its wireless broadband access solutions worldwide since June 2002. The company offers a pay-as-you-grow infrastructure and a NLOS solution that route around line-of-sight obstacles.

The acquisition of PointRed is expected to increase Gemini‘s turnover from Rs 1.26 billion to Rs 2 billion this fiscal. “Over the years, Gemini Communication has been selling products of other companies. Through this acquisition, we will now be promoting our own brand and this will enable us to access the international markets in a shorter span of time in the wireless technology space”, says Kumar.

NEW DELHI: The broadcast regulator is at it again — issuing another set of consultation paper on cable TV prices for CAS areas.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) today floated a paper on amendments to the tariff order for CAS areas asking stakeholders whether the regulator should fix the maximum retail prices (MRPs) of TV channels, amongst other things.

The last date for the industry to give feedback is 5 July 2006, the day when the government is supposed to revert to the Delhi High Court on the status of CAS rollout in Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai.

Pointing out that the latest initiative is at he behest of the industry, Trai said, “Several stakeholders (had) suggested fixation of ceilings for individual channels. Since this is at variance with the earlier decision of Trai, it was considered appropriate to undertake a fresh consultation on the specific issues of regulation of tariff in CAS areas.”

A Trai, official, however, denied that these consultation papers would any way affect a court case on CAS or that it would give the government some breathing space when it updates the judiciary on CAS’ rollout plans.

“The issue of consultation papers and government’s stand on CAS are different matters,” the official stressed, refusing to expand any further.

On 10 March 2006, the Delhi High Court had directed that CAS be implemented in three cities within a month’s time after being petitioned by a group of MSOs.

Subsequently, the I&B ministry had held a series of meetings with industry stakeholders and consumer groups and had submitted to the court that for an effective rollout of CAS an additional 265 days were needed.

The court, after making clear its disapproval of such suggestions and penalizing the ministry Rs. 100,000 (RS 1 lakh) for delay, asked the government to come back with a final implementation plan by 5 July.

The regulator’s fresh consultation paper covers the following issues:

i) Should Trai fix the maximum retail price for each individual channel?

ii) If so, what should be the methodology and principles to be adopted for the same?

iii) Should Trai promote individual choice of channels by fixation of the maximum price as a percentage of the average price of a channel in a bouquet and, if so, what should be this percentage?

(iv) If the individual MRPs are fixed by Trai, along with a formula as indicated, should TRAI also regulate the maximum permissible discount for the bouquet of channels? If so what should be the discount and what are the principles on which this should be calculated?

(v) The choice of the precise option out of the several alternatives to regulate prices in a CAS environment.

Also Read:
Trai drafts standardised interconnect regulations

Trai proposes to amend Cable TV Act

Trai brings PVRs, MDU tech under scanner

Trai asks DTH operators to file inter-connect agreements with broadcasters

MUMBAI: As telcos are gearing up to deploy competitive pay television offerings, a new report from market research division of Light Reading, Heavy Reading indicates that cable companies in US are revamping their video programming offerings.

The cable ops are primarily doing it to fend off growing competition from IPTV services being launched by incumbent phone companies, adding more interactive services to their existing MPEG/QAM broadcast networks.

The report suggests that the cable Next-Gen Video Plans and the Future of IP delves deeply into the next-generation video plans of North American multiple system operators (MSOs) as they prepare for the coming assault from telco IPTV and continue to defend against the competitive threat of direct-broadcast satellite providers.

The report further analyzes the evolution of cable video from both a technology perspective and a business perspective, focusing not just on how MSOs are changing their networks, but also on how they are changing their business models with respect to video on demand (VOD) and the growing trend toward non- linear programming in general.

“MSOs have no near-term plans to swap out their existing infrastructure to adopt end-to-end IP, nor is this type of move immediately necessary,” notes Heavy Reading and author of the report senior analyst Sterling Perrin. “In the near term, the MSOs plan to mimic the interesting features of IPTV using their existing MPEG/QAM networks.”

Perrin adds, however, that switched digital video (SDV) could be a precursor to an MSO move to an end-to-end IP network — once SDV proves to be able to deliver quality equal to that offered now by conventional cable networks. “Cable end-to-end IPTV would require the final — large — step of replacing currently installed cable set-top boxes with IP STBs,” he says. “The rest of the network is moving to IP already.”

Cable Next-Gen Video Plans and the Future of IP delivers a complete analysis of the Next Generation Network Architecture (NGNA) initiative from CableLabs, the cable industry‘s research consortium, including how and when NGNA is likely to be deployed by leading MSOs. The report provides details covering product and market strategies of more than a dozen technology suppliers, including Ciena, Cisco Systems (and its Scientific-Atlanta subsidiary), Fujitsu, Motorola, and Nortel Networks.

The methodology adopted has been exclusive one-on-one interviews with key executives from leading North American cable MSOs provide rich insight into this emerging market sector. Cable MSOs interviewed for the report include Comcast, Cox Communications, Rogers Cable, and Time Warner Cable.

Other key findings of the report include:

MSOs will leverage IP technology (and vendors) to expand their reach beyond the TV and set-top box as they branch into new areas, including delivery of content to mobile devices and to PCs. IP is well entrenched in MSO aggregation and core networks, but non-TV video service will likely be the first beachhead of IP in the access network — where preserving traffic in an IP form and building on the enormous industry support for IP (meaning lower costs) makes sense.

MSOs are facing a spectrum crunch as they look to next-generation services to compete with both satellite and the telcos, but the situation is not dire. Cable executives interviewed for this report insist they have plenty of unused capacity in their networks. The efforts and innovation of the next three to five years will center on how best to tap that unused capacity.

Deployment of SDV, when it does happen, will not necessarily boost sales of optical transport equipment. SDV is really about doing more with the same – – i.e., boosting the number of video channels available to subscribers without adding any new capacity to the network. The migration will likely be similar to that for VOD, which by its switched nature has allowed MSOs to ratchet up programming choices without having to dedicate much additional bandwidth (if any) to it.

Cable Next-Gen Video Plans and the Future of IP costs $3,795 and is published in PDF format. The price includes an enterprise license covering all of the employees at the purchaser‘s company.

MUMBAI: In order to create excitement around its upcoming movie, Superman Returns, Warner Bros. and US internet service provider AOL have launched a special Superman Channel on the entertainment site In2TV www.aol.com/in2tv to celebrate the Man of Steel.

In2TV claims to be the largest offering of popular television series available online for free and the destination for watching full TV episodes. The Superman Channel is available now through the end of next month.

In2TV‘s Superman Channel will also feature the new A&E documentary Look, Up In the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman directed by Bryan Singer, in its online and on-demand debut. The documentary, narrated by Superman Returns star Kevin Spacey, features behind-the-scenes clips of Superman Returns, Superman fans Jerry Seinfeld, Gene Simmons and Mark Hamill, comic book legend Stan Lee and more.

The Superman Channel will also have the TV series The Adventures of Superman. The series starred George Reeves is back. Fans can reconnect with the original live action version of America‘s favourite superhero in his never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American way.

Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman — The sci-fi television series had romantically united the duo while exploring the odd love relationship that develops between a modern career woman who falls head-over-heals for Superman while not realizing that he is also her best friend, Clark Kent. It stars Teri Hatcher who is now back in the limelight thanks to Desperate Housewives and Dean Cain. Fans can see how the couple works out their differences.

The channel will also have Superboy which premiered on American television in 1988. In this, fans join Clark during his college-years at Shuster University. The mild-mannered journalism student battles his arch-nemesis, Lex Luther, while trying to sweep Lana Lang off her feet. The Superboy series introduces “Superman” arch-villains Metallo and Bizzaro.

MUMBAI: US-based Corpus Inc. has acquired Recreate Solutions, a media and entertainment software outsourcing company floated by former Zee Telefilms employee Bhaskar Majumdar, for Rs 600 million.

“It is a cash-and-stock deal. The acquisition price is around Rs 600 million,” says a source.

The shareholders of Recreate Solutions will hold seven to eight per cent in Corpus, the source says. Insight Capital Partners, which had made two rounds of funding totalling $6 million, holds 75 per cent in Recreate Solutions while founder- promoter Majumdar has the balance 25 per cent.

With the acquisition, Corpus will enjoy a footprint in Europe and India where Recreate Solutions has a wide range of clients. A provider of technology services to the telecom, banking and financial sector, Corpus will now be able to also offer to its big clients like Verizon solutions for IPTV and interactive TV.

“The acquisition will help Corpus enter a new vertical. The company so far was doing backend work for telecom and financial companies. The acquisition will help them to offer front end skills like gaming, IPTV and ITV. The geographical areas are also complementary as they were strong in the US while we had a presence in Europe and India,” says Recreate Solutions CEO Majumdar.

Corpus, which has several Fortune 100 clients and is eyeing a revenue of $100 million, will make the current facilities of Recreate Solutions as its main outsourcing hub, though it has a small base in Bangalore. With the acquisition of the Recreate Solutions’ team of 100, Corpus has now grown its worldwide team to 580.

The acquisition will also help tap telecom operators in India who have IPTV and other convergence plans. Recreate Solutions was in talks with some of the operators but couldn‘t make a breakthrough. “The interactive media industry is maturing across platforms. It is consolidating around companies that have viable cost structures and revenue streams that generate healthy margins.

Outsourcing of non-core technology functions is a proven method to increase profitability. Recreate Solutions is focused on providing high quality outsourced solutions that add value to clients in our service segment: Digital Interactive Content. Under the Corpus banner we will now we able to take our solutions to Corpus’s Fortune 100 client base,” says Majumdar.

Recreate Solutions has clients like Bell ExpressVu, Canada, Exit Games, YooMedia and CNBC in India. The company is also doing product development work for Espial, a company which specialises in browser solutions on the set top boxes.

NEW DELHI: GSM Association (GSMA), a global trade association for mobile operators, has approved a “3G for all” program to bring 3G multimedia services and mobile internet access to many more people in both the developed and the developing worlds.

Over the next few months, a group of operator members of the GSMA plan to establish a core set of common requirements for 3G handsets to create the economies of scale that will allow mobile phone suppliers to rapidly bring down the cost of manufacturing these high-tech devices.

This was disclosed today here at a press conference, which was attended by officials of GSMA and its Indian chapter.

“Our 3G handset initiative will allow far more people to take advantage of the video clips, mobile music, Internet access, and many other multimedia services now enjoyed by more affluent users in the developed world,” according to GSMA CEO Rob Conway.

“Our Emerging Market Handset program is a compelling demonstration of how economies of scale can be brought to bear to accelerate falls in the cost of manufacturing mobile phones,” he added.

Under the initiative, which builds on the success of the GSMA‘s Emerging Market Handset program, mobile phone suppliers will compete to design a 3G handset that meets the operators‘ common requirements.

The GSMA will endorse the winning handset, which will be widely deployed by operators participating in the program.

The GSMA‘s Emerging Market Handset (EMH) program, which has hit its goal to reduce the wholesale price of entry-level handsets to less than $30, has catalysed the creation of a new segment of ultra-low cost phones. The availability of such low cost handsets has enabled many millions of people in over 56 countries to begin using telecommunications for the first time.

Motorola, the winning vendor in the EMH program, is driving forward with its vision to connect the unconnected through this program and expects to ship more than 20 million EMH handsets by the end of 2006.

The EMH program has helped bring the wholesale cost of GSM handsets in India down by more than 25 per cent since last year, fuelling the growing use of mobile communications in rural areas.

Despite the fall in handset prices, the GSMA estimates that about a billion people worldwide won‘t be able to afford their own handset for the foreseeable future. Through its Development Fund, the GSMA is looking at how to extend the many benefits of mobile communications to these people.

The Development Fund is financing a series of pilot projects in Africa and Asia that enable local entrepreneurs to set up payphone businesses or ‘Internet cafes‘ where people can access the Internet, email or other data services.

In India, for example, the Development Fund has helped mobile operator Airtel launch a pilot project in the UP West region that equips local entrepreneurs with handsets specially-adapted to function as payphones.

Other Indian mobile operators, such as Idea Cellular, are setting up similar pilot projects with the aid of the Development Fund. The GSMA is also examining how mobile networks can be used to give rural communities in India access to email and the Internet.

MARAN WANTS 3G SPECTRUM TO BE PRICED

Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran today favoured pricing of 3G mobile spectrum, the Press trust of India has reported.

Maran who was speaking to reporters after the GSM Association‘s meet, was quoted by PTI as saying, “Government has to make some money out of it (3G spectrum)… (and) make it very competitive and does not want people to sit over spectrum.”

The minister, however, did not touch upon how 3G should be priced, leaving the matter to the sector regulator Trai. “Government will take a decision after TRAI comes out with its recommendations,” Maran said.

GSM HITS TWO BILLION MILESTONE

This weekend, the mobile phone industry will celebrate a historic milestone as it connects the second billionth GSM mobile phone user in the world, the GSMA announced.

The GSMA said that new users are signing up at the rate of 1,000 per minute (just under 18 per second) to services that include both second generation GSM, as well as third generation 3GSM services – for which there are already more than 72 million users in the world.

“This is the fastest growth of technology ever witnessed,” said GSMA chairman Craig Ehrlich.

“While it took just 12 years for the industry to reach the first billion connections. The second billion has been achieved in just two and a half years boosted by the phenomenal take up of mobile in emerging markets such as China, India, Africa and Latin America, which accounted for 82 per cent of the second billion subscribers.”

Mobile services based on GSM technology were first launched in Finland in 1991. Today, more than 690 mobile networks provide GSM services across 213 countries and GSM represents 82.4 per cent of all global mobile connections.

“We are proud to be a part of this mobile revolution. India has played a vital role in this growth being one of the fastest growing mobile market in the world,” said Bharti Airtel CMD and a board member GSMA Sunil Bharti Mittal.

China is the largest single GSM market in the world today, with more than 370 million users, followed by Russia with 145 million, India with around 80 million and the USA with 78 million users. In India, mobile has even become the fastest selling consumer product – pushing bicycles to the number two spot.

GSMA INNOVATION AWARD FOR 3GSM

The GSM Association today also announced a new mobile innovation competition for young, small and start up companies across Asia that are developing technologies, applications and content for the fast moving mobile space.

Unveiled today following the GSMA‘s board meeting in New Delhi, the Asian Mobile Innovation Awards will include two categories — for Most Innovative Mobile Application or Content and the Most Innovative Technology.

“Asia is a hot bed of innovation for the mobile world, there is an astonishing array of talent dedicated to developing new ideas for the market. However, it‘s a complex market with many players and small players with interesting or astonishing ideas have to fight hard to be heard,” said Conway.

The competition, which is now open for entry, will culminate at Asia‘s premiere mobile communications event, the 3GSM World Congress Asia 2006 (Singapore, 16-20 October), attended by leaders from region-wide mobile operators, manufacturers and leading players from across the mobile value chain.

MUMBAI: After paying a whopping $2.6 billion to acquire Skype last year, eBay has announced its first major business plan: to integrate the internet tele-calling service with its customer feedback system.

Starting 19 June, sellers in 14 selected categories will be able to add a free “Skype Me” button to their listings. Potential buyers, who are looking for more information directly, can then communicate with the seller using voice, text chat, or both through the new facility.

How does this work? Sellers will be able to embed simple “Skype Me” icons alongside product listing to allow users to contact them using a new feature, “Ask a seller a question.” The feature is free and designed to allow people to answer quick questions before completing specific purchases. When a potential buyer clicks the “Skype Me” button on the Web page, buyers can instantly be put into contact with the seller via a web-based voice call, a text message, or both.

eBay‘s North American auction business president Bill Cobb said in a statement that, the company was set to begin a trial programme on its U.S. site to evaluate how Skype can be used to connect sellers to buyers seeking product information before they buy. “Skype represents a tremendous opportunity for our sellers to connect even more closely with their buyers,” Cobb said.

Eyebrows were raised when eBay spent such a humungous amount to acquire Skype which had revenues less than $100 million. The recent move provides part of eBay‘s strategy as it targets to double Skype‘s revenues.

MUMBAI: The Boston-headquartered global market research firm Yankee Group has announced the results of its 2006 European Mobile Multimedia Survey, an examination of European mobile multimedia trends providing valuable insight into current consumer behavior.

Some of the major highlights include:

— User demand for mobile TV is modest. Only 11 per cent of respondents said they are very interested in the service. Once confronted with the reality of how much the TV service is likely to cost (i.e., EUR 15 or US $19 per month), 85 per cent of respondents said they are less interested in the service.

— Full-track music downloads continue to dominate the headlines, while in reality user interest remains low. Only 5% of respondents are prepared to pay more than a 20% premium for full-track downloads. However, the typical premium today is 100%. Alternative music-related services are more interesting to the user and more likely to generate revenue in the short term.

— The industry must do more to convince users that browsing and downloading is safe and affordable. Almost 40% of respondents said fears over price dissuade them from downloading more ringtones.

However, mobile operators are overcoming the technical barriers to delivering many of their services. Picture messaging–which in the past was dogged by unreliability and poor ease-of-use–seems to have solved those problems. Respondents‘ main barriers to using picture messaging are the price and they do not see any need to send pictures, states an official release.

“The survey results illustrate that mobile operators have some pretty substantial barriers to overcome to drive growth in value-added services,” says Yankee Group Wireless/Mobile Europe senior analyst Matt Hatton. “Operators are pinning their hopes on advanced applications such as music and TV to drive revenue growth, but they still have a lot of technical, pricing and marketing issues to overcome to drive adoption. They‘ll get there, but maybe not through the services they think.”

This survey enables service providers, device manufacturers, content providers and infrastructure vendors to understand the status of mobile multimedia services in Europe today, and to identify the barriers limiting consumer adoption. It analyses customer opinions about current and forthcoming services such as mobile music (including ringtones, ringback tones and full-track downloads), video/TV, gaming, video telephony, MMS and mobile browsing, adds the release.

NEW DELHI: In a bid to streamline the cable industry, sector regulator today released the proposed standard forms of interconnect agreements for CAS areas between broadcasters and multi system operators and between MSOs and local cable operators (LCOs).

The reason for this being suggestions from the industry stake holders to the government that a standard form of interconnect agreements be formulated.

On 10 March, 2006 the Delhi High Court had directed the government implement CAS in Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai within a month’s time.

Subsequent to this order, a series of meetings were taken by the information and broadcasting ministry.

Taking note of suggestions emanating from the meetings, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has decided to finalise a standard format for interconnection agreements for CAS in consultation with the industry.

Accordingly, a draft of the standard forms has been placed on the website of Trai today. The draft agreements contain a number of sections and provisions.

One of them relate to revenue sharing. The actual revenue share percentages have been left blank in the draft and are proposed to be filled up after getting comments of the stakeholders.

Trai has also asked for feedback on the following:

• Should there be a uniform revenue share percentage between all broadcasters and MSOs and MSOs and LCOs. If yes, what should be the revenue share percentages? What is the methodology, data and principles on which these are based?

• Should the revenue share percentages be different for different broadcasters? If so, should the rates for different broadcasters prevailing in Chennai be adopted in other CAS notified areas?

• Is there any other alternative method of arriving at the revenue share?

A draft regulation has also put on the website for comments containing the provisions for the standard agreements as well as a clause for prohibiting minimum subscriber guarantee. The deadline for sending comments is 27 June.

MUMBAI: Optibase Ltd., a provider of advanced digital video solutions, has announced that it will demonstrate its IPTV and digital video solutions at Broadcast Asia 2006, which will be held in Singapore from 20 – 23 June.

The company will showcase Optibase‘s flexible model design providing customers with future-proof video solutions to meet the evolving requirements of Telcos and service providers.

Visitors to the Optibase booth will see the following demonstrations:

• A turnkey solution for IPTV with Optibase MGW-1100 integrated carrier grade TV streaming platform, Orca Interactive‘s middleware service delivery platform and BitBand video servers streaming MPEG-2 video. Optibase can deliver turnkey all-in-one solutions, in addition to its encoders or transcoders, by providing systems integration and bringing together components from IPTV ecosystem partners.
  


• Live encoding of MPEG-4 AVC High Definition (HD) resolution technology, providing efficient HD bandwidth utilization without compromising video quality and allowing the use of existing MPEG-2 content which requires no additional decoding or processing equipment. MPEG-4 AVC HD is currently the only format that enables Telcos to provide high definition channels to DSL subscribers.
  


• MPEG-2 HD encoding and decoding through Optibase MovieMaker 200 HD, designed for professional quality ingest of HD for broadcasting, video on demand (VOD), ad insertion, program initiation and post-production studios, as well as for integrators working on high-resolution military simulation or surveillance projects.
  


• Also, on display at the Optibase booth, a professional digital video ingest system co-developed with Venaca Inc. leading provider of media asset management solutions. When part of a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system, the integrated solution enables top quality video capture, Edit Decision List (EDL) creation, annotation archive retrieval, editing and asset management at the same time.
  


• “With MPEG-4, operators can reach more people with IPTV services, delivering additional streams to each home. Telcos want to deliver services like HDTV in order to stay competitive with satellite and cable, Optibase‘s MPEG-4 technology and our proven interoperability with leading STBS, will enable Telcos to deploy advanced HDTV that will help them generate revenue and sustain subscribers,” said Optibase vice president marketing Yossi Aloni.

Optibase will also discuss the recent announcement that it was selected by India‘s state-owned major telecom, MTNL, to provide encoding solutions for the first IPTV deployment to go live in India.