ITV

Tag: Bharti

  • Bharti likely to enter DTH arena

    Bharti likely to enter DTH arena

    MUMBAI: The direct-to-home (DTH) space is set to get more crowded in India with the telecom majors planning to join the fray in addition to their IPTV gameplan.

    Bharti Group is the latest player to have shown interest to enter an arena which will be occupied by Kalanithi Maran’s Sun Direct and Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group next year along with the existing DTH operators Dish TV, Tata Sky and Doordarshan’s DD Direct Plus.

    “We are looking at DTH and are rolling out IPTV,” Bharti Enterprises Ltd chairman Sunil Mittal tells Indiantelevision.com.

    Bharti, it is reliably learnt, had preliminary discussions with Indian Space Research Orgainsation (ISRO) officials. With several players interested to kick off DTH operations, Isro is finding it a challenge to meet the growing demand for Ku-band transponders.

    Sun, for instance, has had to wait after the unfortunate failure of the GSLV-F02 launch rocket carrying the Insat-4C communication satellite in July this year. Maran had booked seven high-power Ku-band transponders in this satellite, out of which six would have been used for DTH and one for digital satellite news gathering.

    Bharati, however, has not yet applied for a DTH licence. “We are still evaluating. We haven’t yet applied for a licence,” says Mittal.

    Though telecom companies in India have chalked out ambitious triple play plans, they have not yet managed to sort out the technical issues. Last mile access to customer homes has also remained a big hurdle and private telcos, who have built a strong mobile phone business, have even looked at striking alliances with local cable operators. On the content front, there is no regulatory clarity yet for IPTV rights.

    Bharati, for instance, had conducted test trials with UTStarcom as the digital service provider for IPTV, but later made it open for other vendors as well. A leading mobile service provider, Bharti’s (like the other private telcos) progress on fixed telephone connections has been slow. With an eye to increase this base and raise ARPUs (average revenue per user) by delivering video content into consumer homes, the company has taken several steps for IPTV rollout including setting up a digital headend in Gurgaon on the outskirts of Delhi.

    “With IPTV still to kick off, some telcos feel DTH offers good opportunity and synergy,” says a trade analyst.

    Reliance, thus, is launching DTH under the Bluemagic brand and has roped in former Dish TV CEO Sunil Khanna to head the operations.

    The formula now being worked upon by the telcos is obviously to have a DTH footprint as well as IPTV which would give them access to homes for delivering video content.

  • GSM Association announces shortlist for first Asia Mobile Innovation Awards

    GSM Association announces shortlist for first Asia Mobile Innovation Awards

    MUMBAI: The GSM Association (GSMA) has announced the six finalists for the first Asia Mobile Innovation Awards, a competition for young, small and start up companies across Asia that are developing technologies, applications and compelling content for the fast moving mobile space.

    The six short-listed companies have been selected from more than 70 entries by a panel of judges comprising innovation leaders from mobile operators, vendors and venture capital firms.

    The competition will culminate at the 3GSM World Congress Asia in Singapore on 16 October 2006, when a representative from each of the companies nominated will present an ‘elevator pitch’ style presentation to the judging panel for final selection of the winners. There are two Awards categories – Most Innovative Mobile Application or Content; and Most Innovative Technology Development.

    The Innovation forum session will also include presentations and panel discussions on the mobile innovation theme by Smart Communications, Bharti, Ericsson and SpinVox – this year’s winner of the GSMA’s global innovation award.

    Each category has three nominations:

    Category 1 – Innovative Mobile Application or Content

    · GSTL (India) for Geneva NDIS

    Geneva NDIS is a disaster information dissemination system that rapidly processes data from emergency information sources and sends it to mobile users as a text message alert or a voice call.

    · N2N Consulting for M-Bit Network

    M-Bit Network services supports mobile media applications such as mobile music and video, and TV tie-in competitions, making billing easier for operators and enabling end-users to share files, uncover additional content, or create their own for sharing with others.

    · Microimage Ltd for localised messaging and content browsing

    Microimage claims to have developed the world’s first patented local language messaging and content application, to provide customised local language support for entry-level mobile devices in emerging markets.

    Category 2 – Innovative Technology Development

    · Open-Plug for ELIPS

    Open-Plug for ELIPS claims to be the first open software framework designed for mobile phones, which enables ELIPS-based handsets to be tailored and configured far more quickly according to the requirements of operators.

    · Radius ED for Global 1 Number

    The Global 1 Number (G1) solution is a simple universal short code that lets mobile users access information from anywhere in the world, via a single secure hub that also handles call-routing, billing and data rights management.

    · Dialog-UOM Lab & Microimage for Disaster Early Warning Network (DEWN)

    DEWN uses a centralised mobile messaging platform and also device-based technology to disseminate early-warning emergency messages, audio and visual alarms, to warn communities of impending disasters.

    The six finalists will also be exhibiting at the 3GSM World Congress Asia, as part of a special feature ‘Innovation Zone’. The two winners will receive an automatic place on the shortlist for the innovation category of the GSMA’s Global Mobile Awards at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona next February.

  • Reliance Communications’ Falcon Cable System becomes operational

    MUMBAI: Reliance Communications owned Falcon Undersea Cable System has started its operational from today unleashing international bandwidth between India, Middle East and Europe.

    The Flag Telecom Global Network would be the world’s largest undersea cable system covering 65,000 route kms, with the launch of Falcon. The current bandwidth on India-Europe route is controlled by VSNL and Bharti.

    “Falcon will have an equally powerful impact on the economic front, driving higher levels of trade, commerce and global integration,” Reliance ADA chairman Anil Ambani said.

    The vision at Reliance ADA group is to ‘give millions of ordinary people across the world the means to realize their dreams, the power to shape their destiny, the chance to fulfill their true and diverse potential,” Ambani added.

    The Flag Global Network bridges the distance between 35 diverse developed and developing economies, connecting the global economic hubs in USA, UK, Germany, France, Middle East, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Japan to name a few.

    The Company’s Flag is the first global network of this scale to provide integrated connectivity on one seamless network to the three highest growing regions; India, Middle East and China; in terms of international bandwidth demand.

  • IPTV to face tough climate: research firms

    IPTV to face tough climate: research firms

    MUMBAI: This is a piece of news that should put a word of caution on telecom firms like Reliance Infocomm and Bharti who are keen on IPTV. While the telcos are keen on leveraging the new media platform to augment revenues, two research reports indicate that they face severe challenges ahead.

    One report from research firm Gartner says IPTV services will struggle for years against the established pay-TV and free-to-air (FTA) platforms. Subscribers for television services over the internet, which hit 1.7 million last year, is expected to grow at a 58.8 percent aggregate rate until 2010, when the service is expected to attract 16.7 million subscribers.

    But despite this robust growth prediction, Gartner says IPTV will struggle over the next five years to become a mainstream revenue opportunity for carriers.

    The other report from Multimedia Research Group (MRG) states that uncertainties in large carriers in the US and Asia holds the forecasts for these regions down. Europe should be the strongest IPTV market through 2009, with Asia catching up by the end of the forecast period. IP TV set-top boxes will dominate the capital spending for IPTV services and account for two-thirds of spending.

    Europe is surging ahead with a large number of strong IPTV deployments that include France Telecom, Free, Neuf in France, Telefonica in Spain, FastWeb in Italy, and a number of strong competitive offerings in Scandinavia.

    Gartner meanwhile notes that while the short- to medium-term profits from IPTV will be modest at best, carriers cannot afford to delay the deployment of the IPTV platform. Those who delay too long will risk undermining their ability to be long-term key players in the consumer ‘infotainment’ communications business.

    There will be 3.3 million subscribers to IPTV services in Western Europe by the end of this year and 16.7 million within four years, according to the report.

    The UK currently has one of the smallest numbers of IPTV subscribers in Western Europe with only 75,000 subscribers predicted in 2006.

    Although this is set to increase fairly rapidly to reach 1.9 million by 2010 with the introduction of services such as BT Vision Gartner predicts that the UK will remain a weaker prospect for IPTV. This is mainly due to the existing pay TV landscape and dominance of Sky TV.

    In contrast Gartner predicts that by the end of 2006, almost half of Western Europe’s IPTV subscribers will be based in France – a total of 1.7 million generating revenues of €141m.