4G India: Reliance Jio, TranSwitch, Rancore, Airtel, Tikona, Google, Videocon, Nokia

This week’s biggest 4G news is Reliance Jio Infocomm has applied for unified license to offer any type of communications over its 4G/BWA spectrum won in 2010. That means Reliance Jio can offer voice and messaging services as well as data services over its 20MHz of 2300MHz spectrum.

Govt recently has come up with unified license policy to open up new opportunities to telecom sector of the country. The new policy will delink the spectrum from the license to offer different services. Reliance Jio, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries will pay Rs 1,658 crore to the department of telecommunications to get unified license.

There are another two companies applied for unified licenses. One is probably Tikona Digital Networks.

Reliance Retail Grows

Reliance Industries’ retail subsidiary Reliance Retail has become the country’s topmost retail chain. Earlier country’s retail market was dominated by Future Group. I earlier predicted that RIL may use its Retail chains as launchpad as well royalty programs for promoting its 4G products. It seems RIL is going this way.

Rancore Associates with TranSwitch

Rancore Technologies, the technology and development arm of Reliance Jio Infocomm has announced a deal with TranSwitch, a global leader in IC production. TranSwitch provides innovative integrated circuit (IC) and intellectual property (IP) solutions, which help the customer and network infrastructure segment in delivering core functionality for video, voice and data communication equipments.

Rancore will use TranSwitch’s Atlanta 80 communication processor to launch Reliance’s next generation broadband services. The processor will enable Rancore’s new analog terminal adaptor (ATA) to support multiple services and applications simultaneously, including 4G high-speed data and high quality Voice over LTE (VoLTE) (Long-Term Evolution) without undermining performance. Additionally, the processor will offer 100 Mbps wire speed router throughout for Ethernet frames and will support virtual private network (VPN) services as well.

Airtel 4G may be in Delhi by Next Month

Country’s largest mobile operator and first 4G-LTE operator, Bharti Airtel continues expanding its 4G market, as Delhi is probably their next 4G market. If all go right, Delhi, country’s one of the most lucrative data market will get Airtel 4G by September.

Google Digital to Buy Shares in Tikona

There is strong rumor in the market that Google is looking to enter India’s high-potential-but-yet-to-mature data market. As per reports by EconomicsTimes Google Capital is in talks with Tikona Digital to buy a stake. Tikona has 4G licences in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh East and West, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.

The publication also reported that Yahoo and Microsoft are also showing interest to buy shares in Tikona. But officially no one confirmed this development. If Google-Tikona deal materializes, it could change India’s digital landscape considering Google’s Fiber services in United States. However we guess it’s very early stage to forecast anything.

Videocon 4G by March 2015: Promises Ultra Cheap Data

Videocon mobile services is in an advanced stage of discussion with Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN, earlier Nokia Siemens Networks) to roll out 4G services. Videocon has 5 MHz spectrum on 1800MHz band in 7 circles and will use FDD-LTE technology to offer 4th generation high speed internet access over this band. Videocon expects to start roll out of 4G services by the end of this financial year in a phased manner city by city based upon the market potential.

“We are known for providing value for money to customers. Our tariffs for 4G will be among the lowest in the country,” said Arvind Bali, director and CEO, VTL.

Huge 1800MHz Spectrum Sale Coming: FDD-LTE Dominance?

Govt of India is in plans to put up 285 MHz spectrum of 1800 MHz in next auction as Supreme Court asked to sell all spectrum released by February 2012 license cancellation.

However 285 MHz spectrum is available separately across 22 circles. But with unified spectrum and license policy many operators are definitely use this band for rolling out 4G services. Idea and Vodafone, major telecom players without any BWA spectrum may look into it. Globally LTE-FDD over 1800MHz accounts for more than one-third of total LTE roll out; hence ecosystem is better than any combination.

Nokia Readies for 4G in India

Nokia is gearing up for upcoming 4G device market in India. Globally Nokia has launched several 4G smartphones – but those handsets are compatiable with HSPA+/DC-HSPA+ or FDD-LTE technology. But Indian 4G operators are using LTE-TD technology. It seems that Nokia is in talks with Indian 4G operators to bring LTE-TD smartphones.

Recently the company launched two new Windows 8 smartphone – Lumia 925 and Lumia 625. Nokia, the fallen king before Android dominance is offering EMI and buy back options to promote Windows Phone 8 smartphones. Nokia’s Lumia 520 becomes cheapest WP8 smartphone at Rs 8500 approx.

Micromax, Karbonn, Lava/Xolo – 4G Device Market will have Many Choices

Karbonn Mobiles, another Indian handset company has expressed its plans to bring 4G devices to Indian market. Earlier Micromax and Lava (and its premium sub brand Xolo) also cleared the fact they will not leave no stone untouched and will eventually bring 4G/LTE devices as the ecosystem becomes stronger. With attractive pricing in a price-sensitive market domestic handset companies are putting international brands like Samsung, Nokia, LG, Sony in a tough turf.

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India’s Visa Maze Ensnares Foreign Entrepreneurs

Carrying all the right documentation for his five-year business visa, Alex (not his real name) embarked on what he thought would be his Carrying all the right documentation for his five-year business visa, Alex (not his real name) embarked on what he thought would be his fourth and final visit to the Indian immigration authority. He believed his wild goose chase was almost at an end. However, his awkwardly smiling assassin, the elusive office supervisor, had other ideas.

“Sorry, you can’t get your visa now, please come back in some time,” the supervisor said, fatally.

Alex’s plight shows the difficulties entrepreneurs face in trying to access the booming market of India today. This is his story.

The economics graduate moved to India about a year ago to co-found a social business with his peers. The government made them wait the best part of a year before approving their application to be incorporated as a local not-for-profit — a vital credential to navigate the country’s Catch-22 regulatory system. With incorporation certificate in hand, Alex was confident the last piece of his visa puzzle, namely attaining a five-year authorisation to work to improve the quality of life for Indians, was about to fall into place.

How wrong he was.

Stepping into the office was like entering Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, on Groundhog Day, endlessly waiting for a weasley little oracle to emerge from his hovel in order to deliver bad news. Alex was forced to return to the office three times because he “didn’t have the right documentation.”

On the fourth visit, the bureaucrat, ensconced in his glass bubble, again said he didn’t have the right documents and would have to come back again. At the end of his wits, Alex didn’t buy it. After failing to plead his case with the front-line worker, he asked to speak with the manager lurking in the background. The bureaucrat turned meekly, skulked over, and relayed the request to his superior who took one look at the fiery redhead on the wrong side of the counter and scurried away to his glass-walled office, deep in the bubble. The clerk returned and, as if the whole spectacle had not been witnessed, told Alex the manager was unavailable.

“The manager is right there,” he said, pointing to the anonymous office. “I just need to speak with him for two minutes. I’ve already met him before. He knows my case.”

“Sorry sir, he is not available,” the bureaucrat said, reciting a well-used line. “You’ll have to send him an email to organise an appointment.”

Email? Alex was all too familiar with India’s digital black hole, where bits may have even travelled backwards and forwards in time, even to alternate universes, because they never seemed to reach their intended destination.

He whipped out his laptop and emailed the appointment request to the teller who was sitting down before him, but also included a stern warning: “I’m not leaving until I can speak with him.”

The bureaucrat retreated to discuss the latest turn of events.

Alex briefly took a minute to survey his surroundings. The same situation was playing out at three or four adjacent counters.

“This is the fourth time you’ve asked me to come back for a five-year business visa. I have all the right documentation, I have had it all along. Why won’t you accept my application?” railed another aggrieved applicant.

Alex snapped back to attention when the manager emerged from his den. He was face-to-face with his tormentor.

“What’s the problem, sir?” the manager asked.

“You know what my problem is! We’ve already spoken about it, you told me to come back with more information and I did. I’ve come back four times with the correct documentation and you’re still telling me I won’t be approved?!” he said.

“I’m sorry sir but we can’t process this visa application now, please come back in some time,” he said, wearing a weak smile.

“Why not?”

“I’m sorry sir but we can’t do this now, please apply in some time,” he repeated, like a broken record.

No matter how he always received the same answer and result but despite the frustrating experience he plans to come back and try again. He’s chasing that sweet feeling of victory that can only be earned by simultaneously exerting extreme amounts of effort and patience to achieve ordinarily routine tasks.

The Red Tape At The Finish Line

For an entrepreneur, there’s a lot to like about India. The subcontinent’s diversity, population, and economic disparity offers near endless problems to solve, as well as the scale to make a meaningful impact and return. But if you get too far ahead of yourself, the red-tape woven noose dangling around your neck will rein you back in. The rope becomes dangerously short as you enter the government maze, where searching for the right approvals demands long wait times, repeated visits, and constant apprehension as to whether the application will even be received. It’s an exercise in humility.

Saju James, partner at Fragomen Global Immigration Services, said the visa process was straight forward — if you know the procedures. This means that you must give the consulates the right information, right down to using the correct vernacular in the application.

“If you don’t stick to the template, exactly what the consulate is looking for, the chances of getting denials are much higher,” said James, whose firm has processed close to 1,000 work permits, less than two percent of which have been rejected.

This is a legacy of the way that visa offices were run before 2009, James said, when the Indian government didn’t have direct oversight of the approval process. Previously, each visa office and consulate operated as its own fiefdom; and a single supervisor served as judge, jury, and executioner.

“It was very arbitrary and the consulate officers had the power to decide, simply based on the interview,” he said. “They would say, ‘no, I’m not convinced this candidate should go on a work permit, he needs to apply for a business visa,’ and the reverse would happen as well.”

That changed as the government took direct control of the process and released specific guidelines and processes to be followed. Most importantly, it started measuring workers on how many visa applications they actually processed, as opposed to simply documenting the number of hours they worked.

It was a vast improvement.

“The only difference is that they have not published the formats for when you apply for a visa application, so some offices still give a difficult time to applicants.”

James said it was difficult to track the efficiency because the agencies themselves did not record the rejection rates. However, he estimated that the number of unsuccessful applications previously ranged into the double-digit percentages.

This is all little comfort to Alex, who still goes to bed every night in fear of being woken up by that same Sonny and Cher song and seeing his visa application, as complete as it always was, lying unapproved on his cheap desk.

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Nokia Promises Its Amber Update Will Come To All Windows Phone 8 Lumia Devices By The End Of September

Today Nokia promised owners of its Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices that its “Amber”update will reach all phones by the end of September. The Amber upgrade is a mix of feature improvements that will improve Nokia’s handsets, further setting them apart from devices built by other smartphone OEMs.

Amber contains a photo-editing tool, improved image processing, the ability to snag motion in sequence with “Action Shot,” the acceptance of double-tap input to wake the phone, and improved internal storage reporting.

However, the most important new piece delivered by Amber is “Glance Screen,” a tool that makes your phone’s inactive state more interesting. When your handset is inactive, it will display a clock and battery information. So, you can more quickly interact with your phone without having to do anything at all. You can turn off Glance, of course, or have it switch off after a set amount of time.

In past years, we would now discuss how Amber puts Nokia ahead of Samsung, HTC, and other Windows Phone OEMs (remember Dell?). We don’t have to do that anymore, as Nokia control sessentially the entire Windows Phone market. Thus, the changes are not as much changes to Nokia’s Windows Phone handsets as they are adaptations to the Windows Phone platform itself. Given that Nokia sells nearly 90 percent of Windows Phone devices, any changes that it makes become de facto official changes.

This is a problem for Microsoft, as it initially ceded flexibility to make changes to Nokia in partial exchange for it adopting the platform. This saved Microsoft’s mobile life, but in the process cost it control: If Nokia can essentially skin Windows Phone to its own contentment, Microsoft is in a material way not in charge of the Windows Phone user experience and design.

I doubt that sits well in Redmond. Thus, Microsoft either builds a phone itself (there have been rumors), or it bolsters HTC (the only remaining OEM partner with more than a scrape of market share that isn’t Nokia) to get a better grip on its platform.

Whatever the case, if you are a Nokia handset owner, the Amber update will be rolling out depending on your handset and country and likely carrier over the next month. Get ready.

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Microsoft’s Next CEO Will Not Spin Off Xbox, Unless They Abdicate The Company’s Larger Strategic Direction

A story published by Bloomberg floats the idea that Microsoft might spin off its Xbox business, which it calls “more likely [following current CEO Steve Ballmer's] exit.” The publication values Xbox at around $17 billion, a figure based on a comparative revenue multiple with Nintendo.

This is precisely the sort of bilge that cavorts and pretends to be serious analysis. The Bloomberg piece leans on the words of a fund manager, Todd Lowenstein, who claims that Xbox “looks like an attractive standalone business that could hold up on its own.” He continues that it “seems like it would be the most mature candidate with the best growth potential and the most established to stand on its own.”

You could argue that Xbox is currently undervalued inside of Microsoft. However, that potential is not exactly material. Presuming for the moment that the $17 billion figure is reasonable, Xbox as a group would represent 6.1 percent of Microsoft’s current market capitalization, a slim segment.

Presuming a 50 percent lower market valuation while under the aegis of the larger Microsoft corporation (the tax of being part of Microsoft, the value that could be unlocked), Xbox could represent $8.5 billion in lost value to investors. That’s about 3 percent of Microsoft’s worth. So, the potential upside isn’t too great.

The potential downside, however, is hilariously large.

Key Platform Plank vs. Un-Lucrative Short-Term Financial Ploy

Microsoft could spin off Xbox, reap a short-term financial gain from the transaction, and return that money to shareholders via stock buybacks or a special dividend. The former would have a small, but real long-term impact on Microsoft’s earnings per share, perhaps leading to a higher per-share value in the future. The latter would be a waste, as a previous Microsoft special dividenddemonstrated.

So, Microsoft would gain little from the deal as a company, even though institutional investors might enjoy a special dividend boosting their quarterly numbers. That’s nice, but not what Microsoft lives to do. In fact, Microsoft’s job is not to worry about the spreadsheets of external financial entities, but instead to build great products, grow new platforms, make oodles of money, and take care of its employees as it does so.

Therefore, the short-term potential financial gain is not core to what Microsoft needs to worry itself with.

Does the idea of spinning off Xbox make product sense? No it does not. At all. Microsoft is working around the clock to expand the Windows platform to every screen that you view, from the desktop, to your laptop, tablet, phone and, you guessed it, your television.

Windows on my TV, you might think, I don’t want that! Chill fam, it’s fine. What Microsoft is up to is simple: A common set of APIs and foundational code called the Shared Windows Core will underpin all Microsoft platforms. It’s in Windows 8, and Windows Phone 8, and is also present in the forthcoming Xbox One.

As the traditional PC market declines, Microsoft is endeavoring to extend its Windows software to work everywhere. And Xbox is core piece to this gambit, which is a bet that developers matter, and that as a company Microsoft needs to cater to them.

Essentially, Microsoft wants to create a single mega platform, one in which any developer with a shared code base can reach consumers and companies on screens of every size: Tablet, phone, laptop, desktop, and TV. No company offers that, and HTML5 is far from reaching the point in which it can deliver anything similar.

Now, why does Xbox matter for Microsoft? It matters as it has high levels of developer support at the Triple A tier – think ‘Gears of War’ and that sort of game. Xbox has a subscription revenue system that is a key part, and has been a critical antecedent to its new services strategy. And, finally, Xbox allows Microsoft to offer music and video to a family across quite literally all their devices.

If Microsoft were to sell off or spin off or otherwise cut ties with Xbox, which, by the way, makes utterly no sense under the current reorganized structure — it would cede the living room to third parties. The company is not willing to do that. Just as it was not willing to fail in search, or mobile.

–

So the financial upside of the deal isn’t large enough for Microsoft to particularly care, especially given its ample — if mostly foreign — cash reserves. And the exit of Xbox would tear at the fabric of its company-wide plan to unite all screens under the Windows flag.

Sacrifice the end-game of Windows for the potential of a few billion in shareholder equity? No.

Original Article 

Following Mobile Test, Facebook Tries Out A ‘Trending’ Section On Its Desktop News Feed

Back in June, Facebook said it would be rolling out a number of features for following public conversations, and it looks like the company’s holding true to that promise.

Specifically, the company is testing a section highlighting “Trending” topics that appears alongside its desktop newsfeed. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the test, and it included a screenshot (which you can see to the left) that looks pretty much as you’d expect — a box with a list of linked topics.

A Facebook spokesperson sent me the following statement:

We are running a small test of a unit on News Feed that displays topics currently trending on Facebook. Right now it’s only available to a small percentage of US users and it is still in the early stages of development. We will share more details down the line if we decide to roll it out more widely.

Facebook has been moving towards something like this for the past couple of months. It launched searchable hashtags in June, and those are all about making it easy for people to see related conversations around a single topic. At the time, the company said it would be “rolling out a series of features that surface some of the interesting discussions people are having about public events, people, and topics.” Then, earlier this month, it started showing trending topics to some mobile web users.

Trend-based navigation is a pretty natural outgrowth of adding hashtags, so it might seem strange that Facebook is taking a while to go from one to another. However, public-private dynamics can work pretty differently on Facebook than on Twitter (where the hashtag/Trending Topics ideas were popularized), so I imagine Facebook is using tests to make sure this approach makes sense with its more private model.

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Google Confirms It Has Acquired Android Smartwatch Maker WIMM Labs

Google has confirmed it acquired WIMM Labs last year, a company that previously made an Android-powered smartwatch before shuttering operations in 2012. At the time a message on its website said it had entered into an exclusive partnership without releasing further details, but it’s now clear that partner was Google, rather than Apple as some had initially speculated. Google’s WIMM Labs acquisition was reported earlier byGigaom.

Google is rumoured to be developing a smartwatch of its own, with patents turning up earlier this year (filed in 2011), and a report by theFT that claimed Google’s Android team was in the process of developing such a device. Google has also hinted at Android powering a range of wearable devices in the past, when CEO Larry Page let slip during a quarterly earnings call this year that Glass runs on its smartphone and tablet OS, and that Android is “pretty transportable across devices”. Google has also long had bigger ambitions for Android than just pushing it onto phones and tablets, with TV set-top boxes, in-car tech, home automation and wearables all areas where it’s actively encouraging Android to spread.

WIMM Labs started out building Android-based platforms for wearable displays, akin to Google Glass, and then created the WIMM One in 2011: a smartwatch powered by Android 2.1 that was aimed at developers as a sort of concept flagship ahead of a broader consumer launch. The WIMM One used Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g for connectivity, had 256 MB of RAM plus a 667MHz processor, and used a screen design that refreshed once per minute to conserve battery life. It also supported apps via a “Micro App Store” — installed and managed by users via a web-based dashboard. Android developers were offered custom APIs for adapting their software to the WIMM One’s tiny, 16-bit colour screen.

Google is not commenting further on the acquisition at this point, beyond providing confirmation that it picked up WIMM Labs in 2012. If Mountain View is building its own smartwatch it’s unlikely to beat its Android OEM partner Samsung to a launch, as the Korean company’s Galaxy Gear device is probably going to be unboxed next week in Berlin at a September 4 event. Plenty of other Android-powered smartwatches are also entering the frame via crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, and also cropping up on the roadmaps of other Android OEMs. Meanwhile Apple’s rumoured iWatch remains elusive.

If Google isn’t building its own smartwatch hardware, acquiring WIMM Labs could be a way to help it develop a custom version of Android designed for wrist-mounted wearables, which it could then provide to OEMs the same way it currently does with Android proper. Given the amount of interest in smartwatches from OEMs big and small, that could be the better strategy for long-term platform growth.

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