Month: April 2015

Reliance Jio 4G LTE Mega Nation Wide Launch Delayed

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Reliance Jio 4G LTE LaunchBased on our Industry & Insider channel checks, we find Reliance Jio Infocomm well placed to meet the rollout obligations by Aug-2015 i.e. they will likely have a soft launch with adequate towers. We believe that the actual launch will be around Dec-15 coinciding with founder Dhirubhai Ambani’s birth anniversary (vs. market expectation of May-15) as the company may take some time to have a good quality network to be operational.

In our independent assesment some of the reasons for the delay in launch vs. our expectations are 1) Time taken to rollout fiber as approvals for right of way (RoW) take time; 2) Rolling out a good quality 2300MHz & 1800Mhz 4G network with offloading via WiFi and Small-cells is taking more time and 3) Jio may look for a good quality voice solution on 4G network like Vo-LTE with the latest acquistion of 800Mhz spectrum rather than a fallback on traditional 2G or 3G network.

If the company is going for

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Reliance Jio Chat App Achieves 100,000 Downloads – Review

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Reliance Jio ChatReliance Jio Infocomm’s Jio Chat App which went live 10 days ago and has achieved 100,000 downloads with an average 4.3 Rating from 10,000 users on the Android Platform. The app is also launched for iPhone users as well. The app highlights Jio’s intention to eventually become a single platform for users (voice, messaging, entertainment & ecommerce), similar to that of Chinese apps.

Jio chat offers the features of WhatsApp – messaging and calls on data. It includes other features including a channels section, where it has tied with various companies for content (entertainment & ecommerce), and conferencing
facility including video. Jio chat app offers File / Media & Contact sharing. It also offers 100 free SMS/mth (sent on data) which would be useful and applicable in case either sender/recipient’s data network at the time of sending the message is unavailable. This is unlike WhatsApp where messages sent through remain in the network in case of data issues and sent / received once

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Mobile Powers Chinese Rural e-Commerce

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Mobile Commerce Rural ChinaAccording to research recently released by bjbusiness, roughly 64% of netizens in rural China shop via mobile phone, far in excess of those who shop by PC (~36%). In many of China’s less developed markets, the smart phone is indeed the key gateway to internet access rather than the PC due to the lower device cost when compared with the PC. E-commerce penetration in rural areas has risen substantially, as key e-commerce players such as Alibaba and JD shift their strategic focus from top-tier cities to rural areas. Mobile usage meanwhile has come to embrace online shopping quite rapidly and seamlessly.

Roughly 74% of rural netizens indicate Taobao and Tmall as their most frequently visited e-commerce sites, while

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High Speed / Fast Charging SmartPhones – New USP

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SmartPhones With Fast Charging BatteriesIn the past two years, big screen phones have been gaining popularity. Due to the bigger size of battery, phablet battery hours usually are longer. According to Apple, iPhone 6+ can last 24 hours’ talk time on 3G vs 14 hours for iPhone 6. This is because iPhone 6+ has a 2,915 mAh capacity battery, 61% larger vs iPhone 6’s 1810 mAh. However, the downside is that charging takes much longer. For example, it can take 3~4 hours to fully charge an iPhone 6+.

Samsung adopted fast charging in Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy S6. We expect many international and Chinese brand smartphones to start adopting similar technologies with models launching in 2H15. High Speed / Fast Charging SmartPhones constitute < 10% of the market today and is expected

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Just Dial Asset Light Local Commerce, Open to Partnership

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Justdial Asset Light CommerceIn an era where JustDial – JD is competing with the PE-backed internet players that are flush with cash and have an appetite for cash burn, JD unveiled its strategy saying that it maintains belief that over the longer term, JD will be able to compete and emerge stronger vs. vertical / horizontal players who are gaining top-line market share by burning cash.

Just Dial has invested heavily in making a mobile app that can provide multiple touch points for the consumer. The single focus for technological evolution at the company is linked to make JD the preferred platform for all

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Facebook’s Advertising & Video Platform – The RoadMap

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Facebook Videos AdvertisingFacebook appears to continue to have strong momentum in its core business, has significant new opportunities in areas like video and payments, is beginning to commercialize other apps.

Facebook made several important announcements related to its Video initiatives, including i) it is upping the maximum video upload file size to 1.5G, which is enough to support video as long as 45 minutes (i.e., its first foray into longer form video content); ii) it is rolling out an embedded video player for third-party apps and sites, which increases the reach of videos off-network, provides new solutions to publishers/apps, and represents a new competitor to YouTube; iii) announced the availability of spherical videos on the News Feed; and iv) suggested that pre- and/or post-roll ads in videos could soon be available.

Facebook highlighted three key data points of its Video Platform: 1) 3bn videos per day, of which a low percentage are

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2015 Spectrum Auction – What is The Status of Industry / Operators Balance Sheet ?

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Indian Telecom Operators Profit LossIn the aftermath of the 2015 Mega Telecom Spectrum auction we analyze the impact of Higher-than-expected payouts for spectrum renewals.

Developments on the spectrum front over the past few years have meant a substantial jump in the cost of buying fresh or renewing extant spectrum for the industry. Even as a significant portion of the renewal payouts in the two renewal auctions that have happened thus far (February 2014 and March 2015) has been borne by the Big 3 Telecom Operators [Airtel, Vodafone & Idea]

Can the current industry size that is reflective of extant spectrum pricing and competitive dynamics support the expanded balance sheet of the industry? The clear answer is in the Negative.

What needs to happen? P&Ls need to respond

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