Demand for 3G Data / 2G – 900MHz Renewal Spectrum in 2015 Auction

by

900Mhz-spectrum-auction2015 Mega Telecom Spectrum Auction reserve price is on expected lines except for 900 MHz, where it is materially higher than TRAI’s recommendations (modestly higher than Telecom Commission’s recommendation). We expect good demand for 900 MHz spectrum as it is primarily renewal spectrum, which existing owners will try to retain in the backdrop of DoT mandating bidding in blocks of 5 MHz instead of TRAI’s recommended 3.6MHz and Operators having opposed the same in pre bid conference. The 900Mhz Spectrum can be very efficiently used for 3G Mobile Data Services as well as 2G Voice services.

The government has decided to

Read more

What Does Zomato’s Acquisition of UrbanSpoon Mean to InfoEdge ?

by

Zomato UrbanSpoonZomato has finalized to acquire Urbanspoon, a local restaurant guide that provides reviews from experts in the US. Urbanspoon provides information on restaurants throughout the United States, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, and is an operating business of IAC. IAC is a leading media and Internet company that owns more than 20 operating businesses comprising over 150 brands and products. The acquisition size is estimated at ~US$60m and funding will be done through its recent fund raising.

Zomato has 331,000 restaurants listed in 19 countries and has a team of over 750 people. As per Zomato, Urbanspoon has been a dominant player in the US, Canada and Australia for years, and has rich local restaurant content. This acquisition provides an entry point into some key markets like US and Australia and establishes a presence to

Read more

Tencent Launches China’s First Online Only Bank – WeBank

by

Tencent WeBank Total online BankAt a time when Corrupt Congress led Government in India was planning a step backwards to launch Banks on the basis of Sex, Caste Creed and Color, our neighbor China swiftly moved to regulate Online Only banks. Tencent, for instance, launched China’s first online private bank (WeBank) in a ceremony in Shenzhen on 4 Jan 2015. WeBank, which is fully internet-based with no physical branches in China, offers small loans of less than RMB1m to small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Chinese premier Li Keqiang enabled WeBank’s first loan during the ceremony, extending RMB35,000 of credit to a truck driver. Full operations are expected to begin in April.

Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial also received one of five similar online private banking licenses issued in

Read more

Net Neutrality and Where do We Stand in the Debate ?

by

In the Global Telecom industry the most debated topic is Net Neutrality. Wikipedia defines net neutrality as the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication.

Telcos argument is wireless players should be allowed to (1) control the quality of service (QoS) of different data services (to ensure optimal experience for all users on the network) and/or (2) charge differentially for various data services to capture their fair share of the value being created by mobile data explosion. Quite understandably, the OTT players are on the other side of the

Read more

Why 64 Bit Processor is HOT in Mobile Computing ?

by

64 Bit ARM ProcessorIn computer architecture, the term 64-bit refers to the number of bits that can be processed or transmitted in parallel. In the context of a chip, it refers to the width of the registers. A 64-bit register can store 264 different values or can directly access 264 bytes of addressable memory as compared to 232 in a 32-bit architecture. As such, the most obvious benefit of a 64 bit architecture is its ability to address more system memory (up to 192GB vs. <4GB in a 32-bit architecture) and hence increase system performance when more memory is present.

SmartPhone innovator Apple moved to 64 bit mobile computing as early as the iPhone 5s Days. Apple’s A7 chip is rooted in ARM’s

Read more

How SingTel Plans to monetize Group Digital Life Startups / Companies ?

by

SingTel Group Digital Life MonetizationAsian Telecom Conglomerate, SingTel with investments in Service Providers to Apps Developers has established the Group Digital Life initiative. GDL is running at EBITDA losses in excess of SGD100mn pa. There are no explicit break-even targets, and it will largely depend on what else it buys, in our view. More acquisitions could mean more losses in the initial years. We’d like to see various options SingTel may weigh to monetize these investments.

The initial focus for most investments (apps) is to scale users. However, a successful investment should see revenue monetisation by around five years, beyond which its value proposition may have to be re-evaluated altogether – e.g. if something isn’t generating revenue within five years, then one has to question its value proposition altogether.

Arguably, the app is originally

Read more

Will Reliance Jio 4G Launch Dent 3G Subscriber Additions ?

by

Reliance Jio 4G to Impact 3G in India3G adoption in India has been much slower than initially expected. We think dismal 3G penetration was due to a combination of reasons – (a) 3G speed not really being perceptibly better than 2G due to operators’ reluctance to invest in the network and smaller spectrum holdings/size, (b) unavailability of affordable devices (which was the case at the time of launch, but not anymore though), (c) lack of subscriber data usage behavior. However, 3G adoption has picked up over the last few quarters as 3G handsets are much more affordable and the handset replacement cycle has shortened, while a larger proportion of subscribers are willing to use data services.

2G & 3G Shift to 4G Mobile Data ?
It is conceivable that a generation of data-hungry subscribers in India may leapfrog from 2G to 4G bypassing 3G (or at best remaining using 3G for

Read more

Rise & Demand of Connected Intelligent Cars with Advanced Driving Assistance System

by

We believe we are at the inflection of the take-off of technology-assisted driving. The current penetration of Advanced Driving Assistance System (ADAS) is only 3%. With the recent boom of ADAS and semi-automated auto model introductions, consumer awareness has been heightened.

What is ADAS?
ADAS broadly refers to a set of features which make use of internal software connected to sensors and cameras to alert drivers to potential hazards, or even temporarily take control of the car to avoid dangerous situations. Accomplished through radars, cameras, or laser sensors, these features include adaptive cruise control, parking assist, forward collision warning, predictive emergency braking systems, lane-keeping support, pedestrian and signage recognition, and traffic-jam assist.

ADAS will pave the way for semi-automated driving

Read more

Peek into Oracle’s Fusion & SaaS Business Performance

by

After outlining the Project Fusion in early 2005, Oracle Corp undertook what became a six-year effort to modernize its core business applications. It is clear that Oracle has made Fusion a focus for the company and continued investment in this area with a steady cadence of updates since its initial release.

With the new release of Fusion, applications share common middleware (easier to integrate) and embed analytics (something that was arguably ahead of its time) and customers have the option of running their applications either on premise or in the cloud via software as a service (SaaS). The initial success of Fusion is much debated and the product still has not driven a re-acceleration in Oracle’s applications

Read more

Can Google Retain as Default Search Engine on Apple Safari ?

by

Safari search WarIn 2011 Google renewed its deal with Apple to be the default search engine for its mobile Safari browser and this agreement is set to expire sometime in 2015. Apple has recently switched its mobile search provider for Siri and Spotlight from Google to Bing. So Google could either lose the Safari business or that the terms could become less favorable to Google at renewal as Bing is likely to give Google a run for its money. With consistent shift from Browser based navigation to Apps, we estimate that Safari toolbar searches revenue in 2015 is likely to be $4 Bn in the United States and another $ 2 Bn outside the US [based on

Read more