How does India Compare with China & Malaysia in 3G eco-system ?

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3G Comparison in India, China and Malaysia4 Years after the Limited 3G Spectrum was auctioned in the 2100MHz band, we’ll take a peek into how we are doing with our competitors in Asia – China and Malaysia on various factors. We are classifying based on the Big 4 Factors that help determine the success of Mobile Data.

3G Network Status

  • India – 3G coverage and average data speed remains lowest in Asia. Unlikely to expand given low
    capex guidance and balance sheet constraints
  • China – 3G coverage has already reached ~75%. Average data speed is best in the EM space and comparable to DM markets. Massive 4G buildout ongoing
  • Malayasia – 3G networks are already built-out however we see investments remain soft in the LTE space. Thus in our view network pull factor is relatively soft in Malaysia.

SmartPhone Availability

  • India – Smartphone penetration is ~17% of population base. Expect it

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Reliance Jio Infocomm Launch – What will be Similar to 2003 and Different in 2014 ?

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Reliance Jio Infocomm LogoReliance Jio Infocomm launch is expected to be a game changer in the Indian Telecom Industry. We believe Reliance Jio will help increase the affordability of data services, by reducing tariff / equipment costs, and evolve consumer usage patterns, by introducing several unique and new services.

We’d like to compare the similarities and differences between Reliance Infocomm’s [Now RCom] 2003 launch [Launched on 28-12-2002, but took off in mid 2003] and the current one [Reliance Jio]. The key similarities, in our view, are the aggressive offerings with newer technologies, which would likely lead to an expansion in the market. The key differences, in our view, will be the relatively late entry this time, which would lead the company to follow an aggressive subscriber poaching strategy, and R-Jio’s inclination to use / share

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How Bharti Infratel Grows & Makes Money ?

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Bharti Infratel GrowthIndus Telecom Towers and Bharti Infratel together constitute 38% of the total tower portfolio in India.

Telecom Tower Tenancy & Demand
Bharti Infratel suggests that a vast majority of its tower have two tenants. c40% of BIL’s towers have single tenant. Management highlights that the company has one of the best quality tenants. BIL’s top three customers contribute to 85% of its revenues and tenancies. The company also suggests that the top three customers have more loading. Bharti Infratel is not building new towers for Reliance Jio (RJio), which typically comes in only as the second or third tenant on their towers. RJio has started impacting BIL’s financials only in the last two quarters.

Management suggests that further growth

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DoT & TRAI Differ on Minimum Block Size for Feb 2015 Auction

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TRAI had recommended a minimum bid block size of 3.6 MHz for 900 band spectrum versus the 5 MHz bid block size stipulated for the Feb 2014 auctions. The DoT argued that there has been no change in market dynamics since the Feb 2014 auctions and hence there is no need to change the minimum bid block size.

The TRAI, rightly noting the limited availability of spectrum in these auctions and the much-higher possibility of irrational/tactical bids with a 5 MHz bid block size, has reiterated its earlier recommendation of keeping the minimum bid block size at 3.6 MHz (for all circles except West Bengal where the TRAI recommends 2.4 MHz noting availability of only 4.4 MHz spectrum in

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Why Airtel’s 4G Tariff Converge with 3G in some Circles ?

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In circles where Airtel offers 4G services, it now offers 4G-LTE data at the same tariff as 3G (in some higher-end dongle plans 4G is even cheaper than 3G). We believe this is a significant event in the life cycle of 3G in India. While we are yet to see any operator launch 4G on 1800 MHz, if the pricing here is the same as on 4G on 2300 MHz (very likely), we foresee a situation where 3G networks will be competing against newer networks of far superior capability (on speed, coverage and cost).

How Profitable is 3G Data Service as an Incremental Offering in India ?
While world over the experience on data profitability is not clear, Indian telcos have consistently claimed that the data business

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The Rise of Internet of Things & Applications with Big Data

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Internet of Things – IoT will be a multibillion-unit market by 2020, with applications ranging from wearables, gaming, fitness and medicine to industrials and transportation. However, unlike the current era of mobile devices, which has some standardization on the components side, IoT market evolution could be fragmented, with products / chips tailored to areas of usage.

The opening of software platforms over the past decade has enabled developers around the world to develop applications for mobile and other devices. The emergence of IoT

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How to Access Reliance Jio Wi-Fi Broadband for FREE ?

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A Consumer once registered can browse on Jio WiFi from any city pan India. However an important point to note here is that as per the Government mandate, a user can use free WiFi for a maximum of 72 hours. Post that, he needs to do OTP verification once again to continue enjoy browsing at high speeds. During 72 hours, user can access the Jio Wi-Fi across all locations in all cities.

Customers can now connect their existing devices to Jio WiFi and enjoy high speeds of up to 100mbps to its users. With such a blazing speed, the customers can stream or download music, movies etc. in a just a jiffy! On a Trial basis, Reliance Jio Wi-Fi is available for FREE access in Gujarat, Navi Mumbai and Madhya Pradesh.

Jio WiFi can be accessed through any

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What are Digital Services [SMAC] and How is it Different from IT ?

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Digital Services are the key focus for IT services vendors today with increased investments by vendors in building capabilities in this area. The term digital services or SMAC refers to a computing paradigm that is essentially a confluence of four different technology forces, namely a) Social Media, b) Mobility, c) Analytics and d) Cloud.

Social Media & IT
The ever increasing use of social networking platforms has opened up new avenues for customer engagement, marketing and brand building by organizations across the world. Social Media helps firms widen their reach across geographies and demographics; connect with customers and proactively seek real time feedback. For instance, most technology products have social networking sections

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How can Apple Pay Extend NFC Payment to Other Areas ?

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Apple Pay NFC System ExtensibilityApple Pay & Passbook have the potential to be very innovative and disruptive to many everyday user experiences. Apple is able to derive the most economics from getting a cut of credit / debit transactions that are enabled through Apple Pay as well as driving incremental revenues through the burgeoning mobile advertising network. As Consumers view fingerprint authentication technology to be more secure than current swipe transactions. Recent credit card security breaches by Target, Home Depot and various banks add focus to this in the minds of consumers. The ecosystem can be extended further with a win – win solution for all as detailed below.

iAds
Integrating Apple Pay with Apple’s iAd mobile ad network in the form of a tap-to-buy button embedded in mobile ads. This would allow app publishers that work with iAd to generate more mobile ad revenues from their apps. Apple keeps 30% of the revenues generated from sales

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How & Why Xiaomi Built a Different Eco-System Model ?

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We view Chinese Company, Xiaomi as a mobile Internet company, rather than a hardware company, mainly because Xiaomi captures a significant portion of user life time value (LTV) after hardware purchase through a 3-way monetization model (hardware, Internet service and software). On the contrary, hardware companies capture vast majority of the user LTV at hardware purchase.

Hardware, which includes various in-house developed Xiaomi devices such as Xiaomi smartphones, tablets, Xiaomi Router, etc. Xiaomi devices are priced at significantly lower prices vs. competitors, which should drive user acquisition.

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