Idea Cellular Data ARPU / Usage up 10% QoQ – Voice Lowers

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Idea Cellular 3G Data GrowsIdea Cellular pure wireless services revenue growth accelerated to 21% yoy, a combination of 17% yoy voice volume growth (to 162.5 bn minutes; 3.5% ahead of expectations; down 1.7% qoq) and 3% blended yoy RPM improvement (to 45.9 paise / minute; 1.6% below expectations). Voice RPM declined 2.4% qoq and 3.1% yoy to 36.2 paise/min IDEA added 4.6mn subs in 2Q taking the total subscribers to 143.6 Mn subscribers at end of Sept-2014.

Idea Cellular Data business continues to fire on all cylinders
IDEA added 3mn data subscribers

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800Mn Active Mobile Subscribers, 85%+ on GSM Network

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The GSM active subscriber base (excluding RCom & Tata GSM subs) has increased 5.9% from 603 mn in Dec-13 to 639 mn in Jul-14. India’s total active subscriber base (GSM & CDMA) has expanded from 762 mn subscribers to 797 mn in this period. We expect subscriber addition to moderate in the medium-to-longer term due to two reasons: 1) Indian telcos’ focus on “profitable” subs, and 2) incremental sub additions primarily accrue from rural areas, where growth will likely be slower.

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How is eBay doing in Chinese e-Commerce ?

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eBay China CommerceIn 2003, eBay acquired what was at the time one of the leading e-commerce sites in China – EachNet – for $150mn. And in 2004, the company began a more aggressive push into the local market. eBay signed exclusive advertising rights with major portals Sina, Sohu, and Netease and reportedly spent $100mn to build out its operations in China. But, by the end of 2006, due primarily to competition (including free listings and other promotions by a few competitors), the company folded the eBay EachNet operation into a joint venture with Tom Online. Since then, Bay’s focus in China has been on helping local sellers access eBay’s network of buyers outside of China.

Since then eBay has spoken very little with

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4G VoLTE Networks to be Powered by IMS Core

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If you have been following the Telecommunications industry for a decade or more you will likely remembers IMS (IP multimedia system) as the technology architecture developed by the leading circuit switch voice vendors (i.e., Lucent and Nortel) in the late 1990s as the technology that would save their declining voice businesses but they were far ahead of time.

This vision eventually came to fruition, but in a much smaller way in the long-distance network (4ESS) which was rebuilt using soft switches and media gateways to enable the use of

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Xiaomi MiTalk 2015 App to Have Forum & Shopping

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Xiamoi MiTalk 2015 ReviewXiaomi recently released MiTalk 2015, the new version of its IM app, MiTalk (or MiLiao in Chinese). MiTalk 2015 has incorporated Xiaomi Forum and an online shopping center, allowing “MiFen” (fans of Xiaomi) to interact with each other more easily, and purchase various Xiaomi products.

Xiaomi has in addition integrated Chinese music streaming service XiaMi Music, and Microsoft chatbot Xiaobing, by cooperating with these outside companies. MiTalk has also added a basic location-based service, allowing users to find

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How VoLTE Can Enhance Voice Quality / Data & Transition from 2G/ 3G

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4G LTE Voice Data Capacity The greatest benefit of pushing voice over LTE [VoLTE] is the opportunity to increase capacity for faster 4G mobile data services by redeploying spectrum currently used for older 2G and 3G services. For example, we have learned that Voice over LTE or VoLTE is roughly 2-3 times more efficient than 3G voice services and 4-6 times more efficient than 2G voice services. VoLTE is very sensitive to cell hand-off for customers on the go. As such, carriers need to optimize and tighten their grid of cell sites to ensure a high quality voice experience, as a dropped data connection can lead to a dropped call. With data, connections can drop and become quickly reestablished, which is unlikely to be detected by the customer given the likelihood for

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Will Apple iWatch Cut into Designer / Luxury Swiss Watch ?

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Apple iWatch Puts Designer Watches to RiskLast year, 29 million Swiss watches were sold. Theoretically, as Apple has sold about 500 million iPhones over the past five years and has an installed base of 300m, it’s not hard to understand that, on paper, the Apple Watch could be seen as a big threat to the watch industry generally.

While the starting price is USD349, there are three versions of the watch, including an 18-carat gold one that reminds us of the golden iPhone. The Apple Watch will, of course, be used to read the time but it will also give one access to data, messages, calls, emails, measure activities, track one’s progress for workouts, use apps, enable one to pay for goods, download music, take pictures, consult maps, calendars, look at the stock market, the weather, pictures and so on.

We have made the case in the past that the biggest

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Can Reliance Jio Launch 4G-LTE Data / Broadband at 50% Discount to Incumbents ?

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Reliance jio Infocomm Launch Data RatesIn our previous report we have analyzed the need for disruption by Reliance Jio Infocomm in the Indian Telecommunications space. Today we’d like to throw some light on what will likely happen to the Hottest Area of Telecom – Mobile Broadband / Data Services if Reliance Jio were to launch at 50% discount to incumbent players.

The current realization is 25-29 paise/MB for incumbents; this is not the most aggressive disruption assumption), it would mean R-Jio starts selling at 15 paise/MB. Current 3G usage in India (on a base of around 52 mn subs) is

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How Can Reliance Jio Disrupt Indian Mobile / Wireless Market ?

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We Probably have the highest coverage on Reliance Jio Infocomm in the public domain analyzing each and every move the company makes openly. In the absence of any clear road map being portrayed by the Ambani’s team to Public / Shareholders; we try to address three main issues on the Disruption in Indian Wireless by the launch of Reliance Jio Infocomm.

Does Reliance Jio intent to disrupt the Telecom space in India which is stabilizing after the 2G Spectrum Scam – The honest answer is

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Comparison of iPhone 6 / PLus vs Samsung Galaxy Note vs LG G3 Vs HTC M8

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Apple unveiled three new offerings – new iPhone, Apple Pay and Apple Watch. iPhone 6/6 Plus launch was much in line with expectations.

iPhone 6/6 Plus upgrades are much in line with leaked reports. Thinner (6.8/7.1mm vs. 5s 7.6mm), faster (A8 processor), better display resolution and bigger battery. Camera is in line to stay with 8MP/f2.2 and Plus comes with OIS function. While there is limited surprise to spec, iPhone 6 Plus looks fairly attractive given richer spec but only US$100 premium. If iPhone 6 Plus mix to go higher against consensus looking for 30%, this likely benefits Hon Hai who is the sole source to

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