M2M-Application and Issues in India

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication refers to technologies which allow wireless and wired systems to communicate with other devices of the same ability.

According to GSMA, by 2020 global M2M connections are expected to reach 13 billion, with Asia Pacific accounting for 41% of the total connections driven by emerging markets.

Growth of 4G technology will drive M2M adoption with Telecom Operators expected to increase their CAGR by partnering with M2M service providers. Hence they are building partnership with M2M providers in specific vertical market sectors to improve their service portfolio. The Global Mobile M2M module market was worth $ 1.5bn in 2012 and it is expected to grow rapidly in the next fiscal year.

As India being the 3rd largest country in number of subscribers having broadband connections and 100% FDI in telecom sector, many foreign companies are ready to invest in M2M. In India M2M started taking a leap when Vodafone joined hands with Mahindra for Reva e20 car.

Operators M2M drivers:

·         New revenue opportunity :Offset revenue decline from legacy services and increase focus on data revenue

·         Competitive advantage :A key differentiator for operators in a highly competitive environment

·         Launch of 3G and 4G :Enables sophisticated service delivery that require increased bandwidth

Application of M2M:

Three verticals are viewed by operators as most promising to monetize M2M offerings

·         Transport and logistics: Fleet management, asset tracking, logistic planning and optimization for enterprises.

·         Utilities: Smart metering and smart grid initiatives in electricity, gas and water being pushed by government regulations.

·         Automotive: On-demand infotainment, safety and security services, remote vehicle diagnostics and usage based insurance for private individuals

Offerings by Telco:

1.       Vodafone- Recently Vodafone announced to buy Italy-based automotive security and telematics firm, Cobra Automotive Technologies. The acquisition of Cobra Automotive Technologies will help Vodafone make progress in connected technologies for automobiles. Also “Cyan”, System and software design company has signed a teaming agreement with Vodafone's M2M (Machine-to-Machine) team to create joint propositions, develop opportunities and submit proposals to customers to enable either party to address the smart metering market in India.

Some of the industries by Vodafone M2M are in

·         Automotive

·         Consumer Electronics

·         Energy and Utilities

·         Health

·         Manufacturing

·         Transport and Logistics

2.     AT &T

AT&T has partnered with

·         Jasper Wireless - to form AT&T Control Centre that helps companies manage large scale deployments

·         Axeda – to form AT&T Resource Centre to accelerate the development and deployment of M2M applications.

Some areas where AT&T provides its M2M capabilities to use are

·         Fleet and Asset Management

·         Vehicle Tracking

·         Smart Meters

·         Smart Grid

AT&T approach in India:

·         In May 2013, AT& T entered into an alliance with India-headquartered IT services company Wipro Technologies to develop M2M solutions for various industries.

·         In October 2013, Company announced a new global alliance with General Electric (GE). GE machines will use our network and cloud to help workers be more productive. Workers will be able to remotely track, monitor, record and operate GE machinery, virtually anywhere in the world.

·         In February 2014, AT&T announced a new global alliance with IBM that will focus on building new solutions for city governments, transportation officials and midsize utility companies. Cities can better evaluate patterns and trends to improve urban planning.

·         AT&T is interested in providing Heavy Equipment and Asset Tracking Project in Indian Market.

In India, except Vodafone all players are taking very slow steps for M2M deployment. Lot of players are in debt due to high spectrum bidding prices so they might take back seat for M2M will provide communication services only while System Integrators like TCS, Wipro may take lead.

Issues for M2M Deployment:

·         Bring Standards For M2M in line with global standards

·         Allocating Spectrum for M2M local area network Layer

·         Revisit National Numbering Plan to accommodate M2M

·         To ensure the Always on requirements – Inter-Operator Roaming and Inter-Network Mobility

·         To ensure Interoperability

·         Guidelines for Bundled Services

·         Address Privacy and Data Protection

·         Address KYC (know your customer) and customer traceability issues.

·         Address Security and Lawful Interception for M2M

·         To have policy around Customers ethical Issues

·         Close coordination with relevant global organizations

From above issues it is clear that lot of work has to be done in this field. Government is taking rapidly steps with the formation of TSDSI "Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India"  which aims at developing and promoting India-specific requirements, standardizing solutions for meeting these requirements and contributing these to international standards, contributing to global standardization in the field of telecommunications, maintaining the technical standards and other deliverables of the organization, safe-guarding the related IPR, helping create manufacturing expertise in the country, providing leadership to the developing countries (such as in South Asia, South East Asia, Africa, Middle East, etc.) in terms of their telecommunications-related standardization needs.

So it is important to develop a clear framework to tackle these liabilities. Let’s hope all these steps will lead to fruitful output.

 Devendra Patil

Marketing and Finance

2013-2015

Recharging the Indian Telecom

The present conditions that the Indian telecom is going through, it appears nothing is going smooth for the industry. Licenses were cancelled, and operators were threatening to quit the market; taxation issues cropped up; ARPUs have been declining; broadband is not taking off; cell phone growth rate started falling so on and so forth. Unfortunately all of this is being magnified because of very negative sentiments building up in the regular industry fora, seminars, the business corridors, and therefore in media coverage. Everything seems to be on the decline, and it seems Indian telecom is a lost case. With this kind of constant negative atmosphere is perhaps also resulting in us not visualizing an even a better period that is waiting for us in coming times.

A new government taking charge opens a "policy window" to make course corrections and major shifts that will drive economic and social growth in the country, especially when the new government is the majority party (BJP) that is getting this opportunity, to put India in fast gear growth, after at least three decades. The country elected a new government this year, and Narendra Modi as its leader. Modi is perceived as a visionary leader with brilliant execution skills. All big ticket infrastructure projects will be monitored by PMO, including the ambitious National Optic Fibre Network roll out, that has not seen noticeable development, in spite of it being classified as a high priority project. Modi government is preparing to hit the ground running. A major restructuring is expected on the policy front and the ministry structure and operations. The Department of Telecom (DoT) has also presented its strategies to move ahead with issues related to spectrum auction and management, speeding up rural connectivity, rationalization of charges for telecom companies, and a new Bill to address the convergence in the IT, telecom and communications space. It will apparently replace existing regulations. Given the key role played by telecom, IT and communications in bringing about social transformation, all three are likely to be retained by the Prime Minister's office as it is or under a restructured single entity to derive efficiency and value from the convergence of these three domains.

Specifically because of the 2G scam, the industry's pace slowed down. It also left a deep mark in the minds of the world. Narendra Modi cites innovation in technology as the key behind becoming a super power. The Government should have focused in reducing imports of electronic goods and urged domestic manufactures to produce them. Proper rural telephony development is also important. India's ICT industry aggregates about US $150 bn in revenue which is about 10 percent of the country's GDP, and employs 35 lakh people. In addition, it generates indirect employment for approximately 100 lakh people. The major components are - IT/BPO exports, telecom services, telecom equipment and domestic IT.

CyberMedia Editors have outlined some 20 high impact initiatives that the new government led by Modi can achieve in the first 100 days of governance.

1.    Set up a government-industry high level ICT Task Force

Set up a government-industry ICT Task Force to evolve a structure for the growth of the industry and identify and remove all roadblocks, which will rejuvenate the industry and put it back on a fast-growth track.

2.    Set up an independent implementation agency for "National Electronics Mission"

ESDM needs to be recognized as a strategic sector for India. ESDM can create 28mn jobs if we focus on building a local manufacturing ecosystem serving the global market.

3.    Set up a National Institute for Assistive Technology to undertake R&D to ensure availability & affordability of quality assistive devices, aids & appliances for the disabled.

About 8% of India's population is disabled. The disabled are deprived of all opportunities for social and economic development.

4.    Announce the setting up of Entrepreneurship Hubs for electronic manufacturing and incubation centers for IP creation.

There is a need to create local fabless and start up culture by supporting entrepreneurship, innovation and rapid scaling up. The focus should be prioritized to promote global scale manufacturing and create an R&D culture to promote innovation.

5.    Fast track semiconductor projects for upward and downward innovation.

Promotion of innovation and intellectual property (IP) based manufacturing should take place. Investment in hardware engineering & semiconductor capabilities, which will create upward and downward innovation opportunities for IT Industry, should be actively encouraged.

6.    Improve poor financial health of the telecom industry

Introduce a flat Spectrum Usage Charge (SUC) of 1%; redefine "Adjusted Gross Revenue" to include only mobile telecom related income, and allow license fee & SUC to be set off against service tax. Also reduce USOF levy by 1%. To increase availability of commercial debt, a telecom finance corporation needs to be set up especially since the banking sector has reached its sectoral limits as far as telecom industry is concerned.

7.    Relax the FDI policy for e-commerce

The current FDI policy does not allow any investment in the on-line B2C segment. This move has either prevented foreign capital or has prompted complex legal and organizational structures by domestic companies to access foreign funds and expertise. It can also make Indian SME's globally competitive thereby increasing exports.

8.    Remove license fees, entry fee, bank guarantees and other conditions on ISPs.

Broadband access directly impacts growth, and affects education, healthcare, entertainment, productivity and rural inclusion. A 10% increase in Broadband results in increase of 1% in GDP. With less than 1.5% penetration, India lags other developing economies. To achieve greater broadband penetration, license fee, entry fee, bank guarantees and other conditions should be removed for ISPs on pure Broadband till 600 million connections are reached.

9.    Rural Broadband Access - Fibre to the villages

National Optic Fiber Network project should be evaluated and a set time frame for its implementation and roll out should be defined and implementation monitored by the PMO. Fibre on ground is key to ensuring high speed Broadband access across the nation.

10. Promote local manufacturing

Address disabilities faced by local manufacturers against finished product imports by granting deemed export benefits to local manufacturers. To promote global scale manufacturing, offer "throughput based" incentives to counter disabilities of local manufacturing against cheaper imports, as "CAPEX based" incentives are not attracting global players.

11. Create a multi-stakeholder framework for Internet governance

A multi-stakeholder framework for Internet governance should be created including government, business, civil society, academia, media, etc.

12. Recall retrospective taxation

Retrospective taxation creates major uncertainties in the business environment and is a significant disincentive for companies who wish to do business in India. This should be recalled.

13. Implement GST and abolish VAT

Implementation of GST has been pending for a long time now. Although the industry has been waiting for its roll out, nothing seems to be moving on this front. Hence, a definitive time frame for the implementation of GST should be announced.

14. Extend SEZ benefits to start-ups and smaller exporters

SEZ benefits should be extended to start-ups and smaller exporters or section 10A/10B should be reintroduced for 5 more years.

15. Amend Section 56 (2) (vii b) to accept valuation in start-ups when registered Angel Networks invest.

Entrepreneurship is the life-blood for a nation's progress as it unleashes innovation, fuels growth and creates jobs. The tech sector provides exciting opportunities and is one where India has special advantages. Section 56 (2) (vii b) of the Finance Act of 2013 has created a tax on start-ups when Angels invest (based on Fair Market Value) severely impacting the ecosystem. This needs to be corrected immediately at least for investments by known Angel Networks in India.

16. Drive Digital Literacy

Digital revolution currently reaches less than a quarter of India's population. It is essential to extend this immediately to at least half the population. This would benefit industry and small business in rural and semi-urban parts of the country, and help people derive benefits from government programs in employment, education, healthcare, nutrition and financial services. It is also necessary to strengthen the education and skills sector so that direct and indirect employment of 10-20 lakh jobs can be created every year.

17. Use technology to create transparency in Governance

A national open data policy should be created ensuring government departments make non-sensitive datasets available to the general public, which will ensure success for Government's pilot data.gov.in project.

18. Incentivize m-Governance Apps

Announce incentives to promote mobile app development for various government programs to be delivered to citizens, especially in rural areas, with a focus on healthcare, education, and public services in local languages.

19. Liberalize Higher Education

By 2020, the world will face a shortage of 56 mn workers. Given our demographic - with 54 percent of our population below the age of 25 - India, with 47 mn excess in the working age group, is ideally suited to address this global scarcity. This opportunity can transform India into a global talent repository and a knowledge superpower, provided our higher education system is reformed, and soon.

20. Fast track policy on Spectrum trading

Spectrum is a national asset on which the digital economy is getting built. Majority of this resource is lying unutilized or underutilized with various government agencies in all bands (e.g. 2100 MHz, 1900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 800 MHz, 700 MHz and 450 MHz). Provide a clear roadmap of spectrum availability in the future and fast track the policy on Spectrum trading and sharing.


Aditya Yerunkar
Systems and Finance
2013 2015

SMAC-leading a way to Business Transformation

SMAC is throwing up huge opportunities as firms want to optimize investments in current technology and drive growth by using digital technologies and platforms. The digital forces of social, mobile, analytics and cloud (SMAC) will reach mainstream status in 2014 and create requirements, drive new purchasing and establish new competitive realities. Only when social, mobile, analytics and cloud technologies are implemented as a stack, and applied to key processes, will meaningful results then follow. Mobility, analytics and social media created new revenue opportunities and business lines to create differentiation in the market. Increasing adoption of cloud computing has pushed Indian IT players to devise the core value propositions and delivery models. With increase in Social networking by a widening base of mobile/tablet users presents opportunities for analytics enabled by cloud computing Mobile devices are a platform for effective social networking and new ways to work Analytics (Big Data) helps gain meaningful insights from the information, facilitating informed decision making Cloud enables delivery of information and functionality to users and systems.

SMAC Stack – A Step Change Driving Exponential Growth in Computing Devices and Data

Today’s SMAC Stack-‘the fifth wave’ of IT architecture-is happening faster than anything that’s come before. By 2020, as many as 100 billion computing devices will be connected to the Web, and corporations will be managing 50 times the data they do currently. So SMAC will have a multiplying effect on businesses and increase productivity across the organization.

In all industries across the business landscape, the SMAC Stack is eroding the century-old blueprint of value chains and spawning new, highly distributed, virtualized business models. The power of this technology platform is in treating it as a stack, for its components have a multiplying effect when they work in combination. As an example, retailers are strategically deploying the SMAC Stack across key business processes to combine the best of virtual and physical shopping experiences.

Today’s SMAC Stack Masters Pave the Way

The power of disruptive business models such as those pioneered by Facebook, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Google, etc. originates from managing SMAC technologies as an integrated stack and fundamentally enabling business models by using this integrated technology stack. For example, when selecting a book on Amazon, buyers are presented with recommendations, based on analytics and very sophisticated algorithms. Once chosen, the book is served up from “the cloud” to a mobile reader of choice for instant enjoyment. Afterwards, if so motivated, the buyer can then recommend the book to their social network.

Emerging SMAC stacks Solution Areas

The SMAC stack can transform the interactions with your key constituents, so these are the first places to look. The four primary areas are:

1. The customer interface: Next-generation marketing, selling and servicing.

2. The machine interface: Seizing advantage with Smart Products and the Internet of Things.

3. The partner interface: Collaboration and co-creation of products and services.

4. The employee interface: Mastering the new management process in the social enterprise.

In the same manner that the “ERP,” “CRM” and “HRM” categories were created 20 years ago as key solution areas for the client/server stack, we believe four key SMAC stack solution areas are quickly crystallizing. The SMAC stack, if applied holistically, can help organizations unbundle tightly-coupled, industrial-age value chains and transform business, if not entire markets, creating boundary less ways of working.

According to the Indian Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), Indian IT vendors are expected to generate USD 225 billion from SMAC-related revenue by 2020 of the USD 1 trillion global opportunities. Cloud represents the largest opportunity under SMAC, increasing at a CAGR of about 30 per cent to USD 650-700 billion by 2020, followed by social media, which will offer a USD 250 billion market opportunity by 2020.

Shaileja Pagare

Class of 2015

A CLOUDBURST IN THE CLASSROOM:  Omnipresence of telecom

Cloud computing apart from being proving to be cost-effective & essential to store & recover big data in today’s large scale data environment has the potential of completely changing the education system of India.

The average pupil-teacher ratio according to All India Student Education Survey is healthy 31.But this figure can easily go up to one teacher per 120 and in worst cases 600 pupils considering the fact that many of them teaches multiple subjects. Even then many of the teachers add to the no’s but don’t add value to the education system. Looking at another surprising fact that more than 3, 50,000 engineering teachers are needed to cater some 4 million students in the field. That is where cloud technology can be used to augment the system.

The bright side

Cloud not only lowers costs, but provides a degree of scalability and keeps complexity in central location. Based on this technology Cisco has developed an integrated hardware. Software loud solution for education labeled Dwara which costs only 1$ per month over 3 yrs. It lets teachers in a central location interact and share content with students in multiple locations in real time .It has everything a classroom needs – router, computer, projector, cameras speakers, microphones, and even power management. By using it teachers can interact with their teachers all over the world and most importantly to those places where facilities of high quality education are not available , hence students from remotest of places can avail education facilities without having to move from their houses and going anywhere all they need is a single internet connection. The real benefit of cloud classroom is that it enables students to go back to the content whenever they want .The problem with live classrooms is that you cannot pause,rewind and forward so students might miss some important parts if connectivity is not there or if they are not to concentrate throughout the duration of class, but all these things can be done in cloud classroom.

The dark side

 But it is not totally a rosy picture, as the technology’s implementation has been hampered by cost of implementation which is on the higher side and also by poor last mile connectivity. With India’s internet penetration still as low as 8% which is mostly limited to India’s urban area, there is a big question mark that this technology will be able to reach those areas where it is required most i.e. rural and remote areas. Hence its adoption is expected to pick up once last mile connectivity is improved. But still there is a silver lining considering that karnataka goverment. has already implemented it in a handful of rural schools and to train teachers in some districts. GateForum also use cloud to help final year engineering students in small cities like Agra to prepare for annual graduate aptitude test in engineering. But the largest on ground implementation is NIIT’s cloud campus which now has availed this technology in its 150 centers worldwide

Aditya Yerunkar

Class of 2015 

Smart-phones business in INDIA: Getting bigger, brighter, and even smarter!

One out of every 7 persons in the world will have a smart phone this year. According to a new forecast from market research firm IDC, more than 1 billion new ‘smart phones’ will make their way into consumers' hands in 2013, the first time it will reach that mark in a single year! India’s total population 1.27 billion. Population between 15 and 50 years: 640 millions (approx.) Number of smart phone users in India: 67 Millions. This proves that the penetration of the smart-phones will be much higher in the upcoming days. When we talk about the smart-phones, we must talk about the types of smart-phones those are popular in India. Low price, high memory, bigger displays, better music system, better camera. “Indian market is too much price sensitive and competitive.” says Alcatel Lucent CEO Michel Combes. Major smart-phone providers in India: Samsung, Micromax, Apple, Blackberry, NOKIA, htc etc…

Samsung: According to the report, Samsung had 43.1 percent smartphone market share at the end of 2012, which does not include the Galaxy Note and the Galaxy Note II, which the market research outfit classifies as phablets and does not include in its smartphone shipment numbers. The actual reason for the success is they targeted customers very well. However, they did not innovate but they have launched their products at proper time and with proper price. The most noticeable thing about Samsung is they have targeted all the segments whether it is high-end customer segment or low-end customer segment. When in 2007 Apple comes with its first iPhones suddenly in 2007 end Samsung adapted Android operating system and launched many smart phones that helps them really well in grabbing the market. Recent news is that Samsung is going to release 2 new smart phones ranging around 15000Rs in 2014 targeting the youth.

NOKIA: Microsoft and Nokia have been more aggressive about pushing new phones running the platform onto the market, particularly by showing off camera-focused models such as the Nokia Lumia 925 and 1020. Nokia, in fact, recently pushed out an ad directly challenging the iPhone by lampooning Apple’s “Photos Every Day” ad that touted the fact that the iPhone is the most-used camera on the market. Once NOKIA was the market leader in India. Then, what went wrong with NOKIA? When apple came with its innovative iPhones for the first time in 2007, companies like Samsung realizes that it is a market transition point and to sustain in this market they need to give better products with competitive features. However, at that time rather than adapting a new operating system NOKIA stuck to his old symbian OS. Then as we all know the market of NOKIA started falling. Then back in 2011 NOKIA adapted windows OS and tried to catch the market that it has lost earlier. But it will take time to compete with widely acceptable android OS. Analysts are expecting that Windows Phone to eclipse iPhone's market share by the year 2016 due to the recent release of the Nokia Lumia 925 to emerging markets.

Micro-Max: In 2008, it entered mobile handset business and by 2010 it became one of the largest Indian domestic mobile handsets company by offering unique affordable innovations. The company has a 22% market share in the smartphone segment in India As per IDC Asia/ Pacific Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker 2013 Q2. The reason for micro-max’s success is it has adapted new technologies at the right moment. It’s main target is youth and lower-end segment. It has also introduced segment specific phones like for young girls BLING 2.This strategy has helped it in growing rapidly.

Apple: Apple is known for its innovations. Apple was the one who changed the definition of a smart phone. Earlier smart phones were for business people but apple changed the whole conception in 2007 by launching iPhones with innovative apps. Apple’s concept is to provide best and most innovative phones to its customers. Apple recently launched iPhone 5S and 5C. 5C is the cheaper version and made to target especially Asian market. It is seen that iphone 5C has copied the style of LUMIA’s covers; it may be a point that can tamper its innovative image.

Htc: HTC is aiming to capture 25 percent smartphone market share in India in 2013, Faisal Siddiqui, country head, HTC India told at the sidelines of the HTC Butterfly launch. What went wrong with htc is they did not target the market properly in the earlier stage of the smartphone era. What Samsung did is they targeted every segment by launching different phones but htc stuck with the high-end customers only. That went wrong but letter it realizes and launches low-end phones like htc explorer, desire etc. But the question rises here is it sufficient to grab the market back?

Blackberry: Once upon a time, they were so-called one and only business phones. But Samsung and Android OS together broke it. The problem that has happened with blackberry is they responded late while Apple and Samsung are competing in to the markets. Their main flagship feature BBM is expensive while whatsapp OTT player has provided the same on iOS, android and windows phones for free. This has smacked blackberry very badly. Now blackberry has responded and launched 3 back to back smart-phones in 2013.

Now, we will have to wait and watch to see who wins the race.

MONIL THAKER

Class of 2013-15 

Where the Telecom industry is heading in coming years...? 

          The historic Indian economic reforms of 1991 which gave birth to LPG policy (Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization) completely changed the industrial and business scenario in India. It boosted many sectors in India; telecom sector being one of them. India being a developing country and also the second most populous, Indian telecom industry has witnessed several key moments in the last couple of decades. While many of the events like NTP of 1999 and broadband policy of 2004 led the foundation to help the telecom sector flourish, some of the recent issues like 2G scam have caused uncertainty and slowed down the growth. But recently due to some advancements in FDI and government policies, the debt ridden mobile operators have got some ray of hope. The future of Indian Telecom industry as well as Global Telecom will depend a lot on few factors which are the major driving force for them.

Government Policies

            One of the biggest reasons why telecom industry is sceptical about Indian telecom environment is ambiguity in government policies. Even after government approved 100% FDI in telecom, operators are not sure about M&A policy and hence we won’t see any major advancement in telecom investments in India. With decision on telecom M&A policy around the corner, we can hope for some good news for mobile operators and also users. If the policy is positive for operators, big foreign guns like Vodafone will try to get maximum stake in Indian market.

            The government has also announced key policy measures intended towards providing a transparent business environment to bring the telecom sector back on track. The government has made it clear that future licenses will be de-linked from the spectrum, and companies will need to buy bandwidth at market rates, going forward. While many of the recommendations are yet to be implemented, government has already issued final guidelines on Unified License. According to the new rules, telecom operators can offer telephony, Internet, IPTV and linked communications services under a single license replacing the earlier United Access Service License (UASL) model, where operators had to take separate licenses for offering each of those services. So, in coming years, we can see operators providing these services on a large scale and in a cost effective manner.

            The government is also thinking about refarming of spectrum in 900 MHz band. The operators have taken varying stands on the crucial matter of re-farming that primarily deals with re-auctioning of spectrum once the licence of an existing operator expires and spectrum is vacated. Three private operators (Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea), besides state-run BSNL and MTNL, hold nearly 85% of the spectrum in the 900 MHz band, which is considered valuable by mobile operators in view of the cheaper capital expenditure required for rollout of services. Licences of operators in this band will be expiring progressively from the year 2014 to 2024, prompting the newer operators to seek a chance for buying spectrum. So this will create a level playing field for all operators but at the same time will create a blood bath during spectrum auction. It’s a wait and watch game as to how things will work out.          

Increased Competition among operators

            As aforementioned, privatization attracted many domestic and foreign telecom players in India. Today, considering the vast geography and potential subscriber growth, nearly 13 mobile operators are providing mobile and data services in India. In 2003, Reliance, led by Mr. Mukesh Ambani, disrupted the Indian telecom market with its Mobile Monsoon Hungama offer, wherein they introduced subsidized phone with super cheap call rates. It compelled other telcos to introduce various budget mobile schemes and put the market on fire.

            But the dynamics have changed today as users are concerned with the data schemes provided by their operators. Current trends show that data ARPU forms nearly 30% of ARPU for almost all the operators. In the coming years, with technology slowly shifting from 2G to 3G to 4G LTE, data ARPU is going to be the major revenue source for mobile operators. So the operators like Reliance Jio and AirTel which have 4G licenses can be winners in this case.

New Technologies – 4G LTE

            The major reason for the surge in growth of Telecom Industry has been timely innovations and new technologies. The world is talking about 4G LTE but most of the rural India still lives in 2G world. 3G did not catch the required user attention in India but success of 4G depends on how mobile operators communicate with the users.

            The immature Indian LTE ecosystem, especially so in the TDD variant of LTE, has been a major roadblock for Indian telcos. The device manufacturers have been focusing on the FDD version of LTE mainly because this was witnessing accelerated adoption. This is also the key reason why telcos like Aircel, Tikona and Reliance Jio are yet to launch 4G services in the country. But now that the LTE TDD technology has been launched in Japan and China, device manufacturers have started developing devices for this technology. Despite the positives, the mobile device ecosystem for 4G could still take two or more years to really develop even to the level of 3G in India given that 3G itself has not reached up to a satisfactory level in India.  The challenge faced by the Indian operators is the ecosystem and once that falls in place it will trigger very fast.

Deals with OTT players

            Recently, Over the Top (OTT) players like Whatsapp, Nimbuzz, Facebook, Viber, Skype, Twitter, etc. have become a threat to mobile operators as they are eating into their SMS revenue. These OTT players are here to stay as they offer social networking benefits to the users.

            Mobile subscribers’ adoption of OTT services has had a momentous impact on mobile operators as data revenue seems to be the way ahead for telcos. Telecom operators are increasingly exploring the possibility of partnering with Over the Top (OTT) players for mutual benefits. Vodafone partnering with Twitter and AirTel partnering with Google are few examples. With more and more consumers gravitating to Smartphone’s and subscribing to an ever expanding array of OTT services, the operators are left with little picks. Undoubtedly, the Indian telcos are actively pursuing opportunities to establish meaningful businesses with OTT players to effectively monetize the benefits they bring. Almost every major operator is stepping out of its comfort zone to engage services offered by OTT players to add value to their offerings and in the process gain some competitive advantage. In a bid to drive internet usage, offering free access to OTT players will naturally add more internet users, which will, in due course act as a catalyst for generating higher revenues. Monetary realization of these partnerships will certainly take at least three-five years; hence to evaluate the success rate of such partnerships we have to wait and watch. But, this is how mobile operators will make use of OTT players in coming years.

Kiran Raikar

Class of 2015