Cable TV operators join 3G tug of war.
On one hand the GSM operators are lobbying hard for cheaper 3G entry. On th other hand, Reliance a CDMA operator which feels humiliated by Qualcomm’s indifferent treatment on tax issues has thrown its bid for 3G space in both GSM and CDMA. Enter, third player, the Cable TV Operators of India. They want a slice of 3G spectrum to offer Mobile TV and Broadband and hopefully not IPTV in India. However, for existing cable companies like Asianet in Kerala which also offers Internet may make sense of IPTV offerring.
Zee which currently offers Cable TV(Siticable) and Direct To Home (Dish TV India) is the first cable operator to bid for 3G spectrum. They are of the opinion that more cable operators will join the bidding soon. All this implies that the government will be forced to auction the precious spectrum thus leading to a bidding war soon.
3G Spectrum Auction, Cable TV India
Windows Live Custom Domains/Live Mail or Google Apps for your domain – Review
Sorry I wasn’t able to post for the past 3 days as their was Priority-0 issue 
In the meantime, Google launched its Google Apps for Domain. Isn’t it the same as Google Hosted Mail + Google Talk + Google Calendar and Google Page Creator all bundled together ? However, the mighty Microsoft has quietly launched Windows Hosted Domains Service. Initial review of hosted domain which is out of Beta was earlier done and feedback sent to Hotmail. Its time to compare the two – Promise Vs Performance.
I was lucky enough to get a beta test account for Google’s Hosted Mail(It’s invite only). I had applied for this very domain, Convergence.In (not the usual .COM, .Net …tld, but India specific tld). If you have hosted the domain on some web space and then try to change the MX records as indicated in the instructions of your hosted GMail dashboard, you might face some issues to configure. You need to change the MX records on your hosting server and not at your domain registrar. Both Hotmail and Google don’t mention this fact very clearly. Glad I used DNS Stuff to reverse engineer and then configure it myself.
I added an e-mail account cp AT convergence Dot In as the administrator account and I was up and running. Sign up process took less than a minute. As promised, my mail box size is 2 GB, the cool gmail interface, Google Calendar and also I was able to log on to GTalk with this account and chat. Additionally I am given the option of uploading my own company logo and a page hosted for my e-mail on Google servers. You can check out Convergence.In sign-up page here. Help pages and FAQs are very well written. I haven’t tested Google’s Page Creator with this account. Indians still face intermittent downtime of their ridiculous 256KBPs internet termed as broadband, No worries, you can also pop your hosted domain e-mails 
Overall Convergence.In rates this service at 9.5 on a scale of 10.0.
Microsoft’s Windows Live Custom Domains is open for anyone to sign-up on any TLD. Once again decided to use two of my .In domains to test out this service. With your passport/hotmail account you logon and add your domain and then change the MX records. (Support staff was helpful but wasn’t able to diagnose the problem). As an admin I created cp AT goHotels Dot In. I go back to Hotmail.com and try to Login. What ? You went to Hotmail.com ? Yes, Microsoft doesn’t provide a cool page branded with your company logo like Google does. OK. Sign-up process is painfull with changing password once, entering the password 4 times, entering personal information and accepting the agreement twice. Finally into your InBox. InBox size is just 25MB and not as promsied as 2GB 
. Maybe because I am in India, I care less. Their is Help which is not really helpful and no FAQ. And this service by MSN is out of Beta
What’s more disappointing with Live Domains is this. Check out this, screen shot which claims “Visitors come to your website to check their e-mail…”. However, in reality, they need not come to your site. They can goto Hotmail and check their e-mails. I thought Microsoft would provide some API to integrate this service on the website, but all they give is a link to embed which is available in this screen shot. MSN Chat and Calendar worked fine with the new id. Further, you can upgrade this account to Live Mail Beta, but that can be another review in itself as I found too many problems, especially about 1/4th the screen being occupied for banner advertising. POP mail isn’t supported. Overall Convergence.In rates the Microsoft Live Custom Domains service at 6.5 on a scale of 10.0.
Kindly feel free to post your experience and views.
Windows Live Mail, Google Apps for your domains
Larry and Sergey to challenge Wall Street ?
If you have read The Google Story then you will probably regret having not majored in Math Billions of dollars lying idle in your bank account and all of a sudden you think Wall Street is the place to be at. That’s exactly what Googler’s might have thought. I speculate that, Larry and Sergey with their rich math background, might have developed mathematical models of Wall Street to deploy Google’s excess cash and make more than the top hedge fund managers in the world.
Google is obsessed to change traditional business processes also known as “lobbies”. After having taught a lesson to NY Advertising companies that Internet advertising is all about adSense, Google now feels that it should teach a second lesson to Wall Street firms
NOTE: These are just my own predictions and are not confiremd by Google.
Google Pet Project , Google Automated Trading
The Emergence of Asian Telecom Giants – SingTel, Hutch and Maxis
With the opening of telecom sector and the Government of India allowing 74% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the same, we are now hearing of companies from Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong which have have high interest in the Indian telecom business, especially the mobile business.
SingTel (Singapore Telecom ) a cash rich company which started its operation in Singapore moved into Philippines in 1993 by acquiring 44.57% stake in Globe Telecom. In 1999-2000 when Mr.Sunil Mittal of Bharti Televentures was looking for a core investor for his telecom project, SingTel stepped up and till date they have invested SG $1.5 Billion(Rs4,600 Crores). SingTel also has board representation along with, they brought the expertise to establish and run a telecom business. SingTel also has 21% stake in AIS of Thailand, 35% in Telkomsel of Thailand and 45% in Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd of Bangladesh. SingTel also controls Optus Telecom of Australia which is beyond the scope of our study. Excerpts from SingTel’s latest quarterly report (June-30-2006),
“The better operational performance of the associates drove the Group’s share of ordinary earnings from
S$376 million to S$495 million, up 32 per cent. Bharti and Telkomsel, the two main growth drivers, continued to post strong profits on the back of rapid subscriber growth”
SingTel’s investment in Bharti-Airtel today commends a market capitalization of Rs24,000 crores and rising everyday with increasing subscriber base of Bharti-Airtel. SingTel as a group has 35.5 million subscribers at the end of June-2006 quarter(pro-rated according to the stake it holds in various companies) of which mere 1.6 million subscribers are in Singapore. SingTel also derives significant part of its profits from Bharti, Globe, Telkomsel and Globe. Source: Management Discussion and Analysis report.
Another Asian telecommunications giant, Hutchison Telecommunications International Limited (Hutchison Telecom), which is listed on the Hong Kong and New York stock exchanges has a significant presence, and in many cases is a market leader, in nine dynamic markets, operating or rolling out mobile services in Hong Kong and Macau, India, Israel, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Ghana, Indonesia and Vietnam. For the half year ending June-30-2006, Hutchison Telecom reported profit for the first time since its listing. Excerpts from Huth’s press release,
The increase in turnover was driven primarily by the growth in India, which contributed 45% of the group’s turnover of HK$15,666 million. Details of Hutch’s Indian operations,
• Customer base increases to 17.5 million – 108% year-on-year growth
• Turnover increases 50.9% to HK$7,085 million
• EBITDA increases 46.7% to HK$2,316 million
Looking at Hutch and SingTel, Malaysian-Indian entrepreneur, Anand Krishnan, founder of Maxis jumped to expand his telecom business from Malaysia to India. Maxis also has operations in Indonesia through its subsidiary, PT Natrindo Telepon Seluler (NTS). Maxis entered India early this year buying out 74% stake in Aircel in Tamlinadu and is also expanding in 8 more cellular circles. Excerpts from Maxis’ Q2 report,
Maxis grew its Malaysia subscriber base by 3% to 8.47m users. In India, it grew total users by 23% to 3.2m. India’s Aircel contributed RM61m to PBT.
Telekom Malaysia, Maxis’ competitor on home turf, Malaysia, also has Indian operations in BK Modi controlled Spice Telecom. Results of Telekom Malaysia were not available.
Indian population long considered a bottleneck for her economic growth is now turining turning to be a blessing in disguise for all these telcos with global ambitions. A favorable Government policy so essential for investments has given these telcos the liberty to hold upto 74% stake in Indian telecom ventures. Next time when you bump into a report criticizing Indian economic policies, you can point them to this report and tell them that how favorable they have been, how big and profitable the Indian market is and how democratic and peace loving its citizens are
Emerging Asia, Singapore Telecom, Maxis Telecom, Hutchison
Airtel hands it to Ericsson, Again
Earlier this year, I had reporetd on the unique business model adopted by Airtel for network expansion, upgradation and management – outsource the entire networking operation to GSM equipment manufacturer, Ericsson. Airtel has done it again. It has outsourced a Billion dollar(Rs4,600 crores) contract to Ericsson for the next 3 years to help Bharti expand and upgrade its GSM network in the country.
Akil Gupta, Joint MD of Bharti-Airtel told that the deal would be financed through internal accurals. Had anybody thought in the 90s that Indian telecom would be a market worth billions of dollars and European telecos would get a considerable slice of this market ? Well early investment by those companies in India has paid off as revenues on their home-turf have slowed down. With 3G services in the offing, Telecom MNCs in India can expect a bigger slice of this market.
Bharti Airtel , Ericsson GSM , India Telecom
3G Spectrum. COAI offers mere Rs300 crores
TRAI and the telecom ministry together had put a hefty demand of $2Billion for all India 3G license. COAI represnting the GSM assoication have offered just Rs300 crores($66 Million) for all India 3G license.
Recall that the government wanetd to price the 3G spectrum on the European model of Telecom business. COAI reminds the government that European economies have 33% higher GDP than India and the latter is the cheapest telecom market in India.
“It is therefore submitted that if at all such a benchmark is to be contemplated, it should be adjusted downward based on the ratio of GDP per capita to make the pricing more relevant to the Indian market and environment. This would mean a price of around Rs 300 crore for All India MHz spectrum”, said a COAI letter.
The negotiations table is now split 4 ways as CDMA operators, Tata’s and Reliance are representing in their individual capacities. COAI representing the GSM lobby and the government presiding as the auctioner. Tata’s have offered Rs1500 crores for all India 3G spectrum license though it is not clear about how many MHz channels are requested. While Anil Ambani controlled Reliance Telecom has offered little over Rs1500 crores for all India 3G spectrum and now COAI with ridiculously low bid of just Rs300 crores for an all India footprint.
I had already termed the governments demand of Rs85crores /MHz of spectrum as “Insane” and I stand by it. Tata Indicom and Reliance Telecom are at one end of the spectrum while COAI and the government ar at the other extreme bands of spectrum . Where will they converge to realize the convregnce dream of Indians ? Your thoughts.
Feed
