Video Piracy Put to Rest in India ?
With the launch of Moser Baer Home Video, will Video Piracy in India be thing of past ? Delhi based Moser Baer Ltd which was in the production of CD / DVDs for the global market changed its direction when Ratul Puri got involved in day today managment of the company. Moser Baer has licensed content from Bollywood and for regional content producers.
The website mostly has collection of old movie titles and most movies are priced at mere Rs 28 for the VCD version and Rs 34 for the DVD. The company has appointed distributors across the country to sell them through audio/video outlets or telecom outlets. Moser Baer is also in talks with various producres to acquire more licenses.
Earlier in Jan, when Moser Baer first launched in Tamilnadu, I had spoken to online DVD retailers / rental cos and they seem to be happy with the competition. Lets hope the audio / video quality on DVDs is really upto international standards.
Tags: Bollywood, Home Video, Online Video Retail, Hollywood
Vodafone for Low Cost Handset and Tariff
Vodafone’s Sarin is betting on Low Cost Handset[ Lower than Rs 1,500 ?] and still lower Telecom tariffs. In 2-3 years, India will contribute the laregst number of subscribers to Vodafone Plc. He said,
At this stage, all I can say is that (mobile handset) prices have room to go lower and we will take it there. We are here because we think we can do something for the Indian population. We are coming into India with network, low-cost handsets, services — information services and entertainment services. We will mix that all up and in six months’ time, you will get a feel that Vodafone has come to India.
Mr. Sarin had lot of praise for Essar Group folks who are really very difficult to deal with. On the other hand, Mr. Sarin doesn’t face any hurdles from Babus and Netas as his file will be directly cleared by the PMO.
Tags: Telecom India, Vodafone, Low Cost Mobile, Mobile India
Weekend Update
Apart from ADC reduction, Pragati Maidan was the host to Convergence India 2007. Nikhil has an update here. BSNL introduced unlimited broadband for business. Nokia N95 will be launched in India by April-1st and the expected cost is Rs 42,000. Google Asia-Pacific Chief, Sukhinder Singh Cassidy speaks about her India plans. Unilever promoted Social Networking site Sunsilk Gang of Girls marches ahead with launch of GoG TV and Jobs.
Right from the day Vodafone’s bid was accepted by Li, I have said the deal will sail smoothly. Now in retrospect, the FIPB deferring decision on approving Vodafone Essar deal on March-21st and the subsequent cabinet nod for 74% FDI in Telecom on March-23rd looks like a staged drama 
Tags: Mobile India, Telecom India, Vodafone, Broadband India
Rock and mingle
Social networking startup, minglebox has been rocking for a while now. Few months ago it was iPod then last week it was free tickets to Iron Maiden concert and now Music! for all. This addition is significant mainly because the youth want entertainment. I guess this is in conformance with a report comScore e-mailed me yesterday about traffic rankings in the U.K and no surprise, Music is the most sought after service.
minglebox currently serve the following genre – Bollywood, Pop, International and Regional. They also let you create your own JukeBox, Rate a Song, Share, etc with your friends in the network. However, one of the songs I was listening to ended up abruptly which makes me wonder if this is a licensing issue ? You know arrogant guys of Holly/BollyWood.
Allright, music is fun but the most interesting part of this service is serving the music to millions of users. minglebox developers are harnessing the power of Amazon Web Services. I think this is the first Indian startup to make use of Grid for entertainment and social networking. [Sure GYM companeis do, but I am talking about Indian] The Product Managers and Developers have got it right, stay tuned will update you more on this.
Tags: Social Networking, Web 2.0 India, Internet India, Amazon Web Services
ISD calls to be Cheaper
TRAI just a while ago announced the reduction in ADC – Access Deficit Charges. TRAI is mainly relying on the growth of Incoming international calls for the reduction in ADC. The changes will be effective from April-1st and are as follows,
- No ADC on outgoing ILD calls. Current charges - Rs 0.80 / Minute.
- ADC on incoming calls reduced from Rs 1.60 to Rs 1.0
- ADC on percentage revenue share reduced to 0.75% from existing 1.50% of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) of all service providers
International Calls to and from India have to get cheaper and hopefully the service providers will pass on these benefits to consumers with effective from April-1st itself 
Tags: Telecom India, ILD, Telecom Tariffs , Telecom Regulations
Mobile Advertising in India by Customer Profiling
The GSM Association is planning a common mobile advertisng platform. What is a Common Platform ? It is a platform where all the GSM service providers[ Airtel, Voadafone, Aircel, Spice etc] will share their customers profile including monthly bills. For instance profile of all the customers whose average bill is greater than Rs 1,000 / Month. Hey! GSM guys, I have some more ideas for you, why just stop at my profile ?
- You can profile based on my location [Cell Tower Co-ordinates]
- Do I use roaming ? If so, which places do I goto and Hotel and Airline offers to make use while roaming ?
- When I start using mobile pay – you can profile my spending habit – I shop at Central / Garuda Mall ? Watch movies at PVR ? Where I eat ? etc etc..
- Tie up with regional Yellow Pages and see if I call local businesses / Dentist or do I order lot of Movies ?
- You can store my SMSs and analyze those for targetted advertising. The list goes one….
Well in a country like India where privacy issues and laws take a backstage, service providers can do anything they want to. However, the advertising system is still in planning phases and they better understand the privacy issues. To soften the end users stand on these isues, Telcos will provide some freebies, but do I care ? Is TRAI listening ?
Tags: Mobile India, Mobile Advertising, Mobile, GSM
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