India’s broadband woes

India's telecom sector is often showcased as a success story in reforms, owing to the mobile revolution. Mobile phones in India have nearly reached the 470 million mark while the total number of phones crossed the half billion mark in September. However, in stark contrast, government policy on broadband and Internet penetration is now an admitted failure.
India barely reached 6.81 million subscribers in August 2009 up from 2.28 million subscribers in March 2007. Where Internet is concerned, DoT's presentation shows 14.39 million subscribers up from 9.2 million subscribers in March 2007 (see chart).

This points to a policy overhaul for increasing Internet and broadband access. Typically, broadband and Internet access go hand in hand with wireline penetration, but unlike most of the world, including developed and developing countries, India's wireline sector has remained stagnant at 38 million lines for many years. This is in sharp contrast to the fast-growing wireless or mobile phone sector. Unfortunately, however, broadband access on wireless at current data speeds in 2G has serious limitations.

Experts point out that cost of acquiring a PC in India is still high. Other challenges include prohibition of VoIP by ISP's which is awaiting Govt approval despite specific recommendations by Trai for nearly two years, and governments' inability to share its existing wireline infrastructure with private players for delivering broadband access.

Consultant Top 10 Lists

Top Ten Things a Consultant Shouldn't Tell a Client

1. That was my first guess as well, but then I really thought about it.
2. You should see the hotel I'm staying at.
3. Hey, I just realized that I was in junior high when you started working here.
4. I like this office space. I'll have them put me in here when you're gone.
5. My rental car looks nicer than that junker you're driving.
6. Sure it'll work; I learned it in business school.
7. So what do you need me to tell you?
8. Of course it's right; the spreadsheet says so.
9. I could just tell you the answer, but we're committed to a three month project.
10. What are you, stupid?

Top Ten Things You'll Never Hear from a Consultant

1. You're right; we're billing way too much for this.
2. Bet you I can go a week without saying "synergy" or "value-added".
3. How about paying us based on the success of the project?
4. This whole strategy is based on a Harvard business case I read.
5. Actually, the only difference is that we charge more than they do.
6. I don't know enough to speak intelligently about that.
7. Implementation? I only care about writing long reports.
8. I can't take the credit. It was Ed in your marketing department.
9. The problem is, you have too much work for too few people.
10. Everything looks okay to me.
    

Top Ten Things You Shouldn't Say at a Consulting Interview

1. I'm a t-shirt and jeans kind of person.
2. Do you pay overtime?
3. I hate flying.
4. I'm useless without ten hours of sleep a night.
5. There are lies, damn lies, and statistics.
6. Do you cover rental cars for collision?
7. Stanford taught me that working in teams is great for slackers.
8. I think three letter acronyms are for people too stupid to remember whole phrases.
9. Two words: family first.
10. Call it what you want, it still means firing people.
    

Top Ten Ways To Know You're Dating/Married To A Consultant

1. Referred to the first month of your relationship as a "diagnostic period".
2. Talks to the waiter about process flow when dinner arrives late.
3. Takes a half day at the office because, "Sunday is your day."
4. Congratulates your parents for successful value creation.
5. Tries to call room service from the bedroom.
6. Ends any argument by saying, "let's talk about this off-line."
7. Celebrates anniversary by conducting a performance review.
8. Can't be trusted with the car-too accustomed to beating up rentals.
9. Valentine's Day card has bullet points.
10. Refers to lovemaking as a "win-win".

Top Ten Ways to Know You've Got the Consulting Bug

1. Can't stop using words that don't exist.
2. Worried that he who dies with the most frequent-flyer miles wins.
3. Use so much jargon in conversation, friends think you're speaking a foreign language.
4. Constant urge to give advice on subjects you know nothing about.
5. Always-hyphenating-words-that-don't-need-to-be-hyphenated.
6. Keep seeing bullet points everywhere.
7. Can fit the thematic undercurrents of "War and Peace" into a two-by-two matrix.
8. Tired of having a social life beyond work.
9. A two-page story in Business Week is all it takes to make you an expert.
10. Firmly believe that an objective viewpoint means more than any real work experience.

Indian Telecom Market

Indian telecom market is currently the most attractive telecom market with a lot of interest being shown by foreign players.

The country was divided into 23 circles when the mobile phones were introduced in the country. Now DOT recognises Chennai as part of TN. Separate licenses were given out for each of the circles in 1994. The circles were classified as Metros, A, B or C depending upon the revenue potential for the circle with Metros & A circles expected to have the highest potential. The following table lists the current wireless penetration by Metro/

India is the now the second largest market in terms of mobile subscriber base after China but still it is at 32% teledensity and adding 10-12 million new subscribers every month.
Indian market is not only the most attractive but also the most competitive with over 7 operators in each circle and another five new operators likely to start operations in the near future. Nowhere in the world does any country have so many carriers. The dominant players are Airtel, Reliance, Vodafone, BSNL (state owned), Idea and Tata. Reliance and Tata offer CDMA technology while all the other players are in the GSM space. GSM has a 75% share of sbscribers and now even Reliance and Tata have either launched or in the process of launching nation-wide GSM services. Apart from the current players, there are several new players like Aircel, Unitech-Telenor, Shyam-Siestema, Etisalat that have got the license and spectrum to launch mobile services in several telecom circles. Shyam-Siestema is the only player to launch CDMA services while all the new operators are in the lucrative GSM space. The adjoining figure gives the market shares of the operators in India. It is a fragmented market with the biggest operator (Airtel) garnering only 24% share.

India is a predominantly prepaid market (93% of all subscribers are on prepaid) with low ARPU and high minutes of usage(MoU).The GSM ARPU is Rs 220 (~ USD 4.6) per month with a usage of 496 minutes per month in the quarter ending Dec, 2008. Similarly, CDMA ARPU stood at Rs 111 with a usage of 370 minutes per month. There is a wide disparity in the rural and urban teledensity with rural teledensity at 12% vs. urban teledensity of around 75%.

Regulatory has played a big role in development of Indian telecom market by brining in the competition at the right time and by removing bottlenecks. However, there are a few pending issues that still need to be resolved like the 3G spectrum auction and allocation, Mobile Number Portability and 2G spectrum allocation policy.

Given the low tele density in the country, the subscriber base is expected to grow at a brisk pace. Government expects the mobile base to cross 600 million by 2010 and most of the new additions are expected to come from rural areas where the mobile penetration is still low.
(All the data is sourced from COAI, AUSPI and TRAI which are the leading industry associations and regulatory bodies and ofcourse other secondary research)

Your Inbox and privacy after death

Saving that parting email from your first love in your inbox? Well, chances are, after you pass away, your spouse and the entire family will know about the long-held secret. This is because web email services like Hotmail and Gmail do not let users specify what should happen to their messages when they die. In fact, email services owned by internet giants like Google and Microsoft have a policy of keeping your data after you die and letting your next of kin or the executor of your estate access it. These services can hold tens of thousands of messages. Accounts with Gmail can hold up to 7GB — or roughly 70,000 emails with a small to medium picture attached to each and they archive the messages you’ve written as well as received. When it comes to deleting the data, Microsoft’s Hotmail will remove an account if it is inactive for 270 days, while Gmail leaves the responsibility to the next of kin. Of the top three providers, only Yahoo refuses to supply emails to anyone after the user has died. The user’s next of kin can ask for the account to be closed, but cannot gain access to it. A Yahoo spokesperson said the only exception to this rule would be if the user specified otherwise in their will. Meanwhile, social-networking site Facebook has recently publicised a feature called memorialisation that lets the family of deceased users keep their profile page online as a virtual tribute. MySpace, on the other hand, says it addresses the issue of family access to sensitive data on a “case by case basis”.