US regulator rejects proposal for free wireless broadband service - Interesting!!

Federal regulators (FCC- Federal Communications Commission)have shot down a proposal by a startup called M2Z Networks Inc. to build a free, nationwide wireless broadband network using a spare slice of airwaves.  M2Z had requested that the winner of an auction for the radio spectrum would provide free Internet service to anyone who connects to it.  M2Z's business model was - offering free basic wireless broadband access — with speeds of up to 768 kilobits per second — that would be supported by advertising in addition to a faster, premium service.

The FCC is still studying possible uses of the spectrum.

Fund raising will be the key concern for Indian Telecom service providers in 2010-11

As per Economic times - Nine cellphone companies have joined the fray for just three 3G spectrum slots while 11 companies, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications and Aircel, have bid for broadband wireless spectrum, which will allow them to provide wireless internet services.

One more interesting news was floating around. RCOM has said that it has crossed the 100-million mark in wireless customers and would explore both acquisition and expansion opportunities to strengthen its foothold in the domestic market. RCOM expects to add another 100 million customers within the next 1,000 days.

I think the time is ripe in Indian Telecom industry for consolidations. 3G auctions will be followed by M & A activity provided the auctions do not stretch the balance sheets too far. Amid ongoing price wars it would take serious efforts to raise funds for acquisitions. With interest rates moving north - the funds requirements for overseas acquisition , 3G auctions and M&A within India will be difficult to balance. The winners may emerge from those who will be able to balance fund requirements rather than balance the operations. Is Bharati listening?

 

Unique Identification Number (UID) - Does the idea of roping in Telecom service provider has merit?

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)has been established to provide a unique number to every resident in the country to target social security services as well as to assure the internal security. Authenticating 1.16 billion people is not an easy task. At this scale, it's going to be a one of its kind project and given the "as is" stage in which India is currently in, Mr. Nilekani needs to do lot of head scratching.

Nilekani, has already said that UIDAI would be looking for the databases of PAN card, passport, driving license, ration card, voter I-card and so on. But the first three cover only a small part of the population and the ration card data is subsumed in voter card data. The telecom user database of 500 million users is an obvious source which can be digged to help the UIDAI to have some part of the personal information checked.


Hence, The Indian government’s ambitious and high-tech unique identity or UID project is all set to ride on India’s 500 million strong telecom network as one of the largest available databases of subscribers anywhere in the world. So as a logical conclusion, DoT, along with the various telecom service providers, can be major stakeholder in this process. There are 480 million telephone subscribers in the country at the moment. Taking margin of error into account, the telecom database is an authenticated database of people in terms of identity and address is concerned.

To discuss how the database of nearly 500 million telephone subscribers can be used for issuing the unique identification number, the enrollment process of UID and how the telecom companies could help in the task of "Standardisation of Know Your Resident' norms which is a major goal of the all-India project for issuing the unique ID, UID Authority of India chaiperson and former Infosys cochairman Nandan Nilekani met telecom operators and DoT officials on 24th Sept seeking their cooperation.

While media reports indicate that Nilekani have sought similar cooperation from banks, post offices, and energy and fertilizer sectors, none of these offer the kind of large subscriber numbers and ready-to-use verification details as the telecom sector. This means that the country’s telecom subscribers could be among the first to be enlisted into UID scheme.

It is learnt that the project is expected to take 12 to 18 months to issue its first UID card and will then accelerate to clock half a billion citizens by the end of 2012. The telecom subscriber base works out perfectly since estimates place mobile users at well past 700 million by this timeframe. So essentially, if the UIDAI could convert every known mobile subscriber into a unique identity, it would have achieved a feat unmatched globally.

A major hurdle in implementing the project arises from the daunting task of developing appropriate software to support such a large database. The UID solution will have to have a quick query response system so that one can search by biometrics, particularly to track criminals. Further, the task of physically collecting one billion biometrics, photographs and other details in a short period of time is a logistics nightmare. Outlets will have to be nominated where people can go to have their data uploaded on to the database. Here again, the 10 million-strong mobile sales and distribution machinery may hold the key. This is because India has 97% mobile subscribers in pre-paid category who return month-after-month to renew the charge on their SIM cards.


As reported in press, Mr. Nilekani has said that the project will provide a unique identification (UID) number not a card. And hence the authentication can be made by using mobile phones. Once the UID is issued, one can go for online authentication.

Now all these seems to be just initial thoughts, getting the loose ends tied up will take its own time. In my opinion, the operators themselves rely on address proof and photo id proof which are unreliable for as far as linking to unique ID is concern. Further many forms (CAF) are missing and operators are being penalized for this. In my opinion, given the fact that many people carry more than two mobiles and also that many of reported numbers may not be operative, it will difficult to get meaningful information from mobile customer data beyond 100 million customer. To take the idea far, Mr. Nilekani's team will require to do some out of box thinking.

Is DS3 Service What You've Been Looking For?

Many online entrepreneurs were still in dilemma of their online business, simply because, they haven't found yet the best internet solution to boost their income to the next level? Well, I'm sure thousands of our internet marketers still wander around the net trying to figure out what should be done to maximize their income potential. They've heard a little about DS3 Line but never exerted efforts to discover the hidden wonders of this technology.

When you are serious about online business you should not take it for granted even when you have huge capital to cover huge losses in your first two years in the business. If you have more knowledge about online marketing you should be able to earn immediately without sacrificing your own money you gained maybe from your traditional business. I'm sure that when you learned more about this DS3 technology you can appreciate this technology and be a part of its growing members online.

The DS3 technology may not be as cheap as what you've expected it to be but there are ways where you can be connected at a very low price. There are great offers online if you know how to find them. These offers will allow you to weight your choices. A lot of network providers online which can give you the offers you can choose from, are only waiting for you.

DS3 line is a lot faster than the so called T1 line because it provides 45Mbps of speed so it is about 30 times faster than the T1 service. DS3 service lines are taken advantaged by large Internet Service Providers and sites with huge bandwidth demands. These capabilities are leading the market head. However, the problem for those customers looking to upgrade to DS3 line is not in finding the right supplier, but the work involved in reducing the number of endless suppliers to the one that would is the most advantageous for your specific business needs. Businesses can find and buy broadband services that suit their business needs. It should help them cut on their operating costs. The right medium is probably all it takes to hold a legitimate contract with any leading service provider.

There are clearly several ways to do so. You may search for local businesses in the directory or search carefully the World Wide Web to find the best DS3 line provider in your area that is suitable for you. But there is another more effective and efficient option when the time factor is involved, and it is still the Internet that remains to be of great assistance when it comes to finding the ideal DS3 line service provider in your location in just minutes.

MTS expands its MBlaze service in Rajasthan & Karnataka

CDMA operator MTS has expanded the footprint  of its much popular  high-speed mobile broadband service with its launch of MBlaze  in seven towns of Rajasthan and nine towns in Karanataka circles. CDMA based mobile MBlaze will now be available in15 towns of Rajasthan with the roll out in seven new towns  which includes. Alwar, Bhilwara, Ajmer, Bikaner, Kankroli, Banswar, Rajnagar. Similarly in Karnataka circle it will be available in 25 towns including nine towns of Bhadravati, Bijapur, Gadag-Betigeri, Gangawati, Gulbarga, Hassan, Raichur and Shimoga where MBlaze is newly lauches. MTS intends to spend 25cr in the state of Rajasthan and in the next 15 days its presence will exist in 33 towns of the state.  For Karnataka circle the company has earmarked Rs 75 cr expansion of Data business .

MTS has tied up with Hewlett Packard (HP) where on purchase of HP laptops, customers can get MBlaze for just Rs. 999, in prepaid as well postpaid plans.Additionally, MTS using its High Speed Data network, also brings in the innovative MTS TV service  - provides access to Live TV and Video on Demand to customers