New World of Communications

Thanks for your comments, Amit & Sridhar, and othe...

2009-08-20T23:05:40.380+05:30

Thanks for your comments, Amit & Sridhar, and others who posted to Yammer:

Price is obviously a major issue, everyone's pointing to it.. but I think price has become the issue because customers are not getting commensurate quality/service. Perhaps, if quality and speeds were to increase, customers would be OK paying an appropriate price for it.

The other issue is that we still do not have much competition in Broadband; that has impact on price as well as innovation / market education.

What's the biggest inhibitor to Broadband today? M...

2009-08-20T08:32:51.125+05:30

What's the biggest inhibitor to Broadband today? My take in order of priority is:

1. Price - the variance in pricing is a factor of competition, but the price itself is not a problem, it is either in comparison to alternatives or not an issue for most if #2 and perhaps #3 is dealt with ...

2. Connection quality - inconsistent quality and poor quality of customer service - everyone has broadband horror stories, vs. no one much talks about it because it is always there.

3. Access - Those that have access the more mature neighbourhoods have options and alternatives, but most have just one service provider.

4. Content - it is the extent of the 'useful' stuff you can do online vs. recreational use. Examples of public service transactions (passport applications, utility bills, etc) moved online.

5. PC density - the unconnected PC segment is growing steadily narrower, so much so that soon a stand-alone PC will be a anachronism. The driver of increasing PC density is new usage models rather than organic growth in traditional sectors. Rule of thumb: tipping point is at 30% PC density ....

6. Add-ons - while we are many years from this being a gating factor, the drive then will be the additional services such as web filters (spam, net filters for kids), applications etc.

Sridhar

Srinivas, Good domain area for a blog. I think th...

2009-08-19T13:48:54.474+05:30

Srinivas,

Good domain area for a blog. I think this is an important issue. Similar to the Mobile Phone revolution, we need a Broadband revolution in India. Some might say we already have it - I guess those people haven't tried: setting up a broadband in India, using it at a consistent 'broadband speed', having it reliably up at anytime!

Having used broadband from 4 different providers over the past 2 years, I can say that the overall experience across all levels - customer service, installation, reliability, speed, is far from satisfactory.

Looking forward to what others feel.

Thanks
Amit

it would probably let the Big Airlines think of re...

2009-08-19T11:26:23.336+05:30

it would probably let the Big Airlines think of reducing the Business class to a mere 8 seats from 32 :) just a flash thought

You are right if decision making was based on econ...

2009-07-04T17:47:50.142+05:30

You are right if decision making was based on economics. In this case it seems there is huge corporate interest that is leading to the flip flop. Otherwise issues like base price and number of slots to be auctioned is no rocket science that it would take 3 years to finalise policy

Interesting, the question. As is evident, the regu...

2009-01-27T01:43:00.000+05:30

Interesting, the question. As is evident, the regulatory authority and its parent body have been at constant logger heads over matters of policy, not just about pricing, but also about auction procedure and fairplay.

While a regulatory body has been installed with the right intentions, it has been rendered defunct thanks to the lack of decision influence it can generate.

The rot, in essence is at the leadership. While the government has woken up to the potential of telecom industry, its resources are scarce, be it for coordinating the legal procedures or for bringing order to market demands, or surprising still, to communicate between the various arms of the government itself.

Was someone looking for Mr. Maran?

The fact that google and apple are on top is an in...

2009-01-05T09:12:00.000+05:30

The fact that google and apple are on top is an indication that thinking outside the box approach in a technology sector will most likely help shift that sector that is perpetually changing.
In relation to a parralel post regarding that famous tagline "the computer is personal again" we can observe that he iphone, is way more than a calling device. Apple succeded in this matter in providing a killer platform that can provides unlimited applications
a download away, which is far from being the case form all the regular mobile players.
Is because the people in charge of writing interface application in most mobile companies are not thinking simplicity and efficiency and when they do , the design is the last consideration in the product offering. With so many products on the market and so much competitions between device, it appear that design and functionality combined to simplicity is what customer are looking for.
As mentioned the key is into data driven applications combined to slick interface.

the Reason TATA appear on top of all telecom indian companies is simply because of its unmatched global network. Something that no other indian companies can claim. Airtel, Barthi and Reliance are fiercely competing for the huge Indian market but seem to have forgotten the rest of the world. Or at least it doesnt translate yet in brand recognition.

I feel so proud for India. I am sure in the next l...

2008-11-18T11:05:00.000+05:30

I feel so proud for India. I am sure in the next list or so, if it focusses more on Asia, the top 5 positions will be from India.

Not because you are from Tata, but Tata definitely comes across as a nice, reliable brand with good business practices, unlike other companies in the same sector. I am reading various Indian blogs from blogadda.com and am glad that I found yours. Bookmarked!

I would agree to your contention that telcos could...

2008-10-27T06:26:00.000+05:30

I would agree to your contention that telcos could benefit from the slowdown. One clear trend, I am noticing is reduction in travel budget and more use of technology like Video conferencing. Companies like Cisco, Polycom and others are trying to capitalize the slowdown to hardsell their telepresence solutions. Cisco, incidentally has saved $100 million on travel till now.

A Yankee research suggests that
those effects will be relatively small for telcos, but could be harsher for vendors.

http://www.yankeegroup.com/pressReleaseDetail.do?actionType=getDetailPressRelease&ID=2424

Ovum also has shared its expertise on the impact in one of its reports:

http://www.ciol.com/Technology/Mobility/Feature/Ovums-charter-for-telecos-for-2009/101008111331/0/

Very god effort, needs to sustain.What sort of opp...

2008-10-19T19:48:00.000+05:30

Very god effort, needs to sustain.

What sort of opportunities TC as the telecom MNCs will have in the emerging telecom markets like Africa and South America?

Will TC not grow big to sit along with the telecom giants of USA and UK, if they are successful in achieving business outside their home country - in the African or South American Continents?

@laurent, I believe the Cisco road-map includes sm...

2008-10-15T19:47:00.000+05:30

@laurent, I believe the Cisco road-map includes smaller form factors so that it can become personal. The big issue with personal telepresence is the bandwidth availability at a personal level... given different types of networks and erratic connection speeds, I am not sure if this will really become mobile. We have Skype video chat for that anyways :-)

But I have seen a few small players talking of a desktop version of Telepresence... that would be really interesting.

@sudesh,Thanks for your comment and the link to yo...

2008-10-15T19:19:00.000+05:30

@sudesh,

Thanks for your comment and the link to your interesting post.

I am not sure whether the mobile operators could (or should) have subsidized the handsets, they could surely have done much more to integrate their service experience with that of the device.

If you see the marketing, it is about the "iphone you've been waiting for", and nothing about any local apps or unique services... it was one more expensive device that is available on the network, and btw, if the gprs or edge works, we will charge you 5p/10Kb... what a let down and waste of an opportunity!

No wonder very few people have bought the phone. They set it up for failure.

You are right in your observation about dumb pipes...

2008-10-15T16:41:00.000+05:30

You are right in your observation about dumb pipes. The officially stated position of Vodafone is what you have mentioned--earn through the increased usage of data services (now GPRs and later through 3G) by iPhone users. Officially they have also stated that "pricing of iPhone was decided by Apple" and that they are not making any money from Apple and thereby not subsidizing the phone.

Please check out my take on iPhone launch

http://sudeshprasad.blogspot.com/2008/08/iphone-launch-damp-squib-this-is-india.html

Hello Sir, I have attended your talk at SITM Commu...

2008-10-05T11:12:00.000+05:30

Hello Sir, I have attended your talk at SITM Communique and found the ideas presented very interesting and engaging. In my opinion, customer doesn't want the tool, but a solution to a need. Over the time, in a product or service, delighting features become expected features and expected features become assumed features. Also, competition goes all out to satisfy the assumed and expected features in a product or service for the consumer. This idea is clearly understood by Google, Yahoo, 3M, etc. In this new world of communications, new business models are emerging and many old ones are becoming extinct. Companies should strive to become a customer's friend and anticipate and understand not only his current, but future and latent needs. Innovation only will help companies in having a competitive advantage in communications, as followers can be completely neglected. Also, new methods of extracting value can be found from basic services. That needs great understanding of customer. For the SOHO user, alternative revenue streams from advertising will help in adoption of services. Also, the proper choice of platform, either proprietary or open-source, will be a key in efficient pricing. Thus to succeed in this new era, innovation in products or services with innovation in platforms and business models, will be the key.

This offer makes even more sense in the current fi...

2008-09-30T21:17:00.000+05:30

This offer makes even more sense in the current financial crisis that is happening in the US and starting to ripple in Europe. A lot of financial firms are going to look at their spending over the next few months.
Telepresence is definitely an alternative to cutting cost and improve efficiency on a multiple levels.
This technology will probably jump though the roof when it become more affordable and mobile...