Exciting times ahead

Indian Telecom space is heating up and how! Gartner’s research predict wireless services to hit $25.61 billion by year 2011. Year 2006 figures touched $2.95 billion making the growth per annum to be 18.4% per annum in the period 2007 – 2011. As expected, growth in data revenue will outpace voice revenue with a contribution of 22% in total wireless revenue in year 2011 as opposed to 9.6% in 2006.

 

Despite rapid expansion of wireless services in India, only about 2% of rural areas are covered while the total coverage area is 12.7%. Gartner predicts that of the expected 38.6% total coverage, 58% will be rural based connection and 95% will be urban connection.  

 

Drivers which we feel will fuel this growth are:

#   Lower entry level tariff

#   Under $25 handsets with current emphasis on research to provide entry level handsets

#   Attractive pricing of bundled up services with handset

#   Increased focus on rural marketing of cellular services

#   Greater efficiency in deployment of services

#   Integration of market players

#   Concentration of telecom operators to provide core service and marketing of these services

#   Further drop in call rates to match the landline rates

#   Expansion of businesses in semi-urban and rural areas

#   Availability of wider array, localized and user specific mobile Value Added Services

 

With the subscriber base expected to be 462 million by 2011, user friendly simple-to-use applications that can tap into the needs or aspirations of users will see fast adoption. Each region has its own need, but certain common denominators exist. Entertainment will always remain the primary desire of a subscriber (besides connectivity, of course).  Whether we take up from current scenario of TV and movie based entertainment or create new genres, Value Added Services developers and provides are never going to be short of space to expand.

 

And then there are services that fulfill needs of the users. Rural areas, which lack means of dissemination of information, will adopt such services if they are available at affordable prices. One of the most exciting applications will be the related to medical facilities. These facilities are relatively inaccessible to rural population. Their availability by means of video conferencing or even as a voice service is a space waiting to be tapped. Urban population, which is used to greater array of services, will demand their availability on mobiles.

 

Data revenue at rate of 22% of the predicted $25.61 billion works out to be $5.63 billion – enough to keep the existing players excited and attract new talent into this space.

New Strategic Vision of One97

As we all know that Vision Statements and Mission Statements are the inspiring words for any organization to clearly and concisely convey the direction of the organization.  

One97 has now announced a new strategic vision as an integrated – voice, data and IN based – telecom VAS player, and has one of the largest third party CTI infrastructure in India today.  One97 Communications provides this array of services to telcos, corporate clients and retail consumers.

The Vision of One97 Communications – “Transform telecom networks into unrivaled media to deliver content, information and intelligent transactions to consumers worldwide”
 

White Water Rafting Experience by Team One97

If Team One97 works hard, it knows how to have real fun as well!! We keep going out every once in a while to give ourselves a break and come back refreshed. Our last trip was to Rishikesh on March 23rd, where we had an incredible river rafting experience.

A group of over 25 of us took an overnight journey by road to reach Shivpuri, where we camped amidst a beautiful scenario bound on all sides by lush mountains, with the lovely river flowing at our feet. The serene beauty was soon punctuated with our fun-filled laughter and thrilling squeaks as we began the white water rafting we had gone for. 

Here is a glimpse of the fun we all had: 

 

We will, we will rock you

With this show of confidence in our abilities to be a leader in the mobile Value Added Services space, the VCs have in-fact reposed enormous responsibility on us. Innovative products and services, which have always been One97’s hallmark, are ready to be showcased to the global audience. Small, tight knit team has grown into a professional multi layered cohesive one with several new leaders ready to join their ranks.
 
Buzz is gaining ground as excitement is building up in One97 and mercury in Delhi scales new high everyday. We got funds when investment in the sector was drying up (check here). And that is an indication that our time has come – time to be the next global icon.

Why we need to work?

We work for some or the other purpose. For most of us it is a necessity and a dream to have better living conditions. But still there are few who feel it to be a learning process, a process to groom them and to improve upon their existing skills. Even for a fewer people working is out of excitement to explore the world and these kind believe in socializing. None of the above kind is different from each other. Interestingly, every one in his job tenure goes through these three phases.

When I was in college I used to hate it especially the screaming alarm clock and was more or less down with the examination ‘fever’ all round the year. This was the time when I dreamt of having a job with beautiful people and a strong social ambience. The thought of traveling round the globe and meeting new people gave a world of impetus to embark upon a professional career, though completely unaware of hardship and routine life ahead. The substitution was welcomed because I (not sure about others) hated the periodic semesters and never ending assignments.

The zeal was there and I joined a company only to realize that dreams differ from reality. Though I got what I wanted but the satisfaction never touched the expectancy level. I had an aim to learn more and more and at times even used to complain my seniors about sitting ideal without any work. This paid off, and loads of work came my way. Weekends turned into ‘days’ and over timing increased.

A phase came when I realized that my motive of life took a leap leaving behind the ‘l’ of learn. Few call it a leap and few call it greediness. The truth of life comes in many flavors and believe me the first touch is always painful to one’s conscience. To ‘l-earn’ (l silent) more and more that is what became the super set of all the ambitions. This is a fact and every human being is in this race of chasing money.

At the end I would like to mention about a small group of people who even cross this final phase towards Nirvana. Nirvana in itself seems to be quite spiritual but in professional world, nirvana is to attain one’s freedom in self established business. The mentality takes a U turn and business becomes a child which is it to be nurtured through out.

Just to add, all the mentioned phases are present but not dominant. Successful person is one who has a blend of all these three phases. This is my experience and I am sure millions will have a different view

Pet Mobile

A mobile phone to keep track of your pet pooch!

It is based on GPS tracking and voice communication tracking solution and allows you to set a geo-fence boundary for your pet (I mean the animal variety). More here 

Water pumps carry cellphone now!

Much before digital homes become a reality for ‘24/7 connected’ folks, Valishetty Narendra, a farmer in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh, has digitalized a vital aspect of farming. He has invented an innovative way to water his fields by dialing for it. 

Irregular power supply at his village required him to trudge to field to restart the water pump. To monitor the pump from comfort of his home, he worked out a device using two mobile phones. One phone, connected to the pump when called by the other mobile phone activated the pump. 

Just an interest in gadgets and circuits triggered Narendra’s six-month journey in perfecting the innovative device. Kudos to such practical product designers. (Report)

SMS’ese Novel !

A novel – The Last Messages, entirely based on text messages was released in Finland. It tells the story through text messages exchanged between a fictional executive traveling through Europe and India and his friends and relative back in Finland. (News article) How about a travelogue spiced with pictures taken by mobile camera? Or an account of expedition to Antarctica perhaps?

MoMos and presentations at MoMo Delhi

Delhi organized the second Mobile Monday ‘unconference’ on 20^th January, 07. The event was kick-started by the introduction where each participant, along with their name, described the shortcomings of their mobile device and their aspirations about its applications. Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola were the clear favourites in terms of handsets used. Majority of those present were unhappy with the current speed of GPRS and wished for faster connectivity, easier browsing ability, longer battery life. Most of the issues were related to older mobile models and could be sorted out once upgraded to newer models. (Audio)

The Keynote presentation, M-generation and business opportunities delivered by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, MD One97 Communications touched upon all key business opportunity areas in mobile domain.

He reminded the current M-generation of a world where one had to physically travel to the destination to get any work done. For banking, one had to travel to a bank, to purchase anything, one had to go to shops, to research one had to go to a library and likewise for other things. It was a world devoid of internet and email.

Then followed a time when one could get most of the work done over internet. Most of the things that one wanted to do in real life, could be done on net. Yet one needed to sit on a computer, log on to net to accomplish any task – they were still stuck to their seat. Mobiles solved this problem. Browsing, messaging, emailing, purchasing, information search can be conducted on mobiles. Compared to less than two million broadband connection in India, a potential client base of 140 million exists which is connected wirelessly.

Emphasizing the need to make sure that every application was mobile savvy to tap this market, he delved in every possible business opportunity in mobile domain. This opened up a world of opportunity for every audience member and he was bombarded with enthusiastic questions from every corner of the room. (Audio presentation)

Other presentations were
# Gagan Chadha, from Value First (Audio)
# Mandeep Singh of mChek (Audio)
# Varun Khurana Co-Founder and CEO, Wirkle: Mobile ecosystem and usability  (Audio)
# Mayank Kumar – Mobile Development Environments (Audio)
# Shantanu Chauhan of ValueFirst: Enterprise level security for mobile communications (Audio)
# Amit Khemka, Founding member OnYoMo (Audio)
# Deepak Kapoor, Editor, BPO News: Invading privacy through SMS Telegold (Audio)
# Navjot S Pawera of Opera (Audio)
# Nikhil Pahwa, ContentSutra: Questions & Answers (Audio 1 & Audio 2)

Photo link to MoMo Delhi, 20^th Jan 2007

The day was rounded off by an informal party at Geoferry’s thrown by Vijay of One97. While presentations, questions and answers triggered ideas, MoMos (the eating variety) as munchies torched the taste buds and proved to be a great hit with everyone. Thank you Nikhil for a brilliant idea!

My mobile is down with flu

How many times has your PC been at the receiving end of virus attack? Countless time, one would assume. Rarely does one find a system in this day and age, which has doesn’t have security of some sort. 

 

With increasing usage of smartphones and PDAs to access mails, browse website, download music, video clips and expected introduction and widespread usage of Bluetooth connectivity, 3G and WiMax, mobile devices are becoming a security thread especially for corporate networks. The market seems ripe for a new category of Mobile Value Added Service i.e. those that provide security solutions. We should foresee the same kind of multi-billion dollar industry as that captured by Norton Anti Virus solutions and others in the PC domain. 

 

I wonder how many virus in the mobile domain have been identified and what is the scale of destruction that they have managed to cause…