No SMOKING !

Anti smoker campaigners will be happy to see that now cigerette makers are coming up with packets with massive disturbing photo of throat cancer along with the specific warning : smoking causes throat cancer. 

I personally think with such photos, people will be little bit bothered to use such packets in public. 

Reliance Messed up with CDMA to 4G Migration (4G SIM is Active for Me)

On 6th May I visited local Reliance store and recharged my Reliance cdma no with 4G migration voucher.

Tata Docomo CDMA is Not Dead, Confirmed by CC

At least in Kolkata, CDMA services from Tata Docomo is not dead as confirmed by CCR (Customer Care Representative).

RCom Revised 4G FRC at Re 1, Pre-Migration Offers Withdrawn

Reliance Communications has revised their 4G offerings - all FRC has been changed and now it is priced at Re 1 for prepaid and data card users.

Check out the previous offer from RCom as 4G SIM Upgrade: LINK

Prepaid customers will not get 1GB EVDO data and 150 mins of local calling and unlimited R2R for 30 days as pre migration offer. However the base tariff will be 2p/sec for all local calls and other local/STD calls at 2.5p/sec - the thing is not clear that is it R2R local @ 2p/sec or R2others local, STD and R2R STD @2.5p/sec.

Telenor India Discards Payment Bank Plan, Acquires Prabhu Money in Malaysia

Oslo based telecom giant Telenor's 100% owned local Indian unit - Telenor India has planned to move away with their financial services. 

Last year in September Telenor Financial Services, IDFC Bank and Dilip Sanghvi of Sun Pharma were granted licence of 'Payment Bank' by RBI. Anyway all the three parties have mutually agreed not to persue the plan to start payment bank services. 

The reason of withdrawl of plans are yet to be known, however ET quotes an advisor of the JV that the lack of adequate physical presence will hamper the JV's bussiness. 

However in Malaysia, Telenor is acquiring Prabhu Money Transfer Sdn Bhd. 

Idea 3G Speedtest at Barasat (West Bengal) [May 2016]

Once again, I tested Idea 3G (the network was actually latched to Vodafone 3G) in Barasat, West Bengal.

Checked on 18.05.2016 - in between 3:30 am to 4 am (when the network has least traffic)

[Press Release] Ballr - Sports App Launched by Harabhajan Singh

•  Unique & disruptive, free to play; Ballr, the second screen of live sport addresses upwards of 400 million sports fans in Asia.

•  Addictively social gaming platform that offers fans a chance to win sporting experiences, phones, apparel, cars, sporting tickets & other premium prizes.

•  Launching in three Asian markets, Ballr open offices in Singapore, Sydney, Delhi & New York.

New Delhi, 19 MAY 2016: Today, Fantasy Sport Technologies held a landmark press conference at the Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi, hosted by much celebrated Indian cricket star Harbhajan Singh, to celebrate the launch of its unique and disruptive sporting application, Ballr.

Ballr, the entirely mobile, micro fantasy, fan engagement platform is the first of its kind to launch in Asia. Unlike traditional fantasy sports games, Ballr has introduced a new way to play - rapid fire micro gaming and has replaced monetary prizes with money can’t buy experiences and premium prizes.

Speaking on the occasion, Harbhajan Singh said, “I’ve been deeply associated with the leadership of Ballr in India and believe this will be a great platform for fans to connect with the game. It gives them the chance to play alongside, test their skill and get rewarded by brands. It is a much more interesting way to watch cricket and I am sure to play with it as well.”

Jio Can't Have a Cakewalk in the Business, Airtel Keeps Kryptonite Ready!

Jio is probably ironing out all the last moment wrinkles from its 4G & Digital services at this moment, but Jio will not have a cakewalk in Indian telecom once it's launched.

How is Bharti Airtel making its pitch stronger against formidable rivals?

No doubt about the fact that all the major telecom operators are now gearing up for the 4G war. When it comes to India’s top service provider Bharti Airtel, it has not left any stone unturned to brace itself up against its formidable rival Reliance Jio. Project Leap, and 4G launch in every other city are some of the examples, which indicate that it is in no mood to compromise with its numero uno position.

The company has invested massively in Project Leap, a program to transform its existing networks and reframing spectrum for better utilisation of the resources. It is also making a next generation data network with strong fiber backhaul.

Comparing to the latest comic book movie from DC Comics, Airtel seems to be Batman and Jio with its M(oney)-power from RIL (=Krypton) looks like Superman. Airtel's Project Leap can be considered as Kryptonite. 

The comparison seems more real, as RCom's notification of upcoming LTE800 comes in a Superman's cape labeled as 4G and RCom is Jio's partner in crime in 4G roll out. 

Here, we bring to you some of the initiatives that Airtel has taken or is taking to make its pitch stronger.

Airtel’s 4G Strategy:

LTE-TDD: Airtel had only 4 circles with 2.3GHz spectrum in 2010 and now, it has 2.3GHz in 9 circles via acquisition of Qualcomm’s Indian venture and Augere Wireless.

Last month Airtel bought out Aircel's 4G assets (BWA spectrum) in 8 circles - i.e. Airtel now has 2300 MHz spectrum in 17 circles.

LTE-FDD: Airtel keeps buying spectrum on 1800MHz band, which is most popular for LTE across the globe. With the partial acquisition of Videocon Telecom’s spectrum, Airtel sets its 4G footprint in 4 new circles – Bihar, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh East and West.

Apart from West Bengal, Assam and Jammu & Kashmir in all circles, Airtel can launch 4G/LTE – FDD or TDD or both. (considering 20MHz on 2300MHz or atleast 5MHz on 1800MHz or both)

LTE-Advanced: In 8 circles, Airtel has enough spectrum for both LTE-TDD and FDD roll out. Airtel already has been running field trials for carrier aggregation for LTE-Advanced. In Kerala they demonstrated that peak speed can reach 135Mbps on LTE-A.

LTE on sub 1GHz band: Among the sub 1GHz band, the Indian government had auctioned only 800MHz and that spectrum was taken up by the CDMA operators as CDMA2000 (including 1x, EVDO Rev A and Rev B) was deployed on 800MHz in India. The Defence Ministry owns a huge access on 1900MHz and so, Airtel did not seem to be interested in that band.

In coming years, the government will sell 700MHz band, but the price seems to be too high for all the operators. Even Airtel seems not to be interested.

Circle category	Circles	Platinum 3G	4G | LTE LTE-TDD and LTE-FD
Metro	Delhi		Delhi, Faridabad, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon
	Kolkata	Kolkata	Kolkata
	Mumbai	Mumbai	Mumbai
Cat A	Andra & Telengana	Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad	Guntur, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Nellor, Sricity, Tirupathi, Kakinada
	Gujarat	Ahmedabad, Baroda , Botad, Ankleshwar, Deesa
	Karnataka		Bangalore, Belgaum, Dharwad, Gulbarga, Hubli, Mangalore, Manipal, Mysore, Tumkur, Udupi
	Maharastra & Goa		Ahmednagar, Amravati, Aurangabad, Nagpur, Nalasopara, Nasik, Pune, Solapur, Vasai, Virar, Goa
	Tamilnadu & Chennai		Chennai, Coimbatore, Erode, Hosur, Madurai, Pondicherry, Salem, Tiruchirappalli, Tirunelveli, Tiruppur, Vellore
Cat B	Haryana	Ambala, Panipat, Karnal, Hisar, Rohtak, Sonipat, Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Jind	Ambala, Hissar, Karnal, Panipat, Rohtak, Sonipat, Yamunanagar
	Kerala		Calicut, Cochin, Thrissur, Trivandrum, Manjeri, Tirurangadi, Thalaserry  * Airtel carried out LTE-Advanced trials in Kerala
	Madhya Pradesh & Chattisgarh	Bhopal, Sehore, Hoshangabad, Indore, Raipur, Bilaspur, Jabalpur
	Punjab	Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula, Zirakpur, Kharar, Patiala, Ludhiana, Moga, Amritsar, Bathinda, Jalandhar, Phagwara, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, Dera Bassi	Amritsar, Batala, Bathinda, Chandigarh, Fazika, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Khanna, Kotkapura, Kurali, Ludhiana, Malerkota, MandiGobindgarh, Moga, Mohali, Muktsar, Nabha, Panchkula, Pathankot, Patiala, Patran, Phagwara, Rajpura, Rayya, Ropar, Samana, Sirhind, Tarn Taran, Zirakpur
	Rajasthan		Ajmer, Bhilwara, Kota, Udaipur
	Uttar Pradesh East	Lucknow, Kanpur
	Uttar Pradesh West
	West Bengal
Cat C	Assam	Guwahati, Silchar, Dibrugarh, Tezpur, Nalbari, Dhemaji Etc = 60 Towns
	Bihar
	Himachal Pradesh		Baddi, Mandi, Shimla, Solan
	Jammu Kashmir
	North East	Agartala, Aizawl, Dimapur, Shillong, Itanagar, Imphal, Churachandpur	Agartala, Aizawl, Dimapur, Imphal, Itanagar, Kohima, Naharlagun, Shilong, Tawang
	Orissa	Puri, Kendujhar, Jagatsinghapur, Chhatrapur, Balugaon, Baripada, Gopalpur, Bargarh, Jharsuguda, Jajapur, Kendrapara, Sundargarh, Nayagarh, Barbil, Joda, Jajpur = total 40+towns	Balasore, Berhampur, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Jharsuguda, Puri, Rourkela, Sambalpur

** Regarding the table: 4G markets are updated till April 2016 and Plat3G markets are updated till May 12, 2016. The table would be updated time to time. 


Partnering up with other operators:
Airtel has some network sharing deals with Jio that includes international bandwidth and existing network infrastructure sharing deals. Even Airtel has plans to ink out similar deals with BSNL to reach out to remote areas.

VoLTE :
Currently, Airtel offers call fall back technology to its 4G/LTE subscribers, voice call temporarily goes to 2G/3G network and then again data moves to 4G network (CSFB). Unlike Jio, Airtel keeps its cards aside for Voice over LTE but watching this evolving technology very closely.

Spectrum Refarming on 3G and 4G:
Airtel is refarming its spectrum bank for better utilization of spectrum. For example, 900Mhz, which was being used for 2G services, will now be used for 3G in selected cities.

Airtel’s 3G on 900 Mhz, branded as Platinum 3G offers better network coverage, superior indoor signal, lesser power consumption and faster connectivity.

Idea Cellular also launched its 3G on 900 bandwidth, which is up and running in Delhi, Pune and Nashik.

What other Players are up to?
Till now Vodafone, Idea and Telenor have launched their 4G services in the country. While Vodafone is expanding its 4G network slowly and launched it in selected pockets of Kerala, Kolkata, Bangalore and Navi Mumbai; Idea Cellular is expanding very fast.

Idea has launched 4G/LTE in 8 of its 10 circles (AP, Karnataka, Maharastra, Tamilnadu incl. Chennai, Haryana, Kerala, Punjab, North East and Orissa) where it has enough spectrum on 1800MHz band. However Idea is still not in the right position with 4G due to its spectrum crunch.

Idea is yet to launch LTE in Maharastra and North East. It should be noted that Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, are offering 4G at 3G price or little higher price than 3G.

Telenor India offers 4G in Varanasi and Vishakapatanam. For Telenor which basically offers 2G voice and data, 4G data is just a big opportunity for revenue.

Tikona also announced a soft launch in Varanasi, which is yet to be confirmed whether it’s LTE or MIMO (it’s Tikona’s basic & existing technology to offer broadband services). Even BSNL has similar launch in Chandigarh, but on 2500 Mhz band.

Let’s make it short, right now among existing players only Airtel and Idea seem to be serious on 4G turf.

While Reliance Jio keeps delaying its commercial launch, incumbents will expand their 4G services to keep their high ARPU postpaid and prepaid customers and poach from other operators to try their 4G services.  Jio has so much of spectrum across 800, 1800 and 2300Mhz band and extensive fiber coverage across the country. It has tied up with several tower companies and already has its 4G and fiber coverage even in remote areas.

Meanwhile, the reports are coming that Jio 4G SIM cards are pre bundled with Reliance Digital’s LYF smartphones. Apart from few VoLTE enabled smartphones from LG and Micromax, Jio 4G will be mostly offered over Chinese OEM made LYF smartphones, which have pretty low specs compared to their pricing. And don't expect any Android update on these devices, only you can get OTA update of Jio services.

4G uptake has mainly 3 barriers – coverage, affordability and devices. Jio already has good coverage and lower tariff schemes will literally bleed the incumbents, but with Jio’s bundled device strategy, incumbents may easily go ahead of the curve as they allow all 4G phones with CSFB voice support.

So as a result, I am not convinced with Jio's strategy with the upcoming 4G launch. 4G uptake has mainly 3 barriers - coverage, affordability and devices. Jio already have good coverage and tariff will literally bleed incumbents. But with Jio's bundled device strategy incumbents may easily go ahead of the curve as they allow all 4G phones with CSFB voice support. So Jio is not welcomed in Indian telecom, they have to fight back to make a business.

The original story was first published on April 7, 2016 on Telecomtalk.info 

LYF Smartphones+ Ad Emails Getting into My Spam !!

Just checked my 'JUNK MAIL' and guess what found, LYF SMARTPHONE+ ad from  support[A]evouchercode dot com & support[A]kiddybazaar dot com - Definitely they are from spam senders, and clicking on them new pages opens biibo dot com, which is blocked by my Avast AV.

However check out the ad [pic]

[Press Release] Gemalto offers audio services over LTE with world’s first VoLTE Cat. 1 module

Santa Clara, California, May 09, 2016 – Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO), the world leader in digital security, is revolutionizing Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity by bringing high-quality voice capabilities over LTE to industrial applications using single-mode LTE Cat.1. At its IoT World pre-event in Santa Clara, the company is demonstrating its world-first Cinterion® Voice over LTE (VoLTE) Category 1 (Cat.1) module enabling the combination of simultaneous voice and data capabilities using LTE. It is ideal for solutions migrating to LTE that want to keep the flexibility of cost-effective audio capabilities. This includes security and alarm systems, mHealth monitoring and smart home and building applications.

Being the most complete Machine Type Communication standard in service on the market today, this module joins Gemalto's growing family of LTE Cat. 1 modules offering the reliability, longevity and power efficiency of 4G. Delivering simplified end user control and voice capabilities, the solution benefits from greater cost efficiency and improved connection speeds compared with traditional VoIP services.

Yes You Can Use Jio 4G Now - Get Invitation and Buy LYF Smartphone

Reliance Jio is yet to be launched, and only Mukesh Ambani knows when. However Jio services are already in use by Jio and RIL employees and it has been expanded by invitation system to general population. A Jio user can send 10 invitations to other non-Jio users to jump into Jio 4G.

Well there is a catch, you need to buy a LYF smartphone to get this offer. Once you show referral code to Reliance Digital store you buy a LYF phone with a Jio SIM card.

Have a look into it:

In another note, check this picture too !!

Reliance CDMA to Reliance 4G - Answers to FAQ

Reliance Smart SIM Kit for 4G | LTE

So keeping a Reliance CDMA RUIM working turns out to be great, as I got offer from RCom to jump into their 4G services. Well I have got my Reliance Smart 4G SIM 1 days back.

Jionet Log-in Page Shows JioChat Offers

RCom Announces Migration Plans for CDMA-to-4G, Phase I Launch in 9 Circles Only

Anil Ambani headed Reliance Communications (RCOM) has announced its migration plans for the CDMA subscribers who will be migrated to RCOM's 4G/LTE network once it's commercially launched.

Details are available here: http://www.rcom.co.in/Rcom/personal/4G/4G_overview.html

Note that Reliance will use its CDMA spectrum (i.e. 850MHz band) for LTE-FDD roll out. That will be first LTE800 network in India.

In Phase I, RCOM will launch LTE800 in 9 circles. Including three metros (Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai) RCom will launch LTE800 in Gujarat, Andra & Telengana, Maharastra & Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh West and East.

Work in Progress : 5G May Go Commercial by 2020

Though India is yet to see 4G in full potential, developed nations are keeping their tastebud ready for next generation of mobile telephony. Verizon, United States' largest mobile operator already has kickstarted their 5G projects. and was able to hit 1Gbps+ speed in some 5G field trials.

Verizon has used infra from Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung, and deployed 5G at 15GHz, 28GHz, 39GHz and 64GHz band, though most trials ran on 28GHz. Due to Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s restricted rules, Verizon was able to conduct 5G for fixed wireless.

Jio Linked with LYF, Banners Seen on Regular Mobile Stores

Though RIL has launched LYF smartphones in December last year, these devices were exclusive to Reliance Digital stores. With TVC comes with IPL 2016, LYF smartphones are distributed to local non-branded retail stores.

The banner of LYF Smartphone+ comes with a Jio logo and reads as 'Jio Digital Life'. This could be the first advertisement of Jio coming offline.

These banners are seen across many stores of Kolkata and West Bengal.