Tejas Will Supply Backhaul Equipment to Vi to Increase Network Capacity

Though Tata Group left the mainstream telecom market, it seems the company prefers to stay behind the curtain as Tata-backed companies continue to grab telecom contracts in the country. 

Tata-backed TCS & Tejas Networks are integral part of state owned BSNL's 4G rollout, and future's 5G roll out, infact BSNL's 5G ready 4G core is completely developed indigenously. Now Tejas grabbed a three-year contract from country's third largest telco - Vi to supply backhaul equipment for upgraded 4G network & upcoming 5G network. Back in 2021 Airtel also deployed equipment from Tejas to increase optical capacities in major metro areas.

Smaller Passive Infrastructure Providers Reshaping Indian Telecom

Despite the tower companies of India are going through several merger and acquisition, there are some new companies entered in the market - Suyog Telematics Ltd,  Signotox Towers Pvt. Ltd., Pratap Technocrats, SAR Televentures etc.

These companies are looking into new verticals of tower industries for generating revenues from telecom service providers. Innovative solutions from these companies can be cost-effective and energy-efficient. 

Report by Avendus predicts that in next 5 years capital expenditure in the digital infra space might go up to $35-50 billion. They also noted four major trends to drive this expenditure are: in-building solutions (IBS), outdoor small cells (ODSC), data centres (DCs), and fibre networks.

Revival of BSNL, deployment of 4G and 5G tech in their network and Vi's plans to expand 4G and enter into 5G space are also good news for these newcomers despite the presence of big companies like Altius (2.75L towers) and Indus Towers (2.5L towers) and mid-level players like GTL Infrastructure with 26,000 towers and Ascend Telecom with around 18,600 towers.

Vistara-Air India Merger: Let's Look into the Journey from Tata Airlines to Air India

October 8, 2021 was a great day for Tata Group, as home grown Airline returned to their origin - homecoming for Air India! Acquisition of Air India, Air India Express, and 50% of AISATS by Tata Group was India's first major privatization of a public sector company.

Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata (29-07-1904 to 29-11-1993) was the pioneer of Indian aviation. He was also India’s first commercial pilot license-holder. In 1932 JRD Tata founded Tata Air Services for transporting mails. On the maiden flight he flew with cargo from Bombay to Karachi on a de Havilland Puss Moth. 

Soon it grew quickly to enter into passenger service. 

In 1938 it was rebranded as Tata Airlines and started international flights. First international destination was Colombo, Srilanka. 

1953: Government of India formed two companies out of Air India - Air India took over international routes, while new entity Indian Airlines got the domestic and regional route. 

In 1962 Tata Airlines became world's first airline with a full jet-engine fleet. 

In 1971 Tata Airlines introduced luxury travel with 'The Palace in the Sky' on a Boeing 747. 

1981: Indian Airlines and Air India jointly founded Vayudoot Airlines mainly to serve Northeast India and also to smaller cities. It used several turboprop airliners - HS 748 (made by British company Avro, later acquired by Hawker Siddeley), Dornier 228 (made by German company Dornier GmbH), Fokker F27 (made by Dutch company Fokker). 

In 1993 Air India started first nonstop flight between New York and Delhi. 

05/2004: Air India launched a wholly owned low cost subsidiary called Air-India Express connecting cities in India with the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation by Jio Can Improve Smartphone Battery Life upto 40%

Earlier in a post, I shared the fact that IEEE reported that 5G-NR is more energy efficient than LTE, and 5G-NSA might use higher levels of energy to power 5G networks with 4G infrastructure, as two different forms of cellular technology massively increases power consumption in a network. Now Jio Platforms, the largest telecom operator in India, during its Q2 FY25 earnings call, has claimed that their Standalone 5G network can reduce power consumption on end-devices and this may help the smartphones' battery performance by 20-40%. 

BSNL 4G-LTE Review (Initial Launch)

I had already shared the update regarding BSNL 4G, which is getting live across the country. I found live BSNL 4G in my locality since beginning of September 2024. 

Now time to test the 4G-LTE network by BSNL. It's completely home-made tech i.e. Indian companies Tejas and TCS made this 4G tech exclusively for BSNL. The SIM cards BSNL is now selling all are 5G-ready - no need to upgrade the SIM when BSNL launches 5G in future. Telecom Minister expects BSNL 4G will go mainstream by middle of 2025. 

iPhone 16 - India launch price

All prices are MRP. 

iPhone 16 (128/256/512GB) - Rs 79,900/89,900/109,900

iPhone 16 Plus (128/256/512GB) - Rs 89,900/99,900/119,900

iPhone 16 Pro (128/256/512GB/1TB) - Rs 119,900/129,900/149,900/169,900 

iPhone 16 Pro Max (256/512GB/1TB) - Rs 144,900/164,900/184,900 

2024 October

BSNL Brings New Logo with the Hope for Better Future

BSNL New Logo (October 2024)

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), the state owned telecommunication company is all set to rise from the almost-ashes. Thanks to present government of India, Union cabinet approved a revival package of Rs 89,047 crore for the 4th telco of the country. BSNL was suffering for continuous losses for last 12 years due to debts, poor infrastructure and several red tapes of bureaucracy. 

While Airtel launched 4G services in 2012, BSNL is right now launching 4G across the country - that's 12 years late!

Vi Targets to Bring 5G in 17 Circles in Next 5 Months

Global telecom firm Vodafone and Aditya Birla Group backed Vi (Vodafone Idea Ltd) is getting ready for 5G launch, as they had recently partnered with Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung for 4G expansion, upgradation and 5G deployment. 

While Airtel and Jio rolled out 5G in October 2022, Vi with its financial struggles is yet to enter 5G space. Though Vi had several trials of 5G with multiple vendors. In February 2023, the Indian government converted debt-ridden Vi’s dues into equity, which made GoI to own 33.5% stake of Vi, as the single largest shareholder. After that some rumors came that BSNL may merge with Vi or BSNL may use Vi's 4G network - however those did not happen, thankfully. 

Vi Awards Next Phase 4G Expansion and 5G Deployment to Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung

Vi, the telecom JV between UK’s Vodafone and India’s Aditya Birla Group and the 3rd private telco of India has chose South Korean Samsung, Finland's Nokia and Sweden's Ericsson for 4G expansion and 5G rollout in certain circles for next 3 years for $3.6 billion. This is probably first time Vi cut deals with Samsung for network equipment, while Nokia and Ericsson being Vi's long term partner. With these deals, Vi is replacing Chinese vendors (Huawei and ZTE) on its networks.

In the deal worth Rs 13,500 crore, Nokia will replace the previous vendor (mostly Huawei) in Chennai/Tamil Nadu and Andra Pradesh where Vi generated more than 50% of revenue. Apart from these 2 key circles, Nokia will deploy its equipment in Mumbai, Gujarat, Haryana, UP-East, UP-West, West Bengal and Kolkata. It's a big blow to Huawei, and ensures growth for European vendors. Ericsson will deliver equipment 10 circles - Delhi, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, J&K, Odisha, Maharashtra, Northeast, Assam, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh and Samsung will supply to 3 circles - Karnataka, Punjab and Bihar. 

Indian Operators Making AI-Powered Filters to Take Out Spam

On 25th September, 2024 Airtel announced AI powered solution to curb spam calls and texts over its 4G network. Gopal Vittal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Bharti Airtel explained in the press conference that 400 data scientists of Airtel worked for last 12 months to develop this two-layered shield. This network driven, AI powered solution uses a proprietary algorithm to identify and classify spam calls and texts very fast - this shield processes 1.5 billion messages and 2.5 billion calls in 2 milliseconds. 

5G - How to Monetize?

Image created by Aria - AI by Opera

Every time, since the beginning of wireless communications and faster internet India stood as a back bencher compared to global standards - either India joined late or could not deliver what was promised. For eg, 3G/HSPA/HSPA+ was first launched in 2001 in Japan by Docomo and Airtel came with 3G in 2011, which took nearly 1.5 year to go mainstream. And it was never affordable at all.

Cut to 2016, country's richest man Mukesh Ambani backed Reliance Industries unleashed Jio to Indians with 4G-LTE. Wireless data became affordable, cluttered out non-serious players from the market and incumbents responded to Jio's move. 

Brookfield backed Altius Becomes Largest Tower Company in India

Canada based Brookfield-lead consortium takes control of ATC India via Data Infrastructure Trust (DIT), an Infrastructure Investment Trust backed by Canada's Brookfield Asset Management alongwith other investors including British Columbia Investment Management Corp (BCI) and GIC Pvt. Ltd (Singapore) for an enterprise value of Rs 18,200 crore ($2.2 billion). It marks Boston based American Tower Corp's exit from India. 

With this buyout Brookfield would get approx. 76,000 towers from ATC India and its tower portfolio goes to 2,57,000 – making it largest tower company of India (also globally, outside China). Just positioned from 1st to 2nd, Bharti Airtel backed Indus Towers have 2,25,910 towers as of June 2024. 

BSNL 4G Goes Live Across Kolkata

State owned telecom service provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is now busy in roll out of 4G networks across the country. In Kolkata circle, BSNL starts rolling out 4G network since May 2024. 

However me, living in suburbs of Kolkata did not find BSNL 4G signal in May, June, July, August. However since the begining of September 2024 I am getting BSNL 4G signals on my mobile phones. 

Checked in: Barrackpore (700 120), Kamarhati (700 058) 

BSNL 4G: ETA Unknown

On 15th August, 2024 BSNL announced that the state-run telco has deployed more than 15000+ 4G BTS across the country under Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative - the image you can see on the left was shared from BSNL's X (formerly Twitter) handle. 

However the target was 20,000 BTS installation. At the same time 'The Hindu Business Line' pointed out that DoT's Tarang website shows BSNL has only 10,000 active 4G BTS. 

BSNL's 4G service has been a long-due. Airtel was first Indian telecom operator to launch 4G services in 2012 in Kolkata. Spectrum and choosing equipment vendor were many of few roadblocks for the PSU. 

New Antibiotics Available in India (November 2024)

Antibiotic resistance is a real threat to mankind. In 2014 WHO declared its first global warning regarding antibiotic resistance is a global threat, and it's already here. The note also warns that overwhelmed use of antibiotics encouraged the evolution of drug resistant bacteria faster than mankind can develop new antibiotics. 

We at India - a third world country or developing country, are commonly bothered with Gram Negative bacteria (GNB) while developed countries are bothered with Gram positive bacteria (GP cocci). 

BSNL 5G May Come Earlier: Indian Start Ups Plan Trials on BSNL's 700MHz Spectrum

Government backed telecom service provider - BSNL, who, though late, is presently busy with 4G roll out across the country, may bring 5G before the expected date. Home grown Tejas and TCS backed BSNL's 4G network core can be upgraded to 5G easily. 

Airtel started 4G in 2012, and Jio brought it in 2016, but both companies launched 5G commercially in 2022. BSNL is just gearing up for 4G roll out in almost middle of 2024. Considering Airtel's entry in 4G space, BSNL 4G is just 12 years late. But recent tariff hike by Airtel, Jio and Vi made the customers to look into BSNL's plans and many are porting to BSNL, despite having only 3G offering in most places. 

5G Updates: Reduced Capabilities in 5G or 5G RedCap NR

5G RedCap NR (Concept by Microsoft CoPilot AI)

RedCap is abbreviation for Reduced Capabilities in 4G or 5G. This tech was conceptualized during Release 17 but it is getting traction in the era of 5G-NR (New Radio). 5G RedCap is also known as 5G NR-Light.

If you can remember Uninor or Telenor India has launched 4G over 1800MHz in India - that was narrow band LTE or NB-LTE. RedCap can be utilized in such scenario. 

"5G RedCap is introduced to bridge the gap between 4G and 5G. The minimum 5G requirement earlier was 100 MHz bandwidth and 4 RX antennas. This was not suited for low-cost and battery-involved LPWA IoT applications. 5G RedCap is defined to power low complexity LTE and NR devices with minimum hardware requirement. It functions in the FR2 frequency range of 5G NR making a whole new band of frequencies available for current 4G devices and initiates the migration from 4G to 5G."

EchoStar backed ORCID to Keep Open RAN Alive

In recent times, Open RAN has faced some backlash, but that does not mean the tech is dead nor the enthuathism around the technology. EchoStar Corporation, the company behind Boost Mobile, DISH TV, Hughes believes in Open RAN. The company has identified the flexibility of Open RAN is priceless. Then they brought their own playground for Open RAN players - ORCID. 

HQ at Englewood, Colo. (US), EchoStar Corporation, a global telecom and satellite service provider, has announced the launch of the Open RAN Center for Integration and Deployment (ORCID), a state-of-the-art Open RAN (O-RAN) testing and evaluation lab housed at EchoStar's Cheyenne, Wyoming, data center.

Road to 6G: 3GPP's Release 18 or 5G-Advanced

5G Advanced - AI Generated Photo (by Opera Aria) 

By the end of June, 2024 The 3GPP or the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, the organization responsible for developing protocols for mobile telecommunications, has introduced Release 18, also dubbed as 5G-Advanced after long work of 3 years. 

It should be reminded that in 2011 the 3GPP also used a similar 'Advanced' upgrade tactic during 4G-LTE days. LTE-Advanced came with Release 10 of 3GPP. 5G came with the 3GPP Release 15 in 2017. 

Interestingly as soon  as 5G-Advanced is launched, the specifications are already available to 5G equipment vendors. Telecom equipment vendors are happy to get it, as it would open a new road of revenue. 

ব্যারাকপুরের গপ্পোঃ বারানশী ঘোষ (Ghose) এবং তাঁর স্নানের ঘাট

দক্ষিণেশ্বরের কালী মন্দিরের আদলে তৈরি ব্যারাকপুরের অন্যতম দর্শনীয় স্থান হল অন্নপূর্ণা মন্দির বা 'শিবশক্তি অন্নপূর্ণা মন্দির এবং দেবোত্তর এস্টেট' - রাণী রাসমণির ছোটমেয়ে এবং মথুরা মোহন বিশ্বাসের দ্বিতীয় স্ত্রী জগদম্বা দেবী ১৮৭৫ সালে এই মন্দির স্থাপন করেন। এই মন্দিরের ব্যাপারে বিশদে এখন আর যাচ্ছি না। 

শিবশক্তি অন্নপূর্ণা মন্দির এবং দেবোত্তর এস্টেট

এই অন্নপূর্ণা মন্দিরের কাছাকাছি ৩ টি গঙ্গার ঘাট আছে - অন্নপূর্ণা মন্দিরের ঘাট ছাড়াও শশ্মান ঘাটের একটি ঘাট এবং রাসমণী ঘাট (যেখান থেকে হুগলীর বল্লভপুরের ফেরি ছাড়ে)। এখন অনেকেই অন্নপূর্ণা মন্দিরের ঘাটটিকেই রাসমণী ঘাট বলে থাকেন। আবার ফেরিঘাটটির নামও রাসমনি ফেরি ঘাট। এই ফেরিঘাটের ঠিক পাশের ঘাটটি আসলে স্বর্গত বারানশী ঘোষের স্নানের ঘাট। ১৭৮০ সালে (১১৮৯ বঙ্গাব্দ) এই ঘাটটি প্রথম তৈরি করেন বারানশী ঘোষ (Ghose)। 

Mukesh Ambani to Start African Safari via Radisys as Tech Exporter

If you are fan of sci-fi stories, you must heard of Jules Verne, the French novelist. Often celebrated as the father of science fiction, Mr. Verne thought beyond Asia, and gave greater importance to Africa in future world. Forbes notes, "For decades now, the growth opportunities that business leaders, economists and investors anticipated from Africa—from pharmaceuticals to minerals and telecom, light manufacturing and digital services—remained unlimited."

India's richest man Mukesh Ambani got that. With his Jio-owned subsidiary Radisys, Ambani is all set to fulfill his dream (announced in AGM 2020) to make India as global supplier of telecom technology. And for that the first overseas destination is Ghana, as Ghana government backed Next-Gen InfraCo (NGIC) has announced a partnership with Radisys in the end of May 2024 to build 4G and 5G shared network infrastructure in Ghana, the low-to-middle income economy based country in western Africa. 

BSNL Starts 4G Journey in Kolkata & West Bengal

After a long wait, state owned telecom service provider BSNL starts their 4G-LTE services in Bengal starting from Kolkata on 15th May, 2024.

First 4G BTS is launched in Ballygunge exchange. Mass scale 4G launch in Kolkata telecom circle would take another month, while BSNL would take 4G to atleast 50 cities of Bengal circle in next 2 months. PSU telco expects to provide full 4G coverage across the state within a year. 

Initially BSNL expects for rolling out 8-10 4G BTS daily in Kolkata circle. Already they have 300 BTS in hand. Phase I will have 1671 BTS installations and phase II will have 325 BTS deployment in Kolkata circle. Rest of Bengal will get a total of 3131 4G BTS in phased manner. 

Read This If You Want to Upgrade to HDFC REGALIA GOLD CC

Recently HDFC Bank stopped offering direct airport(domestic) lounge access on Regalia Credit Cards - now it would be based on the spends on that card. For availing upto 2 complimentary lounge access you have to spend 1L or more in a calendar quarter (Jan-Mar/ Apr-Jun/ Jul-Sept/Oct-Dec) and it is not easy like before - i.e. go to the desk of the lounge and swipe the card and enter. You need to get lounge access voucher from Regalia SmartBuy page. 

Now the point is HDFC has given away a lot of Regalia cards - and many of the customers after spending like 1L in first 90 days, got the card as LTF (life time free). 

বর্ধমানের আউসগ্রামের দরিয়াপুর - ডোকরা শিল্পগ্রাম

বর্ধমানের রাজা কীর্তিচাঁদের বানানো জলটুঙ্গি ঘুরতে গিয়ে খোঁজ পাই বাংলার এই প্রাচীন শিল্পকলার। যদিও ডোকরার ইতিহাস ৪০০০-৪৫০০ বছরের পুরোনো এবং সেই অর্থে ডোকরা খাঁটি বাংলার শিল্পকলা নয়। জলটুঙ্গি থেকে মাত্র ৫ কিলোমিটার দূরে দরিয়াপুর। 

ডোকরা হল ভারতবর্ষের অন্যতম পুরোনো আদিবাসী শিল্পকলা যার ইতিহাস প্রায় ৪৫০০ বছরের। মনে করা হয় ‘হারানো মোম ঢালাই’ পদ্ধতির (Lost or vanishing wax casting method) এই শিল্পকর্মের বিকাশ ভারতে প্রথম ঘটেছিল মধ্যপ্রদেশের বস্তার অঞ্চলে ডোকরা-ডামার উপজাতি মানুষদের হাতে। তাঁদের নামেই এই শিল্পের নাম 'ডোকরা'। কথিত আছে প্রায় ৩০০০ বছর আগে বস্তারের রাজা তাঁর রাণীর জন্য ডোকরার গয়না তৈরি করিয়েছিলেন। তবে সিন্ধু সভ্যতার শহর মহেঞ্জদোড়োতে প্রাপ্ত "ড্যান্সিং গার্ল" বা "নৃত্যরত নারী মূর্তি" হল ডোকরা শিল্পের এক প্রাচীন নিদর্শন। কাজেই এই শিল্পের মূলধারা কোথায় সে বিষয়ে যথেষ্ট তর্কবিতর্ক আছে।  

Tareq Amin Lands on Aramco Digital to Continue His Dream for OpenRAN

Back in 2020, O-RAN was just more than a concept, I covered its advantages and how Indian operators could be beneficial by embracing it. The post also covers the importance of 5Gi or Desi 5G for the operators as they were ditching Chinese vendors. This move to ditch Chinese vendors was also appreciated by American politicians. 

However more than 1 year after 5G launch in the country, none of the operators deployed OpenRAN ecosystem. Though all three - Jio, Airtel and Vi had explored O-RAN based networks before the 5G launch. 

Brookfield Acquires ATC India's Assets

Brookfield has acquired 100% of American Tower Corp (ATC)'s Indian unit for $2.5-billion valuation as announced on January 4, 2024. ATC India is the one of the leading independent Passive Telecom Infrastructure Providers in India. The acquisition is expected to be completed by Q2 of 2024. 

ATC India started its journey in 2007 by erecting towers for mobile operators in Orissa and Bihar. After that ATC India continued its growth by acquisition of other companies - Xcel Telecom (May 2009), Transcend Infrastructure (November 2009), Essar Telecom Infrastructure (February 2010), Viom Networks (majority stake in April 2016; complete acquisition in April 2019), Vodafone Tower Holdings (April 2018) Idea Cellular Infrastructure Services Ltd (ICISL) (May 2018).