Airtel Testing LTE 900 (Band 8) in Kolkata

Airtel has launched LTE900 in Mumbai and Punjab circle officially, and another some circles will see Airtel's LTE900 go live in coming days. Airtel is refarming spectrum on 900MHz which is being used for 2G in most circles and 3G in some circles. This is second refarming on 900MHz by Airtel. 

Airtel's LTE900 will be an answer to Jio's LTE850, both can provide better indoor coverage and extended LTE coverage. It should be noted that Jio which is a pure play LTE operator has 98.8% of LTE coverage while Airtel stands second with 90.0%, as informed by Ookla.

Today I have checked Airtel's signals, and even inside the house Airtel's LTE is detected as LTE 3CA. Though I could not find or latch into Airtel's LTE900 my guess is the third carrier of Airtel LTE is on 900MHz, apart from 2300MHz and 1800MHz. 

Tata Rebrands it Wired Broadband to Tata Sky Broadband

Seems like Tata Tele is moved on from its Docomo branding, as it is geared up for Tata Sky Broadband (www.tataskybroadband.com). 

So Tata opted a new brand name for its fibre based broadband services, and it's their popular DTH services - Tata Sky. The choice of such brand, is definitely to target TV, Internet and Fixed Line market at a go. That's the thing Jio aims to achieve with GigaFiber. 

In December 2018, Tata Sky Broadband was launched in 12 cities - Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ghaziabad, Delhi, Pune, Bhopal, Chennai, Gurugram, Thane, Noida, Bengaluru and Mira Bhayandar (Maharastra). By February end of this year the list expands to another 3 cities Kolkata, Pune and Jaipur.

Spectrum Refarming for LTE Extended to 900 MHz, to be to 2100MHz

Airtel, presently India's 2nd largest mobile operator has refarmed spectrum on 900MHz (band 8) band in Mumbai to roll out LTE900 as announced on February 15th. The LTE network of Airtel in Mumbai will get further boost as the company will install 7000 new BTS as well as 400km of fiber optic line across the metro circle. With carrier aggregation of 3CA and pre-5G massive MIMO Airtel's LTE network is capable of delivering world class services. Under Project Leap, Airtel is transforming the LTE network with massive MIMO and CA since 2018. 

Currently Airtel is working with its network partners Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei and ZTE to bring LTE900 to another 9 circles - Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kolkata, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, North-East, Assam and Rajasthan in phased manner. It should be noted that Airtel already refarmed spectrum on 1800MHz usually used for 2G, for LTE deployment. 

That will bring Airtel's LTE network over 2300MHz, 1800MHz and 900MHz at par with Jio's LTE network. Later's LTE signal flies over 2300MHz, 1800MHz and 850MHz. Vodafone Idea will also follow the suit, as post merger they have ample of 900MHz, 1800MHz and 2100MHz spectrum. However Vodafone Idea's main LTE signals are on 1800MHz and 2300/2500MHz. 

Vodafone-Idea Runs Narrow Band IoT Trials with Genus in Jaipur

As telecom sector remains dull, and creating losses for most of the companies, country's largest telco Vodafone Idea plans to jump into internet of things (IoT) on narrow band spectrum (NB-IoT). The enterprise arm Vodafone Idea Business Services (VIBS) has partnered with Genus Power Infra and conducting trials at Jaipur - the trials are quite promising.

Vodafone Group has launched NB-IoT in Europe, Africa and Bexit.Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Australia, Netherlands, South Africa etc.

Though Europe and United States are always front runner in technical advancements, analysts expect India, being the tech hub of the world with a population of more than 120 crore, will see an overwhelmed growth in the upcoming sector of IoT.

Mirzapur (Amazon Prime Web Series) - Review #ShRt

I have just completed watching Mirzapur, the latest crime series on Amazon Prime and I am definitely not happy with it. The show begins perfectly and then loses the grip just like the show's protagonist duo. The main issue of the show is its predictable script which lacks character development criteria for many characters. Also I feel the ending was hurriedly made. However most of the cast did their job best and that's without help of the script many times.

Through out the web series you can see the extreme violence among power mongers, sex scenes and intense moments. But that was not enough. 

Small town crime drama is not new in India, and Karan Anshuman and Puneet Krishna created Mirzapur keeps you reminding Anurag Kashyap's Gangs of Wasseypur. Also being the story of a crime lord, Mirzapur could not avoid the comparison with very popular Sacred Games from the house of Netflix released recently. The lack of suspense, lineal storyline and predictability fails the show inspite the strong backing from the actor.

I would rate it 2/5.

Jio Updates : September to November #ShRt

Jio who is finding its own way to reach last mile connectivity for its 'gigafiber' ultra broadband services, has acquired majority stakes in Den Networks (66%) and Hathway Cable & Datacom (51.3%) to solve that issue. That brings consolidation in fiber market also, after the telecom sector. The existing users, that's nearly 24 million users in 750 cities in the country, of the both companies may able to upgrade to Jio GigaFiber at ease in due time. However Jio have to invest a fresh to replace old cables with fiber optic cables.

Acquiring these two MSO (multi system operators) and their LCO (local cable operators) partners Jio will definitely get advantages over Airtel and BSNL. I am not considering Vodafone Idea as of now though the merged entity owns You Broadband. As Jio wants to enter the drawing room targeting TV watchers, DTH industry will also be impacted.

And for obvious reasons we can hope further consolidation in this space.

P#rnHub backs Indians with P#rnHub.net 

As per Uttarakhand High Court judgement dated September 28 all ISPs are asked to block hundreds of p#rn websites in India. And Jio follows that quite fast before others to do it. There are already outrages among Jio users regarding that and many prank calls are made to Jio customer care. However using a VPN or Tor Browser that can be easily bypassed. At the same time popular porn site P#rnHub.com lists a new domain P#rnHub.net for Indian users.

Data is the new oil, turns very true for Reliance. In Q3 Reliance Retail and Reliance Jio counts a combined revenue of ₹44,615 crore, exceeding the ₹43,745 crore sales reported by RIL’s petrochemicals business. Reliance Retail holds a 121% growth, while Reliance Jio made a 52% growth.

Xiaomi Loosing Shine in India ? #ShRt

Xiaomi, whose first smartphone Mi 3 was launched in India in 2014 has perceived as poor man's Apple in the country. Top notch hardware, forked Android based MIUI operating system, flash sales and unbelievable low price made its Indian journey a great success since the very beginning. 

In the process of rise of Xiaomi, many handset makers got them flopped in the Indian market - special mention to Indian company Micromax, as well as Chinese counterpart Gionee and LeEco. Gionee had first mover advantages but without a proper strategy it is on the verge of shutting down sales in India. 

However sitting in October 2018, it seems Xiaomi is loosing its focus in India - their flagship Mi series had their last launch with Mi 5 in 2016. Xiaomi has launched several sub brands in India - 

• Redmi for budget segment (segmented as Redmi Note series as budget premiere and Redmi series as budget or first smartphone), 
• Mi A series for Android One program,  
• Redmi Y series as selfie focused smartphone,  
• Mi Max - phablet series 
• Mi Mix - full screen display series 
• Mi series - the flagships (probably no more Mi phones are coming to India)
• Pocophone - the flagship killer 

CMR Mobile Industry Consumer Insight (MICI) did a survey and the result was pretty interesting as people who are eyeing for a flagship update are looking for One Plus mostly, then Apple and lastly Samsung. 

Xiaomi should bring their innovative products to India, like AI based devices as well as laptops. 

Introducing #ShRt stories on my blog - which includes heat of the moment stories.