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. 

OpenSignal: Kolkata Tops in India in terms of 4G Coverage

Kolkata, the City of Joy always has a sweet spot for Indian telecom. Back in 1995 Kolkata became first city to get mobile services in India, that was MobileNet from Modi Telstra - turned Hutch later, and now operates as Vodafone Idea. 

Interestingly 3G, the next of 2G obviously, was not first launched in Kolkata, rather it was Delhi to get country's first 3G mobility from MTNL in 2008. And see what happens - in 8 years (however private players didn't able to launch 3G until 2010 when 3G auction did happen; so to be precise it's just 6 years) 3G is turning to be obsolete in favour of 4G (Jio was launched in 2016).

4G again fell in love with Kolkata, as Airtel became first Indian operator to launch 4G in April 10, 2012. Fyi, I attended that inauguration press meet. 4G has a very slow uptake until Jio started their commercial services in September 2016.

What I want to say, with out Kolkata touch, 3G failed while 2G is surviving and 4G is rocking. Same for CDMA too, Reliance Mobile India went for countrywide launch back in 2002 and in 2018 all CDMA networks are defunct.

Now while we are embracing 4G - thanks to Jio for bringing down the tariff to a super affordable level, Kolkata touches a new milestone as per OpenSignal's data. It's the only city in India to cross more than 90% 4G availability (90.7% to be precise) - keeping the other top areas of South East Asia behind, Hong Kong (90.4 per cent), Singapore (86.6 per cent), Taipei (89.8 per cent) and Kuala Lumpur (80.8 per cent) in terms of 4G coverage.

Well though it's impressive to reach a global standard, it's not acceptable that 4G is not that much fast in India. India's average speed is behind to that of Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

App Aggregator Tapzo to End Journey as Amazon Pay Acquires Tapzo

Tapzo is to be shut down by 31st October, 2018. It was launched with a target to bring many apps (35+) under one roof that includes cabs, recharge, food, shopping deals, bill payments, news and etc. Tapzo was earlier known as HelpChat when I personally started using it. 

Tapzo, the biggest app aggregator in the country had tie up with Ola, Uber, Mobikwik, freecharge, nearby, Zomato, Swiggy, hindusthan times, airtel money, Cleartrip, bookmyshow, billdesk, redbus, mysmartprice and others. 

Tapzo had sent a mail to its users on 2nd of September regarding its shutting down. 

Interestingly there was market news that Amazon to buy out Tapzo on August end. 

Update: Tapzo was actually acquired by Amazon Pay soon after Tapzo's announcement of shutting down services. 

Best of Beef Food Joints in Kolkata

Like many Calcuttans, I started my journey into beef dishes from Nizam at Esplanade. But it's sad that Nizam closes its door for beef lovers. Right now they only serve chicken or mutton. The famous beef roll of Nizam is now a history. Nizam was also making Halim during Ramzan days and beef biriyani every day, though biriyani is still not a favorite of mine.