Jionet - 2019 Review

I was in Ooty few days back, and surprisingly I found that my hotel, Sterling Elk Hill Resort (https://www.sterlingholidays.com/) has Jionet and JioPrivateNet hotspots. As I have a Jio SIM I first tried with JioPrivateNet via AKA authentication method by selecting SIM - it did ended up in authentication failure.

AKA (Authenication and Key Agreement) SIM Authentication

In Jio's website, it is written that you have to use AKA method to access JioPrivateNet. If your device does not support this one, you can't use it. (Reference to Jionet FAQ here) 

Beaches in West Bengal

Beaches are integral part of West Bengal, as Bay of Bengal lies at south of the state. The holy river Ganges meets the sea at Sagar Mohona. Thus it divides the beaches into west & east beaches of Bengal.

✔ East beaches : 

This side Sundarban takes on maximum coverage and here handful of beaches are there.

Bakkhali ( বকখালি)

Kargill Beach (কার্গিল বিচ)

Fraserganj (ফ্রেজারগঞ্জ)
Henry's Island ( হেনরি আইল্যাণ্ড)  

Lalganj beach 

Another new beach near Bakkhali, it is situated north of Henry's Island but when visiting this beach you have to take left at around 16Km to reach Lalganj. 

Sagardwip - Gangasagar beach ( সাগরদ্বীপ/গঙ্গাসাগর) 

The beach is actually the estuary of Hooghly river. Here yearly Gangasagar Fair (মেলা) held - lakhs of pilgrims came here to offer their prayers to the Ashram of Kapil Muni. Except the time of fair, the area is very dull. 

Mousuni Island

Love camping at beaches? Mousuni is the best place in West Bengal. 

G Plot or Gobardhanpur Sea beach

It is located at a delta island of South 24 Pargana. The nature and the beach of the Bay of Bengal are very beautiful here. However road condition and stay-in options are not good. 

✔ West beaches:
These are on East Medinipur district and attracts huge number of footfalls throughout the year.

✔ North of Kanthi/Contai (কাঁথি):
Junput (জুনপুট)
Bankiput (বাঁকিপুট)

Haripur Beach (হরিপুর)
Boguran Jolpai (বগুরান জলপাই)

A few accommodations are available here. The beach is virgin, i.e. fishermen's beach actually. Boguran Jalpai is seperated from Lal Kaknra beach by the estuary of Pichabani river. 

✔ South of Contai 
These beaches are main tourist beaches in Bengal. There are one after another beaches lying across the sea till Orissa border. Talsari is another nearby beach inside Orissa. 

Mandarmani (মন্দারমণি)

Mandarmani got its fame since Digha became over-crowded. There are several luxury resorts over here on the beach side. 

North to Mandarmani there is a new beach, Lal Kaknra Beach or Purusattampur Beach. 

Tajpur (তাজপুর)

My favorite beach of West Bengal is Tajpur. The greenery of the Jhau trees and long serene beach is the main attraction. Like Goa's beaches, Tajpur has several beach side shacks for food. The road from the main road is terrible, but now you can visit Tajpur via Mandarmani over the river bridge. This new route is in much better condition. 

Chandipur ( চাঁদিপুর)

It's located in between Tajpur & Sankarpur. 

Sankarpur (শংকরপুর)

It is a fish harbor as well as a beach. As I visited Sankarpur in August 2021, the goverment has literally killed the natural beauty of the main beach. Full of concrete and lack of nature would put you in disappointment. Bit of nature still lies in the area of fishermen's habour. 

Digha Mohona (দীঘা মোহনা)

Sunrise at Digha Mohona is one of best local tours in Digha. You can visit the wholesale fish market here. 

Digha/old Digha (দীঘা)

Digha is one of the most popular tourist spot in West Bengal. From the capital of Bengal, Kolkata it takes around 4-5 hrs to reach Digha by car. Originally known by the name “Beerkul,” it was first popularised during the British Raj by the then governor of Bengal, Warren Hastings, who said Digha as 'Brighton of the East'. Bengal Gazette (1778) noted down the bungalow of Hastings in Digha, which was built in 1775. Later tidal surge and land erosion had Birkul reduced to rubble. Even Hastings' leisure bungalow also sank into the sea.

After a long gap, Digha had been a place of interest when John Frank Snaith came to Digha in 1923 and leased 11.5 acre area near the sea beach. That time Digha was a mere village, under Ramnagar thana, under Contai district. Mr. Snaith founded Runswick House. 

It was developed into a tourist destination through the efforts of Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, the first chief minister of Bengal after the independence in 1947. After that the development of Digha was never stopped. In fact the present TMC-led state government constructed a Jagannath Temple in Digha, which is a replica of Puri's Jagannath Temple. 

New Digha (নিউ দীঘা)

After 80's New Digha was commissioned as another sea beach as the beach of Digha was getting eroded heavily by the sea. It is nearly 3km away from Old Digha. You can have enjoy the beach here. Numerous hotels have been made in New Digha in last 10 years.  

Udaypur (উদয়পুর)

Udaypur is located just at the border of West Bengal & Orissa. The beach is great but the crowd is not worth. You can drink on the beach by renting a table & chairs from the local shops. They will serve the food too. But too noisy, and not a good quality crowd - not my cup of tea. 

Extending Digha trip to Orissa border areas: 

Chandaneswar Shiva Temple Complex

Though main deity here is Shiva, there are several other temples are in the complex. Chandaneswar Shiva is swayambhu, meaning self originated here. The temple was built in Kalinga architectural way. Actual history of the temple is lost. Annually there are two major events celebrated here - first day of Oriya Calender (day of Vishuva Sankranti) & Chaitra/Charak Mela.

Talsari Sea Beach 

Here view of the sea shore changes with the tide. Best place to stay here is Panthasala (under Orissa Tourism). 

Bichitrapur Mangrove Sanctuary

From here you can go the beach of Subarna Island via boat. The boat journey is full of scenic beauty which must not be missed. 

Bhusundeswar Temple 

Hailed as Asia's largest Shiva Linga, there is no temple at all - just the Shiva Linga and make-shift temple with corrogated tin shade. There is no hurry in the rural atmosphere here except during different puja days. It is nearly 24km from Digha (approx. 48-50min travel via car). On the way you can see the Chandrabali Khati beach with fish market. 

Airtel to Shut Down 3G Completely, Jio Turns No 1, JioPhone 3 and GigaFiber Update

In an expected move, Airtel, once top player - now 3rd, has announced that they will complete shut down of 3G networks (WCDMA/HSPA/HSPA+) across the country. Airtel started 3G shut down in Q2 of 2019 from Kolkata circle and has planned to do in another 6-7 circles in September. The remaining circles will see 3G shut down by March 2020. There is no news of 2G shut down as of now. 

By 3G shut down, Airtel will have more spectrum for 4G. Airtel's 3G networks are on 900 and 2100 MHz band, and sooner or later all spectrum of these bands will tranform into 4G wave. In brief Airtel's LTE network will be largest in the country, transmitting over 900, 1800, 2100 and 2300 MHz band. (in 2015 I wrote a story on LTE2100)

We hope that Vodafone Idea will follow the suit very soon. 

One Plus Promised 3 Years of Shelf Life of its Phones

One Plus 6 Red Edition

I tried my Android luck back in 2010, and one thing I understood that Google backed Android has huge potential. The first Android device in my house, was Samsung Galaxy 3, for my brother. 

However it's more than 8 years now, and Android devices have a strong presence in the market with 4G and 5G support. Indian market also saw huge change - from Nokia, Samsung, Micromax, Lava lost their top positions, and Chinese OEMs are now ruling the market. Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus are the new kings of the turf. 

Through out the period I understood that handset makers needs R&D (research and development) on both software and handware front. Without timely Android/software update a company can't create a good ecosystem. I wrote on this topic as Android Software Update: A Thing Many OEM Skip back in 2017, where I pointed out that only Xioami is not following trend, they are offering Android OTA update to its most of the smartphones at regular intervals. Sorry to add Google's name, as their phones both Nexus series and present Pixel line up, running on stock Android, are getting timely software updates. 

Read more Will RealMe Give Software Updates?

Actually slowest (or never) roll out of updates including critical security ones are one of the biggest complaints of Android users. These days Android/software update is a must, as most handset makers are using forked out Android, like Oxygen OS of OnePlus, ColorOS from Oppo, MIUI from Xiaomi, EMUI by Huawei, Flyme OS from Meizu, FunTouch OS from Vivo, Realme UI by Realme and others. 

And now, after so many years, companies seem interested in our points. By the end of June '18 One Plus announced its Software Maintenance Schedule on their forum. They promised to give regular software maintenance for 24 months (includes new features, Android version upgrades, Android security patch updates) bi-monthly, and software security maintenance for another 12 months in bi-monthly manner. 

Soon Huawei also announced similar schedule for some of its product line. I can see more similar announcements coming from other OEMs. 

Do Ads Helps Xiaomi to Launch Flagship Killers?

being EVIL ?

I was an early Xiaomi buyer, as I bought Redmi Note 3 in 2016. That time the hardware they packed inside it was good, and so is the software. From my point of view, Android device manufacturers should invest in software research and development, and Mi is doing this pretty fine till date on their home grown MIUI OS. 

However as I had upgrade to Redmi Note 4 and saw their rise in the Indian market with affordability and targeted smartphones to different users. 

They have so  many phones launched - Redmi for affordable phones, Redmi Note for bigger but affordable phones, Y series for selfie lovers, A series for mid range Android One program, Poco as flagship killer. Their top brand Mi and Mi Max did not get much success in India. Xiaomi has a different gaming phone brand too - Blackshark! 

However as I used my brother's newly bought Redmi K20 Pro, dubbed as another flagship killer with Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 855 processor, I felt MIUI is more stable (than the POCO MIUI) but there is too many intrusive ads coming from the Xiaomi's apps. Bloatwares can be manageable, but adwares are not. So I looked inside the settings, and found that Xiaomi by default keeps all of ad-gates open, but yes you can block most of them. 

Reliance Piramal Deal in Near Future?

As Times Now reported few hours back, Piramal and Reliance Industries will start a joint venture along with SoftBank.

It is still not sure about RIL's presence in the JV, but stakes are high that new in-laws will tie a business knot.

Now big question remains, what will the focus of this yet to be formed JV between Piramal, Ambani and SoftBank. SoftBank is eyeing for a re-entry into India's e-commerce market, while RIL is still playing softly with AJio. Piramal has no existence in that market, as far as I know.

Piramal is a big name in Indian pharma industry, and Reliance can think to tap that market of healthcare in a country with more than 130 cr people.

I am betting on Indian healthcare sector to get a new player. As of now I don't have idea what they are gonna target? e-health ? Wait, first be Reliance confirmed in it!

Update: All hints indicated to fintech JV and SoftBank is already there. No confirmation of Reliance Jio's inclusion in that JV as of now. It should be noted that Jio Money is already afloat from the time of inception of Jio. 

BSNL WiFi 4G Plus - Data Offload from Cellular Networks !

Back in the era of pre Jio, a handful of service providers came with public WiFi Hotspot services, like Ozone WiFi, Tata Docomo WiFi. They were mostly available in shopping malls, restaurants, coffee shops etc. Their pricing model was use free for 30-60 min, and then pay for it. As Jio nearing to launch their 4G services commercially, Jio also launched its own WiFi services - JioNet. However​ Jionet is mostly defunc now.

As 4G mobility goes mass spread, people almost stopped using WiFi hotspots. But the thing came back strongly. Ozone, the leader in this market was lost in the transition but Google and Indian Railways' telecom arm Railtel created a massive WiFi hotspot network. Google Station, as it's named was a pilot by Google and its partner Railtel started in 2016 targeting the audience who are travelling by trains. This WiFi networks are located at major rail stations of India. Later Google was roped in by Pune Smart City Corporation for similar public WiFi offerings. 

Back in 2012-14 I was pushing for this thing for data offload from mobile network to WiFi. Thankfully with massive data users after 4G went mainstream, telecom operators are thinking in that direction. BSNL is one of first telecom company to offer public WiFi.