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Indian Users Expected to Spend More on OTT, Sony-Zee to Cash on Market Growth
Starlink Will Focus in Regions Based on Pre-Orders
iPhone 12 Series Starting at Rs 39,000 Today
Open Technologies Will Power 5G: Rajesh Gangadhar, STL
Excitel Mind-Blowing Broadband Plan

Indian Users Expected to Spend More on OTT, Sony-Zee to Cash on Market Growth

Posted: 03 Oct 2021 09:43 AM PDT

Indian users are expected to spend more on over-the-top (OTT) platforms in the next few years, say analysts. Prabhudas Lilladher, a research based financial services organization, in a note said it expects users in India to make "higher spends on digital side" as there is a "shift in viewing habits." The firm in its note on Thursday highlighted that the viewing patterns have shifted from linear television to digital media and that it expects users to spend more on digital "amid proliferation of OTTs."

Viewership Landscape to Evolve Over Next Few Years Say Analyst

Prabhudas Lilladher note is on the heels of the announcement from Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) that its board gave an in-principle approval for the merger between Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) and ZEEL. "The viewership landscape is likely to evolve in coming years and we expect higher spends on [the] digital side," Prabhudas Lilladher said in its note on Thursday. In its announcement on September 22, 2021, Zee Entertainment Enterprises said that SPNI will infuse US$1.575 billion (approximately Rs 11,685 crores) into the merged entity for "use in pursuing other growth opportunities." "The merger is in line with ZEEL’s strategy of achieving higher growth and profitability as a leading media and entertainment company across South Asia," ZEEL said in its release. It was said that the ZEEL shareholders will hold 47.07% of the merged entity post the infusion of the growth capital from SPNI. Further, the remaining 52.93% of the merged entity will be held by SPNI shareholders. Zee Entertainment in an investor presentation in June highlighted that it has 49 channels across 11 Indian languages. Additionally, the company in its first quarter earnings release in August said that it has 17% TV network share across India. In comparison, Sony Group in its first quarter results highlighted that it has over 20 channels in India. The two companies also have their respective OTT apps namely Zee5 and SonyLIV, with Zee Entertainment in August highlighting that it has over 8.02 crores global monthly active users for its streaming platform. Prabhudas Lilladher said that the merged entity will have a cash balance of US$1.745 billion, roughly translating to Rs 12,946 crores. "Utilization of cash balance to grow the digital properties (makes the business future-proof) can turn out to be a key re-rating lever, in our view," Prabhudas Lilladher said. However, Punit Goenka, chief executive officer at Zee Entertainment in an investor call on September 22, 2021, said that the companies have not finalized its strategies related to OTT platforms. "We have discussed several options with them (SPNI) on the tech side, especially when it comes to the gaming business and the gaming related to OTT," Goenka said. "But no decision has been arrived at currently."

Combined OTT Platform to Have 'Better Bargaining Power" with Telecom Operators

Additionally, Goenka also said "there is a huge opportunity in India both on the digital side, linear side" and also on the sports business. "What [has] transpired in the last six to 12 months is the entire advent of the digital media, that is being seen on the back of the COVID pandemic that we have witnessed," Goenka said. "And therefore the need for us to really invest more aggressively behind the digital platforms to capture viewership going forward. This is what has made us change our thought process and go out and look at these opportunities." Dolat Capital, the financial firm engaged in the trading markets, in a note said that the "strategic benefits may unfold" if Zee and Sony merge their respective OTT platforms. "Both Zee and Sony can go to market together with their merged OTT offerings, which are slightly different in content," Dolat Capital said in a note. "Sony is more into sports and mainstream shows, whereas Zee is into regional web series and hence the content strategy can augur well to create a platform, which have all of [the] offerings." Dolat Capital said that the combined OTT platform can emerge as the "second largest homegrown OTT" platform in India after Disney+ Hotstar. Further, the firm said that the combined OTT platform can have a "better bargaining power with the distributors" including telecom operators due to the host of content available with these two companies.

Starlink Will Focus in Regions Based on Pre-Orders

Posted: 03 Oct 2021 05:37 AM PDT

SpaceX owned satellite broadband company Starlink is going to keep its focus on the regions where it gets the most amount of pre-orders from. Sanjay Bhargava, India Head for Starlink, said that getting government approval for providing services is a very complex process. Thus the company wants to target a quick approval for its pilot programme, and the best way to do that is by focusing on the pre-orders that the company is getting from different regions of the country. But this has a created a lot of drama in the industry. A lot of people and industry bodies have a problem with Starlink selling pre-orders in India. For the unaware, last year, Starlink started selling pre-orders worth $99 in India and said that it will start providing services from 2022.

Starlink Will Focus on Ten Rural Lok Sabha Constituencies for 80% of Terminals Shipped

As per an ET Telecom report, Sanjay Bhargava said that Starlink would keep its focus on ten rural Lok Sabha constituencies for 80% of the terminals it will ship to India. Bhargava said that the number of pre-orders it gets from the rural constituencies would be one of the factors that will help the company decide about the regions it wants to focus on. Starlink wants to move fast with the pre-orders program, and it is understandable since the company doesn't want to miss out on the market share because of the competition from OneWeb and other satellite broadband companies that are coming to India. Rural India will be one of the biggest markets for satellite broadband companies, and no private company coming to the sector would want to miss out on the revenues or the market share. Bhargava said that Starlink would apply for the necessary approvals very soon. But the company doesn't want to sit around and do nothing until that happens, thus the pre-orders.

iPhone 12 Series Starting at Rs 39,000 Today

Posted: 03 Oct 2021 01:33 AM PDT

iPhone 12 series is starting at Rs 39,000 in the Flipkart Big Billion Days sale. If you were thinking of getting an iPhone 13, this could be a better bet for you. While the iPhone 13 series has a more powerful chipset, better cameras, and an improved battery life, the iPhone 12 series can still be very handy for you in 2021 and the coming years. You can get the iPhone 12 mini at a starting price of Rs 38,999 in the Flipkart Big Billion Days sale that’s going on right now. Note that the sale will only be in place until October 10, 2021. The Rs 38,999 iPhone 12 mini is the 64GB storage model. While the other variants will cost Rs 43,999 (128GB), and Rs 53,999 (256GB). The device is available in all the colour options.

iPhone 12 Base Variant Starts at Rs 49,999

The iPhone 12's base variant with 64GB is starting at a price of Rs 49,999. The other variants of the device are priced at Rs 55,999 (128GB) and Rs 66,999 (256GB). The iPhone 12 is also available in all the colour options in the Big Billion Days sale offer. If you are looking to get the 'Pro' models, the Amazon Great Indian Festival sale is a better option for you. The iPhone 12 Pro's base variant with 128GB is starting at Rs 99,900. The 256GB and 512GB variants of the iPhone 12 Pro are priced at Rs 1,09,900 and Rs 1,29,900. At the same time, if you can spend a little more, you will get the iPhone 12 Pro Max in two variants on Amazon – 256GB and 512GB. The 256GB variant is priced at Rs 1,19,900 while the 512GB variant is priced at Rs 1,49,900. These are great deals unless of course you only want to buy the iPhone 13 series. The iPhone 13 series comes at the same price as the iPhone 12 series when it was launched. But there’s just one thing, the iPhone 13 series won’t be available very easily because of limited stock.

Open Technologies Will Power 5G: Rajesh Gangadhar, STL

Posted: 02 Oct 2021 10:53 PM PDT

Open RAN will foster innovation and reduce time to market of critical features and capabilities that are essential to 5G because of the larger set of vendors that will now be competing in the market, says Rajesh Gangadhar, CTO – Access Solutions, STL.

Q1. What is the operator sentiment towards OpenRAN?

Legacy telecom infrastructure has largely operated on tightly integrated, proprietary software and hardware. They pose challenges of constrained vendor choice, high CapEx and OpEx, and very limited flexibility to telcos. 5G will require an entirely new network architecture with an open and disaggregated network. The new networks must be interoperable and have open interfaces, with the potential to reduce complexity and deliver high coverage. Open RAN attempts to do just that. l. The earlier inertia for open and disaggregated networks has now turned into acceptance. Some big telcos like Rakuten, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Airtel, Telefónica, and Vodafone have already taken firm steps towards Open RAN. One more reason for telecom operators to transition towards OpenRAN is reduced total cost of ownership (TCO). The democratisation of the vendor ecosystem, virtualisation, and disaggregation of software and hardware can lead to lower CAPEX and OPEX over the lifetime of the network.

Q2. Could you please elucidate the key benefits of Open RAN Virtualisation?

Key benefits of Open RAN virtualisation: a) It helps service providers create an Open, Disaggregated, and Virtualised 5G solution aligned with 3GPP and O-RAN b) It opens new ways to architect, deploy and operate wireless networks c) It can bring substantial CapEx and Opex savings to operators d) It presents an opportunity to select best of breed equipment and hence fosters innovation and competition e) COTS infrastructure allows operators to put strong identity certificates in the network at every interface, including radio access f) Virtualisation helps in allocating network resources effectively and hence overall better performance

Q3. How would this affect RF (radio frequency) component design and integration with system providers?

With Open RAN enabling diversification across the value chain, it is possible to now tap into a broader silicon and component ecosystem. Further, initiatives such as Facebook Connectivity's Evenstar program enable a seamless design of radio units across various bands and different MIMO configurations. The open interfaces specifications being defined by O-RAN enables radios design by multiple partners to interoperate and integrate with the CU/DU software partners. Operators are therefore able to choose from a larger pool of radio vendors when rolling out their 5G network.

Q4. Could you please address some of the concerns on the deployment of Open RAN based networks?

Telcos have always been concerned about the deployment of Open-RAN based networks because the shift to open networks comes with its own set of challenges: a) Will different parts work together seamlessly? Multi-vendor interoperability is not always guaranteed – It is critical that the ecosystem develops and maintains truly open specifications and robust interoperability programs to generate telcos' confidence in open RAN networks. b) Can it reliably handle the traffic? – Vendors understand the hyper-dynamic nature of mobile networks. They know that even a small outage can lead to loss of revenue and reputation. They possibly were not confident of utmost stability and reliability in a multi-vendor environment. c) Do we really need something so complex? – Earlier, telcos never actually felt compelled to switch to open networks because the prevailing level of network complexity was easily handled by incremental innovation. There was no need for drastic changes. A part of this inertia existed because the market leaders were not willing to dilute their proprietary presence to the advantage of commoditised products. However, the pandemic has brought about a renewed impetus for driving broadband connectivity. It is clear that the digital networks will have to evolve to handle newer use cases, and move to open technologies will be a major part of this evolution.

Q5. While open RAN promises to lower network costs and barriers to entry to create competition through the standardisation of hardware and software, but will this reduce the innovation in hardware and software design?

On the contrary, Open RAN will foster innovation and reduce time to market of critical features and capabilities that are essential to 5G because of the larger set of vendors that will now be competing in the market. They will need to differentiate on cost, performance, operational efficiencies, and time to market. There are organisations such as Open RAN Policy Coalition, the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), and O-RAN Alliance that offer platforms for R&D for building the next-gen open-source networks by creating interoperability standards. STL, too, is a proud member of the Open RAN Policy Coalition, TIP, and O-RAN Alliance and supports them in their mission to help operators adopt Open RAN technologies. STL is investing 3-4% of its revenue towards R&D for innovation in Open RAN technologies. Our 5G solutions, which are open source and O-RAN compliant, comprise 5G multi-band radios, smart 5G indoor small cells, Wi-Fi 6 access point, programmable FTTx (pFTTx) solution, and RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) software platforms. We have recently collaborated with Facebook Connectivity to design and develop 4G/5G radio products as part of the Evenstar program to help accelerate the commercial deployment of Open RAN and boost 5G readiness for operators.

Excitel Mind-Blowing Broadband Plan

Posted: 02 Oct 2021 06:43 PM PDT

If you are looking for an affordable broadband plan with great benefits, Excitel has one plan in store for you which is even better. Excitel is not present throughout India, but its services reach some of the prominent cities of the country as well as some of the tier-2 and tier-3 cities. The internet service provider (ISP) is currently working on expanding its services to other parts of India. Excitel's best thing is that it doesn't charge a lot from the customers. The company's motto is not just to earn profits, but also to bring digital connectivity to every home of India. To do that, the company has gone ahead and priced its plans even more affordable than what Jio, Airtel, and BSNL offer to their customers.

Excitel 300 Mbps Broadband Plan

Excitel offers its 300 Mbps broadband plan for a monthly charge of Rs 899 (exclusive of taxes). At this price point, most of the other ISPs don't even offer 200 Mbps plans (You Broadband does). But this is not where it ends, if you are purchasing long-term plans, the company further discounts the plan for you. If you are purchasing the 12 months 300 Mbps plan from Excitel, you will get it for Rs 499 per month. You will have to pay a lump-sum amount for the total cost of the plan, but it will still be cheaper than what you will have to pay in a year if you went ahead with the 'every month' option. At the same time, the company will also offer you over-the-top (OTT) benefits of Eros Now, ShemarooMe, ZEE5 Premium, and Voot Select. Excitel is one of the best internet companies in India because of multiple reasons. Users further get a free dual-band router from the company. But, the dual-brand router is only given against a one-time fully refundable security deposit of Rs 2,000. But since it is refundable, it is essentially free. One more thing, the company offers truly unlimited data meaning there is no limit to how much you can consume in a month. Consumer reviews suggest that Excitel is consistent with its services. This is a great move from Excitel Broadband because, at the price point, it can give very tough competition to even the biggest ISPs in India. If you are looking for a 300 Mbps broadband plan from Jio, Airtel, or BSNL, you will have to at least spend Rs 1,500 per month. So Excitel is offering its plan for at least Rs 600 cheaper when compared with the above-mentioned companies. This will certainly put Excitel ahead of its competitors in price-sensitive regions.

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