India 4G User Acquisition & Retention - Who is Suffering at the End

Reliance Jio entry into Indian Telecom sector started creating scenario wherein incumbent operators are at the spot.

Latest in the saga, Reliance Jio again approached TRAI and accused Airtel,Vodafone and Idea for blocking users who wants to port out of their existing service providers to Reliance Jio network.  The number involved in total is less than 200 and that shows Reliance Jio commitment towards their potential user.

At the same time, incumbent cannot let the user port out of the network till the guideline of the Mobile Number Portability set by TRAI.

Indian incumbent operators faced the music of MNP and how end user exploited it in 2012 to 2014 era  wherein user took the service of one operator with goodies and then ported out to another one post exhausting the goodies.

In 2012 to 2014 era challengers like Telenor  and others used MNP in their favor and acquire millions of user but unfortunately most of the user were low ARPU user.

It is surprising that based on the reports published in leading new paper not mentioned  Aircel, Reliance Communication and other which in my point bring me to a conclusion that Reliance Jio is only facing problems with three leading incumbent operator. It would be great to know about BSNL user requesting for porting out and it's status.

The real test of porting in and out using MNP will show its class post Reliance Jio start commercial service. Till Dec 31 st 2016 most of the Indian mobile users will try to misuse Reliance Jio service as it is free. I am also delighted that this time around Reliance Jio is so focused about consumer but at the end consumers are suffering. If any legitimate user trying to port out then they should not be used as dice to play competitive strategy. It's a common practice by operator to put across many clause as some of the end user through their past act forced incumbent operators to put across multiple clause related to exit.

For few, mass is suffering and both incumbent and Reliance Jio should solve it the way they did it with PoI

TRAI Current Feeler on Point of Interconnect and Termination Charges - One Gaining, Rest Loosing

Based on the reports published in Economic Times, TRAI offered their intentions clear by sending out feeler that they are not going to allow Incumbent Operator such as Airtel , Vodafone, Ideacellular and others to ask for higher termination fee. They also indicated that Incumbent operators must provide required number of point of interconnect to Reliance Jio.

If I am not wrong, TRAI few days back released an statement that they recommended the concerned parties to resolve the concerns through talks. They also pointed out that in case both the parties will fail to come to common agreement then only TRAI is going to intervene.

Since Economic Times came out with the report and if I believe on that report then I want to ask TRAI very simple query that " How TRAI came to conclusion that talks will yield no result". " Why they are not focusing on revenue loss which will be incurred by Government given the impact of low per minute realization.

At the end its my assessment and i might be wrong that India is a place where the single agenda of regulators are to squeeze out player. Regulators must realize that any degradation of Incumbent mobile operator financial health means job losses, more NPA, impact on IT sector, Impact on Startups and loss of government revenue and more importantly another recession.

Its a right saying in India that If I am happy then rest happy; If I am sad then rest should be sad. Dear regulators please wake up...

TRAI Failed Attempt to Bridge the Differences Between Reliance Jio and Airtel,Vodafone,Ideacellular, and Other

Post lots of mud slugging on each other, TRAI directed Reliance Jio and Incumbent Operators like Airtel, Vodafone, Ideacellular and Others to sit across the table and make a way to break the impasse on point of interconnect. Based on the report, Tcc to show the world that they tried and directed both the parties to settle the issues through talks. They also pointed out that failure on agreement will force TRAI to act which will be enforced. TRAI made a path clear for both the parties to waste another two months in discussion and subsequent to that another month for TRAI to release their order which will be challenged by the Operator in any circumstances.

Great work done by TRAI.

TRAI Intervention to Settle Dispute Between Jio & Airtel,Vodafone,Idea cellular - Settlement will lose their Relevance

Post incumbent mobile service provider Airtel,Vodafone and others letter to PMO that they are not legally bound to give point of interconnect to enable Reliance jio initiated call to be terminated on Airtel or Vodafone or Idea cellular or others network. COAI president Rajan Mathews on records said that Airtel or Vodafone or Idea cellular or others don't have the financial strength to enhance their network or their existing network capabilities to handle such an humongous traffic and it will reduce their per min realization to 22 to 20 paisa which will lead to a situation where incumbent operator will start bleeding and will come to a situation wherein they may turn up as sick company. TRAI sudden change of heart to get the handshake done between incumbent and jio is to ensure that all are settled before spectrum auction ad government of India is expecting 5.6 lakh crore from auction and it will help government to fix their fiscal deficit.

In a scenario, incumbent operator agrees to offer point of interconnect and change their stand will be suicidal. It will give Jio a talking point that all the disruption were intentional instead of technical limitation.  It will change the perception of user that incumbent operator never wanted to reduce the cost of service. More importantly COAI will lose its relevance moving forward. It will be interesting to see the outcome but in my point of view that impass will remain be there and it will go to Supreme Court at the end which will impact Jio network performance and user experience.  At the end who will be the loser will be end user.

For more information please visit your YouTube Channel:- Devendra Prasad 

Regulatory Move On Domain Centric Security – Perquisite Of BYOD Adoption In India

The dynamic nature of mobility space in last few years created lots of buzz. At one end, the unimaginable surge of Apple promoted iOS mobile operating system (OS) based mobile device, Google promoted Android mobile operating centric devices whereas on the other end the demise of Motorola, Nokia device business sellout, Blackberry problems. The dynamic changes in the mobile operating system attached device ecosystem offered Enterprises new opportunity to opt for newer mobile OS powered packed with innovative feature set to access corporate data. The adoption of iOS and Android mobile OS based devices by Enterprise also brought another frontier to play with transition from Blackberry ecosystem as well as opportunities for innovative companies to come up with new products, services or Applications around new ecosystem.

India experienced unprecedented adoption of Android mobile operating system based device adoption and captured defunct Symbian operating system space which used to be dominating the marketplace. The open source Android mobile OS attracted many domestic device players into ring which propelled adoption by increasing efficient manufacturing and delivery mechanism. The rise in low cost Smartphone also attracted Android Application ecosystem players to offer both horizontal and vertical application targeted towards consumer and prosumer’s.

The iOS mobile OS attached Apple device also gained traction in India with adoption of subsidy route by most of the service provider to tap in high net worth Indian mobile users as post paid user to increase their ARPU. Blackberry BB10 mobile OS lost market share in India but still regarded as first priority choice it comes to Enterprise prosumer’s. Enterprise prosumer’s adoption levels are also changing and they want to have single device which fulfill both consumer and prosumer centric requirements.

Post Mobile Value Added Service regulation enforcement by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), mobile VAS providers are required to take mobile subscriber authorization before pushing any paid applications or product or service. The mechanism of double consent impacted mobile VAS ecosystem players and the monthly activation of mobile VAS went down in high double digit month over month. It is also expected that the legacy mobile VAS service would experience further erosion in user adoption and subsequently revenue fall.

The disruption in legacy mobile VAS service and focus in data centric service by mobile service providers attracted many new and existing mobile VAS developers. The low entry barrier for new Smartphone users, content portability by Enterprise for mobile ecosystem, plug and transfer mechanism of mobility ecosystem pushing Enterprise Mobility ecosystem in new horizon. Most of the Enterprises are contemplating to offer their internal and external clients mechanism to access product portfolio, tracking, product feedback and mechanism to capture new business opportunities. The major problem attached with low adoption of Enterprise mobility in India is nothing but content digitization, interoperability, portability, availability, reachability, scalability and security.

Recent regulatory as well as IT department initiative on Cyber security, Malware free Network equipment, Equipment hosting, Lawful intercept is going to have major positives for many Enterprise to adopt enterprises application on multiple OS supported devices. The malware free network equipment is going to filter unwarranted malware used to spoof user information and lead to hacking. The mobile security at device level is going to develop internal filtrations to keep the device free from any eavesdropping and in-turn remove the possibility of being used as mobility device Botnet by hacker to launch( denial of service) DoS, ( Distributed denial of service) DDoS and many other attacks on Enterprise servers. The lawful intercept regulation is going to offer Enterprise to have more confidence on Lawful agency to take care of any misuse of Enterprise assets for any unlawful activities. The stringent security regulatory guideline around BFSI sector possess new opportunity for BYOD adoption as mobile commerce, banking are on the rise. The enablement of security regulation to mitigate any adware, malware and phishing attack would open more BYOD user’s adoption of new horizontal and vertical application. It would also give higher level of confidence to Enterprise segment to connect their database with device hosted applications to enable user, employee and partner to retrieve, update centralized information management system real-time.

The servers including database hosting requirements as well as support regulation defined by government regulator where application providers are bound to keep mobile user information within Indian Territory. The implementation of above mentioned compliance will enable Service Providers to have higher visibility on data protection, transit, interoperability, portability; SLA which is going ease out stringent process to get BYOD registered with Enterprise owned IT infrastructure. Blackberry initiative to support cross mobile OS applications would act as change catalyst for higher adoption of Enterprise mobility. One can only hope that Indian BYOD adoption is going to witness exponential growth post adoption of above mentioned regulatory enforcement. It is going to hurt ecosystem players financially to comply with regulatory guideline but it also carries multiple cascading positives.