BIG DATA / 61 APP MONETIZATION / 67

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VOICE&DATALTE: SCALING UP BACKHAULMAY 2013

BIG DATA / 61 APP MONETIZATION / 67

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75

Q&A: John Chambers chairman & CEO, Cisco

The Business of Communications

www.voicendata.com

VOL 20 ISSUE 5 May 2013

84 pages including cover Special subscription offer on Page 64

LTE

Mobile providers are currently experiencing a huge rise in mobile backhaul capacity that addresses their current and future service requirements

SCALING UP

BACKHAUL

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In the demand driven nature of todays business jungle, customers hunt for more in terms of value addition and levels of service. Companies leading the pack need proactive solutions with avant garde technology that cater to this emerging trend.

Interactions Simplified

Driving Leadership in the Corporate Jungle

To know how technology can drive your business better and provide a foundation for corporate leadership log onto

TECHNOLOGY FOR LEADERS

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Mobile Apps / 67

App developers need to have an inclusive monetization model for a successful app strategy and ‘freemium’ seems to be an ideal one

C O N T E N T S

Striking it Big!

LTE

Mobile providers are currently experiencing a huge rise in mobile backhaul capacity that addresses their current and future service requirements

SCALING UP BACKHAUL

COVER STORY / 28

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A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | MAY 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 5

BROADBAND

23

Telecom Towers National Treasure

The Indian telecom industry, with over

400,000 telecom towers, is a critical support system for the world’s second largest base of mobile subscribers

32

Leader Speak From Bharat to E-India

...a journey through the eyes of the former telecom secretary

—R Chandrasekhar

The author is a former telecom secretary of India and the chairman of the Telecom Commission

33

^NFC

The New Frontier

NFC-enabled smartphones are poised to deliver valuable new

physical access control capabilities

35

OSS/BSS

Off to New Platforms

The emergence of internet-based services is compelling the union of OSS and BSS platforms that is giving birth to new business models

37

Cell Phone Radiation A Case of Half-truths &

Misinformation

There are many myths related to exposure to emissions from telecom towers and mobile phones. So it is imperative that people be made aware of the truth amidst all the misinformation

40

Test & Measurement Curating the Best Strategies

With the changing times it has become crucial to design effective test strategies for mobile apps, un- derscoring their challenges and best practices

ENTERPRISE

41

Data Center Manage your DC in 4 Steps

A 4-step approach can help IT...

42

How to Plan a

Multi-layered Approach?

New approaches to data center optimization are reducing costs...

46

^BYOD

Will it be the Top Trend of 2013?

BYOD is drastically changing the way IT...

47

Smart Storage A Game Changer

Industry analysts expect an annual worldwide...

48

CIO Klub Top CIO Priority for 13-14

While CIOs generally help businesses...

45

^Cloud

Cloud Goes the Super Market Way

The cloud computing industry is...

50

Entertainment in the Cloud

Service providers and entertainers should...

REGULARS

Editorial ... 8 Telestats ... 9 Voicemail ... 11 News & Views ... 14-22 Perspective ...82

DEVICE

76

ANALYSIS Will Tablets Cannibalize PCs?

A latest forecast by Gartner sug- gests that the traditional PC market will...

78

Will BlackBerry Reclaim its Lost Glory?

After a not so eventful first 3 quarters, BlackBerry posts a surprise profit in Q4. Will it be enough to revive the company’s lost glory?

EVENT

76

MWC-2013 Ericsson: Enabling Growth

The company focused on M2M, LTE broad- cast, multi-screen...

VAS

69

Internet of Things Monetizing Smartly

IoT holds huge potential for the industry, but...

71

Mobile Penetration Connecting with Consumers

Mobile phones play a crucial role in our day-to-day lives...

72

Case Study | Vserv.mobi Cloud, the Messiah

for Start-ups

New approaches to data center optimization are reducing costs...

74

Digital Marketing

3 Social Media Must- Dos for Brands

Brands should focus on 3 key social media principles to grow their social following...

52

Leader Speak

‘We are aggressive in software and our revenue will grow to $6-12 bn over the next 3-5 years’

—John Chambers chairman and CEO, Cisco

56

Network Security Joining the Dots

Secure everything, everywhere...

57

Cybercrime

Why Cybercrime Remains a Growing Business

Two reasons: The consumerization of crimeware, and...

59

Case Study | Essar A Shrinking

World

Essar rolled out a unified communications solution that enhanced...

61

Big Data

Can CIOs Afford to Ignore Big Data?

Intensely debated and hotly contested, big data is...

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E D I T O R I A L

The $45 Mn Warning

<[email protected]>

It could not have been more shocking case of cyber crime skill and precise coordination. A gang of very highly networked thieves stole $45 mn from ATM machines in 26 countries.

The modus operandi was simple but the coverage vast—information was stolen from databases of prepaid debit cards which was then copied to fake plastic cards with magnetic strips. Perhaps as a trial $5 mn was withdrawn on December 22 last year; and then the big rip-off happened in February during a 10 hour operation where $40 mn was taken out in 36,000 transactions.

All this surely makes a good story for a racy thriller. But there is a big problem in the story. The India connection. The two companies, which are alleged to be the source of the debit card info leak that resulted in the $45 mn robbery, work out of India. According to experts, the hackers broke into the two processing companies’ databases, raised the balances and withdrawal limits on the accounts, then swiftly withdrew money from ATMs around the world.

While no big noise has been made so far, instances such as these will positively put out sourcing of banking processes to India, bringing it under the scanner. This is the fourth big event in less than 12 months when outsourcing of critical processes to India by big financial global names has created problems. Once because of poor controls against suspicious transactions, another time a global rate rigging fraud, then money laundering risks.

This ATM heist has the potential to be a great game spoiler for the Indian BPO industry, which is anyways under a lot of economic and political pressure. And when such news is picked up by people around the world, not just businesses but the governments and consumers start doubting India’s capability.

Global security experts who matter believe that it is not surprising that hackers target banks that rely on Indian firms to process transactions. According to them, India is a soft target because it is fast growing with a fast growing IT infrastructure. One impact of this crime, specially for a country like India, will be that smaller BPO outfits will lose business. Many banks will not like to expose them to additional risks that come with using smaller firms.

There are about 1,000 mid to large sized BPOs in India that did business worth $49 bn last year. Experts opine that a good 30% of that would be coming from banking including debit and credit card related processing jobs. These units employ hundreds and thousands of people. All this would be under threat if we have more such incidents.

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T E L E - S T A T S

City/Circle February’13 March’13 % Growth Over Previous

Month

Metros Subscriber Base

Delhi 28,102,021 28,173,610 0.25

Mumbai 19,919,786 20,239,540 1.61

Chennai 11,210,821 11,285,387 0.67

Kolkata 13,377,837 13,432,442 0.41

All Metros 72,610,465 73,130,979 0.72

A Circle Subscriber Base

Maharashtra 53,203,496 53,617,303 0.78

Gujarat 41,062,395 41,444,005 0.93

AP 49,899,947 50,470,256 1.14

Karnataka 37,439,439 37,698,573 0.69

TN 47,058,081 47,281,613 0.48

Total 228,663,358 230,511,750 0.81

B Circle Subscriber Base

Kerala 24,870,599 24,882,694 0.05

Punjab 22,473,635 22,653,848 0.80

Haryana 14,482,406 14,563,713 0.56

UP (W) 37,295,331 37,200,011 -0.26

UP (E) 58,104,501 58,661,419 0.96

Rajasthan 37,018,982 37,583,512 1.52

MP 35,303,549 35,450,804 0.42

WB & A&N 29,894,841 30,084,271 0.63

Total 259,443,844 261,080,272 0.63

C Circle Subscriber Base

HP 5,336,138 5,417,841 1.53

Bihar 46,384,592 47,034,865 1.40

Odisha 18,049,733 18,337,399 1.59

Assam 11,204,154 11,347,741 1.28

NE 7,844,059 7,949,838 1.35

JK 6,051,919 6,132,098 1.32

Total 94,870,595 96,219,782 1.42

All India 655,588,262 660,942,783 0.82

Statistics on GSM

MARKET SHARE – MARCH’13

Operators Subscribers % Market Share

Bharti Airtel 188,196,071 28.47

Vodafone 152,353,654 23.05

Idea 121,607,390 18.40

BSNL 97,172,146 14.70

Aircel 60,071,967 9.09

Uninor 31,683,600 4.79

Videocon 2,009,474 0.30

MTNL 4,819,942 0.73

Loop Mobile 3,028,539 0.46

All India 660,942,783 100

COMPANY-WISE MARKET SHARE (In %age)

4.79 Uninor

0.46 Loop Mobile 0.30

Videocon 0.73 MTNL

18.40 Idea 9.09 Aircel

14.70 BSNL

23.05 Vodafone

28.47 Bharti airtel

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T E L E - S T A T S

Subscriber Figures in last 6 months (in Millions) Net Subscriber Figures in last 6 months (in Millions)

Subscriber Figure of March’13

97

5 3

Subscriber Figures in Last 6 Months

Circle-wise GSM Data

Mar Apr Mar Apr

Source: Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI)

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SEND YOUR FEEDBACK FOR US TO SERVE YOU BETTER...

Reliance Jio Infocomm:

Treading Cautiously

This is with reference to your story ‘Reliance Jio Infocomm: Treading Cautiously’

(VOICE&DATA, April 2013).

This is an excellent story. It has given a complete picture of RJI, keeping me abreast about the latest development in RJI. It also tells about the company’s potential, and what it needs to focus on. The entire industry is waiting to watch Reliance’s move in 4G. I am sure that something big awaits for the Indian customers as well as the telecom industry. Reliance was the company which gave a greater push to affordable communication by reducing the cost of handsets. As a customer, I am excited to witness the Reliance’s 4G story unfolding.

n Aswath Gowda via Email

Thank you for this article. I wish good luck to Reliance Jio. The company is well aware that even if it doesn’t make profits in the first few years by targeting middle class and lower middle class but it is worthwhile to tap these segments because of the huge volume.

I am also glad that it has joined hands with RCom. I am sure together they can do wonders for them as well as for the people at large.

n Arvind Khosla via Email

Good story! Please keep on giving more updates on Reliance Jio Infocomm.

n Pawan Kumar via Email

I hope Reliance enhances its network strength in comparison to its 2G. And this initiative should lead to good results for the civilians.

n Vinod Singh via Email

It is great to know that Reliance is attempting to come back in a big way.

n Vidhan via Email

(VOICE&DATA, April 2013). The 4G story would not be so smooth for RJI and your story has very clearly highlighted the problematic areas.

Good job!

n Amit Kashyap via Email

(VOICE&DATA, April 2013). Among all the challenges, the biggest problem for RJI would be to ensure that at least 50% of the rural SDCAs are covered within 5 years. Let’s see how it solves these!

n Rambha Yadav via Email

VOICE&DATA-CMR Enterprise Satisfaction Survey

This is with reference to your story

‘ E nte r p r i s e S at i sfa c t i o n S u r vey ’ (VOICE&DATA, April 2013). I was very happy to go through this survey report. It shows precisely that enterprises are scaling up communications networks quickly and

efficiently. This survey helps enterprises to select an efficient service provider based on network robustness, reliability, redundancy, and end-to-end responsibility. I also wonder that how come some service providers lack billing integrity.

n Ashutosh Rai via Email

Enterprise satisfaction survey gives a comprehensive view of the challenges faced by the enterprises with regard to communication and the assessment of communication infrastructure. What I want to highlight is that service providers ought to adhere to the bandwidth connectivity that they promise.

n Prakash Kulkarni via Email

Sandip Das: The Start-up Man

This is with reference to your story ‘Sandip Das: The Start-up Man’ (VOICE&DATA, April 2013).

Really appreciate this well-written piece.

I wish Sandip Das emerges as the ‘Data- Man’ and hope his decision turns out to be a boon for Reliance.

n Lakshmi Reddy via Email

Network Security: Mission Critical

This is with reference to your story ‘Mission Critical’ (VOICE&DATA, April 2013).

Every second day there is a new virus attack coming to the limelight. Therefore, enterprises and business users need to take a serious step for keeping such threats at bay. Security issues revolve around authentication, encryption, user confidentiality, data integrity, and lawful intercepts. Network security will always remain a top priority. It is a good read.

n Pramod Ananthram via Email

BI Saves BILT from the Phantom

This is with reference to your story ‘BI Saves BILT from the Phantom’ (VOICE&DATA, April 2013).

Business intelligence for manufacturing industry can work wonders—it increases the value of customer relationships;

APRIL 2013

V O I C E M A I L

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reduces inventory investment; improves planning, scheduling, the procurement schedule; and maintains and develops quality assurance.

In addition to this, it can also help to generate reports quickly, it is easy to create ad-hoc reports, analyze data across multiple systems, and eventually integrate new data sources.

n David Anandan via Email

BI is a great tool which analyzes raw data and it should be at the heart of every single organization. It includes data mining, online analytical processing, querying, and reporting. And thank for such a good article.

n Anushka Venkat via Email

I appreciate this case study. Nice to know that BI implementation is gaining momentum in India.

n Anil Saxena via Email

This is with reference to your story ‘BI Saves BILT from the Phantom’ (VOICE&DATA, April 2013). A wonderful piece. It was very interesting to note that a phantom inventory of about 10,800 metric tonnes across BILT’s manufacturing units was eating into the company’s profits.

n Mahindra Singh via Email

This is with reference to your story ‘BI Saves BILT from the Phantom’ (VOICE&DATA, April 2013). The company’s oracle ERP solutions with spend analytics applications and a strong BI helped it to discover such a loss.

So, it is inevitable for each and every company to circle over the right solution to solve its problems.

n Geeta Sharma via Email

DataWind Delivers 1 lakh Aakash Tablets to IIT-Bombay

This is with reference to your story

‘DataWind Delivers 1 lakh Aakash Tablets to IIT-Bombay’ (VOICE&DATA, April 2013).

Datawind might have delivered tablets but I have not received my tablet yet which was pre-paid 4 months back. And a friend of mine had purchased Ubislate 7+ but he has been given a defective piece.

n Santhosh Kumar via Email

Debt: Where is it Moving?

This is with reference to your story ‘Debt:

Where is it Moving?’ (VOICE&DATA, April 2013).

Had followed this telecom debt issue and it is really infuriating to see such diplomatic statements by politicians. I don’t understand why this telecom minister is so worried about private companies instead of elevating PSUs like BSNL and MTNL.

A few years back VSNL was sold to Tata group. VSNL was set up by the government and sold at a low price and the pockets of ex-minister were filled with golden and platinum eggs.

I don’t understand that why the government sells its subsidiaries which hold huge assets instead of attempting to revive them.

The politicians intentionally spoil good government units so that they can be sold and these politicians can fill their pockets.

No one can beat politicians’ tactics in taking credits for even trivial things (like cleaning parks) and passing the bucks when things go wrong. We are so frustrated with all this never-ending melodrama in India, will there be any political reformation?

n Vasudevan via Email

Beating the Odds

This is with reference to your story ‘Beating the Odds’ (VOICE&DATA, April 2013).

It is worthwhile to note that how TTSL really waded through its IT infrastructure problems. I think it was a prudent step to consolidate its backend infrastructure facilities. It’s a lesson for companies facing similar problems.

n Aakriti Gupta via Email

This is with reference to your story ‘Beating the Odds’ (VOICE&DATA, April 2013).

Realizing the need to establish a dedicated LAN connectivity between old and new data center to boost the time taken for exchange of data during migration . Re-designing the passive components to ensure better cooling and power facilites.

Upgrading most of its applications and databases to support tighter integration of their workflow and processes. Revamping the overall networking with improved

switching and routing solutions. I think TTSL did the right things at the right time to boost its productivity.

n Mahima Sinha via Email

Data Transformers

This is with reference to your story ‘Data Transformers’ (VOICE&DATA, April 2013).

The story is very informative. The transition from voice to data will really change the telecom landscape, with OSS/

BSS playing a crucial role.

n Daya Saha via Email

This is with reference to your story ‘Data Transformers’ (VOICE&DATA, April 2013).

OSS/BSS came to limelight from 1995 onwards when operators began to offer prepaid subscription which until then was primarily postpaid subscription. The introduction of GPRS was a turning point for the segment in 2000. But today we are witnessing tremendous impact on OSS/

BSS systems of communications service provider. And in the future they are all set to take center stage. Very nice story!

n Vaibhav Mishra via Email

MVAS—Hooked, and Wanting More

This is with reference to your story MVAS—

Hooked, and Wanting More (VOICE&DATA, April 2013).It’s a good article with report on the mVAS industry, very comprehensively explained in the story. It would be great if your magazine would also bring out segment wise market estimation in the MVAS industry as well as a detailed report on the major stake holders in the business for a better and an elaborate understanding.

n Prakash Samant via Email

This is with reference to your story M-health, at the click of a button (VOICE&DATA, April 2013). It’s a very informative new piece .Would request the publication to publish more of such articles from similar or other fields as they give a better picture and a better understanding of the technology and give an overview of the best adoption of that particular technology in the industry.

n Ranjit Sircar via Email V O I C E M A I L

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INTERVIEW

What are the research projects that you are focusing on at present?

Currently, I am involved in research activities around wireless communication systems particularly on physical and multiple access (MAC) layer. It is basi- cally theory-based. In layman terms, the research revolves around information and communication over wireless to ensure that we send right sort of signals with no error resilient and without any interference.

Besides conducting technical research and publishing technical papers, I handle intellectual property emerging from conferences as I am assigned the role of a director of conference publica- tions.

Also, working on wireless sensor networks and energy harvesting sensor networks. Here the focus is on how to design communication protocols.

Re-visiting some of the fundamental aspects, and in next 4 to 5 years there would be some concrete solution.

On LTE standards, there is a focus on feedback techniques—we are trying to determine the efficacy of Link Quality

‘India’s participation in formulating standards is bleak’

Malini N [email protected] Dr Neelesh B Mehta

associate professor, ECE, IISc, and member of IEEE

Metrics (LQM) and how accurately can LQM work with delay.

On energy harvesting network front, there has been a significant development.

Boeing is funding this project, where I am involved in building algorithms and department of electrical engineering have set up prototypes.

What is your perspective on Indian IP and standards?

I cannot comment on Indian IP but operators’ participation in formulating standards is non-existent from India. I always wonder if India is such a huge market, then why are we not participating in building telecom standards and why we are not mandating it. About 5 years back, IEEE Madras CEWIT initiated to push IP.

In bits and pieces what I am noticing is that—Indian IP and requirements are slightly getting pushed into standards.

India’s participation in formulating standards is bleak.

Being associated with the research team for decades now, what is your take on R&D in India with respect to telecom?

Fundamentally, R&D is still at a na- scent stage. In India, operators hardly undertake R&D activities. Sprint and Verizon have their individual research labs whereas, airtel labs are missing.

This department—R&D, needs a huge investment.

Graduates looking at technical jobs are in disdain as they are being offered software jobs in reputed MNCs with good packages, instead of their interest area such as technical jobs involving research and development. In the past couple of years companies like Qual- comm, Broadcom have opened their platform to hire graduates and profes- sionals for technical jobs.

RCom Net Revenue up 12%, Profit Falls 8.8%

Reliance Communications’ (RCom) net revenue has increased by 12.17%

to `5,956 crore in the quarter ended March, 2013, as against `5,310 crore during the quarter ended March 2012.

The company’s net profit has gone down by 8.8% to `303 crore in the quarter ended March, 2013, as against

`331.6 crore during the previous year ended March, 2012.

The yearly revenue has increased by 4.49% to `20,561 crore in comparison to `19,677 crore achieved in FY2011- 12. The company’s yearly net profit has gone down by 27.59% to `672 crore compared to `928 crore achieved in FY 2011-12.

Zain Deploys NSN’s CEM

Zain Kuwait has deployed NSN’s Customer Experience Management (CEM), ensuring a superior service experience for its mobile broadband customers. The CEM helps Zain Kuwait proactively and cost- efficiently improve its service quality, provide tailor-made services, roll out new services faster, and carry out targeted campaigns in order to further satisfy its customers. NSN developed and deployed a new Geo Information System (GIS) for Zain Kuwait, displaying network performance related key performance indicators (KPIs) for its customer base geographically located all over Kuwait.

Nokia Siemens Networks Opens GDC in China

Nokia Siemens Networks has inaugurated its Global Delivery Center (GDC) hub in Zhengzhou, province of Henan.

The new facility will provide tools, processes, and skilled resources to remotely manage mobile broadband networks for operators in China and around the world.

Pooling together existing competences and assets, it will also deliver full life- cycle services for TD-LTE, reinforcing Nokia Siemens Networks’ leadership and contribution to a thriving TD-LTE ecosystem.

NEWS

AND

VIEWS

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INTERVIEW

Please explain your business model. Is this a Uninor model or is it a mix of other countries?

Telenor has been operating services in Sweden, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, and India. In India, there was a stark difference due to the sheer number of competitors, and we had no option but to think differently. So we focused on 3 things—partner, process, and coverage.

In Bangladesh we are #1 so a lot of learning has come from that country.

The new operating model is built on this and has been refined and embraced by Uninor.

These learnings have helped automation distribution in Asia and spectrum efficiency in Europe. This model is based on daily execution in terms of daily planning and daily gross adds.

In the banking industry, innovation is at the core and the retail side, irrespec- tive of the country, remains the same. In airlines, there is just one way of working, ie relying a lot on automation. When we look at this model this is not only single services but all kind of services 2G/3G/4G and financial services and health services.

‘We focus on 3 things—partner, process, and coverage’

Pravin Prashant [email protected] Yogesh Malik

CEO, Uninor India

How do you work with your partners?

We work with our partners in a different manner as there is no boundary between us and our partners. IT is at the core of automation so to make it customer-friendly we transform IT from a cost-center to an IT-enabler. Our IT partner is Wipro and we have reduced IT cost by 50%.

We want to take the network beyond managed services as the partners are involved in cost per minute and also customer expectation. Technology selection helps in better antenna selection and bringing lot of efficiency. Partners customer service area helps in better customer quality. We are working with them so that cost per minute is 25% lower without quality deterioration in terms of query or customer complaint. The value proposition is customer call reduces.

How have you achieved break-even in Gujarat and UP(E)?

Gujarat and UP (E) have already achieved break-even and all the circles will break- even in 2013. This would be the fastest break-even time for any operator, ie 3 years from the launch.

The focus is to be a profitable company and also being sab se sasta and also best in service. Every circle is clubbed into clusters and every cluster has a P&L which is positive. In Gujarat, we opted for 6 zones, 5 clusters, and 25-30 mini-clusters. The core of the model is organization design, processes, architecture, and boundary-less partnership. In this model, customer care is circle-specific, campaigns are circle-specific and there are some cross-circle thinking.

We mobilize through 3 ways—aligning target to the last root level of planning, hands on management, and very strong execution culture. So we believe it is a trans- parent way of handling things be it investor market, capital market, circle employees or retailers, keeping the momentum up.

Idea Deploys Huawei’s 100G Network

Idea Cellular has chosen Huawei for deployment of 100G DWDM network in optical backbone network to enhance capacity and robustness by many folds. The equipment supplied by Huawei supports 80 channels with capacity of each channel at 100G with spacing of 50 GHz.

Idea had deployed pan-India OTN- based DWDM network ready for all IP, on its backbone network in 2011 based on Huawei technology. As the OTN technology is service agnostic, so the network is compatible with traditional TDM traffic and future oriented high speed data traffic.

Promote Smart Technologies in Cities: ITU

The 8th ITU Symposium on ICT and Environment Change held in Turin concluded with the message to promote the use of smart technologies in cities.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have a crucial role to play in tackling the developmental challenges facing the cities that are becoming our primary choice of habitation in the 21st century, said participants attending the ITU Symposium. An estimated 65% of the world’s population now lives in cities. With an additional 1.3 mn people moving from rural to urban areas every week. By 2050 more than 6 bn people will be living in urban agglomerations.

Central Bank of India Chooses IBM Analytics

IBM has announced that the Central Bank of India is leveraging IBM analytics to radically transform its financial management processes.

The analytics solution will help in activities ranging from budgeting to forecasting to liquidity management.

The convergence of a number of factors including the constantly changing regulatory environment, as well as the desire to uncover deeper customer insight from massive data, were the key drivers behind the bank’s decision to streamline its financial systems.

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INTERVIEW

Syniverse is setting up messaging hubs for Vodafone India. What’s the develop- ment on this Vodafone project?

Syniverse is in the process of setting up messaging hubs for Vodafone in India as all the international long distance operators have been instructed to set up a base in the country.

The hub will be aggregating all the international messages (SMS) coming to India in the Vodafone network before they get delivered to the recipient.

Syniverse is planning to set up 2 hubs for Vodafone in New Delhi and Mumbai.

Why did Vodafone choose Syniverse for messaging hubs?

Syniverse provides a lot of services to all the 23 entities of Vodafone India—be it roaming clearing, data clearing, and financial clearing services. So, setting up the hub was a natural extension.

How are you different from other com- panies in terms of providing services such as roaming, messaging, and net- work solutions?

We are different from our competitors

‘Syniverse is in the process of setting up messaging hubs for Vodafone’

Pravin Prashant [email protected] Sanjay Kasturia

VP and MD, Indian sub continent, Syniverse Technologies

as we try to focus on areas which are important to operators.

Our focus is on customer satisfaction and retention. We proactively help operators in providing real-time intelligence suite of services as operators can offer proactive monitoring by offering premium services. Due to proactive monitoring, consumers can be alerted on the usage so that there is no bill shock.

Does Syniverse provide LTE Roaming?

Syniverse has taken a lead in LTE roaming and it enables operators who rolls out LTE hardware. Globally, the company is focusing on all tier-1 operators in North America and Asia Pacific region. We are currently in trials with 7 mobile operators across the globe including Smart Tone in Hong Kong. The company is the only vendor to test entire roaming process from signaling and network authentication to real-time experience management, clearing, and settlement.

How does IPX help operators?

IPX is the core part of Syniverse LTE solution and is the backbone for LTE roaming as it uses diameter signaling. It helps in providing different SLAs (service level agreements) for roaming and messaging solutions thereby providing both quality of service as well as class of service.

Presently, more than 100 operators are connected to Syniverse IPX and it acts as an attraction to other operators.

Are your talking to LTE operators for MNP and LTE Roaming?

We are talking to everybody who has a license to operate LTE operations and are at different stages of rollout. The company is also looking at Wi-Fi roaming internation- ally which is critical from LTE point of view.

Wi-Fi talk and text solution helps consumers to make IP calls using their phones.

SAP Introduces SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud

SAP has launched SAP HANA enterprise cloud service. This cloud- based offering is designed to provide organizations with a new deployment option to gain immediate value from the innovation of SAP HANA, the next- generation in-memory platform.

Going forward, running mission- critical SAP ERP, SAP CRM, SAP NetWeaver business warehouse and new and unprecedented applications powered by SAP HANA will be possible as a managed cloud service with elastic petabyte scale. SAP aims to enable organizations to realize faster time-to-value coupled with lower total cost of ownership.

Huawei Signs MoU for OSS Interoperability

Huawei has signed an MoU for an Operations Support System Interoperability Initiative (OSSii) with Ericsson and NSN. OSSii aims to simplify interoperability between OSS systems in a multi-vendor environment. The initiative will provide easy access to interfaces that earlier were subject to restricted use, and will enable interoperability testing services to a wider community. The parties’ general guiding principles for the OSSii are openness, fairness, reasonableness, and non-discriminatory treatment.

Amy Hood Named Microsoft’s CFO

Microsoft has appointed Amy Hood as the chief financial officer. She would replace Peter Klein, who will remain at Microsoft till end of June to ensure a smooth transition. She has been an instrumental leader in the Microsoft Business Division (MBD), helping lead the transition to services with Office 365 and delivering strong financial and operational management throughout her time on the business. Hood, 41, joined Microsoft in December 2002 and currently serves as the CFO of MBD, overseeing all financial strategy, management, and reporting for the

$24.1bn business.

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INTERVIEW

How do you compare India’s performance in 2012 with other countries in the region?

It has under-performed, though it was positive for greenfield accounts.

How has Aastra performed in different product categories such as desktop phones, mobility, and collaboration products in 2012?

In the above categories, we have under- performed.

When are you planning to launch BluStar Conference room for the Indian market?

And what is the target market in India?

BluStar Conference solution will be launched in India this year, and the target market is enterprise.

BluStar for Conference room features the same intuitive interface as the award- winning BluStar 8000i Desktop Media Phone prompting frequent and ad-hoc use. A video conference can be initiated with a simple click from a wireless control- ler, providing organizations with an easy way to enjoy the benefits of enhanced productivity achieved from reduced travel and greater collaboration of employees.

‘BluStar Conference solution will be launched in India this year’

Pravin Prashant [email protected] Peter Ditmar Hofman

regional president, (Asia, Middle East, and Africa), Aastra Telecom

Which verticals have done extremely well for Aastra India and why?

Military, government, and ITES have done extremely well in 2012 because they shop for stable proven quality. In 2013, Aastra India has embarked upon the enterprise market by assigning a number of new channel partners.

How has Aastra performed in the SMB segment?

Our SMB segment has done well with our MX-ONE platform. By integrating voice, video, and data with mobility capabilities, Aastra MX-ONE, the full-featured communication server, brings new, fresh dimensions to the modern enterprise.

With its fully distributed architecture, the MX-ONE solution can be deployed in a centralized or distributed fashion, for one system or a multiple networked system across hundreds of geographically dispersed locations, and with scalability from 300 to 500,000 users meeting the UCC needs of a wide range of industries and customers, no industry or sector is a stranger to the MX-ONE solution.

With enterprises moving towards cloud computing, how is Aastra gearing to take a lead in cloud computing?

Aastra has its MX-ONE platform ready for the ‘Cloud’ since 2012. With the latest release of MX-ONE, it is now possible to run MX-ONE telephony servers and UCC applications as virtual machines in a customer VMware environment.

What’s your India plan for 2013?

Aastra’s plan is to work with as many certified channel partners as needed.

In order to be at par with any location, where the other players are present.

We are in progress to expand our product categories by 100% in India in 2013 compared to 2012.

Qyuki Digital Media Appoints Samir Bangara as MD

The Board of Qyuki Digital Media has appointed Samir Bangara as the managing director and CEO, succeeding Poonacha Machaiah. Bangara will assume his new role from June 3, 2013.

Prior to this appointment, Bangara was the managing director of the digital business at Disney UTV, which is one of India’s leading digital businesses, specializing in games, audio, and video content. With 15 years of rich experience in the media and technology space, he was responsible for driving growth and scaling the digital business of the company in various avatars.

Tulip Telecom Announces CDR Proposal

Tulip Telecom has announced the formal approval of its proposal for the restructuring of its debt by the empowered group of the Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) Cell. The company’s domestic lenders, a consortium of 13 banks and financial institutions, approved the company’s CDR package. The package includes a 30-month moratorium on principal and 18 month moratorium on interest.

The promoters of Tulip Telecom have already infused the required promoter’s contribution of `60 crore as required by the approval, which shall be converted into equity.

Cisco in MoU with Saint Petersburg Government

Cisco has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Saint Petersburg government to strengthen a strategic partnership to develop and implement ICT in the city. The MoU enhances Cisco’s commitment to actively contribute to the continuing development of the Russian innovation ecosystem. Specifically, Cisco and the municipal government of Saint Petersburg will work together to develop and deliver a plan to foster the city’s economy, support local healthcare, and education, and implement electronic government programs.

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INTERVIEW

What are the opportunities for HP in the enterprise space?

In terms of geographic spread there is a big opportunity. The way, business applications are changing be it data center, cloud, virtualization, the #1 priority for enterprise is to modernize as customer networks are aging and data patterns are changing. Video is changing and BYOD is actively being pursued by customers.

So, we need to have a clear opportunity for ourselves. There is a relief from the legacy network and the challenges are to deploy a modern network at the same cost.

HP is leading the change to provide choice to the customers in terms of co- existence of multiple brands, giving cost savings to CIO. Wherever we turn up, we make a difference and we see that as a big opportunity for increasing our revenue.

We are aligning with CIO’s goal in terms of network optimization. We are blending HP financial services with product strength to drive modernization agenda.

Which are the verticals that HP is targeting?

We are trying to transform and modernize and the focus is on manufacturing,

‘BYOD is an inevitable journey in a CIO’s roadmap’

Pravin Prashant [email protected] Prakash Krishnamoorthy

country manager, HP Networking

education, government, hospitality, and financial services. The government is a big investment opportunity which takes a long lead time. In terms of technology, the focus is on cloud, virtualization, and BYOD.

Do you foresee BYOD deployment by enterprises in this fiscal?

BYOD (bring your own device) is an inevitable journey in the CIO’s roadmap.

People are doing pilot for deploying secure reliable network. We have also announced pilot for BYOD. People are trying wireless enabled security access, provisioning it, and getting BYOD ready.

We have announced BYOD and it is a commercial success by HP and its partners.

How does the networking portfolio look like for HP?

Our portfolio is robust and complete. We have products for data center, distribution, and edge. We have categories for unman- aged, managed, and smart managed, and 10/100 gigabit. Hence, we truly cater to different segments of the market. We have 2920, 2530, MSR 2010 series of routers and wireless access like MSM 200 and MSM 220, which are extremely successful mid product for the networking industry.

For the mid-market, we have top of the rack servers which offer best in class performance, super high density of port, and virtualization capabilities, and enjoy significant popularity among customers.

What is your portfolio on SDN?

We have 29 switches for SDN and BYOD solution. The SDN story portfolio reaches from edge routers to core routers and we have all types of stack. In case of SDN, we have 29 open flow switches which lay the underlying fabric. We are bundling prototypes and we have a beta version running in the lab. It is in the evolutionary stage and the commercial production will happen next year.

TCL’s Smartphone Sales up 123% in April

TCL Communication Technology has announced that smartphone sales in April surged 123% to 820,187 units.

The group’s total sales, volume of handsets and other products increased by 33% year-on-year to 3,886,668 units in April 2013. Sales of handsets and other products in mainland China increased by 8% year- on-year to 431,044 units, while those in the overseas markets increased by 37% year-on-year to 3,455,624 units.

Sales volume of smartphones and other smart devices accounted for 21% of the group’s total shipments for the month.

Reliance Jio Finalizes Key Vendor Agreements

Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) has finalized key agreements with technology partners, service providers, and other strategic partners for the broadband project.

RJIL will also focus on making available all the components of the entire digital value chain whenever they launch BWA services.

In addition to LTE and its future versions, the company will continue to evaluate and deploy other technologies, both wireless and wireline, to offer comprehensive broadband solutions.

Redknee Signs Multi-million Deal with APAC Operator

Redknee has announced that a leading tier-1 communications service provider (CSP) in APAC has signed a multi-year, multi-million dollar managed services contract for the former’s cloud-based wholesale and settlement solution.

Redknee’s comprehensive billing and settlement solution will support the CSP’s Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) monetization and growth strategy.

The renewal of the services contract with this existing customer reaffirms Redknee’s expertise in supporting tier-1 operators to launch sub-brands, MVNO/

Es to accelerate their growth strategies and build a profitable wholesale business.

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INTERVIEW

How have you faired in the ‘Corporate Responsibiliy and Sustainability Report’

2012?

In 2009, we set a target to reduce our carbon footprint by 40% in 5 years and in 2012, we achieved the target which was one year earlier. So that was quite an achievement.

Another accomplishment was that we started an education program about 2 years ago called ‘connect to learn’, where we have been focusing on secondary education.

The third area is our core portfolio on the base station side where we launched 2 solutions—AIR (Antenna Integrated Radio) and PSI. Both of these are part of our core portfolio and designed to reduce energy consumption of networks by 40%.

We have reduced business travels by 16% and increased the use of video conferencing by 60%. On product trans- portation, we reduced emission by 12%

and on the facility side per employee we reduced it by 3.6% but the total facility emission increased because we have expanded to more markets.

‘By 2017, we target to keep our absolute emissions on the level of 2011’

Pravin Prashant [email protected] Elaine Weidman-Grunewald

vice president, sustainability and corporate responsibility, Ericsson

What is the target for 2013?

We have a long-term target that by 2017 we will keep our absolute emissions on the same level of 2011 while continuing to grow the business. So, this is quite ambitious for the next 5 years and then on the portfolio side, we don’t know as yet but actually we are refining the new measurements at the moment.

The Jaipur facility has recently bagged Challengers Award for reducing carbon foot print.

PwC has audited this report, so is there any number on the amount of savings done by Ericsson?

Well, we don’t give out the financial figures. PwC audits our annual report on our finances but they are in our sustainability report on the sustainable criteria, but I would say, in general, whenever we are doing something on environment we are usually saving things, so you always have a close bonding in terms of cost of production and same thing on the network side in which we have reduced energy by 40%.

That’s having a pretty substantial opex but we don’t really put the dollar or the rupee value.

Areas where Ericsson needs to work upon in 2013...

Ericsson in India has done a phenomenal job but globally, the challenge is e-waste.

And the challenge is to get back the equipment because sometimes we couldn’t tap the grey market and we don’t resell.

In Ericsson, we take it back and recycle it properly on a global level. In 2012 we recorded that less than 5% of our waste was going to land-fill which was beyond any requirement and any legislation and we have really optimized the process for taking it back and some of the biggest part we get in India so we have a really strong system here but globally it’s still a challenge.

Molex Appoints DDMS as Distributor

Molex Premise Networks has appointed Digilife Distribution and Marketing Services (DDMS), a 100%

subsidiary of HCL Infosystems, as its distributor in India. As part of the agreement, DDMS will distribute the complete range of MPN product portfolio, including PowerCat5e, 6, and 6A structured cabling systems as well as Optical Fibre and Canobeam®

Free Space Optics and MIIM Intelligent cabling systems.

Under this alliance, DDMS will undertake marketing and sales of the entire product range of MPN across metros, tier-2, and -3 cities of India.

Opera Mini Joins Hands with Indian Mobile OEMs

Opera Software has entered into agreements with 7 Indian mobile OEMs to pre-install the Opera mini mobile web browser on all the manufacturers’ upcoming handsets, phablets, and tablets based on the Android mobile OS. Opera Mini will be the exclusive third-party browser to be pre-installed on all Android devices by Celkon, Karbonn, Lava, and Intex.

Opera Mini will also be pre-installed on select Android devices by Fly and Zen, as well as on HCL ME tablets. Opera Mini is the most widely used mobile web browser in the country. It uses a server to pre-process and compress websites to as little as 10% of their original size before sending them to the mobile device. .

Microsoft Partners with Tanzani Affordable Broadband

Microsoft has announced a TV white spaces pilot project in collaboration with the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) and UhuruOne. Under this, it will provide affordable wireless broadband access to the university students and faculty in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The collaboration will also enable UhuruOne, a local internet service provider, to offer Windows 8 device and service packages to universities in Dar es Salaam.

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INTERVIEW

About the partnership that Facebook announced with Nokia for Asha 501?

Nokia Asha 501 provides free access to Facebook at $99, an agreement between Airtel and Nokia. Till now, no one has trailed mobile data, and we are trying to gain an understanding on mobile internet. This measure will ramp people to try Facebook and get started on their journey of mobile internet.

User privacy is a big concern area and how are you planning to protect users?

When Facebook started 9 years ago there were phone numbers, birthday dates and addresses details viewable on public domain, which changed with privacy settings. With this option, users can select details that they want to make public or share with their selected people—controlling the people’s access to their information.

We take user privacy very seriously and this is the key to our success. The system created, gives users lot of control, but our challenge is to make this process more navigable, ie to make it simple for

‘Privacy is the top most priority for the company’

Pravin Prashant [email protected] Vaughan Smith

vice president, mobile and corporate development, Facebook

the users to understand. We are working on privacy issues and it is the top most priority for the company.

How are you planning to monetize Fa- cebook in the Indian market?

Our journey is only 1% completed and we are early in the evolution of Facebook.

Today, we are laying the foundation stone for future services. Presently, this is the second largest market as 78 mn users out of 1.1 bn come from India, and planning to become the largest market for Facebook.

We primarily monetize through advertising—pay services for devel- oper and revenue share. The manner in which monetization is growing, it is very exciting. In FYQ112, we had zero percent revenue on mobile but in FYQ113, we got 30% of overall revenue from mobile as people are on the Facebook most of their time, and 750 mn users out of 1.1 bn access Facebook through mobile.

The television sector is a big market, having numerous opportunity of growth.

At the moment, we do not have video product but there are plans to provide immersive experience. Advertisements are pretty well for both e-commerce and m-commerce as advertising on Facebook is helping in lot of sales.

Are you also talking to Indian manu- facturers to provide phones with free Facebook pack?

We are talking to all Indian manufacturers like Micromax, Karbonn, Lava to name a few among others. With phones improv- ing on daily basis and becoming more affordable, it is easy for people to get stay connected via internet. We service our Indian subscribers in 9 different lan- guages so that we can have messaging and other applications.

Cognizant Jigs Management

Outsourcing major Cognizant has made certain key elevations/changes at the top, with an aim to tap newer emerging opportunities. The key elevations are:

n Kalyan Mohan: Venture partner and product engineering lead for Emerging Business Accelerator (EBA) business n Shankar Srinivasan: Will be heading a new venture for products and services specifically for the company’s employees n James Lennox : Head of HR

n Sumithra Gomatam: Head, global delivery and she retains her current testing practice head as well n Debashis Chatterjee: Head of enterprise information management and advanced solutions and will continue to head infrastructure business

Facebook Can Make you Mentally ill, Says Study

According to a recent study, Facebook and other social networking sites can affect your mental health. The study is published in the Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences.

Lead researcher Dr Uri Nitzan said, “As internet access becomes increasingly widespread, so do related psychopathologies.” They have linked psychotic episodes in patients to internet addiction and delusions related to virtual relationships, the Daily Express reported.

While all the participants in the study had social problems such as loneliness, but none had previous episodes of psychosis or drug abuse.

IBM to Help Indian Co-op Banks Enhance Customer Service

IBM has announced that 4 co-operative banks in India—The Co-operative Bank of Rajkot (Gujarat), Shivajirao Bhosale Sahakari Bank (Maharashtra), Goa State Co-operative Bank, and Tumkur Veerashaiva Co-operative Bank (Karnataka) have adopted its data center solutions to improve their operational efficiency and compete more effectively.

IBM claims in a statement that the deployment of its integrated server room (ISR) solution will enable these banks to set up a cost-effective and energy- efficient data center to offer new services like ATM, mobile banking, and online banking to customers.

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INTERVIEW

G

lobal IT networking solutions provider—Cisco, is betting big on mobility space. Known as the networking giant, Cisco has spread its wings, tapping every possible segment of IT equipment industry such as enterprise networking (products include routers, switches, wireless systems, UC, call center systems, security and surveillance, storage etc) and hardware (LAN products, security appliances, telephony products, servers/application appliances and software). In this year, Cisco is witnessing a greater relevance in the mobility space and it has strength- ened the service provider division—this is quite evident from its recent acquisitions.

The company acquired Intucell, an Israel-based software maker, in January 2013 for a value of $475 mn in order to expand mobile network management of- ferings. Cisco also closed BroadHop deal in January 2013, which is Denver-based next generation policy control and service management carrier networks provider.

In April 2013, there was an announce- ment of acquiring UK-based Ubiquisys (The company specializes in small cell technologies) for a value of $310 mn.

In a conversation with VOICE&DATA, Ed Chang, vice president, product management service provider access group, stated, “Cisco has invested over $2 bn globally in a few companies for future growth. We are witnessing a growth in the overall mobility space and opportunities galore. We had no great expertise in areas like small cell technology, self- organizing network (SON), and policy control. Inorganic growth is a great way to bring in innovation and enhance our footprint.”

Mobile Strategy

Chang mentioned, “Operators are at constant pressure due to accelerating

‘Betting Big on Mobility’

Malini N [email protected] subscriber base, along with increasing M2M connections. They are grappling with lower ARPUs, struggling to manage OPEX and to enhance seamless connectivity. These issues can be addressed efficiently by adding small cells as it enhances capacity and makes better use of scarce spectrum.”

The acquisitions have strength- ened Cisco’s service provider division.

Though the company had small cell portfolio, this strategic move helped to focus on intelligent software for licensed 3G and LTE spectrum, and assist operators towards transition to the next generation radio access networks.

Taking this measure, Chang stated that there would be least impact on the workforce in the process of integrating these acquired companies.

India Pitch

Referring to India site, Ishwar Parulkar, CTO, service provider access group, Cisco Systems, said, “We are driving a significant portion of the mobility strategy from India R&D site. With respect to technology, productivity and improvement is at the core in developed markets while Indian tech industry aims towards transformation.

Our mobility strategy fundamentally targets healthcare and education segments in India.”

Parulkar also emphasizes, “Our mobility strategy enables operators to har- ness intelligence in the network. There is a massive variation in the subscriber base—and we assist them to identify subscribers, applications, locations, de- mographics, traffic engineering, program- ming parameters in the network through which they can build apt business models to monetize.”

Mobility strategy has given an edge to Cisco, helping to extend its portfolio such as data analytics, SON, and evolved packet core

Vodafone Hutchison Australia Selects Cisco for 4G

Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) has selected Cisco to accelerate deployment of 4G long-term evolution (LTE) network with Cisco ASR 5,500 as the mobile multimedia core platform.

VHA is in the midst of transforming how it meets the changing demands of the Australian consumer with the planned rollout of the Vodafone 4G network, scheduled to launch mid-year.

With the ASR 5,500’s ability to simplify capacity and traffic management VHA gains the increased network efficiency and intelligence required to provide an optimal experience for Vodafone 4G customers.

India IT Infra Spending to Reach $2.1 bn by 2014: Gartner

The Indian IT infrastructure market, comprising of server, storage, and networking equipment, will total $2.1 bn in 2013, growing 9.7% compared to 2012, according to Gartner.

The Indian IT infrastructure market is driven by hardware refresh, optimization, and consolidation efforts.

The server market accounts for the biggest chunk of the market totaling

$753 mn in 2013 and is predicted to total $962.3 mn in 2017.

Increased uptake of x86 based technologies, coupled with continued investment in virtualization, will drive server growth.

Nokia Unveils $99 Smartphone, Asha 501

Nokia has unveiled a $99 touchscreen smartphone for India and other emerging markets, to regain its market share as it struggles to compete in the high-end smartphone market dominated by Apple and Samsung.

Priced at approximately `5,350, Asha 501, which will be rolled out globally in June, will cater to the young, budget-conscious, entry- level smartphone seekers looking to upgrade from a feature phone to a smartphone, as well as first time users. The dual-SIM, 98-gram smartphone has a 3-inch screen, a 3.2-megapixel camera, and a memory capacity of 4GB, expandable to 32GB.

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