Industry insiders and analysts also say Reliance Jio's rollout is fraught with challenges, given that voice offerings on the 4G-LTE technology platform, using the 2,300MHz band of airwaves, is yet to develop globally. Voice currently still makes up over 80% of industry revenue.
"We don't see much of an impact of Jio's December rollout, given that this is going to be phased and a pan-India presence is quite some time away," said a chief executive of a leading telco, who did not wish to be named. "Jio's scattered spectrum holdings across multiple bands, would pose challenges for seamless delivery of high-speed data services on-the-go".
He said voice over LTE (VoLTE) had "security and delivery issues, which they (read: Jio) would have to contend with".
At its annual shareholders' meeting Friday, Jio Chairman Mukesh Ambani said the company is in the throes of pre-launch testing and standardization drill of its digital broadband network that is equipped to handle both data and voice using 'long term evolution' or LTE — a technology standard for offering high-speed 4G services.
Another top executive of a leading GSM carrier said Jio's biggest challenge would be offering voice and data services seamlessly across its countrywide LTE network.
"Since there's zero clarity on whether Jio would offer a quality voice service on LTE, it remains to be seen if their data-dominant offering appeals to the mass market, given that 85% of industry revenues still stem from voice," he said. Jaideep Ghosh, partner, management consulting, KPMG in India seconds the emotion. "Customer acquisitions will be Jio's biggest worry as today's announcements suggest it is primarily focusing on data play."
According to Ghosh, unless Jio is able to bring much more to the table, both on the voice and data fronts, compared to what incumbents offer, it would be very difficult to "wean away" customers from the top three carriers.
Jio has said its mobile offerings of voice and data would be at Rs 300-500 price levels. Similar offerings currently cost around Rs 1,000 in the market.
KPMG's Ghosh also said sub-Rs 4,000 4G devices, be it tablets or smartphones, "is unlikely to galvanise revenues or subscriber market share for Jio as urban telecom penetration is already over 100% and rural penetration is also around 50%".
A top executive of one of India's biggest GSM carriers noted that there was "a conspicuous absence of any voice strategy" in Jio's announcements at the Reliance Industries AGM on Friday. "One mustn't forget that voice remains the dominant telecom business driver in India, given that mobile carriers collectively generate nearly 4 billion incremental voice minutes a day."
Analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, however, said "dual sim smartphones" could be an option for potential customers. "Given the lack of a traditional voice offering by Jio, we believe potential dual sim smartphones could be attractive to consumers as they could continue to use their existing telco SIM for voice calls and use Jio's sim for access to cheaper, high-speed data offerings," said the US brokerage in a note.
Still, the December launch, as opposed to industry expectations of mid-July-August, have given incumbents ample time to leverage their 4G spectrum wins in the past two auctions and cut data rates, said BK Syngal, ex-chairman of erstwhile VSNL (now Tata Communications).
Any cut in data rates by existing players, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said, would, however, lead to another tariff war and further hurt a debt-laden sector.
Rise and rise of Internet of Things in India
IoT, or Internet of Things, can be explained as the networking of physical objects through the use of embedded sensors which collect information about the objects, their surroundings and communicate the same to other objects, linked through wired or wireless networks.
It started as the movement of taking control of devices and making objects speak to one another. Now, the focus seems to be on making things intelligent. In the process, IoT has morphed to IoE (Internet of Everything) where anything may be connected anytime, anywhere, on any network and be accessible to anybody.
Globally, IoT is revolutionising traditional value chains and is fundamentally changing how products are going to be created, marketed, sold and serviced. It represents a huge market opportunity with some estimates topping $ 9 trillion by 2020.
Indian angle
Most of the buzz about IoT today is around companies, concepts and use cases that originated in the West and the Far East.
The Indian IoT story had a quiet beginning but now it is showing signs of going into mainstream rapidly. Understandably, most players in the space are young companies.
However, the local eco-system is maturing quickly. Pune-based CarIQ (www.cariq.in) has already gone through four rounds of collecting orders for their intelligent device and should start shipping it out by the end of June 2015. Their promise: predict potential problems in your car and get help resolving them. Bengaluru's Beaconifi (www.beaconifi.it) recently went public with the announcement that it had connected more than 1,000 local stores in Bengaluru with sensors that could guide customers to the right deals in the right stores. Another exciting new prospect is Entrib (www.entrib.com) from Pune that is promising to revolutionise productivity and quality on the shop floor through the use of IoT. On the entertainment front, there's TeeWee (www.teewee.in) from Bengaluru that has come up with a HDMI dongle that will help stream any kind of media to a TV at the tap of a button. Notable among the IoT infrastructure players is Axelta (www.axelta.com) that has a centre in Hyderabad, which is developing some frameworks to facilitate communication among connected devices, allowing brands and consumers to truly harness the power of IoT.
In 2014, the Government of India (GoI) announced its plans to create a USD 15 billion IoT marketplace in India by 2020. The Draft Policy specifies plans:
· To undertake capacity development (human and technology) for IoT specific skills
· To undertake research and development activities for all assisting technologies
· To develop IoT products specific to Indian needs in different domains
GoI's current big push on financial inclusion also has to leverage IoT in a significant way. The "unbanked" will, more often than not, be miles away from the nearest bank branch. Banks have begun employing 'business correspondents' in remote areas to provide the basic banking services to such folks. Connected devices that are in touch with the banking back offices are fundamental to such initiatives. Whether it is a rudimentary "travelling ATM" or a card reader, these devices are all part of the IoT ecosystem in India.
While GoI is placing a lot of importance on IoT as a space, the actual consumer adoption of IoT in India is expected to be slow, owing to the following reasons.
· The Internet, though widespread, is still not a reliable service in all areas. Speed and quality of service are often associated with the price one pays.
· Connected devices themselves are not inexpensive. Communication and connectivity do come at a price.
· Security, too, is often a concern. Many connected devices have been proven to have security loopholes, leaving them vulnerable to hacking and potential data losses.
Another major deterrent to rapid adoption of the IoT in India is the fact that most of the IoT consumer use cases, till date, have been designed keeping the western consumer in mind. Google's NEST thermostat is a runaway success in the US but has little application inside the typical Indian home. That said, there have been some interesting developments in the Indian IoT consumer space as well. Take the case of a group of students in Surat that has developed a mechanism that prevents a bike from starting if it senses that the rider doesn't have a helmet on or is inebriated.
IoT and the Indian workforce
There's no doubt that the increasing adoption of IoT will certainly have an impact on the job market in India. Some current roles will become redundant. It should, however, also create new opportunities, some of which we cannot even envision today. There will be new opportunities in traditional verticals. Software development, data management, analytics are all areas that should see strong growth as IoT adoption gains momentum. At the same time, some new hybrid verticals (like IT + Medicine) may emerge. Adjusting to changes and learning to work differently, even in traditional roles, in the connected world will be a key to success in the IoT age.
Future possibilities
In India, IoT can be the key to ensure superior consumer engagement and enhanced quality of life, whether it is in retail, utilities, healthcare or in the government sector. It can help drive up the revenue through targeted marketing and better customer service. IoT can also play a significant role in manufacturing and supply chain industries by driving costs down, improving safety of operations and quality of output. It can help eliminate human error to a large extent and provide for better execution of supply chains.
0 comments:
Post a Comment