While we know that the state of broadband internet service in India is not really that great, you can get more insight into the actual broadband performance in the country by comparing it with other countries like Japan, China, South Korea and the US. A recent report from Ookla, titled NetIndex suggests that we might have a long way to go before we get at par with other established countries who have much better broadband speeds and performance than us.

Here is a chart from Google's Public Data service which shows the average download speed a user in India compared to those of the countries mentioned above.

As you can see, South Korea (45,793.98 Kbps) and Japan (35,035.89 Kbps) have the highest download speeds among the lot for the month of October. Surprisingly, the US (19,942.66 Kbps) lags behind them by almost half the speed. China logs in at 15,259.19 Kbps and finally India clocks in at 3673.56 Kbps.

When it comes to uploads, the hierarchy roughly remains the same, with South Korea and Japan in the top positions. China overtakes the US by a small margin and India comes at the last with 2545.94 kbps.

If you dig deeper into the India report of NetIndex, you can get more granular data about the speed distribution across the country. Roorkee, according to the report has the highest broadband speeds (D: 28.83 Mbps | U: 21.34  Mbps) while the rest of the country averages around 3-7 Mbps in terms of downloads and uploads. You would think that the Indian metros would have better speeds in general but the data doesn't show any special improvements.

Implications:

Digital businesses and services have picked up in the country in a big way in the last 5 years. This has not actually translated in a meaningful increase in broadband speeds. If you see the first graph on top, it shows the speed capability climbing throughout the years, while India's graph traces a straight line, indicating that not much improvement has taken place in the last 5 years. While this is bad performance by the developmental authorities, it also gives us an understanding of how the odds are stacked against internet companies and services in India. This is the reason why we don't actually have full-fledged digital media consumption booming in the country. For example, while Netflix has become common in the western world, we do not have any equivalent services on those scales because of the challenge in infrastructure. The penetration of the internet is around 10% in the country and an overwhelming majority of us still remain deprived of internet experience. This will happen soon because of the accessibility of mobile, but can we handle at least 20% more penetration without the proper infrastructure? I highly doubt it.

Other countries are getting Gigabit internet capabilities but getting a decent 3G connection is a challenge in our cities. This needs to get rectified soon because the internet will keep progressing and we are in the danger of getting left behind.

What are your thoughts on this? Share them with us in the comments.

Source | NetIndex by Ookla

Graph Source | Google Public Data Records

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Online businesses are especially vulnerable to hacking. Many times, this can happen inspite of the measures one takes. This is compounded by the service outage which affects people all over the world and not having much knowledge about how much data was stolen as the attack is progressing. How does one company manage the situation and get it under control? The key is clear communication.

Buffer, one of the apps I use to manage my social media presence and activity, got hacked last weekend. While the hacking took the service down for a couple of hours, the team behind the service managed to avoid the bigger crisis that could have been.

Buffer got attacked and generated spam instead of scheduling their user's posts. This generated a lot of annoyance and ultimately perceived unprofessional behavior from companies and clients which use Buffer to schedule their business updates on their social media accounts. Besides being embarrassing, users had no way of knowing what had actually happened and whether their accounts had been taken over by hackers. Buffer, by design has access to your social media accounts, and by getting access to the Buffer system, it is not unreasonable for users to expect that their social media accounts could have also ended up being compromised. The Buffer team got onto the situation and updated their progress non-stop over their blog.

They expressed their regret that their users were subjected to this experience and  intimated all their users about what the situation was in an open and transparent way. They fixed the problem in a couple of hours and clearly asked users to follow procedures to reset their accounts. This was done in a very matter of fact way and the team assumed full responsibility for the situation. They didn't beat around the bush and were especially not unresponsive, as many companies are prone to do in such a situation. When the service was finally back online, they promised to look into why this situation occurred and have promised a full technical report about the closed vulnerability.

Their way of going about the situation is exactly what every budding startup needs to emulate. The first thing to do is to assume responsibility of the situation rather than passing the blame. Second, be as responsive as you can get. Users need assurance in a time of crisis. They need to be know the extent of the outage and the breach and also that you are working on fixing it. Of course, you will find hate and frustration from users but all this is bound to happen in the digital consumer services space. At the same time, if you are open about about the problem and address it in a transparent and reassuring way, things can take a turn for the better. Due to their efforts on that day, Buffer found a lot of goodwill from their users including me. You only need to read the comments to their blog and you will understand.

Openness and transparency are key attributes that a startup needs to incorporate in their teams and product. This is when startups can start delivering real value to their users

Link | Buffer Blog

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The vision of a Digital Bharat could get a serious impetus if Department of Telecommunications (DoT) fructifies its plans. The apex body for Telecommunications in India has sought approval from the Telecom Commission to overlay the government user network over the National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN). By this project, DoT could ensure high speed broadband network access to the most rudimentary of rural Government machinery; the Gram Panchayat.

The DoT has already sketched out a framework for the delivery of high speed broadband from district headquarters and two other locations in the Gram Panchayats for Government Services that can be delivered to the public, along with a community access to broadband. Essentially, the overlay will be a network offering Closed User Group Connectivity. The interconnectivity is expected to significantly speed–up exchange of information and eliminate the delay usually associated with official communication between multiple Government Departments.

How will DoT finance this? Interestingly, DoT isn't asking for any funds for the same. Telecom Companies operating in India have been pooling money in a mandatory communal fund meant for uplifting the communications standards of the rural regions of India. Christened 'Universal Service Obligation Fund', the account is awash with funds. Ironically telecom companies have been bickering bitterly for the compulsory deposit they have to make, as well as to the fact that majority of the funds were sitting idle.

DoT wants to withdraw about Rs. 3750 Crores (US$ 608 Million) that would meet the entire Initial Capital Expenditure. However, DoT has officially communicated that the Operating Expenses, which are expected to be around Rs. 1860 Crores (US$ 302 Million), will be borne by the Ministry Of Rural Development.

Digital Bharat, as opposed to Digital India has always been a dream of the Government. Though there were multiple projects undertaken, not even one has seen completion in its entirety. However, since this is merely an overlay, Bharat Broadband Network Limited, who will implement the project, could surely bring this project to its rightful completion. Since technology has already reached the villages, getting connectivity is the only hurdle. What do you think?

Image Credits: tdt

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The latest survey from Vuclip reveals that Indian youth prefers to watch  long form of videos like movies on their mobiles, despite the cost and buffering concern. The Global Video Insights 2013 for Q3 was conducted by Vuclip on 50,000 people globally, including approximately 8,000 from India.

Giving insights about the Indian scenario, the survey stated that 62% of respondents in India prefers to watch movies or TV serials instead of short movie clips on their phones. While 79% of respondents among the age group of 18 years and under prefer long form of content. Besides movies, 81% of respondents in India preferred watching favorite TV serial on mobile if made available. This preference is particularly strong among the ’18 and under’ age group at 95 percent, it said.

Speaking about the video preference, Arun Prakash, Chief Operating Officer of Vuclip further said,"When you see what the under-18 crowd is interested in, that's when you know you have a lens into the future of mobile. We're seeing an important shift as people become more engaged in viewing full movies and television episodes. And apps offer the best possible user experience for this. Naturally, consumers do have some hesitations about cost and buffering, but through a combination of the penetration of apps and the deployment of network-friendly adaptive bit rate streaming technologies, these issues can be addressed."

Vuclips’s Global Video Insights 2013 for Q3 revealed top 10 searches in the US, India and Indonesia. Here is the list of top searches from India which primarily focuses on the ABCD of content — A: Astrology, B-Bollywood, C- Cricket and D- Devotional.

1. Shuddh Desi Romance

2. Grand Masti

3. Cricket

4. Katrina Kaif

5. News

6. Aurangzeb

7. Ganesh Festival

8. Astrology

9. Shakira

10. Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Earlier in August this year, Vuclip revealed that 65% of Indian mobile users share videos via mobile. With advent of new apps, videos have become important and inseparable part of the internet ecosystem.  This month Google announced that YouTube gets 40% of views from mobile. Also, these video platforms are becoming a huge source of income with rising scope of mobile advertising.

Image Credits: vuclip

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Worldwide smartphone shipment has hit the quarter billion mark in Q3 of 2013, as per the latest report from Strategy Analytics. Smartphones surpassed feature phones for the first time in Q1 this year. Now, findings from the research firm reveals that more than 250 million smartphones were shipped worldwide in a single quarter, which is a 45 percent increase over last year.

As expected Samsung continued to be the leader and registered a 55% annual growth accounting for 88.4 million smartphones worldwide. This sums up to 35% of the market share of the global smartphone market in Q3. Apple came in second and shipped 33.8 million iPhones worldwide in Q3 2013, up from 26.9 million a year earlier. The iPhone, iPad and iPod maker grew just 26 percent annually during Q3 2013, which is around half the overall smartphone industry average of 45 percent. Apple’s global smartphone marketshare has dipped noticeably from 16 percent to 13 percent during the past year. Strategy Analytics said it expected Apple to make up lost ground in the fourth quarter on high demand for its new iPhone 5s model.

While the two giants continue to dominate the market, the ranking among smaller players keeps changing almost every quarter. In Q3, Chinese handset maker Huwaei climbed the ladder and earned no.3 spot in the global shipment. Woody Oh, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics, added, “Huawei was a star performer as global shipments grew 67 percent annually to 12.7 million units in Q3 2013. It captured 5 percent marketshare and became the world’s third largest smartphone vendor”.

LG, and Lenovo were ranked fourth and fifth with 5% and 4%  market share in global smartphone shipment respectively. Smartphones accounted for 6 in 10 of all mobile phones shipped worldwide, the research firm said. IDC report in June revealed that smartphone sales will soar by 32.7% in 2013.

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What if the philosophy of open source software could be applied to hardware? What difference would it make to users, companies and the phone ecosystem as a whole? We are about to find out. There has been growing interest in modular phones, especially a few weeks ago when Phonebloks, a new modular phone concept was doing the rounds on social media. Phonebloks is a concept designed by Dave Hakkens and seeks to relieve phone users of the frustrations encountered while using phone hardware, which is closed source by design.

For example, if your battery gets damaged, you can’t replace it easily because of the unibody cover that phone come in these days. Instead of just replacing the battery, you have to send it to a service center. Another aspect of this is a whole ‘use what you want‘ principle. What if you don’t really want a camera or a high end processor? You can’t action these choices very easily in the mobile hardware ecosystem which is present today. This may change soon.

Motorola has announced their new modular phone project called Ara. This project is being developed in collaboration with the Phonebloks community and seeks to build a modular phone, parts of which can be replaced and removed without affecting the phone as a whole. The company says that it wants to do for mobile hardware what Android has done for software on the phones.

Ara involves two main component types – Endo (Endoskeleton) and modules. Endo is the structural skeleton of the phone and has a base platform to run the phone. Modules are hardware which can plug directly into the Endo. Say, the battery might be one module, the processor might be another module along with camera, USB slot and so on. This way, users get to choose what they want and thus let a whole new wave of hardware developers get into the action, which was previously reserved for large hardware companies. With this, we anticipate a significant reduction in smartphone pricing and cost in general because users will decide the kind of modules that they want instead of being forced to decide between specifications of phones which they do not completely agree with or don’t need.

Motorola is saying that a alpha release of the Module Development Kit (MDK) will be on its way soon and is currently looking to connect with budding hardware developers through the Phonebloks community. This is where the revolution in mobile is at because the mainstream mobile ecosystem has been lagging now since a while, with the only innovation being increasing specifications.

What do you think about modular phones and open source hardware? Share your thoughts with us.

 Via | The Next Web

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Online–Cum–Telephone based Classifieds and Business Directory Services portal JustDial.com, run by Mumbai based company of the same name, has reported an astounding 98% jump in Net Profit for the 3^rd Quarter ended September 30^th2013. The company has shared multiple highlights of itself as well as viability of such a multi–platform approach.

The finances of JustDial appear highly optimistic as the net profit for the quarter was Rs. 28.66 Crores (US$ 4.65 Million) compared with Rs. 14.48 Crores (US$ 2.35 Million) in the same quarter last year. While Operating Revenue grew 29%, the company's operating EBITDA for the Quarter increased 43% to Rs. 35.23 Crores (US$ 5.72 Million).  Despite the bright outlook, sequentially, the company's profit appeared quite flat. Growing at just 7.5%, JustDial's net margins actually declined marginally, compared with the first quarter of 2013.

JustDial essentially operates on three separate platforms which are collated on central servers. The information, though stored and sourced from a central location, is dissipated via Internet, Mobile App and Telephone. What started as a Phone based Information dissipation engine (hence the name!), has expanded its scope to these other domains. The company appears to have taken the right step, since these other platforms are responsible for more than 2/3^rd (68%) of the usage.

JustDial is now a part of an increasing segment that offers information and provides a platform to list products, services and merchandise. However, the company will soon expand further and is planning to offer a 'Local Price Discovery Engine'. While not a direct marketplace, the company will create an opportunity for regional merchants to land customers within their vicinity.

Essentially, the company may be offering a hybrid product consisting of services offered by Amazon's Junglee, Olx, Quikr and others. JustDial, owing to its crowd–scouring activities, has collated information about merchants and their products. So far it has 10.1 Million individual listings. The company now plans to efficiently use the information to offer user–location relevant information. Let's see how well the company deploys the same.

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While 4^th Generation (4G) Data Services have already made an entry into India, the country will shortly enjoy a whole host of services, including Voice, SMS and other ancillary options via a singular 4G platform. So far the country didn't have an official 4G capable Smartphone. But this scenario too, will soon change.

While international players like Samsung, LG, Nokia and others are playing the waiting game; Xolo, an Indian Brand has step forth and is about to launch its first 4G enabled smartphone in the Indian Market. Christened the Xolo LT900, the smartphone is expected to be officially unveiled on 7^th November and will be first available in Bangalore, where Airtel has deployed its 4G Network extensively.

Xolo is certainly a noteworthy brand as it was the first company in the world to bring forth phones, which marked chip maker Intel's entry into the Smartphone market. Additionally, this very same company also introduced the first Nvidia Tegra 3 Processor based Smartphones to Indians.

Why haven't the Global Brands introduced 4G capable phones? Designing, fabricating and selling Smartphones with powerful chips is one thing, but launching a 4G capable smartphone is very tricky. India has traditionally followed UK's standard of Telecommunications standard. Hence phones that worked in the UK, would certainly work in India. But the country opted for a different, though more mainstream and efficient standard of 4G. While UK uses FDD–LTE, India went for LTE–TDD.

Hence, launching a Smartphone that will work seamlessly with India's 4G is difficult, if not impossible. Additionally, given India's constantly altering policies, companies might be waiting for the same to stabilize before launching their 4G capable iterations.

Speaking about Xolo LT900, the phone appears to be aimed at the middle–tier. With a 4.3-inch HD IPS OGS display, the phone sports a decent pixel density of 341 PPI, an 8-megapixel rear camera with BSI sensor and dual LED flash. As for the processor, the XOLO LT900 is supposed to have a 1.5 GHz (Quad Core) Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor. Though not clearly specified, the phone may be Android based.

As India slowly moves towards this unified communications standard, mobile users may soon have to buy new handsets that are 4G capable, in large numbers. Although the holiday season is prime time for phone makers to entice buyers, the confusion surrounding the standards might be dampening the progress. What do you think?

Image Credits: gsm

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The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), a huge Stock Handling and Management platform handling stocks of some of the largest tech and non-tech companies, ran a simulation over the weekend to ensure the upcoming Initial Public Offer (IPO) of micro-blogging Social Network Twitter goes smoothly.

Expected or rumored to take place on November 7, the IPO Launch is justifiably assumed to draw a huge rush of share traders as they try to get a piece of their beloved network. Internet Based Business and their associated debuts at the Stock Market have begun to draw a lot of excitement for the new generation of Stock Brokers. But amid the euphoria, the Stock Exchanges are the ones who have to orchestrate the exponential influx of share traders.

Interestingly, Internet Businesses have traditionally favored NASDAQ, a rival to NYSE. But both these exchanges have realized the traction, internet companies are able to garner and revenues depend on the amount of trading. Hence NYSE, as well as NASDAQ tried to woo Facebook, but the latter won and as fate would have it, it was blamed, not just by traders but by the company too, for mismanaging the show.

The ultra high volume of orders booked for Facebook Shares on the first day of trading, exposed an underlying glitch in NASDAQ's system which prevented timely order confirmations for many traders, leaving them unsure about their exposure, for hours, and in some cases for days afterwards. Major market traders estimated a eventual loss amounting to US$ 500 Million in lost revenues solely in one IPO. Needless to say, such a fiasco impacted negatively on Facebook and share prices plummeted.

To ensure such incident doesn't repeat, as well as highlight oneself as a safe trading house, especially for Internet Businesses, NYSE ran the Simulation. Both the Trading Houses have witnessed one of the busiest years in terms of IPOs. Let's see if NYSE has convinced Twitter to use its platform, to become a Public Listed Company.

Image Credits: lava

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