4G LTE- A revolution in mobile telecom (Premium) - View Free Sample
Expectations and spectacular developments in the field of mobile communications have paved the way to Long Term Evolution (LTE). Take a look at the changed architecture and the scope of richer content messaging through the evolved 4G technology. With the user and operator requirements and expectations continuing to evolve, the foundation of higher-level open systems interconnect (OSI) model protocols such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) has been incorporated under the third-generation partnership project (3GPP R7). It is generally assumed that there will be a convergence towards the use of Internet protocols, and all future services will be carried on top of IP. Therefore the focus of the evolution is on enhancements to the packetswitched domain. Particularly in LTE, the potential to provide significantly higher data rates of more than 100 Mbps over the downlink and 50 Mbps over the uplink, and improved and seamless coverage is aimed at. Later, with all the inherent drawbacks and discrepancies, the long-term evolution has allowed a smooth migration to a higher-level technology called 4G.

TRAI- A woeful downslide (Premium) - View Free Sample
The Indian telecom sector's current situation merits a more progressive line of thinking from the regulator to ensure that the sector continues to progress on the government's stated agenda of inclusion. But TRAI's recommendations for 2G auctions and spectrum reforming would actually end up achieving more of the opposite. In July 2012, India's mobile GSM subscriber base reached 679.05 million from just over 1 million in 1998 through just voice services for the most part. And by that time, CDMA subscriptions had reached around 230 million (AUSPI). This stupendous growth in subscriptions has been a revelation of sorts globally, along with the surprisingly low price points at which Indian telecom players are providing these services. From an ARPU of Rs.362/user/month for GSM players in December 2005, the figure has declined to Rs.100/user/month in March 2011 as per a PwC report. The report further highlights that India's ARPUs are around 3 and 10 times lower than developing and developed countries respectively on an average. However, the recent trends point to trouble in paradise. For a sector that is already struggling with low ARPUs, slowing penetration and high debt, the last straw would really be a lack of appreciation of its achievements and insensitivity towards its pressing issues.

Can Samsung keep its edge in smartphones (Premium) - View Free Sample
The South Korean player enjoys a clear lead over its Finnish rival in the smartphone sweepstakes currently but there are quite a few curveballs to come in the hyperactive mobile phone market before a clear winner can emerge. Until as recently as 2008, Nokia had an invincible lock on the mobile phone market in India. The Finnish giant was by far the strongest Richmond in the field, controlling a humongous 75% of the Indian mobile handset market by volume. But over the next couple of years, even as the handset market was going through a watershed technological change and churn, Nokia made the mistake of taking its eyes off the emerging market trends and has had to pay a heavy price for the lapse. By the time it realised its mistake, the South Korean major Samsung had already taken the market by storm, introducing a whole new dynamic to the Indian mobile phone market: smartphones, which have operating systems just like PCs (with Android being the most popular). The past two years have seen Samsung make hay and sunshine of the Indian handphone market while Nokia has been left to nurse a bloody nose in the smartphone sweepstakes.

VAS- The Growth Catalyst- An in-depth report (Premium) - View Free Sample
VAS is not just a value-add partner, it's a catalyst for overall growth. And it's time SPs wake up to that fact. The Indian value added services industry is a curious case in the entire Indian telecom space. A country that boasts of having more than 900 mn customers out of a 1.2 bn strong population on its telecom network, has so far failed to leverage on the huge demand of added applications for their consumers. It still seems that the entire ecosystem of the Indian telecom industry works in silos. Instead of considering the VAS players as a catalyst for growth of the entire industry, they have been treated as 'lesser partners' in the whole business. The Indian VAS industry that is estimated to reach $15 bn by 2015, currently contributes only around 15% to the operators' total revenue. It's because traditionally the Indian market has been voice centric and the operators' prime focus remains on acquiring more customers. Even after reaching a mature stage in mobile services with data centric services like 3G and 4G on a roll, the uptake of VAS is still poor.