Smart Digivision Launches IPTV Services In Haryana with BSNL; 54 Cities By End 2009

BSNL has launched IPTV services in Haryana with Smart Digivision, an HFCL company, starting with 3 cities - Gurgaon, Faridabad and Ambala. The company plans to launch the service in up to 93 cities, and is viewing this as a means to retain its wireline customers. Smart Digivision is yet another IPTV company to set itself a bloated target - of 4 million IPTV subscribers in 3 years, and to this end, they will launch IPTV in 54 cities for which they have franchise agreements, according to a release.

Smart Digivision also provides IPTV services to HFCL Infotel customers. As of November 2008, HFCL had a very small wireline user base of 155,155 users, as compared to BSNL which had a total user base of 29,703,496 subscribers, of which 848,328 wireline customers are from Haryana.

The other key player in the IPTV space is Aksh Optifibre: there’s very little available on what IOL Netcom had done in the past year, and Time Broadband appears to be focusing more on the international market - particularly China. At the India Telecom 2008 conference last month, I was told that most IPTV service providers did pilots with BSNL and MTNL, and some of them have not launched commercial services since; we’re yet to confirm officially this, though.

P.s.: we couldnt locate the Smart Digivision website, so in case you know - do tell. An old PDF on the HFCL subsidiary here.

Updated: Indias 3G Auction To Be Held On 30th Jan

A quick update: PTI reports that the last date for accepting applications for the 3G Auction has been oushed forward till Jan 20th, apparently on account of not enough applications from foreign operators. However, there is no update yet on the Department of Telecoms official auction index, which was last updated on December 24th.

Frankly, the 3G auction is over-hyped and it’s more likely to be seen as a means of launching new services or acquiring spectrum for voice, than 3G services alone. Given the global financial crisis, it’s not likely many operators will look to raise money for investing in the 3G auction and/or rollout, unless they’re sitting on a significant amount of cash. We don’t expect things to improve much by the 20th.

We’ll update this post if there is an update. However, IF the timetable is changed, it is likely to be as follows:

* - unconfirmed

On Qualcomm’s Low Cost PC For 3G: Kayak

 At India Telecom 2008, Qualcomm showcased Kayak, a low cost, low power computing device; an alternative to the PC for rural areas. Some of the features of the device:

Power consumption: we’ve heard in the past about how HCL developed PCs that work on car batteries for rural areas because availability of power is scarce, and how some villagers travel for miles to recharge their phones. Kayak doesn’t require a UPS or battery backup - it uses less than 5 Watts of power to run. The prototype Qualcomm showcased doesn’t come with a battery built in, but the company said that the commercial unit can run for 3-5 hours without electricity, depending on the battery size.

Ruggedness: Kayak is powered by a rugged processor, the kind used in mobile handsets which survive despite rough use. There are no moving parts and uses a flash drive for storage. One can also use network storage for files.

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MTNL 3G Services Demo’ed; Commercial Launch By Mid Feb

Updated below
At the India Telecom 2008 Summit today, 3G services were launched with an inaugural video conversation between Telecom Minister A.Raja and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. However, that was just a “soft launch” - 3G infrastructure has not been fully deployed yet, and MTNL sources told MediaNama that the 3G network is present only in a 10 km radius around Central Delhi.

According to our sources, the commercial launch of 3G services is planned for the middle of February, though it could also stretch to early March, depending on the infrastructure rollout. MTNL is yet to finalize a tariff plan, and despite repeated prodding, the executives at the MTNL stall did not comment on the tariff.

We did get to try out some of the services that have been launched:

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3G In India: TRAI Proposes New 3G Auction Guidelines; Delay?

Whatever the reason the policy makers put out, we’ve been expecting that the 3G auctions will take place after the next elections. Now the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released a 61 page document on modifications to the 3G Auction (warning: 6.3 mb PDF) From the press release:

• The standalone 3G operator who does not have any allotment of 2G spectrum should also pay an annual spectrum charge of 3% of Annual AGR, which is equivalent to the lowest slab of 2G operator. It is clarified that this is besides the administrative charges.
• The availability of 3G spectrum including anticipated should be put in public domain for the knowledge of bidders. It becomes particularly relevant as DoT has already decided to allocate spectrum to BSNL and MTNL.
• All available spectrum in 2.1GHz including anticipated spectrum availability within the next one year is put to auction so as to maximize the number of 3G service providers.
• Two percent (2%) of the highest bid amount as annual administrative charge during the validity period of 3G spectrum.
• a moratorium of one year from the date of allocation of spectrum in respect of payment of administrative charge, since operators will take time to roll-out services

3G In India: MTNL Inks Mobile TV Deal With Aksh Optifibre; What About Apalya?

Aksh Optifibre has announced a partnership with MTNL to launch Mobile TV services in Delhi and Mumbai. These services will essentially be delivered over 3G networks. Remember that there are two ways for mobile devices (whether handsets, TV sets in cars etc) to receive TV content - via the mobile operator or as a terrestrial, satellite or hybrid broadcast. Aksh’s deal is essentially for content delivery over the mobile network.

Aksh will offer high quality MPEG 4 content at high resolution. They’ve already got content from DD, Neo Sports, CNN and NDTV, and plan to also include music channels. While the consultation process for Mobile TV is over, the policy is yet to be announced. We believe the battle over Mobile TV has not yet begun, and it will take at least six months, if not over a year for the policy to be finalized.

Franchise Route To Mobile TV? What About Apalya Technologies?

MTNL already provides quite a few channels over the 2.75 G networks, powered by Hyderabad based Apalya Technologies (now rebranded as MiMobi.tv). The Apalya powered service includes channels like Zoom, Times Now, Aaj Tak, NDTV 24×7, NDTV India, Bindass, NDTV Profit, Headlines Today, CNN, BBC World, FTV, India TV, among others. So happens to Apalya’s service, now that Aksh is launching the same? Is MTNL taking the franchise route to Mobile TV?

Aksh already has franchise agreements with MTNL for IPTV (iControl) and Voice Over Internet Protocol (Pigeon) with MTNL, but these are landline based services. Smart Broadband (HFCL), IOL Netcom and Time Broadband are other IPTV service providers with franchise agreements with MTNL and BSNL.

I don’t agree with the idea of having franchise deals for content services from a single operator - it leads to a lack of standardisation in what the telco is marketing as its own service.

How Prepared Is MTNL For The 3G Launch?

How prepared is MTNL to launch 3G services? It’s certain that the company is going to launch 3G services tomorrow - the CMD RSP Sinha is now on record stating that the service will be made available to its existing “premium” customers in Delhi for two months, before being launched in Mumbai. They want customers to try out the services before paying a premium for them.

But in its rush to launch the service - indeed, officially be the first 3G carrier in India - MTNL doesn’t appear to be adequately prepared. The network in Delhi is not yet complete, and the service will be restricted to NDMC areas and Gurgaon. What’s more, I just called the MTNL mobile helpline to inquire about how I can sign up for 3G services, and I was assured that “There is no such service being launched.”

The governments annual telecom conference, India Telecom 2008, begins tomorrow, and there is little doubt that the 3G launch has more to do with the conference than the actual preparedness of the company to launch 3G services. And that is sad, but symptomatic of the government owned telco’s approach.

Says Sinha, to the Hindu, “We were the first to launch broadband service, IPTV and Voice over Internet Protocol. Now, we are all set to become the first to launch 3G services in the country.”