3G: Bring it on!

3G mobile services are long overdue in India. Though launched by state-run operators, they are yet to be rolled out in full swing. However, with 3G phones becoming common by the day and service roll out expected soon, the possibility for mobile consumers are limitless

The term ‘3G’ has been ringing in the telecom circles for a long time now. However, this technology, which promises to usher in a new era in mobile telephony, has stayed elusive to Indian subscribers till date.
On the other hand, 3G enabled phones are more commonly available to consumers. What is even more encouraging is that these devices are not limited to the high-end segment. Today, you can get a 3G-enabled mobile phone for as low as Rs 6,000. While, so far a limited number of mobile service providers (namely state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL)) are offering 3G services, more are expected to hit the market soon.
Yet, the question remains: why is there such a buzz around 3G? What does 3G do? What are the benefits of having a 3G device? Well, if these are the questions in your mind, here is what you should know.

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Social Network On The Go

" With everything going mobile -- from recharges to balance updates, social networking is also gradually shifting to the mobile platform. We bring to you some of the most well-known sites and their mobile versions"

The next time you think of updating your status on Facebook or feel like Tweeting, don’t run to your PC or switch on your laptop. With most popular websites now going mobile, users can stay connected with friends and family, update pictures and share experiences on the go.

Though most of you would be aware about the working of Social Networking Sites (SNS), here’s a brief lowdown about them for those new to the concept. A social network is a place (in this case virtual) where like-minded people interact and share their thoughts and pictures and stay connected. Most of these sites offer a lot of applications, which can be accessed after creating a profile.

This is the era of convergence where the lines between computers and mobile devices are blurring. It is also the era of smartphones, mobile Internet, super fast mobile processors, touchscreens and motion sensors. Thus, more people are now using their handsets for computing purposes, including surfing the Internet. Social networking has been extremely popular on the Web, so a shift towards mobiles is a natural transition for it.

Most SNSes can be easily accessed on mobile phones through a browser or as an application meant for the device. Let us first discuss such sites that run on Symbian devices as integrated applications.

Interface
The interface of these mobile SNSes is designed in a way that it fits a small screen and loads smoothly. Almost all SNSes have mobile versions. Users can simply update their status, pictures, videos, etc. while on the move. They also have text-based applications and options to load images. However, these affect the loading speed of the apps (SNSes). Let us examine the interface of some of the leading mobile SNSes on Symbian mobile platform.

Facebook
Facebook is one of the most popular social networking applications that is being integrated into almost all mobile phones these days.

Facebook mobile is a scaled down version of the PC website and includes only the most used features. It also has an option where users can simply click photos with the mobile camera and upload it to their Facebook account. The picture gets instantly uploaded to the photos segment. This scaled down version has been optimised with less pictures, graphics and other visuals. This helps in retaining the speed of the application on a mobile device owing to its smaller size.

On a Symbian device Facebook can be installed easily by downloading its mobile version. Depending upon the device being used, the app shows some images and most links may or may not work.

The speed of the apps will also depend on the GPRS speed of the network. Having Wi-Fi connectivity really helps.

MySpace
The main screen of mobile MySpace has been simplified and is very useful. It features the user’s status message, friend request screen, access to profile, friends’ status and moods, comments and updates from friends.

There are four menus on the top of the screen -- home, message, photos and friends’ list. Apart from the basic menu, the app also comes with a quick access menu at the bottom.

The photo upload feature is similar to Facebook. Users get a unique Email ID to which they can send the photos and get them uploaded to an album within a short time.

Friendster
Friendster on mobile is one of the most interesting apps in terms of photo uploading. It is very simple -- just select and click to upload the picture. Users can also add comments and tag lines to pictures.

The menu of this app is at the bottom of the screen, with the home button on top followed by profile, friends, comments, messages, photos and bulletin board.

The profile has an option to edit and change the skin of the menu list, while the friends option has the add button next to it. The rest of the menus open a new page altogether to access related features.

Through Friendster users can also send and receive SMSes. The bulletin board allows users to keep news and updates for their friends. The interface of the application is simple and works smoothly on a mobile device.

Orkut
Orkut is one of the first social networking sites to have caught the fancy of Indian youth.While it has been popular on the Web, it is equally popular on mobiles as well.

The interface of mobile Orkut is not exactly what you might see on a PC. It is actually an optimised version of the original. On mobile Orkut users can check their scraps, photos and friends’ statuses.
Mobile Orkut focusses more on fuctionality than visual appeal. So, while it looks dull, it lets users stay connected all the time. It has five main tabs -- home, my scrapbook, my contacts, my photo and my profile.

Uploading of photos is also a good feature on mobile Orkut. However, this process can be pretty tiring if you don’t have a good GPRS speed. Users can learn some shortcuts for using mobile Orkut:

0 Home
1 Check scraps
2 Set you status
3 Upload photos
4 Share album
9 Write/Reply to scrap

YouTube
Networking through videos is also an integral part of social networking. And one such site that lets you communicate visually is YouTube. This networking site allows users to upload videos and share them with friends and family. The application lets them search videos, view lists of the top rated, most viewed and most recent videos. Choosing any of these loads a list of videos with an image 'carousel' at the top of the screen. Users can quickly browse through the available videos, viewing them as thumbnail. A short description and miscellaneous information about the video is also displayed. The menu option at the bottom has a change connection setting, home, related videos and an option to flag them. Once a video is selected the list can be scrolled horizontally to see the length of the video and a short description. Videos cannot be uploaded through a downloaded mobile YouTube. However, this can be done while accessing the app through a browser.

Flickr
Flickr is another visual social network where users can share videos and photos. This app has four main menus on the top -- activity, you, contacts and more. These options are just a single command, which show the users' status, pictures and profile. It also shows the users' contacts. Below these four menus are another four, which give the latest / recent activities, the day's interestingness and photos taken nearby.

Users cannot upload photos on the app if it is being accessed on a mobile version. On the other hand, pictures can be uploaded if the app is accessed fro m another browser.

Conclusion
Overall, these are some good, interactive applications, which will keep you updated and entertained any time.

All of them have their own convenience. However, you need to choose the one that suits your device the most and obviously, the one, which has the biggest friends' list. You can also have multiple apps on your phone. But as of today -- unlike Instant Messengers -- no such app has been developed that integrates all such sites into one.

So, with the review for Symbian devices done, we will bring an SNS burntest for another platform in the next issue. Watch this space!

Boon or Bane?

" The Intelligence Bureau feels that Internet telephony should be banned as it poses a threat to the security of the country. Even as such services become popular across the world, a debate rages in India on the need to regularise VoIP"

In what comes as a setback for millions of users of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) in India, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) has asked the Ministry of Communication to block all Internet telephony (VoIP) services to and from the country until the Department of Telecom (DoT) puts in place a mechanism to track such calls.

The IB order -- issued in September 2009 -- states that India does not have the capability to track Internet telephony calls -- domestic and international. It has asked DoT to find an “early solution to this issue in the interest of national security”.

“In the absence of Caller Line Identification (CLI) parameters of calls landing from abroad, it becomes next to impossible to identify the location of the caller, we have approached DoT to block such calls till a technical solution is found,” said the IB communication.

All About VoIP
Internet telephony is a technology that allows users to make telephone calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of the regular landline or mobile.

There are two categories of voice transmission over IP networks. Voice transmitted over public Internet and managed VoIP. The primary difference between voice services on managed and unmanaged IP networks is quality of speech.

However, this difference is getting diminished with technological advancement, new coding techniques and availability of higher bandwidth provided by broadband connections. The calls can be made from one PC to another, form a VoIP phone to any another phone and from a PC to a phone. While the first two methods are acceptable among regulators, the third form has always raised controversies around the world. Similarly, with the growing popularity of mobile phones, IP calling through mobile phones is growing too.

Says Sanjeet Chatterjee, global marketing head and country manager (India operations), REVE Systems, a leading IP Telephony and Mobile VoIP solutions provider, “Introduction of mobile VoIP has ushered in a lot of convenience in IP calling as one does not need to buy special VoIP phones. Mobile phone users can just download the mobile VoIP application like Skype or iTel Mobile Dialer and use it to for making VoIP calls from their cellphone the same way you make normal calls. For connecting to the Internet, they can use Wi-Fi or GPRS/ 3G services offered by mobile carriers.”

Indian Aspect
With nearly 457million wireless subscribers, mobile phones cover nearly 42 per cent of India’s population. Given their unprecedented coverage, cellphones are increasingly seen as agents of socio-economic development.

On April 1, 2002, India had allowed restricted Internet PC to PC, VoIP phone to phone and PC to phone. Though unrestricted VoIP was allowed for Unified Access Service Providers and Cellular Mobile Service Providers in March 2006, the telcos never promoted these services for fear of losing lucrative voice revenue.

With all good intentions, TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) recommended in August 2008 that even Internet Service Providers (ISPs) could provide unrestricted VoIP, as it would bring down prices of International Long Distance (ILD) and National Long Distance (NLD) calls. These recommendations were aimed to put the Indian telecom sector in tune with the global trends and curtail grey market tendencies for the benefits for consumers and ISPs.

The Repercussions
If DoT implements the IB directive, it will impact lakhs of consumers who use VoIP to make calls at extremely low cost to phones and free calls to computers across the globe. According to TRAI’s latest performance indicators report, Indian consumers used over 130 million minutes of Internet telephony in the January-March quarter 2009. Says Chatterjee, “This will be quite a regressive step as many NRIs around the world use VoIP to stay connected with friends and family. Even Indian businesses remain competitive because they can use VoIP. So if VoIP is stopped, it will be detrimental to the image of India and its growth story. It is possible to get CLI of customers making VoIP calls. DoT just needs to mandate someone to set this up and help service providers pool in the data.”

However, cyber security expert Vijay Mukhi feels the IB should have issued such directions immediately after the 26/11 terror attacks. “The terrorists used net telephony as they were aware that India did not have the technological capabilities to do a live trace of such calls. In the US and Europe, all players who offer VoIP services have provisions that allow the governments to track these calls. Many of them have also installed equipment at their premises to monitor VoIP calls upon orders from governments.”

Global Popularity
Across the world, Internet telephony remains one of the cheapest and easiest ways to stay connected. US analysts Telegeography predict that the global revenue from VoIP will reach US$ 5 billion with 16 per cent of the total telephony subscribers by 2010. Other estimates are much higher. According to Juniper Research, revenues from VoIP services in the business sector alone will reach US$ 18 billion by 2010, with hosted VoIP business revenues reaching US$ 7.6 billion.
According to recent reports, the US is the first among the top 10 countries in providing retail VoIP services followed by Japan and France. A survey of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) carried out by iLocus has revealed that the number of mobile VoIP subscribers served by MVNOs will reach 2 million by the end of 2009. As of April 2009 MVNOs serve an estimated 450,000 mobile VoIP subscribers worldwide. The 550,000 mobile VoIP subscribers worldwide will grow to 3.5 million by the end of 2009 and to 26.6 million by 2012.

A recent report by In-Stat, a research agency, found that in North America and Canada, cable operators are aggressively expanding their VoIP footprint, but are marketing VoIP as plain old telephone service. In Asia, South Korea will have the highest VoIP growth rate, followed by Hong Kong and Singapore.

Challenges Ahead
Ever since the IB released its directive, there have been numerous debates for and against the need to regulate Internet telephony in India. Many ISPs strongly oppose any regulation on VoIP calls saying that they are just one of the many services (such as chatting, browsing, Email) that VoIP providers/ISPs offers to customers. Hence it should be considered as an information service.

Moreover, when a user makes a VoIP call, it is difficult to determine the exact location of the origination/destination of the call (location of the PC, location of the gateway) and hence it is not possible to bring it under the interconnection regulation and levy termination access charges as is currently practiced in a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) call. Says Chatterjee, “The Indian market for VoIP is restricted as users can only make calls outside India. Also government regulations prevent interconnection between PSTN and IP, which prevents calling cards/call back services. VoIP market will witness a boom only when the government lifts these restrictions. VoIP helps cut down communications cost and promotes unified messaging from mobile phones.”

However, some people argue that technology advancements have made quality of VoIP calls a close substitute for PSTN calls and hence should be treated the same way as the latter. Moreover, with the low-cost VoIP adapters that can be plugged in to connect inexpensive analog phones to broadband lines, VoIP is becoming widely accessible much like PSTN and hence should be regulated the same way. This should include mandatory emergency numbering and contribution to Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund.

Another view is that a level playing field is now being created between telcos and ISPs. In 2006 DoT had implemented a licence fee of 6 per cent on revenue (including contribution to USO fund) for Internet telephony services offered by ISPs. This was in line with the licence fee for NLD and ILD services. Hence, unrestricted VoIP was to compete with NLD and ILD services. Yet, TRAI warns, “The regulatory restrictions on ISPs to provide unrestricted Internet telephony and lack of interest among access providers to offer similar services are encouraging development of the grey markets in Internet telephony. Some press reports and other information indicate extension of other countries’ numbers in the Indian territory to provide Internet telephony using broadband connections..”

It adds, “The regulatory environment should be dynamic, enabling, efficient and encourage competition. Hence regulatory framework for Internet telephony has to be considered in view of convergence and other similar developments taking place across the globe.” Rapid technological developments and better quality of voice communications are shaping the future of telecom. As the world advances with newer and faster technologies, we are still stuck with outdated ones. It will be interesting to see the regulator come up with newer recommendations that will make it easier for India to keep pace with the world.