Countries all across the world are racing to deploy 5G. 5G networks, once placed perfectly, will impact everybody and everything. It will change the face of remote industries, smart cities, and digital transmissions.
Every country understands the power of connectivity and is keen to commercialize 5G. It is meant to connect new industries through its high multi-Gbps data speed. It will provide increased reliability, immense network capacity, and a more uniform user experience.
Below is the list of top countries that already have 5G
Germany
Average 5G’s speed: 102.0 Mbps
Service Providers: Vodafone, Telefonica Deutschland
Germany is one of the leading users of the 5G network. 5G services are available in around 1000 towns across the country. Telefonica Deutschland has already reached 16 million people. The Vodafone CEO said, “We aim to reach 30M people by the end of 2021.”
UK
Average 5G’s Speed: 133.5 Mbps
Service Providers: EE, Vodafone, Three UK, O2
United Kingdoms is one of the earliest countries to commercialize 5G. Here, the service providers began 5G in May 2019. It has expanded to 125 towns now. Vodafone’s 5G was made available to Coventry University to train student nurses and healthcare workers through virtual reality. Meanwhile, another service provider, Three UK is focusing more on providing 5G for homes and 1.6 million households are now covered.
Hong Kong
Average 5G’s Speed: 142. 8 Mbps
Service Providers: China Mobile Hong Kong, 3 Hong Kong, HKT, SmarTone
Hong Kong is comparatively new to the race of 5G. 5G in Hong Kong became active in 2020 only. China Mobile, SmarTone, and other operators have acquired 200 MHz of the whole 3.5 GHz spectrum for HKD 1 billion i.e., $129 million. 5G is available in both indoor and outdoor locations. China Mobile claims that it is going to cover 90% of all Hong Kong City.
Switzerland
Average 5G’s Speed: 150.7 Mbps
Service Providers: Salt, Sunrise, Swisscom
5G has also begun in Switzerland and it’s already have secured second place in top countries to serve 5G. Swisscom and Ericsson covered over 54 cities. They aim to provide 5G to everybody in the country whether they’re living in the countryside, city or mountains. However, the government of Switzerland is also concerned about the adverse effects of the radiation coming from the 5G towers. They’re actively working to control it.
Kuwait
Average 5G’s Speed: 150.7 Mbps
Service Providers: Zain Kuwait, STC, Ooredoo
Kuwait is one of the earliest 5G consuming countries. It started serving 5G in mid-2019. Kuwait has the largest mobile penetration in the world. The introduction of 5G will take internet usage to the next level. The 5G network will help users to engage with advanced models of technology that can increase efficiency, reduce costs and improve health.
Service Providers: Rogers Wireless, Bell Mobility, Telus Mobility, Videotron
5G network has been launched in Canada along with mobiles to connect to 5G. It is available through subscription and pre-paid is not yet available. Other smaller network operators will also launch 5G by 2021-22. Also, it’s important to know that old 4G phones cannot be upgraded to 5G so people have to buy a brand new 5G phone to enjoy the high-speed network.
Country with the most cities with 5G availability
Taiwan
Average 5G’s speed: 210.2 Mbps
Service Providers: FarEasTone, Chunghwa, Taiwan Mobile, Tatar
Taiwan launched 5G in July 2020 and reached 1 million subscribers in no time. Chunghwa Telecom claims to have reached 3 million subscribers later that year and 5 million by the end of that year. 5G is growing at a tremendous rate in Taiwan. Taiwan Mobile expects to cover 15 to 20% of all subscribers in the country.
Australia
Average 5G’s Speed: 215.7 Mbps
Service Providers: Telstra, Optus, TPG Telecom
Australian telecom service providers have managed to provide 5G services to a large percent of the total population. Telstra alone has covered 50% of the population including 46 towns and cities. Meanwhile, Optus covers over 4 lakh households. Together, they’ve covered 85% of the total population.
In South Korea, 5G was initially launched for B2B customers as they had businesses as their main focus. As far as customer focus is concerned, 15% of the total population is using 5G as of September 2020. The government is also supporting 5G service providers with taxes as they plan to expand their network across the country. This opens many gates for a hefty expansion of 5G in South Korea.
Saudi Arabia
Average 5G’s speed: 404.2 Mbps
Service Providers: STC, Mobily, Zain
Saudi Arabia has a total of 51 cities under 5G coverage. Saudi Arabia is ambitious with its 5G project as they plan to achieve one goal- “Thriving Society, Thriving Economy, Ambitious Nation”. They plan to expand their network to 71 cities by the end of the year. They will be targeting three major sectors through top-class connectivity- oil & gas, public sector, and manufacture.
China
Average 5G’s speed: 301.60 Mbps
Service Providers: China Telecom, China Unicom, China Mobile
China has the world’s largest number of 5G subscribers. At the end of February 2021, it was reported to have 260 million 5G subscribers. In the Mobile World Congress 2021, the Chinese government officials claimed that they’ve invested more than $40.2 billion to build the world’s largest 5G network.
It must be noted that China lacks transparency in its claims so they are not trusted by many officials across the world. But still, China has more 5G subscribers than many countries combined.
USA
Average 5G’s speed: 70 Mbps
Service Providers: T Mobile, Verizon, AT&T
In the USA, T Mobile is winning the race as it has successfully provided 5G to over 279 cities with over 200 million Americans. Verizon is also working its best to deliver the network speed in 60 major cities. Meanwhile, AT&T serves some parts of many states. The number of cities with 5G connectivity increases each year in the USA.
FAQ
Why is 5G such a big deal?
The new 5G standard is faster and more responsive, which will leverage machine learning, artificial intelligence and to automate network management and security.
Where is the most 5G in the world?
The top three countries that have the most cities with 5G are China, the United States, and South Korea.
When 5G will launch in India?
Jio one of the leading network providers in India has announced that they will be ready to deploy 5G technology in the second half of 2021.
Conclusion
5G will soon take over 4G, 3G, and LTE networks. These were the leading countries that have their citizens already equipped with 5G. It’s safe to say that this new super fast network is going to change the way we perceive data transfer. However, we must not forget to keep an eye on the side effects and dangers that these changes pose. But all in all, we should brace ourselves for this new generation of connectivity and speedy downloads.
The 5G era is proving to be a game-changer for the Indian telecom industry. The second most populous country in the world is India with a total of 1.2 billion internet users. Indian telecom companies are constantly on the lookout for new innovative ways to boost the growth of digital medium and the market is ripe with abundant startups that seek to disrupt the Industry with smarter supply chains and manufacturing models.
Let’s have a look on the Case Study of Jio in the light of how Jio is Leading the 5G Race in India.
Reliance Industries owned Reliance Jio is the first of the few Indian companies to launch into the 5G technology space with the likes of global competitors such as Samsung Electronics, MediaTek, Huawei, Ericson, Nokia, Qualcomm who have been implementing rollouts of 5G networks. With the rise of ‘Made in India’ initiatives proposed by the Government of India, In December 2020, the chairman of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani had revealed that his telecom company, Jio, would launch 5G networks in the second half of 2021.
Jio is building the 5G infrastructure by using native developed technology for its hardware, network, and technology components, said Mukesh Ambani the chairperson of Reliance Industries. Reliance has achieved this without any help from Chinese telecom companies such as Huawei and ZTE, being a testament to the AtmaNirbhar campaign led by the Indian government to keep Chinese products out of the marketplace.
The latest news from Reliance Industries said that they had achieved high speeds of 1Gbps in the initial testing phase. The rollouts will officially begin after the spectrum is auctioned.
According to the telecom major Jio, 5G would be integrated with autonomous vehicles, connected drones and remote healthcare services, ultra-high-speed mobile internet speeds and mixed reality which can help in creating more employment.
How 5G will Revolutionize the Indian Telecom Industry
India is one of the most digitally connected countries in the world and to keep this up, we need to maintain a lead and bring the rollout of 5G networks across the nation. There is also a need for affordable smartphones as almost 300 million mobile users in India are caught in the 2G era.
With 5G plans, we need a smartphone that can adapt to this network, and with this comes the need to produce an affordable smartphone. Reliance led Jio, Bharti owned Airtel had successfully demonstrated its capability to rollout 5G wireless service in Hyderabad, beating Jio in the race to be the first Indian telecom provider to run 5G services on its existing commercial network.
Need for a Smarter and Affordable Platform-Reliance JioGenNext Platform
To boost growth in the fields of agriculture, education, healthcare, Infrastructure, Financial Services, Jio platforms have connected with over 20 startups to build world-class solutions for Artificial Intelligence, Cloud computing, Machine learning, IoT, Blockchain etc.
Reliance has partnered with Samsung in a trial to test the 5G network capabilities. Jio also said it is ready with the 5G service and extensive fiber assets which will play a crucial role in the rollout of the 5G infrastructure.
Jio has also partnered with Google and Facebook who cover a vast majority of the internet landscape also hold shares in the company, are also global investors in the 5G tech space. Reliance Jio vision to build a 5G ready network in India before deploying its technology to other countries.
JioGenNext
How Jio is Ahead of it’s Competitors
Airtel and Vodafone have been serving in the Indian markets since the era of 2G technology and most of its existing consumer base is still on 2G networks which they have to maintain for the users as long as they remain. However, Jio began their service in 2016, in the 4G era, Where 4G is based on computers and thus to upgrade to 5G will not be a hassle for Jio as switching from the 2G.
Mukesh Ambani announced Jio 5G service will rollout in India in the second half of 2021.
What will be the speed of Jio 5G?
Jio stated that its 5G Technology has already achieved the mark speed of 1 Gbps.
Is Airtel 5G Ready?
Airtel became country’s first telco to successfully demonstrate live 5G service over a commercial network in Hyderabad city.
Conclusion
Aside from the rollout of 5G technology, Reliance Jio is also focused on bringing affordable 5G ready phones into the Indian market. Reliance Jio has partnered with Google to make India free from 2G phones. As Jio does not have a 2G infrastructure, the promotion of affordable 4G/5G phones can help Jio add more users on its network.
A report published by TRAI in January 2021, earlier said that the Telecom company Vi had added more subscribers to their user base but the most recent news suggests that the company has lost around 2.3 million users in their user base. Let’s look at the reasons for the changes in data.
Vodafone Idea Limited is a merged entity. It is an Indian telecommunication company with its headquarters in Mumbai and Gandhinagar. The company is the third largest mobile telecommunication network in India and is the sixth largest mobile telecommunications network in the world.
In the year 2018 Vodafone India and Idea cellular underwent a merger and the company was called as Vodafone Idea Limited. Currently, Vodafone holds a 45.1% stake in the company and Ravinder Takkar is the current CEO of the company.
In September 2020 the company had formed a new brand called as Vi. This is a combined brand of the two entities Vodafone India and Idea Cellular. The aim was to build a unified brand from two different companies.
After the merger in August 2020 Vi had lost a significant number of gross and active subscribers. Vodafone and Idea operated as two different entities until September 2020.
Vi also provides services such as IoT, Mobile payments, entertainment, and enterprise offerings. The services are accessible through both digital mediums and retail outlets across the country. Vi has a distribution reach of 1.7 million retail outlets and a broadband network of 340,000 sites.
In the mobile network services, Vi offers 2G, 4G, 4G+, VoLTE, and VoWiFi services across Pan India. Vi provides Wi-Fi and hotspot services in major cities across the country which include Bangalore, Mumbai, and Pune with more than 200 locations.
According to reports in January, Vi had added a user base of around 1.7 million in January 2021 and this was the first time in the last 15 months the company has added subscribers to its user base. Also its competitors, Bharti Airtel added a user base of 5.9 million subscribers and Jio which added about 1.95 million subscribers during January 2021.
According to the report of the Telecom Authority of India (TRAI) in January 2021, Vi had an active user base of 256.3 million which is 89.63 percent of their total users.
Revised Data by TRAI
Recently the Telecom Authority of India (TRAI) released a revised telecom subscription data for January 2021. The revised Telecom subscription data showed that the company Vi had actually lost 2.3 million subscribers than gaining 1.7 million in January 2021.
The company Vodafone Idea has acknowledged earlier about its error in the numbers provided to Telecom Authority of India (TRAI) that the company had added 1.7 million subscribers in the month of January 2021.
TRAI had examined through the numbers and identified that it was a non-intentional error that was not done through a deliberate planning. TRAI confirmed that the error had taken place by mistake.
Vi had told the TRAI that it had added a user base of around 3.7 million from Uttar Pradesh west telecom circle alone. There is a total of 22 telecom circles in India and the company has reported that it lost subscribers in 18 telecom circles and gained subscribers in the rest of 4 telecom circles.
Vi had sent the correct numbers to TRAI. Vi had noted on its website saying that they had found an unintentional error on their subscriber data for January 2021 which was submitted to TRAI. They also said that they had corrected the error and had reported the revised data to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
Corrected Figures by TRAI
As per the corrected figures of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Vi had lost 2.3 million wireless users in the month of January 2021. Whereas its competitors Airtel gained 5.9 million subscribers and Reliance Jio had gained 2 million subscribers.
Reliance Jio had the highest wireless subscriber numbers with a base of 410.7 million and Airtel in the second position with a subscriber number base of 344.6 million. Vi had taken the third position with a total subscriber number of 281.9 million.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had reported that Vi had the highest upload speed in the month of February 2021. Vodafone India’s upload speed for the month of February 2021 was 7.2 Mbps which was 6.7 in January 2021.
Idea Cellular upload speed for the month of February 2021 was 6.4 Mbps which was around 6 Mpbs in January 2021. Vodafone India and Idea Cellular was also ranked as the best in the TRAI’s report for voice call quality charts of February 2021.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) considers the company as two separate entities in its portals for My Calls and MySpeed even after the merger of both Vodafone India and Idea Cellular.
FAQ
Will Idea Vodafone survive?
Rohan Oza, an american businessman and investor believes that Vodafone will survive. “It is unlikely that the company will go bust, as it is in the interest of the government to continue with three players in the market.
What is the future of Vodafone idea?
As reporyed by Goldman sachs, Vodafone Idea could potentially save ₹58 billion (5,800 crore) in cash flows annually if the AGR liability were lowered to its self-assessed value.
Is Vodafone shutting down in India?
Vodafone Idea, India’s third-largest service provider, plans to shut down its 3G network later in 2021.
Conclusion
Vi has been rolling out various strategies and campaigns to capture the market to increase its subscriber base. We will have to wait and see what is going to happen in the future regarding the increase or decrease of Vi’s subscriber base.
The content in this post has been approved by the organization SugarBox.
While the data revolution has catalysed the emergence of Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms and e-commerce services in the last two-three years, there are still challenges existing in the ecosystem regarding data speed and patchy internet connectivity. SugarBox Networks is a platform that enables a user to use mobile apps and digital services seamlessly without requiring internet connectivity.
Started in August 2016, the company was very similar to what offline content distribution companies do but it is slightly different. SugarBox is a homegrown, first of its kind hyperlocal CDN, which enables Digital access for the next coming billion users, something even Big Tech has struggled with. SugarBox helps businesses grow by setting up data-delivery infrastructures at various places, allowing their users to access mobile apps without the Internet!
SugarBox is a local Wi-Fi network that eliminates the users’ dependency on mobile data. SugarBox is a homegrown, first of its kind hyperlocal CDN, which enables Digital access for the next coming billion users, something even Big Tech has struggled with. The value proposition at SugarBox is to solve one of the most important problems. A technology that is re-imagining the way data delivery on the internet works making internet services more available, dependable, and contextual.
SugarBox is basically a hyperlocal CDN exposed over a local Wi-Fi network that eliminates the users’ dependence on mobile data and provides them seamless access to Apps, without any usage limits or soaring high mobile data charges. Simply put, if Netflix existed 3 decades back and users were streaming a movie at their office in Bombay, the file would be streamed to them from a server in the US.
Then a CDN was invented in the late 90s and today, that file magically gets stored (or cached) and streamed from a server in Bombay (and most often in a server located in the area where viewers are within Bombay). SugarBox makes the file available on a server (AKA SugarBox) installed in their office building so that it can be streamed using the Local Area Network in their own office! And the same can be applied to any user context – Residential building, Hotel, Mall, Aircraft, Train, Bus, etc. complexes, corporate parks, rural areas, educational institutes, retail shops, hotels, food & beverage outlets, and then, of course, expanding internationally, etc.
SugarBox- Founder
SugarBox Networks is founded by Rohit Paranjpe and Ripunjay Bararia.
Sugarbox Founder | Rohit Pranajpe
Rohit Paranjpe, First-generation serial entrepreneur, co-founder, and CEO of SugarBox. With first-of-its-kind ventures across the digital content and media ecosystem in India. 34-year old Rohit is now focused on disrupting the internet services space, making them available, affordable, reliable, and contextual for everyone. The leadership team at SugarBox comprises Ripunjay Bararia, Co-founder and CTO of SugarBox. A Tech evangelist with over two decades of experience and part many tech ‘firsts’ in India.
Ripunjay Bararia, CTO and Co-founder of SugarBox Networks
Other Member in the Leadership Team:
Ashish Kulshresth, Business Head – brings with him over 20 years of strategic experience in Strategic Alliances, Sales & Marketing across EdTech, E-commerce, Telecom & Media. Ashish is responsible for the P&L and oversee the Network expansion, as well as the Revenue functions.
Pritesh Malde, Product Head – He has a proven track record of Ideating, conceptualizing and scaling products from scratch in B2B and B2C domains
Ishan Choudhury, Heads Strategy & Growth – With 14 years of experience across diverse strategy roles, including co-founding a hyperlocal services venture, he brings a balance of start-up exposure and key insights from running micro-ventures in large enterprises.
Rupsa Sinha, Brand Head – With 12 years of experience across consumer brands and undertook the unique challenge of creating a category defining brand – all from scratch, prior to SugarBox. She is primarily responsible for building the SugarBox brand and creating awareness for the unique value proposition & disruption that the company creates.
Vishwanath Kulkarni, Head of Network Rollout – brings with him over 15 years of experience in the IT & Telecom domain, having been instrumental in the rollout of 2G, 3G and 4G networks for telcos. At SugarBox, he looks at the network rollout and network maintenance function enabling the company to scale operations rapidly.
Ayush Sinha SugarBox Head HR – HR leader with extensive experience in setting up start-ups and GICs, rapid scaling & de-scaling and building high growth teams.
Rohit is grateful for the rich & diverse experience they all bring to the company. They are at a very interesting juncture in SugarBox’s journey, and their arrival brings fresh energy, expertise and perspective that will be pivotal in their rapid scale-up aspirations. The current team size is 115 and they are growing rapidly.
SugarBox started at the back of Rohit Paranjpe’s experience running an OTT service and the problems that people faced with respect to data connectivity and affordability. They built a prototype very similar to what has used on-board a Jet Airways aircraft in 2016 and carried out a pilot project at Mumbai’s Goregaon railway station. The statistics were beyond imagination with people consuming 21 GB of data per week, and some users ran through all 200 movies on the platform within 15 days! This is when they knew that they were onto something exciting.
The team tried to identify & network with people in the industry who understood technology enough to understand the concept that Rohit was trying to propose. He spoke to a friend, who was well versed with technology and he helped him understand the core components required, and the kind of expertise required to set-up the complete model and bridge the gap. He further introduced Rohit to Ripunjay, who went on to become the Co-founder and is the CTO at SugarBox.
In the beginning, for the initial years, most of the members of the core team were focusing on technology & network partnerships. The founders were brought in-depth experience in both these domains that helped set the stage for many early successes for the company. They also got some talented associates to join the company early on.
SugarBox’s showcases the Wi-Fi bars in an unbreakable curve, and the CDN structure comes in a box. The box comes with something good and happy for everyone. The good news of reliable and affordable internet, adding sweetness to life. Hence, SugarBox!
SugarBox | Logo
SugarBox- Vision and Mission
In the start-up world, it’s said – “find a large enough, grave enough problem to solve and you’ve hit the spot.” But here’s the interesting part. Ask people if they’re happy with their internet connection and 99 / 100 times, the answer is a No! Everyone has been at this for the last 3 years.
And Rohit would have asked this question too well over 1,000 people, across demographics and geographies. And the answer is the same! And yet, somehow, all of us seem to have given up on it – Everyone, somehow, has made their peace with the state of affairs; less privileged audiences have made peace with the system and people in lesser geographies/countries have made their peace with fate!
The core aim is to decrease the data accessed over the internet, thereby freeing up bandwidth on the existing last-mile networks (Telecom and ISP) so that the internet starts working more reliably and efficiently for all. The key business focus is to partner with apps that consume the most amount of data/internet bandwidth.
In the medium term, SugarBox will empower the Next Billion users worldwide to start using digital services without having to purchase a data pack or an internet connection. The long-term goal is to optimize the way data is transacted on the internet globally, making the internet over 30 times cheaper and 200 times faster.
In the Long term, SugarBox will make internet access 200% faster and 50% cheaper!
SugarBox- Target Market Size
Being a first-of-its-kind platform, there was no precedence for what SugarBox was doing, which obviously led to a plethora of challenges. First, a chunk of use cases for which they were building their CDN had never been addressed before. Then, they struggled with ecosystem-level challenges including Android fragmentation and OS limitations. After that, they ran into hardware failures and peripheral hardware issues in production environments, and many more. It will sound like a cliché, but they overcame them by thinking out of the box, collaborating, and finally, just grit and determination. It also took a special group of individuals coming together to solve these complex problems.
In the next 2 to 3 years, their Network partnerships would enable them to service over 400 million users spending over a staggering 2 billion hours every month streaming content on the go, and another 1 billion hours playing games!
Plus, there’ll be over 6 billion monetizable ad slots for this unlocked consumption. Also, SugarBox will be able to service over 25 million unique shoppers every month, driving over 32 million E-commerce transactions, 10 million rides for Cabs & Bike taxis, and 10 million food orders.
SugarBox- Products/ Services
SugarBox is a one-of-a-kind hyperlocal CDN that can be integrated with an existing Local Area Network or exposed to a user over a local Wi-Fi network. By the virtue of being hyperlocal there are certain things that it does more than what the traditional CDN does, and because of the technology there more cases that can be served. This hyperlocal CDN is disrupting the economics of the internet infrastructure challenges by shifting a chunk of data consumption from expensive internet bandwidth to free local bandwidth.
SugarBox is the only network in the world that lets its users access their favorite Apps seamlessly without them having to depend on their mobile data or ISP. It sets up a better data delivery & discovery network at key places of interest (POIs) that are frequented by consumers.
CDN is a network of servers linked together with the goal of delivering content as quickly, cheaply, reliably, and securely as possible, allowing everyone to take the internet more scalable in addition to which it is known as the internet enabler.
SugarBox offers various benefits to its stakeholders:
For consumers – Reliable access to apps without requiring internet connectivity or incurring data cost
For the POI – Enhanced in-premise experience and a better understanding of their consumers
For the App partner – Increase total available market, better user-adoption, consumption, stickiness, and monetization for the app
In essence, SugarBox is truly unique in the ecosystem and are complementary, rather than competing to other stakeholders.
The SugarBox revenue model aims to change the way that enables internet infrastructure providers to start earning via user consumption without the user having to pay for it. The model that SugarBox operates in is very similar to that of any CDN. They invest in the Cloud and Edge infrastructure that SugarBox installs. In addition to this, they bear the operating expenses of this infrastructure, along with other associated charges like lease, utility, etc. at certain POIs.
Once installed and live, SugarBox monetizes via the user consumption of all apps supported by the SugarBox CDN. Each SugarBox installation is modeled to be Unit Ex positive, not just for them as a company, but the entire ecosystem. The margins are substantially higher than the traditional CDN business.
SugarBox is in the phase of partnering with various OTT, Gaming, E-commerce, FinTech, and EdTech platforms. This forms the bedrock of a win-win relationship between the user, app partners, and SugarBox. Their efficient infrastructure planning & patented technology that has enabled a hyperlocal data delivery ensures that we work on a positive unit economics model at every installation point.
SugarBox- Investments
With the current investment, SugarBox will commence commercial services and scale up the network across public transport, revolutionizing the digital experience for over 300 million monthly unique users over the next 2 to 3 years. The short-term objective is to unlock over 2.5 billion hours of digital consumption monthly for consumers in a near captive environment, where access is otherwise limited due to patchy connectivity.
SugarBox- Startup Launch
Across all their pilot projects to date, have catered to over 1 million users. In Feb 2020, the month prior to lockdown, SugarBox had 120,000 unique users accessing Zee5 content with an average of over 27,000 users consuming content daily. The initial feedback has been very encouraging with an average engagement of 14 out of 30 minutes in the case of Hyderabad Metro. Of course, there is a lot of work to be done and the key focus at the moment is to partner with Digital services across industries, which incrementally adds to the consumer value proposition.
However, with the country in lockdown and public transport being shut to the general public and everyday use, SugarBox is working with partners across industries to help them through the current disruption and to make them ready for the post-COVID era.
SugarBox is working with public transport corporations for infrastructure upgrades that will enable them to automate and streamline operations, optimize expenses and potentially create new sources of revenue – all of which will be critical in a post-COVID world. The solutions encompass Digital access, Smart mobility, IoT, Security and Digital Out of Home, amongst others.
SugarBox is in the process of helping temporary and permanent COVID facilities with seamless digital access to enable patients in quarantine to stay connected and to bring a smile on their faces via delivering OTT services while they’re at the facility.
Over the next 2 quarters, SugarBox will be looking at expanding our outreach to other sectors including hospitality, education & retail – all of which are severely disrupted because of COVID and will have to reimagine their operating models in the year/s to come
SugarBox- Customers/ Clients
SugarBox got an internal customer Zee5 to set up POC and attract more customers. They used that user-traction to sign large networks including Indian railways and other deployment partners. The two main associations they focus on are getting more customers to use SugarBox and app partnership. Both the segments go hand in hand as the more customers will get to use SugarBox, the more partners seeing the benefits will collaborate with SugarBox, and vice versa – the more apps they provide to the customers more the interest.
SugarBox- Challenges
Delivering content using a hyperlocal CDN server is simple. Making a Digital service work without internet connectivity is a whole other topic altogether. This meant addressing user registration, personalization, security, payments, and ads – all of which require sustained internet connectivity to function. It is going to sound like a cliché, but the only way SugarBox got past these hurdles was owing to perseverance, hard work, a lot of creativity & innovation, the technical prowess of the team, and patient support from both the Zee leadership and the Zee5 team.
Well, for starters – It is a complex problem, not just from a tech point of view, but also from understanding the economics of all the stakeholders that need to work in conjunction to provide us the monster called the Internet. But it’s also probably one of the most important problems to solve in this century. This is why every Big Tech company including Google, FB, Amazon, SpaceX, etc. has been looking at finding faster, cheaper, and alternative ways to deliver internet bandwidth.
SugarBox is a subsidiary of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEEL), in which it acquired an 80% equity stake for INR 75 crores in April 2017. In April 2020, ZEE committed to investing an additional INR 522crores in SugarBox over the next 2 to 3 years. After the acquisition, their focus was to make Zee5 work using the platform, rather than creating a separate platform with a limited use case (Our network is limited only to certain places). So the SugarBox funding gets a boost from Zee Entertainment whenever necessary.
SugarBox is fortunate that the senior management here recognized the potential of this opportunity early on.
ZEE5 acquired equity stakes in Sugarbox
SugarBox- Competitors
SugarBox is unique in the ecosystem and is complementary, rather than competing to other stakeholders. Nobody does what they do. In comparison to traditional CDNs, SugarBox is able to drive faster data delivery as their infrastructure is closer to the user. The Company is also able to provide an experience guarantee on the data delivery, which a traditional CDN can’t.
Finally, SugarBox boasts of seamless access to Apps even in areas with no network or even for users without an active internet connection, both of which are outside the purview of a traditional CDN.
SugarBox- Recognitions and Achievements
Rohit Paranjpe successfully handled wide-ranging responsibilities in an illustrious career spanning over a decade. An innovator at heart, with a passion for building ecosystems that can potentially impact billions of users, also co-founded:
Digitainment (a company that revolutionized the retail distribution of content and ran the first B2B2C OTT service in India) and,
Mobile Infotainment (an interactive, connected in-transport infotainment and media platform, which was years ahead of its time).
SugarBox has been awarded as one of the Top 50 Tech Innovators by Intercon Dubai and was featured in the TechTors to watch out for in 2020 by BW Disrupt.
SugarBox- Future Plans
Today, SugarBox is present across pilot deployments in 9 cities and 250 Places of Interest (POIs). They are offering services to various POIs in cities such as Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai. The company is looking to spanning its network to Delhi, Kolkata, and other cities in the next 2 years. SugarBox aims to cover PAN India Urban & Rural by the end of 2025.
There are 4 key growth pillars for SugarBox in the next 2 to 3 years:
1. Scale up the Public transport outreach in India – This includes full-scale implementation in Indian Railways, along with deployment across other key Metro networks and bus networks in the country. This growth bucket also includes a foray into Avionics to disrupt the In-flight connectivity industry as a whole. The plan is to reach 30 mn users daily and 300 mn monthly unique users through this network segment.
2. Scale up the Rural & Urban Public Wi-Fi outreach in India – This includes exponentially scaling up their rural and village level pilots in partnership with other Internet infrastructure and Internet service providers, along with paving the way for sustainable Public Wi-Fi deployments in Urban and semi-Urban. The plan is to deploy 100,000 POIs over the next 3 years and provide digital access to 100 mn Indians through this segment.
3. SugarBox at Home, Office & other B2B POIs – This includes a B2B and a B2C foray to improve the state of the internet in India, making home and enterprise networks twice as fast and significantly improve the affordability and reliability of internet connections in the country. The plan is to power 20 mn households and enterprises through this segment over the next 3 to 4 years.
4. International expansion – SugarBox is actively working on replicating the model globally, with a two-prong strategy. The company will be looking at entering a few critical markets directly by setting up international operations and forging partnerships with local players for faster penetration across other international geographies.
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
What is SugarBox Networks?
SugarBox Networks is a local Wi-Fi network that eliminates the users’ dependency on mobile data. SugarBox is basically a hyperlocal CDN exposed over a local Wi-Fi network that eliminates the users’ dependence on mobile data and provides them seamless access to Apps, without any usage limits or soaring high mobile data charges.
Who is the Founder of SugarBox Networks?
Rohit Paranjpe and Ripunjay Bararia are the Co-Founders of SugarBox Networks.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by the organization it is based on.
Huawei was founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, an ex-military officer. It was merely formed as a private company. The main mission of the company was to provide consulting and operations services to most of the enterprises in China and outside the country.
There are around 3 core business units in the company, Telecom Carrier Networks, Enterprise Business and Devices, and manufacturing communication devices.
Huawei is a global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. The company offers a range of products, services, and business solutions for telecom carriers, including wireless network, fixed network, cloud core network, carrier software, IT infrastructure, network energy, professional services, and network rollout services.
It also builds a digital infrastructure platform utilizing cloud computing, software-defined networking, big data, and IoT to enable the digital transformation of the government, public utilities, finance, energy, transport, and manufacturing industries. In addition, Huawei provides smartphones, tablets, wearable devices, converged home devices, and applications on these devices for consumers and businesses.
Huawei – Logo and its Meaning
Huawei Logo
In addition to Huawei’s name, its own brand uses a flower-shaped logo. This is a symbolization of the “Hua” syllable that can mean petals or can also mean a lavish and luxurious in Mandarin. So it can be concluded Huawei logo symbolizes the achievement that surge or boast.
Huawei – Founder and History
The company was founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, an ex-military officer.
Founder of Huawei
It was merely formed as a private company. The main mission of the company was to provide consulting and operations services to most of the enterprises in China and outside the country. The company has around 140,000 employees working. 46% of the employees are involved in research & development.
After a few years, the company got a research centre of its own and started doing research and development. The set up got an initial breakthrough by launching its C&C08 digital telephone switch. The company got its first international project in 1997. It then started providing fixed line networks products to a company in Hong Kong.
In 1999, Huawei set up its first R&D centre in Bangalore, India. The company also entered into a 5-year contract with IBM till 2003. Huawei continued to expand into international markets. It is the first company to deliver LTE/EPC commercial network for Telia Sonera in Norway in the year 2009.
In 2013, the company opened its new office in Canada. Over the years, Huawei always focused on enhancing its mobile technology and has a number of partnerships with other companies. It also formed a joint venture, 3Com-Huawei and focused on R&D and production of the networking products.
Huawei is a collective company now and not privately owned any more. By the year 2010, 80% of the top 50 telecom companies worked with Huawei. Some prominent partners include Motorola, Vodafone, Talk Talk, T-mobile, Clear wire, Bell Canada, etc.
Huawei – Mission
Huawei’s mission is to expand the benefits of technology to everyone, everywhere. To achieve this, they’ve developed a digital inclusion strategy that focuses on three areas: technology, applications, and skills. Huawei believes that technology will make life better for every individual, home, and organization.
The research report provides deep insights into the regional market revenue, parent market trends, macro-economic indicators, and governing factors, along with market attractiveness per market segment of North America. The report provides an overview of the growth rate of the North America 5G Chipset market during the forecast period, i.e., 2020–2027 in which top key players are Broadcom, Inc., Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd, Mediatek Inc., Nokia Corporation, Xilinx, Inc.
Lawmakers passed a motion demanding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decide within 30 days whether to ban Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. from Canada’s next-generation wireless network.
The chief executive of Ericsson has come out in support of arch-rival Huawei after Sweden blocked the Chinese firm from building its 5G networks.
Huawei – Partnerships
As of the beginning of 2010, approximately 80% of the world’s top 50 telecoms companies had worked with Huawei.
When you look at the rise of the Huawei it’s clear that the success has come from adopting new business models to fit current market trends and to ensure that they remain competitive towards its competitors. The adaptation and change for its business models over the years has ensured that it remains a dark horse in the smartphone industry. Many years ago, Huawei was known for selling ‘cheap and cheerful’ products, which were renowned to not last very long.
As a company, Huawei has invested millions in R&D to help them pursue better approaches to the industry and to try and get the company renowned as one of the best. As you can see from the image below the amount of units that Huawei now sells compared to back in 2013 is a substantial improvement, which can effectively be down to several improvements it has made as a company over the period of 3 years. The willingness of adapting and changing its ideas to fit and match companies such as Apple and Samsung will be a major factor of its success.
Huawei announced worldwide revenues of $105.1 billion for 2018, with a net profit of $8.7 billion. Huawei’s Q1 2019 revenues were up 39% year-over-year, at US$26.76 billion. In 2019, Huawei reported revenue of US$122 billion.
Huawei – Investments
Huawei Technologies has made 5 investments. Their most recent investment was on Dec 19, 2019, when Lero raised €6M.
Date
Organization Name
Round
Amount
Dec 19, 2019
Lero
Venture Round
€6M
May 8, 2017
Falcon Computing Solutions
Series B
$8M
Mar 1, 2015
Che Youyuan
Angel Round
CN¥3M
Jul 21, 2014
XMOS
Series D
$26.2M
Jan 1, 2011
Teewon
Venture Round
CN¥320M
Huawei – Acquisitions
Huawei Technologies has acquired 9 organizations. Their most recent acquisition was Vocord on Jun 4, 2019.
Aquiree Name
Date
Amount
About Acquiree
Vocord
Jun 4, 2019
–
Vocord is a developer & manufacturer of intelligent video surveillance systems, biometric identification and computer vision
Vokord Telekom Zao
Jun 3, 2019
$50M
Vokord Telekom Zao manufactures radio and television broadcasting and communications equipment
Huawei’s globalization efforts were marred by issues of security concerns expressed by countries that were sceptical over its lack of transparency. The US had vehemently opposed Huawei’s growth activities in its country. To become a truly global company, Huawei had to develop its market in the US. Against the backdrop of such security concerns, the case study would analyse the growth of Huawei in its home country, China, its international growth strategies and whether the hue and cry raised by the US authorities on security concerns would really impede the growth of Huawei globally.
During the first three quarters of 2020, the Chinese telecoms and smartphone giant reported revenue of 671.3 billion yuan (about USD $100.7 billion), an increase of 9.9% year-over-year, with a profit margin of 8%. The company said those results “basically met expectations,” but it represents a huge drop from its performance during the same period last year, when Huawei reported 24.4% growth with a profit margin of 8.7%.
The company wrote that “as the world grapples with COVID-19, Huawei’s global supply chain is being put under pressure and its production and operations face significant challenges. The company continues to do its best to find solutions, survive and forge forward, and fulfil its obligations to customers and suppliers.”
Looking to the future, Huawei’s innovation will transition as we move from an Innovation 1.0 era to an Innovation 2.0 era. Huawei said that it was going to start with smartwatches, wearables, in-car head units and it’s powering the Honor Vision smart TV, although the company stuck to open source Android for its smartphones in 2020, while its wearables still use LiteOS at the time of writing.
The company says, “In Innovation 2.0, based on our vision for the intelligent world we are entering, we will aim to break the bottlenecks in theories and basic technologies that have hindered the development of ICT. In this stage, we will focus on theoretical breakthroughs and inventions, which means going from 0 to 1. “
The philosophy of Huawei’s Innovation 2.0 will bring together universities and research institutes and connect the academia with businesses, to allow all types of global scientific research resources and talent to come together in the pursuit of innovation.
To better implement Innovation 2.0, Huawei will adopt a number of approaches, including supporting the research programs of universities and research institutes, building its own labs, and investing along multiple technological paths.
Huawei – FAQs
What services Huawei provide?
Huawei Technologies designs, develops, and sells telecommunications equipment and consumer electronics.
Can Huawei phones be used in India?
Yes, Huawei phones are used in India as it was relaunched in January 2020 itself.
Can Huawei still use Google?
Despite executive comments to the contrary, Huawei says it’s still open to using Google services after being forbidden from including them on devices last year.
How does Huawei make money?
There are around 3 core business units in the company, Telecom Carrier Networks, Enterprise Business and Devices or manufacturing communication devices.
Where was Huawei banned?
The company was blacklisted in 2019 by Trump when the US alleged that it was too close to the Chinese government.
In the modern age, phone systems are interconnected with the computer network but often overlooked as a vulnerability. Fraudsters can invade the privacy of phone systems through the customer’s network or the telecommunications service provider. The moment they gain access, they manipulate the phone system to make unauthorized calls leaving the customer with a hefty bill.
Telecom Fraud is a grave threat to the telecom business market. This fraud is exploitation oftelecommunications mainly including cell phones or services with the intention of illegally and deceitfully acquiring money from a communication service provider or the customers.
Major Categories of Telecom Fraud
There are several telecom fraud schemes and it can be divided into three broad categories, based on who the fraudsters are targeting. These categories following are:
To Defraud Telecom Service Providers
This type of schemes are the most complex and exploit telecom service providers using loopholes, SIP trunking, and many more discrepancies.
Traffic Pumping
Traffic-related schemes use holder’s access techniques to try to increase traffic to a high-cost destination, which then shares the revenue with the fraudster.
Phone Fraud
Phone Fraud covers all types of general fraud that are perpetrated over the telephone. Phone fraud is a nuisance for millions of customers, companies and service providers.
The methods include plenty of artificially generated traffic by hacking into corporate switches, missed call campaigns, false answers, which are examples of fraud that causes high costs for the victims.
Not one telecom service provider can escape from fraud. Any type of Fraud reduces Organization’s profits, affects good customers and lowers operational efficiency. The real costs may exceed lost revenue and involve unwarranted network, investment, diversion of resource, and customer displacement. The actual impact is rarely measured, reducing visibility and effectiveness.
Fraud Management System provides the required technical and business skills to support both strategic and tactical fraud management efforts. It recognizes that resources are limited and try to find profit-enhancing solutions on time.
Fraud Management System(FMS) is a special tool designed to effectively detect, analyze and report on fraudulent events which ultimately impacts the revenue and cost streams of the business.
No FMS can entirely provide an absolute solution to effectively detect and fix the problem, the Fraud has to be detected with Fraud Analysts who have sufficient skills and knowledge to understand the process. They must have the information to direct the Fraud Analyst through the investigative stages, but most importantly there must be a clearly defined strategy for FMS.
Telecom Fraud Procedure
Quality of Data
The quality of data used and monitored within an FMS is high since it is retrieved directly from the sources or a middle platform. This produces a high level of clarity on what the origin of the data was and assuring that frauds identified are based on accurate data.
Flexibility
Telecom Fraud Management System has to be flexible to handle any type of data and create flexible rules on any type of event, it is also necessary to address the changing dynamics of fraud and future fraud threats in next-generation technologies, products and services.
The flexibility is an important asset for the Fraud Analysts as it provides the capability to test and verify various thresholds and alarm settings to maximize their capabilities of fraud detection.
The extraction, automation and processing of the events are performed with little or no human intervention. FMS can interface different types of data sources to ensure visibility and usage on a wide range of products and services.
Dashboard
Dashboard view and the nature of fraud being detected within the FMS visible is a key tool for a Fraud Manager. This allows the Fraud Analysts to view Key performance indicators, analyze whether fraud detection targets are being met, and review the performance to ensure cases are being managed and resolved properly.
Therefore, Fraud Manager is enabled to determine whether the FMS performance and resources are both operating with the fraud strategy.
Case Management
Case Management tool ensures all fraud incidents are identified, recorded and tracked in a location. This information can be used to identify fraud syndicates and track fraudsters, where links are identified between new and old cases.
Additionally, it ensures that all the information related to a case can be stored at a later stage. This also enables to track the performance of the Fraud Analyst cases to ensure defined processes are being met and followed.
Telecom Fraud types
Telecom Fraud Protection
Globally, Telecom Fraud is increasing at an alarming rate and is one of the biggest sources of revenue loss for every telecom operator or service provider. Businesses today are spending millions protecting themselves from fraudsters. They are mainly on the reactive and defensive mode, with bottom lines under huge pressure.
Conclusion
The Telecom fraud management team can significantly detect the frauds in telecommunications. For Fraud management, it requires a dynamic skilled staff, using flexible tools, and a defined process.
The competition against fraudsters can never be won due to the fast-moving telecoms environment and the drive to launch complex products quickly to attract market share and maintain a competitive advantage, leading to technical weaknesses and risks which fraudsters will rely upon the opportunity to keep the fraudulent business activities operational.
One of the super giant telecom industry of India, Reliance JIO, has announced a teaser saying that it is going to release a bundle offer with Disney + Hotstar for free soon. The most important feature of this offer is- accessibility to one year subscription of Disney Plus Hotstar VIP for free. It is not the first time that JIO customers will be provided with an offer to get the yearly Disney + Hotstar subscription. Back in 2017, JIO had provided it’s users the Hotstar subscription where JIO subscribers can watch Star TV Network channels via Hotstar app for free.
teaser banner
The new offer has been listed as ” coming soon”. Though they have provided the Hotstar Premium subscription earlier , however, this will be the first time that JIO customers will get the annual Disney+ Hotstar VIP subscription for Rs. 399 a year. It will bring access to Disney+ shows, movies and Kids content alongside exclusive Hotstar Specials and live sports including cricket, Premier League and Formula1.
However, there is no clarity on whether the bundling subscription will be limited to specific plans or all plans can use them equally. The Telecom Operator has yet not informed about the launch but the teaser banner does mention that it is “coming soon”.
The Teaser banner was first reported by telecom focused “Only Tech”. But it’s sure that this will increase their user base.
Over-Taking Airtel
airtel
It is clear that JIO is going to compete with Airtel soon. JIO appears to be taking on Airtel by offering similar Disney+Hotstar VIP benefits for prepaid users. Last month, Airtel brought the Rs. prepaid recharge plan with the Disney+Hotstar VIP subscription for a year. The plan also included 3GB high speed data and a valadity of 28 days.
Disney+ Hotstar is one of India’s largest premium video streaming platform. Disney plus Hotstar was recently launched which means that users don’t have to download a secondary app for Disney+ shows. The app offers both free and premium video contents which include 50,000 hours of TV content and movies across 8 languages. It let’s you access to its vast library of movies and shows from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic & kids shows such as Doraemon, Shinchan, Chacha Chaudhary and more. The Disney+ Hotstar premium subscription is priced at Rs 199 per month which brings all the exclusive and latest American television shows like ‘Game of Thrones’ and latest movies after they have been aired in America.
disney
Is Hotstar Premium and VIP Same?
NO, they are not same . The premium plan of hotstar is more expensive and gives you access to all the content on hotstar including Hollywood, and movies from across the world. It adds a special feature where you can change the language of the audio with subtitles whereas, VIP account doesn’t permit it.
The Hotstar VIP plan is way cheaper than a premium account whuch is amost one-third of a Premium plan. A Disney+ Hotstar subscription is availaible at Rs.365/ a year, whereas a Disney+ Hotstar premium plan can be purchased at Rs.999/year. The Hotstar VIP account gives you access to all sports content which include TV movies and Shows.
JioTV is a live streaming service app that offers access to more than 300 TV channels including 42 HD channels across languages and genres. On this app, a person can live-stream TV channels and watch episodes of TV shows, aired in the past 7 days. This partnership will bring Reliance Jio customers who are subscribed to JioTV services to get direct free access to Hotstar premium membership. This, in turn, allows Jio customers to access all the Star TV channels, other exclusive American TV Shows, and movies for free.
jio tv
When the Internet becomes more and more affordable, then you need lots and lots of content to consume. That’s the case of high-speed 4G users, especially the users under Reliance Jio 4G preview offer. The upcoming Indian telecom operator Reliance Jio has partnered with Star India to offer free premium membership to popular video streaming service Hotstar via JioTV. This will bring a wide catalogue of Star TV channels along with exclusive Americal TV shows and movies for Jio customers.
Open up the JioTV app and tap on any Star TV channel.
You will be then redirected to Google Play Store/ iTunes to download the latest Disney+ Hotstar app.
If you are an existing user then you are provided with an option to upgrade or reinstall the Disney+ Hotstar app.
On upgrading, you will be asked to connect with your Jio account.
Once connected, you can use either the JioTV app or Hotstar app to watch Star TV channels and other TV shows. (clicking Star TV channels on JioTV app will automatically open up in Hotstar).
You can also use the Hotstar directly to watch all other premium TV shows and movies.
According to a report, it is being said that Indian Telecom Operator is now diverging from Disney+ Hotstar and is offering free one year Amazon Prime membership worth INR999 to its JIO Fiber users.
Though the company hasn’t made an official announcement but I think finally good days are coming . Whatever it’s going to be JIO users will get some entertainment benefits from the telecom industry. JIO subscribers claimed of seeing a banner on My JIO App which states the activation one year Amazon Prime membership and that too free. Although the offer is valid for a year only and after this users have to get a paid subscription.
Amazon has made a huge impact on India’s market and is now eyeing for an entry into the Indian telecom industry. Reuters has reported that Amazon is trying to buy a 5% stake in Airtel, one of the leading telecom providers in the country. Airtel being the third largest Indian telecommunication provider can prove to be a game changer with the help of the US based e-commerce giant.
American giants have started to invest in Indian based firms lately. They are focusing on taking the Indian telecom services to the next level. These investments will help Indian based telecom industries expand their business to different countries and create an international presence.
It can create a big impact in the market if believed to be true
Deal At an Early Stage
Although this deal is in its early stages, it’s a small step towards the globalization of India’s telecom industry. And it will surely help in boosting India’s economy. As more and more countries look for investing in India, the coronavirus pandemic being one of the catalysts, this news can be termed as the start of something good from an economic front, a change needed in this time of crisis.
great competition in the Telecom Industry
A Wave Of Competition In The Telecom Industry
What makes this deal interesting is that it has come at the time when Indian telecom service providers are receiving investments from the big shots. Reliance Jio sold its stake of around $10 bn from several investors over the past few months. Investors like Facebook, General Atlantic ($869 Mn), Vista Equity Partners ($1.5 Bn), Silver Lake ($746 Mn), and KKR($1.5 Bn) have pumped cash in Reliance Jio, the market leader at the moment. The investment by Facebook in Reliance Jio has created a more competitive market in the telecom field.
It can be a great revolution for telecom industry
Jio has always done something out of the box which allowed it to grow quickly. This has affected giants like Vodafone who have lost a significant share of Indian customers courtesy of Jio. Many have fallen into debt. The announcement of partnership with US based tech giants will change the playing field for all the competitors. An element of uncertainty looms in the air as no can guess what investment news is going to come next.
Mubadala Investment Company, an Abu Dhabi based funding company, has recently announced its intention of purchasing around 1.85 percent stake in Reliance Jio. Mukesh Ambani has confirmed this news.
Google is trying to help Vodafone pare its debt, as talks of Google buying a 5% stake in Vodafone do the rounds. If the purchase happens, Vodafone can again become a valuable contender in the telecom market. Vodafone, once a top telecom service provider, is not doing well financially for some time now. To sustain itself, it’s imperative for Vodafone to get back in the competition.
After the Amazon speculation, the share prices of Bharti Airtel have increased by 5.73% per share. Investors have seen happiness after a long time as the investment speculation is no less than a silver lining of hope.
The deal is in nascent stages of discussion, and any change is possible at the moment since sources haven’t confirmed the news.
A statement given by an Amazon spokeswoman said the company does “not offer comments on speculation of what it may or may not do in future.”
Whereas Bharti Airtel said it will love to collaborate with the digital players around and accept their products, their content and their services provided to the customers. Bharti Airtel stated, “Beyond that there is no other activity to report.”
Amazon And The Indian Market
Amazon counts the Indian segment as one of its important growth markets and has a total investment of around $6.5 bn in the Indian e-commerce front. The US based company founded by Jeff Bezos in the recent years has developed a multi venture market in India by bringing voice controlled speaker called Alexa, video streaming site namely Amazon Prime Video, and cloud storage.
Amazon is trying to capture different market opportunities around India and teaming up with the telecom industry players is a major step. Amazon has been a hit in India, becoming a household name.
When Amazon was launched in India in February 2012 via its e-commerce site, it became an instant hit with the people. Indians started to prefer online marketing instead of going out and shopping. It attracted a large range of customers back then and became a major part of India’s revolutionized retail segment.
In 2016, Amazon dived into India’s streaming industry and has created solid name for itself. Amazon Prime Video has been one of the best streaming platforms in India, and is a formidable competitor to Netflix and Hotstar. Amazon Prime Video is known for its awesome content wand has come up with tailor made Indian content to target audience of all age groups. The music streaming platform provided with the membership of Amazon Prime has only improved its reach. Providing membership to customers at low costs has assisted Amazon in creating a strong hold in India.
With Amazon’s entry in the Indian telecom segment through Bharti Airtel, people can expect new enhancements at lower costs. If Airtel can succeed in leveraging Amazon’s capabilities, it can potentially seize a large number of Indians. It would be interesting to see the Indian telecom industry with the re-emergence of the market leaders.
BharathJinda
