It is believed that 5G services are for the premium customers. Qualcomm has decided to change this perception. It is working on ‘5G for all.’ Qualcomm is a San Diego, California-based company. It proposes to introduce Snapdragon 400 chipset in early 2021. Cell phones powered by this chip for 5G will cost less than Rs, 15000. By 2022, most of the handsets in India would be 5G. Its chips would power cell phones of Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi. They prefer to create a 5G eco-system in India before 5G is rolled out here. Maybe, 5G rollout would be in 2022, as telcos are financially stressed. Still Qualcomm expects a faster adoption of 5G. Initially, 5G sets could be marketed at Rs. 20,000, but would fall to a level of Rs. 15000 with the help of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Gradually the prices could reach to Rs. 10,000 level.

Earlier Qualcomm has successfully tied up with Reliance Jio to expand 4G usage.

Qualcomm faces competition from MediaTek, a Taiwan-based company. It expects to negotiate deals with Indian OEMs.

Facebook intends to launch its cryptocurrency Libra as early as January 2021. As you are aware, there is Geneva-based Libra Association. It plans to launch a single digital coin backed by the dollar. Since Facebook has to counter regulatory and and political resistance, it can scale back the ambitious project. There is a feeling that Libra could upset financial stability and mainstream power over money.

Facebook is one of the members of the 27-member The Libra Association. It seeks a green signal from Switzerland’s market regulator to issue a series of stablecoins backed by individual traditional currencies, and a token based on the currency-pegged stablecoins. This new plan will be introduced at a later date.

Stablecoins are designed to avoid the volatility typical of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. It makes them suitable for payments and money transfer.

The OTT players and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) have joined hands in November 2020 to draft an implementation tool kit that will spell out manner in which a proposed self-regulation code for video-on-demand services will be applicable. This move follows after the government conveys that the self-regulation code curated by the IAMAI and adopted by nearly 15 OTT players is silent about the way the code will be implemented.

The self-regulation code issued by the IAMAI has mandated each online-curated-content-provider (OCCP) will set up a Consumer Complaints Department and/or an internal committee. In addition, there will be an advisory panel to deal with the complaints, appeals and escalations. This was not to the satisfaction of the government. The government felt the code lacked independent third-party monitoring. There is also no well-defined code of ethics. It does not spell out the prohibited contents adequately.

The IAMAI may take cue from the mechanism of Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) and News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA).

The Government of India has brought over-the -top or OTT platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ Hotstar under the ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I & B) by amending the rules of allocation of business.

Thus I & B mininstry is now empowered to draw up rules regarding the regulation of the OTT content.

There could be two option before the ministry — make an Act similar to the Cinematograph Act or the Cable Television Network Regulation Act; or persuade the OTT players to formulate a self-regulation code acceptable to the Government. As you are aware, so far the OTTs fell within the purview of ministry of electronics and IT; and were governed by section 67, 67A and 67B of the IT Act. These dealt with the entire Internet and aim at containing the sexually explicit acts etc. These provisions were not civil in nature; and led to an FIR.

There could be self-regulation or co-regulation.

There is a need for deregulation and not more media regulation. The decision to take the digital content under the I & B ministry should not be a prelude to more legislation and government control. It is difficult to register online businesses — there are differing contours of digital content. Moreover, it puts Indian firms at a disadvantage to foreign entities. Control over content is akin to censorship.

Cryptos are back in vouge. Their prices have surged in the past two months — October, 2020 and November 2020. Bitcoins, ethereum and ripple are being dealt with vigorously. Investors have signed up with various crypto exchanges. Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency. It has surged rapidly — to the extent of 80 per cent in Oct-Nov 2020. Bitcoin costs about Rs. 14 lac in November, 2020 (or $ 14000) but it can be bought in fractions by small investors. Investors are seeking high-yielding alternative assets especially when interest rates are declining across the world. Current rally could be due to MNCs tending to hold a part of their balance sheet in cryptocurrencies. Investors look to beat recession blues and grow their wealth during the pandemic. There is also the lack of supply side liquidity, especially on the exchanges. Smaller digital currencies too move in tandem with bitcoin.

AI assists in diagnosing TB and other lung-related diseases by scanning an x-ray either on mobile or computer. It takes less than a minute.

An app called qXR has been made by an Indian company Qure.ai and is subsidised by the Indian Government. If it finds evidence of TB, it assigns the patient a risk score. Doctors can later perform confirmatory tests on patients with the highest risk.

The app flags the disease early. It cuts the unnecessary costs of lab tests. If used on a large scale, it can identify the clusters of disease.

Hospitals in rural and tribal areas such as The Chinchpada Christian Hospital, Nandurbar use the app. Tribals would otherwise travel 125 miles to reach the centre. The app makes the access very easy.

The app identifies TB with an accuracy of 95 per cent.

In November 2020, Apple powered its laptops with new silicon chips, though its early experiments with ARM have failed. There was an earlier transition in PowerPCs — Apple has transitioned from RISC or reduced-instruction-set computer system to CISC or complex instruction-set computer-based system of Intel to avail of high computing ability.

Once again Apple has returned to ARM processors with its new chip called M 1. After using the ARM chips in iPhone and iPad, they decided to use the technology for laptops. Advanced RISC Machine or ARM has not been successful in laptops. Such laptops remain underpowered, though they have gained on efficiency.

RISC based system remains underpowered as the communication is only in simple commands. CISC is based on complex commands. RISC-based machines improved over years taking advantage of Moore’s law of packing more transistors on a chip. Thus the phones last longer and perform complex tasks on smaller battery packs.

Though both RICS and CISC have evolved, CISC has reached a limit of being better by further innovations. RISC is, despite limitations, the best bet for the companies. It is suitable for people on the go who would not get the charging point everywhere they go.

M1 chips of Apple, show higher performance and have normal cores. The machine oscillates between the two, depending on usage. It thus enhances battery life. System integration here is the key factor. The chips now have 5 nm processors but the efficiency would be improved further by having 4 nm chips in 2021 with M2 iteration (more transistors).

Apple experts apps to be developed around its M1 chips by depending on Rosetta 2 for transition. There is four core ML integrated on the chip. It will make laptops smarter. MS will create apps for Apple. Adobe too. It is not clear how much time this will take as millions of codes will have to be rewritten. Still ARM has a future.

India is emerging fast as an audio market. Already, we have learnt about podcasts. Let us not be obsessed with definitions. It could be podcasts or audiobooks or originals or whatever. Such compartmentalisation would not apply — the user behaviour is the same.

Here we are talking of non-music content. India is emerging as the fastest growing podcast listening countries in the world. It has close to 60 million monthly listeners.

Audiobooks have a greater reach than the podcasts. Amazon tapped this opportunity. It has launched its Audible in 2018. Storytel is another Sweden-bases app. Indian start ups are Pratilipi, Pocket FM, Khabri, Kulu FM, Aawaz and Headfone. Each of these vie for the ear share. These products are available in regional languages. Actually, Amazon Audible created a new category. Later they launched Audible Suno. Several million downloads on Google Playstore indicates the reach of the platforms.

India is not format conscious. Indian consumers are after the content. India should be treated as an audio market. What is a podcast to some my be just audio content to some others.

Though video consumption is competing with audio consumption, there are certain advantages of audio consumption. Audio could be consumed at any time of the day, while cooking, doing household chores, spending time with the family or while relaxing in the evening. As listeners we are engaged with the active viewing of the video. Non-music audio apps encourage passive listening. It appears at a time when reading habit is on the wane. Self publishing platforms can convert the books into audio formats. Spotify has decided to improve its podcast portfolio in India.

The platforms also promote voice-enabled searches as it is easier than typing.

Indians, it is believed, will be reluctant to pay for the content. This is a myth. Indians are ready to pay for quality content.

5G is not just about access technology and more throughput. It is about a new framework to cater to the evolving needs of consumers, small business enterprises and the government. If 4G is about speeds and feeds, 5G is about creating experiences. Organisations would like to redistribute and automate their supply chains and make them agile.

Spectrum

Though spectrum is a scarce resource, the requirements of 5G are huge. It requires across low- , mid- and high spectrum ranges to ensure maximum coverage.

Low bands of sub-1GHz are better suited to support coverage of larger and remotely located areas. Mid-sized bands of 3.3 – 3.8 GHz offer benefits of both coverage and capacity. High bands such as 40 MHz are required for high broadband speeds.

OpenRAN

A Pan-India 5G rollout would require an investment of $ 30 billion from telcos. They are looking for new and more cost-effective ways of deploying and managing these networks. Here the concept of an open, virtualised mobile infrastructure or OpenRAN becomes critical.

Typically RAN makes up the majority of network cost. O-RAN enables telecom service providers to diversify supply chains, bring interoperability and agility. It can help reduce their capex by almost 50 percent.

Additionally, O-RAN will allow service providers to offer a package of new cloud-delivered services to enterprises and end-consumers. It will create new revenue streams for them. It will reduce their time to market these services.

Music has for long been taken as a free commodity in India. It is an arduous task to generate revenue from subscriptions by audio streaming services. We have two streaming platforms — Spotify and Gaana. To overcome this they have tied up with other partners to give bundled offers and discounts.

Spotify has partnered with Citibank and Flipkart to offer discounts on subscription plans. Credit card customers of Flipkart Axis Bank can get access to 15 months of Gaana Plus at a discounted price. Such tie ups are common in video streaming services. Telcos use such tie ups for increasing data consumption.

Indian audio streaming market consists of 200 million active listeners, of which just 1 percent are paid subscribers (KPMG study on M&E industry). Users must be given free streaming options in order to lure them into subscription offers.

Different users have different requirements. Some just want ad-free experience. Some require high quality audio and facility to download music. Suitable plans must be developed to cater to the needs of the audience. Ad free experience you can have by paying just Rs,10 per month. Gaana Plus offers high quality music and unlimited downloads at Rs. 99 per month. There are cheaper student plans. However, too many options lead to confusion.

Content ultimately is the king and helps in acquiring subscribers and high revenue. Streaming services are buying podcasts to increase user engagement and to create new avenues to boost up ad revenues.