Month: August 2021

Tata’s in 5G

Shabbir Chunawalla

Tata has bought stake in Tejas Network. Tejas is Bangalore-based equipment manufacturer. Tejas has R&D expertise. There is a promising $100 billion-plus global market for 5G networks and broadband equipment. This market attracts the domestic players such as Reliance, Sterlite, Tech Mahindra and HFCL, apart from Tata. Then there are international telecom gear companies such as Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei, ZTE and Samsung.

In earlier telecom networks, there was 70 per cent hardware costs and 30 per cent software costs. New networks rely more on software. It is easy to scale up and automate. It is less about hardware. Thus 70 per cent cost of the 5G network would be software and system integration. The rest of the cost, say 30 per cent is for hardware.

O-RAN is based on open standards. It is not based on proprietary platforms. It enables operators to source components from different vendors. There is competitive pricing and that results in cost saving, say 30-40 per cent. However, these different components are integrated. System integrators thus benefit from this market.

Tata can leverage the software skills of TCS. This will be supplemented by hardware consisting of radios, base stations controllers. Here Tajas plays a vital role. Tejas would also be eligible for production-linked incentive scheme.

Tata has tied up with Bharti, a telecom operator. Here Tata will get an opportunity to test its hardware equipment and network offerings. This tie-up of Tata and Bharti will use O-RAN to roll out networks. The same then can be marketed for the world. TCS will provide software support and system integration. If the testing is successful in India, the same model can be extended anywhere else.

Airtel has tied up with Altiostar to build small cells and cloud player Red Hat. It has also tied up with Mavenir which has developed a core. Both Tata and Bharti can leverage this.

Reliance has developed its own 5G capability and would like to tap the global market. Tata and Bharti tie up can compete with Reliance in the world market. This is all about O-RAN. But the existing gear makers have already built over 164 5G networks. These are fully operational. They are far ahead of the curve, and would assimilate the advantages of O-RAN. They will build hybrid models. It is thus a tough market to crack.

Media Protection

Shabbir Chunawalla

Digital news and current affairs publishers question why in the new IT Rules, they are treated on par with the social media and OTT platforms. The constitutionality of these rules have been challenged. As it is there was lack of consultation between the government and the news media, before these rules were made.

Unlike social media, news media are already regulated by the Press Council the Cable and TV Networks (Regulation) Act and the NBSA. Therefore, it was not necessary to frame the additional rules.

In fact, the IT Act dealing with the digital intermediaries, does not apply to news publishers. It deals with content regulation to the limited extent — say child pornography, obscenity, sexually explicit material and cyberterrorism. These do not apply to the news media.

The criticism is also levelled against the rules going beyond the scope of the parent act. The three-tier mechanism ultimately leads to empower the government to hold media to a ‘code of ethics’.

There are ambiguous notions of half-truths, good taste and decency. These tend to intimidate the news media into a kind of self-censorship. It vests the government with an overreaching power over news content.

5G

Shabbir Chunawalla

The recent approval (2021) of 5G trial is a welcome development. The local 5G technology is called 5Gi. It is being tested during the trials. The 5Gi standard has been designed to address the typical Indian rural use case. Globally, harmonised 3GPP standard is used. Qualcomm is developing a 5G solution for Reliance Jio. The addition of millimetre wave is brilliant. It is one of the key spectrum bands for 5G. It makes available large bandwidths. There is the sub-1 GHz band for trials. Open RAN (O-RAN) is a new methodology for rolling out disaggregated networks. Its architecture is more scalable and flexible. It is also more cost-effective. The telecom operators have options — use conventional networks (monolith network) along with O-RAN.

Digital Dollar

Shabbir Chunawalla

Soon there will be a discussion paper on the so-called FedCoin in the US. It is to be seen whether the Fed issues its own electronic money to the public despite what the other central banks do. Of course privately, there could be many digital dollars.

Fed will have its payment system by 2023 called Fed-Now, first in 40 years. It will facilitate instant exchange of funds from bank accounts — anytime, any day. There is no intermediary in-between.

As cryptocurrencies are volatile, they may never pose a serious challenge to the hegemony of dollar. Private digital dollar could be available which can be converted freely. Cross-border payments would be faster and easier.

In IoT, the devices will make payments and receive them. In such a system a FedCoin is convenient. There could be a settlement system here with tokenised money.

If central banks recognise each other’s digital IDS, cross-border remittances would be far more economical.

FedCoin is not necessary absolutely. Blockchain technology can be used to deal with private tokens.

The discussion paper will indicate whether the US intends to issue an official digital dollar.

Microsoft Reinvented

Shabbir Chunawalla

Microsoft missed several technological trends and faltered in its journey. Still it survived and has remained a tech star by reinventing.

A lean patch Microsoft faced stretched from mid-2000s to 2014. Microsoft was derided by rivals. It could not make a successful search engine. It could not compete with Google in garnering digital advertising. It could not think of Android-like operating system for mobiles, though lately introduced Windows phones could not succeed as much. Still during this lean patch, Microsoft continued to earn money because of Windows-installed computers and its server running technology. It then diversified into telephone systems, data bases and file storage systems. Microsoft did one big thing — it entered into cloud computing. It is one of the most significant technologies of the last 15 years.

Satellite Internet

Shabbir Chunawalla

OneWeb of Bharti in collaboration with the UK government, Starlink of Eon Musk and Project Kuiper of Amazon are to enter into satellite internet business.

It will be a B2B model in India. The satellite bandwidth capacity will be offered to armed forces camped in the Himalayas, shipping agencies, the railways and forest department. Telcos will be offered bandwidth capacity for cellular backhaul in remote regions where cellular network is weak.

Access terminals are of two types — ESAs or electronically steered antenna system and DPAs or dual parabolic antenna system. The objective is to lower the cost of user satellite access terminals in India. ESAs cost around $1000 now. It has to be lowered to $500-600. DPAs cost around $5000-6000 apiece. It has to be lowered to $2000-2500 apiece. Affordable price of user access terminals is original to drive wider adoption of satellite internet.

SRBs for Digital Media

Shabbir Chunawalla

There are publishers of online curated content (OTTs) and digital news websites. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) will soon issue a charter spelling out the norms of proposed self-regulating bodies (SRBs) for this sector. These SRBs have been mandated under the new IT rules/laws which govern the digital media.

The digital publishers will be the members of these SRBs. Under the guidelines, 2021, a three-tier content regulation system has been proposed for streaming platforms.

SRBs will refer to the I&B ministry content on such platforms that may ‘incite commission of a cognisable offence relating to public order or circumstances under Sec 69(A) of the IT Act.’

SRBs will also see to adherence to the code of ethics by their member publisher, address grievances, and appeals and ensure compliance from their members.

After notification, OTT players have formed two SRBs – one under the aegis of Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and another under the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF). It has decided to change its name to Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF).

Senior ministry officials are discussing with different industry bodies to make the implementation simpler.

The Ministry will issue orders to the publisher based on the recommendations of IDC or inter-departmental committee. This committee has members drawn from ministries of women and child development, home affairs, law and justice, electronics and IT, external affairs and defence. IDC meets once in 2-3 months. IDC henceforth will have domain experts too.

The IDC will have the power to issue warnings. It can also publishers to delete, modify, content, and even block matters that are covered under the IT Act.

In emergency case, the Centre can also issue interim order of blocking suo moto. It places such order with 48 hours before the IDC.

All orders to block must be placed before a review committee.

If smaller digital portal cannot afford a grievance officer, an existing senior officer can perform such functions.

A time frame of one year is proposed for implementation.

Film Censorship

Shabbir Chunawalla

The I&B Ministry proposes to amend the Cinematograph Act. It proposes age-based certification. It is a popular demand raised by the film industry. It aims at curbing the menace of piracy.

It is proposed that sweeping censorship powers be arrogated to government through amendment of the provisions on the government’s revisionary remit.

The HC of Karnataka has placed limits on the government directly exercising revisional powers (in KM Shankarappa). The Centre cannot exercise revisionary powers for films already certified by the Central Board of Film Certification. (CBC). This judgment was later upheld by SC.

To overcome this, certain amendments are proposed to the Cinematograph Act. These enable the government to direct the CBFC chair to review a certification. It quotes the possibilities of complaints of violation of Section 5B post-certification. Here revisionary powers are called for. Sec 5B is equivalent to article 19 (2) of the constitution that places reasonable restrictions on freedom of speech and expression. The complaints could emerge from mob, and entertaining these could result into censorship by the mob.

Under Section 5E of the existing Act, the government has already the power to revoke or suspend the certification of a film.

The tribunal reforms ordinance in April 21 has closed down the appelate authority for film certification. Thus film makers have to approach the HCs to change the decision of the CBFC.

Ideological differences could result in using the direct censorship by the Centre. This is the danger.

Auto-Tune : Music Industry’s Dirty Secret

Shabbir Chunawalla

A song must sound the best. A singer must have the ability to sing at a high pitch, and must preserve this ability. At an early age, male singers were castrated by back-alley doctors in Italy to achieve this effect. This practice was later outlawed in 1870.

Thus one can appreciate that singer had gone to great lengths before electronic tricks were available to twist, distort and modify their voices.

There were talk boxes or vocoders where artists used to speak through a plastic tube. Opera singers use Vibrato which delivers a note in wavering pitch. Auto -Tune is a computerized twist on this technique.

In 1997, a software called Auto-Tune was released. It is called pitch correcting software. It was developed by Harold Andy Hilderbrand. Since electric guitar invented by Les Paul, Auto-Tune heralded the biggest technological advance that affected popular music.

Its developer Hilderbrand was an electrical engineer who worked in oil industry. He retired at the age of 40. Thereafter, he founded Antares Audio Technologies, a music software company in California. His wife expected him to develop something that kept her in tune.

Previously, music recordings were never flawless in the first attempt, and there were re-recordings — multiple vocal tracks.

Auto-Tune made multiple recordings unnecessary. It required a few clicks of a mouse. It calls up the full performance on the computers screen. The wrong notes are nudged into the right key.

Auto-Tune alters the pitch, keeping the original intact. It uses math to do so. It makes image of the voice, and makes music better.

It can turn a lousy singer into a virtuoso. It is a great help to even untalented singers.

Auto-Tune puts small spaces of time between notes , and it takes a few milliseconds to ease from one note to another. Auto-Tune can reduce the space between notes to zero where the notes change instantaneously. It gives the notes an eerie, computerized timbre.

Auto-Tune is recording industry’s dirty secret.

One year after the release of Auto-Tune, on October 19, 1998, Cher’s Believe was released on radio. Its theme is the bounce back after a break up. It climbed the music charts. Later Cher’s Believe was subjected to Auto-Tune’s zero effect. They called it Cher effect. When Cher is 35 seconds into the song, she sings the line ‘I can’t break through’. Here there is electronic modification of vocals.

Amateur musicians used Auto-Tune. Advertisers too threw their hats in the ring. They started using Auto-Tune in commercial jingles.

Even if Cher effect disappears from the music world, Auto-Tune will stay as long as the singers continue to make mistakes.

Relief to Big Tech

Shabbir Chunawalla

A US judge in June 2021 dismissed federal and state anti-trust complaints against Facebook expecting social media company to sell Instagram and WhatsApp. The judge was of the opinion that the Federal complaint was ‘legally insufficient.’

In India, Facebook has agreed to release a report containing information on content takedown requests initiated by the government and users in India, and the action taken by it. It proposes to add the data on WhatsApp too. India has reduced, under the IT rules, the time to takedown content from 72 hours to just 36 hours. Content of pornography – nudity must be taken down in 24 hours. Facebook says it is compliant with the new IT Rules.