Decoding QoS rules for telcos, India’s phone shipments and Oakter’s Wi-Fi UPS

For a while, things became better. Perhaps it was the mind playing tricks. Or it was perhaps the quality bounce as networks received 5G

For a while, things became better. Perhaps it was the mind playing tricks. Or it was perhaps the quality bounce as networks received 5G upgrades graced every single tower on rooftops across the country? Off late, call drops are becoming more pronounced. That’s true for Airtel and Reliance Jio (I am not factoring Vi into this conversation, since their network capacity and quality deteriorated a long time ago), irrespective of whether you’re in a 5G coverage area, or 4G. Call quality also feels perceptibly lower, at times. Unless you are on Wi-Fi calling, that is. Some complain the 5G mobile broadband doesn’t feel as fast either (though I’ll say, my experience with Airtel 5G and Jio 5G networks on multiple devices, hasn’t indicated any such change). There’s a reason I broach this subject.

Oakter Mini UPS

The timing is perfect then, that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has mandated new quality of service (or QoS) guidelines. They come into effect, October 1. The Standards of Quality of Service of Access (Wireline and Wireless) and Broadband (Wireline and Wireless) Service Regulations, 2024 (the name’s a mouthful; try memorising that) cover for wireless and wired networks. I’ll explain a few elements you must know.

• Mobile service providers will have to monitor QoS performance of wireless services on a monthly basis now, as against the quarterly monitoring till now.
• Mobile service providers will have to monitor QoS performance of wireless services on a monthly basis now, as against the quarterly monitoring till now.
• There are also new parameters for reporting significant network outages, jitter impacting data services, maximum bandwidth utilization between radio and core network during busy hour as well as SMS delivery success rate.
• Mobile service providers including Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vi will now have to build and maintain a coverage map clearly marking 2G/3G/4G/5G coverage for all regions in all telecom circles, and these will have to be made available on their websites for users to easily access. Better to have this information before buying a new SIM or putting in a port request.
• In case of a significant network outage (that’s classified as more than 4 hours), postpaid users in that district are expected to be given a proportional rebate on the rental in the next bill. Prepaid users should be given an increase of number of days to their plan’s validity. I feel this will be the most difficult to quantify, calculate and implement – always room for not acknowledging the problem, and subsequently debate the duration of an outage.
• There are parameters for wired services too, set for speed of service provisioning and fault repair, broadband service performance including latency and packet drop rates on the network.

Do you believe the new QoS norms will improve the quality of our mobile networks and indeed reliability of broadband services, again? They may not have otherwise, but TRAI has done well to include a financial penalty component for not meeting the revised benchmarks – the graded penalty system now penalises between ₹1,00,000 to ₹10,00,000 depending on what conditions weren’t met.

MARKET

Some interesting data to look at. This week, CyberMedia Research (CMR) released the India Mobile Handset Market Review Report for Q2 2024. First things first, India’s smartphone shipments have seen a 4% year-on-year decline. Turns out, affordable smartphones (those below ₹7,000) have pulled down overall numbers, registering 26% lesser shipments in the quarter this year. The more expensive phones, above ₹25,000, have seen a 9% increase YoY.

Yet, within that trend, resides a positive – 5G smartphone shipments share increased to 79% within overall shipments, which is a 56% increase compared with Q2 2023. Xiaomi (19.3%), Samsung (18.5%) and Vivo (17%) are the top three smartphone brands in the country. Again, within the 5G specific demographic, Vivo (21% share) leads followed by Samsung (20%). “The availability of affordable 5G phones in the INR 10,000 to INR 13,000 range has significantly propelled market growth,” Menka Kumari, Analyst- Industry Intelligence Group at CyberMedia Research, points out.

CMR says Apple has captured 5% market share in Q2 2024, with the Apple iPhone 15 series contributing as much as 58% of its total shipments into India. Another interesting statistic that caught my attention is that MediaTek leads India’s smartphone chipset market, with a 54% share. CMR notes that during the quarter, MediaTek had launched the Dimensity 9300 chipset. A few days ago, Qualcomm detailed the Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 chip, specifically targeting upcoming affordable smartphones. MediaTek’s lead should see some reduction, if Qualcomm’s efforts bear fruits. That said, Qualcomm has a definitive lead with a 37% share in the premium phone space (that is, phones above ₹25,000 and into the flagship territory).

POWER

Our regular readers would remember my piece from a few months ago, on the benefits of smaller UPS devices for Wi-Fi routers at home, to overcome power outages and even backup switchovers whilst keeping internet connectivity constant as you may work from home. Not a lot has moved in that space since, but credit is due to Indian tech company Oakter, for bucking that trend. They’ve released an even more capable version of the Oakter Mini UPS (12V to be specific; that’s now selling for around ₹1,099). This one’s called the Oakter Mini UPS Pro. You’d assume the “pro” moniker adds a bit more seriousness to the matter? Correct.

The biggest upgrade from the Oakter Mini UPS to the Oakter Mini UPS Pro (this costs ₹1,799) is the battery size. The latter has a larger 2,600mAh battery, up from the 2,000mAh battery in the Mini UPS 9V and Mini UPS 12V. The company claims that battery backup time is now increased to as much as 8 hours, double of the theoretical ceiling with the previous two mini routers. In my tests, the Oakter Mini UPS Pro when used to power a GPON (think of this as the modem for a fiber line) and a router combination, lasts close to 4.5 hours before the battery drains completely. In terms of holding capacity and minimising battery degradation through charge cycles, I’ve been using a Mini UPS 12V for almost an year now, and it still holds up well, delivering close to 2.5 hours of backup time even now.

Oakter’s selling the Oakter Mini UPS Pro in just the 12V, or 12-volts spec. it is ideal for a modem plus router setup that many homes would have, for optimal Wi-Fi signal range and speeds. Apart from the colour change to a darker theme, the positive in continuity is the Mini UPS Pro runs cool even after sustained use on the battery, as well as complete discharge to full charge routine. This is a must have accessory for most homes, irrespective of whether you’re occasionally working from home or not. It doesn’t get more simplified plug-and-play than this.

ACQUISITIONS

Many people still seem to think that Canva’s biggest competition is Adobe. It is, but that’s only partly true. In the grand scheme of things, if you look closely, they’re competing with multiple tools from Microsoft and Google too. As well as pretty much every generative AI tool out there, which can do its magic with any sort of visuals. The way Canva’s able to compete and grow (that’s now 190 million users worldwide) in the consumer as well as a broader focus on the teams and enterprise space, is to evolve fast. As Cameron Adams, who is co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Canva told me earlier this summer, they invest a lot in developing AI models in-house.

The other key element to their success, smart acquisitions. A shining example of that being UK-based Serif’s Affinity, which gives Canva more in its arsenal to offer creatives. That continues. Canva has completed the deal for Australian generative AI company Leonardo.AI – that means arriving within Canva’s fold will be Leonardo.Ai’s foundational model called Phoenix, as well as a team of 120 researchers, engineers, and designers. Leonardo has 19 million users worldwide, and a strong presence among business and enterprises. The plan is to quickly integrate the Phoenix foundational model into Magic Studio. This company is moving fast. It can only be good news for users.

TRUST?

“Many have offered rich incentives for X (fka Twitter) to move its HQ out of San Francisco. Moreover, the city is in a doom spiral with one company after another left or leaving. Therefore, they expect X will move too. We will not. You only know who your real friends are when the chips are down. San Francisco, beautiful San Francisco, though others forsake you, we will always be your friend,”, Elon Musk (an uncharacteristically talkative post) posted on July 30, 2023.

“This is the final straw. Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas,” Elon Musk (referencing California’s AB1955, or the SAFETY Act) posted on X, on July 17, 2024.

“And 𝕏 HQ will move to Austin,” an Elon Musk follow-up on July 17 itself.

I had asked then, “Will there be assistance given to employees and their families, who relocate from California to the new HQ in Austin. For those who are unwilling to move for various reasons, would they continue to have employment at X?” in response to his post. Elon Musk (who has otherwise eliminated comms teams who’d have handled it otherwise) still hasn’t responded. So, we don’t know.

Clearly, politics took over. He seems most unimpressed by the SAFETY Act which now prevents educators from being required to disclose information related to students’ sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression without a student’s consent. School districts are further prohibited from enacting or enforcing policies requiring such disclosures. The Act also states “Pupils have a constitutional right to privacy when it comes to sensitive information about them, and courts have affirmed that young people have a right to keep personal information private” and “Laws and policies that target or invite targeting of pupils on the basis of gender or sexual orientation are prohibited under state and federal law”.

I’m not getting into the politics of it, or the question of genders. Just the inconsistency of Musk’s opinions. Perhaps Musk chose to not reply to my question, since he hadn’t thought it through completely. He’s still not said anything about it, to the rest of the world either. Perhaps I’d asked something X hadn’t planned for yet? His people policies since taking over Twitter, have left a lot to be desired even from a human standpoint. He forced all remote working employees back to office, employees sleeping in office before resuming work again and running into an unimpressed San Francisco Department of Building Inspection for installing a giant flashing X on top of HQ building. Now we are hearing that once the HQ is closed, employees will be shifted to multiple locations in the Bay Area.

Trouble: Where there’s Elon Musk, upheaval is a constant. Musk has filed a fresh lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, about two months after withdrawing a previous one, again alleging that OpenAI breached its founding commitments by putting commercial concerns ahead of the public good. Hold a thought for longer than a baby’s attention span?

In parallel as it turns out, journalist Don Lemon is filing a lawsuit against Elon Musk and X, claiming he hasn’t been paid for an X exclusive show that was supposed to see X pay Lemon around $1.5 million a year. The very first episode featured an interview with Musk, who became increasingly uncomfortable with the questions Lemon asked him, including about tweets that seem to indicate Musk’s support for something called the “great replacement theory”. Within hours of that interview, Musk had pulled the plug on the show.