Telecom enhances globalization in every possible way!

Is it any other way, apart from this? I was quite surprised on being asked whether telecom growth somehow blocked globalization! Quite the opposite!!

Take the Indian telecom industry for instance! Those who have followed the Indian telecom closely -- right from the days of C-DoT developing 256-switch RAX, down to the introduction of mobile phones -- after massive overbidding by folks such as HFCL in 1994, to the introduction of the Internet in India -- on the eve of India's independence day in 1994 -- the growth of satellite communications in the country in the mid and late nineties -- remember DAMA? -- to, to the introduction of CDMA in the early 2000s, to the great proliferation of mobile phones that we see around us now!

Does any of this indicate India has not been able to globalize?

When C-DoT had introduced RAX in the late 1980s, it really brought about a telecom revolution. Today, we don't talk of C-DoT in the glowing terms that it really deserves. Who would have ever imagined that mobile phones would take off the way they have done now! And well, we just can't survive without the email and the Internet!

Let's trace the global telecom history from the late 1980s. When AMPS gave way to GSM, you had the feature called roaming! People wondered what they would do with this feature? Today, we complain, if we can't roam!

ARIB, Japan, had visited India in early 1994, to try and sell PHS. In those days, PHS and DECT were the hot WiLL technologies. Later, Japan, thanks to Takeshi Natsuno and NTT DoCoMO, saw the advent of i-mode, and well, it indicated the first signs of what mobile Internet would really do!

Pages and pages were rolled out screaming "WAP is CRAP"! Now, all phones are WAP enabled and no one says a word! We love to surf on the mobile phone now, isn't it? What about all those MMS messages, including the sleazy ones? You can do mobile blogging now, can't you? Also, update your Twitter!

In optical networking, in the early nineties, PDH gave way to SDH! We later saw the advent of DWDM and also VCSELs. With the advent of 3G in the late nineties, we discovered W-CDMA. China came up with TD-SCDMA, another 3G technology. For some time, LAS-CDMA tried to make its mark, then I don't know what happened to it!

How many of you know that a simple SMS led to the famous second people power revolution in the Phillipines in early 2001, a peaceful revolution that overthrew Philippine President Joseph (Erap) Estrada!

Why, I still remember, during a spot survey at a Frost & Sullivan's telecom conference in Singapore in 2001, I was one among the three who used the mobile phone to check my Yahoo mails. I received such stares Today, we can't stop talking about Blackberry and iPhone! In Hong Kong, in the early 2000s, I used my Siemens WAP phone to locate Indian restaurants! When Nokia added GPS via HS-CSD in Hong Kong's Citybus in 2000, it was sensational! Today, we talk about LBS and GPS, and all that!

I can go on and on with such anecdotes! If there was no telecom, the world would not have progressed in the manner it has done now. Still having doubts?

Mobile operators resiliently beating recession: Ovum

LONDON, UK: Mobile operators are comfortably and steadily beating the recession. This is according to the findings of a new report from global advisory and consulting firm Ovum, titled ‘Mobile operators in a recession: lessons and coping strategies.’

Ovum’s report tracked the performance of mobile operators across all regions in the world for 2008. Overall, operators maintained revenue and customer growth during the period, but the rate of growth is down.

While most operators in emerging markets are yet to see any significant pressures on their performance, operators in countries such as the US and across Europe, where the recession has had dramatic impact, operators’ revenues are holding out. Indeed, it is not about immunity from the recession per se, but rather, adaptability to the downturn.

“It is comforting that mobile operators have shown remarkable resilience”, says Emeka Obiodu, senior analyst at Ovum and lead author of the report. “Whereas other industries have gone to the government with their begging bowls, mobile operators are actually pledging to invest billions to roll out a new high speed mobile network. In fact, after scouring the world, we are yet to find any mobile operator that is calamitously struggling solely because of the recession.”

The report projected the three key mechanisms of how the recession affects mobile operators:
· The threat to the number of revenue generating customers has yet to materialize as operators are generally still growing and adding customers.
· While the fear that existing customers will reduce their spending is valid, mobile operators have taken steps to avoid or ameliorate drastic impact.
· The biggest threat to mobile operators is that currency fluctuations reduces the value of the revenue they get. Lower value means it is difficult to maintain repayment on dollar or euro denominated debts and to fund new network investment.

The report warns that going forward mobile operators have to get back to worrying about competition and regulation, as these are the main challenges facing them.

“It is no use bickering about the recession when rivals are positioning themselves to outsmart you. Neither is it savvy to fret about the fall in roaming revenues from business travellers when the EU can force roaming prices down easily”, says Obiodu. “On many occasions where an operator has complained about the recession, it is possible to show a corresponding non-recessionary force at play.”

However, Obiodu warns that the recession will force a change in future direction for operators. “While the short term impact is limited, the recession will ultimately engineer a paradigm shift in strategic thinking across the industry. On the ground, the basics of the industry will surely remain the same, but the approach to service delivery will eventually change.”