Call drop issue: Parliamentary panel calls DoT, Trai and telcos for meeting to discuss call drops

A Parliamentary panel has called telecom operators along with the Department of Telecom and sector regulator TRAI for a meeting on 10 November to discuss the raging call drop issue.The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, headed by BJP MP Anurag Thakur, has called members of industry body COAI and Reliance Jio separately.Reliance Jio, also a member of Cellular Operators Association of India, has blamed the industry body for promulgating views of mainly incumbent telecom operators – Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular.

The subject of the meeting is ‘Issues related to quality of services and reported call drops’, according to a Lok Sabha notice. The panel will “hear the views of the representatives of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and Reliance Jio, followed by meeting with representatives of DoT and The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).”

Call drops are rampant in the country with telecom operators of late making some effort to improve the situation by installing more telecom towers.There has also been a tussle between Reliance Jio and incumbent telecom operators for not providing adequate interconnection facility to the Mukesh Ambani-led firm, leading to heavy call drops on its network.Interconnection enables mobile users to make calls to customers of other networks and is, therefore, crucial for smooth functioning of mobile services.

TRAI has also recommended a penalty of Rs. 3,050 crores on Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular, holding them responsible for congestion on Reliance Jio network leading to call drops.

As per the quality of service rules, not more than five calls in 1,000 should fail due to network congestion. The recommendation followed complaints from Reliance Jio that over 75 percent of calls on its network are failing as incumbents were not giving sufficient points of interconnect that would help complete calls.As per TRAI’s recommendation, the penalty for Airtel and Vodafone work out to about Rs. 1,050 crores each, while in case of Idea Cellular it comes to about Rs. 950 crores.

The regulator stopped short of recommending cancellation of their telecom licences by saying it may lead to “significant consumer inconvenience”.

Grab a taste of Forza Horizon 3’s open world racing with Microsoft’s free demo for Windows 10

Microsoft has released a Forza Horizon 3 demo for PC on the Windows Store. Forza Horizon 3 is an open-world racing game that puts you in the latest and greatest cars in the motorsport world and unleashes you on the Australian outback.I spent two hours with Forza Horizon 3 and fell in love with it. My experience with the game was limited to pre-release code, but the potential of the game was very evident. Now if I hadn’t played that preview, I doubt I would ever have considered dropping the Rs 3,999 that Microsoft is demanding for the game. And no, I haven’t actually bought the game, I’m just saying that I considered buying the game. My pockets aren’t that deep.

If you’re in two minds about the game and have deep enough pockets, however, the demo should be a boon. I haven’t played it yet myself (the demo), but Microsoft claims that the demo will offer everyone a taste of the single player and multiplayer components of the game. This should be enough to help you make up your mind.

Windows Central reports that alongside the release of the game demo for Windows 10, Microsoft has also released an update for the Forza Horizon 3 demo on Xbox One S that adds support for HDR on supported televisions.

Adobe considers India as an important innovation hub for product development

India is an important innovation hub for Adobe and over time a lot of the company’s products have been developed in its Indian R&D centres located in Noida and Bengaluru, stressed top Adobe executives. “Tools like InDesign and Illustrator are completely built in India. Photoshop elements team is also entirely based in India,” Mala Sharma, Vice President and General Manager of Creative Cloud at Adobe, told IANS on the sidelines of the ongoing Adobe Max 2016 creativity conference here."A big part of Adobe Sensei — which was released earlier in the day — was developed in India,” Sharma noted, adding that India has a lot to offer on a global stage. Sharma also pointed out that there has been a 200 per cent increase (year-on-year) in job postings across Asia Pacific (APAC) in the creativity and design industry.

Adobe’s R&D is focused on developing product innovations that help businesses drive digital transformation and deliver amazing experiences for their customers, Shanmugh Natarajan, Executive Director and Vice President (Products) at Adobe India, added.“Adobe’s India R&D centres are an integral part of the company’s overall innovation focus and significant contributors to our global efforts towards creating, developing and supporting products and innovations across Adobe Marketing Cloud, Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Document Cloud,” Natarajan said.

“Various parts of the many technology showcases announced at Adobe MAX 2016 (including Adobe XD, Illustrator and InDesign) have been developed with close involvement of the India R&D centers and our team is excited to be a part of these amazing technology innovations,” Natarajan added.Digital marketing is a high growth business for Adobe and a significant part of R&D activities for Adobe Marketing Cloud are driven out of Adobe’s India R&D labs. “India is a huge investment for us,” Sharma said.

Internet Authority announces formal regulations and rules for live streaming industry in China

Chinese internet authorities have formalized controversial rules regulating the country’s fast-growing live-streaming video industry, in a move that strips out smaller competitors and places hard-line surveillance measures on leading firms. In an announcement posted on their website on Friday, the Cyberspace Administration of China grouped a handful of earlier restrictions under a final 24-point regulation that will come into effect on Dec. 1.The rules require streaming services to log user data and content for 60 days, and work with regulators to provide information on users who stream content that the government deems threatening to national security or social order. Both users and providers are punishable under the regulations.

The law also codifies rules that ban online news broadcasting services from original reporting, requiring them to identify sources and non-selectively reproduce state-sanctioned information. China’s live video streaming industry has experienced booming growth in the past two years as dozens of video and social media sites scrambled to add the updated capabilities to their existing services.

Credit Suisse Group analysts estimate the industry could top $5 billion by the end of 2017, driven by cheap bandwidth and a growing population of young mobile users. The industry’s exponential growth attracted increased scrutiny from government authorities in 2016. In April, Chinese authorities called on 20 of the country’s top firms to join a self-criticism coalition, saying the industry was damaging China’s youth by proliferating content including pornography, fraud and terrorism.

On June 1 companies including Baidu Inc, Sina Corp, Sohu.com Inc and Youku Tudou, acknowledged new rules as part of the group, including requirements for real-name authentication. While the latest move places wide-reaching restrictions on the sites, it also signals an official sanctioning of the industry and its top players by Chinese officials.Much like China’s earlier online video and music industries, the regulations put pressure on smaller competitors and bring larger firms into line with regulators, offering more growth opportunities for a smaller number of controllable companies.

“One of the things the government always wants to do is narrow the playing field to a smaller number of higher profile known entities, ideally ones that have a better track record of cooperating with the government,” says Mark Natkin, Managing Director at Marbridge Consulting.

“In the long run it’s actually relatively beneficial to the large companies.” In May the government handed down 588 licenses for prominent media outlets and live-streaming sites, effectively banning all unapproved services.

Volvo S90 luxury sedan launched in India starting at Rs 53.5 lakhs

As reported earlier, Swedish car-maker Volvo launched the new S90 luxury sedan in India. The new flagship car is priced at Rs 53.5 lakhs and replaces the S80. With this launch, the company now competes against the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, BMW 5 Series and Audi A6.The S90 is based on the Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) technology. Talking about the engine, it is powered by the D4 2-litre, 4-cylinder diesel engine that churns out 190PS of power and 400Nm of torque. It is mated with an 8-speed automatic gearbox.

There are three driving modes available on the car (Eco, Dynamic and Comfort) that transform the overall performance depending on the requirement. The headlamps come with a unique finish with daytime-running lights (DRLs) and the chrome-finished concave front grille give it a strong appeal. At the back you get c-shaped tail lamps while the overall length is quite a bit giving it a bolder look.

Inside there is a chrome strip running across the dash and a large 9-inch infotainment screen placed in the middle which is the same as the Volvo XC90. Of course safety features include side and curtain airbags, ABS, emergency brake assist, ISOFIX, park-assist and lane-keep assist.

New Nikon Coolpix 2016 range announced starting at Rs 6,450

Nikon has launched its new Coolpix Series for 2016 in India. The new updated series consists of the latest point-and-shoot camera offerings which are packed with Nikon’s SnapBridge feature that offers smartphone connectivity.

The new models in Coolpix 2016 series include the B700, B500, W100, A10, A100, A900 and A300.

Commenting on the announcement, Kazuo Ninomiya, Managing Director, Nikon India said, “We are indeed delighted to bring the new range of Coolpix series this year. At Nikon, we continue to elevate the bar of technological enhancement and the availability of 120x dynamic zoom feature in B700 camera bears testament to this fact. The new devices in the Coolpix series ensure that photography enthusiasts are able to capture India’s colorful, vivacious and diverse culture with new perspectives. The new series reaffirms Nikon’s aim of making the skilful art of digital photography accessible to all and the easy mobility of the devices enables them to take spectacular pictures without missing any precious moment.”

Each camera offers a unique feature for instance, the W100 is a waterproof and shockproof compact digital camera.It comes with large buttons and intelligent features such as Underwater Face Framing. The B700 offers a balance of mobility, zoom performance and imaging technology for a vast zoom range. It is said to be the most compact 60x optical zoom and120x Dynamic Fine Zoom camera in its class. It has a 20.3 megapixels backside-illumination CMOS image sensor.

The B500 is more or less a smaller version of the B700. It offers 40x optical zoom and 80x Dynamic Fine Zoom and is easy to handle for everyday use. The A300 focuses on video by offering Target Finding autofocus (AF) to ensure that desired subjects are always in focus. For video creation, HD movie recording is available in 720/30p format and there is an inbuilt 4-axis Hybrid VR system which aids in reducing camera shakes.

The A900 is a more compact offering which comes with 35x optical zoom and 70x Dynamic Fine Zoom. It also offers sharp focus even in macro mode at a distance of approximately 1cm. The A10 balances is a simple to use camera and is made for all ages. It comes with a 16.1MP CCD sensor. There is 5x optical zoom onboard.

B700 and A900 offer a new “Superlapse” movie function. In this, still images saved from a recorded movie are automatically stitched into a 30 or 20fps fast-motion movie, even while recording in motion.

Twitter exec sees customer service channels as revenue source for platform

Twitter Inc is seeking revenue outside traditional advertising sales by helping companies develop customer service channels on its platform, according to its most senior executive in Latin America, a testing ground for the new strategy.Guilherme Ribenboim said in an interview on Friday that features launched this week give businesses more ways to automate customer service through direct Twitter messages to clients, moving beyond simply responding to complaints or paying to promote posts.

Twitter is now offering consulting and other services for other corporate partners in Brazil – the largest economy in Latin America – to make the most of new features.

“As one of the fastest-growing regions in the world, we have the critical mass of both users and resources to invest in those consulting services,” said Ribenboim. “We are testing out this model, adding it to the mix as we launch our planning for 2017.”Brazilian airline Gol Linhas Aereas SA has already developed an option for passengers to check-in for flights using a direct Twitter message, Ribenboim said.San Francisco-based Twitter last week said it would cut 9 percent of its workforce and discontinue video app Vine as it aims to turn a profit in 2017.

The tailor-made approach to marketing is one way Twitter is trying to boost revenue despite a slowdown in user growth this year, with less than a fifth as many active monthly users as rival Facebook Inc.Ribenboim said the new tools for customer service, along with recent partnerships with live TV events and the acquisition of creative network Niche last year, were meant to differentiate Twitter in the increasingly competitive digital ad market.Advertising sales made up 88 percent of Twitter’s revenue in the third quarter, down from 90 percent a year earlier.

Twitter, which has seen user growth stall amid competition from nimbler rivals such as Instagram and Snapchat, said its user base ticked up 3 percent to 317 million average monthly active users in the third quarter.