A rickshaw puller waits for customers beneath billboards belonging to Indian telecom companies. The race for fifth generation rights is heating up in India. Reuters
A rickshaw puller waits for customers beneath billboards belonging to Indian telecom companies. The race for fifth generation rights is heating up in India. Reuters
A rickshaw puller waits for customers beneath billboards belonging to Indian telecom companies. The race for fifth generation rights is heating up in India. Reuters
A rickshaw puller waits for customers beneath billboards belonging to Indian telecom companies. The race for fifth generation rights is heating up in India. Reuters

Battle for 5G heats up as telcos vie for rights to shape India's tech future


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The race to introduce fifth-generation (5G) telecoms services is heating up in India, as Asia's third-largest economy auctions its airwaves to offer the latest technology to its more than 1.3 billion inhabitants.

Fifth-generation technology, which can be 10 times faster than 4G, is expected to boost India's digital sector.

Bidding for 5G is heating up between Indian telecom operators with deep pockets.

There is a lot at stake, and the size of investment needed to develop more infrastructure for the service to take-off is huge.

“As the country’s top telcos participate in the ongoing 5G spectrum auctions, we’re now one step closer to finally having access to the fifth generation network,” said Peeyush Vaish, a partner and telecoms sector leader at Deloitte India. “It is set to transform the Indian telecommunication industry.”

The auction started on July 26. The process has attracted 149.85 billion Indian rupees ($18.9bn) of bids so far, the government said on Saturday.

Reliance Industries' Jio, the telecom company of the conglomerate controlled by India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, is leading the way.

Competitors Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea are bidding, too, while billionaire Gautam Adani's Adani Enterprises has also thrown its hat in the ring.

The introduction of 5G is part of the push by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to accelerate growth in India's digital sector. New Delhi, under its Digital India campaign banner, expects the value of the sector to reach $1 trillion by 2025.

Although the auction will also bring in much-needed revenue for the government as it tries to narrow its fiscal deficit, the allocation of 5G airwaves will help overall economic growth.

“The 5G auction shows the industry now wants to expand … into a new growth phase,” Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology, said at a press conference on Saturday.

Simultaneous growth of 5G and the country's economy is “the thought process that is driving the auction”, he said.

Over the years, India's telecom sector has had its share of controversies, including an alleged 2G scam case in 2007, and, more recently, a Supreme Court battle over telecom companies' dues to the government.

“We are at a stage where the industry has come out of a very painful legacy period,” said Mr Vaishnaw. “The industry has more or less come out of that and it is at the stage where it becomes a sunrise industry.”

India's telecom sector has, in recent years, experienced a lot of volatility and disruption, especially after Jio launched its services in 2016.

The company's cut-price deals intensified competition in the sector to the extent that it pushed a few rivals out of business and accelerated the pace of consolidation in the industry.

The broader digital sector has grown rapidly and has been a magnet for foreign investors, with Reliance's digital division Jio Platforms attracting investment from Google and Facebook.

The latest digital sector battlefield is 5G, and Jio has been the most aggressive in the bidding process, paying the highest “pre-auction deposit”.

A shop owner displays JioPhone Next, a low-cost 4G smartphone jointly developed by the Indian group's Jio telecoms venture and Alphabet's Google. Jio is a front runner in India's 5G spectrum race. Reuters
A shop owner displays JioPhone Next, a low-cost 4G smartphone jointly developed by the Indian group's Jio telecoms venture and Alphabet's Google. Jio is a front runner in India's 5G spectrum race. Reuters

However, what attracted a lot of interest is the surprise entry of Adani Data Networks, which has indicated its interest in buying airwaves for a private network.

Mr Adani, the country's second richest man, is now directly competing with Mr Ambani for the same asset.

There is “tremendous interest” from these companies in the 5G auction because of the role this will play across all business sectors, from agriculture to energy, said Tanvi Kanchan, head of corporate strategy at Anand Rathi Shares and Stock Brokers.

With super fast data speed, 5G is among the building blocks of Internet of Things and virtual reality, and can, supporters say, lead to dramatic improvements in live streaming and gaming capabilities in India.

Mr Vaishnaw said the government wants to expedite the auction, allocation and introduction of 5G, with a target of launching the service in October and then expanding it “very rapidly”.

“Within the coming one-and-a-half, [or] two years, we should see a significant presence of 5G in the country,” he said.

Analysts, however, said that a large-scale introduction of 5G could end up taking double the time as India is already behind the curve compared with many other countries.

Even in places such as the US, the transition to 5G is proving slow.

“5G will be an expensive roll-out,” said Utkarsh Sinha, managing director of Bexley Advisors, a boutique investment bank based in Mumbai.

“On top of the high bids placed by leading contenders, the equipment and installation costs are also exponentially high.”

Fifth generation is also a shorter range technology than 4G. That is offset somewhat by the high device density that 5G supports, but on the whole, “we can expect significant costs and time in achieving full-fledged network deployment”, Mr Sinha said.

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The huge amount of investment needed in the spectrum, network and the development of infrastructure to support 5G in India is likely to increase the overall debt levels in the sector.

“For 5G to be successful in a country like India it would need a far higher fibre network reach than its predecessor [4G], ubiquitous coverage, and a high degree of co-operation between operators and content delivery networks to deliver content smoothly as [network] edge data centres would become common after advent of 5G,” Mr Vaish said.

The scope of 5G in terms of boosting India's digital ambitions is enormous, which in turn will make the segment more competitive.

There are “immense revenue opportunities and with private networks in the sector, existing competition will intensify among the telcos for the 5G space”, Mr Vaish said.

“With 5G, the telecom operators will move beyond offering connectivity and content by shifting from the role of a service provider to that of a service enabler.”

Fifth generation will also usher in the age of Web 3.0, where everyone — from students to business people and scientists will start experiencing the internet through immersive metaverse technologies, said Shrey Mishra, co-founder of XR Central, a start-up which uses technologies including augmented and virtual reality to solve business problems.

As India has been behind the curve on 5G, “we do need to seize the initiative in 5G technologies and make sure we’re in front of other countries on this”, he said.

“As an emerging leader in the field of metaverse technology and extended reality, India has a huge opportunity to secure their piece of the pie on a global stage.”

Fifth generation will also be pivotal in manufacturing and “smart” factories. Sandeep Lodha, co-founder of Indian server manufacturing company Netweb Technologies, said his company is working on a private 5G cloud for customers.

Companies across industries will see new avenues and create business opportunities, with the merging of the physical and digital world, said Farheen Ahmad, founder and chief executive of Interality, a virtual platforms start-up based in the IT hub city of Bengaluru.

Ms Ahmad is among the many individuals and businesses awaiting the arrival of 5G to write the next chapter of India's digital growth story.

MEYDAN CARD

6.30pm Maiden Dh165,000 (Dirt) 1,600m

7.05pm Conditions Dh240,000 (D) 1,600m

7.40pm Handicap Dh190,000 (D) 2,000m

8.15pm Handicap Dh170,000 (D) 2,200m

8.50pm The Entisar Listed Dh265,000 (D) 2,000m

9.25pm The Garhoud Sprint Listed Dh265,000 (D) 1,200m

10pm Handicap Dh185,000 (D) 1,400m

 

The National selections

6.30pm Majestic Thunder

7.05pm Commanding

7.40pm Mark Of Approval

8.15pm Mulfit

8.50pm Gronkowski

9.25pm Walking Thunder

10pm Midnight Sands

Race%20card
%3Cp%3E6pm%3A%20Al%20Maktoum%20Challenge%20Round%201%20%E2%80%93%20Group%201%20(PA)%20%2450%2C000%20(Dirt)%201%2C600m%3Cbr%3E6.35pm%3A%20Dubai%20Racing%20Club%20Classic%20%E2%80%93%20Handicap%20(TB)%20%24100%2C000%20(D)%202%2C410m%3Cbr%3E7.10pm%3A%20Dubawi%20Stakes%20%E2%80%93%20Group%203%20(TB)%20%24150%2C000%20(D)%201%2C200m%3Cbr%3E7.45pm%3A%20Jumeirah%20Classic%20Trial%20%E2%80%93%20Conditions%20(TB)%20%24150%2C000%20(Turf)%201%2C400m%3Cbr%3E8.20pm%3A%20Al%20Maktoum%20Challenge%20Round%201%20%E2%80%93%20Group%202%20(TB)%20%24250%2C000%20(D)%201%2C600m%3Cbr%3E8.55pm%3A%20Al%20Fahidi%20Fort%20%E2%80%93%20Group%202%20(TB)%20%24180%2C000%20(T)%201%2C400m%3Cbr%3E9.30pm%3A%20Ertijaal%20Dubai%20Dash%20%E2%80%93%20Listed%20(TB)%20%24100%2C000%20(T)%201%2C000m%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Scoreline

Al Wasl 1 (Caio Canedo 90 1')

Al Ain 2 (Ismail Ahmed 3', Marcus Berg 50')

Red cards: Ismail Ahmed (Al Ain) 77'

Moonfall

Director: Rolan Emmerich

Stars: Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry

Rating: 3/5

The Lowdown

Kesari

Rating: 2.5/5 stars
Produced by: Dharma Productions, Azure Entertainment
Directed by: Anubhav Singh
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Parineeti Chopra

 

Titan Sports Academy:

Programmes: Judo, wrestling, kick-boxing, muay thai, taekwondo and various summer camps

Location: Inside Abu Dhabi City Golf Club, Al Mushrif, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Telephone:  971 50 220 0326

 

UAE and Russia in numbers

UAE-Russia ties stretch back 48 years

Trade between the UAE and Russia reached Dh12.5 bn in 2018

More than 3,000 Russian companies are registered in the UAE

Around 40,000 Russians live in the UAE

The number of Russian tourists travelling to the UAE will increase to 12 percent to reach 1.6 million in 2023

MATCH DETAILS

Barcelona 0

Slavia Prague 0

'Champions'

Director: Manuel Calvo
Stars: Yassir Al Saggaf and Fatima Al Banawi
Rating: 2/5
 

Know your Camel lingo

The bairaq is a competition for the best herd of 50 camels, named for the banner its winner takes home

Namoos - a word of congratulations reserved for falconry competitions, camel races and camel pageants. It best translates as 'the pride of victory' - and for competitors, it is priceless

Asayel camels - sleek, short-haired hound-like racers

Majahim - chocolate-brown camels that can grow to weigh two tonnes. They were only valued for milk until camel pageantry took off in the 1990s

Millions Street - the thoroughfare where camels are led and where white 4x4s throng throughout the festival

RECORD%20BREAKER
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EYoungest%20debutant%20for%20Barcelona%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2015%20years%20and%20290%20days%20v%20Real%20Betis%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EYoungest%20La%20Liga%20starter%20in%20the%2021st%20century%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E16%20years%20and%2038%20days%20v%20Cadiz%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EYoungest%20player%20to%20register%20an%20assist%20in%20La%20Liga%20in%20the%2021st%20century%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E16%20years%20and%2045%20days%20v%20Villarreal%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EYoungest%20debutant%20for%20Spain%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2016%20years%20and%2057%20days%20v%20Georgia%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EYoungest%20goalscorer%20for%20Spain%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2016%20years%20and%2057%20days%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EYoungest%20player%20to%20score%20in%20a%20Euro%20qualifier%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2016%20years%20and%2057%20days%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets

Best Academy: Ajax and Benfica

Best Agent: Jorge Mendes

Best Club : Liverpool   

 Best Coach: Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool)  

 Best Goalkeeper: Alisson Becker

 Best Men’s Player: Cristiano Ronaldo

 Best Partnership of the Year Award by SportBusiness: Manchester City and SAP

 Best Referee: Stephanie Frappart

Best Revelation Player: Joao Felix (Atletico Madrid and Portugal)

Best Sporting Director: Andrea Berta (Atletico Madrid)

Best Women's Player:  Lucy Bronze

Best Young Arab Player: Achraf Hakimi

 Kooora – Best Arab Club: Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia)

 Kooora – Best Arab Player: Abderrazak Hamdallah (Al-Nassr FC, Saudi Arabia)

 Player Career Award: Miralem Pjanic and Ryan Giggs

Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
At a glance

- 20,000 new jobs for Emiratis over three years

- Dh300 million set aside to train 18,000 jobseekers in new skills

- Managerial jobs in government restricted to Emiratis

- Emiratis to get priority for 160 types of job in private sector

- Portion of VAT revenues will fund more graduate programmes

- 8,000 Emirati graduates to do 6-12 month replacements in public or private sector on a Dh10,000 monthly wage - 40 per cent of which will be paid by government

Mission%3A%20Impossible%20-%20Dead%20Reckoning%20Part%20One
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Christopher%20McQuarrie%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Tom%20Cruise%2C%20Hayley%20Atwell%2C%20Pom%20Klementieff%2C%20Simon%20Pegg%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Revibe%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hamza%20Iraqui%20and%20Abdessamad%20Ben%20Zakour%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20UAE%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Refurbished%20electronics%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunds%20raised%20so%20far%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%2410m%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFlat6Labs%2C%20Resonance%20and%20various%20others%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES

SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities

Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails

Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies

Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments

Two products to make at home

Toilet cleaner

1 cup baking soda 

1 cup castile soap

10-20 drops of lemon essential oil (or another oil of your choice) 

Method:

1. Mix the baking soda and castile soap until you get a nice consistency.

2. Add the essential oil to the mix.

Air Freshener

100ml water 

5 drops of the essential oil of your choice (note: lavender is a nice one for this) 

Method:

1. Add water and oil to spray bottle to store.

2. Shake well before use. 

ELIO

Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett

Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina

Rating: 4/5

 

 

Uefa Nations League

League A:
Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, France, England, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Iceland, Croatia, Netherlands

League B:
Austria, Wales, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine, Republic of Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Turkey

League C:
Hungary, Romania, Scotland, Slovenia, Greece, Serbia, Albania, Norway, Montenegro, Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Cyprus, Estonia, Lithuania

League D:
Azerbaijan, Macedonia, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Latvia, Faroe Islands, Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Liechtenstein, Malta, Andorra, Kosovo, San Marino, Gibraltar

ESSENTIALS

The flights

Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.

The hotels

Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.

The tours

A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages. 

BOSH!'s pantry essentials

Nutritional yeast

This is Firth's pick and an ingredient he says, "gives you an instant cheesy flavour". He advises making your own cream cheese with it or simply using it to whip up a mac and cheese or wholesome lasagne. It's available in organic and specialist grocery stores across the UAE.

Seeds

"We've got a big jar of mixed seeds in our kitchen," Theasby explains. "That's what you use to make a bolognese or pie or salad: just grab a handful of seeds and sprinkle them over the top. It's a really good way to make sure you're getting your omegas."

Umami flavours

"I could say soya sauce, but I'll say all umami-makers and have them in the same batch," says Firth. He suggests having items such as Marmite, balsamic vinegar and other general, dark, umami-tasting products in your cupboard "to make your bolognese a little bit more 'umptious'".

Onions and garlic

"If you've got them, you can cook basically anything from that base," says Theasby. "These ingredients are so prevalent in every world cuisine and if you've got them in your cupboard, then you know you've got the foundation of a really nice meal."

Your grain of choice

Whether rice, quinoa, pasta or buckwheat, Firth advises always having a stock of your favourite grains in the cupboard. "That you, you have an instant meal and all you have to do is just chuck a bit of veg in."

If you go

Flights

Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh with a stop in Yangon from Dh3,075, and Etihad flies from Abu Dhabi to Phnom Penh with its partner Bangkok Airlines from Dh2,763. These trips take about nine hours each and both include taxes. From there, a road transfer takes at least four hours; airlines including KC Airlines (www.kcairlines.com) offer quick connecting flights from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville from about $100 (Dh367) return including taxes. Air Asia, Malindo Air and Malaysian Airlines fly direct from Kuala Lumpur to Sihanoukville from $54 each way. Next year, direct flights are due to launch between Bangkok and Sihanoukville, which will cut the journey time by a third.

The stay

Rooms at Alila Villas Koh Russey (www.alilahotels.com/ kohrussey) cost from $385 per night including taxes.

COMPANY PROFILE

Company name: Blah

Started: 2018

Founder: Aliyah Al Abbar and Hend Al Marri

Based: Dubai

Industry: Technology and talent management

Initial investment: Dh20,000

Investors: Self-funded

Total customers: 40

TRAP

Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue

Director: M Night Shyamalan

Rating: 3/5

UAE players with central contracts

Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Rameez Shahzad, Shaiman Anwar, Adnan Mufti, Mohammed Usman, Ghulam Shabbir, Ahmed Raza, Qadeer Ahmed, Amir Hayat, Mohammed Naveed and Imran Haider.

ALL THE RESULTS

Bantamweight

Siyovush Gulmomdov (TJK) bt Rey Nacionales (PHI) by decision.

Lightweight

Alexandru Chitoran (ROU) bt Hussein Fakhir Abed (SYR) by submission.

Catch 74kg

Omar Hussein (JOR) bt Tohir Zhuraev (TJK) by decision.

Strawweight (Female)

Seo Ye-dam (KOR) bt Weronika Zygmunt (POL) by decision.

Featherweight

Kaan Ofli (TUR) bt Walid Laidi (ALG) by TKO.

Lightweight

Abdulla Al Bousheiri (KUW) bt Leandro Martins (BRA) by TKO.

Welterweight

Ahmad Labban (LEB) bt Sofiane Benchohra (ALG) by TKO.

Bantamweight

Jaures Dea (CAM) v Nawras Abzakh (JOR) no contest.

Lightweight

Mohammed Yahya (UAE) bt Glen Ranillo (PHI) by TKO round 1.

Lightweight

Alan Omer (GER) bt Aidan Aguilera (AUS) by TKO round 1.

Welterweight

Mounir Lazzez (TUN) bt Sasha Palatkinov (HKG) by TKO round 1.

Featherweight title bout

Romando Dy (PHI) v Lee Do-gyeom (KOR) by KO round 1.

Updated: August 01, 2022, 11:41 AM`