Friday, 22 May 2015

Users can now dial STD phone numbers without adding 0 or 91+ prefix under the full MNP initiative.

  
Mobile phone and landline users can now dial any STD number without using a prefix ‘0’ or +91, according to an order by the department of telecom (DoT) to leading telecom companies.The move is a part of the TRAI’s ruling of full mobile number portability (MNP). Many leading telecom service providers have started implementing the service while others are putting in place the requisite technology and carrying out trial runs. Vodafone India has implemented the order on its network across cities and also with subscribers of other companies like Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). A MTS India spokesman also confirmed that the company has rolled out the facility across all its nine circles. "We had already carried out the trial runs earlier and our subscribers do not need to use the prefixes for making STD calls," he added.Rajan S Mathews, director general of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), said, "The dropping of 0 and +91 was in order to facilitate timely implementation of nationwide MNP.

Without this, it would have taken nine months or so to implement MNP. Now, a small number of customers may have to pay STD charges if not aware of it. However, as the price differential between local and STD charges are not great, customers may find this asmall price to pay to enjoy national MNP." Mathews added that all telcos will have to complete the process for full MNP. "Otherwise if some companies do not have the technology in place, subscribers of other companies would not be able to reach them."Pan-India mobility was supposed to be implemented by May 3, but due to technical issues the deadline for it has been extended by another 2 months.

Telecom industry body COAI had asked for an extension in implementing nationwide MNP as telecom operators have to make some technical changes to their networks due to changes in national numbering plan (NNP). Pan India MNP will allow subscribers to move from one mobile network to any telecom circles in the country with the same mobile number without paying for roaming charges. As per the latest deadline full MNP will be implemented by July in India.

Cyanogen plans to invest $80 million in start-up acquisitions in India.

  
Open source mobile OS developer Cyanogen plans to open an office in India in the next three months. According to reports, the company plans to invest $80 million to acquire start-ups in the country. The company’s India team will be located either in Delhi or Bangalore and will have at least 50 employees, representing a third of its current employee base.Reportedly, Cyanogen plans to hire more people to add local flavors to its custom Android operating system in the form of some local apps and features. Quality testing and assurance in the country will also be done from the new base.

The company has raised over $110 million in funding till date of which $80 million came in just this march from Premji Invest, Twitter Ventures, Qualcomm and others. Cyanogen plans to invest a large part of the funding into acquiring smaller companies and teams in India. Vikram Natarajan, senior vice-president of global partnerships and distribution at Cyanogen stated, “India is very attractive. It is one of the hyper-growth markets for mobile today, … Premji Invest is a big investor…and that was a deliberate decision, as India a big market for us.” "What we strongly believe that global giants don't is that any country with a large population will have the rise of a local ecosystem. We're going to start seeing that in India," he added.CyanogenMod was an open source project that tinkered with the Android in 2009.

The company has now over 9,000 contributing members. The company’s founders "Kirt McMaster and Steve Kondik" made Cyanogen a commercial entity in 2013 headquartered in Palo Alto. According to research firm eMarketer, India is poised to overtake US as the fastest-growing smartphone market in 2016, making it very attractive to domestic as well as international companies.

Cyanogen already has a deal with Micromax to exclusively install its Cyanogen OS onto the company’s handsets. Natarajan added that the company will see how the expansion pans out and then it will decide whether to partner up with more local brands.

Major privacy and security issues found in UC Browser

  
Citizen Lab has found a number of major security and privacy issues in the English language and Chinese language editions of the Android version of UC Browser.A Canadian research group has found that popular mobile web browser, UC Browser, is putting privacy of its users on risk by leaking sensitive data. The group found that the browser had given third parties access to sensitive users information such as location, search details and even device numbers. Alibaba spokesman Bob Christie, however, has claimed that the issue has been fixed as well as users have been notified about the update. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd had acquired UCWeb in June 2014.

According to Citizen Lab, the Chinese and English version of UC Browser had leaking the sensitive data that "represents a privacy risk for users because it allows anyone with access to the data traffic to identify users and their devices, and collect their private search data". The research group pointed out that the Chinese version of the mobile web browser was more vulnerable and that “a significant number” of sensitive data including personal and location information were left exposed to third parties. "By leaking a large volume of fine-grained data points to multiple network operators, the UC Browser app is increasing the risks to its users that such data may be used against them by authorities, criminals, or other third parties," the group further pointed out. Check out the full Citizen Lab report here.

UC Browser is one of the most popular mobile web browsers. The browser is estimated to have 500 million registered users and is very popular in India and China. UCWeb last year had announced a Partner Program in India that helped app developers acquire users as well as monetize their offerings. The program, made available through UCWeb’s 9Game/9Apps operation, offered mobile developers a suite of supports from low-cost and efficient user acquisition, fruitful app/game monetization, preferential revenue share plan to funding for remarkable developers. In order to boost its ecosystem, the company has launched a public beta of UC Browser for PCs featuring Cloud Sync, smart file manager and more. The browser has been launched in two versions- an Indian version and a general version. Users can download the UC Browser for PC Beta from pc.ucweb.com.

Google reportedly working on 'Brillo OS' for IoTs

  
Google is working on a new software called ‘Brillo’ for low-powered devices that connect to the internet. Google's new lightweight version of Android OS will help smart devices connect easily with each other.The internet giant is expected to reveal more details about Brillo at the upcoming I/O developer’s conference. According to reports, Google’s Brillo software will be able to power devices with 64 or 32 MB of RAM.

The internet giant is likely to release the software under Android OS, as the group developing the software is linked to the company’s Android unit. The lower memory will enable devices running the new software would mark a sharp drop from the latest versions of Android, which is aimed at mobile phones with at least 512 MB of memory. Brillo software will also work with sensors and dongles that comprise connected life. Currently Brillo is aimed at smart connected devices and would make it easier for other companies to build everything from “smart” fridges and light bulbs to garden monitors. Google had acquired Nest, which has a ‘Works with Nest’ framework developers can tap into via a set of APIs. The software will be a priority for Google as the software could power all Smart devices. Apart from this Google is also expected to make some announcement around Android Wear, a new Android OS dubbed Android M and new voice commands to access Android devices.


Apart from Google, rival Huawei has announced LiteOS at an event in China that aims at providing the "infrastructure companies need to build out connectivity in their devices." Earlier this month, electronics giant Samsung has also introduced the Artik line of hardware, which is aimed at “unifying wearables and other smart devices” with open software and Samsung hardware. Research firm Gartner reposts that the number of networked devices will surge to 26 billion units by 2020 from 900 million in 2009. Many device manufacturers have been making big bets on the Internet of Things, the concept of using sensors and other technologies to hook just about anything you can think of into the Internet. Research firm IDC says that the IoT market will hit $3.04 trillion by 2020.

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