Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Happy Telecom Diwali, the Chinese way


Its pre-Diwali and the atmosphere is electric and joyous as usual.
Also many of our projects have delivery surrounding this date, so is hectic too.

Last week-end, following the usual tradition, I was dragged to open market to buy decorative things for home.

We started with traditional Rangoli and then moved towards lights.
Here is where the fun started:
We started the selection process, 
Some LED lights that blinked brighter than camera flash for me,
Some sober ones for my parents place.
My father being from old school wanted warranty for each item bought.
How much ever expensive or beautiful the light was, none of them offered any guarantee for durability and service. 
On pondering we learn that almost 90% of the lights were "Made in China" and hence no warranty.

The warranty incident reminded me of what the Vodafone India CTO had said in the Leaders-2-Leaders talk at Amdocs.
When asked about the 1 paise/second competition, he mentioned few operators were able to do it due to cheap Chinese equipment
and had raised concerns on quality,security and warranty.

This Diwali and many operators are offering plans and offer in the similar price range due to the Chinese advantage.
It’s raining Bumper offers for subscribers even prepaid as even high-end Black Berry service if offered to them at marginal cost.

However, the Ban by government on Chinese equipment is not lifted yet.
Ø  Will the market innovators of 1 paise/minute find a bureaucratic work around?
Ø  Will other operators also jump the Band-wagon and buy Chinese equipment later to reduce cost?
Ø  Will the Chinese equipment detoriate the overall QoS of the operators?
Ø  These are the few Chinese ;-) questions  which will haunt the Telecom Operators  this Diwali.
Do share your views on this trend as well.  

Till then, wish you a
"Very Happy Diwali and an Amazing New Year Ahead"
N'joi the Festival of Lights... Chinese or Otherwise :-D

BlackBerry Green

Its 2:30 in the night!
My BlackBerry vibrated and chirped..
As most of us in the CDU would agree, mobile ringing at night  is the worst nightmare.  

Sprint production last week had been uneventful till now.  
So what would it be now; the thought itself ran a chill down my spine.
Half awake I checked, it was my communicator.

Thankfully, My friend from site wanted to know if I was still onsite and if I could join him for lunch. 
I cursed silently and  explained him, However it took an hour for my fried nerves to settle and sleep.

The mistake above is what one of my Manager Adi Gonen called victim of "BB Green". 

On my last trip to Israel Adi and I were driving back from office when this happened.
The CIM pinged him relentlessly as below:
CIM: Hi Adi
CIM: Good Evening
CIM: How R U?
CIM: Adi...
CIM: You There?
CIM: Talk to me Adi
CIM: U R ignoring me now Adi ;-)
Adi: BB Green
CIM:Ok. Call me once free.

I was surprised how could a couple of words restrain a persistant CIM. 
So I asked him, "BB Green" is a term Adi had coined for being online and Green.Being online and Green  in BB does not always mean I'm available for chat.  

Since most of us are online since we wakeup, till we sleep:we can also use the BB Green as a status message in our day-to-day life:
1. Driving to/from office.
2. While having our lunch/dinner
3. At Airports during security checks

Let's also start using "BB online" as status in such cases. 
Feel free to suggest more places where we could use this and let's be patient when we  see "BB Green" as someone's status message :-)