The Media Guru

National Broadband Policy 2012-2020

2012-01-22T08:48:00.001+04:00

The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology have recently made public the National Broadband Policy 2012-2020, which is described as follows:

The National Broadband Policy 2012 – 2020 (NBP2012) sets out a strategic vision for a broadband Intelligent Mauritius, branded as “Towards i-Mauritius”, and establishes national goals regarding broadband while elaborating specific policies to achieve those goals within the overarching National ICT Strategic Plan (NICTSP) 2011-2014 context.

You can read the 131-page NICTSP 2011-2014 here. I’ve summarised some parts of the NBP2012 here.

Why do we need to encourage broadband access?

The concept of broadband has evolved from being a technology in opposite to narrowband to now being viewed as a key driver of economic growth and national competitiveness since it can contribute to social and cultural development.
According to the World Bank (2009), a 10% increase in broadband penetration accelerates economic growth by 1% in developed economies and by 1.38% points in developing economies.
Broadband is now considered to be the great infrastructure challenge of the early 21st century & that’s why it should be referred to as the broadband ecosystem.

The ecosystem includes the networks that support high-speed data communication and the services these networks provide. It also includes the applications provided by these services and the users who are increasingly creating applications and contents. Investments by public and private investors or agencies, and user-demands expand the reach of high-speed networks.
These networks increase the availability of high-quality services to both users and application providers. Applications access these services to reach users, who respond to the affordability of the services and relevance of the applications. Users then grow in number and sophistication, demanding and driving greater investments in networks, creating the virtuous circle for broadband.

The Mauritian Broadband Ecosystem

The NICTSP had assessed the broadband strategy in Mauritius, & a lot remains to be done before we have a proper broadband ecosystem.

The 4 key areas of the ecosystem which needs improvements are:

Enacting policies to foster competition.
Freeing up more spectrum.
Lowering infrastructure costs.
Investing directly through research and development.

The Policy Objectives

A. Establishing Competition Policies.

Tools to protect & encourage competition in the markets that make up the broadband ecosystem: network services, devices, applications and content.

Phased price reduction path for broadband services.
A time specific zero VAT policy regarding investment in broadband infrastructure.
A time specific zero VAT policy regarding broadband consumption for users (services & hardware).
Publish detailed broadband pricing & competition information to impact competitive behaviour.
Disclosure requirements for ISPs to ensure consumers can choose best broadband offers.
A review of wholesale competition rules in collaboration with the Competition Commission.
Allow data roaming to determine how best to achieve wide, seamless and competitive coverage.
Make Regulations to allow a competitive and innovative video set-top box market.
Clarify the relationship between users and their online profiles to ensure privacy.

B. Ensuring efficient allocation and management of scarce resources.

Government establishes policies and legislations for the use of spectrum and oversees access to poles and rights-of-way, which are used in the deployment of broadband networks. Wherever resources are scarce, priority will be given to new entrants and non-dominant existing firms in the relevant market in an attempt to balance overall levels of competition.

The wireless spectrum:

Make 500 MHz of spectrum newly available for broadband within 10 years (300 Mhz for mobile use within 5 years).
Enable incentives and mechanisms (like auctions) to repurpose spectrum to more flexible uses.
Ensure greater transparency of spectrum allocation, assignment and use.
Innovative spectrum access models by creating new avenues for opportunistic and unlicensed use of spectrum.

Infrastructure:

Establish low rental rates for access to poles & simplify process for service providers to attach facilities to poles.
Improve rights-of-way management for cost & time savings, promote use of municipal and local authority facilities for broadband, expedite resolution of disputes & establish “best practices” guidelines for rights-of-way policies.
Facilitate efficient new infrastructure construction, including through “dig-once” policies, allowing joint deployment of broadband infrastructure.

C. Reforming Universal Service Mechanisms

All Mauritians should have access to broadband service with sufficient capabilities; all should be able to afford broadband to ensure that they have the opportunity to reap the benefits of broadband.

Broaden the USF contribution base to ensure USF remains sustainable over time.
Ensure universal access to broadband network services.
Establish a Broadband Connect Mauritius Fund to minimize the size of the broadband availability gap.
Create mechanisms to ensure affordability to low-income Mauritians by introducing a Lifeline programme to allow subsidies to low-income Mauritians.
Consider licensing a block of spectrum with a condition to offer free or low-cost service.

D. Support adoption and utilisation of broadband

All Mauritians should have the opportunity to develop digital literacy skills to take advantage of broadband so as to further the adoption and utilisation of broadband.

Launch a National Digital Literacy Group (NDLG) to organize and train youth and adults to teach digital literacy skills.
Redefine the scope of the USF so as to shift this resource to support adoption and utilisation strategies.

E. Updating policies, setting standards and aligning incentives to maximize use for national priorities.

Health care: Broadband can help improve the quality and lower the cost of health care through e-health and improved data capture and use.

Help ensure that health care providers have access to affordable broadband.
Create incentives for adoption by expanding reimbursement for e-care.
Remove barriers to e-care by modernizing regulations like device approval, credentialing, privileging and licensing.
Drive innovative applications and advanced analytics by ensuring patients have control over their health data and ensuring interoperability of data.

Education: Broadband can enable improvements in public education through e-learning and online content, which can provide more personalized learning opportunities for students.

Improve the connectivity to schools & libraries, improve program efficiency & promote wireless connectivity to learning devices that go home with students.
Accelerate online learning by enabling the creation of digital content & learning systems, removing regulatory barriers & promoting digital literacy.
Personalise learning and improve decision–making by fostering adoption of electronic educational records.

Energy and Environment: Broadband can play a major role in the transition to a clean energy economy.

Modernize the electric grid with broadband, making it more reliable and efficient.
Unleash energy innovation in homes and buildings by making energy data readily accessible to consumers.
Improve the energy efficiency and environmental impact of the ICT sector by promoting green energy sources.

Economic Opportunity: Broadband can expand access to jobs and training, support entrepreneurship and small business growth.

Support use of broadband services and applications to drive job creation, growth and productivity gains.
Expand opportunities for job training and placement through an online platform.
Integrate broadband assessment and planning into economic development efforts.

Public safety, emergency communication and national security: Broadband can bolster efforts to improve public safety and national security.

Support deployment of a nationwide, interoperable public safety mobile broadband network built on the present radio network of the Police department, over the next 5 years.
Promote innovation in the emergency alert systems.
Promote cybersecurity and critical infrastructure survivability to increase user confidence, trust and adoption of broadband communications.
Develop cellular emergency signalling systems on the present mobile services.

Improving Government Services: Within government, broadband can drive greater efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery and internal operations.

Upgrade of the present GOC platform, enhanced cybersecurity, secure authentication and online service delivery.
Use of VoIP for intra-government communication.

The Targets

By 2014, at least 60% of homes should have affordable access to actual download speeds of at least 10 Mbps and actual upload speeds of at least 5 Mbps; and by 2020, almost 100% of home should have affordable access to actual download of 100 Mbps.
Mauritius should become a leader in the region in mobile innovation, with the fastest and most extensive wireless networks by 2020.
By 2020, every Mauritian should have affordable access to robust broadband service and the means and skills to subscribe thereto if they so choose.
By 2020, every public institution should have affordable access to at least 100 Mbps broadband service to anchor institutions such as schools, hospitals and government buildings.
To ensure safety of the public at large, every alarm monitoring and security response service provider should, by 2020, have access to a nationwide, wireless, interoperable broadband public safety network.
To ensure that Mauritius leads in the clean energy economy in line with the Maurice ile Durable (MID) programme, every Mauritian should, by 2020, be able to use broadband to track and manage their real-time energy consumption.

The Policy Measures

Part III of the document details the measures that will be implemented to fulfil the Policy Objectives. Interesting measures:

New broadband measurement standards to provide detailed analysis of offers.
Opening up the spectrum to allow new technologies like 4G (LTE) & WiMax.
A “dig-once” legislation to reduce infrastructure cost setup.
R&D department by MRC for areas related to broadband.
Universalisation target of 1Mbps download & 256kbps upload.
Reduce barriers to broadband adoption – Lifeline Assistance for low-income households, very low-cost wireless broadband, public-private-partnerships.
Increase the supply of digital educational content available online that is compatible with standards established. Encourage copyright holders to grant educational digital rights of use.
Investment in open licensed and public domain software alongside traditionally licensed solutions for online learning solutions.
Legislative framework to allow Creative Commons Licences especially in research and education/pedagogy.
Create a public safety broadband network.

Conclusion

I think that such a National Broadband Policy document is definitely needed if Mauritius intends to make ICT as one of the pillars of the economy. Companies, so far, have been reluctant to invest in broadband services to a small market like Mauritius that doesn’t provide economies of scale due to its remoteness & size. This policy has a few such measures (if applied) that will allow new entrants to overcome their inherent disadvantage against Mauritius Telecom in terms of infrastructure. The initiatives planned in education, health, transport & cybersecurity are also highly commendable.

However, I think ICT Ministry should have been more ambitious. Instead of setting up bodies to consider some proposals, they should have started thinking of how to implement them. For now, let’s hope this policy document isn’t discarded away by the stakeholders. A broadband ecosystem for Mauritius is a must.

& please, please drop the term i-Mauritius!

Download the NBP2012 here.

One more thing, remember the free Internet in Mauritius by December? Well, the bidding for the Deployment of Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) Network has just ended & it won’t be long before project is implemented (mid-2012). The free wifi will be initially deployed in 10 regions across Mauritius, namely at the 5 municipal councils, the 4 district councils & somewhere in Rodrigues. (Update: DCL have bagged the project & are installing the antennas).

Related:

GeekScribes - Online Services Mauritius Does Not Have And Why

Nokia E7 Review: Part 2 - The Software

2011-12-20T19:30:00.001+04:00

The Nokia E7 runs on Symbian^3, the same OS as the N8. At the time I had it, the Anna update hadn't been released. So naturally, you would expect it to behave exactly as the N8.

Except it didn't.

Spontaneous reboots – that was my biggest gripe; the OS reboots from time to time for no apparent reason, e.g. open the keyboard, it reboots.
Frequent hang-ups - run any CPU intensive task & the OS just locks up. You can't even kill the offending app using the task manager!
No connection- sometimes, it just refuses to connect to access points. You have to delete & re-add them. At other times, it connects via 3G even though WLAN is available.
It won't load web pages while 3rd party apps work fine. You need to reconnect with the network.
Get message deferred errors while sending SMS despite having full network connectivity. Reboot required.
Photos rotates automatically while zooming in landscape mode.
Bubbles app crashes when receiving a message, can't unlock, have to reboot.

So now you know why I kept procrastinating this review when I had received this E7 way back in June. When you dislike something, it's hard to get around the “writer's block.”

Coming back to the review, the OS, the UI & the on-board apps are exactly the same as the N8 (but much buggier), so I won't go through the same review again (see N8 – the OS & Native Apps). So I'm going to focus on some of the 3rd party apps & the only thing that worked flawlessly on the E7 - games!

The 3 Home Screens which annoyingly moves after you have completed the swipe gesture.

The Main menu. As you can see, I’m using a theme that resembles the new icons that were added with the Anna update.

The arrangement of the icons on the E7, owing to its Eseries nature, is different from the N8. The Office folder has been moved to the Main Menu & the Videos folder moved to Applications.

The Music icon, instead of launching the Music Player, now is folder with Radio & Ovi Music added to it. There are two new apps in the Office folder, namely F-Secure & (Microsoft) Communicator.

In the Applications folder, we have the Videos & TV folder with Video player, YouTube & the Web TV apps. Where previously on the N8, you needed only one tap to access the Video player, now you require 3 taps!

Apps

Some of these apps have already been reviewed in the N8 3rd Party Apps review.

Let’s start with Battery Monitor. Since the last time I’ve used it, the most significant improvement in Battery Monitor is more detailed statistics, with a per-app breakdown. Although the percentages do not add up to 100%, it gives you all the necessary information required to optimise your usage. As you can see, I’ve been playing a lot of games. Power Saving mode settings, which are not available in Settings, have also been added.

Vlingo is a voice control app which is quite good but a bit slow as it relies on the network.

Ah, the Grid. By far, the best app-launcher for Symbian. Check out the video to see the new improvements.

Nokia Play To, a DLNA streaming app that shares photo slideshows, music & videos to any DLNA compatible device, such as my PC. The playback is a bit laggy & choppy for several reasons, namely that my Orange Livebox’s wifi connectivity is poor (even if it’s 40cm away from it) & that my PC struggles to play 720p videos.

YouTube Downloader does exactly what it name suggests. An ad-supported app which even allows you to download the 1080p version of videos, which unfortunately cannot be played on the E7.

UC Browser. While the interface may look a bit weird, it has a wide variety options, more that the built-in browser & Opera combined. But, is it faster? No.

Magic Brush. A paint-styled app.

Nokia Situations is an app which changes your profile depending on the time, the day, your location & your network(s). Handy if you have change profiles on reaching work/school.

Molome – a photo-sharing app with filters. Yes, it’s an Instagram clone for Symbian.

Borg – A Facebook client.

TwimGo – a twitter client for Symbian/MeeGo/Maemo.

Symbian doesn’t have any SSH client for wirelessly accessing files fro your PC. But there’s a substitute which uses FTP - SymFTP.

Dukto - another file-transfer app which requires a PC-side client as well.

Smart Office. As you can see from the video, screen taps on the E7 is very un-responsive & the virtual keyboard appears at will…

FastPanel is a home screen add-on, which adds a shortcut menu so that you don’t need to access the Settings menu to change some of the most used settings such as Brightness, Bluetooth, Wifi, data usage, etc. It also has a few amazing tweaks such as showing battery percentage & tapping the Top Left corner to lock!

& finally, if you were wondering what that Mauritius Blog List app is… it’s just the MBL RSS feed bundled in an app. :)

Games

If there’s one area where the E7 has redeemed itself, that would be definitely the games. Even though the resolution is only 640x360, a 4-inch screen is perfect for playing games. The on-screen controls are well-spread & the colours are fantastic! Not to mention that given the E7 uses the same Broadcom BCM2727 GPU as the N8, there is no lag!

Angry Birds, Hero of Sparta, Avatar, Real Football, NFS Shift, Galaxy on Fire, GT Racing & Rally Master Pro have already been reviewed with the N8. Tron was crap; no light racing! WTF! Spiderman was ok, but I kept dying too easily. &, Fruit Ninja was my favourite game. :)

The Settlers. I love RTS games. In fact, the very first game I played on a PC was an RTS. While I was expecting some kind of Age of Empires mobile, it didn’t disappoint.. However, the extensive amount of resources to be gathered, the fact that your territory can only be extended through watch-towers & workers & the short amount of time before the enemy attacks means you have to be very good at micro-management. Expect lots of saves & reloads.

Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles. You know the plot. Hide, kill, jump, kill, climb, kill, die. By the time I finished the game, I must have died at least 500 times.

Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. A combat flight simulator. On my PC, I’ve never been able to survive more than 15 mins in any flight simulator game, so I just abandoned playing this genre. So you can imagine my surprise when I actually finished this game. I prefer the on-screen controls because using accelerometer is very disorientating… ;)

Wrap-up

The E7 had the worst OS I have ever used. Period.

With the E7, I experienced some of the horror stories of Symbian that dominates the various support forums & finally understood why so many people were leaving Symbian for Android/iPhone. It baffles me how two devices, the E7 & the N8, having nearly the same internals & differing only in screen-size & keyboards, have such contrasting experiences.

The apps, well, Symbian suffers horribly from a lack of well-designed apps. Nearly a year has passed since Symbian^3/QT was introduced, & there’s only one decent Twitter app & not a single decent Facebook app. At least, it’s not as bad as MeeGo.

& that is why during the entire time I had the E7, I spent 80% of my time playing games. If there’s an area where Symbian is better than Android, it’s gaming. No lags, no drops in FPS, games are very fluid. It’s just too unfortunate that Symbian is doomed…

Oh, that photo above? The display caught in limbo. Reboot...

How to enable the new Twitter redesign if you do not have an iPhone or Android device

2011-12-10T05:52:00.001+04:00

The process is in fact quite simple. To activate the new interface of Twitter (dubbed New New-Twitter), you need to sign-in on the new Twitter clients for iPhone or Android.

Oh wait… How do you get one of these apps if you do not own an iPhone/Android? One way is to install the app on the Android SDK Emulator, but there’s a much easier way – Bluestacks.

Step 1. – download BlueStacks App Player for Windows (117MB), which is an Android emulator for Windows. Follow the instructions & install it.

Step 2. – get the new Twitter 3.0 app for Android. For that we need the Twitter 3.0 apk, which I found here. Use any of the following download links:

http://www.filesonic.com/file/4138517654
http://depositfiles.com/files/utkmkwe8s
http://www.uploading.to/w36x13irdqrk

Step 3. – The problem with BlueStacks is that it only allows you to install apps available from its own website or apps which you already have on your Android device. Fortunately, while searching on xda-developers, I found this thread which explains how to install .apks on BlueStacks.

How to install apks from the computer (WARNING: Apps installed this way CANNOT be removed):
1) Right-click on the .apk file and click on "Open with..."
2) Click on "Browse..."
3) Navigate to "C:\Program Files\BlueStacks" or for 64-bit computers, "C:\Program Files (x86)\BlueStacks"
4) Double-click on "HD-ApkHandler.exe"
5) Click on "Ok"
Bluestacks will install the .apk file and notify you when its done.

Step 4. – Enter your login details in the Twitter app & launch it. You can post a few tweets & use it for a few minutes where you’ll notice that BlueStacks has inverted scrolling!

Now go back to twitter.com, logout & then sign-in again. If you’re lucky, the new Twitter design should appear! If not, cross your fingers & wait for a few hours… :)

That Orange ADSL 1Mbps offer…

2011-11-26T07:50:00.001+04:00

If you’ve been following the news, you must have heard that the Minister of ICT has announced that as from 1st December 2011, the price of Orange ADSL will decrease by around 10% (VAT inclusive).

Orange ADSL 256K 3GB – Rs 399 to Rs 349
Orange ADSL 512K – Rs 759 to Rs 699
Orange ADSL 1M – Rs 899 to Rs 799
Orange ADSL 2M (new!) - Rs 1349
Orange ADSL 4M (new!) - Rs 2349

Une baisse de 12% à 46% sur les tarifs ADSL Home et de 50% sur l’ADSL Business dès le 1er décembre. C’est ce qu’a annoncé le ministre des Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication (TIC), ce vendredi 25 novembre, lors d’un point de presse à son ministère.

Comme l’avait déclaré récemment Tassarajen Pillay Chedumbrum lors du lancement du nouveau portail du gouvernement, la réduction des tarifs d’Internet prendra effet à partir du 1er décembre prochain. Ainsi, les nouveaux tarifs de l’ADSL Home de 256K passeront de Rs 399 à Rs 349, avec une baisse de 12%. Ceux de l’ADSL Home de 512K seront à Rs 699 au lieu de Rs 759. Pour le débit de 1 Méga, les tarifs seront de Rs 799 avec une réduction de 46%.

Pour les entrepreneurs, le prix de l’ADSL Business connaîtra une baisse de 50%. Alors que pour les centres d’appel et les sociétés évoluant dans le secteur BPO, les tarifs enregistreront une réduction de 10 à 46%. Tous les nouveaux tarifs seront effectifs à partir du 1er décembre 2011.

TassarajenPillay Chedumbrum explique que toutes ces baisses ont pu devenir une réalité grâce à l’Open Access Policy to Sea Cable. «Les opérateurs n’auront plus à prendre des bandes passantes uniquement auprès de Mauritius Telecom. Bientôt, Emtel pourra également commencer à vendre ses bandes passantes », explique le ministre des TIC.

De plus, celui-ci affirme qu’une baisse de 50% sur l’ADSL Business vise à encourager les Petites et Moyennes Entreprises. Tassarajen Pillay Chedumbrum soutient que l’objectif de son ministère est de faire que le secteur des TIC devienne le second pilier de l’économie, avec une contribution de 8% au Produit Intérieur Brut (PIB).

Le ministre estime, par ailleurs, que les bandes passantes qui connectent Maurice à l’étranger seront plus accessibles.« Nous voulons briser le monopole détenu par Mauritius Telecom, et ainsi créer un environnement favorable à l’investissement », soutient-il.

S’agissant de My.T, ce service de Mauritius Telecom permettant à la fois de téléphoner, de visionner les films et de surfer sur Internet, il n’y aura aucune réduction des tarifs.

Source – L’Express.mu

~~There are no decreases for My.T (at least not yet).~~ New My.T prices updated at the bottom of the post.

But wait… where did that 1Mbps ADSL come from?!?

To explain this, we need to go back to a month ago when…

The Competition Commission of Mauritius (CCM) had launched an investigation on the monopoly of Mauritius Telecom on Internet in Mauritius, specifically concerning its anti-competitive My.T offer. Hence, they had invited all Internet users to come forward with their complaints.

Here is the press release. The pdf can be downloaded here.

INFORMATION GATHERING FROM MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC IN THE INVESTIGATION OF MAURITIUS TELECOM IN RELATION TO ITS MYT INTERNET ACCESS BUNDLING

The Competition Commission of Mauritius (CCM) has launched an investigation into Mauritius Telecom’s offering of the My.T product on the 21st February 2011. The Statement of Issues, a document which outlines the main areas of concern at the preliminary stage of the Investigation has been issued to Mauritius Telecom.

Following the Statement of Issues, the Executive Director of the CCM wishes to invite comments or representations from members of the public to gather further information and evidence on the concerns which may or may not lead to an eventual finding of breach of the Competition Act. Comments or representations should be made by November 04th by contacting the CCM. The issues on which the public may comment are as follows:

Market definitions for further analysis of the conduct in each relevant market which have at present been defined as
i. the market for fixed line retail broadband access
i. the market for Pay TV
ii. the market for ILD (International Long Distance) calls

The effects of MT’s tying and bundling conduct on competition in these markets, particularly the Pay TV market;

Dr Sean Ennis, Executive Director of the CCM, has stated: “The My.T package mixes together broadband internet – a product in which MT has a monopoly - with products such as international calls and TV services, in which it competes with other companies. Such packages might be in the interests of vigorous competition and convenient for customers. But if customers are unduly influenced towards buying TV services from MT, just because of its broadband monopoly,that could damage competition in those markets.”

The investigation is continuing. It is being carried out under the “monopoly situations” provisions of the Competition Act. The next step is the preparation of the report by the Executive Director. After that report, if the Commission finds that MT’s actions have the object or effect of “restricting, preventing or distorting competition”, then the Commission can impose remedial measures on MT. Whatever the outcome, there is no possibility of any financial penalties being levied in this case, as these relate only to collusive agreements between several competing companies.

The Executive Director emphasised “The fact that a Statement of Issues has been communicated to MT should not be construed as conclusive findings or as a determination that MT is in breach of the Competition Act. At this stage, no such determination has been made. Any determination as to possible breaches can only be made at the stage of provisional and final report of investigation.”

The Executive Director will endeavour to the fullest extent possible to respect anonymity of any individual providing information in the context of this investigation and/or to protect any confidential information any person or any company may provide at the request of that individual.

The Competition Act
The Competition Act 2007 came fully into effect on November 25th 2009, and is enforced by the Competition Commission of Mauritius, the CCM. Sub-parts II and III of Part III of the Competition Act 2007, cover restrictive practices described under ‘Other restrictive agreements’ and ‘Monopoly situations’.

To take action, the CCM must find that the conduct of an enterprise in a monopoly situation restricts, prevents or distorts competition or otherwise exploits the monopoly situation. We refer to such conduct as ‘abuse of monopoly’. Where the Executive Director has reasonable grounds to believe that abuse is occurring, or will occur, he may launch an investigation.

Monopoly abuse: It is not in itself any breach of the law for an enterprise to be in a monopoly situation. However, as per Section 46(2) of the Competition Act, enterprises which hold monopoly positions may be in breach of the abuse or exploit any market power this position confers upon them. The question for the CCM is whether such enterprises are engaged in conduct which restricts, prevents or distorts competition (such as using their market position to exclude rival enterprises) or otherwise exploiting the monopoly situation. This is sometimes termed ‘foreclosure’.

Anticompetitive foreclosure may arise through ‘bundling’: the packaging together of two or more products. If the sale of one product is conditional on the sale of another, the products are said to be ‘bundled’ or ‘tied’ together (the former term is normally used when neither product can be bought separately).

Tying and bundling are normal business practices that are not by any means necessarily anticompetitive. Many products are sold jointly, or in varying combinations. However, in some cases bundling might be used anti-competitively. If an enterprise has market power in the sale of one product (for example a 100% market share), but sells another in more competitive markets, then it might ‘leverage’ market power to reduce competition in the second market. To the extent customers have to buy the monopolized (tying) product, they are forced in effect to buy the other (tied) product, reducing the sales of competitors for that second product.

The CCM takes the view that, in most markets, free competition is an effective guarantor of the interests of consumers and is likely best to promote the efficiency, adaptability and competitiveness of the economy of Mauritius. Significant weakening of competition will therefore have adverse effects.

If it finds a breach of the monopoly provisions of the Competition Act, following an investigation, the Commission has the power to force sales of assets or businesses, or require changes in company behaviour, to remedy the situation.

Further information: For further information see the CCM’s website at www.ccm.mu, and the CCM’s Procedural Rules and Guidelines: ‘CCM 1 - Procedural Rules’, ‘CCM 4 - Monopoly situations and non-collusive agreements’ and ‘CCM 6 - Remedies and Penalties’, all available on the web site.

L’Express - Enquête sur l’offre MyT : La Competition Commission invite le public à déposer

Eventually, the date for submission was extended from the 4th Nov to 18th Nov & along with several other Internet users, we submitted a document to the commission, where the following points were raised.

Monopoly?

The Act defines a ‘monopoly situation’ where any one company has a 30% market share.

Does Mauritius Telecom have more than 30% share of the ISP market in Mauritius? Obviously yes.

But the admins over at the Facebook page of Orange Mauritius want you to believe otherwise. Quoting:

“First of all, Orange Mauritius is not in a monopoly situation as the liberalization of the telecommunication sector in Mauritius is effective since 2004. There are several other Internet Service Providers in Mauritius.”

So let’s see how they are taking undue advantage of their monopoly status, starting with…

I. Fixed line retail broadband access

There are only a handful of ISPs in Mauritius – Mauritius Telecom/Orange Mauritius, Emtel, Nomad (RIP) and MTML. As of 2010, there are 284,200 Internet subscriptions in Mauritius (ICTA, 2010). Out of the 271,400 broadband subscriptions, 93,900 are fixed line & 177,500 are mobile.

As we all know, wireless broadband doesn’t come cheap. The speed is not constant & the usage is not unlimited.

Orange (EDGE, 3G, HSUPA – up to 7.2Mbps)

Mobile Internet (prepaid)

20MB – Rs 50
50MB – Rs 100
200MB – Rs 200
1 GB – Rs 499
3 GB – Rs 999
5 GB – Rs 1299
Excess at PAYG rate of Rs 3.53/MB.

Internet Everywhere (with modem & monthly tariffs as above)

Post-pay - Rs 1999 (excess Rs 2/MB)
Prepay - Rs 2999 (excess Rs 3.53/MB)

Emtel (3G, HSUPA – up to 7.2Mbps)

Prepaid Web (PAYG at Rs 3/MB)

500MB – Rs 350
1 GB – Rs 480

Mobile Broadband (monthly tariffs, modem at Rs 1990)

1 GB – Rs 459
2GB – Rs 861
5GB – Rs 1724
10GB – Rs 2874
Excess at Rs 2.25/MB

MTML (CDMA, EVDO – up to 2.4Mbps)

Azu Broadband (monthly tariffs, modem at Rs 4542)

1 GB – Rs 344
2 GB – Rs 631
5 GB – Rs 1379
12 GB – Rs 2300
Excess at Rs 0.80/MB

& that’s why more than 90,000 people have chosen ADSL. Except, they didn’t really have to chose since there is only one ISP which provides ADSL services to the public – Mauritius Telecom.

ISPs that have tried to compete with MT were already at disadvantage because

they had to pay MT for using the SAFE cable (until 2011 when the Open Access Policy came in, SAFE access was being solely regulated by MT),
they had to setup their own wireless networks while MT already had its own wired network, and
they couldn’t wage a price-war while remaining profitable as MT could always beat their prices.

DCL & Mauripost have all gone out of business, Nomad is on life-support with the handful of customers still with it, MTML failed because of mismanagement and Emtel still haven’t launched their Wimax services (reputed very reliable) for the public.

This Microsoft-like monopoly has allowed Mauritius Telecom to set any price that suits them.

Orange ADSL

256k – 3GB – Rs 399 (excess at Rs 0.58/MB)
512k – Unlimited – Rs 759

My.T

1M + TV – Rs 999
2M + TV – Rs 1699
4M + TV – Rs 2999

As you can see, there's no ADSL 256k unlimited, no ADSL 1M, ADSL 2M, ADSL 4M or any My.T with no TV options.
(There was an ADSL 1M at Rs 1353 only for existing 1M users before the speed double, but all of them have migrated to My.T)

If you phone MT's customer care, & ask them why there's no ADSL 1M, they'll tell you that My.T is a package & you either take it or you're free to go to their (inexistent) competitors.

In fact, by bundling additional (non-optional) services, MT can demand more money from subscribers. & because customers are only concerned with the Internet connectivity, they are forced to pay for these unwanted services.
In short, a blatant abuse of monopoly.

It's like using those AC buses where they make you pay extra. You don't want the AC, you don't want to pay additional fare for it, but you have to because that's the only bus that goes through your destination. Your other choices are to either walk or buy a car.

In their pursuit for more profits, MT have also stranded thousands of users who want faster speeds. By making 1Mbps & 2Mbps connections only available to My.T subscribers, they effectively prevent people who live far from a DSLAM (the exchange) from moving up from 512k connections.

The maximum range for an ADSL2 connection is 3km & the attenuation should be less than 42dB. Given that My.T also requires at least 5Mbps of bandwidth, it leaves many users ineligible for an upgrade. Their only hope is to wait for FTTC to be installed in their region.

Now if Orange ADSL was available at 1Mbps or 2Mbps, all these users would have been satisfied.

II. Pay TV

Another malpractice of MT is the bundling of IPTV channels on My.T. Using their Internet monopoly, MT force their TV channels on customers. Many users already have a separate satellite subscription from CanalSat, Parabole Maurice or DSTV, which makes most of the My.T channels redundant. So they're paying extra for a service they already have. Not to mention that the quality of IPTV is largely inferior to satellite TV & is network dependent (no ADSL connectivity = no TV).

My.T Core Bouquet (27 channels) - FREE

Info: CNN, NDTV Profit, NDTV 24x7, France 24, CCTV, NHK World, Bloomberg TV.
Kids: Boomerang, Gulli, Boing, Kidsco.
Music: Hungama, MCM Tor, Clubbing TV.
General: Reunion 1ere, France 2, France 3, France 5, France O, Ary Digital, Jaya TV, TCM.
Lifestyle: Liberty TV, Fashion TV, Motors TV, NDTV Good Times, Yacht & Sail.

My.T Bollywood Bouquet - +Rs 250

Star Plus, Star One, Star Gold, Imagine, Headlines Today

By bundling IPTV with My.T, MT gives less incentives for people to subscribe to satellite TV as the most basic of subscriptions start at Rs 450/month. & according to the above definition of bundling, that's unfair competition.

III. ILD (International Long Distance) calls

With every My.T subscription comes My.T Talk, an International Call service. You just need to call

< 320 2051 + country code + phone number >

Easy right? For the customers, yes. But other ILD operators simply can’t compete. First, it has made the Prepaid card completely obsolete. Who will go & buy a prepaid card if you can just dial a number from your telephone line?

Second, if you have to use another operator’s service directly from your telephone line (IDD), you first have to register with that operator. Emtel, Outremer Telecom & Easicall all require you to call on their office/showroom, present some relevant documents & fill up a form before you can subscribe.

Why would anyone go to such a pain for saving some extra cents when they can use My.T Talk? & that’s why it is uncompetitive, because Mauritius Telecom is leveraging the monopoly it has on Internet access to promote its own international call services.

So?

In all 3 of the above markets, MT are making a blatant abuse of their Internet monopoly. The CCM has every right to impose sanctions on MT. This investigation was expected to be completed by March 2012. Except, in the meantime, something has happened...

The Orange ADSL 1Mbps offer

On the 2nd of November, Orange Mauritius discreetly updated their Orange ADSL with a new option - 1Mbps.

Last year, they scrapped this offer & suddenly out of nowhere, it comes back. Did they pity the users? No, it’s because of the CCM. By adding this 1Mbps offer, Mauritius Telecom have effectively nullified half of our arguments.
Update: As I had long suspected, they've now added two new ADSL offers - 2Mbps & 4Mbps.

The new price grid looks like this now:

Orange ADSL

256k – 3GB – Rs 359 (excess at Rs 0.58/MB)
512k – Rs 699
1Mbps – Rs 799
2Mbps – Rs 1349
4Mbps – Rs 2349

My.T

1M + TV – Rs 949
2M + TV – Rs 1499
4M + TV – Rs 2499

A perfect price grid that is absolutely legal. Want TV, pay extra for it. Don't want it, choose ADSL. There are hardly any grounds for the CCM to investigate My.T now that customers have the choice. ALL users should be satisfied now...

Well, except if you are an old-time My.T 512K user… which I am. Last year I was cheated by Orange Mauritius, now I’m being extorted…
Let’s see. I pay Rs 750+VAT, which is Rs 864 & I get up to 512K & two channels. YES, ONLY TWO – Liberty TV & CCTV.
Now, I have no choice but to subscribe to ADSL 1Mbps & forego the crappy Livebox & the crappier 2Mbps local speed (which was 4Mbps since the past 3 weeks).

That’s what you get from being a monopoly situation. Absolute control of prices. Double the speeds but keep the same prices. No wonder they have a net profit of Rs 1.6 billion (pre-tax).

Why so slow?

Why is our internet still so slow? It’s not as if we are running out of bandwidth, are we?

If you at the above chart, the international bandwidth has increased nearly exponentially, so we clearly have more than enough of it.

The number of users hasn’t increased either. Even if you factor in the CyberTower sector, it doesn’t explain why we do not have 10Mbps connections.
Note that the total number of Internet subscribers includes mobile users (hence the large number) & that the 2010 numbers are estimates based on reported numbers.

The evolution of the price & the speed of Internet is not in line with the international bandwidth we have. If you notice it, the lowest pricing has always remained at around Rs 750. I think that’s what you’d call price-fixing…

Nevertheless, that doesn’t explain why our connections are slow. Why do we experience slowdowns every night, every week-end, every public holiday?

To find out, I did some speed tests with the local server at Port Louis.

Test at 15:32, during the day. Full 4Mbps local.

6pm. Drops down to 1300kbps.

19:40. 354kbps local speed.

The next day, at 06:44 – 4.2Mbps.

So what we can conclude is that at night, as more subscribers use their broadband connections, the speed drops.

But the real metric is the ping test. At night, it’s nearly 8 times higher. The ping test determines the connection latency, the time it takes for an IP packet to travel from your computer to the speed server. If there are more packets on the network, the longer will be the delay.

& the reason why our connections are so slow is because the local infrastructure is inadequate. Our kilometres of copper cabling have become completely obsolete. It simply cannot cater to the ever-increasing internet connection speeds.

It’s as if for years you’ve been using an ox-cart (local connectivity) being pulled by a ox (international bandwidth). Which was then upgraded to a donkey, then a horse, pulling the cart. & now we have a car. Except that it’s still pulling that same ox-cart.

Unless every single region in the country is served by fibre, we will still have these problems. Who to blame? MT for its short-sightedness in not predicting this situation & starting the deployment of its FTTC network only three years ago.

& why did we have come to this situation? Once again, because of the monopoly…

Update 28.11.2011:

Orange ADSL

MT have updated their Orange ADSL page with the new prices, taking effect as from 1st December 2011.

Orange ADSL	Old Price	New Price
256k 3GB	Rs 399	Rs 349
512k	Rs 759	Rs 699
1M	Rs 899	Rs 799
2M		Rs 1349
4M		Rs 2349

Well, surprise, there are new 2Mbps & 4Mbps offers… If you have read about the CCM above, you’ll know why these offers have magically appeared! :)

My.T

My.T prices have also decreased.

My.T	Old Price	New Price
1M	Rs 999	Rs 949
2M	Rs 1699	Rs 1499
4M	Rs 2999	Rs 2499

So that’s it. Let’s all move to ADSL! :)
After 4 years of suffering My.T, Mauritian users can finally enjoy an Internet-only connection. Note that there's only Rs 150 difference between the My.T & ADSL packages (plus the local speed of 2Mbps/4Mbps).

Update 30.11.2011

A few more information which I gathered from Orange Mauritius’ Facebook page.

My.T 512k

If you are a My.T 512k – no TV user (i.e. with only 2 TV channels), the price decrease is from Rs 848 to Rs 799. Given that I’m getting double the speed, 1Mbps, on ADSL, there’s no point staying on my My.T 512k, paying the same price. Well, except…

My.T to ADSL?

If you’re moving from My.T to ADSL, there’s a line conversion fee of Rs 1000. Plus, you get a non-wifi modem.
& if you’re upgrading from the same package (My.T to My.T, ADSL to ADSL), it’s free. Otherwise, you have to pay. Brilliant!

Related:

Yashvinblogs.com - Competition Commission invites the public to comment on myT packages
Yashvinblogs.com - Price of ADSL goes down but not that of myT
Mauritius Information - The Internet in Mauritius sucks and Mauritius Telecom does not care
Orange - MT annonce des baisses de tarifs et de nouvelles offres internet

Unboxing the Nokia N9

2011-11-09T21:26:00.001+04:00

Finally, I have received my un9corn!

If you've been following me on twitter, you may know how I managed to get this N9. If not, here's a recap of the story.

On the 21st June 2011, the Nokia N9 was unveiled to the public. A few weeks later, six ads of the N9 were uploaded, all of 9 seconds duration.

The next day, a website appeared, www.n9seconds.com, where you had to enter 20 six-character codes & you'll win a Nokia smartphone. & so began the N9 Seconds challenge, a race against time to discover all 6-letter codes hidden in the 9-second videos.

The first 11 codes were gone within the first day as they were the most visible ones - times on clocks, the date, the number plate of a taxi, dashboard numbers, 1 prominent letter from each video re-arranged meaningfully (STEPIN) & letters from a road sign (some arranged backwards).

& then as no one could find any more 6-letter codes, Nokia started tweeting out clues at @N9Seconds & @Nokia. These codes were the tougher ones as it required some thinking - the coordinates of where the video was shot, the 9th letter from the YouTube description of each video, the taxi driver's name (was printed on his shirt, but you had to guess some of the letters).

Some were less obvious & couldn't have been solved without the clues - the MD5 hash of Stepin, Leonardo Da Vinci's birthdate in Base 9 & the name of the N9's lead designer. (I suspect some of these last codes were added to the system because some of the letters in the videos couldn't be decoded due to the 720p resolution).

So far 17 codes had been found & I still hadn't come close to finding one. I had spent so many sleepless nights (given that some of the clues were tweeted at 12pm) that I was seeing 6 letter codes in everywhere!

& so was tweeted the 18th clue - 'Six individual characters. The first brings them all together.’
From the onset, I knew exactly what this clue meant. So far, my gut-feelings had proved me wrong in every clue I tried to interpret, but this one felt different.

In each video, there was one prominent character. So basically the first of something from each character corresponded to the code. Since the people were all doing something, clearly it was the first letter of the character they were portraying - their occupation. I had already tried out that combination at the start of the competition but it didn't work out.

So once again, I listed the various possible roles of each character & started trying out combinations. In fact, I had compiled a huge list of everything in relation with the videos & among them were the YouTube tags.

dance dance with me ballerina waitress graceful beautiful gorgeous
maps taxi taxi driver drive drive me fast hot seat jump in
run kick score goal footballer champion celebrate
boy poster icon star BMX rock rock'n'roll
family mother child grandchild son love helicopter playground emotion
right on time precision craft craftsmanship detail design beautiful

B W
T D
F
B S B P
S M C
C W

After 20 mins of trying out various combinations, like with all previous codes, I quickly got frustrated & bored. I was close to giving up, knowing that the right code was probably something very easy & obvious, but which hadn't crossed my mind yet.
I had already opened up Google Reader & was reading my feeds while entering codes in the background. I entered yet another useless combination & went back to reading an article. A few minutes later when I opened the minimized window of n9seconds.com, I saw this.

It took me a minute before it sunk in. Bloody hell! I had won it!
& the most amazing thing is that I didn't even know which code I had entered. I had already forgotten it! A few more minutes passed by as I did a little victory dance, fired Photoshop & took a screenshot. & then feeling very elated, I entered my details & clicked the submit button.

"Error in submitting form. Please retry."

This was absolutely unbelievable! Coming so close to winning a competition with a decent prize for the first time in my life & then messing up everything! (I don’t remember the exact error message, but it was something like this.)

Trying to avoid the panic, I went back to my clues & pondered over each one of them.
1st video, more of a Ballerina than a waitress.
2nd & 3rd video, certainly a Taxi driver & a Footballer.
4th one, poster boy or biker? Let's go with Poster boy.
5th video, the Child.
& the 6th video, craftsman, horologer, watchmaker or clockmaker? Watchmaker as it's the common term.
BTFPCW

Phew! It worked! I'm sure if I had delayed it for a few more minutes, someone else would have taken away the prize. So, lesson of that day - don't count your chickens before they are hatched. No need to get over-excited now until I receive my prize. Never before I had experienced such an emotional volte-face - from happiness to despair back to happiness.

That was the 18th code I had solved, while the last 2 codes proved to be the hardest of the entire competition - an El-Gamal cipher encryption & a sum mod by column of the ASCII values of all previous clues. You can find all the solved codes here.

I was contacted a week later by the N9seconds team, promising to be among the first people to get my hands on the N9. As it turned out, I had to wait until the 17th Oct (when the N9 was released in Finland) before it was shipped.

& 2 days ago, I received this. :)

Yesterday, teeming with excitement, I went to the Parcel office in Port Louis. They brought the parcel, opened it & asked if I had bought it. To which I replied that it was a gift & showed them the congratulatory note that was inside. Even though it was a gift, I still had to pay for the VAT. But because they couldn’t determine the price of the N9, they asked me to go to the New Customs House at Mer Rouge for a valuation & to come back with a broker if the value is above Rs 10,000. WTF?

It’s a gift for god’s sake. Why do I need to do all this to retrieve it? I’m sure you will not find such draconian Customs measures in any other country in the world (well, apart from North Korea). I bet it’s much easier to smuggle drugs in Mauritius than to get a parcel from the post office. (Here's a rant I found in Le Mauricien)

So today, I went to the MRA Customs Tower, which is found in Mer Rouge, a 2km walk from Immigration Centre.

To my great surprise, the Customs officers turned out to be very helpful. After I had explained my situation to them, they understood that it was merely a gift & decided to value the parcel at the minimum price so that I didn’t need a broker. :D (Thanks anyway, Yashvin!)

A 2.5km walk back to the Post Office & Rs 1256 later, I finally got my parcel. How hard could it have been?

& here it is.

Thanks!

So I got an N9 & the Play 360º portable speaker, plus a travel adapter & the charging cable for the Play 360º. There wasn’t any BL-5C battery for the 360º though…

Unboxing... This is the N9 64GB version, only available in black & being sold at a price of ~~Rs 23,000+VAT~~ Rs 25,000 in Mauritius.

Ooh, hello beautiful.

Sales contents - N9, USB cable CA-185CD, USB charger AC-16, headset WH-901, soft cover CC-1020 & manuals.

Nokia’s new eco packaging.

Turning on…

Wow.

First impression – what a fantastic display!

Software updates? Oh, it’s the PR1.1, just released today. What a coincidence!

Later then. :(

The Nokia N9.... the first buttonless smartphone.

Well, almost. You still have the power & volume keys.

The 8MP/7MP camera. Uber fast, but first shots have been disappointing, will have to wait if PR1.1 corrects some of the bugs.

So that was the unboxing. As usual, I’ll be reviewing the N9 in the forthcoming posts, comparing it with its ancestor, the N900. From my first impressions, it’s definitely not as geeky as the N900. But the Swipe UI is just incredible. & the design… well, to appreciate it, you’ll have to hold it. :P

Thanks once again Nokia. :)

Internet at 10Mbps for Rs 280/month?

2011-10-14T22:18:00.001+04:00

So says the Mauritian minister of ICT, announcing the arrival of a new ISP, Bharat Telecom (BSNL), which will offer FTTH services at a speed of 10Mbps for Rs 280 per month.

Informatique – L’Internet à très haut débit à Rs 280 par mois

Tassarajen Pillay Chedumbrum, ministre des Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication (TIC), annonce fièrement que l’opérateur indien de télécommunication, Bharat Ltd, proposera à Maurice une connexion internet à très haut débit à seulement Rs 280 par mois.

Le ministre s’exprimait ce jeudi 13 octobre 2011 lors d’un atelier de travail sur la politique nationale de connexion à très haut débit (Broadband Policy). Cette connexion, déjà annoncée, sera de 10 Mégabits par seconde (Mbit/s) contre actuellement environ 2 Mbits/s. Cela sera possible grâce au projet de Bharat Ltd de câble à fibre optique à domicile, cher au ministre. Ce dernier avait déjà annoncé qu’une partie de l’île Maurice sera connectée grâce à cette technologie d’ici décembre 2011 et le reste pendant l’année 2012. Il confirme ce calendrier.

Pour permettre cette innovation majeure et revoir les tarifs du matériel informatique et de l’accès à internet vers la baisse, le ministère des TIC, le National Computer Board (NCB) et l’Information and Communication Technology Authority (ICTA) organisent des consultations. Celles-ci, avec les partenaires publics et privés, ont pour principal objectif d’établir la politique nationale sur le très haut débit. Dans ce contexte, M. Chedumbrum lance un appel aux technologies novatrices. « Je presse tous les ingénieurs en informatique mauriciens, les chercheurs et les entrepreneurs de repousser les limites des innovations techniques pour que tous les Mauriciens puissent tirer profit des opportunités que la communication peut leur apporter », lance-t-il.

Selon l’ICTA, la feuille de route de la politique nationale sur le très haut débit est constituée de deux premières années de promotion, deux années de supervision et enfin trois années de généralisation. Les objectifs sont de connecter au minimum 60 % des foyers au très haut débit d’ici 2014 avec une connexion à 10 Mbits/s. De plus l’ICTA espère faire du pays un leader régional de l’innovation dans la téléphonie mobile. Enfin les institutions publiques à l’image des écoles et des hôpitaux, entre autres, devront être connectées avec une capacité de 100 Mbits/s.

Bharat Telecom est, depuis le 10 août 2011, titulaire d’une Value Added Services Licence, d’une Internet Service Licence et d’une Networking Services Provider (National), licences délivrées par l’ICTA. L’entreprise compte proposer des services internet, des services réseaux à valeur ajoutée comme, entre autres, la télévision via internet, la téléphonie, ainsi que des services réseaux de bande passante aux autres opérateurs et Fournisseurs d’Accès à Internet (FAI). La firme indienne, qui agira comme un opérateur indépendant, investira quelque Rs 220 millions dans le projet de câble à fibre optique à domicile. Bharat est connue pour sa capacité à mettre sur pied cette technologie.

Source – DefiMedia.info & LExpress.mu

First impression? 10Mbps… That might just be the local speed. The international speed might be identical to the ones we have. Because currently, the fastest connections offered by MT is the My.T 4Mbps at Rs 3k & ADSL Pro 4Mbps at Rs 15k.

Let’s hope I’m wrong. & if they do launch such a fibre-to-the-home/curb service, let’s hope it’s reasonably capped. We all know what happened to the last Indian telecom operator that came to Mauritius, i.e. MTML. People still refuse to buy their free phones!

So what would Orange do? Another speed hike in December? Even slower & more horrible connection speeds. & absolutely pathetic customer service.
I can testify to that since I had no Internet connection since last Saturday. When I tried the 8902 hotline, it just looped that welcome message. No matter what number I pressed, nothing happened! It took me two days to figure out that you had to first press * & then the number. That was followed by the customer care forcing me through all the usual troubleshooting steps (reboot, reset, remove line, reconnect, blabla) before they forwarded my case to the technicians. & another 2 days passed before they paid a visit to my livebox & as expected, there was nothing wrong with it. The problem was at their own DSLAM. Meanwhile, I went 5 days without Internet.
Long live the CYBERISLAND!

I think it’s time for some healthy competition.

Update 15.11.2011

Bharat Telecom Ltd website’s here – btl.mu

About Us

Incorporated in August 2010, Bharat Telecom Ltd is committed to make Mauritius in the league of nations with the most modern digital infrastructure & to provide broadband and IPTV at affordable prices to people. Under the guidance of its leaders BTL has a vision to benefit next generations of island with the future proof technology at home and work.

BTL's mission is to transform the way people think about technology,technology is to open the new windows of opportunities for the society and its coming generations,to solve the complex problems and ultimately coming out from data centres & research papers to reach to your home.

BTL plans to start with an FTTH connection for home users with high speed broadband and IPTV with more than 100 channels [see here] with Chill and Cool feature [see here] and for corporate with 100 mbps VPN connections.

SERVICES

Home Users

Broadband Internet

IPTV, Broadcast channels with all its Interactive features (No need of PC)

Video Surveillance and Video Calling

VOIP

Interactive education and e-commerce

Business Users

High speed internet

VPNs

VOIP

Service Providers

Data and Signal carrying High Bandwidth

Source - http://btl.mu/index.html

Update 15.01.2012

In an article that appeared on Defimedia, BTL have confirmed their plans to install FTTH in Mauritius. They will invest around Rs 1 billion in laying down the 200km fibre optic backbone. The project will start as from late January & the first users will be able to subscribe in late March 2012.

The “10 Mbps” at Rs 280 package will now be the cheapest starting package.

Internet à très haut débit pour Rs 280 – Le projet de fibre optique à domicile repoussé

Contrairement à ce que le ministre des Technologies de l’information et de la communication (Tic), Tassarajen Pillay Chedumbrum, avait annoncé, le projet de fibre optique à domicile ne sera pas disponible avant la fin de mars 2012. La formule à Rs 280 sera un package basique.
Bharat Telecom va débuter ses travaux d’installation d’un réseau principal de fibre optique, appelé Backbone, dans l’ensemble du pays à la fin du mois de janvier 2012. Ce réseau comptera 200 kilomètres de câble optique sous terre pour un budget total de Rs 1 milliard. Les travaux dureront trois ans et les premières connexions aux clients auront lieu à la fin du mois de mars 2012, selon Baljinder Sharma, directeur de Bharat Telecom à Maurice.

Il prend ainsi à contre-pied Tassarajen Pillay Chedumbrum, ministre des Technologies de l’information et de la communication (Tic), qui a avancé que les premières connexions débuteraient en décembre 2011. Est-ce que Bharat Telecom a pris du retard ou le ministre a-t-il anticipé le lancement ?

La technologie que Bharat Telecom va proposer à l’île Maurice n’a rien de révolutionnaire. En effet, le concept de fibre optique à domicile ou Fibre To The Home (FTTH) existe déjà dans de nombreux pays. Cette technologie permet un accès à Internet beaucoup plus rapide que celui que nous connaissons actuellement. Cela est possible par la diffusion des données via un câble de fibre optique qui, techniquement, permet des connexions à Internet entre 10 Mégabits par seconde (Mb) et 100 Mb, contre les 4 Mb qui représentent la vitesse maximum disponible à Maurice via les câbles téléphoniques.

« Nous allons proposer au public mauricien une technologie qui est déjà utilisée à Maurice en interne par les grandes entreprises », affirme Baljinder Sharma. Il explique que le concept FTTH n’était pas viable, il y a encore quelques années, en raison des coûts prohibitifs de la fibre optique. Aujourd’hui, la technologie utilisée permet de proposer un concept FTTH rentable. Néanmoins, la formule à Rs 280 par mois, annoncée en grande pompe par Tassarajen Pillay Chedumbrum, sera un package basique.

« Avec le package à Rs 280, nous ne gagnerons pas d’argent », confie Baljinder Sharma. Les consommateurs auront la possibilité de personnaliser leur formule avec différentes chaînes de télévision ou options, et ce sont ces formules qui seront rentables pour Bharat Telecom.

La compagnie a pour objectif de devenir leader sur le marché des connexions Internet d’ici au début de 2015. « Nos produits et services seront supérieurs à ce qui est disponible actuellement », souligne Baljinder Sharma. Bharat Telecom est une filiale de Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), une compagnie indienne.

BSNL, entreprise détenue par le gouvernement indien, constitue l’un des deux géants des télécommunications de la Grande péninsule, avec Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL). BSNL a un chiffre d’affaires annuel d’USD 6,09 milliards (Rs 180,57 milliards). Elle emploie 281 635 personnes et a passé la barre des 90 millions de clients en 2008. L’île Maurice est la première étape de l’expansion de BSNL en Afrique. Ici, la compagnie emploiera à terme 1 000 personnes, dont 200 sont en cours de recrutement. « Nous ferons également travailler plusieurs entreprises mauriciennes en sous-traitance », conclut Baljinder Sharma.

Source – defimedia

One more thing…

2011-10-10T18:44:00.001+04:00

Last Wednesday, when I read the iPhone 4S product page, I knew something was wrong. The descriptions, the captions & the text; it all felt wrong. Too many words, over-descriptive, focusing on specs; it felt un-Steve like. Knowing how pedantic Steve Jobs is, he wouldn't have allowed this even if he was sick.

The next day I found out why. He wasn't ailing, he was dying.

I remember the original iPhone. When it was first announced, I was absolutely blown away by the UX. I wanted one. But when it was released, I was utterly disappointed. It didn't have any of the features of a smartphone! I hated it. How could it not have apps?

It took me a while before I understood. The iPhone wasn't meant for me. It was meant for everyone. It was the first smartphone that kids, parents & grand-parents, all could use. One where they didn't have to worry about how to use it, but instead they fussed over what to do with it, what to create with it.

Making the world a better place.

That was Steve Jobs' philosophy. He achieved that by taking technology & making it not only usable, but loveable for everyone. An inventor, not of devices, but of experiences. Steve Jobs' products were tools with an emotional connection with their users.

Form is function.

Steve Jobs taught us that people loved simple beautiful things. He shaped John Ive's designs with his sense of aesthetics. Experimentation with new materials, bold colours & groundbreaking engineering processes all led to products that were works of art & art pieces that worked.
He designed user interfaces that weren't boring but a joy to use & behold. UIs where typefaces were respected & pixels cherished.

Tiny details matter.

Steve Jobs' greatest attribute was his ability to say NO. To much-demanded features, to minute imperfections & to designs "that'll just do."
Steve Jobs taught us that the only standard we should aim for is perfection. He made the choices so that the user didn't have to choose. The result was innovative products of outstanding build quality. Everything just works.

Everyone can connect the dots. Few people can connect the right dots. Only a handful can connect the right dots at the right time.
& Steve Jobs did it every time.

All of his products met with resounding successes because they were launched at the right time with the right technology. Steve Jobs set himself unusually high goals, worked relentlessly towards accomplishing them. He often waited for technology to mature before it could satisfy those goals. Only then did he launch a product. & then he got back to work on the next big thing. That is why he was the world's greatest tech entrepreneur.

No, not all his products were affordable. But they set the standards for competitors to follow. It's hard to find products that hasn't been influenced by Steve Jobs. The first Mac, iPod, iPhone & iPad revolutionised the computer, music, smartphone & tablet industry.

If we didn't have the Mac, we wouldn't have have Windows. No iPad, we wouldn't have Windows 8. No iPhone & we wouldn't have the modern touchscreen smartphone – Android, WP7, the Galaxy S2, the N9 & so on.

That's why when Steve Jobs died, I was really really sad. Steve Jobs was the torch bearer for technology. Without him, the devices we used would have been boring, ugly, uninspiring & too complex for people to use. The world wouldn't have been a better place.

Steve Jobs was a visionary & a tyrant. He wanted to impose his vision on the world. & what a vision it was - an ecosystem of beautiful devices seamlessly offering an experience that enthralled users. A perfect world where users could work creatively without worrying about the workings.

I'm glad that his legacy will live on, inspiring countless of followers to be leaders.

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it."

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

To sum up Steve Jobs, I couldn't find anything more appropriate than this line from a certain movie:

"If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal and if they can't stop you, then you become something else entirely."

"A legend."

Nokia E7 Review: Part 1 - The Hardware

2011-09-15T21:37:00.001+04:00

The hardware review of the Nokia E7, the last Qwerty Symbian flagship from Nokia.

Absolutely gorgeous.
I know I said the same thing about the N97, the E72 and the N8, but Nokia is among one of the rare companies that design really good-looking products.

Just look at it. At 176g, it is heavy, but the weight adds to the premium feel.

Unlike the N8, the menu key is perfectly centred.

Remember the N97 with it's keyboard mechanism? It has been refined with a greater tilt angle on the E7.

The screen slides up on the same side at the screen-lock spring-loaded switch. With the Gorilla glass screen and the unibody aluminium, the E7 looks indestructible.

Well, almost. The top & bottom bits are still plastic.
From left to right, the 3.5mm jack, the power button, the HDMI port and the micro USB port with the edge shattered by a previous reviewer.

On the other side of the phone, there are no ports.

On the right hand side of the E7, there’s the camera key (not 2-stage), the volume switch & the SIM card slot.

& at the back, the 8MP camera with LED flash and a rear microphone. The mono speaker at the bottom – it’s loud enough but the sound is muffled when the E7 is laid on its back.

Here’s the hands-on video of the E7.

E7 vs N8

It would be wrong to pass off the E7 as simply a keyboard version of the N8. The significant differences between each device clearly outline the targeted users - businessmen & camera enthusiasts.

In terms of internal hardware, the E7 has the same CPU & GPU, plus 16GB of mass storage, but without any microSD slot. A surprising omission for what has been a standard Nokia feature since the past few years.
The E7 also has more internal memory, 350MB of it.

The E7’s biggest asset is its large 4" screen. Bright, crisp & very vivid, as you would expect from any AMOLED display.

Unlike the 3.5" on the N8, this is a Clear Black Display, with a polarizer layer on the glass to allow better viewing under sunlight.

One problem I noticed with the E7 is that it has a very narrow colour reproduction angle. View it head-on (perpendicular), colours are fine. Tilt it by 20° to 30° in any direction, you get a blue tint. Apparently it's a manufacturing defect affecting all AMOLED screens manufactured by Samsung.

Having used only 3.5" devices, the 4" screen is delightful. Bigger is better. I never feel cramped with the UI & it doesn't feel too big requiring extra finger motion. Unfortunately, the 640x360 resolution of Symbian tends to waste much of the screen estate.

Despite the bigger screen, the E7 comes with the same 1200mAh BL-4D battery as the N8. & It's even more non-removable due to the uni-body construction. Battery life is approximately the same as the N8. On normal usage, it will comfortably last 2 days. On heavy gaming, that would be less than 5 hours.

Using the E7's 4-row QWERTY keyboard is an entirely different experience to the N900's 3-row keyboard. (& you can also see the difference between AMOLED & LCD screens.)

No more cramped keys. The tactile feedback is just perfect. Probably the best keyboard I've ever used.

The lighting of the keys is like the icing on the cake.
Only downside is that a first-time user would have some difficulty to open the keyboard. There's a precise way to hold it & apply a large amount of force to slide it open...

The most significant difference between the E7 and the N8 is indeed the camera. The N8 is the world's best cameraphone while the E7 only has an Extended Depth of Field sensor... More on that in a later post.

The sales package content. Charger, USB cable, stereo headset, HDMI cable & USB OTG cable.

& here’s a demo of me connecting the N900 to the E7 & playing a video from the N900.

Wrap-up

On the hardware front, the E7 has a beautiful design, a wonderful 4" AMOLED screen, a great Qwerty keyboard & decent battery life. However, it’s a flawed product. It has only 16GB of memory with no microSD slot. With a 680Mhz ARM11, it's one of the slowest CPUs on the market. & crucially it has only an EDoF camera with no auto-focus. Definitely, it’s very far from a “N8 with a keyboard.”
Yet, the E7 is being sold in Mauritius at a premium price of around Rs 20,000 ($700). Frankly, it’s not even worth half that price. If you have watched the first video, you’ll know why. It’s because of the software on it, specifically the OS, Symbian.

Related links:

Wiki – E7
ZomgItsCJ - Ye Giant Nokia E7 Review
Engadget – Nokia E7 Review
PhoneArena – Nokia E7 Review
Laymans take on Nokia E7-BIG overview from a Nokia N8 user

Free Internet in Mauritius by December

2011-09-08T20:09:00.001+04:00

Really? That was the front-page headline of last Monday's (5th September) Le Matinal. Check it out...

L'accès à l'Internet gratuit d'ici décembre

Finie la corvée de payer la note de l'Internet à chaque fin du mois. Le ministère des Technologies de l'information et de la communication envisage en effet de soulager les consommateurs à ce propos d'ici décembre prochain. Ainsi, l'accès à l'Internet sera gratuit dans certains endroits de l'île.

Des pourparlers entre le ministère des TIC et celui des Collectivités locales se sont avérés concluants pour l'installation, dans diverses régions du pays, du WI-FI, un réseau qui permet de relier sans fil plusieurs appareils informatiques au sein d'un réseau afin de permettre la transmission de données. Dix sites ont été identifiés pour l'installation de ces antennes.

Les municipalités et conseils de district seront dotés d'ici décembre d'antennes afin de permettre aux citoyens et villageois d'avoir accès aux facilités d'Internet gratuitement.

L’Internet démocratisé en décembre

Interrogé par Le Matinal, lundi, le ministre des Technologies informatiques a déclaré que ce projet constitue une "véritable révolution" dans le cadre de la démocratisation de l'accès à l'Internet.

Ainsi, tous les internautes qui se trouvent aux abords des conseils district et des municipalités pourront utiliser leurs portables et "laptops" pour avoir accès à l'Internet gratuitement. Etudiants, femmes au foyer, professionnels et touristes pourront profiter de cet atout qui vise principalement à approfondir leurs connaissances sur le monde.

Le ministre a rappelé que le but du projet est d'aider d'abord ceux qui n'ont pas les moyens d'avoir accès à l'Internet couramment. "L'accès à Internet doit être un droit fondamental pour chaque citoyen. Dans le cadre de ce projet, Rodrigues ne sera pas oublié", a déclaré Tassarajen Chedumbrum Pillay. Il a ajouté que jusqu'ici, son ministère a commencé un travail de fond pour que le pays soit plus reconnu comme une cyberîle.

Il a rappelé jusqu'ici l'Internet est offert gratuitement aux étudiants dans les établissements scolaires et aux bureaux de poste."La démocratisation de l'accès à l'Internet est importante car elle constitue une étape non négligeable pour aider chaque citoyen à découvrir ou à redécouvrir le monde afin d'approfondir ses connaissances", a dit le ministre.

Le lord-maire de Port-Louis Mamad Khodabaccus se réjouit de ce projet. "Nous sommes en train actuellement d'identifier un site approprié pour installer une antenne WIFI pour arroser la capitale. Nous pensons que cette antenne sera en mesure d'atteindre des internautes dans un rayon d'un kilomètre soit entre la municipalité de Port-Louis et Plaine-Verte", a-t-il déclaré au Matinal.

Pour aider les internautes à avoir l'Internet gratuitement, le ministère des Technologies informatiques utilisera des fonds qui ont été mis à sa disposition par l'Universal Service Fund, créé en 1997 par l'United States Federal Communications Commission. Celle-ci a été instituée afin d'aider un maximum de personnes à avoir accès à l'Internet à travers le monde.

[Source]

Much to the dismay of all Internet users, it was nothing as such. After last December's debacle, it will take more than a pathetic headline to unsettle me.

As for the initiative mentioned in the article, it's a commendable one (as blogged about by Yashvin here - Can we really dream of having a free wifi-coverage around the island?), that should have been implemented a few years ago. Better late than never, the free wifi hotspots will be welcomed by all mobile users. While mobile penetration is nearing 100% in Mauritius, cost of mobile Internet is still the same as 5 years ago.

According to initial reports, the hotspots provide a speed of 2Mbps within a range of 1km. Only browsing is allowed, no downloads. I think they should have allowed downloads & instead implement a usage cap.

Coming back to the misleading headline, this isn't the first time Le Matinal’s reporting proved to be substandard.

Publishing disrespectful photos of the dead. What's the point of keeping an editor?

Making gross spelling errors. Perhaps they need to employ a full-time spell-checker?

Rs 5. That's the price of mediocrity.

A New Phone

2011-02-07T22:36:00.007+04:00

The time has come to give my old phone a well deserved retirement.

A nostalgic review of my previous phone, actually my very first phone. Photos are from the photoblog - Nokia 7610.

Nokia 7610

It's exactly 6 years since I received this phone as a gift from an uncle. Little did I imagine at that time it would introduce me to a world of new experiences.
(Photo taken 2 weeks after I received it).

Launched in May 2004, the 7610 runs on Symbian S60v2 OS 7.0s. Its internal specs are antiquated compared to today's devices.
123Mhz ARM4T CPU, 7MB RAM, 8MB internal memory. It also came with a 64MB Reduced-Size MMC (RS-MMC), the precursor to the MicroSD. Died after 2 years & replaced with a 256MB card.

The 7610 was a grey market device, bought from Hong Kong or Singapore (around Rs 11k) with no warranty. If it broke or malfunctioned, there was little I could do.
Somehow, after numerous falls & unimaginable torture, the device is still working. External casing aside the body is solid unbreakable plastic. Legendary Nokia build quality. Keeps working, even on the factory firmware.
Yup, at that time, you couldn't update your device over USB, so you had to bring it to a Nokia Care Centre. Which I never did. & I didn't need to do it because there weren't any show-stopping bugs on the 7610.

The OS occupies around 25MB on the ROM. That has always been one of the biggest advantages of Symbian - run efficiently on minimum specs. Includes support for multi-tasking... Proper apps running in the background with an app switcher.

The Design

It's fair to say that Nokia didn't go as crazy as with the 7600. It features the same teardrop shape, with more conventional keypad layout & less curved edges. Now that I realise it, Nokia actually made smartphones fashionable!

1MP camera

The first megapixel (1152 x 864) smartphone. A revolution at a time when most camera phones had VGA resolution. It also supported 10 min video recording (at 176x144) in the popular 3gp format. The photos are shockingly bad compared to modern standards. No settings other than digital zoom & a night mode. But it was an essential feature which helped me out countless times. When I broke my P&S camera, it was this 1MP fixed focus camera which got me out of tight spots. Normal photography isn't its forte, but my word, it was awesome at "photo-scanning" printed text & other documents. Some of my “best” photos…

RCPL. Overlooking the cemetery & DT projects. 2005.

Calodyne.

Old Post Office, Port Louis.

Valetta lake.

Roof-top. In 2005, I could actually see the sea… (In 2010)

Symbols.

Ganga Talao. 2006 & 2009.

Maheswarnath Mandir. Being painted in 2006.

Pointe aux Biches.

Ferrari 348.

Orange is here. 2008.

Victoria Hospital room. Stayed there for 5 days. Hell.

Audi R8. December 2008.

USB Plasma ball.

UOM kittens. 2009.

Ile aux Cerfs. 2010.

The Port. 2010.

& the rest is history…

While uploading these photos, I had an epiphany. However bad these photos may look, they still remain priceless memories. An advice - capture every moment in your life. :)

My First Smartphone

The 7610 introduced me to the world of smartphones. At that time, there were only 2 major smartphone OSes - Windows Mobile & Symbian. Few people acknowledge it, but Nokia actually invented the smartphone for the masses with the 6600 & then expanded it with the 7610, 6670 & 3230. It's another thing that only geeks understood & exploited the full potential of their Symbian phones.

So imagine my absolute delight when on my first day with the 7610, I discovered you can install apps on it! Just like on a computer! & games! Themes! Wallpapers! Custom ringtones!
It was by sheer luck that I discovered multitasking when I pressed the menu button for a longer time than necessary.
Similarly, it was a friend who informed me the purpose of the pencil key - used for marking, selection, copy, cut & paste. Yes, a dedicated copy/paste button.

Here a few of my favourite memories with the 7610.

- Two weeks after I received the 7610, I bricked it. What happened was that I was taking photos using internal memory & it completely filled up, leaving not enough space for the device to boot. After several days of panicking, I discovered that you can hard reset every Symbian phone (Power on while holding on Call+3+*).

- The Apps Revolution. Before these so-called app stores were born, I was downloading & installing apps & games everyday. At the start, it was from WAP sites & forums. Eventually I discovered where I could get Zero Day releases - on MIRC chat channels. It was #mediaplace channels if I remember well. Releases were mirrored among chat members & all you had to do was download from them. Using commands naturally as there was no GUI. In its heyday (2005-2006), around 60-100 Symbian apps were being released daily. My own apps database is over 1GB (average app size of 1MB).

- Using offline dictionaries (Concise Oxford English, Thesaurus, etc) while everyone else had to lookup in their hardcopies.
- Graphical calculators. :P

- Gaming. Mostly Java games, arcade-style - Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider, Splinter Cell, Asphalt, Bejeweled, Worms & Brothers-in-Arms (above).

- Reading eBooks using MobiReader. HP & TLOTR converted to .mbp. Spent 2 days reading HP5 non-stop. Turn off screen backlight & make it reflect the ambient light - it's as good as ebook readers!

- Watching movies & TV shows, including Top Gear. All had to be re-encoded into a lower resolution. Started with 3GP on RealPlayer (no fullscreen). Moved on to DivX with Smartmovie. & finally settled with Xvid (avi) & x264 (mkv) when I discovered CorePlayer. What an app!

- My first smartphone virus. Received over Bluetooth from another infected S60 phone. Fortunately, I did have an antivirus app installed which promptly deleted it. It was harmless anyway because you had walk it through its installation steps.

- Beyond themes & icons replacement, I also changed the font (ttf converted to gdr), the screensaver & adding quick launch shortcuts to the home screen. A few years back you could also change operator logos...

- Pranking friends by recording their conversations or playing pre-recorded ones in the background.

- Identifying barcodes & mobile QR codes. At that time, it was nothing more than a gimmick. No actual use.
- Apps like CameraFx allowing special effects (sepia, faux flash, b&w, pop art, kaleidoscopes, etc) & stitching of photos (360 panoramas).
- Installing Python apps. You just needed to install the Python framework & then write & run your own homebrew apps.

- Bluejacking - copying sms & contacts from other phones. Only worked with a few devices. Other bluetooth hacks - remote controlling my PC, use phone as bluetooth mouse, IMing over bluetooth (to other Symbian devices) & using camera as webcam.

- Long battery life. Only 900mAh, but it could run 2/3 days on heavy usage & up to a week on light usage. Only games used to kill battery life. Otherwise, you could leave apps running in the background without worrying about it draining the battery.

- Music. Using a 3rd party headset connected to the pop-port. Listening to music (with mono hardware limitation) using UltraMP3 to overcome the default 7 bars volume. I always believed in the mobile phone as a converged device & that's why I never owned a music player. I actually skipped the iPod generation.

- Opera Mini + Dabr = Twitter on the go. Opera Mini has been a godsend for browsing web sites without exploding my data consumption.

- Free Gprs. Around 8GB downloaded using Cellplus' network in 2007. Figured out a way to tether it to my PC & enjoyed an unlimited connection for the very first time in my life - (I was on dial-up in 2007). & that was around the same time I started blogging. So yeah, the 7610 was directly responsible for me being a blogger today. :)
& it's still helping me today - 90% of all posts on the blog have been typed on the 7610. Including this one.

You now know why I love Symbian. Its apps, its ease of use, its stability & its efficient use of the battery. The perfect OS built for devices like the 7610.
I find it amusing when people complain that <insert OS or smartphone here> doesn't have a feature I've already used years ago. Symbian was way ahead of its time.

As such, whatever will be replacing my 7610 will have to fulfill all these requirements & improve on many of the available features.

Requirements
- Touchscreen smartphone - at least 3.5" high resolution screen.
- Good build quality & durable. Should handle some abuse, especially in harsh environments.
- Great battery life with removable battery.
- Great browser with flash support (or at least play YouTube videos).
- Ample storage - microSD + internal storage (16/32GB)
- Decent camera. I already have the Nikon L20, so that the least of all my priorities.
Budget - Rs 14,000 ($467)

Basically looking for a mid-end smartphone on a tight budget. Let's look at the contenders, OS-wise.

iPhone

Large app ecosystem. Decent hardware (high res screen, good battery life, 1Ghz processor, 512MB RAM). Future-proof. Jailbroken apps fixes some of its deficiencies.

Available in only 16/32GB. No microSD. Non-removable battery. Fragile glass construction. Doesn't survive falls. Broken front glass requires complete touchscreen replacement because it's glued together. Cat-&-mouse game between Apple & jailbreakers resulting in updates removing jailbreaks/unlocks.

eBay prices (unlocked):
iPhone 4 16GB - $855
iPhone 4 32GB - $990
iPhone 3GS 32GB - $625

If you account for the Customs VAT, Orange Mauritius actually sells it cheaper, but it's network-locked.
Because of its popularity, the iPhone is way overpriced. The only place where you can get the lowest price is Singapore/Hong Kong - where it's sold for as low as Rs 20k ($667).
Not only it's out of my budget but I don't have any external contacts, so the iPhone is very much out of my reach. Anyway, I wouldn't want one because it's too fragile; will never survive my clumsiness.

Android

I have zero experience of using Android & the following points are based on what I've read from reviews.
Large portfolio of devices. From cheap smartphones (320x480 screens) to the superphones (1Ghz+ processors). Most of the 1Ghz devices are future-proof. Large amount of apps. Extensive customization options (keyboard replacement, home screen, etc).

While Android has a plethora of devices, they all have the same drawbacks. Fragmentation. Yes, it does exist if you stick to manufacturer updates. OEMs are methodically slow at pushing the latest Android updates to their devices. Fortunately, there are the vanilla ROMs that you can install…. at the expense of manufacturer customizations (specifically in the camera & music department).
Short battery life due to lack of multitasking optimization. No GPU-accelerated UI (that's why Android needs faster CPUs).

Despite the wide variety of Android devices, the hardware isn't appealing if you're looking for the perfect converged device. For e.g., there's only one manufacturer that makes decent cameras - SonyEricsson. But given their track record at updating their devices, it's impossible to trust them anymore.

Apart from the Nexus line of devices, it's hard to consider any Android device. The cost, lack of mid-end converged devices & the fact that I've never tried Android means I'm still undecided over this platform.

HTC Desire - $490
HTC Desire HD - $565
HTC Desire Z - $565
Motorola Milestone 2 - $580
Samsung Galaxy S i9000 - $600
Nexus One - $570
Nexus S - $690

Windows Phone 7

At this point in time, it’s hard to consider an OS that’s still in its infancy. Yes, it has the most advanced UI but lacks essential features like multitasking, decent browser & microSD card support. Given Microsoft's accelerated development schedule of the OS, I would estimate WP7 to be one year away from having a feature set on par with iOS & Android.
Excluding the games, the apps catalogue isn't very exciting. & the iOS-styled limitations are a step too far for a platform that needs to attract as much users as possible.

HTC HD7 - $520
Samsung Focus - $595
Samsung Omnia 7 - $615

Symbian

I know there are tons of devices from the N97 mini, the X6, the E72 to the C5. But after having used Symbian^3, there's no going back. Given that the C6-03, C7 & E7 all have EDoF cameras, there's only one Symbian device that can be considered - the Nokia N8. That would have been my first choice… if I hadn't used & extensively reviewed it. The main limitations are a crap browser, rubbish resolution, lack of apps & a UI that hasn't changed since my 7610. The price is tempting, but the camera alone isn't worth it.

Nokia N8 - $480

MeeGo

Yeah, MeeGo OS is just round the corner. The N9 will probably be announced within a week with the rumoured hardware specs as follows: 1.2Ghz CPU, 1GB RAM, 1080p-playing GPU, 64GB internal memory & 12MP camera. Clearly into superphone territory, with a price double my budget. I couldn't wait for it...

No iPhone, no Android device, no WP7 device & not even a Symbian device. So what did I buy?

The first tablet OS, built for the Internet.
The only touchscreen smartphone with no front buttons.
One of the two smartphones with 32GB internal storage & a microSD slot.
A pure Linux experience that makes Android look like Windows.
The only smartphone with native dual-boot support (with MeeGo 1.1).

The Nokia N900

The ultimate geek phone. & by geek, I don't mean the faux geeks that consider themselves to be one just by jailbreaking devices, taking photos HDR or retweeting hashtags. The Maemo 5 OS on the N900 is a tablet GUI on top of the Linux kernel, giving you total freedom of modification. No unlocking, no jailbreaking & no complex rooting procedures. The N900 has been designed with only one thing in mind - to be completely open.
Here's the analogy with cars... iPhones are BMWs with loads of gizmos available. Android is the Volkswagen group - building everything from Polos, Audis to Lamborghinis. Symbian is like Toyota, great at making good cars but not supercars.
& the N900? The Ariel Atom or an F1 car. Only a few can drive it & they know exactly what an incredible machine it is.
That’s why when I saw it was being sold at $400 on eBay, I didn’t think twice. Even though I’ve never used one before…

Yeah, the first time I held an N900 was when I unboxed it… Unboxing pics & first impressions are in this post on the photoblog.