India to be among top 10 e-commerce hubs by 2015: eBay

India will be among the top 10 e-commerce hubs in the world by 2015, eBay India Head (Partnerships and Pop Culture) Deepa Thomas said on Tuesday. "India definitely will be among the Top 10 e-commerce hubs of the world by 2015 as it is the fourth largest internet users in the world," Deepa Thomas told PTI in Bangalore. She said though India is witnessing many changes in 3G and broadband, there are issues with connectivity. "India is still not as connected as it should be. Connectivity beyond metros needs to be better," she said. However, broadband penetration in countries like the Philippines and Malaysia is good. "Hence there is scope for e-commerce or online transactions," Thomas said. Even so, Bangalore has tremendous potential to become number one e-commerce centre in the country. The city had been in the top five list of e-commerce states until now. "It has jumped to top three. Bangalore has immense potential as it is active on all fronts like e-commerce, imports and exports," she said. Thomas however expressed reservation over Bangalore giving competition to Mumbai and Delhi this year as those cities have larger number of internet users. Sceptical about the growth of online group buying in India, Thomas said the space was already saturated. Bloggers and small e-commerce sites are no threats to companies like eBay, she said. "In fact these small sites wish to occupy space on our site to build credibility in the market... we actually encourage bloggers to share deals," she said. EBay has been on an acquisition spree on regular basis for gaining technical competence and entering a market. One of the biggest acquisitions this year was GSI Commerce which gives platform to set up their own e-commerce sites, she said. "Definitely there are acquisitions that have happened, but there are no acquisitions right now on our radar," Thomas said.

Philippines ranks zero in R&D

The Philippines ranks at the very bottom – where it is tied with Bangladesh – of a recent survey of IT competitiveness in research and development (R&D). This means less R&D takes place in the Philippines (0.0) than in Indonesia (0.1), Sri Lanka (0.1), and Vietnam (0.2). The survey, IT Industry Competitiveness Index 2011, was developed and is administered by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) for the Business Software Alliance (BSA). In this year’s survey, the Philippines dropped a notch overall from 51 to 52 out of 66 countries. Singapore was number three in the world, up six places, after the United States and Finland. Taiwan was 13 and Japan 16. South Korea, which was down three places, and Hong Kong tied for 19, with Hong Kong rising two slots. Within Asea n, only Indonesia and Vietnam overall fared worse than the Philippines. The results are surprising, but not. No one believes that no R&D takes place in the Philippines, although it is true that compared to its neighbors, the Philippine government invests precious little in fundamental research. But as I wrote last week about a company called Morphlabs, some impressive R&D does take place. And although startup R&D is hard to come by, large local and multinational technology companies including Conti Temic, IMI, Lexmark, Nokia, and TrendMicro are doing it but have nothing to gain from sharing that information. One of the reasons they have nothing to gain is that there are no brownie points for pointing to research being conducted in the Philippines. The popular myth associated with the Philippines is that it is a center for low-value voice services for the business process outsourcing industry (BPO). Its major IT-BPO competitors – India and China – seek to perpetuate this myth so that high-value, complex services come their way. So far, they are being effective doing so with the result that there is no or little prestige to be associated with outsourcing value-driven, high-margin original R&D and other work to the Philippines. While these competitors have obvious strengths particularly in high-value IT services, they are successful in “positioning” the Philippines as a mature low-cost, low-value services center because the Philippines does little to communicate its positive attributes and capabilities. That reluctance to communicate also explains the poor showing – at least in part – that the Philippines routinely turns in on competitiveness surveys. The BSA IT competitiveness survey results show that the Philippines is perceived as an IT backwater. The reality is different, although the Philippines can certainly improve its IT competitiveness. In fact, the BSA survey, composed of six categories, does show some appreciation of the Philippines. For instance, it scores reasonably high in the business environment category (67.8), roughly par with Malaysia (69.6), but that is significantly lower than Thailand (78.8) even with all its problems. As a result, even when the Philippines does okay in a competitiveness category, its scores offer no distinctiveness and no real competitive advantage compared to its neighbors. And aside from being at the bottom of the R&D category, there are other dangerous misconceptions about the Philippines, which do it a disservice. For example, despite the Philippines “vaunted” telecom infrastructure, it scores just 7.3 in that category. One reason is low broadband Internet penetration, which is also expensive for consumers in the Philippines compared to consumers in Southeast Asia in general. That’s a huge irony, given the tight embrace with which Filipinos have engaged the Internet. Estimates vary, but about one third of Filipinos use the Internet. Because the culture is very social, almost every Internet user has a Facebook account. Seventy-three percent are between 18 and 44 years old according to Social Bakers, which tracks the use of social media. So most Internet users are of productive age and have expendable income. This makes them valuable to brands like Smart, Hair Experts, Starbucks, Nescafé, and Red Horse, which have the largest number of Facebook fans among Philippine brand pages on the social network. Auction sites and online retail malls are popular, too. Does this suggest that perception of the Philippines’ IT competitiveness is simply flawed, or that Filipino users have taken to the Internet in significant numbers despite the hurdles? It’s probably both. Unfortunately, the not-so-hot perception of the Philippines’ IT competitiveness doesn’t end there. Surprisingly, the Philippines turned in a less-than-mediocre score for human capital (34.9), lower than that of Croatia (36.4). The legal environment is mediocre at 50.5. That’s almost 10 points less than Malaysia, which scored 59.5, where the legal system is used by the party in power to undermine and jail opposition politicians. Support for IT industry development was also lukewarm at 51.0, roughly at par with Thailand (54.2) and significantly behind Malaysia (58.2) which competes aggressively with the Philippines for IT-BPO investment. The BSA survey reveals some weaknesses. Some are real. Some we just allow to seem real.

Powerwave Technologies Unveils New Multi-Band Optical Distributed Antenna System for In-Building Broadband Coverage at Wireless Infrastructure Show 2011

Powerwave Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:PWAV), a global supplier of advanced solutions for wireless communications networks, today announced the Nexus™ FT 4000 low-power, multi-standard wireless solution for enterprise customers and operators at Wireless Infrastructure Show, October 3-6, Dallas, TX. The newest addition to Powerwave’s family of In-Building and Outdoor DAS Solutions, the Nexus FT 4000 is a scalable DAS solution for single or multi-operator environments and is available in different band configurations. Ideal for airports, subways, stadiums and convention centers, it improves coverage and capacity, while future-proofing an infrastructure to support 4G deployments at an affordable price. The Nexus FT 4000 series is a strong addition to Powerwave's toolkit for Inside Out Solutions that include a combined LTE pico base station and Wi-Fi hot spot that delivers up to 100 Mbps/Km² to 100 users allowing operators to provide a quality broadband data service in areas with high-data usage or weak network signals. Small cells technology can dramatically improve data throughput, enabling wireless operators to deploy broadband capacity, while enhancing the end-user experience anytime, anywhere. Powerwave’s Nexus FT 4000 is currently the only DAS solution available that features an IP65 rating, 10dBO optical link budget, -25º C to +55º C temperature range, no fans and highly-efficient feed-forward multi-carrier power amplifier (MCPA) technology. At full 2 Watts composite power, the Nexus FT 4000 offers high capacity, long reach for multi-sector deployments and enough power per carrier for 4G LTE. Its wideband multi-carrier / multi-technology amplifiers enable facility owners and network operators to seamlessly transition from 2G, 3G and 4G technology (GSM, WCDMA, LTE). Upgradeable from dual to quad bands as the DAS network grows, it also supports multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) 700 MHz and AWS frequency bands. Powerwave’s Nexus FT 4000 features a passively cooled IP65 enclosure without fans. This reduces operating expenses by eliminating regularly scheduled maintenance and the need for weather-proofed enclosures. Its 10dBO Optical Link budget meets all in-building and outdoor needs, in addition to supporting remote network management through NetWay™ Vision. As carriers build out wireless networks, it is critical to deploy a family of solutions that provide ubiquitous coverage and targeted capacity, in addition to spectrum management. Powerwave’s Nexus FT 4000 and LTE Picocell facilitate better signal quality and capacity, and reduce network congestion, while enabling faster rollout of services by carriers. These products also reduce overall capital and operating expenses. At the event, Keith Kaczmarek, vice president and general manager, and Sumit Nahar, director, engineering of global wireless solutions, will join two panels of industry experts to address the challenges operators face due to increased mobile data usage and the need for a secure network. They will highlight how microcells and DAS solutions can offer an economical way to inject capacity into densely populated areas for LTE network deployments while maintaining a secure, reliable and uninterrupted network.