Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Going abroad? use Fake-Tel......reduce roaming charges

When you use your mobile abroad and you'll be "roaming". This is when you connect to an overseas network and calls are routed via that network provider instead of your home network, at a vastly increased cost.
  A telephone company, telephone service provider or telecommunications operator, is a kind of communications service provider that provides telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications access. I would like to start a telephone services company named ‘Fake-Tel’.The main motive of this is to reduce roaming charges.
   Now let me talk about its strengths and weaknesses .The company would provide GSM network services across India. When I say across India, it would not leave any nook & corner of any Indian state. Even in remote places we would be having our towers with minimum of 3G capability. This is our real strength i.e. reachability. We would be setting up independent towers and we are not sharing it with any competitor. In doing this, we are not at all compromising the cost. We would be giving the service at competitive prices. We are also providing the value added services as any other network along with this; we are coming up with a plan of giving 250 MB browsing data free per month for our customers. This is a unique feature that we are introducing .We will also provide limited free Skype calls .This is how we are creating the demand 
    About the weaknesses, our pricing factor is decided based on TRAI guidelines. So if there is change in the minimum price, it would affect our pricing as well. So , we have a limited control over the price. Also, as we are providing free Skype calls, we need to pay them a certain amount of share from the income, which also affects the price.


While travelling, If you're only likely to make a few calls, or are sticking within the Europe, the easiest way is to sign up for a "don't ask, don't get" discounted roaming add-on from our  network. Many of the network providers offer add-ons which reduce the cost of roaming abroad.The competitor charge a nominal fee for this, But in 'Fake-Tel' , its completely free!!.
   We will be targeting the general public they are the major beneficiaries .We would also be targeting the youth and students by student specific promotional offers. We have special prices and offers for the corporates as well. So, the elasticity of demand varies from the target customers and the prices fixed for them.

      So over all the pricing factor for services and the target customers for the respective pricing affects the elasticity of demand in telecom services.

Better Education...for a better Living

     
        Education is a basic right of living , for any individual.There should not be any compromise in the quality of education being provided.But, I would like to make a rational assumption that Infrastructure provided in all government run schools in India is pathetic or not up to the mark. Some may be good, but I am making this assumption in general .To provide an example, in my city itself i.e. Udupi, the condition of many government unaided schools out here shows a clear sign of administrative negligence in providing good quality infrastructure for the students. Neither the district administration, nor the state education authorities are paying any concentration to the basic requirements of these primary schools. In the maximum number of primary schools, the teacher-student ratio is nearly 50:1 according to a statistic given in local newspaper. Whereas only single teacher is playing different roles in several schools. This is the case in whole of India.
        
  A government primary school near my house has no proper building for the students and the roofs are badly damaged and can fall on students. There is no proper seating arrangement. The students have to first make seating arrangements themselves, which is in form of blankets or mats. A teacher in that the school could not afford to make seating arrangements due to the insufficient aid. Many such schools have no furniture in classrooms and lack teaching staff, toilets, clean drinking water and playground. In several cases, the schools are confined to one room only. Hence the children are forced to study under trees or in the open even in the rainy season. I have seen this in reality. Students were holding umbrellas while the lesson is being taught, while it was raining. The condition of the government primary schools in the city and the quality of education being imparted there is going from bad to worse. This is the major reason why the parents avoid sending kids in these primary schools.
   What are the reasons or the causes for this? I say even though the state ministry of education had drawn up several plans and policies, but they are failing to achieve their targets and goals due to lack of attention to the education sector. The government is spending a large amount of budget in providing free education to the poor but what these kids are getting is of no use. The government is spending a huge amount of money on several campaigns and events. But it is ignoring the education sector which is the only way to strengthen the nation.

    So how can we address this issue? The government must concentrate on the education sector and take revolutionary steps to improve the infrastructure in schools. The primary education sector needs to be standardized according to modern education systems. If the primary education syllabus and system is standardized according to modern needs, it could help in the country's development .That is why most of the schools want to inculcate CBSE syllabus which is standard in India. We as responsible citizens should give our part towards this. This is how we can build modern India.

Linux ....an important travel kit with your laptop

          
  Linux is very handy when it comes to travelling. The GPS based tracking system incorporated in it makes it so easy to track anything ,anywhere.While travelling in Europe ,I wanted to make sure that I would not come across any unforeseen issues while using  Linux as an OS in my PC.In this post I want to discuss on advantages of using Linux and also as a traveller , what do you have in it?
   Lets start with what is Linux ? Linux is nothing but an operating system. It is the software on a computer that enables applications and the computer operator to access the devices on the computer to perform desired functions. The operating system (OS) takes instructions from an application to the computer's processor. The processor performs the instructed task, and then sends the results back to the application through the operating system. Unlike Windows, Linux is an open source operating system which would help the user as well as the developer to go into the OS kernel and perform various tasks. Ubuntu, Redhat, Debian, Fedora are the operating systems which are built on Linux.




   Now, what do I already know about Linux? Most of the people are familiar with windowed operating system or what they say is desktop computing. Here we have menus, dialog boxes, status bars, task bars, notification bars, pop ups etc. Linux gives a new meaning for all of these. In Linux, there a lot of choices for which windowing system and desktop environment can be used, something that Linux allow users to decide. This cannot be done on Windows or even on a Mac system. It’s left to the user on how a pop up or dialog should appear, at what point it should appear and how it should be designed. In engineering 4th semester, we have been thought of how to design these stuffs in the subject Linux Environment.
         So why have I taken this topic for discussion? The answer is Linux can be used as an alternative to various other operating systems because of its ease of use. Linux is user friendly .Here are few examples that support my claim that it is user friendly: You don’t have to boot the OS on your desktop or laptop. Just boot from the CD and you can drag any file from the hard drive, even if the computer won't boot or you've forgotten your password. Linux can even help if you accidentally formatted your entire drive. So, the installation overhead is removed.
        The most widely used mobile OS Android is built on the Linux kernel. This is virus free. As the kernel or the core of the operating system is open to the users, anybody who hack the system OS can be caught, and removed with a simple command Shift-Alt-Delete. You can make your browsing experience simple and realistic using Linux operating system. These are a few examples, which I know, that can make users switch to Linux environment.
   For travel enthusiasts , there are appl like Earth3D which is an effective mapping and navigation tool.The map data is fetched from the server on the net and will display the satellite image ,in 3D, of any city you wish.So you can have a virtual travel environment.There is also an app called GPSDrive ,which gives you directions while you are riding the car.It is as accurate as Google's navigation app.

   Even if you're a Windows (or Mac) user, knowing how to use Linux is a valuable skill, and it can run a bunch of awesome things in your home even if it isn't your main desktop OS.I have already installed Fedora in my desktop and experimenting on it. Hope it doesn’t let me down and meets my expectations.

Travelling through IPL matches....Need for cheerleaders

As we all know, the Indian Premier League is a Twenty20 cricket tournament where different franchise teams compete for the title. Watching  IPL matches and following the teams is an entirely new experience.Its like a travel redefined.I have travelled to Bangalore & Chennai to watch these matches.I would like to tell about the cheer leaders in IPL in this post rather than sharing my experience in travelling.

    The tournament started in 2008 and takes place every year usually in the months of April–June. There are 8 teams in the tournament comprising of both Indian and foreign players. The current champions are Kolkata Knight Riders, who won the 2014 season by beating the Kings XI Punjab.

    IPL is a place where both sports and entertainment meet each other. It is not just cricket. The IPL's mixture of glamour, big money and cricket played at a faster pace has no parallel in Indian sport. The cheerleaders are the essential part of the entertainment and glamour face of the IPL. They provide on field glamour, they add to the spectacle and they entertain viewers, whether at the ground or on television.
      What if cheerleaders are removed? What are its consequences? Let us understand that cheerleaders are a way by which entertainment value is added to the game. It is in no way a means by which people would want to offend its viewers. So definitely, with the removal of cheerleaders the entertainment factor will be removed from the game. To support this, take the example of the test matches, which are being played for 5 days, without the cheerleaders. The game becomes so dry .Only first and the last days of the game are expected to deliver result. This is why the viewership of test matches is declining at rapid pace.
     It’s just surprising to see that there are people who would actually suggest that the cheerleaders distract the players from playing their game. We’re talking about international level players who have been trained for years and usually play in front of thousands of people as live audience with many millions watching at home. So, are we saying they get distracted with 2-3 cheerleaders? This doesn’t make any sense to me. On contrary, keeping a cheerleader for the team would build up the team’s morale, as she dances and cheers for the team every time you score a boundary.

      It’s time we stopped worrying about every little thing such as this that comes our way. Let’s look at the bright side of having IPL cheerleaders and not worry too much on its problems. We’ve shown that we are a country that’s moving forward and is not hesitant to try out new things as our beloved Prime Minister Mr.Modi is trying out new things every now and then. Let us be responsible citizen and take every new thing in a positive way.