Heena Sharma Blog

  As you drive down the road leading to Jodrell Bank Observatory , a sign asks visitors to turn off their mobile phones, stating that the Lovell telescope is so powerful it could detect a phone signal on Mars. Radio telescopes are designed to be incredibly sensitive. To quote the legendary astronomer Carl Sagan, “The total amount of energy from outside the solar system ever received by all the radio telescopes on the planet Earth is less than the energy of a single snowflake striking the ground.” The total energy now is probably a few snowflakes’ worth, but nevertheless it is still true that astronomical radio signals are typically magnitudes smaller than artificial ones. If Jodrell Bank could pick up interference from a phone signal on Mars, how would it fare with an entire 4G network on the Moon? That is the issue that is worrying astronomers like me, now that Nokia of America has been awarded US$14.1m (£10.8m) for the development of the first ever cellular network on the M...

After catapulting India to being the world's largest mobile data consuming nation, RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani Thursday said Jio's fibre-based broadband offering can place the country among the top three nations in fixed broadband from a low rank of 135 currently. He also said India has moved from 155th rank in mobile broadband penetration to being the number one nation in mobile data consumption in the world in less than two years. The country has an unparalleled combination of connectivity with affordability. "This is the fastest transition anywhere in the world from 2G/3G to 4G," he said. "By 2020, I believe that India will be a fully-4G country and ready for 5G ahead of others." By 2020, every phone in India will be a 4G-enabled phone and every customer will have access to 4G connectivity, he said. Jio is committed to "connecting everyone and everything, everywhere, always with the highest quality and the most affordable price,...

South Korea is expected to launch these services by March 2019, Japan in late 2019 and China, along with most western major cities, in 2020 Technology News : India plans to roll out state-of-the-art 5G telecom services in the next four years, a senior official said, as the nation rushes to catch up with its Asian peers. “We are not there yet,” Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said in an interview in New Delhi, adding that complete roll-out of 5G will be done by 2022. “5G won’t be driven by supply, it’ll be driven by demand and the rest of industry needs to wake up to this.” The South Asian nation, traditionally a laggard while embracing latest technology in telecommunications, will follow South Korea, Japan and China where 5G service will be offered within the next two years. The high-speed and low latency service will help Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India plan, which seeks to broaden Internet access, and the Smart Cities initiative. “If we ...

Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan had earlier said that India wants to be a frontrunner in adopting 5G technology Economy & Policy News : Telecom   industry body   COAI   has said auction of spectrum for 5G services should happen only around the second half of 2019 as it would offer   telcos   better visibility into market dynamics and potential revenue streams of the next-generation mobile services. The pricing of 5G spectrum, which would be required in larger blocks or chunks than seen before, would also be "critical component of success of these auctions" that should ideally take place in the "mid to latter part of 2019", Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) Director General Rajan Mathews told   PTI. Further, the ongoing financial stress in the industry will also have to be dealt with for the   telecom   operators to make investments into 5G auctions, he said. The advent of 5G is seen as the next technologica...