COVID-19 (Test)
Part-1
Role of Telcos & Technology
The world has come to a screeching halt after the recent spread of Coronavirus or Covid-19. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared it pandemic. The markets have been affected by this virus with businesses being shut and people locked down at their homes. At this time, Internet has become the main medium to connect with people, do businesses, run administration, besides getting entertained.
‘Work from Home’ has become norm, which in-turn has increased the demand for home broadband connections. In IT hubs like Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai, telecom operators and ISPs started witnessing a major spike in demand for home broadband connections and internet dongles. In addition, bandwidth demand has also seen upswing.
A BofA Global Research report said that telecom operators are going to be benefitted by this as operators are set to benefit from a 10 pc jump in data traffic as more offices switch to ‘work from home’. Adding further the report said that Bharti/RIL are to be bigger beneficiaries to this trend and expect both their mobile and fixed broadband business to benefit in near-term. Also as a pure-play telco, Bharti is a bigger beneficiary.
India has 63 cr plus mobile (3G/4G) users versus 1.9 cr fixed broadband users. As fixed broadband penetration is only 6 pc, majority of the ‘Work from Home’ traffic or about 70 pc plus, is expected to be on cellular network. There are a total of 115 crore mobile subscribers out of which 98 crore subscribers are active. Thus, still a large number of mobile users ranging between 35 to 52 cr do not have access to mobile data services.
Apart from ‘Work from Home’, online video streaming also witnessed a spike in its demand which has significantly impacted how the internet service providers handle their daily network traffic.
Zee5 subscriptions were up 10 pc in the second week of March over to the first week. Consumption of original content has grown by more than 10 pc while the increase is a more modest 5 pc for television content (catch-up TV and live TV) through connected devices like Amazon Fire Stick.
Bengali streaming platform Hoichoi claimed traffic has almost doubled since March 18. The average consumption has increased to 60 minutes per day from around 50 minutes earlier. The platform has also seen more consumption in international markets led by Europe, Japan and Bangladesh.
Seeing spurt in the online streaming, COAI urged the government to issue immediate instructions to streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime and others to take measures that will ease pressure on network infrastructure. It also urged companies to temporarily switch over to SD (Standard Definition) from HD (High Definition) streaming, removing high bandwidth-consuming advertisements and pop-ups and replacing them with public announcements on awareness regarding the virus.
Following this, various platforms begun efforts to reduce streaming bit-rates to help mitigate network congestion. However, Netflix said that it has developed a way to reduce Netflix’s traffic on telecom networks by 25 pc while also maintaining the quality of service. So, consumers should continue to get the quality that comes with their plan – whether it’s Ultra-High, High or Standard Definition. While Google and Facebook said they are temporarily putting all videos on their respective platforms only on standard definition.
Despite various concerns telcos and ISPs are confident about handling the current bandwidth demand. Rajan S Mathews, director general COAI said that the industry, in concert with actions coordinated with the DoT, has seen a flattening of traffic demand on members’ networks. Some of these actions relate to streaming services reducing their content from HD to SD, while local municipalities allowed the sealed towers to start radiating, some redistribution of traffic on the network, among other things. As a result, operators believe there is no present need to request for any additional spectrum. With these steps, the operators remain confident that they can maintain relatability and quality of their networks and services.
Despite all the challenges, telcos & ISPs announced several consumer centric initiatives to help their low end subscribers (see box ‘A’ below).
Mobile phone operators have also written to DoT and Trai requesting them that the customers be allowed to access all critical websites offering government services, ecommerce and digital payments such as the Bhim app, without being charged for data during the lockdown period.
Also, Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio said that they have curtailed their voice-based customer care services and urged users to avail all services on their mobile apps. They said their customer helplines are still operational but have informed the users about shortage of agents.
Leading companies such as Lenovo, Motorola, Asus, Haier etc have come forward and extended the warranty of their products which were to be expired in the lockdown period. Lenovo and Motorola are offering a free global warranty extension for up to 75 days through May 31, 2020 for all Lenovo/Motorola smartphones and accessories with warranties that are coming to an end between March 15 through April 30, 2020.
Haier India said that it has extended warranty on all its products expiring in March and April 2020 to two months after the lockdown is lifted. ASUS India has also extended warranty for all Smartphones, Laptops, Desktops, All in ones and Tablets whose warranty has expired during the lockdown period between March 25, 2020 and April 14, 2020 for a period of 30 days.
On the other hand, World Health Organization (WHO) has partnered with WhatsApp and Facebook to disseminate Covid-19 related facts to masses. WhatsApp with its user base of 2 billion people will allow WHO to send information directly to the people who require it the most.
WHO said the service can be accessed through a link (https://bit.ly/who-covid19-whatsapp), which will open a conversation on WhatsApp. To make the service easily accessible and user-friendly, one can simply send a “hi” text to activate the service which will then provide a menu of options that can help users in getting answers to their queries on coronavirus.
The WHO Health Alert has been developed in collaboration with Praekelt.org, using Turn (www.Turn.io) machine learning technology.
DoT initiatives
Earlier, DoT had instructed the telecom operators that instead of ring back tone, play audio clip on awareness on coronavirus. All the telcos are following it. Also, government launched a special chatbot on application like WhatsApp. This WhatsApp Chatbot is named MyGov Corona Helpdesk at 9013151515.
On the other hand, DoT has written to chief secretaries of all the states, urging them to allow movement of field staff of telecom companies and infrastructure providers, and give other permissions to ensure uninterrupted operation of critical communications networks.
DoT has also said that movement of vehicles carrying diesel for the generators at critical telecom infrastructure should be allowed and that sufficient diesel availability should be ensured. It has also sought states’ cooperation for ensuring availability of power supply to critical telecom infrastructure.
Aarogya Setu by MeitY
The government has also launched its official Covid-19 tracking app called Aarogya Setu. The app has been developed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) through Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) under guidance of National Informatics Centre (NIC). You can download the app from any source for free. At the time of download, it will ask you a few question about your name, gender, age, mobile number, and your profession. Once installed, the app detects other devices with Aarogya Setu installed that come in the proximity of that phone. The app will share user data with the government in case anyone knowingly or accidentally you came in contact with tested positive for coronavirus. For this, you have to set your smartphone always ON for location sharing and Bluetooth.
According to government, personal data collected by the App is encrypted using state-of-the-art technology and stays secure on the phone till it is needed for facilitating medical intervention. The app’s privacy policy makes it clear that user data will not be shared with third-parties. It clearly specifies that “Your data will be shared only with the government of India. The app does not allow your name and mobile number to be disclosed to the public at large at any time.”
The app is available for free on iOS and Android in 11 languages. As on April 3, the app saw over a million downloads on Google Playstore.
Hackathon for ideas – MeitY
Ministry of Electronics and IT, MeitY Startup Hub (MSH), FICCI FLO Pune, APJ Abdul Kalam Centre, Science and Technology Park, Pune (Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt of India initiative), Garage48, Accelerate Estonia, Robotex International (India Initiative) have got together to take a lead in India on the movement, that has got global in less than couple of days – #hackthecrisis #hackthecrisisindia
The intent of this hackathon is to develop ideas that are prototypeable in 48-hours which could help solve the crisis and give India an edge in the post-crisis world.
The MeitY web site states, “Think of all the problems that arise from the Covid-19 crisis. Which one do you want to help solve? What would be a good solution for that specific problem, and how do you plan to solve it during the hackathon? Do not stop at anything. Think of the crazy approaches. Think of stuff that needs different regulations. Think for a few hours, get together the team (maximum 10 members) or play solo and join the hackathon.”
There is no application fee. One can register idea on: http://www.hackacause.in or www.garage48.org. Out of them, top 300 entries will be chosen by the event managers for competition. All the teams that enter the competition will be announced one day before the 48-hour prototyping marathon begins. They will receive an e-mail with complete instructions on how the hackathon will look like, and need to get ready for the 48-hour online hacking.
Top teams will enter the global Hack the Crisis hackathon, which will gather together the best teams from similar competitions all around the world!
Technology Start-ups
Gurugram based DronaMaps has developed a live dashboard to track Covid-19 patients and their activities, and is working with Haryana and Punjab governments. The start-up also offers an administrative dashboard with advanced features like location tracking, geofencing and predictive analytics.
To flatten the curve of the number of cases with the disease, it is important to track the positive cases, suspected cases, quarantined individuals, hospitalised cases etc. To give an example, all suspected cases are constantly monitored through social media or call records. This ensures officials are aware of the places those people could have visited and by detecting the mobile phones close to the patient’s phone, the people who have been in close physical proximity with the patient. In addition, predictive spatial analysis based on granular spatial and temporal data can be used to estimate which areas would need additional resources.
In line with this, the start-up made a Covid-19 tracking system which consists of two parts. First, a user-facing public dashboard which is built to provide reliable information pooled from official sources for citizens at large. The second is an administrative dashboard with more advanced features like location tracking, geofencing and predictive analytics.
A Bengaluru based startup BlinkIn’s remote technology helped the Huoshenshan Field Hospital in Wuhan fight Coronavirus. As Wuhan was hit by Covid-19, authorities set up temporary hospitals to specifically cater to the flooding cases of the virus. In these centres, ventilators were vital and many came from a German manufacturer, Huber & Ranner. However, their installation had become difficult as technicians could not go to Wuhan.
In such a situation, BlinkIn helped in the installation of ventilators as Huber & Ranner used its Augmented Reality (AR) product Scotty to provide visual guidance from Pocking in Germany. With the use of BlinkIn’s product, hospital staff just had to click on a link to get tech support. All they needed was to point a phone at the ventilator and installation point, and AR markers helped indicate what needed to be done as a technician talked them through the process.
Scotty is different from other AR apps, which are bandwidth-heavy and hard to deploy, as it uses WebGL, a JavaScript API, to render graphics on a compatible browser. WebGL lets the user access a mobile phone’s graphics processing unit (GPU) to run computer vision algorithms. “That’s how we bring AR experiences through the Web rather than a mobile app,” Kumar said. A lightweight product like Scotty is to provide just enough AR for tech support to get the job done then and there.
In short, BlinkIn is a Remote Support Platform to boost customer support. With AR and AI it reduces onsite visits and allows customer self-service.
Telcos gain
The telecom operators are getting higher revenue from increase in the internet consumption and bandwidth. But, there are almost no new buyers of SIM. Operators said net subscriber additions may fall by at least 2 million in March alone and may dip further if the social isolation advisories are kept in place for a longer duration. Revenue from international roaming is also expected to fall sharply for telecom operators due to global travel restrictions.
However, COAI said that the revenue impact of 2 million dip will be offset by increased data usage by people who are now working from home or staying indoors. Along with the impact of tariff increase in December and data volume growth during this period, ARPU will go up by 5-10 per cent for March.
International SIM card provider Matrix Cellular International Services also said business had come to a standstill. The company used to sell an average of 60,000-70,000 cards every month, now it has become zero.
Smartphone loss
According to Counterpoint Research, supplies of smartphone components from China to other countries may hit at least till the second quarter of this year. The research report suggests that Q1 PRC (People’s Republic of China) sales to be down by around 25 pc, compared to original forecast. This is 18 pc lower than Q1 last year. But this can worsen if the virus is not contained. Global sales will also go down 7 pc compared to same period last year. Overall, Q1 and Q2 will show negative growth both globally and in PRC before rebounding.
Echoing the same concerns, IDC said that prolonged shutdown of factories in China and a consequent disruption of supplies following the outbreak of Covid-19, will lead to a 2.3 pc decline in the global smartphone market, with shipments seen over 1.3 billion units. Smartphone sales in the first half of 2020 are expected to fall 10.6 pc yoy.
While China will take the biggest hit, other major geographies will feel the hit from supply chain disruptions. Component shortages, factory shutdowns, quarantine mandates, logistics and travel restrictions will create hindrances for smartphone vendors to produce handsets and rollout new devices.
IDC expects that the smartphone market is likely to bounce back in 2021 with 5G smartphones fuelling growth. It also expects that market will likely stabilize beginning third quarter of 2020 as the Covid-19 situation hopefully improves and 5G plans pick up pace globally.
The IDC report suggests that small and medium enterprises in the phone industry, especially retail channel partners, will be severely affected. However, there is an opportunity for phone vendors that can effectively help retail channels and other partners recover and re-consolidate after the epidemic is over.
In India, after seeing the Covid-19 outbreak in China, the suppliers of iPhones and other handset brands are running low at shops. Apple is the worst hit with many stores saying the iPhone 11 series has almost dried up as have some models of the Apple Watch, though the supplies of the locally manufactured iPhone XR and 7 are not impacted. Xiaomi, TCL and Realme phones are the other brands who also got hit.
While plants have resumed operations in China, they are functioning at about 35-50 pc of capacity. As a result, the prices of some components have already risen, forcing manufacturers to increase the prices of TVs, smartphones and ACs by 5-10 pc.
With the decline in smartphone market, slash in marketing spends by the smartphone brands is estimated at 70 pc. Most of the advertisements for latest product launches would go to digital platforms such as video streaming apps which are seeing most traction these days. Out-of-home advertisements such as billboards, hoardings and transits are already blank.
Part-2
5G combating Covid-19 in China
To fight Covid-19, the biggest challenge the Chinese government faced was its vast landscape, large, highly mobile population, and demand for resources. The government was helped by the telecom operators in China who worked with Huawei to set up a specific 5G network dedicated to hospitals treating Covid-19 patients.
Throughout the coronavirus outbreak, 5G remote consultation has had clinical trials in multiple locations. At Wuhan Union Hospital, a 5G remote consultation platform, is hosting daily appointments with patients in different campuses, enabling them to connect with experts at leading medical institutions such as Beijing Union, Beijing Chao-Yang and Wuhan Oncology hospitals. In Wuhan’s Huoshenshan (Fire God Mountain) Hospital, a temporary facility built exclusively to battle the coronavirus, medical staff could seek support from experts in Beijing via 5G consultation platform, providing access to all available resources. This improved the efficiency and effectiveness of diagnosis and treatment, reduced the workloads of overstretched medical staff, and reduced the risk of experts being exposed to the virus.
In the battle against Covid-19 in China, remote imaging proved effective in a pilot program at Wuhan Leishenshan (Thunder God Mountain) Hospital, another temporary facility built exclusively for virus patients. Doctors from Chinese PLA General Hospital have performed scans of quarantined patients in Wuhan via 5G platforms, achieving real time feedback and diagnosis and reducing the burden of front-line medical staff.
With advances in technology, medical imaging has become an important method of diagnosis. Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) are at the core of Huawei’s 5G SMART healthcare ecosystem. When combined with 5G networks, advanced big data analytics and AI, they can automate analysis models and machine learning, greatly reducing the time required and manual work involved.
A typical schematic of the configuration deployed in China is shown in diagram-1.
Diagram-1: 5G remote medical consultation platform
To control spread, at the entrance of every hospital and other critical areas, thermal cameras and detection devices were installed to monitor the status of every visiting person / suspect including the medical staff. A typical configuration is shown in diagram-2.
Diagram-2: 5G thermal temperature monitoring system
In this manner, automatically, every person used to get screened, not just once, but as many times as he would pass near the thermal cameras.
For every activity, different level of data speed / reliability was required. For example, for healthy people, only thermal imaging and movement tracking was required. For suspected cases, teleconferencing with specialized doctors was also required. For confirmed positive cases, teleconferencing, real-time data and case details sharing were necessary. For critical patients, highest level of data speed was necessary. See diagram-3 for data requirements at various levels for different kind of people visiting a hospital or centre.
Diagram-3: The data requirements of different population groups
Such a monitoring can be done at various places outside of hospitals such as trains, shopping malls, offices, etc. On the basis of the result, a suspected person can be immediately isolated and transported to hospital in safe manner, as soon as the body temperature is observed to be higher than normal. The flow is shown in diagram-4.
Diagram-4: Epidemic control scenarios
An HD thermal camera and real-time movement tracking system can improve screening accuracy and efficiency. Once a suspected case is identified, it is critical to perform accurate testing quickly, as an individual will need to be relocated and immediately treated if an infection is confirmed. Front-line medical care operations always face the challenge of limited resources and an increasing number of patients. Remote medicine consultations can address these constraints as it enables medical experts, to get real-time data, perform livestreamed HD diagnosis, development treatment plans and share their experience of cases with fellow professionals – without having to be in close proximity to patients. To do this, and maximize utilization of available medical resources, a supporting network needs to be reliable and fast with minimum delay, and have extensive bandwidth for data transmission. All this is possible in 5G.
Conclusion:
There is a need to accurately monitor people in public areas using 5G+ thermal imaging temperature monitoring system consisting of Infrared Radiation (IR) camera, body temperature measuring unit and 5G network module. It can accurately monitor a moving object’s temperatures in real-time without contact and issue abnormal temperature alerts. Through 5G networks, the data collected by terminals can be sent to central monitoring units and shared to the Cloud in real time with no lag. This enables 24×7 online public temperature monitoring, imaging and travel and contact history tracking, when needed.
Once an individual is identified as a suspected or confirmed infection, treatment becomes a race against time. In China, SMART ambulances were built to carry emergency care communication and diagnostics kits, serving a unique role in the healthcare system. Apart from transporting patients safely, they provide emergency treatment remotely, as well as collecting and transmitting information to hospitals so they can develop treatment and quarantine plans. This is important especially when the hospitals are located far away.
Benefiting from 5G networks’ fast data load speeds of over 100Mbps, SMART ambulances with 4K HD monitoring systems can send videos and transmit medical data to command centres in real time, allowing support staff to communicate with ambulance crews. If necessary, a command centre can initiate diagnosis conferences with experts and ambulance crews for emergency response, ensuring a patient’s smooth transition from the ambulance to hospital. This combination of 5G network and 4K SMART ambulances transforms the medical emergency response model: it digitalizes its operation, from mobilizing treatment to data collection and real time communication, improving treatment efficiency and effectiveness.
Big data is at the core of SMART medical care, covering stages such as consultation, diagnosis and treatment. While treating patients, hospitals need to stay closely connected with one another and maintain effective communication. Case studies and medical data should also be consolidated and shared promptly, providing valuable reference for other hospitals and scientific research institutions.
Part-3
Interview with DG COAI
Rajan S Mathews, Director General, COAI
“No-HD streaming has freed up as much as 20 pc of telecom network capacity”
How much surge in data traffic have you seen during the lockdown period?
There has been about 15-22 per cent surge in demand for data in the last few days. TSPs are working 24×7 to ensure the networks remained available 99.99 per cent of the time.
In terms of Mobile network there is a shift in traffic hotspots and peak usage hours and the telcos are prepared to meet this demand. Home Broadband customers are upgrading to faster speeds and larger quota plans to support work from home and study from home requirements. The B2B customers are utilising 4G dongles, Home Fiber connections and larger enterprise bandwidths which are all being serviced smoothly.
What suggestions have you made to the OTT players in terms of downloads?
As people are in lockdown or self-quarantine, in the last few days, there has been a spike in data consumption and demand across categories especially OTT videos. Subscriptions have also doubled, which is creating extra pressure on the network. We had written a letter to the content streaming platforms urging them to use data as minimally and efficiently, to offset the surge in demand for internet. The letter specifically recommends to reduce the HD streaming to SD during the lockdown period. We have requested to OTT players like Netflix, Amazon Prime, ZEE5, YouTube, Voot, Alt Balaji, SunNXT, Sony Liv, Viuclip and Hoichoi among others.
Various OTT players have reduced their streaming on mobile. What impact has it made in data consumption?
It has potentially freed up as much as 20 per cent of telecom network capacity.
What are the steps taken by the telcos to manage the huge demand of data during the lockdown period?
The telecom operators are working together to provide seamless connectivity and internet bandwidth to the consumers. Specific measures are being taken to resolve issues to provide uninterrupted services. Telcos are planning to increase the ‘cells on wheels’ (CoWs) to ease the increasing pressure on network areas.
CoW sites are pieces of infrastructure on which base stations and antennae can be mounted and wheeled to boost capacity and reduce the congestion. Our member operators have also obtained approvals from the DoT to ensure critical workers, those operating their network operation centres (NoCs), are allowed to travel. The passes are being issued by the local authorities amid the pandemic-induced countrywide lockdowns to resolve network-related glitches at a time when the bulk of corporate staff across India is working from home.
COAI, had written to the DoT and to the content streaming platforms urging them to use data as minimally and efficiently as possible given the extra surge in demand for internet. We had specifically recommended the firms to reduce the HD streaming to SD during the lockdown period.
The Mobile, Fixed Broadband, DTH and Fiber networks are fully geared up to serve customers in the emerging scenario.
In Delhi, COAI had written to MCDs to de-seal the sealed towers till lockdown to ensure smooth connectivity.
The network engineers are working 24×7 over the past few weeks to ensure the uninterrupted connectivity to the citizens. Telcos have a comprehensive pandemic response plan with requisite risk mitigation protocols which has been activated while ensuring continuity of mission critical processes for keeping our networks working as telecom is an essential service.
Telcos have set up virtual war rooms where teams are in touch through video conferencing or conference call facilities. Representatives from operations, circles, state network operating centres (SNOCs) along with various partners are constantly working to ensure uptime and operational continuity.
To facilitate movement during lockdown, DoT can give a blanket letter for the staff of the named companies to be exempted for movement, and the concerned person can show the DoT letter and his identity card to the concerned officials, in cases where there are delays in procuring curfew passes.
What kind of challenges telcos facing in running of the tower sites?
Connectivity is an essential aspect that enables critical services to function smoothly even during a lockdown. Telecom industry has set up war rooms and deployed engineers, who are working 24×7 during this period to ensure seamless connectivity at all times.
These network management war rooms enable teams to keep in touch with ground staff and staff across locations via con-calls and video conferencing facilities. Representatives from operations, circles, SNOC, along with various partners, are working to ensure uptime and operational continuity.
To facilitate movement during the lockdown, the industry is in constant touch with DoT so that necessary guidelines can be issued at regular intervals. On ground, despite home ministry having issued standard operating procedure (SoP) to allow people managing essential services to travel, some of our employees are facing difficulties from law enforcement agencies. For example, vehicle with diesel for DG sets of mobile towers and other telecom equipment were not allowed to pass through initially creating hurdles but thankfully that has been resolved.
We would like to appreciate the support the industry has received from the DoT and state governments in this challenging time. The government is extending every possible support wherever needed.
How telcos are managing customer care functions in this crisis situation?
Telcos have activated distributed command centers to monitor and manage networks from different locations in case any geography is not accessible for some time. The network partners have also activated BCP (Business Continuity Planning) and are fully geared up to meet any situation.
What measures have telcos taken to safeguard their field workforce from the pandemic?
Telcos have organised temporary stay arrangement at data centre locations, made food and groceries available at critical locations and are providing vehicle on duty to facilitate movement of technical staff to sites.
The network engineers and other on-ground staff are working in the field with utmost care by following the social distancing protocols. Few of other elements are:
- Daily briefings on safety, social distancing to all field and non-field staff
- Drive test teams, FRT, Patrollers provided with masks, gloves and sanitizers
- Daily stock taking of well-being of people
- Network team connected 24×7 over phone, mails, WhatsApp, VCs
- Vehicles are tagged with “Emergency Telecom Services” stickers
- Each field engineer carries 3 documents – DoT letter, Personal ID and Employee ID
