Femto-fever!

Femtocells have been proclaimed the new holy grail for mobile operators.

By providing improved indoor coverage and cheaper voice & data call rates, all with no additional handset requirement for the consumer, femtocells could well take the wireless industry to happier times. Tipped as a winning FMS (Fixed-mobile substitution) solution, femtocells promise to capture new marketshare for mobile operators, reduce customer churn and facilitate (finally) the take-up of premium mobile data services.

For a change, the business model looks fairly sound, but technological implementation questions remain. Interference issues always creep up when talking about any wireless solution and femtocells are no different. Network integration, QoS and privacy issues remain as well. My take is that these will sort themselves out...a matter of time.

The last few months have seen a lot of activity in this sphere: the setting up of Femto Forum, a body of vendors, operators and other telecom entities pro-femto. Also, Google's $25 Million funding for Ubiquisys, a femtocell vendor, seems to be in line with its overall mobile services strategy which already includes wireless spectrum bids and the development of a mobile-OS.

Exciting times...

Shantaram re-visited

Re-reading Shantaram these days after having first read it about 2 years ago. I particularly like the reflection the author provides at the end of each chapter. Sometimes philosophical, sometimes dead real...always poignant.

A couple of gems...

"Redemption's climb is steepest if the good we did is soiled with secret shame."

"Sometimes we love with nothing more than hope. Sometimes we cry with everything except tears. In the end thats all there is: love and it's duty, sorrow and it's truth. In the end, thats all we have-to hold on tight until dawn."

My only friend..The End

Inaugral INSEAD Singapore Cabaret video...

Found this classic on YouTube. As I've writeen on this blog before, sucessive INSEAD promotions have had a long tradition of putting up their own farewell evening, aptly titled the 'Cabaret'.

At the Singapore campus however, the first 'Cabaret' wasn't held until December '06. There were several performances: some touching, some exhilarating, all memorable. This one struck me as particularly so for the heart that went into making it.

Grease - INSEAD style! ("...Oh...those Singapore nights")