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Shared mobility players can cash in on growing logistics demand

Naushad K. Cherrayil
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Shared mobility players can cash in on growing logistics demand
  • Last-mile delivery and electrification offer opportunities to scooter-sharing companies in India.
  • Mobility players urged to align their fleet with delivery companies and individuals for maximum utilisation.
  • Rising fuel prices will compel shared mobility companies to relook at their asset portfolio and consider increasing the share of electric vehicles.

Growing logistics demand due to the increase in online-culture among Indian consumers offers opportunities for shared mobility players to step-in.

Covid-19 pandemic has shifted consumer preference to personal mobility and the prominence of work-from-home arrangement in major cities in India is keeping the fleet utilisation low.

But, Bakar Sadik Agwan, Senior Automotive Consulting Analyst at GlobalData, said that mobility players need to align their fleet with delivery companies and individuals for maximum utilisation.

 “In the present scenario, rising fuel prices will compel shared mobility companies to relook at their asset portfolio and consider increasing the share of electric vehicles. Electric scooters and motorcycles are priced slightly lower than their IC engine counterparts, incur lower taxes and offer low total cost of ownership,” he said.

Petrol prices in Mumbai have crossed Rs95 and inching closer to the Rs100 mark.

Moreover, Agwan said the growing production of the electric two-wheelers in the country offers opportunities for shared mobility and auto companies to get into asset leasing partnerships, which will be a win-win for both parties while electrification can help mobility companies to make their business asset-light.

Vogo and eBikeGo raise funds

The domestic scooter-sharing market in India has been witnessing highs and lows for the past few years.

Against this backdrop, the investments indicate that investors are optimistic about the future of scooter sharing/rental business models in India.

Ola-backed scooter sharing and short rentals brand Vogo raised $11.5 million while eBikeGo, a scooter sharing platform for personal mobility and last-mile delivery services, raised $1.5 million.

Both Vogo and eBikeGo plan to use the funds for regional expansion and the addition of electric vehicles.

“After witnessing a short-time success, some of the app-based platforms failed to find the required volume of riders in India, affecting their fleet utilisation and profitability,” Agwan said.

Hyundai to strengthen its position

Following the success of passenger vehicles in India, Hyundai, the second-largest player in India with a market share of 17.4 per cent last year, South Korean giant is set to strengthen its position as a mobility player in India with fresh investment.

Presently, Hyundai has Kona Electric under its battery electric vehicle (BEV) portfolio in India and plans to go the Tata-way and develop locally made affordable electric car. The company has a budgeted investment of $137 million for the same and the vehicle is expected to get in production by 2023.

Agwan said the South Korean auto giant has pioneered shared mobility in India in partnership with car sharing companies, launched the first online retail program ‘Click to Buy’ and emerged as a major SUV brand.

“Hyundai, with its affordable BEV, could definitely reform the electric mobility space in India but needs substantial support from the government to develop the electric ecosystem to promote EV adoption.”

However, to make the EV fleet expansion growth sustainable for the mobility players, he said the government and automakers need to play significant roles in creating the right ecosystem including charging infrastructure, battery swapping and service stations for the upcoming EV fleets.

While success is not a low hanging fruit for shared mobility players in the present scenario in India, there are “untapped opportunities for companies and investors. Focus on logistics/last-mile delivery services and electrification of fleet offers significant opportunities to scooter-sharing companies.”

Why kids are more tech-savvy than adults in the UAE?

Naushad K. Cherrayil
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Why kids are more tech-savvy than adults in the UAE?
  • More than a third aged six years or under own an iPad or tablet.
  • Young kids up to age six are more likely to own a separate device than use an adult’s or share among siblings, YouGov survey reveals.
  • Even though children’s total screen time has increased considerably after the pandemic, not many parents perceive it to be a negative development.

More than a third (36 per cent) of young children in the UAE, up to the age of 6 years, possess their own iPad or tablet, YouGov’s latest research revealed.

The survey questioned parents on their child’s interaction with digital devices to understand the likely impact of this engagement.

Private device ownership is highest in this age group when compared to using an adult’s device or sharing it among siblings (36 per cent vs 22 per cent and 16 per cent respectively).

Zafar Shah of YouGov, said that children today are growing up in a digital age and devices have become a part of their daily lives.

“The data shows a considerable proportion of young kids have their personal gadgets. Numbers are notably high for smartphones and tablets. Parents of young children in the UAE especially have a favourable attitude towards digital devices and allow private ownership of gadgets among kids.

“This presents a lucrative segment of consumers for device makers. Therefore, understanding the mindset and needs of parents becomes important to approach these potential buyers in the best possible way,” he said.

Apart from the iPads and tablets, a considerable number of children within this age group (0-6 years) have their smartphones (31 per cent), laptops or computers (27 per cent) and handheld computer games (23 per cent). The ownership of gaming consoles is comparatively lower at 18 per cent.

The data showed that at present two in five children (43 per cent) in the UAE have their tablets or iPads. Out of this total proportion, 36 per cent of iPad/ tablet owners belong to the group age of 0-6 years.

Negative concerns

The coronavirus pandemic forced people to stay indoors, which resulted in higher adoption of digital mediums and devices for education and entertainment.

Unsurprisingly, four in five parents in the UAE said their child’s screen time has increased after the pandemic. Even though children’s total screen time has increased considerably after the pandemic, not many parents perceive it to be a negative development.

Two out of five (40 per cent) parents look at their child’s interaction with digital devices favourably and said that it has a positive impact on them. Three in ten (31 per cent), however, think otherwise and feel digital devices affect their child negatively.

Parents whose youngest child is between 0-6 years were more likely to say tech gadgets affect their child positively when compared to the rest of the parents.

With schools moving online, it is not surprising to see a large majority of UAE parents (56 per cent) saying digital devices help keep up with schoolwork during this time.

According to parents, other benefits of using digital devices include enhancement of their child’s learning skills (42 per cent) and exposure to a variety of ideas and opinions (37 per cent).

Effect on child’s mood

A third of parents (32 per cent) with children between 0-6 years age group claim digital devices have been beneficial in building their child’s problem-solving skills. 

Talking about the negative outcomes, a majority of parents claim digital devices have a detrimental impact on their child’s physical health (54 per cent) and lead to excess time being spent online (52 per cent).

Many are concerned about its effect on their child’s mood (44 per cent) and their exposure to inappropriate content (45 per cent). Notably, all these concerns are greater amongst parents with older children (6 years and above).

To deal with these issues, parents are taking several measures. Half the parents set a limit for screen use (50 per cent), encourage their child to participate in fun activities and educate them about privacy concerns (48 per cent each).

Keeping a check on their child’s digital activity (46 per cent), adding parental controls (45 per cent) and restricting the use of devices during bedtime (45 per cent) are some of the other ways through which parents try to safeguard their child’s usage of digital devices.

Banks and insurers to unveil new trends in fintech-related activities

Naushad K. Cherrayil
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Banks and insurers to unveil new trends in fintech-related activities
  • Return of risk management is cited as a key driver for technology investments and business decisions, particularly in what seems to be a point of entry for a crisis – credit risk.
  • Banks and financial institutions are looking to build capabilities to orchestrate various components of lending value chain effectively through collaboration.
  • 50% of lending decisions in retail banking will be supported by fintech propositions, underscoring accelerating bank–fintech collaboration by the middle of this year.

This year will see the introduction of new trends in fintech-related activities by banks and insurers.

Although fintech companies have seen challenges at the outset of 2021, there is a greater willingness by incumbent financial services institutions to collaborate. This is seen even in the most traditional business activities like lending and deposit-taking.

“This year, one imperative stands out, which is lending? Lending serves as an indicator for the eventual income growth and profitability of banks, and the ability to lend well in crisis conditions has received a lot of attention especially among the Asia/Pacific region’s largest institutions,” Michael Araneta, Associate Vice President at IDC Financial Insights Asia/Pacific, said.

Moreover, he said that financial institutions must ensure that they can withstand the pressures of slow growth, high delinquency period, and investments will be forthcoming into credit decisioning systems, collections and recovery, asset-liability management, and stress testing.

The predictions highlight the return of risk management as a key driver for technology investments and business decisions, particularly in what seems to be a point of entry for a crisis: credit risk.

“The lending ecosystem is witnessing a radical transformation. From owning the entire value chain of lending from origination to servicing, the focus is shifting to specialisation in parts of the overall digital lending value chain. Banks and financial institutions are looking to build capabilities to orchestrate various components of lending value chain effectively through collaboration,” Araneta said.

Digital transformation

Furthermore, Ganesh Vasudevan, Research Director at IDC Financial Insights Asia/Pacific, said that other priorities in ensuring the quality of customer services have come to the fore.

”The experience of 2020 has made banks and insurers more confident in their ability to deal with digital transactions. With investments into the cloud, virtualised infrastructure, and real-time payments systems, they can cope with the sheer growth in the use of digital channels among customers and staff,” he said.

The effort around operational risk management and business continuity has sustained them amid lockdowns and remote work phenomenon, he said and added that financial institutions are also much more able to support the emergence of new modalities of customer interactions, which enhance face-to-face interactions or replace them altogether.

Some of the key financial services predictions that will impact IT industry:
  • By the middle of 2021, 50 per cent of lending decisions in retail banking will be supported by fintech propositions, underscoring accelerating bank–fintech collaboration.
  • By 2024, 50 per cent of in-branch transactions will be initiated as pre-staged transactions or appointments for specialists that start on digital platforms and fulfilled on bank-owned technology and locations.
  • By 2024, 75 per cent of all consumer and small business loans will be originated through AI-enabled and automated processes.

What is Cloud RAN, Virtual RAN and OpenRAN?

Contributor
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What is Cloud RAN, Virtual RAN and OpenRAN?
  • When RAN is opened up horizontally, it could bring in a new range of low-cost radio players and gives mobile operators a choice to optimise deployment options for specific performance requirements at a much better cost.
  • OpenRAN allows to do mix and match software and hardware (radios and COTS servers) without rip and replace.

The entire telecom industry is going through a change that can be only compared to the change that data centres went through in the 2000s, all driven by Moore’s Law. 

Source: Parallel Wireless

The transformation allows to move from costly, proprietary solutions to COTS-based and open, software-based ones, and to create a broader vendor supply chain. 

At first, the industry thought that virtualisation with resource pooling was the answer and this is how C-RAN was born. 

C-RAN

About 10 years ago, virtualisation of the RAN functions started with the C-RAN (cloud RAN or centralised RAN) initiative from IBM, Intel and China Mobile. 

C-RAN resulted in a deployment model where a baseband unit that was doing digital processing could be located in a data centre and not on the site itself, under the radio where the processing was happening in legacy RANs. 

Instead, radios were connected to the baseband in the data centre unit via a dedicated high-bandwidth connection. This made C-RAN deployments only applicable to areas where there was access to fibre. 

The C-RAN required a new fronthaul interface, and various industry standards such as the Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) and the Next Generation Fronthaul Interface (NGFI) evolved to enable these new interfaces between the radios and baseband. C-RAN wasn’t necessarily open, but it did begin the movement toward disaggregating the RAN, but the use cases, because of pooling all digital processing in a centralized location, were limited to high density urban. And it still did not solve the issue of vendor lock-in.

vRAN

Next came Virtual RAN (vRAN) which necessarily is not Open RAN. With vRAN, the proprietary radio hardware remains as it is, but the software that runs on the BBU is virtualised to run on any COTS server. The proprietary interfaces between radios and COTS-based BBU remain as they are though as we show in the graphic below. 

So, though RAN functions are virtualised on a COTS server, the interface between the BBU and RRU/RRH is not an open interface, so any vendor’s software cannot work with the RRU/RRH unless the interfaces in vRAN become open. 

So, to use the analogy from the way we described legacy RAN, vRAN consists of vendor A radio and vendor A software running on COTS BBU. An operator cannot put vendor B software on the same COTS BBU unless the interface to the vendor A radio is open. So, vRAN still allows for vendor lock-in.

Open RAN

As data shows, most of the CAPEX required to build a wireless network is related to the RAN segment, reaching as high as 80 per cent of the total network cost or TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). Any reduction in the RAN equipment cost will significantly help the bottom line of wireless operators as they struggle to cope with the challenges of ever-increasing mobile traffic and declining revenues. 

Though the RAN interfaces are “supposed” to be open as they are 3GPP-standards based, in traditional RAN deployments, the software and interfaces remain either proprietary or “closed” by the individual vendor and are often tied to the underlying hardware by the SAME vendor. This means that operators cannot put vendor B’s software on a BBU from vendor A or connect a radio from vendor A to a vBBU hardware and software from vendor B.

Eugina Jordan, Vice-President for Marketing at Parallel Wireless.

Any software upgrades are tied into the installed base, and if an operator wants to do a vendor A swap, they need to rip out all of it: from the vendor A radio to the vendor A BBU hosting the vendor A software – they cannot replace just one component in the legacy RAN deployment. This creates vendor lock-in. 

Vodafone, the leading innovator in Open RAN, recently noted that “the global supply of telecom network equipment has become concentrated in a small handful of companies over the past few years. More choice of suppliers will safeguard the delivery of services to all mobile customers, increase flexibility and innovation and, crucially, can help address some of the cost challenges that are holding back the delivery of internet services to rural communities and remote places across the world.”

Vodafone added the move will improve “supply chain resilience,” introducing “a wave of new 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G technology vendors, in addition to the existing market leaders.”

It will be easier and cheaper to keep the radio from vendor A on the tower, installed, so no one has to climb up and replace it, and then keep the COTS-based BBU at the bottom of the tower, and then just simply upgrade the software from vendor A to software from vendor B remotely without going to a site. 

This is what OpenRAN allows to do: mix and match software and hardware (radios and COTS servers) without rip and replace. Not to be confused with C-RAN or vRAN.

The key thing with Open RAN is that the interface between the BBU and RRU / RRH is an open interface, so, any vendor’s software can work on any open RRU / RRH. More open interfaces enable them to use one supplier’s radios with another’s processors – which is not possible with C-RAN or vRAN.

Open RAN is a movement to define and build 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G RAN solutions based on general-purpose, vendor-neutral hardware and software-defined technology with open interfaces between all the components. Open RAN is the disaggregation of hardware and software: the RRU/RRH hardware becomes a GPP-based or COTS hardware that can be purchased from any ODM, OEM or RAN hardware vendor (Vendor A). The BBU is the same as in the case of vRAN: COTS server + vendor’s (Vendor B) proprietary software with virtualised functions.

The OpenRAN makes the RAN open within all aspects and components, with the interfaces and operating software separating the RAN control plane from the user plane, building a modular base station software stack that operates on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware, with open north- and south-bound interfaces. 

This software-enabled Open RAN network architecture enables a “white box” RAN hardware – meaning that baseband units, radio units and remote radio heads can be assembled from any vendor and managed by Open RAN software to form a truly interoperable and open “best of breed” RAN. This way, the underlying hardware layer (radios from vendor A and COTS servers) can stay on-site when a mobile operator decides to do a swap; the only thing that gets replaced is the software from vendor B to vendor C.

Source: Parallel Wireless

So, a mobile operator can virtualise and disaggregate their RAN, but unless the interfaces between the components are open, the RAN is not truly open. 

Summary

Open RAN is virtualised by default, but it is all about horizontal openness – with open interfaces enabling functions of the RAN to connect with other functions, from a radio unit (RU) to a baseband (DU-CU), to the controller to the NMS/orchestrator. 

When RAN is opened up horizontally, it could bring in a new range of low-cost radio players, and it gives mobile operators a choice to optimise deployment options for specific performance requirements at a much better cost.

  • The writer is the Vice-President for Marketing at Parallel Wireless.

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Sales of electric vehicles to increase 66% this year to 5m units

Mohammed Fahad
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Sales of electric vehicles to increase 66% this year to 5m units
  • Electric vehicle sales up 39% in 2020 despite an overall 14% decline in car market.
  • Number of EVs sold will rise to 30m in 2028 and EVs will represent nearly half of all passenger cars sold globally by 2030.
  • Rapid growth will continue as more electric vehicles launch and governments set and maintain policies to stimulate EV production and sales.

Even though total passenger car market declined 14 per cent in 2020 due to Covid-19, sales of electric vehicles rose 30 per cent year on year to 3.1 million units.

Chris Jones, Chief Analyst for automotive at research firm Canalys, said that the strong demand for electric vehicles will continue this year and beyond.

Electric vehicles represented almost five per cent of all new car sales in 2020 and are forecast to reach over seven per cent of new car sales worldwide in 2021, a further 66 per cent growth, to exceed 5 million units sold.

Approximately 1.3 million EVs were sold in both China and Europe in 2020, four times the EV sales in the US.

“EV sales in the US represented just 2.4 per cent of new cars sold there, despite it being home to Tesla, the world’s leading EV manufacturer. Even policies from a more supportive US government won’t change things overnight,” Jones said.

Canalys forecasts that the number of EVs sold will rise to 30 million in 2028 and EVs will represent nearly half of all passenger cars sold globally by 2030.

“Rapid growth will continue as more electric vehicles launch and governments set and maintain policies to stimulate EV production and sales. Reducing ‘range anxiety’ with increases in performance and charging infrastructure will be vital to entice more buyers,” said Sandy Fitzpatrick, Vice-President at Canalys.

For example, Norway set a national goal that all new car sales by 2025 should be zero emission vehicles while other countries have announced similar targets for the electrification of their vehicle fleet, most within a timeframe between 2030 and 2050.

Recently, Delhi government in India plans to transfer subsidies for buying EV directly to the bank accounts of buyers by providing subsidies of up to Rs30,000 for two-wheelers and up to Rs150,000 for cars.

However, Fitzpatrick said that the automotive industry is currently facing crippling semiconductor shortages, so managing future supply chains and production systems to cope with the growth will be make or break for any electric vehicle strategies.

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Covid-19 drives adoption of AI-enabled remote worker productivity tracking tools

Naushad K. Cherrayil
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Covid-19 drives adoption of AI-enabled remote worker productivity tracking tools
  • Workers to quickly discover gaps in tracking tools and over 10% of them will seek to trick the systems by 2023.
  • Some may even see tricking tools as more of a game to be won than disrespecting a metric that management has a right to know.
  • Many employers use productivity monitoring systems despite a high percentage of workers finding such tools unappealing.

Workers will quickly discover the gaps in AI-based surveillance strategies used to measure employee behaviour and productivity, and such systems have seen a significant uptick in use in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Research firm Gartner predicts that more than 10 per cent of workers will seek to trick AI-driven tracking systems by 2023.

Organisations are using AI-enabled systems to analyse worker behaviour in the same way that AI is used to understand shoppers, customers and members of the public and these tools provide basic activity logging with alerts, or in more sophisticated versions, can attempt to detect positive actions or misbehaviour through multivariable analysis.

Whit Andrews, Distinguished Research Vice-President at Gartner, said that many businesses are making a permanent shift to full- or part-time remote work, which can be both costly and require cultural changes.

Finding tools to evade them

“For management, cultures that are accustomed to relying on direct observation of employee behaviour, remote work strengthens the mandate to digitally monitor worker activity, in some cases via AI.

“Just as we’ve seen with every technology aimed at restricting its users, workers will quickly discover the gaps in AI-based surveillance strategies. They may do so for a variety of reasons, such as in the interest of lower workloads, better pay or simply spite. Some may even see tricking AI-based monitoring tools as more of a game to be won than disrespecting a metric that management has a right to know,” he said.

However, many employers use productivity monitoring systems despite a high percentage of workers finding such tools unappealing.

Even prior to the pandemic, Gartner research showed that workers feared new technologies used to track and monitor work habits. As these tools become more prevalent, Gartner predicts that organisations will increasingly face workers who seek to evade and overwhelm them.

Scope of data collection

Workers may seek out gaps where metrics do not capture activity, accountability is unclear, or the AI can be fooled by generating false or confusing data.

Andrews said that such activities have already been observed in digital-first organisations; for example, ride-share drivers sometimes work for two different services simultaneously as a way of maximising personal earnings.

“IT leaders who are considering deploying AI-enabled productivity monitoring tools should take a close look at the data sources, user experience design and the initial use case intended for these tools before investing,” he said.

“Determine whether the purpose and scope of data collection supports employees doing their best work. For those that do decide to invest, ensure that the technology is being implemented ethically by testing it against a key set of human-centric design principles.”

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