Here, there and everywhere (K2 #81)

Question of the Week
I bought the Galaxy Grand Duos smartphone but found out that it does not work in Bhutan. What can I do? Will it help if I “root” the device?
— Samten Dhendup, Sr. Survey Engineer, NLC

Answer
The Galaxy Grand Duos model that is sold in India supports the 3G bands of 900, 1900, and 2100. The bands used for 3G by Bhutan’s operators are 850 and 2100. Thus, wherever 850 is used (Thimphu, Paro and a few other locations), your phone will not be able to use 3G. This is a limitation of the phone’s hardware, and “rooting” the phone – which means gaining complete control of the smartphone’s software – will not help. In fact, it often means voiding the manufacturer's warranty as well as running others risks, including making the phone totally unusable. Due to BICMA’s user-unfriendly decision to use the North American band of 850 instead of the standard Asian 900 band, quite a few other Bhutanese customers are in your situation and will need to buy new, expensive phones; if it’s any consolation, they say shared sorrow is half a sorrow.

Question of the Week
Is the Sherig Collection available online? How can I download it?
— Yeshi Choden

Answer
The Sherig Collection is a set of educational resources for teachers and students in Bhutan. It includes offline Wikipedia, thousands of educational videos, Dzongkha dictionaries, e-books, audio books, exam banks and more. It can be installed on any Windows computer - no Internet required. The size of the collection is pretty big - it’s about 25 GB, and it is not available online. Why? Given the speed and stability of broadband Internet in Bhutan, it would take days to download the Collection (assuming that the connection or the power did not drop half way, in which case you’d have to start all over again…). The only practical way to get the software is by copying it using an external hard drive or a 32 GB pen drive. You can get the software in many schools in Bhutan. For more information, register at sherig.rigsum-it.com.

With the new school year starting soon, let me take the opportunity and wish all teachers, students and parents a happy year of learning!

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Readers are encouraged to submit technology-related questions to boaz@thimphutech.com

Bhutan's 3G band: the saga continues

I have written before on the questionable selection of the 850 MHz for use with 3G in Bhutan, instead of the more consumer-friendly 900 MHz which is used in India and other SE Asian countries. Recently, Kuensel reporter Gyaltshen K. Dorji ran a comprehensive story on this topic, An iffy 3G-frequency choice?, in which I was quoted.

Is a BICMA decision impacting Bhutan's inflation?

As a country's radio spectrum is a limited and highly-valuable resource, governments pay a lot of attention to its management and allocation. I already wrote a few posts about BICMA's decision to allocate the north American 850 band for 3G networks in Bhutan (in addition to 2100) instead of the SE Asian bands of 900/2100. But I have not touched on its effect on the country's economy. Here are a few points to consider:

• Stale Inventory: 3G phones available in Bhutan's mobile shops are imported from India. While roaming a little around town yesterday, I found that many 3G phones do not support the 850/2100 bands, and are thus as good as 2G phones. Many dealers are not aware of the frequency issue (why?), so the wrong phones were/are imported. Some savvy consumers are deciding not to buy these phones. Others find out that their new phone doesn't support 3G and exchange it with a more expensive phone. Dealers in Bhutan are now stuck with lakhs-and-lakh-of-rupees worth of obsolete inventory which was (or perhaps still is) imported from India. Given the rate with which new phone models are launched, the value of these phones is constantly dropping.
• Trade Balance: 3G phones supporting 900/2100 can now be bought for less than Rs 5,000 (for example, the Nokia 208 Dual SIM). In contrast, Indian-imported phones that support 850/2100 are much more expensive, usually starting at around Rs 20,000. The result: more rupees leaving the country.
• Inflation: Mobile phones are now part of Bhutan's Consumer Price Index (CPI) basket. More and more people are switching from 2G phones to 3G phones. For many in Bhutan, a mobile phone is their most valuable asset. Instead of buying a 3G phone for Nu 5000 to Nu 10,000, many consumers now spend Nu 20,000 and above for a phone that supports 3G in Bhutan. People are spending more on 3G phones than they should have. While I do not have the details of the weight of mobile phones in the new CPI basket, the net result is that there's a good chance BICMA's decision has contributed to Bhutan's inflation.

Phone buyer, beware!

Planning to buy a phone soon? Watch out. Many of the 3G phones sold today in Bhutan can only be used as 2G phones. Why? Most phones sold in Bhutan are imported from India, where the 3G frequencies are 900/2100. However, the frequencies used in Bhutan are 850/2100. This is unfortunate. Many of the smartphones imported from India only support 3G at 900/2100. These phones will not be able to use 3G in locations where 850 is used, such as Thimphu, Bajo, and more. In addition, TashiCell's 3G network is also using 850, and so these phones will not be able to take advantage of this upcoming alternative to B-Mobile's 3G network.

Here is a photo I took today of a typical display window in a mobile shop in Thimphu.

Do (NOT) buy me!

Here are the 3G specifications of these phones.

• Samsung Galaxy Music Duos: 3G at 900/2100
• Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos: 3G at 900/2100
• Samsung Galaxy S Duos: 3G at 900/2100
• Samsung Galaxy Grand: 3G 900/1900/2100

(The Samsung REX 60, 80 and 90 do not support 3G at all)

All the 3G smartphones in the above photo do not support 850. If you plan to use them to connect to the Internet, you are wasting your money. A similar situation exists in other shops in Thimphu. Shops are packed with 3G phones that will not work in Thimphu. You will need to search carefully and make sure that the phone you buy supports 3G at 850. They are not easy to find: the selection is relatively poor, and their prices are high.

Is Bhutan ready for 4G? A few issues related to the upcoming LTE launch

"And I have promises to keep..."

B-Mobile is launching LTE tomorrow, October 24. LTE is a fourth-generation (4G) mobile broadband technology. According to the launch announcement, it will be available in selected parts of Thimphu (Ministers' Enclave, Dzong, Norzin Lam, and a few other areas). To use LTE, you will need a mobile handset (or data card) that supports the new technology.

While keeping up with the latest technologies is nifty, a few issues related to this new launch come to mind.

Speed

Surprising, the expected download speed is not mentioned in B-Mobile's launch announcement. A promotional ad that I found on BT's Facebook page promises "4 times faster than 3G, 10 times faster than home broadband!". Yet, an older announcement that can be found on BT's website talks about 35-40 Mbps. Here is a summary of this information:

LTE Speed is ...	... according to this source
20 Mbps	"10 times faster than home broadband" (maximum broadband speed is 2 Mbps)
35-40 Mbps	Announcement
84 Mbps	"4 times faster than 3G" (maximum broadband speed is 21 Mbps)

So what speed is LTE in Bhutan going to support? Your guess is as good as mine. In any case, this is only the theoretical maximum speed. What the actual speed will be is anyone's guess. For example, the 3G download speed mentioned on BT's website is a cool 21 Mbps. I have never been able to come even close to that speed.

Cost

BT's LTE is expensive for customers. First, you will need a special LTE SIM, which is Nu 500. Granted, this includes Nu 500 worth of data, which you'll have to use within a week. It's not clear why you need to hurry up and use that data so quickly.

Over and above the one-time SIM investment, there is of course the recurring cost of data. The price per KB for LTE is Nu 0.001, which translates into Nu 1048/GB. That's "10 times more expensive than home broadband, and 3 times more expensive than 3G!". Compare that to LTE in India, which costs the same as 3G, and as little as Rs 50/GB.

More troubling is the question of payment when your LTE phone is out of the LTE coverage zones, and then falls back to using 3G, or even worse, EDGE or GPRS. Do you still pay the subscription prepaid rate of Nu 1048/GB, or will you be charged according to the much cheaper 3G tariff? In other words, does BT keep a separate account for data usage for each of the technologies? This is not clear and I could not find any information about this issue on the website.

Band

About a year ago, B-Mobile switched the frequency of 3G in Thimphu from 2100 MHz to 850 MHz, as the lower frequency offers better reception in buildings. In general, frequencies in the 2000 MHz range cannot penetrate buildings very well. The new LTE band to be used in Thimphu is 1800 MHz, which is again not optimal for urban areas. LTE can also support lower frequencies such as 700, 800, 850 and 900 MHz, which offer superior reception in buildings. I am not sure why LTE in Thimphu will be using the higher frequency of 1800 MHz; there might be a hidden technical issue that I'm not aware of. Otherwise, should we expect another change of frequency, as was the case with 3G?

User Equipment

LTE requires LTE-compatible handsets that support this standard. They tend to be expensive, and not easy to procure, especially in India. My guesstimate is that at least 99% of smartphones in Bhutan do not support LTE.

For example, the popular Samsung Galaxy S III (GT-I9300) does not support LTE (contrary to what's mentioned in the Kuensel article). The Samsung S III LTE, which is a different variant (GT-I9305), does support LTE, but it is generally not available for purchase in India.

Another example is the iPhone 5. The iPhone 5's US/Canada edition (A1428) does support LTE, but not the 1800 band, so this phone will not be able to use 4G in Bhutan.

Does Bhutan need 4G?

Aside from all these issues, the key question is: why now? Who will benefit from the deployment of LTE at this point in time?

LTE is a new technology. Although it has various advantages compared to 3G (and will eventually supercede it), many of these benefits do not play off in Bhutan. For example, LTE offers better handling of fast-moving mobile phones (up to 500 km/hour). I don't see that as a useful feature in Bhutan until we get our first bullet train. It also offers advantages in highly-congested metropolitan areas. Again, not very applicable for Bhutanese towns.

In contrast, 3G and its 3.5G derivatives, such as HSPA and HSPA+ (with a theoretical download speed of up to 168 Mbps) are mature technologies which are backward-compatible with 2G. 3G uses cheaper telecom equipment, cheaper handsets, and when deployed correctly, can provide adequate mobile broadband for Bhutan's needs in the foreseeable future.

Relative growth of 1G/2G/3G/4G users worldwide
shows greatest increase in 3G (apologies for the 3D bar-chart)

Online Marketing (K2 #69)

Question of the Week 
How can I use online marketing to promote my services?
– A new entrepreneur in Thimphu

Answer
Dear entrepreneur,

Online marketing is indeed a powerful tool. Let’s start with the obvious: Facebook. The world’s largest social network is very popular in Bhutan – there are around 118,000 accounts in the Kingdom – and so a free Facebook page for your new venture is a natural place to start your experiments with online marketing. Go to www.facebook.com/pages/create and follow the instructions. Add your business information, then invite your friends to “Like” the page. Make sure that you regularly update the page with relevant photos and new posts – a stale page is as attractive as a dusty display window.

You can also experiment with Twitter (twitter.com). Although the number of tweeple (Twitter people) in Bhutan is still relatively small, many of them are social influencers and can help spread the word. Linking your two accounts (Facebook and Twitter) will make sure that Facebook posts also appear on Twitter, saving you work (facebook.com/twitter).

If you have earmarked some real money for marketing – and have access to an international credit or debit card – you can increase your visibility using online ads. Facebook advertising (facebook.com/advertising) is one popular option. People see these ads when they use Facebook. You can target a specific audience, for example Bhutanese users (in case your business is for the local market) or any other country or countries (for example, if you are a tour operator). Another popular option is Google Ads, which appear when people search for information on Google, but they are more complicated to set up (google.com/adwords). Barring international payment cards, your best bet is advertising on popular local websites, such as KuenselOnline.com or thebhutanese.bt.

Lastly, here are a few more tools to consider. Mass email and online forums can be helpful, but use with care, as spamming will create a negative effect. Online surveys (surveymonkey.com) are a low-cost way of conducting market research before launching your business. And while not exactly “online” marketing, taking advantage of B-Mobile’s Cell Broadcast Service can help your message reach the 80% who are not online.

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Readers are encouraged to submit technology-related questions to boaz@thimphutech.com

Tweets by SMS are charged, but disappear into the void

In June 2010, B-Mobile announced the availability of a Twitter gateway. The Twitter gateway allows anyone with a B-Mobile number to tweet by sending an SMS to a special number (40404). It also allows mobile subscribers to receive tweets from people they follow.

Tweeting-by-SMS is very powerful. For example, it allows anyone with a basic phone to tweet in case of an emergency or disaster. It also allows people to receive emergency updates using SMS. By the way, the SMS interface is the historical reason behind the 140-character limit of tweets.

Unfortunately, the 40404 number is currently not working. In the past couple of weeks I sent a few SMSs to the Tweeter gateway. In each case, B-Mobile was quick to charge me Nu 0.45, but my tweet disappeared into the void. A few days after each tweet I received an SMS Delivery Report saying that the SMS was not delivered.

This service by B-Mobile was great while it lasted. We hope that it will resume, and that B-Mobile will improve it's 24x7 monitoring of this service, as well as updating the customers regarding outages.

What about backward compatibility?

A few months ago, B-Mobile decided to change the band used for its 3G mobile broadband service in Thimphu from the standard 2100 MHz to the less-popular 850 MHz. Reducing the frequency improves reception and speed. 2100 MHz (known as Band I) is the original and still most popular 3G frequency being used in the world. All smartphones and data-cards with 3G capabilities support 2100 MHz. In contrast, many existing devices do not include 3G support for 850 MHz (known as Band V).

While I was waiting today at the Bhutan Telecom office for a technician, a number of customers arrived, complaining that 3G no longer works on their phone in Thimphu, although it does work in Paro. One lady was carrying a Blackberry phone. It has become useless in Thimphu. Another was carrying a Nokia phone. A third was using Samsung Galaxy S. My own Huawei E160G data-card is not working anymore - it does not support 850 MHz. I am sure that there are many more customers who will now need to replace their mobile phones or data-cards.

Imagine BPC changing the voltage in your home's sockets from 220V to 110V. Time to replace your refrigerator and rice cooker! A mobile operator must ensure that existing devices will continue working, even in the face of network upgrades. A provider cannot expect its customers to lose their investment. The good news is that a solution is available: mobile operators can provide dual-carrier technology, where both 2100 MHz and 850 MHz work side-by-side. That will enable existing users to keep using their old equipment. I am not sure while B-Mobile did not choose this graceful route.

Upgrading the network is commendable. And 850 MHz is indeed an improvement over 2100 MHz. But providers must ensure that their customers' existing investment in equipment will not go down the drain.

Roaming in Bhutan (K2 #57)

Question of the Week
I will be volunteering in Bhutan in the spring. Will I be able to use my Samsung Galaxy S II phone there? Do I need to get a local SIM or can I use my Vodafone SIM?
— Emma, New Zealand

Answer
Before travelling to Bhutan, make sure that your phone’s hardware is compatible: In your case, Samsung Galaxy S II supports all four major GSM frequencies (850, 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz), and these cover the GSM frequencies used in Bhutan (900 and 1800 MHz). Cheers!

To keep using your New Zealand number, check if your mobile operator has a roaming agreement with a Bhutanese mobile operator. Roaming will enable you to keep making and receiving calls using your local NZ number. Information about roaming is available on your operator’s website. I checked the Vodafone website, and they have a roaming agreement with TashiCell, one of Bhutan’s two operators. This means that whenever you are in a TashiCell-covered area, you will be able to make and accept calls using your NZ number.

Mobile counters at Paro airport?

I recently visited Sri Lanka. Getting a local SIM was a snap: all the major mobile operators have shrewdly set up friendly counters in the Colombo airport arrival hall, staffed with efficient representatives who quickly arrange everything, including taking your passport photo. Within 10 minutes and a wallet lighter by the equivalent of Nu. 150, I was all set with a prepaid SIM, which included 100 mobile minutes, 200 SMSs, and 1GB of 3G data. Unfortunately, a similar service is not (yet?) available at Paro airport.

The downside of roaming is that the rates of making and receiving calls - even local calls in Bhutan - as well as SMSing and using data, are absurdly expensive. Vodafone, for example, charges up to NZ$6 per minute. Upon returning home, roaming users often experience an unpleasant shock when receiving their mobile bill.

The alternative to roaming is buying a local SIM with a Bhutanese number. Just make sure that your phone is unlocked, which means it can work with any SIM, not only your Vodafone SIM. With an unlocked phone, simply remove your Vodafone SIM and insert the local SIM. Your sponsor in Bhutan can help you get a local SIM, or you can visit a B-Mobile or TashiCell office. Both operators have coverage in all of Bhutan’s 20 districts. SIMs are dirt-cheap and calling rates are low. A local minute to anywhere in Bhutan will cost you less than NZ$0.10, while calls back home to the land of kiwis will set you back around NZ$0.40 per minute.

Enjoy your visit to the Kingdom!

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Readers are encouraged to submit technology-related questions to boaz@thimphutech.com

It's Time for Prepaid 3G Plans

Mobile prepaid subscribers who use their phones to access the internet have to pay exuberant fees when using their phone to surf the web, send email, or stream videos. B-Mobile, for example, charges Nu 3000 per GB for their "pay as you go" plan - the only one available to prepaid phone subscribers.

With the improvement in Bhutan Telecom's 3G services, it is now time to move on to the next logical step: offering affordable prepaid 3G plans to mobile users. Currently, 3G plans are available for postpaid data-cards only, costing between Nu 200 to Nu 300 per GB, depending on the plan. These rates should also be available to smartphone users. For many users, these 3G prepaid plans will be their gateway to the Internet, thereby helping to narrow the growing broadband gap.

P.S.: With 3G prepaid plans, many subscribers will also find that carrying a data-card becomes unnecessary, as many smartphones can be tethered to a laptop, acting as de-facto data-card. This will reduce the number of mobile devices, which can help reduce the load on the mobile networks.

iPhone 5 nano-SIM update

The Instructions

In "Will the new iPhone 5 work in Bhutan?", we suggested waiting until more information becomes available about cutting down a full-sized SIM (or a micro-SIM) into a nano-SIM.

Well, here's some good news for iPhone addicts. Reports are now surfacing that such a conversion is possible by carefully cutting down the bigger SIMs. And although nano-SIMs are thinner than the larger SIMs, the iPhone 5 socket can also accommodate a cut-down SIM, which means thinning down the card is not necessary.

To cut your SIM, either use a special nano-SIM cutter or follow the instructions in this post.

My recommendation for B-Mobile and TashiCell: Until (and if) nano-SIMs are procured directly, equip the sales offices with nano-SIM cutters.

How to know if (and when) your SMS was delivered

The B-Mobile SMS service has recently been erratic. Incoming international SMSes, like Google Calendar Mobile Alerts and Twitter updates, are sometimes delayed for hours or days. And sometimes they are delivered on time. A recent tweet by @dorji_wangchuk shares the following information:

People using BMobile b mindful of d fact that SMS service is not very prompt. Often the messages are delivered the next day.

What can you do about it? There's no way to expedite delivery of messages - it's up to the mobile operator. You can, however, request a "Delivery Report" to track your outgoing text message. A delivery report is a short message confirming that an SMS was delivered to the recipient's phone. Note that whether the recipient actually opened the message and read it is a different matter.

How do you enable the receipt of delivery reports? Most phones have a setting for it. Read the phone's manual or just fiddle with your phone message settings. For example, in the ultra-basic Nokia phones you can try:

Menu > Messages > Message settings > Delivery Reports > Yes

In the more advanced Symbian phones:

Messaging > Options > Settings > Text message > Receive report > Yes

On Android phones:

Messaging > Menu > Settings > Delivery Reports (Check) 

If you own an "unbroken" iPhone, you're out of luck. The late Steve Jobs decided not to expose this option. Why? I guess we'll never know.

Finally, Bhutan Telecom updates mobile broadband plans

Bhutan Telecom announced four changes to the post-paid mobile broadband plans. Here is a summary of the changes:

B-Mobile to Increase Capacity

Changlimithang

B-Mobile subscribers are lately facing disconnects and other congestion-related issues, including complete loss of network signal. Although this is very apparent when the Bhutan-wide load is high, such as during the recent earthquake, we have noticed that these issues occur also during non-emergency times, although much less often.

But don't despair, as relief is coming: B-Mobile has announced that by the end of 2012, capacity will be doubled, which will allow more simultaneous calls. This is very good news.

I'm not sure, however, that this will solve a related issue that occurs when many users concentrate in a small area. For example, when tens of thousands of people congregate in Changlimithang stadium, the load on the local "base station" is increased dramatically. For this type of issue, increasing the total capacity is not enough.

Help solve the big SMS mystery!

The recently published 2010 Statistical Bulletin from MoIC contains some interesting statistics. One of the tables which I found mind-boggling shows the number of SMSes sent by B-Mobile, by destination and month.

Subscribers or users?

The MoIC recently released the 2010 Annual Statistics Bulletin. According to the bulletin, there were 84,458 mobile broadband subscribers in Bhutan in 2010. This figure has also been reported by the Kuensel. Mobile Internet technologies include GPRS (very slow), EDGE (slow) and 3G (sometimes fast). The latter is only available in Thimphu. Out of the 84,458 subscribers, the bulletin reports that around 2% (1,998) are 3G subscribers, and the other 98% (82,462) are GPRS/EDGE users.

Google Calendar's SMS feature for B-Mobile subscribers

If you're using Google Calendar - the free online calendar that comes with a Google account - you can receive SMS event alerts to your B-Mobile phone. And it's 100% free.

Here's what to do:

Phone directory moves online

"Sonam, sonam, sonam, sonam,..."

For 2011, Bhutan Telecom will not print a phone directory. Instead, a PDF version of the book will be available for download on the BT website (www.bt.bt). Less paper is good. Also, finding the one and only Sonam in Thimphu will become a snap: searching a PDF is quicker than leafing through the white pages. (Quick hint: After opening the file with Adobe Reader, type Ctrl-F). But all this doesn't really help the majority of Bhutanese, who do not have access to a computer. They will need to either get hold of a hardcopy of the PDF file for offline use, call the directory service (140), or refer to an old copy of the phone book.

Now here's an idea for 2012: Directory of mobile phone numbers...

Mobile broadband for closing Bhutan's looming digital divide

Mobile broadband is an amazing technology. I recently spent a few weeks in Laos, and needed Internet access when roaming around the country. In Vientiane I got a few 3G-enabled prepaid SIMs with the different operators, which together gave me excellent coverage all over the place, including some remote provinces. Bandwidth was excellent, usually with download rates exceeding 1Mbps. It is not uncommon for locals to use 3G as their only Internet connection.

Back to Bhutan: 3G is available only with B-Mobile, and only in Thimphu. Even in the capital, download rates are disappointing, and hiccups are common, so you cannot depend on 3G as your sole Internet connection. Many people outside of Thimphu and the bigger towns have no access to broadband Internet. I wonder: Is it time to take mobile broadband seriously? With B-Mobile soon covering all gewogs - an impressive achievement by itself - a solid, reliable 3G infrastructure will enable access to broadband Internet all over the Kingdom.

"Bring me 3G before I turn into a goat"

Will we change our SMS habits?

The average teenager in the United States sends more than 100 (!) text messages a day. Voice calls in the U.S. are on the decline. Apparently, many Americans prefer texting to talking. Some sociologists assume different types of people prefer different types of communication, so the trend might reflect changes in the U.S. culture. Anyway, In Bhutan SMSing never really took off. In an effort to make text messages more attractive, Bhutan Telecom is reducing the price of a single SMS from Nu 1 to Nu 0.45 (B-Mobile to B-Mobile) and Nu 0.70 (B-Mobile to TashiCell). TashiCell is offering 50 free SMSs for Losar.

Will these promotions jump-start SMS in Bhutan (one of the more profitable streams of revenue for all telecom operators), or will Bhutanese keep refraining from SMS in favor of voice? Time will tell.