Apple Watch Series 3 comes with a built-in LTE and GPS is available in Indian market and can be purchased from the country’s two most prominent telecom operators – Reliance Jio and Airtel. Both regular and Nike+ variants of the Apple smartwatches comes with cellular connectivity which allows users to use as a standalone device for making voice calls and sending text messages both.

It comes with Siri integration and standalone notifications support which means it can be used as an alternative to the iPhone.

Apple Watch Series 3 LTE Cellular Price in India

1. The 38mm size version of the Apple Watch is priced at Rs 39,080, while the 42mm variant will cost Rs 41,120
2. Apple Watch Nike+ (LTE+GPS) will start at Rs 39,130, and the 42mm variant will cost Rs 41,120
3. It comes with ceramic case will cost Rs 118,030 for the 32mm variant, while the 42mm size variant is priced at Rs 122,090

The smartwatches come with a virtual or e-SIM that mirrors the phone number you use on your iPhone. Apple Watch uses antenna designs for LTE connectivity. Airtel and Reliance Jio customers will not be charged for the services if they are on the company’s postpaid plan/Airtel MyPlan/Infinity Plan and Reliance Jio Network respectively.

When customers pair the Series 3 Cellular to their iPhone, they will be prompted to setup a cellular service and guided through a few simple steps.

Apple Watch Series 3 Cellular Specifications

1. The smartwatch runs on dual-core processor, an additional W2 processor helps deliver faster Bluetooth and wireless connectivity on Apple Watch Series 3 LTE.
2. LTE runs on the company’s WatchOS 4
3. WatchOS 4 brings native support for important applications such as Apple Music and Siri
4. Water-resistant with a rating of 50 meters under the ISO standard 22810:2010
5. Smartwatches can be paired with iPhone having iOS version 11.3 or above

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Reliance’s Jio Infocomm has now forayed into the banking business with a payments bank service and named it as Jio Payment Bank (Jio Payments Bank Limited), a joint venture between Reliance Industries and State Bank of India with a 70:30 per cent partnership between the two.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is one of the 11 applicants for setting up payments bank in August 2015. Jio received the licence to start operation in March 2017, according to media reports.

The 11 unit as Payment Banks who got license, under Section 22 (1) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 to carry on the business of payments bank in India, from RBI are-

• Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited
• Airtel M Commerce Services Limited
• Cholamandalam Distribution Services Limited
• Department of Posts
• Fino PayTech – Fino PayTech Limited
• National Securities Depository Limited
• Reliance Industries Limited (Jio Payment Bank)
• Shri Dilip Shantilal Shanghvi
• One97 Communications – PayTM Payment Bank
• Tech Mahindra Limited
• Vodafone m-Pesa Limited

What is a payments bank?

A payments bank is like any traditional bank but operating at a smaller scale. The only difference is that payments banks do not have any credit-providing service.

Telecom major Bharti Airtel was the first one to start payments bank services in India in November 2016. After a huge success during demonetization, PayTM also launched its payments bank services in May 2017.

FINO Payments Banks Limited started in June 2017. The Aditya Birla group’s Idea Payments Bank was started from February 22 this year. And now, Reliance JIO.

How are they different from traditional banks?

The Airtel payments banks offers the highest interest rate of 7.25% unlike the other traditional systems. PayTM payments bank offers an interest rate of 4 per cent on a savings account and 7 per cent on fixed deposits. Payments banks can accept deposits of up to Rs. 100,000 per account from individuals and small businesses.

Apart from the interest rates, payments banks offer zero balance accounts or no minimum balance accounts without any extra charge.

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World’s most popular mobile payment service Samsung Pay by Samsung Electronics has been launched in Italy on March 22, 2018. With the addition of Italy, Samsung Pay now enables users in 21 countries to benefit from simple and secure payments almost anywhere including India.

In India, Samsung pay service was launched in March 22, 2017. The next country is France where Samsung Pay will be launched this year as per reports from Samsung .

Samsung’s commitment to transforming the mobile industry was recognized at the annual Global Mobile Awards (GLOMO Awards) during Mobile World Congress 2018, which awarded Samsung Pay ‘Best Mobile Innovation for Payment’. The service was praised not only for being innovative, but also for bringing consumers the world’s first integrated rewards program; each time users purchase with Samsung Pay, they can earn points to be exchanged for a variety of prizes.

Samsung Pay reward program is available in the U.S., Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brazil and Spain only.

“We strive to deliver the best experiences to our customers. The rapid growth of Samsung Pay has been made possible by Samsung’s commitment to an open model of collaboration around the world, resulting in over 1,700 partnerships, including payment providers Visa and Mastercard®,” said Yongje Kim, Executive Vice President of Service Business Office, Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics. “Its continued support for both MST and NFC payments has also enhanced adoption, enabling market access in countries that support either payment option.” added.

What Is Mobile Payment Service Samsung Pay?

Samsung Pay is a simple and secure mobile payment service that is available almost anywhere you can swipe or tap your eligible payment card. By combining Near Field Communication (NFC) technology and its proprietary Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology, Samsung Pay is the most widely accepted mobile payment solution on the market.

Mobile Payment Service Samsung Pay Security

Samsung Pay operates with three levels of security: fingerprint or iris authentication (available for Galaxy S9 and S9+, Galaxy Note8, Galaxy S8 and S8+), card tokenization and Samsung’s defense-grade mobile security platform, Samsung Knox. Additionally, Samsung Pay makes mobile payments easy – to launch, a user needs to swipe up on an eligible Samsung Galaxy smartphone, select the card, authenticate using a fingerprint, iris scanning or PIN and bring the phone near the point-of-sale terminal.

Countries and Samsung Pay Launch Date

Recently in Feb, 2018 Samsung India and Reliance Jio has tied up for the nation wide cellular IoT network.

Most recently in March, 2018 Samsung has acquired Kngine – an Egyptian AI search engine startup.

(With the inputs from Samsung and Wikipedia)

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With the increase in number of smartphones and increased telecom bandwidth in India, people are exploring video calling apart from the normal day to day calls with their dear ones. The voice calls are still a first choice for many and is hardly to be replaced by video calls, but that doesn’t mean video calls are a dud.

Most promising video calling apps are available for android and iOS users but the most popular apps in India that come with video calling feature are WhatsApp, Google Duo, and Facebook Messenger.

Let’s take a look of features these video calling apps are offering and comparing them as well that which one suits best in the field of speed and size.

1. WhatsApp Messenger

WhatsApp is undoubtedly the most popular messaging app. Currently it has over 200 million monthly active users in India only. The Facebook-owned app introduced the video calling feature in 2016.

During WhatsApp video calling, user can switch the cameras between the front and rear – the video being captured by your camera will be at the bottom right in a small rectangular widget that can be tapped to make full screen. You also see mute button, and a disable video call button, in addition to the end call button. In case you’re on a voice call on WhatsApp, you will now be able to switch to a video call by tapping a button in the call interface in the latest WhatsApp version for Android and iOS.

2. Google Duo

Google has several video calling apps such as Hangouts, however at the I/O conference in 2016, Google realized to focus more on messaging and calling apps. It launched the Google Allo and Google Duo apps at the conference.

Google Duo is comparatively simpler than WhatsApp since it doesn’t support textual messaging. It comes with voice and video calls only.

The Google Duo has an interesting feature called Knock Knock that lets the person who you are calling see your video before the call is answered. The app was recently updated with a fresh contact list and a recent list.

3. Facebook Messenger

Facebook Messenger was initially launched as one of the suite of apps from the social media giant. Facebook launched its Messenger independent of your Facebook profile however you can use Messenger with your Facebook account as well.

Alternatively you can sign up with your mobile number without having to create a Facebook profile if you don’t wish to.

If to think about which app is better, we can say Facebook Messenger has a lot more features than WhatsApp and Google Duo like lot of stickers, games, automated responses from brand pages, and chatbots, separate tab where your voice and video calls are saved, group calling, better interface, the video call screen has mute, video chat off and end call option.

Apart from above , there are two buttons Chat and Camera. Tapping on chat icon will bring you the chat screen while your video call is still running in a Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode.

WeChat, a Chinese multimedia messaging app recently crossed 1 Billion download which is also offering load of features.

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As per the reports by Google (Alphabet Inc.) and Boston Consulting Group, India is headed for an exponential increase in digital payments methods and the digital payments industry in India becoming Asia’s third-largest economy. It is estimated that it will grow by 10 times to touch $500 billion by 2020 and contribute 15% of gross domestic product (GDP), the report predicted.

Introduction of smartphones, the entry of several non-banking institutions offering payment services, consumer readiness to adopt digital payments, progressive changes in the regulatory framework will power the trend, it said.

Also, the Digital India program is a flagship program of the Government of India with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. “Faceless, Paperless, Cashless” is one of professed role of Digital India.

As part of promoting cashless transactions and converting India into less-cash society, various modes of digital payments are available as below-

1. Banking Cards (Debit / Credit / Cash / Travel / Others)

Banking cards offer consumers more security, convenience, and control than any other payment method. The wide variety of cards available – including credit, debit and prepaid – offers enormous flexibility, as well. These cards provide 2 factor authentication for secure payments e.g secure PIN and OTP. RuPay, Visa, MasterCard are some of the example of card payment systems. Payment cards give people the power to purchase items in stores, on the Internet, through mail-order catalogues and over the telephone. They save both customers and merchants’ time and money, and thus enable them for ease of transaction.

2. Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD)

The innovative payment service *99# works on Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) channel. This service allows mobile banking transactions using basic feature mobile phone, there is no need to have mobile internet data facility for using USSD based mobile banking. It is envisioned to provide financial deepening and inclusion of under banked society in the mainstream banking services.

*99# service has been launched to take the banking services to every common man across the country. Banking customers can avail this service by dialing *99#, a “Common number across all Telecom Service Providers (TSPs)” on their mobile phone and transact through an interactive menu displayed on the mobile screen. Key services offered under *99# service include, inter-bank account to account fund transfer, balance inquiry, mini statement besides host of other services. *99# service is currently offered by 51 leading banks & all GSM service providers and can be accessed in 12 different languages including Hindi & English as on 30.11.2016 (Source: NPCI). *99# service is a unique inter-operable direct to consumer service that brings together the diverse ecosystem partners such as Banks & TSPs (Telecom Service Providers).

3. Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS)

AEPS is a bank led model which allows online interoperable financial transaction at PoS (Point of Sale / Micro ATM) through the Business Correspondent (BC)/Bank Mitra of any bank using the Aadhaar authentication.

4. Unified Payments Interface (UPI)

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application (of any participating bank), merging several banking features, seamless fund routing & merchant payments into one hood. It also caters to the “Peer to Peer” collect request which can be scheduled and paid as per requirement and convenience. Each Bank provides its own UPI App for Android, Windows and iOS mobile platform(s) such as Axis Pay, SBI Pay, PhonePe App, Google Tez App, BHIM UPI App, Bonus App – PNB UPI.

5. Mobile Wallets Or E-Wallets

A mobile wallet or E-Wallet is a way to carry cash in digital format. You can link your credit card or debit card information in mobile device to mobile wallet application or you can transfer money online to mobile wallet. Instead of using your physical plastic card to make purchases, you can pay with your smartphone, tablet, or smart watch. An individual’s account is required to be linked to the digital wallet to load money in it. Most banks have their e-wallets and some private companies and various startups have also launched E-Wallets in India. e.g. PayTM, Freecharge, Mobikwik, Oxigen, mRuppee, Airtel Money, Jio Money, SBI Buddy, itz Cash, Citrus Pay, Vodafone M-Pesa, Axis Bank Lime, ICICI Pockets, SpeedPay etc . are digital payment methods.

6. Banks Pre-Paid Cards

Prepaid debit cards, sometimes referred to as bank prepaid cards, are credit instruments that banks issue that give people an easy and adaptable way to manage their finances. Prepaid cards are independent of bank accounts, in contrast to conventional debit or credit cards that are connected to checking or credit accounts. Rather, they preload money onto the card, which they then use for a variety of payments up to the available balance.

7. Point Of Sale

A point of sale (PoS) is the place where sales are made. On a macro level, a PoS may be a mall, a market or a city. On a micro level, retailers consider a PoS to be the area where a customer completes a transaction, such as a checkout counter. It is also known as a point of purchase.

8. Internet Banking

Internet banking, also known as online banking, e-banking or virtual banking, is an electronic payment system/digital payment methods that enables customers of a bank or other financial institution to conduct a range of financial transactions through the financial institution’s website.

9. Mobile Banking

Mobile banking is a service provided by a bank or other financial institution that allows its customers to conduct different types of financial transactions remotely using a mobile device such as a mobile phone or tablet. It uses software, usually called an app, provided by the banks or financial institution for the purpose. Each Bank provides its own mobile banking App for Android, Windows and iOS mobile platform(s) which is one of the most popular digital payment methods now a days. 

10. Micro ATMs

Micro ATM meant to be a device that is used by a million Business Correspondents (BC) to deliver basic banking services. The platform will enable Business Correspondents (who could be a local kirana shop owner and will act as ‘micro ATM’) to conduct instant transactions.

The micro platform will enable function through low cost devices (micro ATMs) that will be connected to banks across the country. This would enable a person to instantly deposit or withdraw funds regardless of the bank associated with a particular BC. This device will be based on a mobile phone connection and would be made available at every BC. Customers would just have to get their identity authenticated and withdraw or put money into their bank accounts. This money will come from the cash drawer of the BC. Essentially, BCs will act as bank for the customers and all they need to do is verify the authenticity of customer using customers’ UID. The basic transaction types, to be supported by micro ATM, are Deposit, Withdrawal, Fund transfer and Balance inquiry.

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A neutral Internet Exchange (IX), AMS-IX India, is pleased to announce the launch of a third AMS-IX India PoP (Point-of-Presence) in GPX’s Mumbai data center.

With the addition of a third PoP AMS-IX India has a presence in all areas of Mumbai – South, Central and North.

The PoP at GPX DC, which has the richest ecosystem of Carriers and Content providers, will be operational in Q2 2018. However, five GPX customers have already committed and are ready to join and peer at AMS-IX India reported in a Press Release sent to Newskart.

On this development, Onno Bos, Sales Director, AMS-IX said, “By opening a third POP in Mumbai we are expanding our AMS-IX India footprint in one of the world’s fastest growing internet markets. Furthermore, it makes it easier for customers to connect to AMS-IX India. We are therefore very pleased to be present at GPX and are confident that this will enhance the growth of AMS-IX India.”

Manoj Paul, MD, GPX India, added, “GPX’s Mumbai data centre is True Carrier Neutral and IX neutral and is the most interconnected data center in India with the largest number of Telecom Service Providers (TSPs), Internet Service providers (ISPs), and is also the hub for all major content providers. The addition of AMS-IX India’s Internet Exchange platform allows our customers, mainly the ISPs and Content providers, to enhance their connectivity, reduce costs, introduce new products, and increase the level of their customer’s experience and satisfaction”.

About AMS-IX India

AMS-IX India is a collaboration between the India based Information and Communications Technology (ICT) service provider, Sify Technologies, and the European based AMS-IX.

Customers are able to connect to the IX via dedicated ports with speeds in multiples of 1Gbps or 10Gbps. AMS-IX India serve as a neutral and independent peering platform with unrivalled quality, offering both private and public peering services at carrier-grade level to Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Internet Content Providers (ICPs), and telecom operators. By connecting to the exchange, content providers and eyeball networks can exchange their internet traffic and benefit from reduced latency and costs.

About GPX

GPX develops and operates state-of-the-art, private, carrier-neutral Data centers in emerging, but fast-growing commercial markets within the MENA, South Asia markets. GPX’s Data centers are thriving carrier-neutral internet ecosystems, and home to the largest carriers, content providers, cloud service providers, and internet companies.

Other data centers operational are VMWare, Arkin Net, StrataCloud etc.

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