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89% Indians wish to switch to 5G, most to change service provider to do so

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As India gears up to usher in the 5G era, 89 per cent of consumers wish to upgrade to 5G network in India while 48 per cent would upgrade to 5G even if it calls for switching service providers, a new report showed on Monday.

5G adoption would boost video content streaming, gaming, and social messaging on smartphones.

According to the report by network intelligence and connectivity insights provider Ookla, 20 per cent of the Indian respondents would wait for their service providers to upgrade to the 5G network.

While 14 per cent of respondents intend to avail the services after upgrading to a 5G enabled handset, 7 per cent would wait for their current contract period to end.

Those that aren’t sure about the new technology will likely wait to see how attractive it is once others start using it.

Only 2 per cent stated that they don’t intend to upgrade to 5G.

“While mobile users in India are among the most data-intensive users in the world, India’s 4G/LTE networks have become a bottleneck for demand,” said Sylwia Kechiche, principal analyst, enterprise at Ookla.

“Now, that operators have acquired 5G spectrum, they start their race to become the first operators to go to market with 5G, with some already hinting that 5G deployments will begin in the next few months,” Kechiche added.

The findings showed that if mobile Internet connections were better, 70 per cent of respondents would increase their use of video streaming, while 68 per cent stated they would boost their mobile gaming.

Operators acquired a total of 44,960 MHz of spectrum in the 26 GHz spectrum band (mmWave), which due to its high throughput, is particularly useful for streaming and gaming.

Nearly 42 per cent of respondents believe that faster speeds would most improve service currently being provided to them.

The good news is that the operators’ spectrum holdings in the C-band will help them do just that, said the report.

Both Airtel and Jio splurged on C-band spectrum at auction, acquiring spectrum in all of the 22 telecom circles, while Vodafone acquired spectrum only in its priority circles.

In addition to faster speed, 24 per cent of respondents desire a more reliable connection, while 21 per cent want better indoor coverage.

Following the spectrum auction, Bharti Airtel has already contracted Ericsson, Nokia, and Samsung to deploy 5G services in August.

“Indian operators’ move to embrace Open RAN will drive network costs even lower. Another key factor is the 5G device ecosystem, with 5G smartphone prices falling since the technology launched,” the report mentioned.

Indian operators are already voicing their plans regarding network rollout, with Reliance Jio targeting a pan-Indian rollout coinciding with the “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav” on Independence Day, while Airtel plans to start 5G services in key cities across the country.

The report also revealed that the key reason for not upgrading to 5G is the perceived cost of the 5G tariff.

Just over a quarter of those who don’t plan to upgrade said that they think the 5G tariff cost would be too expensive, followed by 24 per cent stating lack of 5G knowledge as an issue, and 23 per cent not having a 5G capable phone, said the Ookla report.

National

SpaceX’s Starship fails 3rd time, Musk blames fuel leak as megarocket explodes

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New Delhi, May 28: Even as SpaceX’s Starship flight exploded during splashdown on its ninth test on Wednesday, the company’s founder Elon Musk blamed it on fuel leaks.

This is the third time in a row that Starship flight has faced issues during the test flight. The company’s last two test flights — the seventh (January) and eighth (March) test flight — also ended prematurely with the destruction of the aircraft.

The ninth test flight of Starship — which blasted off at about 7:36 p.m. EDT (5:06 am IST) from the company’s Starbase launch site in Texas — successfully reached orbit, flying farther than on its two previous attempts.

However, the spacecraft’s payload bay door failed to open, preventing the planned release of simulated Starlink satellites. Around 30 minutes into the mission, SpaceX confirmed a fuel tank leak aboard the vehicle.

The first-stage Super Heavy booster exploded shortly before its expected splashdown, and live video showed the upper-stage vehicle spinning uncontrollably before its planned re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere, due to fuel leaks.

“Leaks caused loss of main tank pressure during the coast and re-entry phase,” Musk shared in a post on his social media platform X.

“Contact with the booster was lost shortly after the start of the landing burn when it experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly approximately 6 minutes after launch, bringing an end to the first reflight of a Super Heavy booster,” SpaceX said in a statement.

However, Musk called the flight an achievement and noted that there had been no loss to the heat shield tiles.

“Starship made it to the scheduled ship engine cutoff, so big improvement over the last flight! Also, no significant loss of heat shield tiles during ascent. Lot of good data to review,” Musk said.

SpaceX noted that the company “will continue to review data and work toward our next flight test”.

Standing 403 feet (123 meters) tall, Starship and heavy booster — the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket system. It will launch the moon lander for NASA’s Artemis 3 mission that aims to land astronauts on the Moon by 2026.

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Jupiter Wagons’ net profit falls nearly 2 pc in Q4, revenue slips

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Mumbai, May 19: Railway wagons and components manufacturer Jupiter Wagons on Monday reported a decline of 1.9 per cent in its net profit at Rs 103 crore in Q4 FY25, down from Rs 105 crore in the same period last fiscal.

The profit before tax (PBT) also declined by 8.26 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 127.47 crore from Rs 138.95 crore, according to its stock exchange filing.

The company’s consolidated total income also saw a decline, falling to Rs 1,057 crore from Rs 1,127 crore a year earlier — a drop of around 6.2 per cent.

Similarly, revenue from operations decreased by approximately 6.4 per cent, from Rs 1,115.41 crore in the year-ago period to Rs 1,044.54 crore in the last quarter of FY25.

Despite the revenue dip, Jupiter Wagons managed to reduce its total expenses to Rs 923.34 crore in Q4, down 6.4 per cent compared to Rs 986.41 crore in the same quarter last financial year.

However, on a sequential basis, expenses rose by about 1.56 per cent compared to Rs 909.16 crore in Q3.

The company’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) rose slightly to Rs 153 crore from Rs 147 crore last fiscal, with the EBITDA margin improving to 14.6 per cent from 13.2 per cent.

Shares of Jupiter Wagons Limited fell by Rs 13.1 or 3.1 per cent to close the intra-day trading session at Rs 408.95 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday.

Speaking about the full financial year, Managing Director Vivek Lohia described FY25 as a transformative year for Jupiter Wagons.

He highlighted several strategic wins, including major contracts with Braithwaite for wheelsets.

“The company also secured brake system contracts worth over Rs 215 crore,” Lohia mentioned.

Lohia emphasised the company’s push into electric mobility with the inauguration of a new facility in Pithampur.

“This state-of-the-art plant is expected to drive battery production and supply to Indian Railways and private partners, along with orders for complete Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS),” he said.

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How PM Modi-led NDA has curbed retail inflation better than UPA regime

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New Delhi, May 14: Official data on Wednesday showed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government had done a much better job in controlling retail inflation — especially in food and fuel — compared to the UPA era.

According to a post by BJP leader Amit Malviya on the X social media platform, “double-digit inflation (over 10 per cent) seen during the UPA era is no longer a concern, reflecting effective governance and price control in the past decade”.

“Since 2014, retail inflation has not crossed 8 per cent, in contrast to the UPA’s 2004–14 average of 8.1 per cent, with 10.4 per cent during 2009–14,” he mentioned, citing the official data.

On the other hand, from January 2012 to April 2014 period during the UPA government, inflation was above 9 per cent in 22 out of 28 months, hitting double digits nine times.

Malviya, the BJP Information Technology cell chief, pointed out that retail inflation in April 2025 fell to 3.16 per cent, the lowest in nearly 6 years, continuing a downward trend.

For FY 2024-25, retail inflation was 4.6 per cent, the lowest since 2018-19, marking three consecutive years of decline.

“Overall, the data indicates better inflation control, especially in food and fuel, under the NDA government compared to the UPA era,” he observed.

The BJP-led NDA government had succeeded in containing inflation with the implementation of concrete steps such as PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana which provides more than 80 crore citizens with free rations (extended till 2029), ‘Bharat’ brands launched for retail sale of cereals and pulses at affordable rates through NAFED, NCCF and Kendriya Bhandar.

Besides, under the Price Stabilisation Fund, a dynamic buffer stock of pulses is maintained and calibrated release of stocks from the buffer is done to ensure the availability and affordability of pulses to consumers.

The government is continuously offloading the wheat and rice from the central pool under Open Market Sale Scheme to augment availability in the market and control retail prices.

As far as fuels are concerned, the LPG subsidy and the price of cylinders has been reduced to benefit both PM Ujjwala and regular consumers, prices of non-subsidised LPG were reduced by Rs 100 per 14.2 kg cylinder, effective March 9, 2024.

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