THE BUZZ

Q2 RESULTS

A MIXED START
SEPTEMBER QUARTER profit margins. A cause
earnings have been of worry for domestic-
mixed so far with no focused companies DATA CONSUMPTION
major disappointments could have been the
or surprises. Net profit
of 126 BSE500 compa-
nies that had declared
rise in input costs and
interest outgo. Some
firms, such as HUL,
IT’S A WAR
results as of October GSK Pharma and Adani AFTER ESTABLISHING itself as a for-
26 evening rose 14.1 Ports, saw less-than-
midable player in the wireless business,
per cent year-on-year expected results due
on the back of 25.3 per to one-time expenses Reliance Jio is prepping for a mega fight
cent jump in net sales. or forex losses. Since in the wired broadband market. Recently,
However, after exclud- traditionally the results the telecom company acquired majority
ing banking, financial of the second batch are stakes in DEN Networks, Hathway Cable,
services and insurance poorer than that of the and Datacom. These acquisitions will
players and oil firms, first batch, the Q2 pit Jio against Airtel, which is offering
numbers turn bleaker, earnings scorecard
high-speed broadband services – V-Fiber
with the combined net is unlikely to improve
profit of 95 companies from here. – in 87 cities. In terms of optical fiber
rising 6.72 per cent – Aprajita Sharma network, Jio is already ahead of Airtel but
even as revenues rose lacks last-mile connectivity to homes just
16 per cent during the like Airtel, which is where these acquisi-
period. In our sample, tions will help. With DEN and Hathway
excluding BFSI and oil
under its fold, Jio, which has plans to
firms, 48 companies
have reported a drop in
connect 50 million homes across 1,100
cities, will be able to offer a quick upgrade
to its JioGigaFiber and Jio Smart-Home
Solutions to the 24 million existing con-
nected homes of these two entities. While
the wired broadband segment may still
be smaller than the mobile segment, with
the emergence of IoT (internet of things)
and M2M (machine-to-machine) com-
munications, the size of this segment is
bound to grow. – Manu Kaushik

INTERNET PRIVACY TECH GIANTS to Google. But access third party to the user's call
such as Google with privacy taking apps get for user logs and SMS on

PERMISSION and Facebook,

it seems, have
finally brought
centre-stage, and
discussion shifting
towards safety and
data. Now devel-
opers will only get
access to data
Android devices.
Facebook, too,
earlier in the year,

DENIED user privacy to the

forefront. Apple,
with its stricter
security of users,
Google, too, is
following suit. Re-
which is explic-
itly needed for the
core functioning
had restricted
access to third-
party apps and
developer policies, cently, it updated of the app. With developers after
has always been the Google Play these changes, the Cambridge
seen as a safer developer policy only limited apps Analytica scandal.
platform compared and limited the can get access – Devika Singh