CloudMosa aims to bridge India's digital divide with cloud phones worth USD 12

In an exclusive interaction with Voice&Data, Shioupyn Shen, Founder and CEO at CloudMosa, discusses the company's cloud phone technology designed to make digital access affordable for India's underserved populations. By transforming USD 12 feature phones into cloud-powered smart devices, CloudMosa aims to enhance digital inclusion, enable new telco revenue streams, and deliver scalable solutions across India and APAC.

The BGAP Barometer report emphasises affordability as the primary barrier to digital inclusion in India, rather than availability. From a strategic perspective, how can telcos shift their focus and investments to address this affordability challenge?

There are three different angles to this challenge. The first is coverage. Telcos need to ensure robust network coverage. The second is the affordability of the data plan. Providers must offer highly affordable data plans that people with limited financial means can afford. The third and most critical factor is the cost of the phone itself.

We have found that the cost of the phone is currently the most limiting factor in driving digital inclusion. A typical feature phone, regardless of being 2G or 4G, has very limited capabilities when it comes to accessing modern internet content. At best, these devices can make calls, send text messages, and take pictures. This is not digital inclusion; it is merely replicating the basic communications that one's parents experienced.

The easiest solution might seem to be giving everyone a smartphone. However, in India, the average smartphone costs around USD 150, which remains quite expensive for a significant portion of the population. Our approach is to enable access to modern internet content at the cost of a USD 12 feature phone. Our cloud phone technology is purely software-driven. It does not require enhanced hardware on the feature phone. The same feature phone, equipped with our software and cloud services, can be transformed into a powerful tool for infotainment and digital engagement.

Without cloud phones, solving digital inclusion would require massive financial investments, potentially billions of dollars annually for several years. Our solution costs significantly less. Telcos are excited because cloud phones drive new data consumption from users who were previously using minimal data. A feature phone without internet capabilities barely consumes any data. But with cloud phone technology, these users start consuming data and engaging in digital activities similar to smartphone users, but at a fraction of the device cost.

Given India's progress in 5G and its ambitions with 6G through the Bharat 6G Alliance, along with the emergence of satellite internet, how do cloud-powered feature phones support telcos in driving new revenue streams and customer acquisition, especially as networks continue to evolve?

I will provide a concrete example. Take Jio's data plan for smartphones, it is quite generous and inexpensive. For around USD 1.50, users get about 1GB of data per day, which suffices for most users. However, despite this, the profits or gross margins per user remain low.

When telcos move to 5G and 6G, operational costs increase while the price users are willing to pay does not increase proportionally. Meanwhile, data consumption rises, which can compress margins further. Interestingly, telcos make more profit per 2G feature phone user, even though the revenue is lower, simply because these users consume minimal data.

We suggest enabling feature phone users to access modern digital services by transitioning from 2G to 4G with cloud-powered phones. This approach allows telcos to redeploy spectrum currently tied up with 2G into 4G, 5G, or 6G, which is far more valuable and efficient.

With cloud phones, telcos can unify data plans. Whether it is a feature phone or smartphone, both can now stream video, use social media, and access a range of services. This can help increase the average revenue per user (ARPU) from feature phone users, aligning them closer to smartphone user revenues while telcos maintain better margins thanks to the lower device cost for users.

We are effectively giving users a choice: stay with a low-cost feature phone enhanced by cloud computing, or pay significantly more for a smartphone. Either way, the telco benefits through increased data consumption and the redeployment of spectrum.

CloudMosa is transforming basic feature phones into smart devices with cloud computing. Given the inherently thin client base of feature phones, how do you envision the long-term scalability of this solution across India, APJ, and broader APAC markets?

If you refer to the term "thin client," it is important to clarify that using a thin client to play a video does not increase data usage. Data consumption is determined by screen resolution, not the client type. A smaller screen naturally uses less data.

Our cloud phone solution operates like a remote desktop. The client device, essentially a lightweight terminal, requires minimal hardware capabilities. The computing and content rendering happen in the cloud. This allows us to allocate cloud resources dynamically; when a user is not engaging, those cloud resources serve others. It is akin to an Uber model; you do not own a car, but you have access when you need it.

This model makes it scalable and cost-efficient. Instead of needing everyone to own expensive smartphones, we enable feature phones to deliver a comparable experience through the cloud. 

Data usage remains similar whether on a smartphone or a cloud-powered feature phone, governed largely by resolution rather than the underlying technology. Our cloud infrastructure optimises resource allocation, ensuring that the experience is efficient and scalable across diverse markets like India, APJ, and APAC.

However, since feature phones typically have smaller screens, they can often deliver smoother experiences under the same network conditions compared to smartphones that default to higher resolution content. Smaller screen resolutions inherently require less data bandwidth, leading to fewer disruptions such as buffering.

In practice, when network conditions are suboptimal, users might experience stop-and-go video playback on smartphones with high-resolution screens. On cloud-powered feature phones, the same content can stream more smoothly because of the lower resolution. Essentially, optimising for smoothness often equates to reducing resolution; this holds across all devices.

We prioritise maintaining a consistent user experience by adapting the streaming quality dynamically based on network conditions, ensuring that even users in areas with weaker connectivity can engage with digital content effectively.

Everything runs on the cloud server. Pretty much nothing truly runs on the client device, just like a remote desktop scenario. The only thing running on the client device is the remote desktop client. Everything else is rendered and processed in the cloud to give users the same visual effects they would experience on a smartphone.

In terms of network quality, again, the weaker the network, the more it will affect any device. However, since the screen size on feature phones is smaller, a lower resolution is sufficient to maintain smooth performance. We dynamically adjust the resolution and quality based on the real-time network conditions to maintain a seamless experience for applications such as YouTube, Facebook, or even video conferencing.

It is also essential to point out that the infrastructure for cloud services is optimised to handle these dynamics efficiently. Our system ensures resource allocation and session management so that users always have optimal cloud processing power supporting their activities, regardless of their device's limitations.

This comprehensive strategy enables us to provide real-time content accessibility, social media interaction, and infotainment on a feature phone, ensuring a consistent and satisfying user experience even in bandwidth-constrained environments.