The mail was published in the Friday Edition dated 21 st October 2005.. I wish I had the link- but the mail has been published with minor modifications. I am glad, I was able to call BSNL’s bluff as such.The mail was in response to BSNL claims that you can’t run broadband minus Pentium 4!
Dear Sir,
Apropos the debate that was published in Business Standard dated 19th October,2005 between Mr Deepak Maheshwari and Mr R L Dube from BSNL.Mr Dube’s arguments and his claims ring hollow. Broadband policy was flawed- it should allow opening up of the last mile since at present, BSNL has miserably failed to ramp up numbers.
At best, they have been able to convert the existing dial up customers to Broadband because the dial up prices are one of the most expensive in the world! For Broadband, BSNL religiously logs every byte in and out of the computer to compute the total usage.
I would point another fundamental flaw in Mr Dube’s arguments. He insisted that one cannot run broadband without Pentium 4 PC’s! If this is the official line, I am afraid, BSNL desperately needs some reality check. If BSNL is providing static IP’s, may I point out to Mr Dube that I can set up an ancient 486 running Net BSD as a virtually unhackable server. One doesn’t need “state of the art” computers to connect online.
Mr Dube’s arguments read like a press release. In no manner he was able to contradict Mr Maheshwari’s arguments about unbundling the local loop.Rather, there was a tacit admission that current infrastructure isn’t up to the standards.Including the billing systems.
As a subscriber, I have seen BSNL’s speeds dip to slower than a dial up during peak day hours- though the speeds improve during early morning hours. This only proves that their upstream bandwidth is sorely limited.
The monthly rent of Rs 250 looks good only in full page advetisements that BSNL gloats about. With just 400 MB as the download/ upload limit, this can be finished off in a few mails with attachments. As an incumbent it has no right to abuse it’s monopoly by means of higher pricing and discriminatory trade practises. If Airtel can provide unlimited Broadband at Rs 1000 per month, why can’t BSNL?
Ultimately, BSNL has chosen to ignore the fact that huge infrastructure was set up with public funds. Yet, as subscribers, we are not given the right to be heard or choose.
It is through your newspaper, I would like to highlight the present mess in the Broadband. Despite the claims of “scorching growth”, broadband essentially remains a pipe dream for most of us.
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[...] Archives: Text of mail published in Business Standard. Shows the claims of a senior functionary of BSNL that you need to run Broadband on P4. Incidentally, he’s been awardedass**** of the year award! [...]