Broadband Blog

Miscellaneous:

Finally, a ring side view of the Telecom circus. Aptly proved by concerned people in Department of Telecom indulging in a tug of war with TRAI. There have been legal representations and intepretations about the TRAI’s mandated role; companies keeping their lawyers busy for filing in Supreme Court against TDSAT or TRAI or Government of India; even against each other.

Reliance’s break up was another major happening; I am loath to accept the fact that “youth icon” Anil Ambani hasn’t been able to deliver the goods. So far. They too have become “also rans” in the mobile sweep stakes. There was a lot of press devoted to Reliance; it’s complicated share holding pattern and behind the scenes players. It was as if the national soap opera unfolding; over shadowing even another spectacle of the Birla vs Lodha.

The only point of concern is the ubridled entry of the foreign players in Indian Telecom market. Airtel hived off it’s stake to Vodafone; difficult to make a guess as to how much Bharti’s actually own the Airtel brand. I remember a full page coverage to Bharti “who gave away his network”; in effect outsourced the same. There has been no follow up post so I wouldn’t know as to how the experiment has fared.

The oligopolies have set in; long distance telephony has been opened up; there is talk about number portabilty; much vaunted “One India” plan to have a flat rate for long distance calling. The usual denials, objections et al. Media slugfest between the different Operator groups; Wifi and Wimax talk; Sivaskaran investing in AirCell and selling of his stakes etc etc.

For this year, this blog has decided to award “ass**** of the year” title to “ole geezer” in goverment service who claimed that broadband can run ONLY on Pentium 4 PC’s. Rejoice! Such “simple folks” make my blog worth it to rant against them.

On a personal front, I would like to thank you all to come here; contribute your ideas and give me enough reason to keep blogging about Telecom. It has been a year of personal milestones for Vinu Thomas.com which saw recored 20,000 posts recently. I was proudly associated with the same as a “moderator”; something that no one relishes. Way to go Guys! The forums have become a single point source for everything related to BSNL broadband and the present moderators are doing absolutely a fantastic job. Admittedly, ISP shoutbox over there was my baby; sadly no one uses it effectively to abuse their ISP’s. Still glad that it’s hanging in there because of the novelty of the idea! Keep up the good work guys!

Finally, I feel happy to be independently blogging about the telecom shifts and shakes in India. The traffic stats have picked up and despite the obvious allurements, this blog is free of advertising. It costs us money to pay for the bandwidth as well as the backups et al. For the time being, we have been subsiding this via other websites to keep this ad free. A request to you all to click on the ads on the main Techwhack channel to keep the status quo.

Despite all this, we move on. Even in our own private spheres, the life shouldn’t stand still. Personally speaking, humans are resistant to change. We feel afraid of the changes and rather leave the life stale. We don’t realise the potential that newer techologies can have to solve the problem of old with new. Let’s change this mindset.

A Happy New Year to you all.