Fact of the matter is that the so called “associations” have done precious little to lobby for the access. The biggest promise was that of unbundling the local loop; i.e. open up BSNL’s rotting rat infested telephone exchanges for others so that broadband can be rejigged. It wasn’t so. It was rejected on the grounds that it amounted to privatization of the behemoth. We are none to wiser about it. After years of facing pathetic access, we are now forced to put up with pathetic Fair Usage Policies.

Mind you. My own RTI application from TRAI has clearly shown that these so called Fair Usage Policies are “extra-constitutional” and “illegal” meaning thereby that they don’t have the official sanction. It also means that TRAI has not done anything in this regard. At present, I have been busy wrapping up my work so it leaves me little time to pursue this. Of late, I am still waiting for the appeal filed against TRAI with CIC; bump….I have no word from them.

But then how united are we to face these idiots and force to act the way consumers want them? I find the different plans bumpkin. For once, the “lowest paid plan” is the one that no one wants; specially when it comes with dastardly and bastardly speeds. The Indian mindset plays spoilsport here and I cannot really blame the so called “market forces”. Nevertheless, it is a matter of debate as to what sells and I cannot really point out a clear cut answer in the absence of solid data.

This brings forth the question of laying down fresh lines to service the market when already huge amounts of public monies have been spent over the past 50 years. Broadband is a long term planning with a huge amount of gestation built in. How many dumbfucks appreciate 1 Mbps? No one really notices the “speed” unless one wants minimal latency to connect their fancy PC’s or X Boxes. The population is minuscule.

Secondly, the recumbent operators are just not keen to service their areas. Has anyone heard of BSNL or even MTNL getting pro active to service their customers? They have the most fug ugly women to service their front desks who would make you feel as if you are interacting with your grannies. The point here is that an average run of the mill customer would hardly want to interact with a staff that is not inspired to service your needs.

So it all boils down to opening up the “exchanges” and allowing the people with gumption to lay down fat pipes and optic fiber cables to bring forth the goodies. It is not going to happen soon but then this is definitely a “suggestion”.

A much more prudent option would be to analyze the situation and fix the guilty party. TRAI, to my understanding remains out of bounds for the general public. A public body ought to formulate the policies by LISTENING to them rather than stick around in isolation. Yet, it remains open to lobbyists of all hues and the post retirement bonanza is always an option for the retiring bureaucrats.

Remember Baijal? He had done nothing revolutionary while in TRAI but the worst part was that he went on to join some kind of a rag tag consortium of the private players as a “facilitator”. The exact details elude me since I had read this in one of the weekly magazines (for which I don’t have time now). Loosely translated, it is the big boys club where they are known for their wheeling dealings and lobbying since these guys are fully aware of the levers of power.

What this means for you and me? It means that SMS would be atrociously charged even though it is FREE for the telecom companies; customer care is a farce because these are fronts for these companies as the real buggers hide behind the smokescreen and your hard earned money is being palmed off easily.

My mail in response to Sunil Jain’s write up in Business Standard was published recently (in fact quite a lot of them though). I had clearly mentioned that BSNL does not lack the expertise to roll out the networks but rather it has been ham handed by TRAI and the network expansion plans locked up in court battles which stunts it’s growth. This means that a poor coverage of the private players in rural areas continues as it is because these bastards won’t let the others grow. This also means that behind the glitzy advertisements, your over dependence on these players is being taken for granted and for a ride.

TRAI needs to be dismantled or radically overhauled. It’s time that companies like BSNL speak out against them.

I am putting up the published email in it’s entirety.

The real reason for the loss of market share is the ham handed policies
and has nothing to do with lack of an opportunity. For over many years,
BSNL’s expansion for over 40 million lines for GSM has been held up in
court cases or stuck because of the objections of various ministries. This
speaks volumes about the operational efficiency of the PSU’s.

Mr Jain’s write up clearly points the anomaly. The entry of private
telecom players is welcome because they have worked hard to improve the
teledensity. However, this has definitely come at a cost to Indian
industry. None of the telecom equipment is manufactured in India and we
are dependent on the big majors from the Western world. Broadband as a
metric for the GDP languishes. Mobile connectivity based on voice alone
would not contribute to their kitty based on low ARPU’s; most of the
mobile operators have shied away from creating custom applications for
shoring up the value added services. Finally, having a private operator
does not mean that services are automatically ensured. There are a large
number of forums where people recount their horrible experiences with the
telecom operators; no one seems to be wiser than the other.

All of this to be kept in mind before they can get a clean chit. The real
public sector needs to be shored up, given operational freedom to choose
with the best practises and ideally no interference from any quarter. This
would be a fair enough ground to test for the acquisition of customers.
Further, the PSU needs to shed their complacency in case they need to
survive instead of relying alone on the taxpayers money.

The objective is the ask them the following:

1) The cost of providing access to Broadband to a customer’s premises. The idea is to know as to why we are stuck with 256 kbps speeds and what needs to be done about it. So the question that is going to be framed is :

What is the cost of Home Unlimited 256 kbps plan? How has the price been arrived at using what methodology of calculation? Kindly provide the break up of the costs.

2) I have been facing frequent disconnections on my DSL link and it is frustrating to have sustained download speeds. I wish to know the telephone line parameters of the provided connection.

3) I am also not happy with the type of modem provided. I want to know from them as to why I can’t have the choice of my own modem since they seem to actively discourage from installing another modem. This smacks of anti competitive tactics and restricts the choice to the customer.

4) They provide no end to end solution to those on Unix platform. Why has Microsoft Windows been chosen as the “default” operating system? As a Public Service Provider, they are not supposed to invest in a platform that is closed source but rather open source systems.

It is definitely going to be a long drawn affair but then it’s worth it.

The best part is that it can be interacted through letters and I am going to file it today itself. I am very keen to know about the break up of the costs incurred because TRAI has not been able to answer it. Those shit heads call themselves as “regulators” without realizing that their actions are actually thwarting the spread of broadband.

Airtel had a headstart as far as the Broadband was concerned. They could afford to deploy best of technologies and get superior cables. They were not plagued by the usual red tapism and clearly were not answerable to the public for their investments. I am not sure but I have a feeling that they donot have those fancy Chinese crap as their backend. They made a huge splash when they announced their underground submarine cable from Chennai to Singapore to carry the streams of data. Where is the “leader” now?

There is only word to describe them: Assholes for their pig headed policies.

I remember the time when my Internet had conked off. It took an entire cabling change without rectifying the problem. Ultimately, the problem was traced to their exchange; I am sure that they would have to revoke the “fair usage policy” because I raised a hue and cry about not getting the promised speeds. It is conjectural to assume the exact cause of the troubles; nevertheless it was a relief to have someone come from the company to sort out the issues at odd hours.

It’s time that Airtel pulls up it’s socks and decides about taking the lead without being vindictive. Their mobile division sucks to the core (as it’s infested with the likes of BSNL’s babus) but even if they work in a fancy corporate office, it doesn’t cost me to heap up abuses against them.

Frankly, most of them are re-sellers of the bandwidth. Although, there have been huge capacity layouts in the past couple of years, the last mile has been problematic. There have been attempts made to address this yawning gap by introducing novel technologies like WiMax, this hasn’t caught on given the limited modes of access and the problem with the allocation of frequencies.

For all practical purposes, whatever “infrastructure” has been laid, seems to be “overburdened” with the hordes of users latching on to Torrents or You Tube sites. It hasn’t reached a critical mass with users putting up their antics online, there has been an exponential increase in the users for social networks. This means, pictures and songs and other media being exchanged.

You Tube has made serious attempts to monetise it’s massive bandwidth requirements and signed on deals to put up movies online; all in the hope to popularise the uptake of this interesting medium online. This means a further strain on the already streched resources and a potential nightmare for the telecom companies who don’t want to invest in more resources. It practically means that they would need to put in more money for almost the same bunch of users because Internet uptake is pathetic in this country.

In this backdrop, I don’t emphatise with the ISP’s because their marketing efforts are pathetic. Although, they have a rag tag association (ISPAI) to address their needs and often claim to speak for the consumers, I find no mention about them in the mainstream press. Broadband is essential for shrinking boundaries and I have focussed on the advantages of having the same in my earlier write ups. It means all the more because we need to be able to “kick start” the initiative for free and open access.

The only way I see it coming is from the policy initiatives. This would surely need massive funds for expansion; I would surely praise the efforts of telecom companies being able to promote thin client computing initiatives based on Linux to cut costs and get more people in the loop.

Tough situations call for tough measures. We need imaginative solutions; to think out of the box to promote computing, tax breaks and subsidised broadband access in excess of 2 Mbps. Although, this is utopia but is achievable with scaling of infrastructure.

This brings us back to the issue at hand here today. There was a huge public outcry against Time Warner which was accused of “monopolising” the access to Internet. It claimed that people would “misuse” it for sites like YouTube; but if you can’t provide the necessary infrastructure, get out of business. Simple. One can’t just turn off or turn on the cap; people pay money to access regardless of the restrictions.

This has far reaching implications on issues like Net Neutrality. Unfortunately, Indian media is solely focussed on issues which it considers as “sellable” or expects a “reader/viewer” interest. Unless, there is a decent platform to debate or talk about such issues, we cannot really expect a dramatic improvement in the state of affairs.

I challange anyone of the ISP’s or their representatives from the industry for an open debate and I gurantee facts and figures to downplay them. They have the Government of India to blame but their rag tag association has hardly helped the matters to make a sincere and honest efforts to ameliorate the matters.

Hence, they have bandied together to implement their “fair usage policy”.

Surprisingly and happily, it has found a mention in the mainstream media. Mint has taken up the cudgels on behalf of the existing customers and I truly laud their efforts.

There is no other way except to show a middle finger to the likes of Tatas (are they not always on the wrong end of the stick?), Airtel boffins (why are you screwing up a fantastic service) and Sify (the original buggers who have bastardised the broadband access in India). There are other smaller players who source their bandwidth (in effect work as re-sellers) and would be glad to limit the access accordingly.

Surprisingly, Internet and Mobile Association of India ( a bealagured body that is a rag tag association of the service providers) has spoken out against it’s members. It’s president (or whoever the self proclaimed titular head) has gone on record to say,

“If the service is provided under ‘broadband’ to the customers when they signed in, it cannot be reduced to 128 (kbps) since the government of India definition of broadband is minimum 256 (kbps). This is a violation of government policy as well as short-changing customers if they had signed in for a broadband service.”

Violation of government policy? Really? Which one dude?

For all practical purposes, I request the readers to sign up the petition to protest against the restrictive access. It can be found here.

We are already having a pathetic state of affairs. The frigging morons expect the users to broadband to check email alone. Thats the state of majority of the users.

Who has given them the right to limit our access? Beats me.

I have been always opposed to the wireless broadband initiatives because they fail on many counts. For plain vanilla surfing, it sounds like a good idea. But when it comes to the crunch, these fancy ideas fail in execution. Comments are on.

Nothing could be worse than this. Unless we are talking of Home 125 Plan!

It all boils down to the content. The future lord over the masses is the one who could make sure that they control the keys to entertainment streaming in your drawing rooms. Presently, the choice remains limited to Direct to Home television (DTH), Cable TV and now IPTV. Cable TV is ham handed in it’s approach. With massive under declaration of viewers, the TV channels are hard hit for the “genuine” revenues. DTH is too restrictive in it’s clauses and hasn’t really set in the cash registers ringing. The majors are slowly realising the fact that it would need major investments and years before they can break even. However, I see no such sign of the same.

The present “gold rush” to control the media by whatever means is the key to the future power leverages. Media has the potential to shape up the public opinion and slowly the proliferation of the news channels/ magazines et al is a clear pointer to the fact. However, the lords of the whole game are the content delivery systems who are in a position to dictate the terms to the media moghuls. It would take huge investments to upgrade the cable wires; DTH by itself isn’t really exciting with content restrictions. IPTV may yet be the dark horse that has the potential to change the rules of the game.

In all this brouhaha, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has not been able to exert itself, as usual. It has been issuing statements off and on without realising as to what has hit it between the legs . It is caught unawares like a deer-in-the-headlights.

The ultimate killer would be a TiVo like thingy which comes with a personal Digital Video Recorder. In my opinion, it would be a boon to the consumers who are pestered by the advertisements even in the pay channels (which is totally unfair). The whole media is not yet geared towards treating customer like a king (which is anti-thesis to the so called management principles). We are slowly moving towards the consolidation of the services because players with deep pockets are the only ones that can survive the bloodbath.

While BSNL may have the theoretical first mover advantage, Airtel and Reliance have the potential to upset it’s apple cart.They would be sitting back to see what all potential pitfalls are there and would perhaps piggy back BSNL’s efforts to “educate” consumers about IPTV. If Airtel can crow about the “service gurantees”, I am sure that they can notch up some customers of their own. Yet, the age of the entertainment junkies seems to be clearly on it’s way out- IPTV has to look simple and less confusing about setting up the whole assembly. With it’s army of poorly trained JTO’s and it’s ill informed “call centre”, it is potential recipe for disaster. Reliance too has been making the right noises earlier on but with the present moribund marketing efforts, it is being left out of contention.

What possibly it can portend for the future? IPTV needs a critical mass before it can actually suceed. This means substantial investments and the need to tie up with the content service providers. This bodes well for the fat cats and media moghuls who can monetise their content to the highest bidder and sell most of it as “value added service”.

In my opinion, the real choice for the customer is to set up a community network so that content can be cached and streamed from a local server instead of attending to every request individually. This is a far fetched dream though. Yet, if this idea succeeds, we might just see the entry of nifty gadgets like Apple’s iTv which would double up as a personal TV recorder, a mini computer and it’s ability to connect to the net and download your choice of programmes (which incidentally would serve the multitude of masses anyway). Think about the possibilities. BSNL might just introduce a premium “talk channel” where it’s IPTV users might just interact with “aunties” of all hues over the phone to keep themselves hooked over the “premium sex chat lines”. It could make a killing out of it!

This idea incidentally is far fetched and I am sure that some prude would file a case against them for obscenity. Even though, ours is a nation of f***ers with the swelling billion plus people here.

IPTV does open up a large number of possibilties indeed. It remains to be seen as to how it would play out in the real world.

(Crossposted on Desicritics)