The case judgement was delivered on 18th October. Unfortunately, due to various commitments I could not highlight this earlier. I would like to quote diectly from the write up on the mother channel of this blog.

Sify Broadband to pay for unfair trade practises.

The case related to non disclosure of significant terms and conditions, which included hidden conditions that after downloading of 750 MB data in a month the speed would be reduced to 14 Kbps and also a new condition that if a customer downloaded more than 150 MB data in a day, then he was penalized in the form of reduction of package validity by one day, but still packages were advertised as unlimited.

It has been regarded as a landmark judgment as for the first time technical deficiency has been proved in the court of law in India against an Internet Company. And further Court interpreted the matter from the point of view of definition of Broadband as laid down by TRAI, which lays down criterion of minimum speed of 256 Kbps to be regarded as Broadband. Accordingly, Court has held providing of 14 Kbps speed instead of 256 Kbps is in itself a ‘deficiency in service’.

The case was supported in the Cyber World by hundreds of SIFY customers from all over India, who all experienced similar problems and supported the case throughout, whose testimonials were also included in the original complaint as Annexure!

The last para assumes significance. We rallied together and challanged BSNL to introduce unlimited plans. Even though it is a watered down offering, still it was a victory of all sorts for us to fight the ISP’s and demand what we want and not what they want to give.

Unfortunately, public activism is limited to Medha Patkars of the world who otherwise have their own hidden agendas to propagate. If we all take it lying down, they would F*** us royally like they all have been doing for so many years.

Another quote from Ankur’s post on the broadband forum:

“It has been held that concealing hidden conditions and not redressing the grievances of the complainant who made complaints with regard to poor customer service on number of occassions, in our considered opinion, amounts to deficiency in service on the part of Opposite Party and indulging in to Unfair Trade Practice.

We, therefore, direct the opposite party to refund the amount of Rs 1,200/-, paid for two months by the complainant along with compensation to the tune of Rs 5,000/- for causing mental agony and harassment to the complainant and further, pay a sum of Rs 2,000/- towards cost of litigation to the complainant.”

More details at Sify Case dot org.

I want to know as to how to kick BSNL’s ass. TRAI is ineffectual in enforcing it’s own guidelines and till recently they were operating from an illegal building. The Government violating it’s own rules! For the time being, this judgement can be quoted aross the nation and Sify “broadband” has a potential disaster brewing up for them. I am forwarding the details of the judgement to news organisations and I hope this gains widespread publicity. Either Sify Broadband renegotiate it’s contract with it’s subscribers or refund the money taken from them by fraudulent means. This is cheating. Plain cheating.

Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention that in the recent Blog Camp in Madras, the WiFi connectivity was provided by Sify “Broadband”. Basically it was a legion of idiots milling around trying to make themselves important. Interestingly, no one mentioned about the company sponsoring their internet connection about being the target of what arguably was the first blog specifically targetting a company and it’s ill doings. It was borne out of frustration from the pathetic access speeds and their high handedness.

Screw them anyway.

Guys, it’s time to kick their assess.

Sify Broadband’s perfidy is legendary. They absolutely “bastardised” the access. Mercifully, it wasn’t around me anywhere or I would have become a self destruct automaton.

The biggest hassle is the local Cable TV Operator / local goon has jumped in the fray. Traditionally associated with monopoly, they have no incentive to improve. It’s another thing that mafia/ political complex has a direct stake in the same. Which only makes the matters worse. There have been reports in the media about the turf wars and broad daylight killings.

With the entry of big money, smaller marginal operators have been wiped out. So, you would only see biggies in the fray with “broadband” strung from trees, electricity poles and it’s associated myriad hassles. This is NO broadband by any strech of imagination but we can give them the benefit of doubt.

The hassle is last mile access. It needs investments and in a regime where the regulation is ineffective and licence norms often silent on the ownership, no one wants to risk serious money. At best, we have been wrecked by “also rans” in the business, under cutting service and providing the crappiest service imaginable. That’s why DSL guys are jumping in the fray on a big time basis or you would see a subtle “product placement” for cable internet in the media. Where there would be an inane debate about which is better- cable or DSL.

It’s no one’s business actually, to try and ameliorate the present impasse. With weird package selections and worse speeds. it’s a matter of time before cable internet is a cop out. TRAI being ineffective hasn’t really helped the matters really.

The best for the last. I was fed up on slow BSNL dial up; I was making enquiries from an ISP, Glide, for it’s cable internet. I believe that these chaps are no where in the business now. But in their heydays, they quoted the price. For streching the cable to 500 metres, they wanted upfront payment of Rs 10,000/- (Rs, Ten Thousand). (I didnt add the zeros myself). Then, they wanted a thousand bucks per month for “unlimited”- hold your breath- unlimited 2K.

I have seen such horrors but mercifully never been to a mental asylum on account of this. I balked and puked and finally mustered enough strength to say, “shove it up yours dude”.

Status quo. And life goes on with BSNL “broadband” and 1 GB of limits. Sheesh.

Can we have some sanity here in this country? You wish to go on a “wild west theme” with the premise of “smokin’ em out”- a la texan attitude. (Apologies to Geroge Dubya Bush). But then, this is democracy and we must allow profound idiots to co exist. (Either in the garb of Marxists or Congressies). Or else, it would be a dull place. Imagine if I getting 100Mbps streaming speeds via fibre at thouand bucks per month, who would give me a reason to bitch and you to agree with me mostly?

The wisdom holds true for corporations too. CEO’s mar or make a company; despite the common sense prevailing on ground.

In a way, I have been wondering about Reliance, Anil’s division. Much vaunted “broadband” hasn’t materialised; his mobile business hasn’t really excited the market in recent times and hordes of people are expressing dissatisfation. Then, of course, Reliance has it’s neck deep in different ventures which defeats the entire purpose of having focussed plans for telecom. It would, in the end, go down like the Govt. of India’s black hole- where money goes in but no result thereof.

I was indeed dismayed to see a write up in Indian Television.com which talked of last mile access woes. It’s true. However, Satyam burnt it’s fingers nicely and had to exit it’s ISP business. Reliance is refusing to learn from the history and that of not too recent past.

According to the report, Reliance would be investing and scaling up the infrastructure including billing, while the last mile access would be provided by cable operators.

There is an inherent flaw in the model. First, the Cable internet isn’t the bright speck in the sky for Internet access; unless of course it’s optic fibre running to your home. DSL can giver higher and faster access. Then, the problem of secure browsing- most of the PC’s running Microsoft would be infected. It’s easy to compromise a PC without firewalls et al.

Reliance would be stupid enough to expect the cable operators willing to invest time and energy- the same issues that dogged Satyam would plague Reliance too. Lack of customer focus and alienation would soon settle in.

Most of the cable operators have their own “internet services”- they act as last mile distributors for telecom companies. Why would they allow any other company to compete with their own services?

Despite this, Reliance has enough financial muscle and extremely active legal department to arm twist them. This would make your cable operator wary, unless they are backed by a robust association. Satyam was percived to be pliable and the dodos didn’t bother about customers anyway. Reliance would never want to have bad press.

Let’s see how their foray comes in the picture. Let me grudgingly admit. BSNL, by mid next year, may have the last laugh. Specially when they have started scaling up direct optic fibre to building clusters in select cities. These Govt. PSU’s may well rule the broadband market. Everyone else, would twiddle their thumbs and resort to lobbying to open up last mile access.

Specially when media would get enough brains to start comparing the inroads made by other companies.

If the report in Indian Television.com is just a proposal, it’s good enough. History never forgives anyone who ignore it.

Hello Ppl,

This is Nikhil here and i need a favour from all the chennai junta who are now suffering with sify’s broadband connection.

The Favour :

If you have got the sify’s 64kbps Unlimited plan , which was unlimited until 2 months back until sify suddenly had change of plans , and informed the users that , your pack is not unlimited , and you can download only 150 MB/day!!!!!!

Now , this wasn’t mentioned or written anywhere when a user bought a pack( 6 months or 1 year before) , which means that they don’t stick to their agreement made initially. ( a case of fraud )

and therefore i will need you to write your complaint against sify , give me your Name, Address & Proof of purchase.

Queries welcome.

You can get in touch with me at vindictive.viper@gmail.com
and my num: 9884455792

Nikhil

http://forum.seo4india.com/index.php?showtopic=926&st=0

Yet, I feel that I write from a user’s perspective. That is an Eternal Wait for Decent Telecom in India

On a personal note, the blog may take time to get updated. I found a job in a nearby place and plan to relocate. It makes a good career move. I should be online as soon as possible, courtesy BSNL ; if and when they shift my telephone line. Infact, I was in a fix whether or not to take their broadband services. The stupid 1 Gig limit gets me square. As usual, I hope that the planned tarriff revision this weekend would go underway and we could see some real changes. The international leased line prices have been deferred till the 1st of May. In all, this remains a big muddle.

Till then, I hope that Sushubh would take over.

Of interest is the way DoT and VSNL change the policies to suit themselves.

What gives the right to act in this partisan manner? This white paper came way back about 5 years back. However, it remains valid to date.

They need to be exposed.

In the complex telecom muddle, there are a few independent operators that have stood the test of time and branched out on their own. However, the biggest drawback is that I cannot comment on them because of simple reason that I have never ever used their services. Over the period of time, telecom policy was designed to give equal representation to anyone who could sign up for the licenses and collaborate with a foreign telecom company.

Most of the independent operators survived the hostile takeover bids in the name of consolidation, especially by Airtel. In fact, Airtel has consistently raised money and diluted its stake to be “aggressive”. All in the name of expansion and ramping up numbers. Independent operators like BPL and Spice have so far stood out.

Spice has a stake in Karnataka and Punjab. However faced with falling customer base, it decided to market its value added services with huge amount of advertising splash. The network remains pathetic and I would rate the customer care as below average. As for BPL, all I know is that they remain mired in family wrangles, the trouble spot between the son in law and father in law. It was recently featured in the mainstream media too. Interestingly, both of these operators have branched out in handset manufacture. Perhaps to offer low deals on new connections and keep the overheads low.

Idea remains a study of contrasts. Again, I have never used Idea ever. Yet I do know that Tata‘s have a stake in the same. This goes against the accepted grain of logic because Idea is pitted against Tata’s in the same circles trying for the pie of customers for GSM and CDMA.

There were some rumors in the market that Idea may be sold off to some independent operators or those having pan Indian presence. Possibly Hutch. Obviously, these remain exactly that-rumors. I have a feeling that Idea may be sold off to some kind of a consortium in the near future. A consortium, which can consist of Japanese players or Russian operators. Possibly European too. It is strange that despite the 74% FDI limit, there have not been many telecom companies lining up still. Last heard, NTT’s Docomo may enter the Indian market in a big way. This may mean that promised acceleration for the 3-G networks may be earlier than expected; the cut off date was about end of this year.

The fact is that most of the earlier starters had so far staked out in the cities and metros where they milked the consumers. Rural expansion is tricky, given the expected low costs of recovery and infrastructure risks. The other players so far limited to South India are Aircel promoted by the maverick investor Chinakannan Sivasankaran, who sold out his stake in the same. He had earlier invested in Dishnet to promote Internet through Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and sold that to Tata, which has this under the brand name VSNL broadband. He is now promoting Dishnet Wireless in a big way. Arguably sniffed out an opportunity in North East, which is relatively under served, including parts of Uttar Pradesh. In what could be a money-spinner for him, is good for the customers since he promotes his ventures using a lot of hoopla. I am sure he is going to make huge amounts of profits for himself after he sells out. Interestingly he has opted for GSM. In any case, it would make much more sense to have 3-G networks ready since they can accommodate far number of subscribers in the same spectrum for voice calls.

Coming to the fixed line operators, Airtel has a sizeable customer base apart from BSNL. In fact, Airtel is spreading itself over the other circles, as it needs scale rapidly to make profits. The primary reason is that it knows that much of the future revenues would come from the data services. This is in contrast to HFCL Connect, which is currently localized to Punjab. However, the fact remains that it is on the verge of the sell out if the market rumors are to be believed. Their fixed line telephony is basically pathetic being let down by lousy services and CDMA is limited to a few cities only. Despite their claims, I do not have anything to recommend them about. Their DSL remains very costly. In fact, with just a download limit of 400 MB on DSL! This fact is generally not known to most of the people outside the state. I believe that recent advertising binge is surely for ramping up the customer base and they are eventually looking out to sell off to Airtel, possibly. They were in talks with Tata’s recently, most likely for their Internet division, which for some reason did not work out, and talks broke midway. These are again market rumors, which have not yet been confirmed. Yet they do give an indication for the way telecom market is moving across.

Do we need these smaller players? Well the answer is yes and no. Smaller players lack the marketing muscle of the bigger ones. They are encumbered to localized regions and cannot offer economies of scale. However, the smaller players can offer faster customer response times. Sadly, this fact has not really reflected as far as Connect is concerned. I have mailed and personally talked to the people in charge for extending the services to my area, which they consistently refuse to do so. I gave up in disgust. However, I was lucky enough to try out their Internet services. Given the paucity of customers, the access speeds are better in both dial up mode and the “broadband” services. Still the Internet access is way too expensive.

This more or less is the round up of the existing operators in India. It remains to be seen as to how they scale up to the challenges in the future.

Discuss on: Sify Broadband, Tata Indicom, Airtel Broadband, Reliance Broadband, MTNL – BSNL Broadband, Dial Up, Others

This post was submitted by Dr. Abhishek Puri on the Broadband Blog on Techwhack.

I came across this write up in Financial Express today on Sify. I was wondering about the motive behind the same. Then I realized that this was nothing but paid media exposure. For all what Sify has done in the name of “broadband access”, it cannot be excused. I really wish that the journalist had some idea to Google search for Sify and it would lead him/her to this web site. Unfortunate that some people retain their jobs with minimal application of mind.

Everyone is eyeing BSNL now for the huge amount of local loop it has. Admittedly, it should open up it’s infrastructure on a revenue sharing basis. However, in places where one would have a choice, it would get BSNL in direct competition with other service providers on its own network. If that sounds asinine, well it is. Of course, BSNL would never ever want comparison with its own lame duck broadband services. In the clash of the egos and corporate wars, the ordinary customer like you and me has to suffer.

A low down of the situation here and judging the same realistically. 6 years back I was on dial up. 6 years hence, I still am on one. The only frustration stems from this fact that prices remain high as ever; the final outgo in monthly payments is marginally less than 6 years though. As the world accelerates towards Open Access and free form entertainment, I have to contend to use my dial up sparingly. Why would the corporate honchos listen to us and for what? The nation suffers and so do we all. One thing is for sure. You would never ever find such Blogs in the mainstream media. Ever think that a newspaper like Times of India feature the insanities that we have to face to access electronic resources? Well not.

Another factor that triggered this post was the Tata advertisement asking for salesmen on job in the eight cities where they are planning to launch. Apart from the metros, it is Chandigarh and Lucknow included. Well in my earlier posts, I had clearly mentioned about the first mover advantage. Under the aegis of Tata Broadband, erstwhile VSNL is planning to have a changeover. So what, if their tariffs remain as expensive as ever? Who cares? There might be enough people (who do not read these posts!) to sign up for the Tata brand name. Personally, I have nothing against them. It is those marketing idiots that they have hired who would be chasing the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. So what if these markets are saturated? They have a reason to believe that people would be falling over each other to sign up. Alternatively, they have conjured up hallucinations that there would be riots for their broadband connections or whatever they choose to call it? Again, I see a lost opportunity to wire up my hometown and numerous others dotting the landscape that is India.

Why do these companies shy from investments in small towns? The answer can be found by going a bit back in the history. When mobile phones were introduced, they were considered to be elitist. There were numerous arguments that mobile phones were a show off. I remember the first Nokia’s I ever saw. They were big bulky and ugly and looked like bricks. However, within 5 years the whole scenario changed for the better. Mobile phones have become fashion statements and essential part of the way we conduct our economy. The underlying factor was the change in the attitudes that was brought about by advertising. The companies have to get down to the basics and communicate the fact that Internet has the potential to change the way we access resources and conduct transactions. I had written a post earlier on the way broadband can effectively transform the nation.

Herein lies the rub. Companies want to scale up “profits” as quickly as possible. Their main thrust in the cities they believe that would have paying capacity. Agreeable to an extent. With the current emphasis on e-governance and computers being introduced in schools, it would make it imperative to connect them on line, which would be beneficial to all. I really wish that there were some way out that we did not have to depend on these companies to access Internet.

Again, given the promised revolution in broadband access by Reliance, I am seriously hoping that these very people would be forced to eat crow. Some ISP s like Sify Broadband should be wiped out, given the current hoopla that they have been able to generate on these forums. We are fighting against a super structure that takes its customers (all of them) to be incapable of taking decisions on their own. They believe that they can get away with the lousy support that they provide. Well, with an army of morons that most of these companies have hired, I am pessimistic about the state of affairs changing in the near future. When it does, I shall stop complaining about the same!

Discuss on: Sify Broadband, Tata Indicom, Airtel Broadband, Reliance Broadband, MTNL – BSNL Broadband, Dial Up, Others

This post was submitted by Dr. Abhishek Puri on the Broadband Blog on Techwhack.

Much has been talked of the BSNL’s broadband, which clearly sucks. I wish I had clear indicators to help me decide about the buying decision. However, that was not to be and hence I decided to write for the same. In one sentence about the buying decision. Do not buy it.

The main reason is that BSNL has decided to abuse its monopoly for the spread of Internet. It is clearly indicated in the previous posts. Broadband should ideally be minus the restrictions that are imposed on, for effective use. After the announcement, TouchTel in New Delhi is planning to introduce newer tariffs. This would indeed be cheaper and hence reinforces the fact that these telecom companies want to milk the customer and leave with no real option. Even if we assume that the services are guaranteed to be good, this Blog on Sify broadband would not have come up in the first place. It merely exposes the double crap talk of these companies in offering broadband when they are offering something marginally better than dial up. Competition would force them to improve or else face the loss of customers.

Anyway, first the cost. The modem should have a buyback agreement. Incase one needs to switch over to another service provider, your investment in the modem would go waste. Would you sell that as scrap? What if the warranty is not honored by BSNL? I have not come across any statement that they are bound to replace a defective piece should you be unfortunate of landing up with one. More appropriately, there could be a nominal charge for the same. This charge could be refundable if you decide to terminate the services.
Unlimited Internet in BSNL’s parlance invariably means 24 hours connection. It has no relation to the data download or the limit for which you would be charged anyway.

The primary focus here is on the home user. For business users the packages are so exorbitant that it makes no commercial sense to invest money. Who is subsidizing whom?

I believe that even after the big launch in the metros, it is going to come at the end users by last week of January or the first week of February. Despite claims by BSNL to improve the customer service theirs remains, the worst ever experience. The Internet helpline is perennially busy or the engineer sitting at the other end is typical one of stunted development. I have encountered them from close quarters and at best, they remain good enough to draw their monthly salaries. They never seem to forget that! Perhaps this remains true for other service providers also. The next synonym for the word Idiot could be Customer Service Associate or Customer Care Executive. I am waiting for that day. BSNL is dumps down in any technical issue and resolving the downtime could take ages. If you are the kind of person who wakes up with computer on, is clearly in for disappointment.

I have already talked off the download limits. How do these people propose to affect this? If at all you feel aggrieved about being charged excessively, could you possibly haggle with the billing complaint? These people have their own “intelligent” system to deal with the billing queries and I am better off without the hassles of running around trying to get my bills rectified from an abusive sarkari babu.

It is best to wait for about 3 months. I believe according to media reports, that TRAI is going to affect drop in prices of international bandwidth and hopefully the prices should fall further. In addition, of course, the best kept secret of Reliance entering in the broadband. From insider sources, I have heard that the mobile telephony is using up major chunk of their resources and attention at present. This was supposed to have finished off by December last year but the final date has been pushed by two more months. However, there are pointers that broadband maybe affected sooner.

In 1999, the unified licensing was announced. It benefited Reliance who entered the mobile business by paying much less than others did. There was a huge hue and cry but everything settled down. At that point, of time, Reliance affected change in policy to suit itself. TRAI recently mandated that telecom companies could now offer Cable Television and currently only Reliance has made its intentions clear about the same. There was a recent report in Newsweek that Reliance has tied up with Microsoft to offer television over internet. Its plans to enter the cable TV market are huge with investments being made in creating content. Hence, the efforts being made to stream in digital television through set top boxes. Currently this is the case in areas where it is on a trial basis. Commercial launch of REAL broadband would take time for which no firm dates are known at present. It could even by the end of this month or by the end of this year.

By simple logic, if Reliance has to enter the cable TV market it has to compete with the local Cable TV Operator. This means that its offering should be less than what currently is being offered by means of prices. Realizing this early on as a threat to the established business, Hathway forayed in offering ISP services through cable. Reliance has to set up the entire infrastructure and they would not mind in doing so since the quality issues would be directly handled by them. The cost does not matter at all. Witness the revolution they got in dipping the tariffs really low. This means that they can sustain persistent losses because end result is the market share. Once that is realised, it could turn profitable. Cable TV business remains low margin business with long gestation period.
If TRAI does not play spoilsport, predatory prices by Reliance would spoil the party for everyone. Insider sources claim that they are watching the foray of other telecom companies with interest. Perhaps they could even offer set top boxes for free. BSNL would be the biggest looser on the broadband front. However, they too are planning to offer television trough ADSL. Is anyone interested in watching Door Darshan?

I would ideally wait for Reliance to announce its plans and have BSNL realize that they are basically a bunch of monopolists. In order to survive, they ought to fight back on the prices.

However, currently if BSNL offers unlimited downloads and uploads, as we all understand without volume based or time based billing, its a big YES. I would not mind the cost of the modem then. The main reason is that it has set up a world-class supporting infrastructure to carry the data. This is again the inside information that is leaking out on this website. The end support remains useless. That is the main hindrance.

I sincerely hope that the days of having LAN parties and real multi player online gaming are here with speeds in excess of 2Mbps. It would be a dream and wish come true.

Telecom offered a perfect platform to regulate the flow of the TV channels, as well as would give a direct indication of the number of subscribers. This is a long-term plan to introduce pay per view channels including niche content that would be chargeable. ADSL provides a tried and tested vehicle of delivery to the homes.

Part of the grand reason is the spread and reach of BSNL because this was the defacto service provider before the current telecom industry was opened to private players. Worldwide too, the traditional phone companies are wiring up homes through optic fiber, but that is a different story.

Now let us display the spread of Internet in bit more perspective. India has the lowest per capita of personal computers. This industry has been strangled by high import duties and irrational tax structures. The major access is through dial up which against explains that BSNL is leading with the maximum number of subscribers. This is because most of us do not have any option except this service provider. In fact, we are its mercy because these people are under no obligation to ensure connectivity at all times. My experiences with BSNL have remained very bitter but this is not the thrust of the article here.

What do we need broadband for? A minuscule minority would be interested in having the same for online gaming or file sharing. That leaves the rest of us. Dialup could be sufficed in majority of the cases for people who wish to either check mails or stay in touch. This has been given a go by and dial up charges remain very expensive.

As far current media reports go, BSNL is due to launch its services in the metros by 15th of January rest of India, by around first week of February. However, since the official confirmation has not been received, it remains a matter of conjecture though.

By all indications there is going to be a data cap on the downloads or uploads. Though BSNL has a good optic fiber network, the upstream remains choked.

In this backdrop, Reliance is speeding up the things to introduce its broadband by the end of next month.

It is the realization on the part of these companies that data is going to be the driver for the future revenues. Voice calls have taken a beating in the past few years and do not remain a significant source of revenue. Even if broadband is introduced, much remains to be seen as to how the current phase is carried out.

What needs to be done urgently?

First and foremost is the unbundling of the local loop. BSNL owns majority of the copper wires and competition should be allowed to provide access. It is interesting to note that British Telecom also resisted the opening up of its loop. Now every 10 seconds there is a person signing up for broadband. Our very intelligent bureaucrats obviously did not want any threat to the monopoly of the behemoth. Unbundling the local loop to private players would have provided cheaper broadband. This remains another sob story that majority of the recommendations of TRAI were shot down as they were deemed unfit for the present state of telecom.

Why is the government in the telecom business anyway? They ought to have exited out a long time back. BSNL is growing fatter on its own monopoly and the much-touted social objectives of rural telephony remain pathetic. Broadband is not going to change things overnight.

However, I strongly suspect that the Access Deficit Charge levied on the mobile operators and indirectly on to us, is being used to cross subsidize the plans of BSNL. The rapid set up of the mobile services could not have been possible otherwise.

BSNL can hurt the other long-term players because there can be budgetary provisions to prop up the state structures. The private players offering broadband services are restricted to metros only is because they are aware of the paying capacity of the people subscribing to their services.

In the end, it is the consumers suffer in the great battle that is being fought. Reliance is going to change the broadband scenario in a significant manner just the way cheap tariffs ensured that mobiles became a necessity rather than a luxury. They are not angels either but know the first mover advantage. Data remains the key to the survival in the telecom muddle in this country. Let us see how these people slug it out.

This is not the last word on the state of affairs. I strongly feel that the coming year would be the year of broadband. For all the cynicism, I am still hopeful that someone would genuinely make cheap Internet access a possibility.