Monthly Archive for January, 2005

Some thoughts about Airtel Broadband

Published on 30th Jan 2005 in Airtel Broadband and General Thoughts. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Some thoughts about Airtel Broadband

Bharti Televentures is the fixed line operator business of Airtel. In the recent branding exercise, all the services have been offered under the Airtel brand. Data is the next driver for growth. This is clear to the operators who have belatedly realized the implications for having a pie in all the segments of telecommunications. Hence Bharti ventured in the broadband market.

However, the main contention in the broadband market is the price offering which includes the bandwidth costs as well as the cost of laying down the copper wire. Typically, in the mentality of the profit making exercise, Airtel has so far focused only in those areas where it perceives that a huge market is present. However, I still hold that their thrust should be in smaller towns and cities where BSNL would ultimately usurp their potential customer base. It seems that their fancily paid MBAs haven’t really understood the success of BSNL who focused on the B and C class cities where it has drawn unparalleled support despite the lousy customer experiences. This is because of the absence of any other operator.

The current offerings by Airtel does not really enthuse a potential customer who is looking at sustained data transfer. It is the classic case of having something better than nothing. I fail to understand the voice pulses being bundled with the internet access. What if one doesn’t want that? Why is that we have to pay for the same? Its one thing to have multiple tariffs to offer people with different usage patterns. However, these tariffs on the website seek to confuse more than a guide for signing up. Do the big bosses think that people use broadband to check emails?

Add to the lousy customer care that Airtel is slowly perfecting, it is staffed with people who usually land up in their jobs with little idea of their job profile. The so-called Tech engineers have often been unable to help a customer who is facing issues with the connectivity. I have read first person accounts for the same.

The man behind the company himself, Sunil Bharti commented in the media that since the BSNL s local loop was not thrown open to the private players, they have to realign their plans to spread out to other areas. Indeed, they are eyeing other areas in Punjab again focusing on those areas where supposedly people would fall over each other to sign up for the broadband.

If Mr.Bharti is so much concerned about BSNL’s local loop or infrastructure, why doesn’t he let other ISP s use his infrastructure for a price? This would lower down the tariffs and would ideally promote healthy competition to provide affordable access to people. Yet they are not even thinking of using their local loop to optimal advantage for themselves!

I believe that broadband access could be provided in a manner, which can benefit the customer and the provider. There ought to be a single flat price for the access with the charges levied for value added services like games or broadcasting television channels. The plain vanilla Internet access can be provided at high speeds, say at 512 kbps or more. Once the download limits are exceeded, the speeds could drop to say 256 or 128 kbps. This seems more logical and rational. Since I have not subscribed to Airtel broadband, I would not be in a position to comment on the user experiences for the same.

I believe that Bharti can easily scale down the prices since they own their network as well as the gateway in Chennai. Why they have not done so is beyond my reasoning. Perhaps they want to milk the customers before anyone else does so. In fact after the announcement of BSNL and subsequent “price war”, Airtel introduced a me too scheme. All in the name of customer interest and providing superior customer experience! Perhaps they have mastered the sweet lingo and are always full of mouthing platitudes.

I sincerely hope that broadband scene improves. At least we ought not to be at their mercy or shoddy customer services, which invariably come as a part of the package.

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.

Indian Telecom is a Farce

Published on 28th Jan 2005 in General Thoughts and Indian Telecom. 8 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Indian Telecom is a Farce

The old adage of the business rule is that it takes ten times more cost to earn a customer than to retain one. I am sure no one high up in the mobile company has ever heard of this saying. Why spend crores on celebrity endorsements and try to entice people with empty promises? However, since we do not have a regulator worth its name, this routinely is ignored. That is discussed later.

GSM mobile companies started their services as a lifestyle and luxury product. I remember the atrocious rates they used to charge as a premium. The interest of the consumer be damned. Perhaps at that time this industry was besotted with high taxes and an indifferent government regulation. This did not help the matters at all. In fact overestimating the demand and the invisible middle class potential, these companies fell over each other to buy out the spectrum and license. Much of the details remain out of scope here. However, fact of the matter is that until to date, voice calls remain prohibitive, perhaps with the exception of Reliance.

GSM companies have tried to communicate their message through various means and make people adopt the cell phones more out of necessity. The central aspect of any mobile service remains the billing. This one area remains ignored. There have been many complaints of customers who have been facing the wrong billing cycles or difficult to understand across the board tariffs. Incase one is not happy with the settlement, the only way out remains that of the consumer court. One knows how long the court cases can linger on.

The different plans that seem to be flooding the market are in a way designed to fool the customer in parting money more than it’s due. For example, much of the value of recharge card is taken upfront. This almost amounts to half of the talk time value. If the needs to be connected there is no choice.

The private operators tried very hard to prevent the entry of BSNL as the third service provider. However, the entry was delayed. The main reason why this was done so because the operators has so far concentrated only on the towns and cities which had potential to cough up the exorbitant charges put to them. Over the past few months there have been reports that BSNL’s sim cards are not available or only at high premiums. I fail to understand the artificial scarcity as well inattention of the persons concerned. This is perhaps an unproven allegation that private operators have so far tried to stem the spread of BSNL or cause frequent disruptions thus an insider job. However, it remains unproven but anything is possible in this country.

This coupled with the ineffective network, which dropped after one moved out of the city limits. Call drops and frequent disconnections were routine. Adding salt to the wounds was the problem one had to face while dealing with a vast army of morons. The so-called customer care executives.
Surely, logistics define the scale of operations. Yet a careful analysis reveals that much of the spend is in advertising little realizing that word of mouth advertising is much better than hiring celebrities to endorse. What of those fancy MBAs these companies hire? This has indeed spawned a whole subculture of studies to analyze consumer-buying patterns. Yet the media agencies apply little brains when it comes to working on the actual brass tacks. That is another sob story.

Hutch advertised with minimal investments with the result that it has the highest Average Revenue per User (ARPU). Given the fact that Hutch laid much emphasis on the quality of the network. However, this is from the media reports and I have no reason to take them for their word. Since the accounts of these private companies are not publicly listed, it would be difficult to prove the extent of their claims. ARPU is sacrosanct in the mobile industry and each operator tries to shore up its ARPU given the need to have returns on investments.

The recent controversy over the increase of the FDI in the telecom sector is again an unwise decision. This is because Indian companies are not content to raise money through the Indian banks or lending agencies for reasons best known to them. In fact, the decision not to hike the FDI limit from previous 49% to present 74% was taken in the interest of the nation. This is because the nature of the telecom is that it is a crucial industry and in the event of the national emergency, the foreign investor would sell its stake in distress and devalue the national currency. This fact is somehow not apparent to Bharti Group that was at the forefront of calling for increased investment. Perhaps to a host of other operators also.

The Calling Party Pays regime or free incoming has resulted in the hike for the landline rates. The biggest windfall has been for the BSNL who owns the largest number of lines. This has helped them to cross subsidize their mobile operations as well as shore up the balance sheet with the free money of ADC regime levied on the mobile companies.

Despite the spread of the network, the roaming costs remain the highest for the GSM companies. I fail to understand the tactic arrangement these people have among themselves; the fact remains that it is an open loot of the customers. The Cellular Operators Association of India is in constant tussle with the fixed line of operators. As I had mentioned, it is just another bunch of trade unionists who have platitudes to mouth to media.

Data is one big issue with GSM. GSM remains an uneconomical way of providing data services as it hogs a lot of spectrum. This means that the voice spectrum is affected, which would lead to the detioration of the quality; and spectrum is a scarce resource. Voice remains the main bread and butter of the operators. Hence, the best way is to price the data component higher than average (totally unjustified) and sell the same as value added service. This helps them to set up a differential feature from other networks. However, still way to expensive. Contrast to this, is the CDMA, which can support high network speeds of up to 144 kbps. This has explained the success of Reliance’s Fixed Wireless Terminals, which have an inbuilt modem too. There is no doubt about the superiority of the CDMA over the GSM platform despite the claims of the operators.

The only way to make these operators make the services far cheaper than they are is to complain to them. Not in the Customer Centre because those poor brainless sods are overworked anyway. Write back to the top heads and the TRAI. Fight them on the facts and refuse to become a willing victim to their loot. TRAI needs to get its act together and exert its superiority. Sadly, it has been reduced next to nothing after constant court rulings cutting its jurisdiction. Shifting over to other operator is also not feasible because none of them offer any real differentiator on service upfront.

So much for Indian Telecom Revolution. Just eyewash. A farce.

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.

Reliance Infocomm

Published on 26th Jan 2005 in General Thoughts and Reliance Broadband. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Reliance Infocomm

Reliance started a virtual war when it entered. With the largest user base in the country in mobile segment, it is on a breakneck speed in expanding its offerings across the country. The recent news in the media was abuzz with the announcement that it is planning to spread its network to over 5000+ cities and towns across India including four lakh villages.

Reliance has played its card absolutely right. Even though the analysts have figured out that rural market remains only cyclical, falling tariffs are only going to spur the demand from those “low income areas”. Reliance knows the first mover advantage, on the same lines that BSNL set up its mobile services in the rural areas. I believe that much of the need is derived from the voice calls rather than fancy value added services that have not much utility otherwise. Who would want to download games anyway? The other side of the argument is to allow the market to mature and then create a demand for the same.

It was with this idea that Reliance set up its portal R-World which is a step in the right direction. Airtel, in all its wisdom realized the value much later when it introduced its Airtel Live! portal after introduction of EDGE services. Mobile services are going to see demand based on Value added services, but only after the markets mature.

I believe that Reliance’s portal is in house. This gives them the edge over the content and consequently any service related issues are ironed out. Compare and contrast the other service providers who have outsourced the same. I am aware of Airtel having done that. Over the past one year that I have been on this service (Reliance), I have never ever faced any downtime with the same.

Reliance needs to roll out its broadband services. In the press conference held recently, the chief of the wireless division mentioned that it would be rolled out soon. Much in the nature of the earlier announcements, it could be either a few weeks from now on or perhaps next year. One never knows.

The most exciting part is the terabit optic fiber cable that criss crosses the entire nation. Reliance has bet big on the data services, something that other operators took for granted. I have read first person accounts of highflier imbeciles who claimed that Internet has no scope in this developing nation. Part of their cynicism stemmed from the fact that means to access via personal computers remained very expensive. Alas, these are the very same people who talk of making India an IT superpower. Sure, they have guts for double speak.

I am not enamored of Reliance. They had indeed raised a lot of expectations but fell flat on the billing process. Much of the initial enthusiasm over the Monsoon Hungama scheme was because people with low common denominator of intelligence failed to read the fine print and the monthly outgo on the same. The billing system simply collapsed because it could not take a massive load at once. Compounding the problem were the private agents that the company had deployed to sell connections on their behalf. They sold out a huge number of invalid connections. Much in the wisdom and foresight, the company recovered the same from the insurance.

I hope that the current fiasco between the brothers ends soon and the task of building the excellent infrastructure begins. The elder brother did a lot of financial engineering and invested paltry sums of money to get huge returns. This remains out of scope here as to how he did it. The fact of the matter is that this falls in the realm of corporate governance and it is for those idiots on the job who claim that Reliance is the most admired company.

It is an open secret that they run the corridors of power through proxy. Ultimately, as far as telecom is concerned, their focus is to become the choke points and the final access for all services. They have invested in huge sums of money to get in the cable distribution business. They have set up a huge bandwidth to cater to other telecom service providers and now own the international gateway through their acquisition of Flag Telecom. In fact they want to replicate the same issue as in they did for the petrochemicals division. This in effect means that they would be able to raise the prices at will or monopolize the services (cable TV distribution) once they have a sizeable share.

Until the time it does not happen, let us hope for a better telecommunications market.

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.

Experiences with BSNL and their Internet Connections

Published on 25th Jan 2005 in BSNL Broadband, General Thoughts and Telecom News. 31 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Experiences with BSNL

BSNL’s perfidy is legendary. They have monopolized the services to an extent that they resort to anti-competitive policies. More on that later. Over the past few years, Internet has played a dominating role in the way people access resources or connects to others. It is a whole new way of communication. I remember much of it was made when people talked of getting on the information superhighway. Internet access was controlled by VSNL, which remained the sole service provider way back for a number of years. High access charges remained the order of the day. Being the only service provider meant that it had no intention to improve the access. This underwent a qualitative change when the VSNL was sold off to Tata and BSNL stepped in to provide the services.

Leopards do not change their spots at all. Internet access was taxed heavily and the access charges remained all time high. In fact one of the highest in the world. This was marked by frequent disconnections and abusive “Customer Support Staff”. In fact, these idiots have these fancy names, which do no justice to the purpose with which they are hired for. Early on BSNL found out a way to manage the whole charade and signed up the customers who often were hampered by lack of choice or high cost option of other ISPs. Much of the reason was that their bandwidth was provided for by BSNL who charged them high carriage access fees. This ultimately was passed on to the consumers. Why was it so? I believe it is the scheme of the things that these government officials need to comfort themselves for shoddy services. No one has questioned them on this count at all.

This underwent a rapid change when the telecom sector was opened up for private players. Overnight BSNL’s thrust was to hold on to customers. They introduced a line exclusive for Internet access for about Rs.500/- per month. This was done in the name of the public service. However, a closer analysis revealed that BSNL’s officers were jittery about falling revenues and shift towards the other private payers who needed to woo for their own sustenance. Each of the ISP was provided for with a digital number access starting off with 172XXX and the line for exclusive internet access was restricted to that number only.

My love hate relationship with BSNL started with that connection. It was during my frequent complaints to the Internet section that shed light in the innards of this organization. Repeated complaints had no effect on the same. I had to email to the top heads of BSNL’s headquarters; some of them surprisingly responded. Indeed, barring a few honest do gooders, it is staffed with unfortunate imbeciles who cannot even type in the URL in the address bar. This was perhaps the reason that repeatedly my mails bounced back. Once the complaint landed on the table of the node in charge (insider story), he scampered off to set my connection to the desired level. Such is the power of being heard after complaining.

In my city, VSNL had happily launched their services. However, I could not access through my line for exclusive internet access because it was barred. However, in the initial clause it was clearly mentioned that all numbers starting with 172XXX would be provided for. Complaints to the relevant staff had no effect. Things took an ugly turn when the General Manager was caught in a corruption scandal. Thereafter the policies went out for a toss. It did make headlines in the local newspapers but that was that.

Ultimately, I sent across a mail to the VSNL to try to follow up on their level. However, in the reply fit for an idiot, they repeatedly mentioned that BSNL has blocked the access. This was in fact the same issue that I had highlighted. Subsequent emails went unanswered. Now I hear that by month end the connectivity would be provided for.

VSNL is spending a huge amount of money in staffing those people who do not deserve to be there anyway. I fail to understand how do these people get hired in the first case. That’s a mystery wrapped in an enigma, which has clearly no answers.

The above account is first person one. Repeatedly I have had complaints with the phone line, which only got resolved by knocking the telephones of the higher ups. Why are these people not accessible when they are supposed to be at all times? BSNL has set up a mechanism wherein each lineman has to report back the action taken report at the end of the day for resolution of customer complaints. This invariably gets faulted with no action being taken against the defaulting linemen.

Why this happens is beyond my reasoning.

The biggest fault is in the attitude that reflects the Indian society that does not reward merit and encourages inefficiency. Many a times I have faced enough hassles against those people who do not match up to the work they are expected to do. BSNL is no different. Perhaps the major reason that it is a government organization, which demotivates the staff even more. I cannot name names but in my interaction with the various levels, I have come across brilliant officers who have their hands tied because of the mediocrity around them. In fact, for the broadband launch there have been extremely efficient people working behind the scenes who have toiled day in and day out to launch the services. However, what did them in was the lousy package of prices, which seems to be beyond their control. The end mechanism has to be effected by the junior level staff, which has no clue as to how to go about. This reflects on the entire machinery anyway. I had earlier mentioned that BSNL has indeed set up a world-class infrastructure for broadband access. I have come across real people who have sought to make the best of the available resources and provide a decent service. These examples remain far and few though.

One cannot change the entire system overnight. This is not a log of my frustrations in here. However, an honest appraisal that people who are reading this ought to take initiative and question the same people who are supposed to act and make an effort. Falling customer levels and increased focus on efficiencies only would make these people wake up from their deep slumber. I shall try to rebut their claims with action on the ground. It is this way only that a change can be brought about in the same organization that has been funded by huge amounts of taxpayers money. We seek answers and soon.

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.

Telecom Muddle in India – Part 2

Published on 22nd Jan 2005 in General Thoughts and Telecom News. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Telecom Muddle in India – Part 2

Over the past few years there has been supposed expansive growth of telecom in this country. For the same reason it was envisaged to have a regulator for this growing industry. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India was hence set up as an autonomous body in 1999.

TRAI has clearly failed its objectives with which it was set up for. It has perhaps become a paper pushing organization in a permanent intellectual rigor mortis. Occasionally it breathes life into itself and then we hear some active pronouncements, which are invariably turned down. I was happy when they had suggested the policy paper on the spread of broadband in India, whose coverage remains pathetic. However, it was comfortably turned down by our “dynamic and young” Minister of Telecommunications. In the scheme of the things, they quoted some obscure studies and thwarted an excellent opportunity to improve the infrastructure in “IT Superpower” of Asia.
What do these people get in protecting the monopoly that is harming us contrary to their pronouncements? I believe it is the patent insecurity complex that they are saddled with and refuse to see reason howsoever good it maybe. Perhaps it has become a part of the system to ignore the same electorate that voted them into power in the first case. None in the public eye ever wishes to be asked uncomfortable questions that they wish to avoid at all costs.

Department of Telecom and its two daughters BSNL and MTNL have legendary notoriety. Be it the customer care where there exists none or the idiotic telecom pricing which is inflationary and anti economic. The main reason is that they have refused to look beyond their cobwebs and officials used to the cushy life that only son in laws can envy. All at the taxpayers expense. It is for the same reason that media and self-styled experts refuse to ask them uncomfortable questions and thereby effect policy change. I was appalled when the media happily reported the launch of broadband and conveniently ignored the bastardization of the resources. Not even one single daily ever bothered to ask the way pricing had been done. Why is it so?

Another aspect of this great scheme of things is the constant tussle between the telecom operators and their respective unionization. One is the Cellular operators and the other is the fixed line operators. It is the same thing as we see on the streets but with a difference. These people ride in sedans that have astronomical price tags and regularly haunt the five star hotels. They own the media by giving them handouts or coercion so that their voice is heard the loudest in the corridors of power. To confuse the customer they have a surfeit of tariff plans and profess to do everything for the customer. Even though the whole thing maybe a charade, they seem to get away so easily that it is surprising why TRAI ever exists in the first place. Again being paid for indirectly by honest taxpayer.

The growth of telecom is a notional concept here in India. I had earlier mentioned that figures are routinely inflated and claimed and counter claimed to improve the valuation of the company. One needs to see their claims with trepidation. Why the customers in effect pay and subsidize the government behemoths in form of Access Deficit Charge? BSNL and MTNL remains overweight, over bloated and lethargic company, which needs money to sustain its uneconomic day-to-day expenses. Who cares if it is coming for free? All they have to do is to make noise. I wish that things change and they ought to be sold off and privatized. Or else they should stop whining and complaining about the rural telephony (for which the ADC is supposedly charged).

It is reasonably clear that ADC is unviable and hurting the interests of the consumers. In fact, Universal Service Obligation fund has been set up to subsidize the cost of the operations in economically unviable areas. I have read somewhere that BSNL’s utilization remains nil out of that fund. Why so?

The benefits of robust telecom infrastructure remain untold. We would gradually move towards a knowledge-based economy. South Korea demonstrated this by being the most wired nation of the world. At present 30% of the GDP is transacted online. It works to almost $148 million dollars! Its interesting to see that the broadband penetration in Japan was almost nil till a few years back. In fact same as India. However, keeping the larger interests of the nation in mind, Japan explored all the avenues and opened up its sector for rapid spread of the same. It is in fact now lagging only behind US in the reach of the broadband services. US passed the bill to ensure that broadband access is universal by the year 2007-08. This is the kind of commitment that is needed to speed up the reforms. Yet all that we hear is the fictional number of people who would supposedly sign up for broadband. This is in the range of millions! Oh my God! How is it possible with such expensive and pathetic tariffs?

I find it strange that majority of the broadband access thrust is in the major cities of the country and ignoring the smaller towns. It clearly flies in the face of the logic. Corporate customers tend to pay the most but they also manage to extract the best deals from the service providers so that it works out to be cheap in the long run. No one wants high operating costs that reflect in their yearly statements anyway. . Businesses suffer losses on the downtime and penalty clauses are inked in the deals for any downtime. However, it is the individual customers who would be willing to pay for a cheap and reliable service and the real potential exists here. It is strange the MBA s from leading institutes of the country is in effect chasing the same set of customers who would otherwise sign up anyway. The real skills of their marketing would be tested in the small cities and towns where they have to create a robust demand. This business of telecom, as everyone knows, remains of long gestation and profits on investments accrue only after a few years. How can they be so mentally challenged to this fact? I am further more surprised that these mental retards are paid huge salaries without producing any effect on the ground. Here is this concept of First Mover Advantage. Move in first, capture the market and have loyal customers. Simple isn’t it?

I suggest that tax holidays be given to promote the same on the lines of IT industry. The fact that ISP license is available for a token fee of just Re 1/- in this country has not had many people lining up to set the services. This reflects the high costs of the bandwidth and monopolistic attitude of the operators (VSNL, Reliance, and Bharti) who operate the Internet gateways. The hardware to access the same needs to be made cheaper. The corporations do tend to donate used computers but their impact remains minimal. In fact, I came across a news report that in a village in Kerela, a silent revolution is going on to educate the people in use of computers. One learns and teaches five others. It is here in these ideas that the prospects remain bright. The spread of the Internet would foster the demand for educated people operating the systems. It seems to be a perfect avenue for self-employment by setting up access points just the way STD revolution spread across the country in the 1980s.

The benefits are unlimited but it takes a person with a vision of come to conclusion about that. Sadly, the levers of power are wrongly engaged. I hope that situation on ground improves soon for the betterment of the nation as a whole.

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

BSNL Broadband Buying Decision

Published on 17th Jan 2005 in BSNL Broadband, General Thoughts, India Broadband News, Other ISPs and Sify Broadband. 16 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

BSNL Broadband Buying Decision

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.

Insanities offered by BSNL Broadband

Published on 13th Jan 2005 in BSNL Broadband and General Thoughts. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Insanities offered by BSNL Broadband

BSNL has finally jumped in the broadband arena with a watered down offering. However, there is much more than that meets the eye and the primary precaution of caveat emptor (buyer beware) applies here.

One needs to appreciate the basic mentality of the government that takes our intelligence for granted every time. The tariffs so far announced have the provision to buy a modem outright or pay a non-refundable security of Rs 500/- Incase the modem is on rental it would entail the cost of Rs 100 per month. I believe that it is much more prudent to have a buy back offer for the same. What if one needs to shift on to any other service provider in the near future? This is not justified if we are saddled with a modem for which we would have no use. It is abusing the monopoly for its own ends. However, we do not have any say.

The download limits remain a bone of contention. This is inexcusable. The ISPs are worried about the abuse of their bandwidth being utilized for file sharing or downloading excessively. However, I fail to understand that if the current encumbment wants to enter in the streaming media offering or TV on Internet then how the current quota of 1 GB is proposed to be utilized.

I have mailed to the top heads of BSNL but have got no reply from them at all. Perhaps they feel that they are not answerable to the queries at all. In this age of broadband elsewhere, it is only on the dial up where one could get unlimited bandwidth. Albeit at a price which defies explanation in the age of falling tariffs. I suggest that in case one exceeds the download limit, the speed at the end user premises could be reduced. There is no rationale for charging extra for exceeding the limits, which are ludicrous. Moreover, BSNL has not clearly mentioned the way that they would be calculating the usage pattern of the downloads. There are lots of ifs and buts here. What would happen in case you load the data intensive page? At current estimates, the allotted bandwidth would finish off by around 9-12 hours. (for the 256 kbps plan at approx Rs660 per month inclusive of the rental and the service tax).Perhaps they could advertise as “Check email by speed of Broadband”. This way I would not have felt offended to say the least. The media further compounds the problem by calling India as IT superpower. No wonder these people are hand in glove with each other. The silver lining is that its unlimited bandwidth for the first 6 months. A more prudent offer could have been a promise to review the prices in the near future with the charges recovered for broadband through value added services like streaming media, online gaming or the content that is proposed to be introduced after about 6 months. The net access could have been subsidized to more manageable levels easily. This could have ensured the rapid scale up of customers and the critical mass of people paying over the long term for the infrastructure costs. Low cost would spread Internet rapidly. Small incremental numbers make more sense than hoping for a magic wand to ramp up numbers at the day of launch itself.

Let us hope and wait for the customer review here its welcome in this Blog.

Currently the international bandwidth prices are dirt-cheap. It is the mode of last mile access that is difficult. ADSL is the tried and tested way of getting it to your doorstep. However, as I had mentioned earlier in the post, it is the refusal of BSNL to open up the local loop that is hindering the spread of internet. Why do they want to protect their network, which in fact belongs to the public anyway? Is there a case for filing in the courts on the basis of unfair trade practices? I believe that there could be one.

Ultimately, its clear that BSNL protests too much if there is any cut in the revenues. Perhaps the reason is the refusal of the finance ministry to bail out the overstaffed and bloated and incompetent wing of the government. It is for this reason that BSNL protested when the cut in the Access Deficit Charge was announced. It is no ones business if the end customer pays much more than it is required for.

Finally, we are all in this. I suggest that there ought to be an email campaign to be started complaining about the sorry state of affairs. Write back to the Minister of Communications and the top officers of BSNL. Make your voice heard to the respective General Managers of your telecom circle. Their email ids are publicly available. Until the time we do not get our act together, these people would take us all for granted. It is unfair that in matters of national importance we choose to sit back and let others take the initiative. In my experience, no one can jail you for complaining. It is another matter if you become abusive!

It is a matter of few more months. To capture the market share, these companies would have to reduce the prices further and remove the download limits. This can only come through if more competition is allowed in the market. Maybe Reliance could do something for broadband access that it did for the mobile tariffs. Since their broadband launch date is not known, it maybe prudent to sign up for BSNL broadband and keep hoping. As I mentioned, at least for the first 6 months its unlimited bandwidth. Perhaps the day when we d have REAL broadband at 1 Mbps and above, truly this country would have achieved its true potential.

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