Monthly Archive for March, 2005

Snippets from the Telecom Situation in India

Published on 30th Mar 2005 in Broadband in India, Indian Telecom and Reliance Broadband. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Snippets from the Telecom Situation in India

At the height of the Reliance imbroglio, the brothers has split apart and all of a sudden, the complex shareholding pattern was revealed; how Reliance India Limited financed the telecom venture of the Mukesh Ambani. Once the resolution was in sight, the charges leveled by Anil Ambani camp in the media ceased to exist. I had been reiterating all the time that much of the media exposure is either paid or favors granted at a later stage. I am glad that the family has rallied behind the two warring brothers and the dispute seems to be heading for resolution. In that case, the telecom venture would land in favor of the younger brother. How would that make a difference? I had earlier mentioned that Reliance had entered in the GSM market in the North East, albeit on a low scale. What wasn’t mentioned was that it was owned and managed by Anil Ambani. By all accounts, the service quality was good enough despite being the lone service provider. I am not aware of the kind of services it offers now. Given the fact that Anil has limited exposure in Telecom, it would be worth seeing as to how he steers the company in the present times.

Clearly, he would have to carry out restructuring at the managerial levels and get in the new team. For too long, Reliance has had to pay out excess money over and above the original license fees. That it chose CDMA over GSM is not disputable. The fact is that it needs to inject urgency in the broadband roll out. BSNL is snapping up its potential customers rapidly. Let us see how this one works out. Finally, when it comes to managing the company, according to media reports, Anil Ambani is more on hands person being able to project a younger profile of the company. As I say it again, telecom is fast changing field here and it would be too premature to say as to how the company would change its fortunes for the better.

TRAI did something that was not expected out of it. It actually admonished VSNL over its decision to challenge the telecom order reducing the international bandwidth rates. For a company used to monopoly for too long, artificially high prices for International bandwidth was a cash cow. TRAI has gone on record saying that the domestic bandwidth prices are to be reduced by the end of this month. VSNL has been cut to size, for a company with Tata brand name; it paints a sorry picture when it comes to execution of projects. Suddenly in tier two cities, it develops cold feet, even though their infrastructure is excellent. But more on that later.

Would broadband become cheaper by that account? Well, as the media goes gaga over the reduced prices and paints a rosy picture of the broadband reach, let us face it. Reliance, Bharti and VSNL own the international gateways. Bharti offering its services under Airtel Broadband can easily offer unlimited data at reduced prices. Yet, it fails to do so. Bharti has always been watching the situation and drops its prices in anticipation of the loss of revenue from existing customers. I remember they had made a positive buzz in the market when they reduced the STD rates for long distance calls. However, it was already in the air that BSNL was looking forward for doing the same. It was enough to fill up the columns in the news papers as to how the true potential has been achieved in the Indian telecom market. At that time, this website was not there too, to refute the “facts”!

Bharti did it again this time with the broadband offering at Rs.249/- only. Yet, the download limit for the same? Remains a few hundred MB. Is that cheap or cost effective even for sparing use? Yet, it was enough to guarantee Airtel enough headlines. In the final analysis, Airtel has been a me too player rather than taking proactive approach in the market. For example, they could have one offering across the board. 512 kbps unlimited starter pack for a fixed sum. I would gladly wait for Airtel in that case. And BSNL would be forced to follow suit; would be “real competition” in terms of speed and customers.

The same argument goes for VSNL. Yet, one can understand their frustration. They are being forced to play on an uneven ground. Setting up a brand new infrastructure in terms of metro Ethernet is expensive. They are forced to provide DSL subscription after laying down their own loops. Herein lies the tragedy of Indian telecom. Unbundle the local loops; force the telcos to offer dirt-cheap prices for broadband access, which would have a multiplier effect in the economy. The bulk of the customers would invest in a Personal Computer only if there are guaranteed returns on investment. As people became aware of what mobile telephones can do to their businesses or perhaps to their lives, it was being considered as a worthy investment. As the benefits of the broadband trickle in over the period of time, it would virtually create a boom. This is what I analyze the trends as. Therefore, infrastructure duplication is avoidable in the long run and some day or the other BSNL would be forced to part with its local loop. British Telecom did the same thing. Yet, no one is happy in Britain with the government owned services.

The current estimate of number of broadband users is around 20-30000 only. That is indeed a minuscule percentage. The estimated number of subscribers in the next 5 years would depend on the proactive approach of the companies. Yet, the figure thrown around in terms of millions is a figment of imagination indeed. For that low cost computing is necessary. How is that possible? Well, that is another matter really. Finally Reliance broadband. The exact date is still not certain. Could be it be next month or two or by the end of the year? This is not certain at any rate as of now. Still waiting for a decent Internet access.

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.

Dial-Up Users are the Biggest Sufferers in India

Published on 30th Mar 2005 in Broadband in India and General Thoughts. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Dial-Up Users are the Biggest Sufferers in India

I am speaking on behalf of countless number of Internet users in the small towns of India. The people in the metros have enough to complain about the “broadband service providers” who do not deliver what has been paid upfront. Yet, a larger percentage belongs to the dial up subscribers who are often at the mercy of operators like BSNL.

I have been a subscriber of BSNL for as long as I can remember. The fact is that I never had any choice. Apart from high access charges (one of the highest in the world for dial up – Is TRAI listening?), the whole thing is bundled with lousy customer support. Admittedly, I have come far from the days when it took ages to connect on to the server wasting my calls in the process. Those days I had to use my connection like a sucker because I was afraid of having huge telephone bills. Repeated complaints to the “customer care centre” brought about no resolution and it was frustrating enough to bear the insults of some dead wit moron sitting at the other end.

Things changed slightly for the better when they introduced a telephone line for exclusive Internet usage. I jumped up on the same. The initial charges for my city were Rs.399/- per month. After about 2 months, they increased to Rs.499/- per month. When I enquired about the price increase in the commercial office, the clerk (one of the damned ubiquitous species in government offices) spoke as a matter of fact. He said that the corporation reserves the right to increase prices at its own whims and fancies. Later on, I realized that it has to do something with the number of exchange lines in the city. Yet, it remains by and large very expensive to surf, especially when I need to buy separate Internet packages.

The default Internet package comes with a measly 5 MB in box. Well, since it gives POP3 support, I really do not need the same. There is no provision to increase the in box space or choose any different aliases. For that, one has to depend on the web based email service providers. This in effect defeats the very purpose of a dial up based Internet, as it remains prohibitively expensive to surf or look up information.

Currently, there is no mechanism to ensure security in the service. Anyone can use any other subscriber’s details, which include user name and password. Unlike VSNL, which in its rare far sightedness, introduced crackblok security, which restricts the access number from a particular phone line, such facility is not available with BSNL.

Security is a major lacuna with BSNL.

Spam filtering at the server level is next to nil. In fact, I have been receiving much spam of late. I brought this to the notice of node in charge. His reply was simple. He said that in case I get spam, the best way to deal with it is to delete it. Ignorance is bliss in this country. Why do these ISP’s never ever bother to look in the genuine complaints of the subscribers and have some knowledgeable people hired; instead of poor vegetables?

In my city, a majority of subscribers had to surf on the normal telephone lines. This meant that for long we had to wait endlessly to either connect or buy Internet hourly packages. At times, the desired package was never in the stock and customers were forced to upgrade to expensive hourly packages. The unlimited dial up package was available for a whopping Rs.9000/-(it is still) and valid only for 6 months. Now for that kind of money I can buy a small telephone exchange for myself!

The user experience has been pathetic. There can never be a “Dial Up Blog” for BSNL because; much of the world has gone ahead in terms of broadband, or whatever “faster than dial up” version of access is. Still, I feel extremely frustrated that I am stuck up in a time warp, much because I am forced to deal with thoroughly incompetent idiots.

Ever since BSNL introduced Net-One in my city, there have been a large number of subscribers without having increase in the bandwidth. As a result the speeds tend to crawl down to a drag by midday and tend to improve marginally only during the night. There has been no resolution of the same despite my insistence that available bandwidth is not sufficient to handle the customers. The reason is that early mornings, the web access is decent enough. The response of the “engineer” was that they have mailed to the higher ups and it is a matter of time that action would be taken. Yes Sir, do you expect the bandwidth to fall from the sky? Why is that these people are so callous to do their duties? Why is that a higher up takes forever and ever to take a decision? You have to see them going on a strike in a flash when their demands are unmet. Well, that is another matter though. Yet, when it comes to delivery of services, most of them are comatose with no sense of duty towards their profession.

Realizing this early on, I was extremely happy to hear that VSNL had put up shop there. Since my number was restricted to 172xxx, I was surprised that VSNL was barred from my telephone. Howsoever I tried to contact VSNL customer Care, it was a frustrating response. I had to depend on HFCL Connect to provide me service in my area. Strange ways these people work out. Despite an assured customer, they refused to entertain any queries on my behalf. More on that later though.

Even if I want to complain to the “engineers” about the slow dial up speed, I cannot. Either their complaint number goes unanswered or the person at the other end cannot offer more than anything apart from assurances. Calling up the toll free number would only lead to more frustration since most of the complaints get resolved only on the working days. God forbid if the employees go on a flash strike. It is a possibility that cannot be ignored.

Given my own “proactive” approach, I complained to the top heads of BSNL. No one bothered to reply or at times the mail simply bounced back.

This is the state of affairs in the IT nation of the world where gross idiocies coexist with small islands of excellence. There have been enough problems with the telephone line too. Running after the lineman who would make himself scarce gave me enough insight in the working of this organization. There could be reason enough to sue the company for not providing adequate services, though I believe that this would have been a weak case. As far as I know, the company is responsible for providing connectivity. Quality of services be damned. The Internet is working as of now and this is what they wish to hear. Nothing more than that. So much for the user experiences.

In this backdrop, there is no way we as consumers could make our voice heard. It is a sad reflection of the time gone by when telephone was given out as a dole. Indian telecom revolution may be happening. Whatever the media might report the increase in numbers (which is a suspect anyway); those idiots fail to realize that quality of services has gone from bad to worse. Maybe I belong to “power users” who wish to have the services as I paid out for given to realization that my genuine complaints would be looked into. As someone said so recently, why do you complain so much Abhishek? This is India stupid.

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.

Tata Dial-Up Experience and Eternal Wait for Telecom Revolution

Published on 30th Mar 2005 in General Thoughts, Indian Telecom, Other ISPs and Personal Experiences. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Tata Dial-Up Experience and Eternal Wait for Telecom Revolution

It has been a topsy-turvy experience with Tata’s even before I became a customer! The fact is that I have been on BSNL dial up for the past 6 years without any respite from their lousy services. I have a reason to believe that all the talk about “telecom revolution” is hogwash because strictly speaking the perceived benefits have not percolated down to smaller cities at all.

My city is a Lok Sabha constituency and one of the bigger cities in Punjab. In no way it could be counted as a marginal place to stay. However, the fact remains that we have a big problem in accessing Internet. There are estimated 10000 Internet connections; a captive market by any means. Yet, there has been no scramble for customers in this place. Most of the bigger companies have ignored because of their own reasons.

My interaction with Tata started when I enquired about their packages. I got a standard reply from “customer care” stating that I have no option but to wait. This was last year. Finally, they tied up with HFCL Connect, who refused to lay down the telephone line in my area (posh enough by any standards). Repeated requests yielded no action and I gave up in disgust.

Yet, it was during this time when they built up a customer base (with the HFCL Connect customers and those who could afford to use the other phone line from BSNL). I have always known that their infrastructure is good, yet let down by shoddy marketing and incompetent staffers. All of a sudden, they withdrew from the market. Now logic dictates that they take care of their existing customers or refund the money back. Well, they did neither. Instead of giving a local number to connect their dial up, the poor customers had to pay Subscriber Trunk Dialing charges to the nearest city where their services were available. Despite all this, the customers were given repeated assurances that their matter is being looked into and finally their connectivity would be restored.

Yet, this did not happen. Finally, a proactive consumer threatened to go to the court. It was during this time that they realized (after 6 months nonetheless) that matters have come to head and they cannot take their existing customers for a ride. In the meantime, I mailed to the top head and explained to him the position on ground.

I would not say that they did not respond. When they did, I talked to certain someone who was outright in his statement that they cannot give any time frame as to when the server would be installed. I had to wait nonetheless since I was a “potential customer” and not an existing one. Therefore, in no manner I could raise my voice. It is their prerogative isn’t it, that they love to get bad press and negative publicity.

3 weeks gone by since then and nothing has changed. I tried my luck again hoping against hope that the in charge of Tata Indicom in my city would have any clue about the dial up packages; since it was pretty much in news that server is going to be installed finally.

The problem is that hired people tend to reflect the company; it is something that the HRD people should note. I mean, it is asinine to have someone who does not know about his job; is drawing salary enough. The primary interaction is with the junior level staffers and in no way it is possible to escalate the routine problems to the seniors. It only adds to their burden and frustration, which leaves no one happy.

In this regard, I came in contact with the marketing manager who insisted that I ought to have the fixed wireless phone for Internet surfing. Despite my phrasing and rephrasing the question that I wish to access Internet only through dial up, they were adamant about selling me fixed wireless terminal. I pointed out that there was some news about having their own server installed in my city for dial up access. Well, then a classical case of non-application of mind; he insisted that all the traffic is routed through Hyderabad. It was enough to piss me off and thoroughly disgusted dealing with them.

This also gave me a clue that work on installing the server is nowhere near completion and I would still be forced to use my existing BSNL Internet dial up packages. Now for the million dollar question. Why am I insisting on Tata’s and not Reliance? The fact is that VSNL has an excellent infrastructure. There is no doubt about the same. They own the International bandwidth and their own gateways. VSNL has recently introduced unlimited dial up packages, which make sense for my existing phone line. I am using the BSNL phone exclusive for Internet access; the outgoing numbers being restricted to 172xxx. It is secondary matter though that I would be paying more monthly charges than BSNL broadband; the only reason I am not picking up the same is because BSNL has so far not clarified their stand on data limits. As for Reliance. They currently have only Fixed Wireless Phones with an inbuilt modem, which does not connect to Linux that I am currently using. I cannot compromise on that for sure.

Therefore, this is Tata’s for you and their attempts to take a share of the “millions” in the telecom market. I heard that the marketing executives are hard pressed to achieve their targets. Fact is that their plans are not really exciting enough to be written about. The big question mark about the quality of infrastructure is always there. During my brief interaction with the “executives”, I came across ugly looking brick like Kyocera handsets. Well, why would someone take that? Understandably that they want to reduce the initial upfront costs but there are definitely far better looking, cheaper and functional handsets for CDMA available.

It is this strategy that has gone horribly wrong. First, they do not take care of their customers, or this is what my understanding says so. Secondly, they desperately need to scale up efficient sales team. The fact is that sales people ought to believe in what they are selling. The Indian consumer is price conscious. It is this fact that would make or break the companies in the volumes segment. Tata’s are eyeing the major volumes segment in terms of Public Call Offices or PCO’s. The retail consumer would matter if, according to them, the hapless poor soul would unquestioningly hand over the money to them. What of those customers who were existing subscribers for dial up and been given a raw deal? What of the people those who placed trust in one of the oldest business houses and in fact one of the finest; almost blindfold? It is finally a matter of principles and the way trust is handled. Unfortunately, traditional mindsets do not change over night.

I am still praying and hoping for an unlimited dial up in my city; admittedly, I have never ever seen one or ever surfed on a broadband connection sitting back in home. That is the day when it really happens. A thought that much of the market is rural; these companies have not given much thought as of now to tap in the same. As and when it happens, perhaps then the telecom revolution would justify its name. Is TRAI listening?

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.

Affordable Telecom in India

Published on 25th Mar 2005 in General Thoughts and Indian Telecom. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Affordable Telecom in India

The most important aspect of affordable telecom is a cost effective mobile handset. Surprisingly I did not touch on that because high priced models, which did not merit enough attention, dominated much of the market. It was in recent months that much noise was made out and with recent tax cuts, this is indeed exciting development for follow up. Nokia has the biggest advantage of brand recall, given the thrust on the marketing initiatives in India. It was the decision to set up a manufacturing base in India that focused the attention on the same. Most of the phones were imported earlier, giving a robust demand for grey market phones. Subsequently, with the drastic budget cuts on the imposed duties, the margins on the grey market became unattractive. This gave a major spurt in the demand.

There were a number of the operators who formed a consortium and floated global tenders to provide cheap phones. Motorola won the contract for the same and we could see the bundled phones in the market soon. Bundling the connections gives a real benefit to the operator. It is easier to drive down the prices to more manageable levels. Ostensibly, this is to fund the expansion in the rural areas. My only grouse is that this could have been done earlier. Given the spread and reach of the telecom companies, it would have been easier to see sub $40 phones in the market; giving a real boost to the mobile phone usage in the cities too.

The icing on the cake goes to Tata’s who have introduced a cheap bundled Kyocera phone for around Rs.1600/- It remains to be seen as to how the market reacts.

With this development, smaller telecom players like Spice Telecom have recently entered in the handset manufacturing business. What could be the reason for the same? I believe that once they sell out their mobile telephony business (which is inevitable); it would be far more lucrative to offer a manufacturing base for the mobile handsets. Or else they might settle in for assembling the same. This can expand to manufacturing the telecom equipment as the volumes grow or the research and development are stepped up. The future is pregnant with possibilities. I have always stressed that rural areas hold the key to future telecom wars and a further fall in prices, which would benefit all.

Another notable development that has taken place is the reduction in the international bandwidth prices. I had earlier mentioned that TRAI had forced the telecom companies to reduce the prices given the near monopolistic hold that they have. VSNL remains one of the culprits. It was splashed all over in the news that they had approached TDSAT for reviewing TRAI’s order claiming that the fall in prices would benefit mainly BSNL for their broadband roll out. On a commercial basis, it does make sense for them to cry hoarse. Yet, it dismays me that none of the “respectable newspapers” applied their minds that VSNL too is in the process of rolling out their broadband where they would be competing against BSNL barring New Delhi and Mumbai.

If and when, BSNL chooses to offer unlimited Internet for a fixed affordable price in the price band of Rs.700-Rs.1000, it would spell trouble for VSNL who would be forced to match the same or rather less than the same. Given their asinine attempts to chase the same bunch of customers across the cities where they are rolling out their networks, it would frustrate their pricing plans to ramp up initial investments as early as possible. Little realizing that volume is the name of the game now. A more pragmatic approach would have been to target tier 2 cities in India, which offer a real potential for broadband. They could introduce streaming videos with set top boxes over their networks, like Reliance plans to do. Plain broadband does not make much commercial sense given the low PC penetration.

In this regard, so much for the dial up plans too. Since I have not been able to get one for myself, I am waiting to narrate the entire sequence of events. This would only reflect the way of their functioning. For all those who claim that privatization can cure all ills, they would be forced to eat crow.

Broadband through cable remains the mainstay in India. However, most of the companies have claimed the last mile access to be a big problem. This indeed is the state of affairs here. However, merely giving bandwidth to the local Cable TV Operator does not really solve the purpose at all. The commitment to the service levels is all-important. Over the period of time, there has been a segregation of the customers. Some of the them who use Internet extensively and given to believe the broadband utopia would be achieved with the present infrastructure. However, there have been many complaints of low level of services and breakdowns in the midst of a gaming session. These are what I call as Power users. However, majority of the people are happy with the ridiculous services, as the demand for bandwidth is maximum for checking mail and perhaps chatting. It is to this segment that companies like Sify are catering to. I maybe wrong but in the media reports, they all appear to be the good boys who brought “broadband” to India. Indeed. So much for the Sify iWay that dot the country with pathetic computer systems to boot. The main money-spinner for them at present is the Voice over Internet, which was legalized recently.

My own experience with VoIP remains very limited, partly due to my non-technical background and partly due to lack of exposure. However, VoIP remains one big field that remains untapped. It is being taken up by the enterprises in a big way giving a significant cost reduction to make is affordable. As the standards evolve, it would be as commonplace to have VoIP plugged in high-speed broadband networks, something that Vonage has done. It has sounded death knell for the old public telephone systems; one of the most happening issues in US. Is anyone aware of its adoption in South Korea or Taiwan? Please post your comments here.

Broadband has to happen FAST! How long do we wait here?

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.

Future Trends in Telecom in India

Published on 23rd Mar 2005 in General Thoughts and Indian Telecom. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Future Trends in Telecom in India

Over the past few months that I have been contributing to this tech portal, there has been a sea change in the telecom industry. Each time I have a feeling that I have nothing to write about and every week I have proved wrong to myself. I am trying to look at the newer emerging trends, which are going to sustain the telecom companies in the future.

The initial roll out of the networks was a boom time for the equipment manufacturers abroad. This indeed would have been a golden chance to ramp up domestic production but opportunity slipped past by. I am told that much of the equipment is imported thus escalating the costs for the roll out. This is a huge dampener for the eventual roll out for the rural areas who have been left out of the ambit of telecom revolution for too long. Part of the reason is the perceived inability to pay and part is the high cost of initial roll out of infrastructure. In my opinion, instead of taking a short-term view of paying capacity of rural areas, the telcos should focus on a long-term game. It was heartening to note that finally the manufacturing arm of the government(C-Dot) was given the budgetary support. How much it pays out in the long run, only time would tell.

There is one word that telecom companies are hearing a lot these days. Volumes. They need volumes to sustain the network and the fancy army of morons they have hired. In this regard, companies like Reliance and Tata’s have gone aggressive over the final roll out of the connections to PCO owners. I heard that Reliance is giving up to 30% commission on each call. How they market out the connections is a tough battle indeed. If and when the carrier access codes are introduced, we could really see a blood bath on the streets, as far as prices are concerned. I am strong in my belief that prices can go down by almost 40% of the present structure. Part of the price cuts could be because of the tax exemptions, if and when these companies can lobby for the same. Part of the same could be to earn through volumes.

The next killer application is made out to be the value added services through mobiles. R connect services from Reliance would be going paid soon. They offer plethora of services, even train ticket booking on mobiles. Recently, the big daddy of Indian telecom revolution, Sam Pitroda was marketing his own services to pay bills through mobiles; in effect moving towards a cashless society. He wanted to patent the same. I have no idea as to how it worked since details were not available. However, NTT Docomo in Japan offered the same facility there. How this is replicated in Indian scenario is worth looking out for.

There is a lot made out for the 3G services. Expect more lobbying in the corridors of power for the scarce spectrum. Should 3G services be introduced in India? Would that serve the purpose? The initial buzz is that 3 G services would give the always-on connectivity to the mobile owners. That was said so about the GPRS and much hoopla was raised in the market. Yet, everyone knows about the pathetic access. Barring a few circles, my dial up is at times faster than the same. And yes, I am using BSNL! In Europe, the operators have actually made a killing out of the same. The fact is that 3 G networks can carry more voice calls than the present networks. If it is the voice network, then perhaps it may be beneficial. How many people, realistically speaking would be carrying the top of the line blackberry s and laptops to access the network? A minuscule minority who wishes to flaunt its latest toy. I am circumspect about 3 G networks really being a “killer application” until the time handset prices fall down to more realistic levels. As usual paid media exposure and exclusive “previews” go a long way to give initial publicity.

The proposed merger of BSNL and MTNL is consuming a lot of ink. There have been various suggestions floated in the media about the ways and means the “synergies” could be obtained. The purpose is not to get in the awkward details here. My reaction to the same is that let the status quo remain. BSNL should concentrate more on rural spread and better Internet connectivity. MTNL should be divested totally. While in principle I am opposed to privatization, MTNL has out lived its utility as a worthwhile company. Interestingly, in the recent quality audit by TRAI, its customers were the happiest for its CDMA services. Strange but true.

Finally Broadband. This is a late non-starter here. In terms of pricing and download limits, this is pathetic for users who wish to consume bandwidth for file sharing or extensive web surfing for any reason. According to telcos logic, they feel that ordinary user should not get more than a few hundred MB’s. This only exposes the socialist mindset, which forces the ordinary citizens for looking up to these “mai baap” bosses. Come what may, the present state of Internet would take another year to come to decent levels. Meanwhile Reliance is getting aggressive over corporate customers for giving out bandwidth for monitoring through video cameras. They have implemented the same across their web worlds. Next time around in a web world, have a look. It is possible that you are being looked at! Their broadband services for home users seem to be in a limbo. Since they are planning to introduce TiVO like functionality across India, there could be a problem in getting across the different entertainment channels on board as of now. No surprise, that Reliance is amassing a huge library of its own. Streaming networks make business sense because plain vanilla broadband is not sufficed here; given the poor penetration of the personal computers. Wireless broadband in terms of WiFi and WiMax may soon be a reality given the fact that Dishnet has planned to roll out its services. The grey area of security remains unanswered as of now. Would that change in the coming months given that the PC prices are falling to realistic levels? I d try and analyze that later elsewhere.

I am keeping my fingers crossed for a decent dial up in my city though.

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.

Talking about idiocies in the Indian Telecom scene

Published on 22nd Mar 2005 in General Thoughts and Indian Telecom. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Talking about idiocies in the Indian Telecom scene

There have been idiocies enough in the Indian Telecom scene. I came across an article by Sunil Jain in Business Standard, which mentioned the indirect costs Reliance Infocomm had to pay out to roll out their services. One parting shot was that he had raised questions over the quality of managerial advice that these companies get.

In case of Reliance it is clear that they assumed, and wrongly though, that they could get away with anything. The fact is that other operators, feeling cheated, did not take it lightly enough the attempts by Reliance to rough shod them. The recent TRAI order over the Fixed Wireless Phones has to be seen in this light. However, it is more right to say that they too were mislead over the same! It is not feasible to fix a wireless phone at a permanent place and in all probability would be appealed in TDSAT.

Airtel leads the pack in goofing up most of the times. First, they gave their network away. In my opinion, Network is sacrosanct. Airtel did not do the right thing to give it away to third party in this case. In the name of cost cutting and savings, it does sound good, yet what has been scaled up after so much deliberation is asinine. Yet it is for them to evaluate the pros and cons of the same.

The recent advertisement by Airtel to meet the super stars Shah Rukh and Sachin again seems to deflect the attention from more pressing problems. Airtel could not win any circle in the recent bid to expand to rural areas and in any case, they would have to do it from their own funds or so it appears to be. Their quality of network is pathetic, again based on the customer feedback; in the recent TRAI quality norms, they were nowhere in contention barring a few circles.

I believe that marketing managers ought to get in the hibernation and let the quality of service be improved. Of course, it points to the crisis in the low average revenue per user collections; the gimmicks are clearly for increasing the number of calls. I am happy that Airtel is lucky enough to have few star struck subscribers who would happily do its biding. How this drains out their pockets is another matter though.

I read a recent article by J Mulraj in Times of India who had talked of the “happy times in Indian Telecom industry”. Well, it is a different matter altogether that it remains extremely low on the credibility index. Yet, good enough for the people who have no idea about the way this industry works. If privatization is so good, well then the real telecom revolution has missed most of the populace.

I have had a frustrating experience trying to get VSNL in my hometown. When it does happen, there would be no holds barred story. Promise. For the time being, these antics just reinforce my belief that telecom revolution appears rosy in the metros; given the large captive audience, it is easier to ramp up margins and volumes. Also to do gimmicks with the superstars.

Why celebrity endorsements for “lifestyle products”? This defies explanation. I had tried to analyze the Advertising trends in the industry earlier, but clearly, I could not come to definite conclusions. In this regard, Reliance has had a very low-key advertising. Yet the icing on the cake is BSNL. Once again, it reinforces the fact that whoever thought of the advertisement and got it executed through lowest tender must be really high up or indulging in favoritism!

It shows a developing child with an umbilical cord. The next scene shifts to a growing child and a telephone plugged in the socket with a wire. Whatever I could make of it was that telephones are somehow related to conception! At this point, it was so. Then they show the same lady calling up her son who is working on a laptop. The camera focuses on the telephone with the wire again superimposed with the picture of the developing child with the umbilical cord. With a crappy background score, the logo of BSNL gets splashed saying “Connecting India”. If the foregoing account made no sense to you, it does not to me either! I narrated the advertisement as it happened. Another instance of taxpayers’ money going down the drain.

Finally, it is the Access Deficit Charge regime. For years, after it has been introduced, ADC remains a drain on the telecom companies’ earnings. Indirectly on to us. If any Hutch subscriber does not own a BSNL landline, he/she is subsiding the cost for the ones who do. If this is unfair, the persistence with the same is idiocy too. In the idealized world, the ADC should go. In turn, it would expose the companies to the market play and bring the call prices further. In terms of purchasing parity, we still have high call rates. There is enough scope to reduce the same. Why tax telecom equipment? I argue on these grounds because the IT industry is untaxed. It has not benefited the country except for privileged few. This is debatable indeed but has created distortions in the local economy wherever the IT companies have set up shop.

In any case, Infosys is happy serving its shareholders and the foreign companies rather than the local populace.

Last but not the least is the number portability across the networks. The present scenario gives no indication about the quality of services or the number of customers a telecom company has. Airtel has dubious track record in the same as I had mentioned earlier in the same columns. Retaining the same number across the networks would give a real power to the customer. I believe that the regulator has floated this idea but it is finding itself handicapped over the implementation of the same.

The idiocies of Indian Telecom indeed.

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.

TRAI wakes up to pass rules on Broadband and Telephony

Published on 19th Mar 2005 in General Thoughts and Indian Telecom. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

TRAI wakes up to pass rules on Broadband and Telephony

TRAI seems to have discovered its powers all of a sudden. In the past 2 weeks, it has passed orders with far reaching consequences. The first and foremost is the broadband speeds. It said that anything less than 256 kbps is not broadband. We all knew about that one Sir! For almost a year there has been enough noise being made about the way, companies are cheating its customers. Sify was the earliest on the block and hence deserves a mention here. Sify Broadband totally distorted the concept of what Internet access should mean. In this regard, I feel sorry for the customers who had no other option except to sign up for something marginally better than dial up but all being disappointed with the offerings. The worst part is that there is no mechanism of redressal.

The other players in the “broadband” market were quick to distance itself from the offerings. However, companies like Airtel market their pathetic 128 kbps or less under the brand name as Airtel Broadband. I feel that this may be a major lacuna in enforcing the recent TRAI order. Well, as they say, it is easier to get away with almost anything in India.

Why is it that these people tend to restrict the offering to such pathetic levels? The major reason is that most of the users use it mainly for checking email or web surfing which don’t take in account the amount of bandwidth consumed. Tata’s have an unlimited account of 128 kbps which is over priced at Rs. 6000. Tata’s can easily lower this price offering and set the market on fire. However, high upstart costs mean that they want to suck out the money as fast as possible.

Given in this scenario, it is indeed laudable that TRAI finally acted. I believe that someone higher up might be reading these columns to make an effort to bring about a change. The second significant order that came in was regarding the Push to Talk telephony. This walkie-talkie style of conversation did not find many buyers and the companies offering the same, namely Hutch and Tata’s did not have the license for the same. Tata has claimed that they were offering it under their ISP license. How far it is true is not known since the law can be twisted to change its meaning totally. However, TRAI’s order assumes significance because it clamps down on the operators. I am sure that Hutch and Tata’s would make their lawyers busy now!

Another significant ruling that came in was the barring of the Fixed Wireless phones as “mobile phones”. These phones would now have to be clamped down in a particular place and not be used as they have been used as before. This is because they have landline tariffs and do not attract the same ADC as the mobile phones do. The familiar culprits are BSNL! They have done it again exposing the idiocies in regulation. I sincerely believe that these Fixed Wireless Phones were a Godsend opportunity for small businesses and individuals who did not have to depend on the all-powerful linemen or bribe them to get connections. Everyone knows about them but no action is taken against the erring employees. In this regard, it was easier for Reliance and Tata’s to scale up margins and hence profits. This decision by TRAI is much uncalled for indeed.

TRAI recently chastised Tata’s for the threat of national security. Now the heat of national security is shifting on to other operators. Tata’s have been accused of the same issue that Reliance had to face recently, namely changing the international caller id to local calls in order to avoid paying the ADC component. I had earlier mentioned about the foolhardiness of Tata’s to share the essential equipment with other players in the market. Network is the jugular for any operator. This way any grey market calls landing in India become extremely difficult to trace and hence a potential for breaching the national security exists. In order to cut down the costs and scale up rapidly Tata’s carried on board other operators without realizing the implications of their actions. In this matter, any action taken by TRAI is indeed appreciable. How they follow up on the same is another matter.

Last but not the least. TRAI, in a significant move called for a consultation paper on reducing the ADC charges further. Again, the usual suspects BSNL and MTNL cried foul about the supposed losses. It is another matter though that BSNL is supposed to fund the rural expansion accruing from its own resources. However, they applied for Universal Obligation Fund and were able to bag the contracts. More on that in a later post. Howsoever I may detest BSNL for its lousy services; it is the dark horse of Indian Telecom. It can do in broadband what it did in mobile phone services.

In a recent survey on the quality of services, most of the operators fell short of the prescribed norms. It is not surprising given the obsession to scale up customers by all means possible. A part of the advertising budget can clearly be earmarked for improving on the services or perhaps cut down on the fringe benefits of their marketing heads. I have no idea as to how everyone arrives at a consensus on NOT improving the customer satisfaction but think of gimmicks. Surely, there must be a whole department to come with “out of the box ideas”!

Let us wait and watch as to how things unfurl in the Indian Telecom 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.