The ISP licence is available for a token Re 1. That was started off to encourage many companies to provide internet connectivity. Yet, before the project could take off, the public companies – BSNL and then VSNL ( which was a part of the ugly complex) and MTNL felt threatened and nipped them in the bud.
In the bloodbath that followed, a few companies survived. Primarily among them was Sify- whom everyone loves to hate. Glide in Punjab and possibly Rolta. I am not aware of the other ISP’s at present. I think Tata Power was in the ISP business and they sold off to VSNL. Other minor players, minus the financial muscle were just swamped off.
Why? They all had to purchase the last mile link from BSNL or MTNL. In that case, it was overpriced because BSNL was intent on depriving the exisiting customers from enjoying better customer services or speeds. I believe much of the dial up speeds has to do with the server load at the ISP’s and the international gateway connectivity. BSNL was at fault with both- yet only by virtue of they being the monopoly could drive down the prices. At some point of time, people had to compromise on the quality for the prices because the prices for dial up connectivity in India is among the highest in world. That explains the recent thrust of “broadband”. People appreciate the fact that it is DSL. This frees the hssle of blocking the phone line or paying extra rent for another phone line for Internet surfing.
As for the smaller operators, they had survived initially on service plank. Though with passage of time and reasons I just mentioned above, the ISP business became unviable. Though it was for home users. With the explosion of the manufacturing sector and IT industry in late 90′s and early 2000′s, ISP’s entered in Virtual Private Networking or VPN for short. However, this move was blocked by BSNL because it was their network that was being redeployed for VPN. The matter was referred to TDSAT- I am not aware as to what came out of the court case. It wasn’t reported in the media at all.
There was another class of operators- one’s who operated VSAT’s or Very Small Aperture Terminals. Though till recently, prior to the introduction of the “broadband policy”, there was a limit to the speeds! Imagine. Then the Government in all it’s wisdom restricted the same to Indian satellites. Knowledgable people tell me that Indie satellites are overbooked and there is no space for the transmission of data signals. It’s indeed a sad stroy because VSAT’s can be leveraged easily for high data rates and geographical spread to remote locations. All this to protect BSNL.
At present I believe Hughes Direcway is the only established player in the VSAT’s market. They are focussing entirely on the education segment and virtual classrooms. Interestingly, Skumars, better known for their fabrics, wanted to replicate the Hughes network. Though, the idea never took off the ground. I am not aware of any other details.
So well, its been an interesting roller coaster ride and myopic Government policies that have denied the benefits to ordinary Indians.
Tags: Broadband, BSNL, India, Indians, Internet, ISP's, manufacturing, Media, MTNL, Opera, Tata, Telecommunications India, VSNL