The mail was published in the Friday Edition dated 21 st October 2005.. I wish I had the link- but the mail has been published with minor modifications. I am glad, I was able to call BSNL’s bluff as such.The mail was in response to BSNL claims that you can’t run broadband minus Pentium 4!

Dear Sir,
Apropos the debate that was published in Business Standard dated 19th October,2005 between Mr Deepak Maheshwari and Mr R L Dube from BSNL.

Mr Dube’s arguments and his claims ring hollow. Broadband policy was flawed- it should allow opening up of the last mile since at present, BSNL has miserably failed to ramp up numbers.

At best, they have been able to convert the existing dial up customers to Broadband because the dial up prices are one of the most expensive in the world! For Broadband, BSNL religiously logs every byte in and out of the computer to compute the total usage.

I would point another fundamental flaw in Mr Dube’s arguments. He insisted that one cannot run broadband without Pentium 4 PC’s! If this is the official line, I am afraid, BSNL desperately needs some reality check. If BSNL is providing static IP’s, may I point out to Mr Dube that I can set up an ancient 486 running Net BSD as a virtually unhackable server. One doesn’t need “state of the art” computers to connect online.

Mr Dube’s arguments read like a press release. In no manner he was able to contradict Mr Maheshwari’s arguments about unbundling the local loop.Rather, there was a tacit admission that current infrastructure isn’t up to the standards.Including the billing systems.

As a subscriber, I have seen BSNL’s speeds dip to slower than a dial up during peak day hours- though the speeds improve during early morning hours. This only proves that their upstream bandwidth is sorely limited.

The monthly rent of Rs 250 looks good only in full page advetisements that BSNL gloats about. With just 400 MB as the download/ upload limit, this can be finished off in a few mails with attachments. As an incumbent it has no right to abuse it’s monopoly by means of higher pricing and discriminatory trade practises. If Airtel can provide unlimited Broadband at Rs 1000 per month, why can’t BSNL?

Ultimately, BSNL has chosen to ignore the fact that huge infrastructure was set up with public funds. Yet, as subscribers, we are not given the right to be heard or choose.

It is through your newspaper, I would like to highlight the present mess in the Broadband. Despite the claims of “scorching growth”, broadband essentially remains a pipe dream for most of us.

Tags: Airtel, Broadband, BSNL, Business Standard, DTH, Telecommunications India

I came across this story via Salon You might have to wait for an advertisement to load up before you can access content. But worth it.

This post compares the BB vis-a-vis the “developed nations” who didn’t have the likes of BSNL. The post is about freeing up American Broadband and make it affordable. The telecom companies are playing a spoiler and in all probability cartelised their services.

We have been a late starter- nevertheless floundering. First with a flawed policy and now the Director Planning BSNL claims that you need a Pentium 4 PC to run broadband! Such preposterous claims and I find the future of the Broadband nipped in the bud.

Anyway, I quote from the Salon article:

Next time you sit down to pay your cable-modem or DSL bill, consider this: Most Japanese consumers can get an Internet connection that’s 16 times faster than the typical American DSL line for a mere $22 per month.

Across the globe, it’s the same story. In France, DSL service that is 10 times faster than the typical United States connection; 100 TV channels and unlimited telephone service cost only $38 per month. In South Korea, super-fast connections are common for less than $30 per month.

Further:

While other countries are taking advantage of the technological, business and education opportunities of the broadband era, America ( here India) remains lost in transition.

Simple answer to the perplexing problem:

These nations all have something the U.S. (India) lacks: a national broadband policy, one that actively encourages competition among providers, leading to lower consumer prices and better service.

US’s regulatory body FCC defines broadband as:

A “high-speed” connection as one capable of transmitting data at a rate of 200 kbps (kilobits, or a thousand bits, per second) in one direction — about four times the speed of dial-up.

So, their definition is worse than that of TRAI! Rejoice!

Comparing what the speeds mean ( Salon is “bitching” about the fact that they can’t download high definition video- we as Indian subscribers have just 1 GB limit) even as we struggle with “slightly- faster- than-dialup”narrow band!

The typical download speed of a DSL connection in the U.S. is 1.5 Mbps, while the average cable-modem connection downloads at 3 Mbps. These connections are adequate for streaming low- to standard-quality video, but are far too slow for applications like high-definition video. Furthermore, they pale in comparison to what is being offered in Japan, where consumers can download high-definition movies in less than five minutes.

How unbundling the local loop helps:

Most of the countries surpassing the U.S. in broadband speed and availability have “open access” rules governing both their cable and DSL industries. Open access rules require the owner of a network to allow its competitors access to the network at wholesale prices. These rules usually apply to networks that are “natural monopolies” like telephone systems and railroads, and in order to ensure innovation among competitors, these provisions usually do not apply to newly built infrastructure. Ultimately, open access benefits consumers by creating competition that leads to lower prices and new innovative services. You can credit open access with the drop in long-distance rates seen in the 1990s.

What is the alternative to this impasse?

The most promising alternative to the cable-DSL duopoly is Community Internet — universal, affordable high-speed broadband service provided by cities and towns or community groups.

Further:

Hundreds of places……are now viewing broadband as a public service, no different from water, gas or electricity.They are building Community Internet and municipal broadband projects to bring high-speed Internet to areas overcharged or underserved by the cable and DSL companies.

What is community service?

“…a few places receive broadband over power lines, or fiber laid directly to homes, the majority of Community Internet projects utilize “Wi-Fi” technology to create “hot-spot” zones of broadband coverage or, in many cases, build a “mesh network” to blanket an entire city.”

Can this be a viable service model in India?

Nations such as Canada and South Korea long ago realized the importance of public broadband, and incorporated municipal systems into their overall broadband strategies.

How Community networks would change the face of Internet access:

If wireless networks were able to operate on lower-frequency spectrum — such as the region used by over-the-air television stations — the infrastructure costs would be much lower, potentially allowing Community Internet networks to offer extremely fast connections for as little as $10 per month.

Note that Wifi spectrum in the 2.4 Ghz band has recently been de licensed. However, we haven’t seen a surge of the hotspots so far.

Ultimately, it’s all about asserting your rights. Instead of twitching and twidling our thumbs, we ought to make some effort. I tried to make some effort but it came to a naught I can’t do it alone and obviously need your help to make India a truly Broadband India- not at the mercy of whims and fancies of incompetent idiots.

Tags: Advertisement, Broadband, Broadband India, BSNL, FCC, Idiots, India, Internet, Mesh Network, Opera, Spectrum, Telecommunications India, TRAI, United States, Wifi, Wireless

Business Standard finally wakes up to some reality and commisions a debate between ISP association of India and BSNL. I would have to quote freely from that to expose as to how BSNL claims ring hollow.

First, the version of Deepak Maheshwari, Secretary ISP association- he argues effectively for local loop unbundling.

“While Trai recommended unbundling of the last mile for broadband, the Broadband Policy stated that “last mile copper loop is not a ‘bottleneck facility’ for broadband services”, though it recorded that about 7 million copper pairs of the incumbent were suitable for broadband”

Broadband policy is flawed and utterly so. How can the likes of Maran claim that last mile isn’t a bottleneck? Assinine to say the least.

A chilling thought here:

“So far, less than 4 per cent of these have been put to use for broadband.”

Finally, the strong arguments for unbundling:

“Unbundling has not only ensured more choice to the end-users but has also enforced incumbents to be more agile and responsive to customer needs. Everywhere — in countries such as Japan, the UK, France and even Korea (the poster boy of broadband) — broadband access was accelerated thanks to unbundling.

Specially in UK, the unbundling has forced the incumbent British Telecom to shape up- BT is more or less like our own BSNL- worse off in some regards. Interesting to see as to how the brits left their legacy in more than one ways! Including this blog which is being written in English!

However, the current crop of ISP’s have been treated with disdain by the entrenched interests. There have been regular denials of connectivity and high access charges. Who else? Tata owned VSNL and our poster hate boy- BSNL. Surely, there is enough muck in the corridors of Telecom Department.

Now for BSNL’s retort- it reads like a press release. If you read closely enough, there is a tacit admission that much of the copper loops are useless. Testimony to the fact that BSNL has been extremely slow in upgrading it’s network.

A common tactic used to deflect the attention from the issues is to use “falutin”- thats the English term for “high sounding words”. For example, some of it is “World class“, “scorching pace“, “customer delight“,”fastest growing“,”cheapest“,”state of the art“,”high speed internet“( ha ha who guessed it?).”economic tool“,“millions of customers“…..

Readers are requested to add some words of their own.

Anyway, look at what R L Dube Director, Planning and New Services has to say about it. And how he falters in his own self belief. He has no idea about what broadband is and how it is accessed.

First salvo.

It crossed the 2-lakh subscriber base in nine months of its launch and is now adding an average of 4,000 customers across the country on a daily basis. By December 2005, we are sure we will cross the figure of 5 lakh( Whom are you kidding Mr Dube?)and by the end of the fiscal the target of one million.

Prepare yourself for a good laugh guys. This isnt me but the Director of Planning BSNL is saying. If we have “intelligent folks like these”- we surely know why BSNL is one of the worst telecom companies in the world.

“Broadband has to work on copper cables in the present network. It needs a computer with Pentium 4 and above and also a sound operating system.”

Sad reflection of the standards surely.

Another admission of BSNL which is loud and clear.

“And, instead of the existing billing system, a better state-of-the-art, transparent and customer-oriented system will be in place. We are sure it will do away all with all billing-related doubts.”

Nowhere in the article is mentioned that Mr Dube’s views are personal- this means he is speaking on behalf of BSNL.

A word of advice to BSNL. Kindly have knowledgeable people to defend your view point. If you can’t provide a decent service, have those people to speak for you who have some degree of intelligence.

How can they claim that broadband can’t run on computers other than Pentium 4? I am using an AMD- so sue me!

It’s the pits for sure and we have become the laughing stock of the entire world. Imagine. A director of a telecom company claiming such a thing about it’s services.

This is one post I couldn’t resist to highlight.

256 kbps which drops to slower-than-dial-up-speeds.This is BROADBAND INDIA for you guys

Tags: Broadband, Broadband access, Broadband India, BSNL, BSNL sucks, Business Standard, EDGE, Incumbents, India, Internet, ISP's, Opera, operating system, Tata, Telecommunications India, TRAI, VSNL