Monthly Archive for March, 2006

Tata Broadband: Looting customers?

Published on 29th Mar 2006 in Broadband in India, Other Frustrated Customers, Other ISPs, Personal Experiences, Tata Indicom and VSNL Broadband - VSNL. 162 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Well, we get to hear about horror stories; ISP’s routinely trying to palm of customers for slow speeds or capping on the usage. This one is in the league of it’s own. And it pains even more when it comes from the house of Tata’s.

Well, to cut a long story short, this person works with a respectable computer company. He wanted to have a connection of his own to work. Since he lives in a place where there is no other service provider, he chose to trust his money in Tata’s brand name. However, despite repeated calls and efforts, he couldn’t trace the “executive” for his connection.

Here is the scanned receipt for the same on Flickr. I have obscured the name of the person for privacy reasons.

In his words and I recount it here. Emphasis is mine.

I know that I can claim for compensation. But you know the situation in our country. Even if I do file a claim it’ll only keep on dragging until God knows when. And that’ll be more frustrating than this. I am doing my very best to disuade people from opting for Tata. In fact,there were a few people asking me about this issue after they saw my post on your BB blog. And its only that I need net at my place urgently and there are no other providers that I am going for them.

So, service providers take advantage of monopoly. Well, is there any way to rap their knucles or flog them?

In another mail, this harassed customer related his tale as such:

After getting another assurance from their Territory Sales Manager, I waited for three days. But as in the past it turned out that these people are fast with assurances than their work. I called this guy up on Sunday morning and I was told that I’ll get a call from him in 5 mts with an update. After two hours of waiting I decided to call this fellow up and but to no avail. It seems that they have a policy of not responding to the customers calls, if they don’t have anything to say.

After being fed up with all this, I went to the cable operator who’s supposed to do the installation and told him that these people are putting all the blame on you. Hearing this, he also got agitated and requested me to talk to the Tata Indicom fellows in front of him. We tried but even his call wasn’t taken. Finally he told me that whatever these people had been telling me were all lies. He was told about my connection 10 days ago but he wasn’t able to provide me with one because the DSL port through which the connections are provided, were not
sufficient enough to complete the requests of the 5-6 pending connections which he had with him. He told me that these guys had asked him to market for them,inspite of knowing the fact that they might not be able to keep their word or time limit to the customers.

I thank you readers for the time and patience you put in to spend here. I chose to do this post because we need a public platform to highlight the mess behind the hoopla. Why are theseservice providers trying to take us for granted?

In the same vein, I am pissed off from BSNL, but have to stick on to them because I really don’t have a choice.

Don’t miss the sub text. Even though this person can be compensated in the court of law, no one ventures to step in for legal remedies. Consumer courts cases can drag on for months to years even though it is legally mandated that the cases need be disposed off in a particular time frame. In any case, what do these companies have to loose?

A customer? There is enough captive base for them.

An update:
After this post was written, the person concerned got his connection the next day! Rah! The power of this blog!

Well, frankly, it can’t discount the fact that he had to undergo such hassles. I wish him all the best with his cable strung from trees and poles, getting him whatever is worth it. Hmmm, I wouldn’t be ventured or brave enough to deal with VSNL ever. Don’t have that kind of guts.

Reliance Broadband: Buying out HFCL Connect?

Published on 29th Mar 2006 in Broadband in India, India Broadband News, Indian Telecom, Other ISPs, Reliance Broadband and Telecom News. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

Well, my insider sources are not willing to confirm nor deny the move.

As far as the usage impression goes, Connect betters BSNL only in customer apathy. Though, recently faced with the onslaught of competition, there was a clear directive from the top bosses to shape up or ship out.

Long time back, I had approached Connect office to provide me with dial up connectivity. The screwed up idiot was hell bent on providing me with ISDN- a premium service in his opinion. Despite promises of high usage, they refused to extend the wireline to my place. Interestingly, they were insisting that I pick up CoRDect- a wireless mode of Internet access.

The buyout rumours might be true. HFCL’s script has shown it the way. It rose significantly in yesterday’s day trading on BSE.

Interestingly, Reliance has dug up only those areas in my city where HFCL Connect isn’t offering it’s services. I was indeed surprised in recent times that they are not going to high density zones. Yet, this is just a pointer and perhaps future might reveal the truth.

Reliance would be well poised to get a deal for HFCL. They would have a captive base for landline customers some of them who have been stupid enough to go along with promises of 400 MB “free limit”. However, HFCL had chalked out plans on the lines of Reliance Web World under the brand name “Planet Connect”. They misleadingly claim about surfing at 1Mbps; the bandwidth is distributed to different terminals. Either, this was a ploy to get higher value addition to the imminent sale or stupidity of monumental proportions. HFCL has by and large a small regional player; with no depth of the market. Neither, there is any buzz around the company.

So, it cannot hope to get on even ground with Reliance or Airtel. Plus, it is sorely dependent on bandwidth from the biggies.

Overall, it would be a great buyout for Reliance. A solid deal. And perhaps help them to roll out their Broadband services to exisitng and new customers.

Exciting times indeed. By the way, this is the only place where it is being reported; Google News hasn’t picked this up so far!

You can read the old posts on HFCL Connect:

1) Smaller Telecom Operators of India. I had written in about Connect:

Do we need these smaller players? Well the answer is yes and no. Smaller players lack the marketing muscle of the bigger ones. They are encumbered to localized regions and cannot offer economies of scale. However, the smaller players can offer faster customer response times. Sadly, this fact has not really reflected as far as Connect is concerned. I have mailed and personally talked to the people in charge for extending the services to my area, which they consistently refuse to do so. I gave up in disgust.

2)HFCL Connect- running out of luck?

For how long can they sustain themselves? Spice Punjab has announced plans to expand in other markets. Connect is opening up it’s browsing centres on the pattern of Reliance Web World. While this is belated entry, it is enough to attract puppy crowds towards what they call as Broadband. It seems that much of the time is spent on chatting. So much for the “millions of Internet subscribers” do to access Internet. It cannot be generalised but a cross section of the surfers mainly use for Emailing and the like. A minorty are power users. It remains to be seen as to how HFCL survive.

Airtel hasn’t made any major moves in the market so far.

This post was prompted by imminent buy out by VSNL/ Airtel. It didn’t materialise. Does it mean this Reliance buyout is another rumour? We’d have to wait.

3) In Interesting Developments I had reported back that Connect is setting up it’s Planet Connect showrooms.

Interestingly, the top searches for HFCL Connect point towards this blog :-)

BSNL: Unlimited? Another illusion?

Published on 28th Mar 2006 in BSNL Broadband and India Broadband News. 7 Comments Tags: , , , .

Well, so it seems to be. Another mail from the official and another promise.

He says, 10 days at the maximum.

You can follow this up on the Broadband Forums here.

By the way, I noticed some guys who are copying my posts and pasting them online without any reference or link to the original. Their collective intelligence is less than my sweet labrador; who pisses on the BSNL’s junction boxes. While Internet anonymity is nearly guranteed, I believe that it shows you guys in real poor light.

These are the bunch of pricks on India Broadband who have copied most of my posts without mentioning the source.

Bah! I have many demons to slay. BSNL is one of them. Well, my dear readers, should we emascualte this prick or stuff him up with his own pile of s***?

Sheesh. I can’t believe it. Poor sods. The reason,I have linked here is to avoid these screwheads from any kind of a traffic.

An update:
I was wondering if their asses be full of fleas, screwed up, f***ed up mangy dogs, with moth eaten brains and the icing on the cake…hold your breath. Their father in laws be working as BSNL clerks. The glorifed babus.

It can’t get worse than this.

BSNL: One India boo boo

Published on 27th Mar 2006 in Indian Telecom. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

BSNL has 38 million customers. It declared profits of 10, 000 crores.

It announced the much hyped One-India plan with a smiling idiot claiming “death of distance”;full page advertisements et al.

Someone must have been reading this blog where I trashed the idea of One India plan. It sounds great in theory but frankly, it works out to be very expensive in the long run.

As such, as the results are out, only 0.6% of BSNL’s customers have signed on. This is as per the estimates. The actual number may be far less. BSNL needs atleast 40% of the customer base to make it work. Yes, 40%.

Yeah Gods! Would someone just f***ing drill some sense in their brains? Or whatever version of hardware they carry on their necks?

The same argument can be extended on to broadband. There is no rush; equipment shortages has resulted in artificial scarcity. Further, the captive base is ready to leave it once greener pastures are in sight. I don’t see them around me as yet. However, I swear on whatever is above in the sky- I would be the first customer to leave them if and when I have an option.

Huge amounts of public funds are being wasted over to give some bragging rights. We are surely far away from the “Indian Telecom Dhamaka”. No one is rioting as yet; the NASSCOM claims ring hollow that it’s “literally raining Information Technolongy” in India; while India becomes a “back office space for the world (an euphemism for cyber coolies) we are glad to call that as an oppurtunity and assert our right on the world stage.

A computer here/ there or One India plan doesn’t make Indian Telecom happening. Service levels are all time low and there might be some hope that regulator might assert itself. While the gory Department of Telecom subsists on the dead corpses.

The same way the Marxists do.

When would we see some sanity?

BSNL: Billing hassles galore

Published on 26th Mar 2006 in BSNL Broadband. 1 Comment Tags: , .

I chanced on this story on IBN (mercifully without it’s famous spelling mistakes!) ( For more on this read here.)

They have highlighted a persons problem who was forced to cough up Rs 7.25 lakhs for local calls made in 2 months! The person in question tried every avenue and thence he took his problem to the media. The problem was solved immediately. What otherwise took 11 years. Because of pro active media. Thats why we need media to act as a watch dog. I won’t say that media ought to butt in to solve such cases like billing complaints, but surely can funnel people’s voices to make sure that the accountabilty sets in.

Anyway, I am posting across two screenshots of BSNL’s legendary perfidy. The gentleman in question is suffering from dire medical problems and I know him personally. Being wrecked by old age, he is not very mobile and is forced to stay on bed for extended spells.

He got an inflated bill (screen shot 1). He had to personally call the high up officials and explain it to them that the billing hassle be rectified. Despite so called assurances, there was no answer forthcoming. The gent in question told the high ups that he isn’t mobile because of his pressing and urgent medical problems; that he is incapacitated. Yet, there was no show of mercy from these officials.

After a threat of legal action and perhaps much boo boos later, the corrected bill was issued (roughly after 3 months). You can see the screenshot here. The difference is stark! The original bill amount was Rs 3000/- plus. This was reduced to Rs 600/- plus only!

Now, what do we make out of them. Despite claiming the fact that BSNL has an established Customer service, not everyone gets any redressal to the same effect. I have heard horror stories about people interacting with their staff; you would honestly want to give up in disgust. It is the same company that made a neat profit of Rs 10,000 crore. Yes, that was in the last fiscal. Yet, with such a profitable enterprise and it’s engaging in inflating bills.

( I have had to obscure the personal details in the screenshots to protect the identity of the person in question).

We need this to be highlighted in the media and perhaps force them to act.

BSNL Broadband: No more disconnections?

Published on 23rd Mar 2006 in BSNL Broadband, Indian Telecom and Other Frustrated Customers. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

One of the biggest hassles to deal with the opaque Government set up is the lack of acountability in the official structure. There is no incentive for them to perform or listen and act on consumer grievances.

Over the period of time, this blog has degenerated in a BIG howler against BSNL and their refusal to get in new plans based on usage. I am feeling angry at my helplessness, at a feeling of inadequacy to effect a change and the way these people take ordinary consumers for granted. I believe that there is no more scope for any more write up’s on them. Everyone knows about them; the media knows about them but they are keeping a lid on their traps because it’s no one’s business. While we gloat and put up our sorry asses for the world claiming broadband India with “millions of customers”, no one bothers to look beyond the “sheen”.

If this isn’t monumental stupidity and assholism, then what else is? If the same bunch of people aren’t bothered about endemic corruption breeding in friggin pakis and parasites in their own ranks, then what else would wake them up? We seek answers.

It’s the law of karma that they should fear. If not today, by tomorrow their sins would catch up with them for sure. There is no report card issued to them, no parameters to measure the performance and absolutely no accountability.

Well, it seems that unlimited plans are on hold for the time being; the only official communication recieved from BSNL suggests:

Wishing you a high speed, disconnection free, jitter free broadband experience.

WTF?

Indian Telecom: Some changes

Published on 22nd Mar 2006 in General Thoughts. 5 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

BSNL was rumoured to be going in for an IPO. Mr Pradeep Baijal announced this at some “convergence” meet.

Finally, it took the Department of Telecom Secretary to “clarify” that there is no IPO and BSNL isn’t for sale. Well, the left arm of the Govt. doesn’t know what the right arm is doing.

It’s this monumental stupidity that is institutionalised; with fossilised brains, these bureaucrats are the real stumbling blocks to real telecom revolution. Or whatever we can call it as.

Anyway, the subtext of the IPO shouldn’t be missed. Ever since the UPA government has come in power, they have been selling the country piece meal. I wouldn’t comment on the recent Dubya’s visit- it was more than Nuclear deal. We would see the lateral entry of American Telecom firms in the near future. Either, they would buy out the existing telecom firms or “partner” with them. Further, once the long distance Telecommunications is opened up, we would see a flurry of activity. We might be able to get Skype Out like service; but given the current scenario it seems unlikely.

For all those who claim that “Indian Telecom has arrived on the world scene”, here goes up my middle finger, with the thought that your asses would be stuffed up with load of s***. There is nothing more demeaning than allowing the MNC’s to rampage on our soil. I am not clamouring for protectionism but there is a difference between allowing healthy competition and selling the nation to considered interests.

Finally, Mr Pradeep has retired; there was a small write up on him- similar to his “obituary” in office. Of course, Times of India spoke about his tenures in glowing terms. I won’t set the pessimistic tone here but there is a lot Mr Pradeep missed.

As I had pointed out, they have hoisted a retired bureaucrat in his place. Good bye TRAI. You are now gone and your dead corpse would be feasted by Department of Telecom. Tandoori style or raw? It’s left to their tastes.

Finally, I am adding a category on Convergence. I haven’t yet written anything on the same here but in due course of time, this needs some attention. Specially when Broadband can provide an excellent platform for content delivery. Oh yeah, forget about it on 256k lines, but the future is bright.

As usual, I hope.

Update:
There is a lot of confusion about the proposed IPO. Here are the links from Google news which has more details.

This is the imminent sell off the public assets in the near future. Of course, BSNL- MTNL would be combined; it would be a “strategic partnership” between the Government and private telephone companies. Well, whatever “strategic” means.