I wish I could have more time packed in the day than the alloted 24 hours. Residency is killing and about time I updated this blog too. I am slowly making a comeback to my online avatar.

I still can’t promise anything on a regular basis partly because that the Indian Telecom market has become moribund. There seems to be nothing new happening. We are not seeing any fresh initiatives as yet and the broadband scene is hopeless. VSNL has definitely cut in rates for the international bandwidth; it failed to enthuse any furious write ups even in those financial dailies that swooned over the corporate chutzpah.

Hutch was embroiled in a bitter legal dispute with Essar holdings over the sale of Mumbai licence recently. Though it did get a significant coverage, the whole issue died down a natural death in a couple of days. Mobile phone connectivity seems to have taken a hit after the intelligence agencies deemed that growing subscriber base without proper verification could hurt India’s security interests. The fall out of this was on expected lines. Once the subscriber verification could be underway, it would expose hollow the claims of the Telecom operators about their fabled valuations and the millions of subscribers. It could hurt them right between their legs and each one of them could cut a sorry figure. Except for Tata’s who have nothing to loose and were insisting that the verification indeed should be carried out.

BSNL Broadband has introduced no new tarrifs except for making some gentle folks getting mad with exasperation. We are still stuck up in the kbps mentality without making any head or tail out of it. Their customer care could take the take for easily being the lousiest idiots on planet Earth.

Mercifully, the One Laptop Per Child Project has been called off for India. Someone somewhere in the deep dark recesses of the babudom realised the futility of this approach and announced that India wont be a signatory to Negraponte’s maniacal illusions.

Open Access and Open Source still has the same acrimonious debates happening for itself without any solution in sight.

Japan is coursing ahead with the roll out of Fibre to Home connectivity. Europe is embracing Wifi in a big way. Internet is making supposed pots of money for the video hosting sites. US is about to see trial runs for WiMax with Springtel (?) planning to invest in bug bucks for the same. Gigaom has seen a transformation of all sorts and they have morphed into some kind of a online publishing company. They have a “dedicated” Indian “correspondent”, a title that was “bestowed” on me some time ago. The fat chap hasn’t lost weight (or so it seems).

Surprisingly, the entry for Tata Indicom- Looting Customers? is seeing a second rank in Google search for Tata Indicom Broadband. Given the number of comments, it seems that they are making a mess of themselves.

Last but not the least. I read about the clumsy net censorship being put across. The babus (or anyone of their ilk) brought out a blank order against blogspot, I believe. They could be easily circuvented by using anonymiser services or RSS feeds. If it isn’t laughable, what else is? They could have either ensured complete ban or else avoid being ridiculed across the blogosphere. The commies find freedom of expression to hard to bear. Luckily, your “favourite” blog wasn’t on the banned list. Either the telecom companies like being drubbed about and called names or they are being staffed by lobetomised morons incapable of acting in good faith and wisdom. I’d favour both the scenarios in equal proportions.

Tags: Broadband, BSNL, BSNL Broadband, DTH, Google, Hutch, Idiots, India, Internet, laptop, Mobile, Open Source, Opera, Publishing, Tata, Tata Indicom, Telecommunications India, Telecommunications India, VSNL, Wifi