Monthly Archive for November, 2006

Broadband in India:Suppose if it is free?

Published on 18th Nov 2006 in BSNL Broadband, Broadband in India, General Thoughts and Indian Telecom. 5 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Sounds to good to be true?

I have a feeling that if a company could offer free broadband access to spur on the sales for it’s voice calls, it would go against the conventional line of thinking. For long, I have always felt that since the voice calls are on the declining trend (as per the telecom companies claims), broadband would be a lifeline in form a value added service.

However, despite all the hoopla of IPTV, Online Gaming and unlimited broadband (at a piflling 256k- a page loads slower than I pee) hasn’t taken off in this year. 2007 may still be full of false starts and promises.

Yet some companies in UK are promising “free broadband” with some talk plans. How good is it? A recent story in BBC underlines this point. It says that users of “free broadband” are less than happy. The primary reason seems to be more people signing up than the exchanges can support.

A “quote” from the story:

However, it’s disappointing to see that the majority of providers are failing to accompany the growth in customers numbers by sufficient growth in customer service operations, and the required investment in their technology, to ensure that they are looking after customer needs in an acceptable manner.

Interestingly, despite the fact that British Telecom has been opened up for the last mile access to the private players, it has actually increased BT’s revenues. Apart from earning revenue from the private players, it can market it’s own plans aggressively. It takes hard work but then the boffins in India expect you to pay and not get the service in return. British Telecom is the “baap” of BSNL- the illgotten progeny that refuses to part away it’s “bastardious” ways of dealing with it’s customers.

Free Broadband may remain a pipe dream. Well until the time the critical mass can support the offer. Computers are still pricey for most and would remain out of reach for majority. And so would the digital divide grow and grow till it is unmanageable.

Sify Broadband: Kick their ass

Published on 12th Nov 2006 in Broadband in India, General Thoughts, India Broadband News, Other Frustrated Customers, Other ISPs and Sify Broadband. 10 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

This is arguably the most important judgement in recent times. Ankur Raheja has won a case in the consumer court against Sify Broadband on grounds of deficiency in service.

The case judgement was delivered on 18th October. Unfortunately, due to various commitments I could not highlight this earlier. I would like to quote diectly from the write up on the mother channel of this blog.

Sify Broadband to pay for unfair trade practises.

The case related to non disclosure of significant terms and conditions, which included hidden conditions that after downloading of 750 MB data in a month the speed would be reduced to 14 Kbps and also a new condition that if a customer downloaded more than 150 MB data in a day, then he was penalized in the form of reduction of package validity by one day, but still packages were advertised as unlimited.

It has been regarded as a landmark judgment as for the first time technical deficiency has been proved in the court of law in India against an Internet Company. And further Court interpreted the matter from the point of view of definition of Broadband as laid down by TRAI, which lays down criterion of minimum speed of 256 Kbps to be regarded as Broadband. Accordingly, Court has held providing of 14 Kbps speed instead of 256 Kbps is in itself a ‘deficiency in service’.

The case was supported in the Cyber World by hundreds of SIFY customers from all over India, who all experienced similar problems and supported the case throughout, whose testimonials were also included in the original complaint as Annexure!

The last para assumes significance. We rallied together and challanged BSNL to introduce unlimited plans. Even though it is a watered down offering, still it was a victory of all sorts for us to fight the ISP’s and demand what we want and not what they want to give.

Unfortunately, public activism is limited to Medha Patkars of the world who otherwise have their own hidden agendas to propagate. If we all take it lying down, they would F*** us royally like they all have been doing for so many years.

Another quote from Ankur’s post on the broadband forum:

“It has been held that concealing hidden conditions and not redressing the grievances of the complainant who made complaints with regard to poor customer service on number of occassions, in our considered opinion, amounts to deficiency in service on the part of Opposite Party and indulging in to Unfair Trade Practice.

We, therefore, direct the opposite party to refund the amount of Rs 1,200/-, paid for two months by the complainant along with compensation to the tune of Rs 5,000/- for causing mental agony and harassment to the complainant and further, pay a sum of Rs 2,000/- towards cost of litigation to the complainant.”

More details at Sify Case dot org.

I want to know as to how to kick BSNL’s ass. TRAI is ineffectual in enforcing it’s own guidelines and till recently they were operating from an illegal building. The Government violating it’s own rules! For the time being, this judgement can be quoted aross the nation and Sify “broadband” has a potential disaster brewing up for them. I am forwarding the details of the judgement to news organisations and I hope this gains widespread publicity. Either Sify Broadband renegotiate it’s contract with it’s subscribers or refund the money taken from them by fraudulent means. This is cheating. Plain cheating.

Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention that in the recent Blog Camp in Madras, the WiFi connectivity was provided by Sify “Broadband”. Basically it was a legion of idiots milling around trying to make themselves important. Interestingly, no one mentioned about the company sponsoring their internet connection about being the target of what arguably was the first blog specifically targetting a company and it’s ill doings. It was borne out of frustration from the pathetic access speeds and their high handedness.

Screw them anyway.

Guys, it’s time to kick their assess.

Alternative networks?

Published on 09th Nov 2006 in General Thoughts. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Wifi networks carrying calls other than the conventional means? Govndraj Ethiraj feels that the time has become ripe for such a venture.

Govind writes in for Business Standard, argubaly one of the best newspapers in India. I maynot agree with some of their prescriptions but nevertheless they have invested in “mind capital” and the quality of their write ups shows in their printed matter.

Govind says that Wifi can be used to carry calls which works out to be cheaper. Of course, I have explored these options way back earlier on; the current “competetive” scenario has resulted only in oligopolies and each new talk plan is basically a rehash of the others. Without disclosing upfront about the estimated monthly outgo, TRAI okays each plan without taking the consumer’s advantage in question. As a result we are fleeced to no extent. I really doubt whether WiFi can be used to carry out the calls-the investments are way too huge to justify parallel (and cheaper ) networks. Where would Bharti get it’s crores from?

Assuming that wifi becomes available all around, what is the gurantee that telcos won’t use all means to block the calls via Skype or any other internet phone? High usage charges would spike any consumer interest because in all probability it would be a “value added service” which by it’s own argument, can be priced higher. Unless of course, people set up their own small WiFi networks. A long shot indeed.

I think that ideas like this need to be propagated on a wider scale than a blog with hardly any influential readership. Slowly steadily, they should take up ideas to free the broadband from the restrictions of the frigging idiots who seem to have other ideas. We need a REAL revolution and not what the frigging media seems to tell us.

TRAI: Illegal?

Published on 09th Nov 2006 in General Thoughts and TRAI. 1 Comment Tags: .

TRAI found itself sealed out from the current demolition drive in Delhi. While the merits of the case are beyond the scope of this write up, what made TRAI sit in a building whose legal status was disputed?

Sometimes, I wonder whether the whole hoopla was worth it. The whole telecom industry has come to a “standstill”.

By the way, the picture was splashed on the Business Standard’s front page in the edition dated 9th November.

BSNL: Billing hassles 2

Published on 09th Nov 2006 in General Thoughts and Other Frustrated Customers. 1 Comment Tags: , .

Things seem to have calmed down a bit.

I managed to get my bills cleared (I was billed for over 90 grand. Yes, that’s 90,000/-) Such was my ‘usage’. After a protracted “battle” with the lower staff and the assholes milling around the exchange, I was issued a “corrected” bill which made my day. It took another 2 days for the resumption of broadband.

Unfortunately, due to the delay on their part, my unlimited plan would come in effect only from next month onwards. I have mailed to the CMD becuase their present claims have left me totally stumped. Having just 400 MB at my disposal, WTF I would do online?

I am looking forward for their response in writing that my bills be treated as home plan unlimited instead of the present 250 crap that I am saddled with. I fail to understand as to why such kind of a deadwood gets employment with BSNL. By the way, what is the minimum criteria for getting a job with the government?

It’s working; touchwood. Mercifully, I didnt have to go around to the courts to get the matter resolved.

Thanks for the insightful comments.

I shall keep you posted on any latest developments on this.

BSNL: Billing hassles galore

Published on 05th Nov 2006 in General Thoughts. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , .

I signed up for a BSNL Broadband connection after I joined in my residency. For all practical purposes it was Home 900 plus because of my usage.

I was shocked to see my bill reflecting data usage charges for Home Plan 250! When confronted, I was told that doctors are not allowed to take in 900 plus unlimited! Imagine the travesty of the morons in high places that BSNL has hired for itself.

Despite repeated complaints at the local level, the matter is finally stuck up with the General Manager who seems to be loath in moving his ass on the issue. I have demanded that I be issued a duplicate bill backdated from the day of connection and all the usage charges be waived off.

I have two options. Either I file a case in the Consumer Court and claim damages or file Right to Information application to know as to how and on what basis I was alloted a plan that I never applied for.

It seems to be a far fetched idea but then I have no choice to fight it out. Meanwhile my telephone line is disconnected which makes it useless to keep it.

Airtel hasn’t reverted back to me to offer me a “high speed unlimited broadband’ despite repeated reminders to the same. They seem to be staffed with BSNL applicant rejects and more than anything else a bunch of loosers with loads of cash to spare.

Unless of course these companies evolve an effective in house grieval redressal mechanisms, we would get to see many cases like these. I shall keep you posted about the developments in this regard. By the way, I have mailed to the CMD explaining to him about the present state of affairs.

New developments

Published on 05th Nov 2006 in General Thoughts. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

These are the changing times. For sure.

This quarter has seen some record profits being posted by the telecom companies. How much of it is financial jugglery? I wouldn’t know. It is hard to believe the absoulte (or estimated numbers) of 115 million mobile subscribers and I would keep my negativism intact.

Reliance is revamping it’s operations. Arguably the days of megabit speeds would possibly take eternity and it’s broadband remains moribund. 150kbps unlimited? How can they market it as ‘broadband’? In the mobile space, Reliance is advertising a slew of handsets- aspirational stuff for the common masses indeed. The low prices are mostly for the Chinese handsets and my guess for it’s longetivity is as good as yours. The handset majors seem to avoid CDMA like poison and the real action is still in the GSM space.

Spice Punjab has seen major acquisition by Telekom Malaysia and they would be majorly using this inflow of money to upgrade their congested networks. According to a source, it would take roughly 3 months to start the due process. Meanwhile, Spice is planning to acquire licences for other circles. No doubt it would take time and efforts to update the whole due process. I shall keep you posted about this company. Primarily for a simple reason. It had perhaps one of the highest ARPU’s earlier on because it was the sole service provider in Punjab market. Things went on a downhill slide when Airtel, backed by Bharti, went on a major offensive against Spice. Spice has augmented it’s revenues by bundling the services with it’s own manufactured handsets.

MTNL has introduced IPTV and is charging 300 per month for free to air television shows. I haven’t seen IPTV ever in real time so it would difficult to pass any judgement on the same. BSNL has introduced gaming services and it seems to be nominal. The best part is that the gaming services donot get counted in the final bill or the data downloads so it should appeal to majorly. Unless of course, they put in the crappiest servers with a huge lag time. So by the time you poit and shoot your enemy, you are already dead!

BSNL was to announce a mega tender for it’s GSM lines which got nixed in the Delhi high court. I believe it was Motorola which was the aggrieved party. Strange. Had it been for Airtel (which announced the deal with Nokia), there are usually no court hearings. I am sure there is something wrong somewhere.

One India has been rejigged and relaunched with full page advertisements crowing about the “achievements” of the present government. It isnt worth the price of a toilet paper even with the foreign bitch’s face on it.

Reliance is offering Mobile blogging platform. You could see a lot of idiots trying to post in from their mobiles. Sure they would and then crow about it.

DTH is still not seeing the volumes to break even. However, the cable operators are running around scared kittens. They have reduced the monthly rentals (by underdeclaring the subscriber base) and surprisingly, the complaints are attended to. I am planning to go in for a DTH; though I am waiting for the market to throw up a clear differentiator from the existing players. Lets see how things work out.

Reliance is planning to launch the GSM services (apart from the North Eastern States it operated in). It may sound illogical thing to do but I am willing to go in by the GSM lobby that it works out to be cheaper as compared to CDMA. Even though CDMA as a technology is better than GSM. Does it mean that consumers would get more choice? I doubt. Though I do know that Anil Ambani has a lot of cash to burn up.

Bangalore is getting wireless internet connectivity in select areas. Mind you, it can’t solve it’s civic problems as yet.

On the personal front too, I am firmly entrenched in Radiation Oncology. I wish I could blog about it full time including the case discussions et al. However, the present state of affairs leaves me little time for anything else.

I do hope that I am able to update this blog on a regular basis. Though as usual, it is the RSS feeds that make sense. Thanks for sticking by and seeing through. I really hope that things change for the better.