Ring Side view of Indian Telecom Circus
I came across this link via Boing Boing which shows a slick production of a “video” to save the internet and establishes the foundation of “net neutrality”; something that I had explored earlier on in these columns.
The americans are crazy idiots. They must really be influenced by loads of horse crap; remember they were the ones who voted Bush back in power! Anyway, enjoy the video.
Scoring the need for “expansion”, Brit firms have been expanding in the Indian Telecom “party”. Much of the talk is focussed on the expanding user base (at the rate of 6 million subscribers per month- you must be bullshitting me). While it all sounds “plausible”, depending on the whether or not you trust the figures from morons of all hues- the so called Cellular Operators Association of India.
What we are seeing here is a gradual consolidation of the Indian market leaving the consumers with less and less choice. In hte future, the so called “churn rates” would cease to have any meaning given the fact that we are being left with no choice.
Vodafone’s entry in Indian market has been followed by British Telecom’s entry in the national long distance calling arena. I doubt that with increased “competiton” we would get to see any drastic fall in the prices. Not until we have carrier access codes giving the people a real choice to carry your voice traffic from your preferred operator.
I have no idea about the mode of BT’s delivery of services. Would they lay down the copper cables or the national backbone or tie up with a company like Airtel? Is there any real need to have another player in the muddled waters? Time alone would tell. I believe that we would hitch up to provide “global managed services”- whatever that crap means.
Vodafone’s entry marks another interesting point- something that I didnot realise earlier. They would be willing to provide cheaper international prices something that other operators could loose out. They made all the right noises about the rural market and dirt cheap Chinese phones (YUCK) from ZTE.
Another “point” raised at Gigaom was the expectation that Vodafone would enter the Broadband market! Not only this is off the mark but presents the writer in a very poor light as far as the “anal-ytical” insight goes. From a pure play in the mobile arena (with one of the lousiest data plans in the market) to a fixed line provider starting from a clean slate in the fixed line business would only call for a suicide. Arun Sarin could manage the funds from the sell off in minorty stakes in other countries to raise the cash for Hutch buyout. This cannot be glossed over in the light of their 21 billion Pounds Sterling last year which has put Sarin under much fire for mismanaging the entire show.
Vodafone’s strategy would perhaps be based on the consolidation of 2.5 G services and then leverage it’s strength in the 3G applications from experience in UK and Europe. All the while it hopes that consumers might just want to make that quantum shift all the while by overpricing the services delivery.
This idiocy on the part of people having huge resources at their disposal refuses to die out.
It’s interesting to see and read about people bashing Dataone online using the same ISP to connect to the online communities! I saw one for Hutch and the movement to spearhead the “broadband revolution” in India.
In my opinion, it is a small user base among the Internet users that bitches and moans about the Broadband Narrowband crap stuff. It doesn’t mean anything to the thick skinned idiots. If you are reading this, a middle finger for you.
There are many interesting comments posted in the course of the conversation here for a free and frank discussion. I am posting here the frustration faced by a user from Calcutta who is famous as “pupudada”. I welcome more stories on the user’s perspective here.
What more can one expect when even the `Minister of Communications’ Mr. Dayanidhi Maran promises and yets fails to deliver? We have been seeing the era of the Internet being ushered in on the 15th of August 1995. At that time a dial-up 56kbps was the defacto standard, yes, that my `dear’ friend in the Netherlands had a 512kbps broadband connection was a matter of envy for me…
Today, while I have a broadband (sic) connection of 256kbps (unlimited) and pay roughly U.S.$20 (assuming one Dollar to be equal to Rs.50 for calculation purposes) for the same.. my `dear’ friend pays U.S.$40 for his 1gbps connection. sweet? So, during these years while we have progressed approximately 4.5 times from 56kbps to 256kbps, my `dear’ friend has jumped 2048 times.. time to say Mera Bharat Mahaan!
The starter of this topic.. my `frustrated & bandwidth starved’ friend has just pointed out what is the `tip of the iceberg’ of the callous services with which we are treated to (and what hurts me more.. is that we accept the same silently like `sheeps being taken to slaughter’.. what the hell?
Are we not paying for the Broadband Services.. If yes, why are we paying so much more?
Purchasing bandwidth is the same all over the world.. give or take a fraction of a ignorable percent.. so it is obvious who is reaping the moolah at the cost of whom.. moreso when the `public owned’ BSNL too does not live up to its own statements.
Come on dear friends.. its high time we started the ball rolling.. yes you have to believe that `together we can achieve’.. it has been proved in the past.. the biggest mistake was to relax once we had achieved our previous goal.. we should have kept up the pressure right from then itself..
Sorry for the slow speed at which I am typing.. but, I am on Narrowband ™ India
Airtel launches it’s own crappy plans based on “speeds upto 2 Mbps”. As usual, they have been crowing about the so called being the “market leader” without actually being one. A close look at their plans would reveal an old wine in a new bottle. A GB here or there doesn’t really excite any person who is clued in to the “always- on” connectivity.
Airtel would seriously need to make the things happen for itself if they need to be taken seriously. Bharti Mittal is busy in retail without realising that there is a huge potential market out for itself in the fixed land line business.
Were the “F” is Reliance “broadband”?
I am sick of the awful speeds, the promises made in the name of “Broadband”. We as users have been taken for a ride BIG time and I hate the snail pace. We are being ripped off without any safeguards.
I am proposing to all the members to get together and fight for our rights instead of getting on the forums and complaining about the ISP’s. We have done it earlier when couple of members got together to petition BSNL to introduce 256kbps unlimited. It works when all of you would get together on a common platform.
The broad contours of my idea is to file for information under Right to Information act to BSNL, TRAI, Department of Telecom, MTNL to reveal their plans for the following:
1)What steps have you taken to ensure the quality of services?
2)What is the actual cost of bandwidth, how much bandwidth is available, where do you source your bandwidth needs, what does it cost to provide the same to the end consumer?
3)What is the basis for such high user charges?
4) What is the grievances redressal mechanism? What actions do you take to ensure that the complaints are handled in a time bound manner and that the orders passed by the authority are binding on the concerned officer?
5)This one for TRAI: What have you ensured that your recommndations are binding on the concerned telecom companies and how do you ensure compliance to reign in the offending companies?
As I mentioned, these are the broad ideas under which I intend to work on. I would be glad if you could bounce on in some ideas here.
Frankly, the world is moving beyond the kbps speeds all over and I find no end to the miserable pathetic narrow band for which I am paying my hard earned money without getting my money’s worth. The same thing can be addressed for the mobile services but then we ought to focus on one thing here for the time being.
I have been reading horror stories of customers being taken for a ride when they have been promised the earth and instead get peanuts. Why don’t you all get together on a common platform and raise your voice against this? As per the TRAI’s official documents, they are duty bound to safe guard our interests instead of just drawing their salaries and do nothing. In similar vein, BSNL is duty bound to serve us instead of acting unilaterally the way it does.
I welcome more ideas and lets do something together for a long last solution rather than just whine around.
(Crossposted on the Broadbandforum.in)
While they make news about the Corus deal, they are failing back home in the telecom sector. They are clearly being identifed as also rans.
Tata’s acquired VSNL assuming that it’s monopoly over the international outgoing calls would remain intact. Unfortunately for them, BJP spoiled their party and allowed in free competition. Tata’s had fought in the court on the same issue and despite impressive line up of lawyers, they failed miserably. They acquired Dishnet and hoped to make a splash in Broadband- they failed in there. They got a fancy highly paid idiot as their CEO and failed in again in the mobile space. As and when it sucks in their revenues big time, they are hurting themselves all over again by trying to get in WiMax space without any clue about the adoption and any standards being finalised. They are bound to fail all over again.
Tata’s stock has been hammered in the stock market over the Corus deal. Evidently, the stock market realises what the yellow page journalists (often paid to chime in “yes sir”!) haven’t seen. Tata’s have inherited the worst of the Brit labour union who would shame the CPI’s of any hue to shame for their rowdy and militant behaviour. While the Corus deal is out of scope for discussion, in my opinion, it is the gravest stupidty possible. If I am not mistaken, Mittal wasn’t at the forefront of acquiring the deal.
If Tata’s really want to make decent profits, they ought to get the highly paid execs replaced with fresh blood and thought. VSNL remains a dead corpse and they can’t even sell it for what all it’s worth it. Instead of making the acquistions of all sorts, they ought to set their own house in order than crow about themselves in the media.
