Monthly Archives: March 2007

YOU Telecom website sport Google advertising

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YOU Telecom website sport Google advertising

Would you like to deal with a company which runs advertising on their corporate website? There is this broadband company in India which does exactly that.

YOU Telecom India Pvt. Ltd. claims that they are one of the leading providers of Broadband Internet in the country. The company further claims that they provide blazing fast speeds up to 50 times faster than dial-up!

In addition, the company is also supposed to be one of India’s first ISO 9001:2000 certified companies in the dedicated broadband business.

However, if you look at the bottom of the website. You see what? Google Ads! Check for yourself.

Broadband in India: Changing rules

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I am excited about the next wave of Personal Digital Video recorders for one simple reason. It would get me in touch with the content the way I want to consume it, as much as I want to consumer and whenever I want to consume it. The caveat would be to consume it for a fixed flat monthly fees; unless you are talking about watching the whole gamut of the re runs of the crap American sitcoms or Hollywood bullshit.

Broadband’s fat pipes would ensure this to come true. With the rapid integration of the services, Broadband is slowly moving in our lives and we are truly becoming integrated. While this may be a heavy demand on our resources and short attention spans, I am not going in those details. Imagine a cell phone streaming the live updated messages (possible by Blackberry), the RSS feeds that you have subscribed to (on your cell possible via Opera Mini), free access to the ubiquitous Gmail (on WAP), your own personalised TV channels (on Myth TV) and the power of all pervading Linux boxes powering those nifty details. (While there are many other alternative options to Myth TV, I would ONLY endorse Open Source applications. Opera is the ONLY closed source application that gets endorsed- for one simple reason. They have created a viable model based on closed source while being fully committed to the idea of Open Standards for web as well as software).

The so called next wave of “web 2.0” is for real and would be powered eminently by Broadband; because that is the only way content can be streamed and reached out to you. Arguably, I still have to invest time and resources in setting up a permanent kind of an integrated web page but when I look back, the whole services I subscribe too are way too scattered. I should be able to blog, check feeds, work on word processors et al from a single interface.

Broadband alone has made this effort worthwhile.

Flashback to 1996 when the TCP/IP accounts were first opened up for the public at a princely sum of Rs 10,000. People had fallen over for the “cyber cafe” craze. There were dudes who put up ancient Pentiums in five star hotels, skimpily clad females serving coffee and making some impression on the “clients” who came on in;some lucky guys probably banged them for whatever their buck was worth. (It used to cost over a 1000 bucks per hour-hey to surf online!). Things have changed to an extent that opening up a Cyber cafe isn’t a worthwhile proposition now at all. For all that is worth it, the current slump does not justify for the break even earnings too. No. You would not find skimpily clad females either. Move on with life!

Broadband has clearly changed the rules of the game. I remember the times when couple of my friends used to search around for underground network guys to source their software needs. Or just plain pirated films. Or depend heavily on the “freebies” handed out by the computer magazines. Which incidentally boosted their sales for otherwise totally insipid content. We used to have a massive collection of useless software et al. Broadband has totally changed over the rules of the game. Axxo rules for the movies. Torrents/ Limewire has made the software piracy a nightmare for the peddlers which again is a no brainer. Underground piracy still thrives; nevetheless it has not made much impact in the hinterland where the demand for smut movies is always there.

(The links are only suggestive about the available means for accessing content and I DONOT ENDORSE them in ANY MANNER whatsoever).

Not to mention the “podcasts” and viral videos. They are a swell and we just might be seeing the return of the one minute movie formats. You Tube is powering much of this phenomenon.

In all Broadband would radically alter the rules of the game. However, uninformed as the Indian customer is, it would be time before be could free ourselves from the clutches of the assinine load limits and ISP’s dictating the way we access content/ services. Think about net neutrality(1, 2, 3,4 ); something that I feel needs to be debated across a wider spectrum.

BSNL Broadband: IPTV and beyond

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BSNL launched it’s IPTV service recently. There has been a usual media excitement and “buzz” about IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) making it’s debut in India much after it was planned. For the plain uninitiated, IPTV involves streaming of digital content via your wireline and set top box. Last but not the least, loads of divine intervention. MTNL had earlier launched it’s IPTV but there have been no concrete reviews about the same.

It all boils down to the content. The future lord over the masses is the one who could make sure that they control the keys to entertainment streaming in your drawing rooms. Presently, the choice remains limited to Direct to Home television (DTH), Cable TV and now IPTV. Cable TV is ham handed in it’s approach. With massive under declaration of viewers, the TV channels are hard hit for the “genuine” revenues. DTH is too restrictive in it’s clauses and hasn’t really set in the cash registers ringing. The majors are slowly realising the fact that it would need major investments and years before they can break even. However, I see no such sign of the same.

The present “gold rush” to control the media by whatever means is the key to the future power leverages. Media has the potential to shape up the public opinion and slowly the proliferation of the news channels/ magazines et al is a clear pointer to the fact. However, the lords of the whole game are the content delivery systems who are in a position to dictate the terms to the media moghuls. It would take huge investments to upgrade the cable wires; DTH by itself isn’t really exciting with content restrictions. IPTV may yet be the dark horse that has the potential to change the rules of the game.

In all this brouhaha, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has not been able to exert itself, as usual. It has been issuing statements off and on without realising as to what has hit it between the legs :-) . It is caught unawares like a deer-in-the-headlights.

The ultimate killer would be a TiVo like thingy which comes with a personal Digital Video Recorder. In my opinion, it would be a boon to the consumers who are pestered by the advertisements even in the pay channels (which is totally unfair). The whole media is not yet geared towards treating customer like a king (which is anti-thesis to the so called management principles). We are slowly moving towards the consolidation of the services because players with deep pockets are the only ones that can survive the bloodbath.

While BSNL may have the theoretical first mover advantage, Airtel and Reliance have the potential to upset it’s apple cart.They would be sitting back to see what all potential pitfalls are there and would perhaps piggy back BSNL’s efforts to “educate” consumers about IPTV. If Airtel can crow about the “service gurantees”, I am sure that they can notch up some customers of their own. Yet, the age of the entertainment junkies seems to be clearly on it’s way out- IPTV has to look simple and less confusing about setting up the whole assembly. With it’s army of poorly trained JTO’s and it’s ill informed “call centre”, it is potential recipe for disaster. Reliance too has been making the right noises earlier on but with the present moribund marketing efforts, it is being left out of contention.

What possibly it can portend for the future? IPTV needs a critical mass before it can actually suceed. This means substantial investments and the need to tie up with the content service providers. This bodes well for the fat cats and media moghuls who can monetise their content to the highest bidder and sell most of it as “value added service”.

In my opinion, the real choice for the customer is to set up a community network so that content can be cached and streamed from a local server instead of attending to every request individually. This is a far fetched dream though. Yet, if this idea succeeds, we might just see the entry of nifty gadgets like Apple’s iTv which would double up as a personal TV recorder, a mini computer and it’s ability to connect to the net and download your choice of programmes (which incidentally would serve the multitude of masses anyway). Think about the possibilities. BSNL might just introduce a premium “talk channel” where it’s IPTV users might just interact with “aunties” of all hues over the phone to keep themselves hooked over the “premium sex chat lines”. It could make a killing out of it!

This idea incidentally is far fetched and I am sure that some prude would file a case against them for obscenity. Even though, ours is a nation of f***ers with the swelling billion plus people here.

IPTV does open up a large number of possibilties indeed. It remains to be seen as to how it would play out in the real world.

(Crossposted on Desicritics)