I seem to have embraced the digital lifestyle for sure. I must confess that I am hooked on to the Web 2.0 as a social phenomenon; although I do feel hamstrung by the pathetic and high cost of access here in this country.

I have a slow (and unreliable) BSNL connection at my home and a fantastic Airtel Broadband at my work place. My daily life revolves around checking my updated RSS feeds and email including the updates on Facebook. I progress to check the new updates in the journals across the world. I get all the twitter updates on my cell, although its difficult to ensure a smooth service. I use Flickr account to update my pictures and trust Opera to keep a track of my preferences, updated bookmarks and speed dial across the platforms and geographical location. I use You Tube to stream the programmes I have favourited and watched.

I dont fancy a Blackberry as yet because I dont need an expensive option to reply to emails. So by and large, I am connected and hooked to the Internet. It hasnt taken over my life as yet but I realise that connectivity can be so important to know about what’s happening in the real world.

All this has become possible recently as part of the “broadband” revolution sweeping in. This sounds like a cliche. It really is. Much of the country is in the dark as far as basic connectivity is concerned. The “deadlines” have been revised umpteen times and no one looses sleep over the fact that in the global race, Indians are left behind only because the system cannot nurture ideas. None of the applications I mentioned are hosted in India nor designed by Indians. There are a host of me too applications chasing the fragmented pie with a “desi flavour”; it remains a disappointing experience to see that they cannot even ensure coding their web sites with existing web standards.

Societal bonds would change with the increasing thrust of Internet. As geographical boundaries melt away, we are going to see an increasing collaboration of people with common interests coming on a common platform with more profusion of ideas to collaborate towards similar goals. All in all, the existing system should facilitate this interaction. Only then, we would see the true wonders of being interconnected and interaction.

Viewers are spoilt for choice. DTH is a credible option and at the start of the day, I had no frigging clue to the pent up demand for the same. The Direct To Home players like Tatas and Zee have spent oodles of cash on advertisements and hardware roll out that it appears unlikely that a newer player would be able to get a toehold.

Here in the grand strategy of Anil Ambani unfolds. He got the ad labs, poured in money in content creation and would make a huge moolah out of “exclusive” deals with media players. The value added services is a growing market and there is a HUGE space for exclusive content; I was surprised to know that there is a seperate channel for gardening; Tata has one for home tuitions. Although, it cannot replace the classrooms but then parents are keen for any degree of experimentation.

Coming back to IPTV. Does anyone of you readers think that this could make any degree of impact on the viewership? I feel that most of the people mistrust the landline outages (which are so frequent) unless there is a fibre to home coming to their homes with simple instructions to operate the set top box. The present hardware is designed to confuse the first time users; somewhere it ought to ring the bell to make it as simple as possible.

I would reserve my comments on the two competing platforms till the market matures up. Reliance is lying down low with it’s broadband offering. I am still wondering as to what has been the issue at their end. Why are they delaying the commercial launch? There are any number of ideas floating around and if they claim to be India’s number one network as far as the coverage is concerned, they ought to focus on their cherries. Or else, it would die a virgin.

This is a guest post from a reader, Mr Naveen Roy. He had sent across an attachment and detailed his sad story in the email. Its hard to believe that the customer care can be so dumb. Many a times, it’s a lone dingbat sitting in some corner of their “headquarters” who is replying to the assinine mails clogging the inboxes. There is a wide disconnect between the “customer care” and the idiots who have to the do the real work. I can testify for this; I had a major hassle with Vodafone.

Here is the write up by Mr Naveen Roy. You are most welcome to send in your feedback as well and I shall be glad to carry out the same here.

All I wanted was relocation for my Reliance Wimax connection. So I called their Customer No Care. All the automatons tell you is that you have to pay! When I really started digging for more information did they tell me that I have to take the equipment with me! Damn, I nearly missed that and god knows what I would have ended paying up for! Then I had to call and ask what the next step was. They told me that I would have to raise a relocation request. This I did. And this was done 2 days before I moved.

So I took the equipment with me and carted it to the new place. Then I called Reliance Customer No Care to find out what the status of the relocation request was. They said that it will take a week! I said ok and waited 2 days. Then when I called for an update, I was told that I will also have to pay Rs.500. Then I asked how much for a new connection. I was told that its Rs.500. I asked how long that takes. I was told that it can be done in a day. Well, I asked why there is a difference in relocation and a new connection in terms of the days. Well, the automaton there replied that it is company policy. I pushed harder for a resolution. No go. Automaton says that he cannot understand. I ask to speak to the supervisor. I am FLATLY REFUSED access to any kind of help!

I call the next day asking for the supervisor again. Again, no go. The automaton this time even accuses me of calling in just to WASTE HIS TIME!! Damn, I was so damn pissed off that I cut the call cause I am worried that I might transform myself into some electrical noise and burst his goddamned brains!

The next day, I get a call from their Customer No Care asking for my email address! When asked why, I am told that there is a form that I will need to fill up for relocation. By now, I am thoroughly and totally fuming. I ask why they don’t have it in the system when they send me the bills to my email address! When Reliance needs my money, they have my email address so that they can send me the bill. When it is something concerning service, they conveniently forget my email address! And I also ask why this relocation form was not sent to me the day that I raised the relocation request! No reply. Automaton says something that makes me want to puke in disgust. He disconnects call. Remember, I swear like a sailor. But all these calls, I have not used bad language at all. Not even calling these automatons the word STUPID. Which they all are!

Damned automaton then disconnects the call. So I call Customer No Care again and I am told that I was at fault. I am told that “Customer did not respond properly”. I said ok, thats fine. I am done with you guys.

I call Airtel, who even though they provide good service, usually do not have feasibility in many areas. Well the service desk was like a breath of fresh air and assured me that there was feasibility. I did not even have to pay a deposit as I took the corporate connection. The connection was done in 3 days and on the 4th day, there was light. Err no, the internet was working!!

Now, the joke with Reliance does not end there. Some days back, I receive an email from Reliance Broadband with my bill attached. But by now, I am not surprised. I am really frustrated. So where was my email address when the relocation form needed to be filled up?? So damn pissed off again, I send a mail to their generic customer no care email address and hope that this atleast will not be monitored by automatons. Well, wonder of wonders, IT IS!!

Well, rather than lose my head and breaking my head banging against a brick wall, I decide to take it cool and not bother about Reliance anymore. I wonder if I ever will trust Reliance in any form again! And the tag line on their service emails is – Looking forward to build a lifetime relationship with you. Like hell I would want to have a relationship with a company as this.

Makes for a disappointing story indeed. I hope that this gets some mileage and enough warning for others before they put in their hard earned money.