A lot has been made up for Google Chrome OS and it’s notebook. It transpires that Samsung and Acer would manufacture laptops for chrome OS.

Is cloud computing inherently better than the “offline model” we have come to rely on? If the recent Amazon outage is any indication, I would prefer not to stick with it. In the same vein, I prefer my data to stay with me.

However, there is a huge business opportunity lurking behind such an initiative. Manufacturers in India (for netbooks/laptops/tablets) are dependent on Microsoft for a tapered down version of it’s utterly useless operating system. They could have easily sponsored a home grown “Indian initiative” for Linux and installed it on a bare bones hardware with Wifi and 3G connectivity. I reckon that using ARM processors, a basic display unit with a keyboard would suffice the price limit of around $200-250. It can be done.

One doesn’t need dual cores to run the fancy software; in any case, I hardly use the computing power at my disposal. But there was no choice in the market. Antix (a derivative of SimplyMepis) or even Arch Linux are good enough alternatives (not to forget Fluxbox and XFCE or E17) as the alternative desktop platforms to power the applications.

The telecom companies could have easily subsidized the model, charging it in their monthly bills. A win win situation. An operating system free of any hassles and companies get to spread the hardware with bundled data plans. I had earlier explored the same option but I guess the fancy CEO’s (who are glorified assholes anyway), are not interested in the blurb.

So you’d find the Vodafone Zoozoo enticing people to try out 3G in a market where computing is still a luxury and smartphones market sorely limited.

Thats stupidity compounded by assholism (of the extreme); because crores are being spent on advertising to milk the few customers who venture to buy out the expensive data plans.

Blah blah blah.

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Well, it could be the big news. I have always felt about the lackadaisical coverage in the Indian media about Broadband. If a ‘media watch’ blog is right, this could well explain why media hasn’t run after the Government of the day; chasing it like a mad dog running after a car.

To quote:

Not so long ago, a much-feared Indian publisher who shall go unnamed wanted the broadband expansion in India to be slowed down because, well, it would woo readers away from his newspaper to the world wide web.

However, Times of India has a vested interest to promote Broadband now. In a blatant attempt to publicize it’s web property (a cesspool of stinking crap called as Indiatimes), it has carried a series of “news” mentioning about why “Cricket is fun online”. Of course, it’s juvenile attempt from Times but important nevertheless. Their attempts are going to face an iron wall of crap connectivity on Indian soil.

One word. Assholes.

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In the same vein, broadband has been given a complete miss. In some recent telecom conference, the same issue was raised with assholes patting themselves on their back about “mythical 100 million” users. Telecom is a very dynamic field; it is impossible to nail down the exact number of subscribers unless you have strict defined criteria for what constitutes an active connection and the user who has fallen off the grid. Nil. Nada.

3G has been a monumental waste of resources (indirectly your money, you assholes); for all your crowing about the “world class data services”, these companies are sticking up a sore thumb up your ass. In terms of indirect taxes, huge mark ups on the tariff plans, advertising costs and pathetic end result to consumers (who likes caps on the broadband, you sissies), consumer is the end looser.

The reason why everyone jumped on the “3G bandwagon” was because of spectral efficiencies and not otherwise. No one likes dropped calls; 3G is going to ameliorate that. This also gave the companies a reason to upgrade their ancient infrastructure and opening up the backdoors for “real time snooping”.

Hence, these three issues are the most “rattling issues”, in my opinion. They are unlikely to be addressed in fancy documentations, “think tanks”, myriad “research firms” and others because none of them seem to have a fundamental grasp on the issues. So for all those morons who whimper on the forums about “lack of services”, you are unlikely to see any major change coming this year either.

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A little while back, Rajesh Jain had run a “Big Idea for India” contest. He has touched on many issues in his previous posts; there was a lack of serious debate on Broadband. This contest was open to all; I had mailed my entry to Rajesh on his email.
He had received over 150 responses for the same.

Jain announced the winners recently; in which yours truly has also figured (the names are in an random order). The contest was judged by Jain and Atanu Dey (whose blog is linked to in the blog roll in side bar). Of course, he has been a huge influence in shaping up my thought process and I owe a lot to him.

The post, in it’s entirety follows here. For the regular readers, there is nothing new because I have already touched on these issues in the previous posts extensively.

This is one answer and highly underrated option. The following scenario is envisaged:

1) Optic fibres running across to get the data without caps. We need fibre to home instead of outdated copper. Last mile access is contentious; while opening up last mile for private players is contentious, this needs to be debated. Britain has opened it up under strict regulations and British Telecom has been forced to upgrade it’s infrastructure to retain customers.

2) Heavy public investment for scalable architechture. Not 3G guzzling up spectrum but community Wifi’s (pay per use or perhap involving the municipalities making the people accountable directly for the level of involvement).

3) Create an ecosystem of open source applications to harness ideas; make it easier for people to access services. (Open Source standards promote interoperability; closed source is meant for perpetual profiteering at public’s expense).

4) Opening up the Government’s accumulated data through API’s etc; create models around it. For e.g., data from GPS installed in public transport would easily display the estimated arrival time through SMS if needed on the mobile phones. (“Hacker culture” is missing in India; most of the Bangalore flotsam is moronic army of debuggers and script kiddies).

5) Teleconferencing would make it easier for people to people contacts; Gujarat has shown the way! Why can’t India have something similar to Skype? (There is a move to have something similar in the GNU world where encryption would be based on open standards).

6) Education sector would get a boost; not only invite faculty, stream educational videos, hold tele-sessions but teach kids for a wonderful world of Internet. (Pilot experiments in Bihar/Gujarat have been well received; the idea needs scaling up).

7) Spin off benefits from e-commerce applications.

The potential is huge; if you are planning it to share with BJP, the easiest way out is to break the ISP‘s monopoly, hold TRAI responsible for execution (not DoT) and revise Broadband definition to at least 2 Mbps (UNLIMITED, WITHOUT any caps).

Thanks Rajesh!

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Which is better? iPad 2 or Kindle?

It’s hard to decide on the specifications and my only interest to put up the post here is to mark a shift in the way Internet is being accessed in other countries. US remains a competitive market; partly because the mechanisms of delivery exist there. In India, people expect it for “free”. This is also one reason why I strongly oppose the “limited broadband” because that would affect the way users interact with the medium. However, rest assured that market is not mature enough for the numbers; there is no strong “demand” to question the pathetic supplies as yet and voice calls dominate the Indian market overwhelmingly.

Register has an interesting write up on upcoming Kindle. I remain deeply opposed to concept of “Ecosystem” which tends to track the users over a period of time to target advertising. There are credible alternatives in Open Source and in recent times, there is a huge surge of developer interest in polishing the user interface. ( FYI, everything on my system is Open Source alone barring a few proprietary codecs and Flash- I am still waiting for HTML 5 to mature so that I ditch it for good).

Kindle and iPad are ugly vestiges of ecosystem (as I mentioned above) which hardly merit attention. I think it was Amazon that has pioneered the use of a recommendation engine to it’s visitors. Apple tracks its payments through it’s iTunes interface keeping a lion’s share of the revenues. The content creators have nothing else but to gnash their teeth because iPad owners (and I would say a huge bunch of idiots and suckers) are most likely to loosen their purse strings for paying up the cash.

Hence it becomes imperative to check out what the linked article has to say.

It is not clear why Apple has delayed enforcing the rule – clearly designed to protect its own revenues, but also its position as the primary point of contact for the user’s mobile activity – until 30 June, since it already barred the Sony Reader app from its App Store last month on the basis of the same terms and conditions….Currently, its Kindle for iOS ereader app handles all ebook sales through Amazon’s own Kindle web store, with the revenue divided only between Amazon and the publishers. The more successful Apple’s tablets and apps are, the more difficult it will be for Amazon to walk away from its iOS platform – but it could whip up a dangerous level of consumer, developer and even regulatory opposition to the iPhone maker (though, as the proud owner of a closed ecosystem itself, it would need to tread carefully).

How do they monetise their platforms:

Amazon is rumoured to be planning a scheme where it will give away free Kindle ereaders, for instance, to customers who commit to certain levels of ebook purchasing, newspaper subscriptions or the Amazon Prime service. And of course, Amazon has an established retail platform and experience that commands high levels of awareness and trust, unlike the other tablet makers. It could enhance this with its own tablet because it could take its own 30 per cent cut of in-app purchases.

How is this going to affect the netbook sales:

For every 10 tablets sold, five netbook or notebook sales will be lost in developed markets, it estimates, limiting notebook growth to 8 per cent year-on-year in 2011, and pushing netbooks into a decline of 13 per cent, to 34 million units. Many areas – especially the US, western Europe, China and Indonesia – will suffer from overstocked retail channels for mobile PCs, although the iPad’s impact on emerging markets will remain minimal.

This is going to be a hard pill to swallow though I am sure that the manufacturers have built in supply chain efficiencies and they could foresee such an event. If I had piles of cash, I would enable Linux on all the netbooks and sell them at subsidised prices or give them away for free with a bundled service. Though this unlikely to happen but if anyone from the telecom industry is reading this, this is your last chance to popularize the 3G offering. Get into hardware sales, bundle it with 3G, work out the costs of supplying it to remote areas and you have assured locked in customers for say, 3 years. The specifics could be worked out but a mobile netbook with open source applications is a great “killer option”. If you choose to support Microsoft Tax (like you as assholes are capable of), this would be unviable in the long run and MS wants Windows 7 or whatever number of their crappy operating system you can imagine to run on the “tablets”. I mean who wants to deal with such demented idiots anyway?

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1) Smart phones and Android taking center stage with Nokia dying a slow death.

2) 2G spectrum scam

3) 3G mess.

There are tonnes of web sites scattered all around to tell you about Android’s home coming. I am not getting in the debate about what is good or bad but Apple (across the lines) remains aspirational because of it’s perceived value.

2G Spectrum scam has also been mentioned extensively with the political fall out affecting Congress and it’s cohorts; again the debate has been frittered away to be of any consequence.

3G Mess is bad. Really bad. Partly because it has been sold on lines of “only Internet access” you’d ever need. As mentioned in these columns (and comments) that none of the devices support advertised speeds of 21Mbps; more so, in absence of clear definition of what 3G speeds are, you would not really see much traction there. The operators have dreamt of fat profits accruing from the sales and perhaps are marketing different plans for mobile handsets and wireless modems. Docomo even explicitly prohibits “tethering” mobiles to laptops citing it as “violation of terms of use”; as it they can “prove it court of law”. Assholes.

4G is on the horizon and as such the media reports were peppered with what technology to choose. There are of course competing issues; I am not qualified enough to explain the merits/demerits of each.

Another highlight of this year was the final recognition of menace of telemarketing calls and sms (with sms rates being usurious and companies raking in huge profits from what is essentially free for them). I have written about it earlier but there are others in space who have written about it more extensively (Rajesh Jain on Telemarketing and SMS Spam[1,2,3,4,5])

Mobile Number Portability (MNP) would be a big issue in 2011. Although it has been launched in Haryana, there are not enough media reports about the impact of MNP on the same. Is it surprising? With telecom companies leading in advertisement spends, they hold enough leverage to influence reporting the issue. Hence I would remain blocked out on the same unless it becomes a major issue. However, they don’t give a shit to the users because there is no REAL choice between the service providers. Most of the new operators have yet not launched their operations (and hence got notices for the same) so it is difficult to comment on the same. I foresee a lot of activity in next year in terms of new players and mobile number portability to affect them. Yet, with the rise of cheap “chinese manufactured- Indian branded” hardware with dual and three SIM card slots, issues like MNP don’t hold much promise. Hence this too would remain a lot of hot air with some speculation towards “power to consumer”.

I have written extensively to TRAI, Department of Telecom and various stake holders in media about why need broadband and what is basic policy flaw in the system. This has also been a subject of my RTI applications being filed with them. At risk of sounding repetitive, we all need a proper system for growth of the nation and that is a foregone conclusion. However, the system is designed not to provide but to deprive the users from opportunities. If public good were at the heart of policy makers (and politicians), we would not have been a kangaroo republic (mistaken for a democracy).

I fail to understand the stupidity of media houses not to push for all inclusive growth in Broadband; since their own very future depends on it. I have briefly toyed with the idea of setting up a NGO; there is no scarcity of ideas that need to be implemented. What is lacking in this space is will to implement those ideas. The whole scenario is lumbering around like a giant iceberg. Yet as monotony in this space grows, Internet access is fuelled by explosive growth in social networking to Facebook’s data servers. Here in lies the rub. Media in India is even lacking in this space and focusing instead to try out experiments in their own walled microdomains expecting the advertisers to come on in hordes and expecting to rake in millions of dollars from advertising click throughs.

However, this dream lies shattered with corpses of media houses dotting the landscape instead. Content is supreme and while we retain the numero uno position for generating mountains of crap in terms of bollywood export, this has not found a “release” except from traditional channels of multiplexes and to some extent, DTH. Instead, we don’t have a Hulu or Netflix like player capitalizing on this aspect of delivery. 3g cannot do it. 4g cannot do it. Wifi perhaps. Broadband on wirelines- definitely.

This blog has also seen some write ups on the need to tone up internet exchanges, need for TRAI to jig up it’s broadband policy and a call for Public Internet cafes. Interestingly, we also saw NDTV’s programme on broadband which we linked on to and perhaps the first in a long long time coming in from mainstream media. TRAI did talk about “fair usage policy” although in context of telecom tariffs. Another highlight was my post on online education and something on cloud computing in respone to Chrome OS.

This, by and large, what I had written with some guest posts. I have already filed in RTI application with BSNL as listed and I am awaiting their response. My only aim to get to root on pricing on Broadband, the mess and perhaps get a better deal on it in the long run. The first step is perhaps to re-define broadband from it’s present definition. I am also planning to involve TRAI in this loop along with perhaps Department of Telecom and see how they differ. Although TRAI is the regulator, the real power lies with DoT. Yet, it is a blame game that they are likely to play. DoT would say that TRAI has to come up with regulations first. TRAI would say that DoT is the real boss and they have to come up with a “circular”. No one wants to work and consumer gets the fuck of his life.

I have seen the Indians from close quarters. They would suffer all the insults with great temerity and humbleness. Perhaps it is the servile attitude that is ingrained in their psyche. Neither we are going to see a good amount of activism to make the public institutions deliver nor are the companies going to make any efforts to tone up their services. It costs real money to keep up with after sales service which actually eats up the profits and hence customer service is perhaps the last of ideas on their minds.

This post by itself is a huge huge post in a long long time! Maybe perhaps, I have written about trends subconsciously which I feel would impact the telecom landscape in some way or the other. The market is not geared towards course correction but is littered with asymmetric information to disadvantage of consumers. Sadly proactive approaches, either at regulator level or mass media or even at consumer level is sorely lacking.

The new year is not going to change this scenario in any manner whatsoever.

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The blurb:

There were problems in interception facilities of video calling on 3G services, which needs to be addressed before the launch. The operators have said monitoring facility of video calls was not available anywhere in the world and the operators were talking to vendors to find out a solution.

The government wants real-time interception by which the security agencies could monitor/intercept video calls as it happens.

Understandably, 3G in India has caused more issues than it has solved.

Unfortunately, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has provided a 2005 document on definition of 3G data rates (to quote):

ITU has not provided a clear definition of the data rate users can expect from 3G equipment or providers. Thus users sold 3G service may not be able to point to a standard and say that the rates it specifies are not being met. While stating in commentary that “it is expected that IMT-2000 will provide higher transmission rates: a minimum data rate of 2 Mbit/s for stationary or walking users, and 384 kbit/s in a moving vehicle,”[18] the ITU does not actually clearly specify minimum or average rates or what modes of the interfaces qualify as 3G, so various rates are sold as 3G intended to meet customers expectations of broadband data.

This causes issues in clear definition of 3G rates that would be expected of these companies to provide us with. This confusion also means that we are in the same league as broadband- no clear definition and companies can murder and get away with.

Suppose if you were to file a case against, say Airtel or Reliance for “speed issues”. They can always get away with “network congestion” argument. Further, in court of law, TRAI could be answerable for it has failed to set a clear cut idea about 3G (being the regulator) and companies claiming the excuse for TRAI’s inefficiency.

As a customer, you are bound to get a short fuse for being cheated on a gargantuan scale for “higher prices” which is now being sold as a value added service in addition to bundling with voice calls. 3G (in the media) has been hailed as the “next wave of broadband” which is clearly unfortunate case of irrational exuberance.

I have tried to contact Business Standard on fine tuning their editorial content and at least their coverage on Tech issues in India. It is the worst case scenario with rehashed press releases as “news” raising the spectre of “paid media news”. These are often attributed to “BS reporter” and is really pathetic for a newspaper of it’s standing and repute.

In the same vein, although much is made about video calling (at least by those who have front facing cameras), I wonder how would the call clarity be.

I hate this murky world, the obvious excess of advertisements and absolutely no semblance of sensibility and rationalism. This only points towards a total state of anarchy but when the customers by themselves lack any means to differentiate chaff from the grain, I have no love lost for the masses. Let them get screwed; this is testified by occasional mails in my inbox complaining about the poor quality of service and mails to Ambanis and Bhartis and what not. Assholes.

In all this mess, I fail to get the kind of service I would want- pure play wireline fiber optic cable with at least 2 Mbps unmetered and perhaps wireless for restricted mobility and occasional odd job that needs to be done of the fly. EDGE is good enough for the needs; basic emails work great on that.

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I’d just quote the relevant portions: (emphasis mine)

No specific performance figures are being released, but the company does call it “extremely fast” and quick enough to open large attachments “without delay.”

Update: We’re seeing expected uplink rates of 1Mbps, with download rates reaching 5Mbps. Not bad for being over an ocean

For fucks sake, that’s faster than our own fucking crappy terrestrial broadband. Heck, faster than the fastest broadband or 3G.

I wonder whether any dorks from Photon Plus/MTS/Docomo or any other service are reading this.

It makes me cry out in frustration at the bloody pig headedness of the assholes sitting in TRAI.

If and only if they change the “definition” of “broadband”. We might then see something “better” happening.

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Ignore Pranajoy Guha Thakurta’s tripe about “not being much a party to the 2G scam. He is some sort of a journalist and for all practical purposes a permanent fixture on NDTV. He is not expected to “rise up to the situation”

#barkhagate seems to be become a popular trending topic on Twitter. It can mean only one thing. Lots of anonymous idiots love to hate Barkha Dutt. At best, they can only vent their “anger” online. When it comes to standing up for the rights or out in voting, they would all scatter away.

For all practical purposes, Greatbong has a good write up on this loot. And all the more I agree with what he writes:

And so my friends it will continue, one wave of corruption followed by yet another larger wave, raising the shock threshold every time. Fire up your rage within 140 characters. Try make it funny and pray for re-tweets. Cause, honestly, that’s really all you can do.

Which by and large explains the current state of Indian populace. It does not matter whether it trends on Twitter or gets a mention in the mainstream media. Most of have become so callous with such oddities, that public memory is really short. Another day, another year, another scam and this too shall pass.

Which means that in this current fiasco, it would not be instructive to preach or lecture on the pathetic reach of broadband. This has also laid bare TRAI’s role as an ineffectual regulator. Easy isn’t it? Staff it with pathetic run of the mill assholes, feed them with public money and let them occasionally bark (for regulations). The real power stays in Department of Telecom and the whims and fancies of chosen few while they swindle the public money. The companies make hay while the sun shines and you as idiotic customers pay (or rather) subsidize for their “expenditure”. With media in the pocket , nothing gets mentioned or ‘intelligent submissions’ are ignored.

While we re-elect the same bastards back in power. Why the fuck don’t you even feel outraged at all this? Damnit.

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I think that they have screwed it up given the fact that BSNL has upped the ante as far as tariffs are concerned. With the imminent launch of Airtel/ Vodafone and other private players, it remains to be seen how 3G market would shape up. I think that there is a going to be a big market for the data cards given the pathetic landline access.

Interestingly, here’s something from the Tata’s end user agreement:

Mobile internet is not to be used for other activities (e.g. using your handset as a modem, voice or video over the internet, peer to peer file sharing). Should you exceed your fair usage limit or such use be detected, TTSL reserves right to take action by restricting bandwidth, and/or suspension of data browsing and/ or temporarily suspend subscriber account in case of data usage in violation of fair usage policy.

Ha ha ha. For all practical purposes, I wonder whether they can actually “control tethering”!!

I wonder where did these assholes spring from!

This is taken from the forums:

I usually refrain from speculating on the price wars or report on the “latest trends” but to be honest, these people have screwed it up totally.

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Docomo was supposed to launch it’s 3G services from today but it remains a classic example of how NOT to do things. First and foremost is that there ought to be a clear line of communication about the services, what it entails, the expected costs and charges and how the existing GPRS users are going to be migrated to 3G. Common sense dictates that customer care should be informed accordingly and be trained instead of a dumb shit moron trying to answer the queries from “educated and enlightened customers”. Instead, Docomo has failed to inform me in advance about the same. I registered for their “newsletter” but it seems that their backend has conked off. Who is their provider? IBM? Pooh pooh.

Spewing out the venom is not going to help here and neither going to make a difference to the dodos sitting at the top. But we have some expectation from a company that has made a big name for itself in Japan. Yet, at the same time, one should not forget that it is a the Tata’s pedigree which is at work and they are known to pick up the worst among the best for manning their services. This is reflected in their thought process, their work and general approach to telecom services.

Ideally, instead of ham handed approach, they ought to have been clear and transparent. They should have clearly mentioned the service areas, the expectations from their service, the expected speeds and network and the possible charges.

I have always opposed the 3G services and instead always argued for stepping up investments in wireline. The major reason is that 3G can support “fast speeds” but is limited to spectrum and when more customers join the party, it is going to be a major disaster for the company. This has been seen in mature markets where 3G is synonymous with pathetic services. Further, high costs for “unlimited access” is plain stealing. No one likes the crap of “fair usage policies”. For most, GPRS is decent approach because mobile broadband sucks.

Lets see what the company has to offer and how it plans to market it. It has set up a separate page for the same and I am wondering who okayed this kind of pure crap. (with loads of grammatical errors and mistyped words- emphasis mine).

Here’s from the horse’s mouth:

Now DO the new with 3G, at a refreshingly fast pace. Coming from the world leaders in 3G, Tata DOCOMO 3G is an all-new way to experience life on the go!
Life on 3G is definitely fastera, richer & exciting. With Tata DOCOMO 3G, your mobile phone is no more just a device that makes calls – it””s a TV, a theatre, a gaming console and a satellite camera all at once. Do much more with your smartphone than you ever imagined!

Now can anyone of these dumb fucks ever care to explain about “satellite camera”? PMSL

It also makes tall claims about playing “3D games”. And it speaks about “better network security”. WHOA!!

Here’s one for starters:

Selection_001 –

Here’s another monstrosity:

Selection_002 –

Instead of a cluster fcuk of news with overdrive of PR agencies to bombard the message, Docomo should be clear of what they want. Assholes.

I suspect that some research agency is behind their PR efforts. Here is what one dumb fcuk had to say about Tata Docomo 3G on DNA (Newspaper) and I quote:

Sujay Misra, managing director of AZ Research Partners, says one of the reasons for this is their subscriber-base is predominantly low-end. “You need to have the right instrument (high-end mobiles and smartphones) to get access to 3G services. Also, BSNL and MTNL have not bothered to educate their customers about the 3G services,” he said.

Really? Why would they even bother to put you on print? This is what you get from paying your way through, you moron?

Hence, Tata Docomo is a MONUMENTAL FAILURE even before it has seen it’s commercial activity. There are people crowing about this company getting it’s “first mover advantage” but other companies in the fray are investing in 3G for spectrum and more customers. Data services are not even on their minds. The reason? There is no dedicated system for “apps” and they are sold as “value added services” to shore up “extra revenue” but not at the expense of voice calls. They still make profits on voice calls. This is a heterogeneous market and no one size fits all. Despite the marketing chutzpah, voice still remains bread, butter (and jam) for these companies. Give or take SMS.

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Unfortunately, much of coverage on policy issues is usually ham handed and half brained with banal idiots sitting for their two minutes of fame. Interestingly this show was in contrast to other “discussion forums”; the people on the show hit the nail right on head, were well informed and barring a single participant contributed to the overall discussion with a clear level headed idea of providing wireline broadband in those areas under-served over the past few decades.

I have always argued against the usage of statistics because they are taken from a small sample size and extrapolated to the entire population. This is “unfair” but the best thing that we have (See my earlier post on Shyam’s write up on Business Standard). At the same time, these statistics can be seriously questioned but well, that’s a separate issue because hard numbers provide bread and butter to a multitude of consultancy firms. These numbers sound excellent in Government of India reports including the bunch of assholes in TRAI.

If TRAI is the next best thing after sliced bread, why are they persisting with the assinine definition of sub par and sub mbps speeds? Unfortunately, none of the panelists touched on the so called fair usage policies or even goading up TRAI to revise the definition. They could have also elaborated on an alternative peering exchange for India because the existing mechanism sucks. But that’s the best alternative that we have.

Neither did any of the panelists spoke about the thin client model. PC penetration is pathetic because it has not been given the importance it needs but thin client deployments can take care of community needs for Net access. Prices for cloud storage of data has been falling like nine pins and a cheaper deployment in this country would mean that a “universal access” regardless of distance or space can be made available. (It can be argued that data may not be “safe” but then this is one credible alternative).

I have already touched on community Wifi’s where in mass deployment across cities makes for a good and sensible option. The whole idea is to have the local municipal corporation involved and not the telecom operator; people would have the choice to choose their operator and well, even make them accountable.

I have a mail app on my Android enabled (K9 mail) and it works flawlessly to sync my IMAP accounts. Email can be deployed across platforms (Opera’s acquisition of Fastmail needs to be seen in that context) where in dumb devices can be used to communicate effectively. However, wired broadband would seriously drive the market towards knowledge based economy. (See Rajesh Jain’s post on digital economy here, here and here).

More so, we don’t need expensive PC’s but smart devices perhaps based on Android (or Ubuntu Light or even Chrome OS) and the options would multiply manifold if someone really thinks about it.

I have written earlier on why Wired Broadband should be the option rather than wireless (here,here, and here.

So nearly everything that has been discussed on the show has been articulated here on this blog. Just wondering, if TRAI actually went through each and every post, they would find echo in their present “broadband policy” that has been put forth here years ago! (Including the forums where in lot of people have pitched in their ideas).

No wonder, these brain dead dodos are formulating policies that affect us in such a fundamental manner.

The best thing in NDTV’s discussion? The moderator’s comments on why Railway stations and post offices are not being leveraged for broadband thrust in rural areas! Excellent! This is because they have a ready infrastructure and all that is needed is for someone to pull in lines for the last mile access, subsidized by Universal Service Obligation fund and community wifi’s or perhaps Internet Cafe’s with means to identify an individual. Simple isn’t it?

Why is it taking so long for these assholes to understand this?

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This is basically a “repetition of facts” since I have been crowing about the “need for broadband” and the infrastructure bottlenecks that we see. I would reiterate that is the “Congress rate of growth” since there has been no impetus to existing policy by our “respected” telecom minister. Anyway, Shyam lays an important ground for the need: (emphasis mine)

One might ask: why broadband, and not energy, water/sanitation, or roads…? While all infrastructure is essential, broadband gives the quickest, biggest bang for the buck, because of its nature vis-à-vis energy, water or transportation and our regulatory environment and functional organisation (for instance, the complexity of addressing power supply).

But then with erratic power supplies, I wonder whether this can actually be realized since the operational costs shoot up. More importantly, it should lay a stronger argument for Publicly funded Internet Cafes which we have discussed earlier.

Some numbers:

Consider these aspects of our demographics:

Nearly 460 million people are aged between 13 and 35 today.
Of these, 333 million are literate…..This indicates our productive potential. Its realisation would require education and training, efficient functioning, i.e. the matrix of enabling infrastructure, and organisation. If these needs remain unmet, the demographic opportunity can become the liability of an unproductive population, with attendant difficulties and social hazards.

India is facing a DEMOGRAPHIC NIGHTMARE and Shyam has articulated it well. At least some effort can be made to train this work force.

We have many formal and informal institutions providing training and education. We add nearly 300,000 engineering graduates every year to our pool of 2 million engineers.

Most of them unemployable as per the same statistics belted out in the newspaper and/or other forums. The way out, as Shyam says, is in vocational training for which,

National Sample Survey (2004) found that only 2 per cent of the 15-29 age group had formal vocational training and another 8 per cent had non-formal vocational training.

He goes on to quote other statistics and poor web traffic from India to MIT’s Open Courseware and other educational web sites.

I have been facing terrible latency times which makes it impossible to access the journals; courtesy the chimps in BSNL. We are actually paying a huge tax payers money to the multitude of assholes including their pensionary benefits. It’s not justified but then this is India.

In all, in this rather longish post, the need for Broadband also boils down to providing access for education. Well, this is a foregone conclusion.

But then, the big question is: Are these statistics not available to the policy makers? Well, in all probability, they are. Then? Then what? Those assholes don’t want to move their lazy butts ; this is the price we pay for getting such a government.

If anything has to be done, the initiative has to come from the highest levels and before I end this post, I quote from Shyam’s write up again,”

The central government and the Delhi administration have shown they can engage in sheer execution to save face for the Commonwealth Games. Couldn’t our governments choose to make similar efforts to improve an aspect of infrastructure that is perhaps the most powerful means for enhancing our productive capacity and quality of life: broadband?

Oh he gives the example of Shiela Dixit to emulate! Deva re Deva!!!

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The idea is very straight forward. Create a place where the computers are on, always. You hire the place depending on the time and the requirement. Run the place on solar energy (just to be “environmentally correct”) and Linux and you are ready to go. Of course, if you are in India, rest assured that you have to deal with a maniacal governmental control (the same assholes you have elected in power are screwing up your happiness). I can’t help the collective wisdom of masses but there is always a hope in imperfect world. Without much delay, here is the post.

The idea of establishing a network for Free Public Internet Cafe is something that ALL of the developed countries have already implemented.

We, in Canada have similar arrangements in all our libraries. But we have THREE parallel arrangements. Each network group is located on different floors and sections of the library. The first one is located on the ground floor and close to the entrance and is like a walk-in health clinic; the second one is located in the general section of the library and it is less crowed as compared to the 1st one; AND the third system is in the Research Section of the Library where you have absolute silence and everyone is quietly working on their own researches. The programs and settings of each type are different. And it is all FREE.

1. The 1st Network is similar to the system Mathew explained, it is available on first come first served basis with no advanced reservations. You can use a terminal for 15 minutes at a time. After the 15 minutes the system logs the person out automatically.

2. The 2nd Network is for people who need to use computers for longer duration up to 1 hour or two hours at the most in one day unless there is no one else that wants to use the computer. You have to book a particular terminal in advance, but no one hogs the computers. A floor supervisor is present all the time to help and they have the administrative access and authority to bar any card from having the access if someone abuses. Such a scenario is EXTREMELY rare.

3. The third Network is for those who need to do extensive research or work/prepare research papers and they can use these terminals for one full day if they want (9 a.m. to 9 p.m.). These are also to be booked in advance.

The computer reservations at any branch of the library across the nation can be done online from any place in the nation at anytime, because the libraries are online 24/7. You can also search the available resources in the libraries and reserve them, extend the time on the book/materials you have borrowed (there is a limit of several days/weeks depending on the demand and availability of that particular book/CD/DVD etc) or have them transferred from any library in the country to a branch you want to use in or collect from and it is done in 3 to 10 days time (that is pretty good considering the fact that it is over three times the size of India in terms of geographic extent. It takes minimum 5 hours in a Jet plane to travel from the east to the west of Canada).

The library cards expire after two years unless it is renewed. It has a photo of the person in it and not transferable and you cannot use the card unless you have the pin for it. You can use the card and issue resources to yourself from the general sections (not reference materials) at a terminal similar to an ATM machine and walk out with it. If you try to take anything out of the building without issuing it on your card the alarm will ring at the check post situated several feet from the exit door; and the security guard who is posted between the check post and the exit door would not allow you to go until everything is checked with the librarian at the front desk (sometimes it could be a false alarm because the system failed to deactivate the barcode).

There are no commercial internet cafes in Canada, even visitors/tourists can get a temporary library card issued if they have proper documents but only with a citizen or a permanent resident of Canada co-signing the application form.

This kind of networks for free public access can be organized and established in India without the government having to spend much in cash (may be about 5 thousand rupees per house hold at the most) but in kind. We would require a team dedicated to garnering relevant resources – technical manpower, hardware, software, space, etc. free of cost from various stakeholders in various sectors – Business sector, Higher Education Sector, IT sector (various types of IT Companies including ISPs and Cable companies), Real Estate Builders/Promoters, etc. who can write their contribution off as donations for charitable/social development purposes in their tax returns (under the non-refundable tax credits).

Building a structure for housing such a social enterprise in each community can be easily accomplished FREE of COST with in-kind contribution from the local community members (from each house hold), local businesses of every size and local social organizations, and use government waste-lands or lands that were used as garbage dumps sites, or swamps etc.; which are in plenty in all our suburbs and villages if we only look for them. Indian Land & Revenue department has classified all land in very part of the nation and the info is available online for anyone.

So also various departments of Central and State governments can pitch in their little bits and they would all add up to be a VERY LARGE POOL of RESOURCES, provided the RESOURCE HARVESTING TEAM would be corruption proof and corruption free. The pool of resources so gathered would be so large that we would have a lot left over and would have to come up with new projects to use them.

I am not exaggerating, but professing this possibility, after having carefully evaluated for several years now, all resources in India that are not used, underused or wasted; and after having spent considerable amount of time researching on various Indian government programs and funds that are available and not used. Which could be tapped into by the RESOURCE HARVESTING TEAM and this dream and more can be made a reality immediately within THREE to FIVE years if we put together our heads and contribute our time and skills to do it.

Believe me there are plenty of every resource we would need for such a project in India. It is just that no one has done anything about it as yet. Similar efforts have been successfully established and been fruitful in India with respect to ‘Green Revolution’ pilot project in Punjab; RUSA project (Rural Unit for Health and Social Affairs) under the management of Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu and many more in small obscure places/communities in India; of which not too many Indians have knowledge about.

Sheena David

Update 1: This post has been edited with some changes as suggested by the author herself.

Update 2I have strongly encouraged the author to come on board since it is very rare that a motivated soul comes in to contribute ideas for national resurgence. It is very important to provide a platform for wider dissemination of ideas.

I strongly encourage readers to contribute for guest posts, if possible. Ideas need to be shared; your view point should start of a discussion on how best to achieve the elusive goal of “broadband for all”.

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I personally feel that something like a Nokia N900 with capacitative touch screen and all kinds of connectivity with Ubuntu hacked to work for “multi-touch” and tonnes of Debian based applications (as they already exist) plus a phone would be an ultimate smart phone below 10k. It doesn’t cost the dip shit assholes a dime and much of the pumped up price is for the branding; sellers rarely get a good decent margin on a “hot selling phone”.

With the imminent launch of 3G, the mobile applications would be set to grow. But who wants to tap in a ready market? Our country for all it’s crap IT prowess, doesn’t even figure on the app market scene because we as a market suck.

Lets hope for the best. Maybe someone would be wiser to adapt Ubuntu to smartphones.