I have received the copy of the reply from local office of BSNL. I shall be taking the picture of relevant pages and uploading it soon; it of course depends on my convenience.

Needless to say, it is highly inadequate. I have the right to appeal; but dragging them to Information Commission straight away is not possible. It does not discourage me, to be honest because I had expected this stone walling.

I am taking a legal opinion on this and would update this space soon. I don’t have an access to a scanner; so I would have to snap it up, convert it to a PDF and then upload it somewhere and embed it. Or perhaps directly from image uploading site.

Truly, their attitude sucks. I really don’t know what have they done to deserve my hard earned money to support them.

I had applied for information under RTI act on wide ranging issues. Since I have nothing to do with the wireless version, therefore, none has been sought. I have deposited the requisite fees (the information runs over 21 pages!) and waiting for them to post the whole thing to me.

I wanted to inspect the documents first; however, it would have meant extra paper work and going to their office; I decided against it. All I need is the reply from their office and I shall update it over a period of time here. In case there is any inconsistency, I have the right to appeal and approach the state information commission.

The big issue here is that it does not constitute ways and means to force them to change their policies; it cannot be done specially when they are going to argue that 256 kbps “unlimited” is dirt cheap per month. The bigger issue is whether 2 Mbps can be made the norm or not.

TRAI has refused steadfastly as far as the definition of broadband is concerned. They haven’t given me any “extra information” on that count. They have also not mentioned as to who has defined the broadband. They took the cover of contestable ITU definition that is as vague as it can be. I am sure that BSNL would duck under cover of “regulator” knows it all. Hence, we are back to square one.

Who decides then that 2 Mbps should be bare minimum? I think that RTI should provide us some answers regarding the pricing details and their sources. It’s a long drawn process and companies don’t want to act because it would spoil their status quo. TRAI’s officials are looking at post retirement lucrative options to join a fancy board of some telecom company. It is easier to feed fat a bastard than to service the mass of customers. We all know the story, isn’t it? Specially when Pradeep Baijal was hauled up by the investigative agencies. Backroom manipulations ensured that there was not much drama made out of the “news”. No one knows who Baijal is and frankly no one cares.

It’s a messy country.

Lets wait for their answers to come. The application submitted in their ‘dak section’ would take at least 1 day to wind it’s way towards the orders; the file containing the reply would take another 2-3 days to be dispatched and thereafter it is at the mercy of Department of Posts to deliver it to my premises. Do you know that a speed post (courier) takes 5 days to be delivered WITHIN the same city? Specially when I stay just 3 kms from the exchange and the head post office?

Deva re deva!

I decided to stick around after lunch time today to file in the application. It is a simple process. One has to purchase a postal order (from any post office in the country), attach it to the application after filling in the details on postal order (for 10 bucks) and you are good to go.

Submit it to the PIO and wait for the answer from them. I wonder what has been the reaction from their office after getting a detailed questionnaire. Lets wait for the answers (next year).

I am keeping my fingers crossed. My contention is that you make the top incumbent come clean on the prices which would help you to negotiate the prices with say Airtel. At least I would have a broad idea as to how the revenues are split, what are the issues that need to be sorted out and confront TRAI with the same to issue policy decisions (perhaps Department of Telecom too).

I think, all it needs is a simple will to do something instead of getting mired in the red tapism. I have already written to the DoT Secretary (R Chandrashekhar) but he has not replied so far. I am not even sure whether the email has landed in his inbox.

Some time later next year, if everything goes well, I might plan to meet him in person.

The idea is to get broadband liberated; so that at least I get the best value for my money. I’d rather have a functional DSL first for starters; fiber can wait for some time.

I was also surprised to see BSNL’s equivalent IPTV packages in their customer care. I am not sure how this would work out or what is the customer review. Although it is a good option for time shift TV but with bundled speeds of 256kbps, I am not eager to join them. With customer resolution at local BSNL exchange, I am not keen to run around to get my service fixed in case of any “issues”.

Lets keep our fingers crossed.