I use Airtel Broadband personally and am satisfied with it. However, a friend from Bangalore is quite frustrated because they have banned IRC access around his area. Yeah, he has tried contacting the support people who admits that the IRC is blocked and worse, the customer care people have only this to say to the complaints…

If you are not happy, feel free to leave us…

This is an actual statement from the representatives of the Airtel Broadband Customer Support! Arrogance in Bangalore IT Scenario? Quite disgusting I would say…

Tags: Airtel, Airtel Broadband, Broadband, Customer Support, Telecommunications India

Dial-Up Users are the Biggest Sufferers in India

I am speaking on behalf of countless number of Internet users in the small towns of India. The people in the metros have enough to complain about the “broadband service providers” who do not deliver what has been paid upfront. Yet, a larger percentage belongs to the dial up subscribers who are often at the mercy of operators like BSNL.

I have been a subscriber of BSNL for as long as I can remember. The fact is that I never had any choice. Apart from high access charges (one of the highest in the world for dial up – Is TRAI listening?), the whole thing is bundled with lousy customer support. Admittedly, I have come far from the days when it took ages to connect on to the server wasting my calls in the process. Those days I had to use my connection like a sucker because I was afraid of having huge telephone bills. Repeated complaints to the “customer care centre” brought about no resolution and it was frustrating enough to bear the insults of some dead wit moron sitting at the other end.

Things changed slightly for the better when they introduced a telephone line for exclusive Internet usage. I jumped up on the same. The initial charges for my city were Rs.399/- per month. After about 2 months, they increased to Rs.499/- per month. When I enquired about the price increase in the commercial office, the clerk (one of the damned ubiquitous species in government offices) spoke as a matter of fact. He said that the corporation reserves the right to increase prices at its own whims and fancies. Later on, I realized that it has to do something with the number of exchange lines in the city. Yet, it remains by and large very expensive to surf, especially when I need to buy separate Internet packages.

The default Internet package comes with a measly 5 MB in box. Well, since it gives POP3 support, I really do not need the same. There is no provision to increase the in box space or choose any different aliases. For that, one has to depend on the web based email service providers. This in effect defeats the very purpose of a dial up based Internet, as it remains prohibitively expensive to surf or look up information.

Currently, there is no mechanism to ensure security in the service. Anyone can use any other subscriber’s details, which include user name and password. Unlike VSNL, which in its rare far sightedness, introduced crackblok security, which restricts the access number from a particular phone line, such facility is not available with BSNL.

Security is a major lacuna with BSNL.

Spam filtering at the server level is next to nil. In fact, I have been receiving much spam of late. I brought this to the notice of node in charge. His reply was simple. He said that in case I get spam, the best way to deal with it is to delete it. Ignorance is bliss in this country. Why do these ISP’s never ever bother to look in the genuine complaints of the subscribers and have some knowledgeable people hired; instead of poor vegetables?

In my city, a majority of subscribers had to surf on the normal telephone lines. This meant that for long we had to wait endlessly to either connect or buy Internet hourly packages. At times, the desired package was never in the stock and customers were forced to upgrade to expensive hourly packages. The unlimited dial up package was available for a whopping Rs.9000/-(it is still) and valid only for 6 months. Now for that kind of money I can buy a small telephone exchange for myself!

The user experience has been pathetic. There can never be a “Dial Up Blog” for BSNL because; much of the world has gone ahead in terms of broadband, or whatever “faster than dial up” version of access is. Still, I feel extremely frustrated that I am stuck up in a time warp, much because I am forced to deal with thoroughly incompetent idiots.

Ever since BSNL introduced Net-One in my city, there have been a large number of subscribers without having increase in the bandwidth. As a result the speeds tend to crawl down to a drag by midday and tend to improve marginally only during the night. There has been no resolution of the same despite my insistence that available bandwidth is not sufficient to handle the customers. The reason is that early mornings, the web access is decent enough. The response of the “engineer” was that they have mailed to the higher ups and it is a matter of time that action would be taken. Yes Sir, do you expect the bandwidth to fall from the sky? Why is that these people are so callous to do their duties? Why is that a higher up takes forever and ever to take a decision? You have to see them going on a strike in a flash when their demands are unmet. Well, that is another matter though. Yet, when it comes to delivery of services, most of them are comatose with no sense of duty towards their profession.

Realizing this early on, I was extremely happy to hear that VSNL had put up shop there. Since my number was restricted to 172xxx, I was surprised that VSNL was barred from my telephone. Howsoever I tried to contact VSNL customer Care, it was a frustrating response. I had to depend on HFCL Connect to provide me service in my area. Strange ways these people work out. Despite an assured customer, they refused to entertain any queries on my behalf. More on that later though.

Even if I want to complain to the “engineers” about the slow dial up speed, I cannot. Either their complaint number goes unanswered or the person at the other end cannot offer more than anything apart from assurances. Calling up the toll free number would only lead to more frustration since most of the complaints get resolved only on the working days. God forbid if the employees go on a flash strike. It is a possibility that cannot be ignored.

Given my own “proactive” approach, I complained to the top heads of BSNL. No one bothered to reply or at times the mail simply bounced back.

This is the state of affairs in the IT nation of the world where gross idiocies coexist with small islands of excellence. There have been enough problems with the telephone line too. Running after the lineman who would make himself scarce gave me enough insight in the working of this organization. There could be reason enough to sue the company for not providing adequate services, though I believe that this would have been a weak case. As far as I know, the company is responsible for providing connectivity. Quality of services be damned. The Internet is working as of now and this is what they wish to hear. Nothing more than that. So much for the user experiences.

In this backdrop, there is no way we as consumers could make our voice heard. It is a sad reflection of the time gone by when telephone was given out as a dole. Indian telecom revolution may be happening. Whatever the media might report the increase in numbers (which is a suspect anyway); those idiots fail to realize that quality of services has gone from bad to worse. Maybe I belong to “power users” who wish to have the services as I paid out for given to realization that my genuine complaints would be looked into. As someone said so recently, why do you complain so much Abhishek? This is India stupid.

Discuss on: Sify Broadband, Tata Indicom, Airtel Broadband, Reliance Broadband, MTNL – BSNL Broadband, Dial Up, Others

This post was submitted by Dr. Abhishek Puri on the Broadband Blog on Techwhack.

Tags: Airtel, Airtel Broadband, Broadband, BSNL, BSNL Broadband, Customer Support, DTH, EDGE, Idiots, India, Internet, ISP's, Media, MTNL, Opera, Reliance, Reliance Broadband, spam, Tata, Tata Indicom, Telecommunications India, Telecommunications India, TRAI, VSNL

Tata and the Missed Opportunity

Tata are one of the oldest business houses in this country. As the ad line went, “We Also Make Steel” encapsulated what Tata’s stood for. Hence, it gave them unparalleled advantage as far as brand name recall is concerned. Tata’s acquired Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL). Their foray in the GSM business was partnership with other operators branded as Idea Cellular. Tata is using its own brand name to market CDMA based telephones.

After acquiring VSNL way beyond its market price, some people had expressed surprise over the excess valuation done. I felt long time back that it was a prize catch. The main reason was that VSNL had painstakingly created infrastructure, which Tata’s did not have to do. Then came the acquisition of Tyco which again was a sick unit picked for a song. How they planned to leverage the same was a mystery to all. It soon became clear after they acquired Dishnet DSL and marketed the same as VSNL Broadband. It gave me some reason to cheer that broadband OPPORTUNITY may soon be knocking at my doorstep. Arguably, Tata has replicated the same model of business as Reliance did. From international gateways to bandwidth and bringing it on to the end user premises. It could be a perfect recipe for success, until Tata spoilt their own broth.

For long, they chose to concentrate in a few southern states. As the other players spread far and wide, Tata’s were surprisingly sleeping over the same. They would claim that they were in the process of consolidation. I doubt whether funds were a problem. Given Tata’s size, it could easily muster the resources it needed for expansion. It chose to sit back and wait.

Finally, it did launch in other circles at a breakneck speed. In the meantime, frustrated consumers started complaining about the lousy services. Or the lack of customer support which failed to resolve the complaints on a timely basis. Dishnet soon screwed up its market and brand name that it had created from a scratch. As I had mentioned earlier, Tata’s chose to rely on the existing infrastructure instead of creating their own. This could be interpreted as either sensible or foolishness.

Admittedly, Tata’s have chosen to concentrate mainly in the urban areas. It goes beyond reason to sniff around in the saturated markets. In any case, according to feedback I got in my city, they have not really been up to the mark. Of course, freebies like Internet or free phone for the first 3 months have not really enthused many subscribers. The only positive factor I see is the per second pulse. This means that usage can be tracked easily.

Internet remains a major problem with most of the operators. Tata’s have missed out the bus on that too. Perhaps they are still suffering from the hangover of acquiring VSNL as their subsidiary. What they got in addition to infrastructure was massive sloth and typical bureaucratic delays. My earlier post on the same amplifies the same. However, I fail to understand the logic behind having Saurav Ganguly as their mascot. How would he be able to sell the products given his own limited appeal? Another instance of lousy effort in marketing.

The only way to shake up the moribund state of affairs is getting aggressive on Data. For example, if it could offer unlimited Internet through its dial up mode. It could collaborate with BSNL to offer its broadband offering using BSNL’s local loop. I am not aware of what goes on in the background, yet given the size of Tata’s they could achieve that.

They ought not repeat the mistakes that they are doing in the mobile telephony segment. Namely fishing in saturated markets. It is absolutely asinine to try and lure away customers from established operators. This is because they do not have any real differentiator in services. The only hope for them is to tap the lucrative corporate market, but given the aggressiveness of Reliance in the same segment, it seems unlikely that they would be able to manage to do take a sizeable share. Plus, of course, a big question mark over their own network!

The best option seems to be capturing the market share in Dial up Internet especially in the small cities. One main reason why it could be winner there is that it owns its own gateways, thanks to VSNL acquisition. Yet seeing their efforts and halfhearted attempts to make any headway, it is like shooting their own foot. As I mentioned, it is the same hangover that refuses to change.

There have been enough snide remarks over their capabilities. Some said that they are best in making salt and they ought to stick on to that. My word of advice to the highly paid morons sitting high up. Until the time you are a volume player, any attempt to narrow your product offerings is suicidal. The same comparison can be drawn from the fast moving consumer goods. Hindustan Lever is having unparalleled reach thanks to its massive grass roots distribution and product offerings in almost every segment of the paying capacity of its patrons. “We Also Make Steel” should now be replaced by “We Also Make our Customers Happy”!

Discuss on: Sify Broadband, Tata Indicom, Airtel Broadband, Reliance Broadband, MTNL – BSNL Broadband, Dial Up, Others

This post was submitted by Dr. Abhishek Puri on the Broadband Blog on Techwhack.

Tags: Airtel, Airtel Broadband, Appeal, Broadband, BSNL, BSNL Broadband, CDMA, Customer Support, delays, DTH, GSM, Idea Cellular, India, Internet, Mobile, MTNL, Opera, Reliance, Reliance Broadband, Tata, Tata Indicom, Telecommunications India, VSNL