After Bharti, MTN chose to court Reliance. It sounds like a whorehouse. MTN is playing the perfect mistress to the hilt and has no compunctions to court customers; all in order to increase it’s share valuation. Reliance is eager to get a hold of their booty because it realises what Airtel doesn’t. It can easily scale up it’s investments in other parts of the world, negotiate for better prices of it’s equipment and telecom gear and leverage it’s investments in entertainment by offering value added services.

Anil Ambani’s fascination seems to have stemmed in from watching too many movies (1,2) and his scaling up his investments in Hollywood as well as his maiden venture Big Flix Spearheading these investments is Amit Khanna who is a failed producer of Hindi movies.

Entertainment in Indian terms is very coarse to define. Indian laws are “strict” as far as the western counterparts are concerned and what passes through the censor’s scissors is defended in terms of artistic freedom. It’s futile to comment on the various crop of heriones who serve as a fodder for casting couches but this association of money and glamour has been significant. Anil Ambani is trying to marry the two different worlds of films and telecom; hoping that it would click. He bought a chain of theatres to justify his expansion in US and hoping to fructify his couple of millions in Hollywood.

All in all his efforts to bring forth the broadband revolution have come to a naught. Long time back, I could starry eyed kids jamming on the country wide LAN and getting to play the first person shooter games. It was an idea that was well ahead of it’s time and it’s been ages literally that I have visited a Reliance Web World myself. Have they been given a decent burial? I have no clue. But Anil Ambani is very keen to scale up his investments in portals like Zapak. Not only it has a weird sounding name, it has full scale coding errors. Big Flix suffers from patchy server connectivity and it’s easier to log on to You Tube and watch a movie than suffer endlessly on Big Flix and expecting it to load up.

Movie rentals are yet untested success formula and I’d be happy to visit the neighbourhood shop owner who gives me a better service than a nameless dude giving me a DVD. If Anil Ambani really wants to make it big, he should explore the Broadband route and serve the movies from a decentralised server; single server costs would skyrocket once the service catches on. He should ensure minimum downtime and always on connectivity in excess of 5 Mbps. This is a tall order indeed and needs huge investments. Although, the returns would be manifold.

He is on the cusp of launching his DTH platform (one of his significant investments) called as BIG TV and hopes to catch up with the existing players. I don’t endorse his investments as yet; atleast not in the TV and Media (BIG FM for radio).

Can you see a pattern? He’s aiming for a cyber presence and across the cross spectrum of media. As and when private FM channels are allowed to transmit news (which would be a sad day indeed), BIG FM, BIG TV, BIG Flix et al would be at the forefront with perhaps “BIG Paper”‘ too.

If you click on the links to You Tube, you’d find his reason to marry the actress too. Sadly, she doesnt inspire him much for broadband though.

Tags: Airtel, Anil Ambani, Broadband, DTH, DVD, India, Media, Reliance, Reliance India, Spectrum, Telecommunications India, Value Added Services

Tata Broadband has been taking it’s customers for a ride. Their customer care is pathetic and it’s difficult to make them act on your complaints. I write in about a person’s story who has been fighting the company since Feb 2006, all for 17 months! So far, there has been no response to the person’s emails / couriers to the company’s CMD and from TRAI who is supposed to be the “caretaker” of the customer’s interests.

He explored the matter and raised the issue on Broadband Forum He tried to raise the issue at mouthshut.com which claims to be a “neutral” website for consumer reviews. However, his posts were manipulated and deleted by the people behind the website.

This by itself is a matter of grave concern. None from the company responded to the customer’s plight despite the various deadlines. They ignored him like they do to thousands others. What I didn’t realise is that most of the ISP’s donot have toll free numbers which makes it very expensive for the customer to call in and lodge their complaints.

TRAI is supposed to act as a regulator but is more like a emasculated paper tiger. None of the ISP’s seem to care two hoots for the “regulator” because on it’s own it cannot act. Even though there are legal safeguards for the customers, they are not enforced. This only has emboldened the companies to act against the same customers without giving them the services promised for.

This customer in question has been made to suffer downtimes and deficiency in service. In effect, this is clear breach of the service agreement with the customer to provide him a decent service. I understand that the company responded to customer via it’s communication arm where in they just sought to wash off their hands of the matter claiming that the downtime is beyond their control.

Tata Broadband (and erstwhile VSNL) has been stuck up in a time warp. I understand that a mainstream media channel is interested in the story and might be airing this segment in October. I would appeal to all to list their problems with their ISP’s (and Tata in particular) for possible resolution. If this gets aired in media without Tata’s response it would be a major embarrasment for them.

For very obvious reasons, I have obscured the details here. Follow the story in the forums or here and watch it unfold!

I am copying and pasting the details as on the forum for your perusal.

MouthShut tried to take the following text off their website 7 times… I am back [yet again] because many of you did read it (550+ individuals) and many did like it because it was very helpful to them! very helpful to them!

I simply ask: Why should you all not know the truth?

In my fight with the ISP — VSNL/ TATA-indicom — I have escalated my issue(s) to the highest level now and look forward to an excellent cooperation from the media to help fight the cause for us consumers.

I have been the ISPs customer since February 15th, 2006. The following is a listing of the continuing faults, i.e. my allegations:

1. Constant breaks in service, i.e. connectivity.*
=> The line is down 10-30% of the time every month… it has been even up to 80% at times.
2. Constant fluctuation in bandwidth (down- & upload speeds).
=> I bought and pay in full for 256 kbps (256 kbps Infinity Post Paid) but only get 201 kbps (download) and 160 kbps (upload) speeds!
3. Low speeds that range from 10-100 kbps (kilobit per second) occur often.
=> Connections like this make browsing next to impossible… this happens often and is not called a break in service!
4. No credits for short and also prolonged lapses in service.
=> Despite all the breaks in service, drops in speed, lacking bandwidth, very little or no credits are given.
5. Incorrect and unprofessional billing.
=> If you get 6 different versions of printed bills with next to no credits for proven downtimes OR lapses in service, you can call it a fraud!
6. Long wait times to register complaints.
=> Wait times on a non toll-free number can be up to 12 minutes.
7. No toll-free number to register complaints at VSNL cost.
=> All calls are made at the consumers cost – and these amount to many calls a month!
8. Non-functional (also slow) web mail services.
=> The VSNL webmail services are a catastrophe!
9. Incapability to correct my address.
=> After over 17 months and 5 reminders there are still mistakes in the address!
10. The ISP is interrupting my business and hence influencing my life’s quality!
=> It is obvious that someone who is so dependant upon a functional and fast internet cannot do his work under the circumstances!

Some facts for you:
- I have been a VSNL/ TATA-indicom customer since February 2006.
- I have lodged 85+ official complaints (with unique complaint numbers!).
- I have sent them 50+ eMails, reprimanding them.
- I have been forced to spend more than 2,100 minutes on the phone with them.
- I have billed them for Rs 1.5+ lacs in expenses/ cost to me (increasing by the day!).
- I have written to the VSNL CMD, Mr. Subodh Bhargava (5+ times).
- I have written to the TRAI Chairman, Mr. Nripendra Misra (once!).
- I have involved CNN-IBN to fight for me/ us.*
- I have filed an RTI application with the TRAI RTI Officer Mr. Jiwan Dass (once!).
- CNN-IBN has now handed in a DVD to VSNL with the allegations.*

The contact details (in case you have a grouse against your ISP, specifically TATA, is as following”

Mr. Subodh Bhargava
CMD
VSNL – Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (TATA-indicom)
Bangla Sahib Marg
New Delhi – 110 001
Delhi
Home Phone: +91-124-5063146
eMail: [email protected]

Mr. R. K. Khushu
PA to CMD
VSNL – Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (TATA-indicom)
Bangla Sahib Marg
New Delhi – 110 001
Delhi
Office Phone: +91-11-23747319
eMail: [email protected]

Ms. Mamta Jain
Customer Assurance Head
VSNL HQ – Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (TATA-indicom)
M. G. Road, Fort
Mumbai – 400 001
Maharashtra
Office Phone: +91-22-66101240
eMail: [email protected]

Mr. Nripendra Misra
Chairman
TRAI – Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
Mahanagar Doorsanchar Bhawan
Jawaharlal Nehru Marg (Old Minto Road)
New Delhi – 110 002
Delhi
Office Phone #1: +91-11-23211236
Office Phone #2: +91-11-23213409
eMail #1: [email protected]
eMail #2: [email protected]

Mr. Jiwan Dass
RTI Officer/ Chief Public Information Officer
TRAI – Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
Mahanagar Doorsanchar Bhawan
Jawaharlal Nehru Marg (Old Minto Road)
New Delhi – 110 002
Delhi
Office Phone: +91-11-23211622
eMail: [email protected]

Hope this gets carried out to it’s logical conclusion.

Take your own battle to them and copy me on your correspondence(s) if you like. Don’t forget: if you release the pressure on the ISP (Internet Service Provider) nothing will [ever] change.

Tags: Appeal, author, Broadband, CNN, DTH, DVD, fraud, India, Internet, ISP's, mainstream media, Media, Opera, Tata, Telecommunications India, TRAI, VSNL

Finally,another link from Rajesh Jain- on mobile TV.

This echoes my own thoughts as to what I have mentioned in the earlier posts (1,2,3)

Tech Review writes:

Though mobile TV does, for the moment, suffer from technical limitations such as long buffering times and choppy streams, Sprint, Verizon, and Cingular have determined that the medium is now good enough to begin earning money for carriers. Most basic services — which offer channels such as ABC News or E! — cost roughly $10 to $15 per month, with pay-per-view clips sold for up to $4 and à la carte channels for upwards of $4 each.

This is expensive by Indian standards.

A powerful enough reason why Mobile TV isn’t “happening”.

And the carriers are right. Mobile TV is exciting. But for me, the daily thrill of playing around with phones that serve as teeny TVs began to fade just around the moment I crossed the threshold to my apartment after work. That’s because at home, I have absolute control over what I see and how I see it. I have a Hewlett-Packard Media Center PC, a buggy but powerful machine that, in addition to serving as an ordinary computer, utterly blurs the distinction between streaming Web video and broadcast television. It allows me to watch, record, and organize video content from any source — the Web, broadcast TV, or DVDs. And because I also use the Windows Media Center Extender, I can have all that content streamed directly to my television.

Plus, the biggest disadvantge is that the mobile phone companies would dictate the programmes that you can watch.

Still, it’s too early to say as to how things would shape up.

Tags: Broadband, DVD, India, Media, Mobile, Telecommunications India, Windows