Opera Mini

http://imgur.com/PZwCF

If you look carefully, bulk of the developing and the underdeveloped countries utilize the mobile web to access social networking sites. US (and some other developed economies) are lower down the scale.

Interestingly, the data transferred per user is a pathetic 7 MB (averaged over the month perhaps?) which means that operators are still being generous with their limits. However,  this is a crude approximation. For once, we have a clear proof that mobile internet is definitely a part of their value added services kitty but is NOT the revenue driver for them. They are offering it because there is no alternative.

This also explains their aggressive stance to get the 3G spectrum; primarily to add more voice customers than to offer data services.

If you look at the snapshot of the popular phones, Nokia is still leading the pack but majority of them are NOT smartphones. These java based handsets are pathetic in terms of functionality and at best useful for “checking the status updates” on Facebook.

A surprise entry is that of “Micromax” handset; they have capitalized on aggressive marketing and low price entry point.

Unfortunately, this does not portend good for the broadband initiatives. A cursory glance at the top sites (Google leads the pack) is only indicative. Google has benefited from being the default search engine on the browser and hence the port of call for any search. I barely use my handset for GPRS (or EDGE) for web surfing because smartphones (and their form factor) is basically useless to transact anything useful. For me, the only reason to invest is for email.

Nevertheless, this report can again be questioned in terms of “growth of users”. It is not clear about how the methodology has been arrived at and what has constituted the “growth in real terms”. However, one thing is clear. Most of the web sites focused on Indian content don’t have mobile strategies to counter the growth in the user base. Pathetic.

Indeed, with majority of the young adults unable to read/write or even engage in meaningful conversations on Indian polity, this “dumbification” was expected.

Facebook, although shows some presence (in terms of mobile access), mobile broadband is still “not hot” in US of A. There could be myriad factors but then Opera’s state of web access is best a “snapshot” of the handsets and it’s deal with the OEM‘s to bundle the product.

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• Mobile Web Content in East Africa [Report] (whiteafrican.com)
• Mobile Web in India grows 308% – Micromax one of the most popular mobiles to access Internet (trak.in)
• Opera to supply its mobile browser solution to Spreadtrum (opera.com)
• Book Review: Professional Mobile Web Development (books.slashdot.org)
• Web App Masters: Native or Web-Based Mobile Apps? (lukew.com)
• Maxis customers to surf the Internet up to six times faster with the Maxis-Opera Mini browser (opera.com)
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• More Features in Google Maps for Mobile Browsers (mt-soft.com.ar)
• Google revamps Google Maps browser edition for iOS and Android (mobile-ent.biz)
• Saatchi mobile marketer: Mobile web is better value than apps (briefingmedia.wordpress.com)
• State of the Mobile Web (francescofederico.net)
• Why I’m Not Excited About Mobile Applications (samirbalwani.com)
• 58% Of Mobile Web Users Get Their Content Fix Through Browsers: Jumptap (techcrunch.com)
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Image via CrunchBase

how would it be disruptive for the traditional cellular carriers.

A lot has been written skype’s acquistion (please see the related links below). Some people feel that it’s going to be good for the enterprise market, some feel that it is a useless deal with Microsoft bleeding millions of dollars everyday and a questionable “internet policy”. Perhaps all these rationales look at the whole question piecemeal. But no one has the complete answer.

I have been interested in the VoIP market for long. I have written about it earlier extensively (here, here, here) in the past. Yet, Skype’s acquisition takes the cake.

Image via Wikipedia

In an earlier post, I mentioned:

Image via CrunchBase

TRAI called for implementation of Internet Telephony and Carrier Access Codes.

This was mandated much earlier way back in 2001; however, this was opposed by Bharti. Reliance had entered with the premise of “death of distance” and had made STD calls ridiculously cheap….. If Internet telephony is implemented in it’s present shape, it would

see present rates crashing down to a large extent.

Image via Wikipedia

It would give a new lease of life to ISP’s like Sify and other fringe lunatics to scale up investments. I can foresee the entry of players like Skype as well as other SIP players which rely on open standards. It’s hard not to imagine the real gains to economy as a whole and it would benefit the adoption of setting up of WiFi hotspots on a larger scale.

In another blog post, I had written:

Govind says that Wifi can be used to carry calls which works out to be cheaper. Of course, I have explored these options way back earlier on; the current “competitive” scenario has resulted only in oligopolies and each new talk plan is basically a rehash of the others. Without disclosing upfront about the estimated monthly outgo, TRAI okays each plan without taking the consumer’s advantage in question. As a result we are fleeced to no extent. I really doubt whether WiFi can be used to carry out the calls-the investments are way too huge to justify parallel (and cheaper ) networks. Where would Bharti get it’s crores from?

Assuming that wifi becomes available all around, what is the guarantee that telcos won’t use all means to block the calls via Skype or any other internet phone? High usage charges would spike any consumer interest because in all probability it would be a “value added service” which by it’s own argument, can be priced higher. Unless of course, people set up their own small WiFi networks. A long shot indeed.

And in the winning entry for “Big Ideas Contest”, Skype (or Internet Telephony) was mentioned in passing; actually leveraging the low cost of routing international calls and passing on the advantage to the customers.

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).

I don’t have any love lost for Microsoft; but as any corporation, it does what it has to do to survive. It’s a jungle out there and only the best survive by breaking through the clutter. There can be no easy answers to certain “defining moments”; we must wait for the answers to reveal themselves. The point here is that I have remained consistent in my assertions over the years and have called for opening up the standards instead.

Let’s look at what New York Times article has to say.

Image via Wikipedia

The telecommunications industry is already in a state of flux as more people disconnect their home telephone lines in favor of cellphones. Now the wireless carriers are looking for new ways to make money based on mobile broadband and applications, rather than voice minutes. “Eventually, everything migrates to a data channel,” said Brian Higgins, an executive at Verizon Wireless who is developing products and services for the company’s high-speed 4G network. “We’re moving away from silos of communication to one where everything is combined together.”

This assertion is not valid but rather a corporate spin and gibberish. The reason is that landlines offer higher rate of data transfer and wireless networks can easily get choked. Similarly for 3G networks being pandered about in India; main reason is to offer better voice minutes than spur on the data usage. Had there been any commitment for the same, the market would have reacted in a “bloodbath” to drop the rates and make it better to access the services.

Howsoever clueless these people are, data is definitely not on their minds. Hence, the question of “communication silos” does not arise at all.

But the Skype deal also signifies a larger interest in next-generation communications services. It is not just Skype that the wireless companies need to worry about. A bevy of mobile messaging applications, including WhatsApp, Kik, GroupMe and textPlus, allow people to send messages over data networks, sidestepping the cost of sending and receiving standard text messages.

Carriers already must deal with many new competitors in the communications game. Name companies like Apple, Facebook and Google are making services available that traditionally only carriers could offer. Google, like Skype, offers ways to make free phone and video calls over the Internet. Apple lets iPhone owners make video calls.

The ultimate risk for the carriers, analysts say, is becoming “dumb pipes,” providing only the data connection and not selling any more sophisticated communications services themselves.

Agreed on this count. The newer generation services mentioned here are really disruptive. However, they have not achieved a critical scale; not to the level that carriers start blocking them actively violating “net-neutrality”.

So how would the companies react to such developments? Possibly by lowering expectations of supra-massive profits at our expense and by “signing up deals”. Although Value Added Services (VAS) remains a viable channel, I still have to see any “developments” in that; it remains a subject of a future post.

Carriers have responded to the shift toward digital communication differently. Some seek to leverage the new wave of services to differentiate themselves and gain an edge over competitors. Sprint, for example, recently united with Google to let its customers link their Sprint phone numbers to Google Voice, a service that rings all of a person’s phones and even Gmail when someone calls that person’s number.

However, these efforts are half hearted approaches to the present dispensation. Skype is important, yes, in the VOIP Space. With the development of GNU Public Telephony project on fast track, I am sure something would definitely strike in for alternative access opportunities like SIP phones coming in the mainstream.

I remain positive for a Vonage like service over landlines and I strongly back that company (please, it’s not an endorsement). For a fixed amount, it’s possible to call in major countries and is totally “place agnostic”. I can make unlimited international calls all across for a fixed monthly fees. Thats the real power of broadband for communication. Wireless is not cool because of it’s inherent limitations and POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) is STILL the best bet.

Image via Wikipedia

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• What Will Be The Skype Effect On Telco’s? (viralblog.com)
• Microsoft and Skype: Steve Ballmer as George Steinbrenner (smartblogs.com)
• Why Microsoft’s Buyout of Skype Changes the Mobile Game (atomicpoet.wordpress.com)
• Microsoft’s Skype Deal Offers Huge Benefits, Risks (microsoft-watch.com)
• Microsoft to acquire Skype, Windows Phone integration incoming (dialtosave.co.uk)
• How the Skype Deal Can Pay Off for Microsoft (datacenterknowledge.com)
• Microsoft Acquires Skype- $8.5 Billion (ramanan50.wordpress.com)
• Microsoft Buys Skype for $8.5 Billion. Why, Exactly? (wired.com)
• VoIP Provider EUC Services Launches JiffyCall, an Online Pinless Dialing Service for Cheap International VoIP Calling (prweb.com)
• Microsoft’s Skype Deal Means Monetizing (microsoft-watch.com)
• Microsoft Unlikely to Boost Rates on Skype’s Premium Service (dailyfinance.com)
• Guide To Installing Skype On Fedora (brighthub.com)
• Skype: from start-up to $8.5bn sale (guardian.co.uk)
• Microsoft buys Skype for $8.5bn in its biggest purchase and gamble yet (guardian.co.uk)
• How One Swedish Startup Was Almost Acquired By Skype, Pre-Microsoft Deal (techcrunch.com)
• UAE’s du to offer VoIP this year; Skype still banned/blocked (skypejournal.com)

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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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I usually refrain from making any political posts here because this is not the right platform. However, I do assume that readers have some basic iota of knowledge about polity and make genuine efforts to seek out information. Admittedly, the blog roll has been trimmed down over the past few months but is an enough indication to seek news from alternative sources. Hence, I also rely heavily on different opinions to balance out the events as they unfold or else the media, in cahoots with the powers, is able to pull wool over the eyes.

As I have mentioned earlier, one of the major limitations of blogs is it’s discovery of content. Unless, it is spread far and wide, it would remain hidden. A vast legion and an army of morons descends on Twitter and Facebook which makes an engaging discussion, nearly impossible. I do miss the earlier interaction with like minded folks on the forums but right now it is swamped with idiots; the same ones who shouldn’t have populated the earth in the first place.

Nevertheless, first the 2G scam. It was actually “unleashed” by Congress as a careful calculated move to deflect attention from Commonwealth Games fiasco and overt attention from Gandhis who have actually benefitted from the windfall. It is not possible to point in the exact figure but we can be assured that it is a tidy sum stashed away in havens and far from the public scrutiny. Another calculated move was to discredit the ruling DMK regime and force them on the backfoot for poll understandings and fine tune CBI to extract maximum political mileage. When it was clear that this has not ensured the required “effect” i.e. people rising in revolt, Raja was held and packed away to Tihar Jail.

Although, it sounds like a conspiracy theory, any political observer worth his/her salt would not deny the way events unfolded. In a place like Tamil Nadu, where Congress by itself would not have been able to make any dent (given it’s near absence and lack of charisma in Southern States), DMK is still the best bet. So after wresting the key seat sharing agreement, DMK and Congress are still in the alliance and would face the electorate together. It’s surprising, that despite the “North Indian’s face” in North, it is aligning itself with a party that has steadfastly kept “anti north indian” stance. In short, regional chauvinism reigns surpreme and no one questions them.

This was later followed by a stalled parliament with a constitution of a PAC and a JPC; statuatory bodies under Parliament of India which is oddly making some news off and on and was agreed to after supposedly considerable lobbying efforts by the opposition. It’s wisdom may well be questioned; as far as I am aware of, it is a fact finding mission but does not prosecute. This again has ensured that public attention is deflected away from the massive commonwealth games fiasco; there is no iota of doubt that Kalmadi and his team are mere fronts for people in power to siphon off public money.

Now comes the “lokpal bill” and the balding gandhian asshole called as Hazare. The timing of his plank as “anti-corruption” is a huge suspect. But first, a reality check on the lokpal bill or what has been offered to the Government:

Jan Lokpal Bill is open ended and confers unlimited powers. So it goes without saying that selecting the Lok Pal Members is the single most important task.  There are no checks and balances at all in the bill that would make it idiot member proof.   In other words, if the mainstream institutions have been compromised, there is NOTHING in the bill that would prevent the Lokpal from being compromised too.  It gets worse because of two reasons.

1. The mainstream institutions (CVC, CBI, CAG, etc) can be turned around by people power every 5 years. That it doesnt seem to happen is due to there not being enough free agent voters in the system.  We can hope for a 20-25% increase in free agent voters which will straighten these institutions in short time.
2. A compromised Lokpal will wreak havoc and lay to waste the other institutions. There is no chance of getting them voted out.

The timing is circumspect.

Sandhya Jain hits the nail right on the head: (emphasis mine throughout).

Anna Hazare’s so-called fast-unto-death is questionable for its anti-democratic disdain for elected government and people’s representatives. The timing is equally suspect – right after the adjournment of Parliament after passing the Union Budget. It may be recalled that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was forced to gift Rs. 40,000/- crores to the leaky MREGA project favoured by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her unelected friends in the National Advisory Council; his attempts to curtail this hole in the exchequer enraged her.

As if on cue, Hazare, NAC cronies, Rockefeller Foundation-funded Magsaysay Award winners, and other usual suspects, ganged up against the besieged prime minister…..If laws are to be adopted and enacted in this manner, do we need either government or Parliament?

My point is that he is instigating the middle class intelligentsia that comes to hear him at Jantar Mantar – and neither he nor any of his allies is a grassroots mass leader ……..he moots an unelected oligarchy. This does not bode well for the nation or the society.

Sandhya Jain goes on to write:
…..the idea that Magsaysay Award-winning Indians should figure in the Lokpal selection panel. This stinks of an American hand….. we shall never know what kind of private networking could take place in government and bureaucracy via its favoured persons, to further Rockefeller interests.

India’s high profile elites derive status from the international NGO cocktail circuit. Their insatiable quest for funds and glory makes them adopt ideas and concepts without examining their validity in an Indian context. As they are very conscious of their elite status, they have unacceptable contempt for the people and their elected representatives.

We cannot endorse these non-accountable and glittering Western satellites.

Compare and contrast with what Times of India’s Shalini Singh has to write about it.

Although she rallies against the CBI for filing improper chargesheet, she praises Hazare for his stand.

The CBI’s latest chargesheet in the 2G scam investigation…… Timid and short on detail,it serves more as a lesson for students of law and police academies on how not to make a chargesheet.

…..clean chit to the Prime Minister (4 pages), the attorney general (2 pages) and the Tatas (7 pages).

The 60-page final report does not have a single line to prove corruption nor does it even remotely mention the evidence….

Shalini writes further:

…. it is not keen on fulfilling its own mandate of a statutory investigating agency, the CBI has assumed the role of an auditor instead. This is an important move, which helps create a mid-point of Rs 30,984.55 crore between the CAG’s Rs 1.76 lakh crore revenue loss figure, which is accurately based on TRAI recommendations equating 2G spectrum with 3G spectrum, and telecom minister Kapil Sibal’s irreverent and indeed outright frivolous “zero loss” premise.

Anna Hazare’s agitation is timely, appropriate and critical. The CBI making a joke of the 2G scam investigation despite the Supreme Court’s best efforts shows how desperately India needs anti-corruption laws and institutions like the Lokpal to bring in the changes that Hazare and others in civil society seek.

I haven’t seen the chargesheet (and neither I am a legal expert in these matters) so it’s hard to express solidiarity with Shalini’s assertions. It is also pertinent to note that she has been writing about the 2G scam over the period of time, so it needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. I don’t want to write anything else about TOI because they have a history of suing independent bloggers and I don’t want a lame dick dingbat to send me a legal notice.

Jokes apart, the present course of events is muddy. No one can claim authority but everything is weighed and calculated to make matters worse for spirited and ordinary citizens. It is difficult to separate the chaff from the grain and interestingly, some of the mainstream publications in English Language Media have been critical of this balding asshole. However, its not really surprsing because the ELM (English Language Media); specifically the newspapers tend to toe the press releases issued by the Government of India.

With these limitations (of the blogging platform) and the din of thousands of idiots collectively crowing as representative of the civil society, it’s impossible to break through the logjam. Still, I seriously hope that sane people in this country get enough ejection velocity to get out of this nation for good because we have turned into a banana republic. It’s bad enough. Really.

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Thursday and Friday meetings were held at Lightsquared Headquarters in Reston, Virginia. A source tells Broadband Reports a number of things were discussed, including the potential for removing network build obligations from Nokia and instead giving them to Alcatel-Lucent, Ericcson and Samsung. A primary discussion point at those meetings was something called “Project Freedom,” which the source insists to us is the codename for Sprint’s liberation of their 4G fortunes from Clearwire.

According to supporting documentation, Lightsquared informed meeting attendees they were working with a 3GPP2 partner “who will allow for Lightsquared to deploy its network much quicker.” This partner, which the attendee again insists is Sprint, would work in conjunction with Lightsquared to jointly develop and deploy cell sites. The satellite portion of Lightsquared’s network would not be impacted by this movement, and a second phase of Lightsquared’s ambitions would involve “adding support for MetroPCS diversity,” says the source.

Our 4G strategy is WiMAX, full stop!” -Sprint CEO, Dan Hesse

Last May Sprint issued an LTE build RFP, and for the last year we’ve heard from more than one Sprint employee that Sprint was absolutely migrating to LTE, despite several denials by Sprint CEO Dan Hesse. Last December Sprint announced a multi-billion dollar network overhaul paving the way for a streamlined footprint and LTE.

According to the Sprint network roadmap, the project involves having Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Samsung retrofit every Sprint cell site, eliminating the refrigerator-sized cabinets for each technology (800 MHz, 1.9 GHz and 2.5 GHz) in favor of small, more energy efficient multi-mode base stations. The entire effort is expected to cost between four and five billion dollars, and will culminate in the phasing out of Sprint’s iDen network, something that will begin in 2013. More recently, Sprint has been claiming they could have a nationwide LTE network completed by the end of 2013, and LTE-ready smartphones on the market by the middle of 2012.

Instead of Nokia building Lightsquared’s network, Lightsquared plans to piggyback on the Sprint upgrades being performed by Alcatel-Lucent, Ericcson and Samsung — and share capacity on Sprint’s LTE network. That gives Sprint additional leverage in negotiations with Clearwire — or the option to detach entirely from an increasingly shaky relationship, which our source suggests is the direction Sprint’s heading. It’s possible that the Clearwire relationship could remain intact, but modified with Clearwire shifting to LTE as well. Regardless, this entire Sprint retrofit and partnership with Lightsquared (and their recent $586 million in fresh funding) appears to place Sprint squarely in the driver’s seat.
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Historically the FCC hasn’t intervened in these fights, suggesting they’re simply business disputes. But as consumers are finding themselves under the wheels of these disputes at an increasing frequency, the agency today launched a proceeding to re-evaulate current retransmission rules (pdf) that govern fee negotiations between broadcasters and pay-TV providers. They agency says they’re looking for comments in proposals that would:

• Provide more guidance to the negotiating parties on good-faith negotiation requirements
• Improve notice to consumers in advance of possible service disruptions caused by impasses in retransmission consent negotiations; and
• Eliminate the Commission s network non-duplication and syndicated exclusivity rules, which provide a means for parties to enforce certain exclusive contractual rights to network or syndicated programming through the Commission rather than through the courts.

Note that the proposals don’t involve the FCC actually stepping in and preventing carriers from pulling the programming plug on paying customers, or providing refunds to impacted customers — because companies would yell at the FCC for daring to involve themselves in private business transactions, despite the negative impact on users. Instead, like most things the FCC does, the rules will be more timid and focus on simply giving users a heads up ahead of the next service blackout. Consumer groups like Free Press and Public Knowledge were underwhelmed, arguing that the reforms won’t do much to actually help paying consumers.
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The company repeatedly insisted they expected little movement due to the large number of people under family and business contracts — not to mention the company’s $325 ETF, which the company raised last year just for this purpose. Despite AT&T’s consistent last-place ranking in most consumer satisfaction studies, and traditional congestion issues in markets like NYC and San Francisco, there are a significant number of iPhone users content with AT&T service.

As we’ve noted repeatedly, the real damage for AT&T arrives next year (if it really arrives at all) after all their iPhone 4 users’ ETFs expire. We’ll also see what happens when Apple releases an LTE-based iPhone and AT&T has to directly compete with Verizon’s LTE network, which at that point will cover more of the population.
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This news has come in from FastCompany

As it says:
The Webbox is externally just a 14cm by 25cm QWERTY keyboard that has an RCA cable dangling from its rear–this coaxial cable will connect to a domestic TV tuned to a particular channel, and lets Webbox content appear on its screen. Inside it’s pretty sophisticated, with the guts of a 3G smartphone powering it–it runs over EDGE or 2.5G networks to get its data, and leverages Opera’s Mini browser suite (which compresses web pages to much smaller file sizes remotely) to ensure that the data burden on cell phone networks is low–which is good for low-income users and struggling cell networks alike–and that the device works swiftly.

It is an interesting concept. It combines a ‘mobile telephony’ through 2.5G (or horrors of horrors through GPRS) and thence output through your television.

I have run Opera Mini on my laptop through Java Emulator; it’s brilliant access at times when I don’t have access to Wifi. This Internet TV is something similar in it’s approach although they have routed the output through a usual TV.

However, this is not the end all. Heavy Java Script sites would not work; although the demo is not clear, Opera Mini is expected to run the mobile versions alone; this is not a very pleasant experience.

What gets my goose is that India has been lumped with the bygone nations -Kenya, Ghana and others. This only reflects their “poverty of thought” and generalized assholism. I am not a fan of Vodafone at all; despite their slick advertisements, it does nothing to “serve” it’s customers and perhaps one of the worst telecom companies. Nevertheless, this is a good innovation; it remains to be see how well they are able to capitalize on this, if and when it is launched.

Oh by the way, expect some rather crude “download limits”; these buggers are going to charge you per kb. Their billing systems are pathetic and try wrangling out the details from their customer care executives. You’d be appalled.

Last but not the least. Beyond certain “platitudes” and ass licking in the media (with crumbs thrown at the journalists and news papers), I really doubt whether they would have a mass market for it. They could have easily loaded up Opera Mobile instead.

And yes, as the dingbat in the advertisement says about “technological leap”, it isn’t so. The mobile phone circuits (and the RAM) is cheap with an output for the TV and external keyboard. It’s not big deal but it’s a good idea.

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Over the past few years, they entered into Telecom; bought over VSNL for their broadband and international telephony needs, misread the market, entered into CDMA and then forked into GSM with two competing brands- Virgin Mobile and Tata DoCoMo. While Virgin Mobile had it’s CDMA avatar (now in GSM), Docomo is spearheading it’s 3G foray.

In all the hoopla, it has carved a niche for itself by being an idiot and super idiot at the same time. There is no parallel in the world (not to my knowledge) where a same company would fight for the same customer pool. Leave aside it’s mobile business (which is opaque as far as the revenues are concerned), it’s broadband strategy is in tatters.

Hence when Forbes India came up with the cover story on Tata’s Telecom strategy, I was eagerly awaiting the web version because this crap is not worth the paper it is printed on (and hence not worth the money spent on this tattered crap rag). I was proved right when the “journalist” in question hammed on the same issue time and again; perhaps without even realizing that one needs to have an in-depth understanding of the sector. The title says a lot about the “telecom strategy” but sadly these morons on Forbes have restricted themselves to “mobile segment” alone.

I refuse to account for the sector changes or even track the people involved in decision making. This is not my specialty or my interest. My only interest is to get a better deal as a customer; see it through the prism of my own understanding and spout out my “wisdom”.

The whole article talks about the sectoral changes due to Mobile Number Portability or Spectrum charges being traded in “business publications” elsewhere. It does not make even one fucking cursory mention about it’s strategy elsewhere; where it has met it’s waterloo and has been drubbed by customers square- Broadband.

I don’t understand; really don’t understand as to why these idiots cant scale up the platform. They have DTH; they make tonnes in carriage fees (as per the media reports) and burning huge amount of cash in customer acquisition. A proper broadband access (and a portal) with content cross ported from DTH (if you take care of the license issues- what the fuck is their army of lawyers doing?) and you have a sure fire recipe for success.

Of course, this has to come with a balance of right targets and marketing. Last mile access alone is a major issue but not for the class B and class C cities and towns where they could have become the default broadband service providers. But because it needs funds, long term vision and skill of execution, Tatas are found wanting.

Forbes India disappoints me. Not that I had expected a stellar reporting from them but at least SOME bloody semblance of balance in the story. It only points towards the idea bankruptcy, lack of sectoral understanding and oodles of stupidity.

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I also believe that knowledge should be free and no one should be allowed to pocket it or make use of it for profit.

I am spurred on by events that I react to; hence there is a basic understanding that is required.

I had to censure some comments too; it was overbearing to see a large number of idiots submitting their resumes.

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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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Hence it is to have them admit on paper that the prices have “stagnated” indeed. 256 kbps is nothing in this day and age when the speeds elsewhere have touched over Gigabits.

The “perfect pricing” can always be debated. I would root for ATLEAST 2 mbps for INR 700-900 price band. This of course has to come with any stupid “fair usage policy”. In any case, wherever there is abuse of the network, they ought to ask the customer to perhaps a higher speed band.

Network abuse is in built and the very idea that traffic is being monitored ought to be deterrent enough. In any case, even with the restricted traffic shaping, I hardly see any traction in the space; it is an awful experience to stream the videos or access data intensive web sites.

If majority of the user space in India centers on Social Networking/Matrimonial sites and email, I don’t foresee any “overloading” of the networks. If they are really interested in lowering the overall costs, then they have to explore alternatives like NIXI to peer the data amongst themselves or cache the data for faster access.

Why BSNL then? Foremost reason is that I am it’s customer. Secondly, it can be alleged that because of it’s “monopolistic stance”, the real “revolution” in speeds and prices has to come only after goading it to work. If BSNL as the “market leader” is made to act on prices being offered, others have to match up to it. Well, thats what the intention in the long run is.

One more thing. I have specifically asked for the various break up charges. I strongly feel that the charges ought to be in public domain. How much is BSNL really affected? It is buying bandwidth from upstream and distributing it (apart from owning it’s own gateways, if I am not mistaken). One ought to know how much it really costs to move gigabytes of data on it’s pipes. In the same vein, RTI filed with TRAI previously was very clear that there is nothing like “Fair Usage Policy”. Hence it would at least force BSNL to acknowledge that FUP is “illegal” and help is to fix a responsibility as to who has come up with the idea. He/She should be hauled up over the coals.

Hence this is truly a disruptive power of RTI to expose the cosy nexus between the various ISP’s because they are defrauding their customers. One particular issue that caught my eye was FTH service being advertised as “upto 1 Mbps” and being more expensive than the same service being offered by DSL. Hence, I have asked them for an explanation about the same and the differential in pricing. FTH is not being advertised heavily which has the real potential for future.

I am also keen to know about the “limitation of upload speeds” of 768 kbps (as per their web site); I feel that this is an artificial restriction and should have their response on “traffic shaping”.

It is very clear from the outset that much of the information would be withheld, not revealed etc etc. Hence the best option is to wait, file an appeal and then present the case strongly in the state information commission.

I am willing to fight it out.

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It could also be argued that it doesn’t apply to us but I’d argue that US and India are part of the same league as far as the issues are concerned. There is only a bit of difference; FCC is more responsive to criticism and at least is seen to “ACT”. Our dear regulator TRAI fails to even acknowledge the emails and act on rational decisions.

Any way, here’s what the rational arguments have to say about it: (emphasis mine)

“The average U.S. household has to pay an exorbitant amount of money for an Internet connection that the rest of the industrial world would find mediocre….The consequences are far worse than having to wait a few extra seconds for a movie to load. Because broadband connections are the railroads of the 21st century—essential infrastructure required to transmit products (these days, in the form of information) from seller to buyer—our creaky Internet makes it harder for U.S. entrepreneurs to compete in global markets>.”

The editorial goes on to say:

The same is not true in Japan, Britain and the rest of the rich world….You can choose from multiple companies, each of which has to compete on price and service. The only exceptions to this policy in the whole of the 32-nation Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development are the U.S., Mexico and the Slovak Republic, although the Slovaks have recently begun to open up their lines.

The slow speeds not only hurt our competitiveness but in the long run lowers the GDP as well. The biggest issue here is to “re-define” the speeds to ATLEAST 2mbps as the “minimum standard”. However, I see a potential rebellion from the cohorts of Tatas, Reliance and the crap companies like Beam/Shyam/Sify etc who provide the proverbial last mile link to the premises.

It is next to impossible to get to admit it but once the consumer awareness comes perhaps then we might see such editorials in our mainstream press too.

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It is not hard to imagine that Baijal did everything to subvert the process of fair “process” and instead chose to suck and align himself with the corporates, public be damned. It is the lure of these post retirement positions in high places that massages their assess and prostates which makes them vulnerable to poaching. Who gives a damn to the paying public? No one. Perhaps you all idiots deserve this because you elect the same set of bastards (or perhaps don’t vote at all).

Here’s what I had written about Baijal the ex TRAI boss way back in March 2006. It is relevant even now.

Sir, I understand that you are about to retire. Well, finally, yours would be a good farewell. You might end up writing your memoirs (for which I am sure there would be enough “intellectual idiots” to wax and wane about you) or join a board of some telecom company; Reliance is a good option. It’s the calling card for most of the retired bureaucrats who network with old pals.

I have always supported the last mile access option. Why the fuck should BSNL/MTNL sit over miles and miles of old copper wire to premises? All of this is going waste!

Here’s again what I had written way back in the same post:

Sir, there is a lot you can do still. Despite the fact that BSNL Broadband connectivity being one of the most expensive means of access, you have refused to take any action against them. While in your regime, Broadband was introduced, you could have insisted to open up the last mile access.

Still, the reason to dig this Baijal up was that he has been raided in the ongoing Telecom Scam ramifications. This is what Business Standard has to report:

Baijal, who retired from Trai in 2006, is employed by another of Radia’s firms, Noesis. The former IAS officer of the 1966 batch was the disinvestment ministry’s first secretary when it was created.

Here’s a bit about Noesis (a consultancy firm floated by Radia- among the four in the scanner):

NOESIS is a professionally managed corporate & strategic business advisory firm. The key promoters come with extensive experience, understanding & knowledge of process of governance framing of public and regulatory polices in different spheres of the economy with over 300 man years of collective experience in consulting on issues at macro and micro level, with excellent networking and delivery capabilities across different geographies and levels.

One starts smelling the rat. Interestingly it does not mention anything about the people involved in their “management”.

It is no surprise that Baijal has been caught in the cross fire. Everyone knows that this is a “professional hazard” and in this stage of life, they would be able to weather the storm with no accountability. It remains to be seen as to how within power Baijal affected the public policies to benefit the chosen few, how public interest was trampled upon because this bugger chose to quote ONLY for the corporates and how you as a customer can demand accountability.

The easiest way out id to file RTI application, ask them for all the file notings under his rule and that should set the record straight. After my own prior commitments are over, I plan to do the same in the future. And write about this all here.

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While the Tata-Corus deal was over Rs 36,000 crore, they could have acquired the Government of Karnataka for just Rs 2,825 crore by buying 113 MLAs. Another Rs 1,000 crore might have had to be doled out to mid-term dissidents and other contingency expenses. For such investment, the returns from bribes are fabulous. Even Warren Buffet cannot match it.

This is mere change for a major group like Tata’s. Imagine the clout that these companies have at the national level, their ability to influence major policy decisions and ride roughshod over the customer’s interests.

For example, here is a news from the past when Tatas took over VSNL in 2002 during the time when BJP was in power and it was on a disinvestment spree.

The Tatas today took charge of the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) after signing shareholders’ agreement with the Union Government for acquisition of 25 per cent stake in the telecom major for Rs. 1,439 crores.

Adjusting for inflation, it would be much more than the figures suggest but I wonder how much “speed money” was given and whether it was the right thing to do. It had acquired it’s long distance telephony which at that time was very lucrative.

The total valuation of Tata Indicom as a brand is expected to be in “billions”. This is not counting it’s lucrative tower business.

The company’s GSM services were launched after NTT DoCoMo picked up 26% in the company. The Japanese telecom major, which prides itself in its third generation (3G) offerings, spent $2.7 billion on its first investment in Tata Teleservices, valuing it at just under $11 billion.

One could argue against such fancy valuations but there is no “benchmark” for such a valuation. Rajesh Jain has interesting take on corruption (1,2,3,4,5).

It’s not that the powers that be are not aware of the prevailing situation on ground. It’s easier to keep it this way because a populace kept “busy with basic issues of life like a proper dwelling, electricity, food and infrastructure” would hardly have any time to think about issues like ‘broadband’. Ask the person on street and the familiar reaction would perhaps be,”WTF”.

Hence many times I think that our pretensions about “knowledge based economy” may all be crap and flotsam. The basic issues lie much deeper and as Atanu Dey rightly points out that the basic impediment to our progress may well be the Indian Government itself. It doesn’t matter to anyone though because as we fucking multiply to billion plus, there is always someone laughing behind our backs making a killing of millions.

To round it up, it is pure money power that allows these companies to roughshod it over us. They know that regulations cannot be enforced, the justice system inordinately slow and right to information act does not apply to private organizations (though I can argue against it). At the same time, not being transparent is the biggest asset available to them.

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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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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’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: NIXI either has to change, or it has to go.

NIXI is supposed to be a non-profit organization (that part I believe), however it allows ISPs to essentially charge each other tariffs of Rs25 per GB. At 1gbit/s, with an in:out ratio of 3:1 and utilization of 80% or so, this comes out to a total monthly bill of Rs44 lakh, or about Rs17/GB.

That’s a hell of a lot of coin, considering that 2 months of that could pay for a year’s supply of bandwidth to Singapore. Yes, a year (well, a single STM-1 @ 155mbit/s, anyway, but the cost still only works out to about Rs13/GB).

As you can imagine, if I, as an ISP, can save Rs4 PER GIGABYTE, I’m damn well going to,

otherwise I have to pass that on to you – the consumer.

Now, one question. Why in the hell am I paying more per GB for DOMESTIC traffic than I am for INTERNATIONAL traffic? It’s pretty ridiculous, if you ask me (and if you’re reading this, you probably are).

But it doesn’t have to be like this.

In our quest to establish Hayai and to ensure that we can provide the fastest speeds and best pings in India, we’ve had many companies come forward and ask if they can put their equipment in our data centre (hosting companies and game server companies, mostly) but I figure: why should they have to put in OUR DC? Granted, it does give some competitive advantage, but, users on ISPs which don’t offer the speeds that we do shouldn’t have to suffer.

The solution? A new peering exchange.

We thought about doing it alone, but then I was alerted to the existence of another person who wants to do it, which is good, since the regulations probably prohibit me (personally) holding all but a limited role in such a project. So, if we/they can get it all set up, get past the various hurdles and get other ISPs to peer with them, then all going well, EXPIN should replace NIXI.

Below, I have posted emails between myself and the person attempting to set up this project. (IN REVERSE ORDER) – Please read and discuss back at broadbandforum.in

———————————————————————————————————-

On 6/10/2010 00:21, EXPIN wrote:
> Hey,
>
> Absolutely correct. The price structure is not a problem. We could even start offering free FE ports and charge for only GE and TE ports. Just to get more small ISPs and get up the traffic levels.
>
> All we need is a colocation space, Equipment (Cisco 6500 switch, I can arrange), a 24/7 monitoring system / NOC (which I can fix here in Sweden to begin with) and contact with few techs in Mumbai who can do the physical connection work (could be anyone with the knowledge of how to connect cables to a switch). In short, I can arrange everything…. just need someone (or a board) in front to tacle the legal issue.
>
> We would really need a plan here now =)
>
>
> /EXPIN
>
> —– Original Message —–
> From: “Mathew Carley”
> To: “EXPIN”
> Cc: “HNS – Ripunjay”
> Sent: Tuesday, 5 October, 2010 1:03:13 PM
> Subject: Re: Expin IXP
>
> Hi,
>
> Part of the problem as I understand it is not necessarily government,
> it’s that it has to be able to monitor activities: unlike Sweden (well,
> Sweden doesn’t require it *as much* anyway). I’ve recently been dealing
> with peering in NZ and it’s fairly straightforward: NZ$1495 for a
> 1gbit/s port, no usage charges, buy another link if your usage
> constantly exceeds 75%.
>
> Unfortunately, the fact that peering has always been relatively
> cheap/straightforward has not contributed to cheaper broadband: in fact,
> over the years it has got steadily worse. When I left NZ 7 years ago, my
> domestic traffic was counted as 10% of my international traffic – in
> other words, if I used 10GB of domestic traffic, I would be charged for
> 1GB. The situation is now that domestic and international traffic is
> charged equally. This is largely due (unfortunately) to Telecom NZ
> pulling out of the major peering centres, rendering them more-or-less
> useless: out of the 1 million subscribers in NZ, 600k are Telecom, 250k
> are TelstraClear and 250k are shared between all other ISPs in the
> country – the number of ISPs which I estimate rivals India!
>
> Despite this, I think getting the smaller ISPs on-board in particular to
> allow relatively free traffic exchange would give some of those
> providers an advantage over the major players, most of whom have Fair
> Usage Policies (which, although a reasonable idea in principle, is not
> very consumer friendly in India). Frankly, if we can get past the legal
> hurdles, I don’t see why it shouldn’t work in India. We all know what
> the broadband situation is like – the major operators are running
> 100gbit/s international capacity for over 1 million IP addresses, yet
> NIXI is barely touching 15gbit/s. By contrast, FICIX is averaging
> 20gbit/s with far fewer broadband customers nationwide.
>
> I would be very interested in participating in an organization, and as I
> outlined in my previous mail, the price ranges offered here in NZ would
> be a reasonable starting point: 10mbit/s is $295 (~INR10k), 100mbit/s is
> $695 (~INR23k) and 1000mbit/s is $1495 (~INR50k). Of course, since the
> idea is to revolutionize, we could go all out and have 100mbit/s at
> INR10k, 1000mbit/s at INR25k and 10GigE at Rs100k – with the policy of
> not routing traffic through other ISPs international links.
>
> This could create a similar situation to that which is in the Ukraine:
> for something like US$6 a month I was able to purchase 1mbit/s unlimited
> (upgradeable) – which included 100mbit/s unlimited traffic within the
> Ukraine itself. For Ukrainian hosted content and mirrors, this meant a
> fairly awesome experience – but the idea here would be similar, and
> hopefully would encourage much more content to be hosted in India itself
> (instead of the USA) and even more services to be developed – being that
> you’re in Sweden, I’m sure you know what I mean, and as I had suggested
> in my previous email, I think that the costs involved in running a
> mirror like Sourceforge (requires 150mbit/s dedicated) is probably why
> India doesn’t have one. The situation is surely the same for many other
> organizations as you have also mentioned.
>
> As for how to proceed? Well what do you need? Off the top of my head, a
> NOC, funding or a sponsor (I guess?), *probably* a license (and we need
> to ensure that we remain on the right side of the laws and regulations -
> this is probably where it’s all getting stuck), equipment (I’m sure you
> know what you want to run already) and some people (most of who, if I
> understand correctly, MUST be Indian citizens/residents).
>
> Ripunjay has more experience in the industry than I personally do, I’m
> fairly confident he can give us an idea of what else would be needed to
> get such a project underway.
>
> Ripunjay: welcome your thoughts?
>
> -Mathew
>
>
>
> On 5/10/2010 22:40, EXPIN wrote:
>> Mathew,
>>
>> Everyone I met in India regarding the IXP project didn’t understand what it was. It took me hours to explain them only. The only person who understood this was the CEO of NIXI himself. The situation is indeed monopolistic as far as i understood. I guess the government does want full control over the internal traffic in India. One reason why the peering policy at NIXI is multilateral.
>>
>> I think your idea of getting more ISP directors in the board is good! That will put some muscles in the project at least if nothing else.
>>
>> We in Sweden are running a free IX platform (www.sthix.net) for operators. Works pretty well where all operators are helping with the equipment, colocation and so on. But that might not really work in India.
>>
>> The best would be to create an organisation of few Directors, Get the permission to setup the exchange and charge a very small fixed amount every month or anually for respective ports (FE, GE, TE). Have the possibility of both multilateral and bilateral peering arrangements, IPv6, multicast, etc. Even voice exchange in future (VOIP).
>>
>> I had a chat with some of the global networks who have their equipment in TATA facilities in Mumbai. Some of them are Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Akamai (Facebook) and many more who were very interested in peering! That way the local ISPs in India could peer away a lot of global traffic and reduce transit costs as NIXI does not allow non-licensees to connect and peer.
>>
>> This is also a very good opportunity to show this IX as a global IX and one of the biggest IX in Asia on the world map. A nice and clean way to reduce your bandwidth costs upto 60-70%. But it is pity that nobody understands the idea of it and what it could really result in =/ A total WIN-WIN solution for everbody from consumer to operator.
>>
>> The question is really how we proceed? =/
>> Because my arms are getting tired trying to reach the government for the permission.
>>
>>
>> /EXPIN
>>
>> —– Original Message —–
>> From: “Mathew Carley”
>> To: “EXPIN”
>> Cc: “HNS – Ripunjay”
>> Sent: Tuesday, 5 October, 2010 4:15:49 AM
>> Subject: Re: Expin IXP
>>
>> Mr Walia,
>>
>> Interestingly, I moved to India from Finland. I’m Kiwi by origin.
>>
>> I’m aware of some of the governmental limitations – I tend to get pretty stroppy with the government at least once a day.
>>
>> Someone at Tata or DoT is probably misunderstanding your intentions, but as I understand from the ISP license, licensed ISPs are allowed to privately peer relatively freely (maybe starting this thing is as “simple” as obtaining an ISP license from the DoT). The problem seems to be just that many ISPs don’t peer properly: ISPs that buy from Tata/VSNL peer with Tata and Tata resellers, ISPs that buy from Reliance/FLAG peer with Reliance and so on ad infinitum. It seems pretty stupid to me that the CEO of a non-profit non-governmental organization would be given the power to approve (or not) the opening of another IX – that would present a monopolistic situation.
>>
>> However, perhaps myself and Ripunjay might be able to help in some way – the main thing is getting ISPs on board. Being that Hayai is starting in Mumbai, we were planning to go to existing ISPs in Mumbai (Hayai, HNS, Fivenet, Nivyah, MTNL, Vashi Cable, TTML and various others: in fact, why couldn’t we approach each NIXI ISP member with this?) to offer them peering at next-to-nothing: 1 gbit/s port at maybe 1 lakh per month flat-rate or something to that effect, with similar policies to FICIX ( http://www.ficix.fi/english/newmember.php ) – in particular, paying attention to point #3.
>>
>> Considering that NIXI charges 3 lakhs a year plus Rs25 per GB (average price comes to ~ Rs17 per GB once you take in to account a 3:1 in/out ratio), but at 80% utilization this is still some 44 lakhs per month, however, despite this, knowing something about Indian mentality is that they will see 3 lakhs per year against 12 lakhs per year and choose the former. Ironically NIXI’s about page says “thereby resulting in better quality of service (reduced latency) and reduced bandwidth charges for ISPs by saving on International Bandwidth” – considering it’s almost the most expensive bandwidth in India, how can they possibly claim this?
>>
>> Due to this, this operation might even have to be done for nearly free if the ISPs were willing to supply equipment and pay an equal share for the premises, but this is a detail that would have to be worked out (in fact, I think MTNL and Railtel both have space in their respective facilities in Mumbai that might be ideally suited for the purpose).
>>
>> As well as simple peering in that IX, hosting mirrors of sites such as Sourceforge and housing Akamai boxes. If HNS got involved, they might consider moving speedtest.net and their Ubuntu mirrors too, who knows (not up to me, just planting seeds).
>>
>> If the legal hurdles can be overcome, there are some very significant possibilities that could arise from an IX with a more friendly tariff structure: who knows, perhaps NIXI and/or ISPs charging each other more than international rates would even see the error of their ways!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Mathew Carley
>> Director, Hayai Pvt Ltd.
>>

>>
>>
>> On 5/10/2010 08:02, EXPIN wrote:
>>
>> Hi Mathew,
>>
>> We are a bunch of scandinavian techs (indian origin) who wanted to setup an exchange in India due to NIXIs current structure (not helping at all).
>>
>> Problem we are facing is with the government. There is no proper law regarding the exchange point. And TATA (who were suppose to be our partner in this) is not allowing us to start this exchange without the permission from Department of Telecommunications.
>>
>> I’ve been to India twice now and also had meeting directly with the Minister of ITs secratary who forwarded me to the CEO of NIXI. I had meeting with him and the tech taking care of the NIXI platform. Seems that it is CEO of NIXI who can permit opening of another exchange in India.
>>
>> I’ve emailed them our proposal and all, but no answer from them in 6months now. I guess we do not know how to deal with the beaurocrats
>>
>> We might help each other open this project, but this requires a great contact circle in the government.
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>> EXPIN
>>
>>
>> —– Original Message —–
>> From: “Mathew Carley”
>> To: “EXPIN”
>> Sent: Monday, 4 October, 2010 11:00:41 AM
>> Subject: Expin IXP
>>
>> To whom it may concern,
>>
>> Your contact details were given to me by Ripunjay from HNS with regards to setting up an IXP.
>>
>> I’m highly dissatisfied with NIXI and it’s tariff structure, which to me, does not make any sense and does not contribute well towards reducing the costs of domestic bandwidth or efficiency of routing as an IXP is supposed to do.
>>
>> As it is the aim of Hayai to be India’s fastest ISP, we too were considering the possibility of setting up our own exchange, basing our structure loosely on FICIX ( www.ficix.fi ), but once I found out about your project, I thought there might be some potential for us to work with your organization.
>>
>> Are you able to tell me more about Expin, details, tariffs, if you currently have any active peers, etc?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Mathew Carley
>> Director, Hayai Pvt Ltd.
>>

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The best way out, in my opinion, is to form a NGO. Key advantages in my opinion, are:

1) Focused efforts.

2) Access to funds.

3) Some toe hold to lobby.

4) Most of the western organizations like EFF (please Google for it) are very keen to promote “Open Access”.

5) A platform for bringing about a policy change.

These are are idealized goals and currently with the limits on my time, I am unable to pursue this matter. Of course, with a “united front”, anything that is done, either survey or interaction with the media, it is done with a single voice; rather than a disparate group of people speaking about it in different tangents. Media contacts matter but having an open web presence is also very important.

It all needs serious investment- buying up a domain name, registering the NGO, lawyers for legal opinion, pursuing this matter to a logical conclusion, chasing the funds, making pitches and marketing and then the most important thing- lobbying.

I am not a fan of the existing NGO’s because in my opinion, they are sold off to the highest bidder and the have covert or overt agendas. However, this is just a thought and I am floating this idea because I feel that you can carry this off.

I don’t foresee a role in such a venture for myself because my long term interests don’t align with the final outcome. My interests are primarily in Brain Tumors and getting in to molecular research than fighting the idiots for Broadband access. At present, I am not happy with the “speeds” or the “ping times” but I have realized that it’s difficult (if not impossible) to shake the entrenched lobbies. Be it Tatas or Birlas or whatever fancy name these corporates have. I can only suggest and contribute bit of my time, if some sort of a venture does take off the ground.

At some point in time, I was heavily in to Open Access where in all the locked knowledge ought to be in public domain and accessible by high speed broadband networks. This got me interested to delve deeper in the present rut and culmination of the efforts to blog about the mess. Blogs have a sorely limited access and worse still, most of people don’t realize how important it is to have a free knowledge based economy because everything is interlinked.

I don’t find the same level of enthusiasm and need to “bring about a change” on the forums. Most of the times, it has brain dead morons who would just whine about the whole issue. It needs hard work to go out, meet people and bring about a “policy change”.

Who gives a damn anyway?

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