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 We need fibre to home instead of outdated copper.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!

Tags: 1Mbps, 3G, 512k delights!, Access Deficit Charge, API, Assholes, Broadband, Broadband access, Broadband in India, Broadband India, Broadband pricing, Broadband SUCKS, Broadband Updates, BSNL Broadband, BSNL India, BSNL sucks, DoT, DTH, EDGE, fraud, Fraudband, gas belching old haggards, India, Indian Telecom sucks, Indians, Internet, ISP's, mainstream media, Mobile, mobile phones, Ofcom, Open Government, Open Source, open source applications, Opera, SMS, Social Issues, Spectrum, Telecommunications India, Telecommunications India, TRAI, Unlimited pricing, Wifi, Wireless, Wirless broadband

This is what the headlines in Business Standard say. Let me highlight the relevant portions of the report for your eyes only:

Rising competition (13 licences for each circle), falling tariffs (lowest in the world, falling further because of per-second billing), rapidly declining average revenue per user (ARPU) because the newer subscribers are the low spenders in semi-urban and rural areas, and high taxes (about 30 per cent in all) ……….have put paid to the aspirations of not only the new entrants but also incumbents……..deleted.

Forget about fancy valuations. I have always contested the claim about the “lowest tariff in the world” because it is not in consonance with the actual “gini coefficient”; which means that we pay more than we can actually spend. It is a bitter truth but then the newspapers need a lifeline of their advertising spends, so rest assured, this truth will NEVER be out.

……Nearly 15 million more users came on board in September….. It has also brought into focus the phenomenon of dual SIMs — existing subscribers are acquiring additional connections, resulting in a seeming increase in subscribers but in fact merely leading to a bill being split between two or more service providers….Deleted.

For the first time, to my knowledge, a newspaper daily has mentioned this in black and white. Let me also repeat. The operators keep the discarded number for a period of atleast 3 months before it is “terminated”. So even though, a customer has left in the middle of month, the disconnection would not be reported for another 3 months (which, I believe is an industry practise). The same customer may acquire multiple connections or dual SIMS; so it is the growth of the SIM cards and perhaps not the customers which is reported. In any case, the simple headcount may not be feasible.

Industry executives blamed much of the ills on the government and the regulator. With falling tariffs, they need to cut costs, but their hands are tied because 35-40 per cent of their costs are taxes and other regulatory expenses. They have to pay 5 per cent of their revenue even from rural areas towards the universal service obligation fund which is meant to promote rural telephony. They said there was no need for the regulator to push for pay-per-second billing by all…… Deleted.

Now this is something that industry officials would always bleat about. Let them come out openly against the said “policies”…shadow fighting the Government wouldn’t help. For one simple reason. If these morons had any iota of service towards customers, I would have sympathized with them. But, they treat their customers like dirt; more so like crap cash cows who feeds in their kitties with little change so that likes of Mittal and his ilk can reap in obscene profits. In any case, let them prove their worth with their commitment to service, their willingness to be transparent, their approachability and customer care in the true sense of the term. People need their money’s worth but alas! My countrymen are basically lazy bastards who wish to have everything on platter without fighting for it.

…….the incumbents said they remain committed and focused on growth. “We will continue to enhance our market leadership and simultaneously open new revenue streams like m-commerce, m-entertainment, digital media and many other products……Deleted.

They have no real option but to focus on Value Added Services which is “babes, bikinis and bollywood”. Unless these people want to “focus” on phone sex services which would be a “high revenue earner” for them.

Rest of the write up seems to sum up the gloom and “brave words” just to reassure the shareholders that “we are up to it”. That we would weave our small little web of deceit, of lies and pull wool over the regulators and leave no stone unturned to defraud our customers because they are basically bunch of idiots and nincompoops. No one knows how much unaccounted for wealth flows in and out of system or whether this elaborate system allows them to launder their money in more effective way. There is no accountability to the customers because they are using a PUBLIC resource and merely by adding value to it doesn’t entitle them to the ownership of it.

Sadly, this isn’t mentioned anywhere. This of course, would be mentioned at all.

Tags: Advertising, Airtel India, Airtel sucks, API, Assholes, Business Standard, Digital Media, EDGE, End of Boom, fraud, Idiots, Incumbents, India, Indian Telecom Party, Indian Telecom sucks, Indians, M Commerce, Media, Mobile, Opera, Phone Sex, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Telecommunications India, Telecommunications India, TRAI, Universal Obligation Fund, Value Added Services, vodafone Essar, Vodafone India

This is the stuff of legend. Much like the Christianity, the Apple iPhone is based on lies and subterfuge. I have waxed eloquently from the perspective of an awe struck bloke; about the possibility of what technology can do and deliver. Even for that matter, the design of the handset.

People from all walks of life are now complaining of a tactile “feedback” and that these touch phones may not be the answer to one and all. Who knows? It only depends on which side the advertising dollars have been stuffed up one’s puckered (or gaping) hole. And that you mumble about the next BIG thing coming- like the resurrection or the BIG “O”.

To make matters easier for you to follow here, I am referring to the newly launched Samsung Instinct. It claims to have got it’s bearing’s right. It runs on EVDO networks, has better memory storage but lacks iPhone’s acceleratometers. It does everything whatever an iPhone does…well almost. It doesnt give you a blow j*b as yet. Neither does an iPhone.

I wouldn’t see these phones here in India unless Samsung is smart enough to launch them across the world where 3 G services are available. A much better idea would be to provide a soft launch and make it run on the lousy EDGE networks that we have here in India. Then slowly exert pressure on the operators to upgrade their networks to 3G. It works both ways and I am sure there would be a lot of interest in the blogosphere who would want the next mannah from the heaven to be rolled out.

Hmm. But what are you going to use it for? What makes the phone better than a costly brick? So far, I have had no special luck with my broadband because I dont have a “sticky” content. 2 Mbps or more to check emails? You must be f***ing crazy to waste loads of bandwidth. How much p0rn can a man consume in a day? Games? The latency of online networks would kill you before you can blink an eye. Then what?

I am not inclined to comment on the legality of downloading movies and watching them. The debate over torrents is acrimonious. Again it depends on which side of the big moolah you are on.

Hence, all these touch phones and EVDO thingy remains on the fringes of lunacy. Most of the companies here in India cannot ensure decent connectivity even in the best of the times. Even there in US of A (God Bless America!) Sprint has had to cut back on jobs to save their rat infested ship from sinking.

We haven’t heard of the dire straits of Indian companies for all practical purposes. After all, there would be a ceiling to a growth unless they design something like a blow up that also doubles up as your mobile phone. Or a diamond studded vibrator that could truly be a girl’s friend with a mobile phone built in. (Or something like this)

Tags: 3G, Advertising, API, Broadband, DTH, EDGE, EVDO, India, Indian Telecom sucks, iPhone, Mobile, Opera, Samsung Instinct, Telecommunications India, Torrents, TRAI, Virgin Sucks, Vodafone sucks