Another boring launch. Airtel wants to “differentiate” itself from the other providers by having a different format of watching channels. Thats about it.
You can follow the news as it happens on the forums or their official website which on expected lines is full of coding errors. I understand that they have invested a lot in the unified billing. I see no sight of the expected IPTV launch.
Its one thing to have the “stars coming home”- who happen to be beautiful people with some talent to be able to market themselves effectively. Apart from that, I see no real merit in having “brand ambassadors” in a crowded segment with the competitors burning equal amount of money to get a pie in your living room.
Sadly, the DTH has not matured enough here in India. Cant we get premium adult channels on the existing networks? Or there is too much of “content regulation”. We are a nation of billion people, but mention the word “sex” and there is a “smell of controversy”.
TRAI needs to learn its lessons fast.
I must admit that this blog is suffering from the neglect over the past few weeks. A lot is happening in the telecom sector; things are rapidly changing and shifting. The policy for 3G and IPTV has been announced. Multiple companies are making a beeline for the proposed 3G auction. Apple’s iPhone has been a hit with the people who can afford the fancy price tag.
Meanwhile, a lot has changed over the personal front too. I am engaged and looking forward to get married soon. This blog has been a constant companion over the past few years and given me a platform to vent out my ideas. I hope to nurture it; a challange to remain and stay focussed on shifts instead of reporting teeny weeny incident. Ultimately, it’s about you and me as the customer which matters the most. And we are on the recieving end. For all practical purposes.
Published on
15th Aug 2008 in
General Thoughts.
Tags: Advertisement, Anil Ambani, Broadband, India, IPTV, Landline, Opera, Reliance, Tata, Tatas, Value Added Services, Virgin.
Viewers are spoilt for choice. DTH is a credible option and at the start of the day, I had no frigging clue to the pent up demand for the same. The Direct To Home players like Tatas and Zee have spent oodles of cash on advertisements and hardware roll out that it appears unlikely that a newer player would be able to get a toehold.
Here in the grand strategy of Anil Ambani unfolds. He got the ad labs, poured in money in content creation and would make a huge moolah out of “exclusive” deals with media players. The value added services is a growing market and there is a HUGE space for exclusive content; I was surprised to know that there is a seperate channel for gardening; Tata has one for home tuitions. Although, it cannot replace the classrooms but then parents are keen for any degree of experimentation.
Coming back to IPTV. Does anyone of you readers think that this could make any degree of impact on the viewership? I feel that most of the people mistrust the landline outages (which are so frequent) unless there is a fibre to home coming to their homes with simple instructions to operate the set top box. The present hardware is designed to confuse the first time users; somewhere it ought to ring the bell to make it as simple as possible.
I would reserve my comments on the two competing platforms till the market matures up. Reliance is lying down low with it’s broadband offering. I am still wondering as to what has been the issue at their end. Why are they delaying the commercial launch? There are any number of ideas floating around and if they claim to be India’s number one network as far as the coverage is concerned, they ought to focus on their cherries. Or else, it would die a virgin.
Published on
07th Feb 2008 in
Airtel Broadband, Broadband in India, General Thoughts and Indian Telecom.
Tags: Airtel, Airtel Broadband, Airtel sucks, Broadband, Broadband pricing, Broadband SUCKS, Funny, IPTV, Landline, Reliance.
After writing in a scathing post on Airtel, someone up there seems to have read the previous post. I got a call asking me to upgrade my plan to 512kbps for a slightly more amount than I am paying at present. I hope that someone must be looking forward for a reaction on this blog and here it is!
For 300 bucks more than the basic price for unlimited broadband, I am getting double the speed. I have had no issues with the service as a whole and I am extremely pleased about it. Specially, when I get to read what others are going through.
Interestingly, Reliance has had a soft launch in NCR and they are slowly expanding. It would not be wrong to say that Reliance would look at this extremely lucrative segment; but they would have to spend bucketloads of cash to create a demand for their broadband services. Unless, they strike where Sify or Iquara or Hathway have spread their misery far and wide. They would find droves of eager customers flock for their services. I still hold that the broadband plans have to be compelling enough for people to make the switch.
Airtel’s MBA’s need to tighten up their belts. For all their fancy cars and pay hikes (no, I am not jealous) they come out frothing idiots who would not be able to hold up a bulb to a five year old kid. Their collective IQ amounts to zilch.
Prove me wrong morons. 2Mbps unlimited for 1000 bucks? It’s worth it. I ensure that the entire broadband user forums would be singing paens about you and I promise never to trash you or your collective IQ. Mark my “dangerous” words. The truth is out there. Reliance would surely eat up your share and I am sure most of you would desert Airtel’s sinking ship like rotten rats at the first hint of danger.
Update: This was a “top up” offer where the speeds would be doubled in the night. Bah! This is called as being taken for a “ride”! Sheesh. By the way, I called up the Airtel Customer Care Centre and had to bang my head with dead beat assinine women. They had no clue about the “top up” and it took a lot of cajoling and shouting on the phone to make them see any reason.
I dread calling up the customer care centres; unless one wants to let off his/her steam on the phone or act funny with the “dames”.
Useless offer- Airtel sucks!
Published on
29th Jan 2008 in
Airtel Broadband, Broadband in India, India Broadband News and Indian Telecom.
Tags: Airtel, Airtel Broadband, Broadband, Broadband pricing, Broadband SUCKS, IPTV, Landline, Reliance, TRAI.
Airtel recently reduced the price for 512kbps; I got a call from an excited “executive” who “informed” about the price reduction. In real terms, this doesn’t amount to much since the taxes would anyway make it more expensive than it really is. They could have reduced the prices for 256kbps instead.
Trust the morons to loose an initiative. I wonder as to how do they find enough money to feed an army of MBA’s who sit back and deliberate about doing nothing. (P.S. I don’t like the MBA’s a wee bit). In the past 6 months, ever since I have had Airtel Broadband, there has been a downtime just once. However, others would testify the slackening quality of access elsewhere; Airtel needs to tone up in other parts of NCR.
All said and done, Airtel seriously needs to “take the initiative” and upset other player’s calculation. We would, forever, suffer speeds of “upto” 256k without any appreciable benefit. TRAI is sleeping over the customer complaints and instead of taking any concrete action, prefers to sniff out the babus’ puckered holes. Not a charming thought at any cost, indeed.
If anyone from Airtel is smart enough to read and understand whatever I have written here, take some efforts to have simplified plans and get your IPTV rolling out. It’s high time to wrest the initiative because if Reliance comes calling (as and when they realise that there is a huge stake out in landline business), you guys would be quaking and shitting in your pants. Reliance has already held Airtel’s testicles and turned them blue strangulating them. It would their landline business next. And I dont get my predictions wrong at all.
Much like the UFO sightings it had generated a wave of excitement. Most of the Airtel users testifiied getting a temporary 2 Mbps boost! And what a f***ing boost it was! My torrents coursed like crazy, my downloads went off in a jiffy and You Tube was streaming videos like crazy…
It all boils down to the various options that we get to exercise when we have the choice and the bandwidth. If you feel you have a “fast” 256kbps “broadband” wait till you get a 8Mbps thingy. It would surely blow off your pants (in terms of user experience that is). Yet, we as Indians would rather perish than stick out our necks and fight for the issue.
My sources deep inside the Airtel complex are not opening up their mouths as yet. There were various conspiracy theories doing the rounds. Some felt that it was the imminent launch of Airtel’s IPTV launch and this was to test the “load on the lines”- whatever that means. For me, it was a good day; better than the dreary existence otherwise.
I hope that we get to see affordable 2 Mbps soon. Here’s hoping. I’d have something less to bitch about then!
By the way, Airtel is the best ISP I have ever used. In terms of service, they are way ahead of the other ISP’s. I have never faced a downtime (by HIS grace) and the “customer care executives” (or whatever you wish to call those poor blighters) are a shade better than the other counterparts. This is not a blanket endorsement of the morons who are sitting over a goldmine without capitalising on their investment. Still, to their credit, I am sure they would be rolling out something better in the future. I have a testimonial of a customer who’s Airtel landline got installed in 24 hours flat! A working connection in 24 hours! Mine took 72 hours and that too after much threats and cajoling the morons in the fray to get my net working.
Wow. It’s called as kicking in between the telecom companies crotch. It would hurt them for sure.
TRAI has called for universal implementation of IPTV by the cable service providers. This means that cable companies would provide a direct competition to the telecom companies as far as voice services are concerned. If they are carrying the net to the customer premises, there is no way anyone could stop ultracheap VoIP calls and ineffect telephony service in the guise of IPTV. Plus, they could easily hire oodles of bandwidth from guys like Power Grid Corporation or the Railways and carry them to the end customer premises.
This means that telcos should shit in their pants because all there massive investments would not attract customers at all. I have argued that customers are actually loath to change their landlines and this provides a great oppurtunity to lock in brand new customers with all the lollies. Wireless is good in theory but then wireline can provide a better bandwidth.
Yet, the dickheads are sleeping soundly without realising the potential for the market with their ostrich like attitude. This is specially true for start up companies like Airtel who are clear laggards in the broadband space. BSNL is silently coursing ahead with about a million subscribers. If they play their cards sensibly, I am sure they have a winner at their hands. Unless of course, babus sitting there sell their soul to the devil.
It is this proactive attitude of TRAI that has found much appreciation here. Something surely has happened to TRAI and I have no clue as to how it has found it’s teeth. I am waiting for their salvos on broadband and many companies get going by selling their narrowband as speeds “upto 256 kbbps”. Of course, this is illegal and TRAI needs a kick in the bollocks to wake itself up. Earlier on they mandated a Do Not Disturb list to be maintained which clearly means that our numbers and private details were being sold to the tele marketeers. Not surprisingly, media has chosen not to anger it’s major advertiser and instead chose to keep mum about the whole issue.
Airtel is clearly a laggard and so is Reliance. Whither the oppurtunity of 100 mbps plans? Agreed, it was all hogwash by elder Ambani but the younger sibling is burning his cash on trying to size up the media. Telecom needs his attention and he ought to cough up cash in the wireline space to make himself relevant. Having a website dedicated in your own name is just to score a point over those who don’t have.
Is TRAI reading this blog? Then wake up and do something!
