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.

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!

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.