Broadband Blog » Reliance

Skype: Microsoft acquistion and disruptive VoIP?

Abhishek — Mon, 16 May 2011 17:49:04 +0000

New York Times has run a story on Skype‘s acquisition and

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

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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Facebook and social media: Overblown AND overhyped

Abhishek — Mon, 16 May 2011 06:40:36 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

I have argued against excessive reliance on social media; it is a stupid decision to hail Facebook and Twitter as the “next destination”. This is the problem with the marketing executives either from the mobile companies or handset manufacturers. For example, it’s not difficult to miss the blurb that accessing Facebook is “easy” by a “single click button”.

The experience on ground is different. Let’s assume, for a moment that there are over 600 million users. How many of them are active? What is the “engagement matrix” on the web site? What is the actual cost retrieved by

Image via CrunchBase

Facebook from it’s advertisers; i.e. how effective is advertising on the platform? Is social engagement really effective? I mean, it’s stupidity to see links from Facebook friends streaming in Bing (which has implemented the feature and live on to crow that they are up in the pissing game with Google).

If you dissect the issue further, accumulating a number of “likes” on the platform does not mean that it likely to translate into action. I was moved by this interesting blog post and they

Image via CrunchBase

gave explicit reasons why they are moving away from facebook hype: (emphasis mine)

1. The Facebook API changes too often. The plug-ins are buggy, the API changes without notice rather often, and there are too many rules constraining how developers can use the API in building applications. As a platform, it is unstable, period. ……

2. Facebook is overhyped. Personally, even though Facebook actually has 600 million active users, developers still tend to overestimate how many people actually 1) have a Facebook account, 2) use it regularly, and 3) are comfortable using it as a third-party authentication method. Many consumers across different niche markets are simply not familiar with how Facebook works; developing Facebook-only applications marginalizes this segment of users, who may be substantial in number.

3. Facebook is still mainly social for most, and exclusively social for some. We are still not completely convinced that Facebook can be an effective platform for any commercial activity…….Of all the new variants of ecommerce, the one that might actually take off is, in our view, mobile commerce.

More interestingly, Facebook and other industry “leaders” are opposing the proposed bill to protect the user’s privacy. I am not sure how this is going to pan out but this is good enough indication that some sense has dawned to protect the users from advertising onslaught.

California could force Facebook and other social-networking sites to change their privacy protection policies under a first-of-its-kind proposal at the state Capitol that is opposed by much of the Internet industry……social-networking sites would have to allow users to establish their privacy settings…

….like who could view their profile and what information would be public to everyone on the Internet – when they register to join the site instead of after they join. Sites would also have to set defaults to private so that users would choose which information is public

These measures would not apply to India or it’s privacy laws though I heard they have been tightened in recent times; the impact on end users has not been discussed.

There’s one more compelling reason to avoid reliance on Facebook; falling traffic. Countries that were on the path to early adoption is seeing a fall in the traffic (perhaps an indication of slow and waning interest).

The average decline over months has yet to become negative, though. There are other possible factors at work, too, such as bugs in the Facebook ad tool that we get this data from…. in order to identif the long-term directions here is crucial for planning how to capitalize on Facebook’s success, or lack thereof.

It is most likely to be argued that India would perhaps be a “fantastic growth opportunity” but is corporate gibberish. Even if the “dark populations” are lighted up, in absence of aggressive promotion of localized content, it is unlikely to see a massive expansion. It seems that most of the companies keep their “outposts” in India to hire cheap labor for “translation” efforts. It’s not a generalized statement, but thats the reality. Again, there is NO reliable data to break up the traffic specific to the sites or universally agreed metrics to track traffic to popular sites (however, Opera Mobile‘s stats are likely to be more reliable).

Where do we go from here? It is important not to rely completely on the “social aspect” of the net. It is a matter of time before it fades away for perhaps a better “personalized approach” (more so as semantic web matures and we have better ontology) to deal with. That also comes as a rider but there is no “perfect ideal approach”. This is something that the next generation access devices and advertising agencies should keep in mind before they can actually deliver better “value added services”.

3 Reasons that We are Moving Away from Facebook as a Platform (zuupy.com)
Social-networking sites face new privacy battle (seattlepi.com)
Social-networking sites face new privacy battle (sfgate.com)
Facebook’s Stealth Attack on Google Exposes Its Own Privacy Problem (wired.com)
Facebook is Passé. Pt. 2 – Here Comes the Mob(ile) and Those that Do no Evil! (trak.in)
Does Anybody Really Care About Facebook’s P.R. Fumble? (allfacebook.com)
Why Facebook Smeared Google (insights.chitika.com)
Naukri and Monster, a no Longer Purple Cow, for Job Hunters in India (digitalgossips.com)

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Value added services: VAS in a limbo

Abhishek — Sun, 08 May 2011 13:04:02 +0000

Of course, there are people who are breathless about India‘s potential. Business Insider has written about it recently.

I could give a rebuttal to each and every slide posted here.

Digital, Mobile, and Social Media in India (April 2011)

View more presentations from Simon Kemp

And of course, it’s not hunky dory. So despite the huge potential (because of population), why are we not seeing the explosion of opportunity in this space?

Fact is that VAS (value added service) is an unproven concept. In the Indian market, no one wants to risk out a potential investment of crores before finding out that this is a dead dodo. I don’t have authentic figures for the existing services available and in any case, no one releases them publicly as a matter of fact. It is safe to presume that VAS is a market that never took off beyond the “ring tones” market. It is unlikely that we are going to see any action in this space in the near future. Indian mobile “revolution” is seriously voice based though.

The same analogy holds true for the data services (GPRS and 3G) as well.

I have written about it extensively earlier (Do have a look at the related entries).

XOP Networks Introduces Mobile Service Provider Value Added Services (VAS) Package (prweb.com)
My Mobile Interview: Scope of Indian language in VAS (mahesh.com)
Indian Mobile VAS Market To Reach Rs 55,000 Crore By 2015.Really? (trak.in)
Reliance to launch VAS for Indian rural community (globalthoughtz.com)
Mobile Content: Where the f*** it is? (broadbandblog.in)
Mobile based location services (broadbandblog.in)
Indian government considers cellphone tracking as part of National Telecom Policy (thenextweb.com)
Limbo (chloewantstobechic.wordpress.com)
Get to know the India tech scene in 59 quick slides (thenextweb.com)

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Mobiles: Value added services Shyam Somanadh has an interesting take on the value added...
Mobile based location services I haven’t used Foursquare or Gowalla ever (but installing the...
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On “Clean Up”

Abhishek — Wed, 04 May 2011 06:35:48 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

I had “cleaned up” the clutter recently; taking away a shit load of the “social integration” and the crap. In my opinion, social integration is useless. Hence, any overt reliance on Twitter or Facebook is bound to be difficult for the companies/start ups that aim to rely on them for their needs.

Although, they may be good for SEO/search rankings, I prefer to abhor them, keeping the Twitter account strictly for seeking immediate resolution to complaints or check out the new web sites which rely on OAuth log in systems. Then it is a matter of just disconnecting them.

There was an interesting post on OMG Ubuntu site on LiveFyre; hence this is a follow up post to bolster the argument in favor of LiveFyre.

How to integrate social media with your website (nancyloderick.com)
3 Web 2.0 startups worth watching (globalneighbourhoods.net)
Webinar Recording: How to Integrate Social Into Your Website (web-strategist.com)
Webinar Recording: How to Integrate Social Into Your Website ” Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang … (seome.me)
Introducing the OMG! Ubuntu! Android app (omgubuntu.co.uk)
OAuth: Refreshed and More User-Friendly (twitterrati.com)
Spring Cleaning for Tweets: Top 5 Ways to Freshen Up Your Twitter Account (socialtimes.com)
Keep It Simple: Integrating Social Media With Your Blog (everything.typepad.com)
How to Successfully Integrate Social Media Into Your Site (blogs.sitepoint.com)
How Did Jesse James Come Clean to Sandra Bullock? (eonline.com)
4 Solid Reasons for Social Integration (hyperdiskmtkg.wordpress.com)
4 Solid Reasons for Social Integration (hyperdiskmktg.wordpress.com)
GetJar Adds Social Media Integration (socialtimes.com)
2010: The Year Social Went Viral (blogs.constantcontact.com)
Have you Spring-cleaned your online profiles? (craftzine.com)

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India Telecom Operators: Shit List

Abhishek — Wed, 04 May 2011 05:32:49 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

For long, I have felt the need to do a “consumer survey” which is motivated by real customers than the paid for shit stuff that most telecom operators crow about. It is impossible to capture data from the cross section of the user population and the retards who crowd on the forums would not be able to grasp the import of this exercise.

I realize the difficulties inherent in this exercise immediately. First and the foremost is lack of actual “complaint data”; TRAI does put up the figures online but there is a mechanism where these operators have to report back the action taken on the complaints. This is a good mechanism but I don’t see it enforced or whatever TRAI does, they are clueless idiots to make this data work for a better policy formulation.

Ditto for the existing delivery of the complaint mechanism. An aggrieved customer calls the operator in call center, is given a complaint number (not always) and no time frame for the resolution. I am presuming that their workflow is designed for the said purpose. Like any corporate organization working on “cost savings”, this is possibly “outsourced”. A smart team utilizes “dumb terminals” clogging up the bandwidth for most of “executives”. All the while, these brainless sods make the customers wait even more utilizing the spectrum.

This is a “presumption” but this workflow is bound to keep the customers “unhappy”. Billing and metering issues are definitely top of the list; unfortunately, even these thorny issues are not resolved in their entirety.

What needs to be done? Actually, this could easily be a dissertation exercise, capture and visualize the data and present a solid case report to the telecom companies. However, the implementation needs money and I am unlikely to see any movement on that count.

I could help with some possible criteria; reach me on the email (under “contact”).

One more thing. Reliance, Aircel and Airtel easily top the shit list.

TRAI: Maximum Subscriber Complaints Over Last 3 Years Against Airtel Followed By Reliance and Vodafone (telecomjunction.wordpress.com)
India sends notices to Aircel over network roll out – official (reuters.com)
India’s Telecom Regulator Proposes Quota for Local Equipment (pcworld.com)
DND registry (manavaidurai.wordpress.com)

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2G Telecom Scam India: Excerpts from PAC Report

Abhishek — Mon, 02 May 2011 05:20:08 +0000

2G Spectrum scam is huge; to the tune of thousands of crores cheated from public money. The specifics are still sub-judice; however, I am linking to the the “leaked report” which has been extensively reported in recent times by the lay press.

The entire article can be viewed here; although I don’t wish to skip over the juiciest parts (and something that I have always mentioned in this blog that is patently wrong with the auctions and the way it has been handled).

On First Come First Served Basis:

The Committee note that the First-Come-First-Served (FCFS) basis for the issue of Licences and Allocation of Spectrum has been followed by the Department on the argument that the announced UASL guidelines have made it open for new licences to be issued on continuous basis. The Committee’s scrutiny of the records reveal that in the Basic Service Licences guidelines, there is a reference to FCFS but nowhere in the UASL guidelines, the term FCFS has found a mention implying thereby it has no sanctity. In fact, on 24th November, 2003, the then Minister of Communications and IT had approved the Department’s proposal to give licence Spectrum on FCFS basis, but it was not codified in the UASL guidelines. Thus, there has been no such legally established principle as ‘FCFS’, at best it can be termed as a prescription to be followed for grant of licence/Spectrum…….

On Role of Media:

The Committee note that the brazen irregularities in the allotment of 2G spectrum and UAS licences were unravelled by some investigative journalists much before the Radia tapes came into the public domain. A journalist who played a stellar role in exposing the irregularities, on being asked about the sources of his information, replied that the information was collected through the RTIs and from some public-spirited insiders…..

Presumptive Loss:

….Intriguingly, neither the DoT nor the TRAI has quantified the precise loss. Unfortunately, the DoT instead of admitting an unconscionable act, advanced the plea that theoretical exercises based on economic modeling are fraught with simplistic assumptions and that no methodology can be suggested by them to calculate the loss…..The Committee feel that giving dual technology licence to the CDMA operators and new UAS licences in 2007-08 at a price determined in 2001 was not only imprudent but also smacks of a design.

Shortcomings in the Implementation aspect:

….While the first phase was implemented, the second phase was conveniently and intentionally, as subsequent events substantiate, overlooked. In the process, devising an efficient allocation formula for Spectrum alongwith an appropriate price remained unachieved as delinking the price of Spectrum from the issue of licences was given a go bye, disregarding the Cabinet decision. The Committee are deeply distressed that due to violation of the Cabinet decision and as a consequence of such deliberate omission, the issue of UAS license and allocation of Spectrum in 2007-08 at the price discovered in 2001 caused a staggering, but wholly avoidable, revenue loss…..

The Committee also desire that the price of Spectrum be delinked from the issue of licences without further delay and seek explanations as to why this important decision has not been implemented as yet…..

Role and Responsibility of TRAI:

The Committee note that the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) are not binding upon the Central Government. But it is mandatory for the Government to seek recommendation of the TRAI in respect of matters pertaining to the need and timing for introduction of new service providers and terms and conditions of licence to a service provider. But the Committee are surprised to note that while seeking TRAI’s recommendation on 13 April, 2007 on various issues, the DoT did not seek recommendations on grant of new licences despite the mandatory requirement. Even though the decisions of the Government is final whether to accept or reject the TRAI’s recommendation, not seeking such recommendations at all speaks volumes for the DoTs malafide designs to circumvent the established provisions in the TRAI Act..

So now we know that TRAI basically is a useless toothless regulator.

But TRAI is not above all. So read the following:

Besides, the Committee find TRAI’s flip-flop in its recommendations also contributed towards the Department’s arbitrary and unilateral decisions. For example, in 2003 TRAI recommended that as the existing players have to improve the efficiency of utilization of Spectrum and if Government ensures availability of additional Spectrum, then within the existing licensing regime, they may introduce additional players through a multistage bidding process as was followed in the case of introduction of the fourth cellular operator.

The bad news:

One aspect that engages the attention of the Committee is the fact that worldwide, especially in the developed countries, the licensing and Spectrum related functions are actually performed by the Regulators and not by the Government unlike in India. The Committee consider such a practice as one of the main reasons for the DoT’s arbitrary decisions in dealing with the consultation process with the Authority.

The big players have engaged the Department of Telecom and the TRAI executives get exemplary post retirement benefits as fancy board members. Of course, they are there to liaise with the existing bureaucrats setting up huge questions on conflict of interests. I really don’t know whether these clauses are in built in their “rules” but if you look at the RTI applications to make their assets public, these faceless bastards need to be more accountable. Not all of them are like that but the blackest of the black sheep are bringing a huge shame to rest of the community.

Pathetic. Ours is totally a banana republic.

On 3G Spectrum (Which I personally feel has been “over-inflated”):

The Committee are happy to note that the auction of 3G Spectrum through an open and transparent bidding process has established the true value of the finite scare resource. However, as apprehension has been raised at many quarters that by paying such hefty amount to get 3G Spectrum, the successful bidders might pass on the burden to the consumers, the Committee impress upon the TRAI to keep a watch on the development in this regard and protect the interest of the consumer in tandem with the DoT.

Hope you are feeling bad enough by reading this sorry state of affairs.

‘Raja manipulated Telecom Commission’ (hindu.com)
National Spectrum Act proposed (hindu.com)
2G Spectrum .CAG Report. (ramanan50.wordpress.com)
2G-Criminal Conspiracy Charge against Essar,Reliance Communications? (ramanan50.wordpress.com)
PAC draft report puts 2G loss at Rs.1.90 lakh crore (hindu.com)
Charge sheet identical to CAG findings (hindu.com)
Arun Shourie to appear before CBI on February 21 (hindu.com)
US Highlights 2G Scam is Unhealthy For Indian Telecom Market (telecomjunction.wordpress.com)

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2G Scam India: More skeletons tumbling out.

Abhishek — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 16:30:03 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

It’s unlikely “Swan” and “Loop Telecom” would ever be “penalized heavily”. Tata and Ambani, even though being summoned by PAC, would be asked to “pay up the damages”; some crores dealt here and there, permanent stock holdings to some prominent members and post retirement lollies as directors.

It transpires that Swan was a front for Reliance and Loop for Essar. Indeed, the idea was to bid for scarce spectrum, their holdings held in off shore accounts and laundered.

It is a dirty world indeed.

You: Top Indian businessmen to face Parliament panel in telecoms probe (earthtimes.org)
A Raja sent to Tihar Jail in 2G scam (speakindia.wordpress.com)
UPDATE 1-India Essar CEO quizzed by police on 2G scam (reuters.com)
India tycoons to face probe panel (bbc.co.uk)
India tycoons to appear before parliamentary panel over 2G probe (reuters.com)
UPDATE 1-India tycoons to face parliamentary panel over 2G probe (reuters.com)
India’s Essar Oil to defer refinery shutdown-source (reuters.com)
Essar Group drawn into Indian telecoms investigation (telegraph.co.uk)
Kalaignar TVDares, CBI Bares! (ramanan50.wordpress.com)
Anil Ambani appears before CBI (hindu.com)

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Update on 2G Scam India: Reliance under scanner

Abhishek — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 08:49:29 +0000

Anil Ambani must be a worried man. After being summoned by CBI (which does not prove that he is guilty), he is fighting fire with fire. It is very unlikely that he would even get a judicial custody (he’s got an army of lawyers and influence in power circles) that would let him get away with any of the inconvenience that he is facing at present. Of course, I remain cynical but then thats what life in India is. The high and might escape these retributions.

Tehelka has a complete coverage on the issue. Look for the intricate details of money laundering; all done to hoodwink the rules and get the spectrum in any manner whatsoever.

P.S. Just added another category on Spectrum (as a reflection on the mess that we have).

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Mobile Number Portability: Some numbers

Abhishek — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 02:11:39 +0000

There is a huge variance in the numbers being reported by different news papers. One of the major fall out of mobile number portability is that you can spite your existing telecom operators face; if you are a high value post paid customer, it would be worth it.

We would never know the true numbers because they would be under reported. DoT would not get in the game and the right from the word go, everyone is claiming that mobile number portability is a no show. I disagree. This is one the huge game changers in the long run and once the hoopla settles down, it’s best to switch providers. I would want something like Google Voice (one number) and get rid of the crap services but I am destined to suffer at their hands.

This also means that I have the full freedom to shift over to rival networks who would provide a better seamless coverage for that occasional data access.

Business Standard has a full page story on this issue It says:

The biggest loser was Reliance Communications (both GSM and CDMA), followed by state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Tata Teleservices (CDMA and GSM). Reliance lost 9,837 users, while 192 chose to join its network..

So, no one likes Reliance Telecom. Anil Ambani, here’s one for you; how not to run a damned network.

Industry experts feel MNP will not be a game-changer. Even operators are not expecting the churn due to MNP to be more than one per cent, as against the current rate of four-five per cent. This is based on their experience in the Haryana circle, where MNP was launched in December. Haryana has seen a churn of about one per cent.

Where the F these experts come out from? They are either some way side idiots or “consulting firms”; would the news paper please stand up to explain who are these experts who have been quoted?

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3G India: Stupidity to extreme

Abhishek — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 07:59:03 +0000

An overtly maniacal Government now wants a lawful interception of video calls on 3G networks.

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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Broadband in India:Laggards and urgency for speeds

Abhishek — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 07:34:48 +0000

I am quoting extensively from editorial in Scientific American. There is urgency in the lay press to spur on the debate on a wider scale to have “faster speeds”. We are fucking stuck up with the SAME 256kbps over the past few years WITHOUT any relief.

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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Pradeep Baijal: In thick soup

Abhishek — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 03:14:29 +0000

I have written extensively on TRAI (the regulator) and it’s ex- boss Pradeep Baijal who is making the news for all the wrong reasons. (The archives exist here: 1,2,3,4,5)

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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Fooling with site stats

Abhishek — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 15:32:05 +0000

I was looking for something but found something really interesting.

Google is the top referrer here to this blog. People land up here looking for (sic):

calcutta telephones broadband change of
mtnl broadband appellate authority
tata photon plus blog
sujit sahoo hal
people practiecs in bsnl
iptv two way interaction
anil ambani email id
relience communication anil ambani email
broadband explained
airtel ad kunhona
telecom advertising
ndtv
airtel address proof
reliance broadband internet india log ou
airtel advertisement
login ban tata indicom broadband
an ideal customer care executive
broadband over power lines through pg&e
mgcarley is not an indian
grepsoft kasergode
airtel fair usage policy
reliance broadband customer service
who are using tatabroadband in hyderabad

This one obviously takes the cake:

an ideal customer care executive

And this one too:

mgcarley is not an indian

Hodi Baba!!! Indians! WTF!

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Reliance India Mobile: Can you ever get positive comments?

Abhishek — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 11:11:35 +0000

I don’t own any responsibility for any of the personal opinion expressed. Going through one of the older posts, I came across this comment which I feel most of the people would agree to.

This is quoted in verbatim.

Hello All,

Reliance SUCKS ! and will always SUCK.

ONE HUMBLE REQUEST : DO NOT GET ANYTHING RELATED TO RELIANCE.

THEY R BIG TIME CHEATERS

for people who r in the same boat as i am , just think that you lost youR money.

DIRTY B****

Ha!

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EXPIN: An alternative to NIXI

mgcarley — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 11:37:04 +0000

During the past few months in setting up Hayai, it’s also been made terribly clear about one thing that could help the Broadband situation in India.

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 most hated thing about Indian Broadband

mgcarley — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 12:11:47 +0000

…is not strictly limited to India.

Yes, you heard me. India is not the only country with FUPs – check some ISPs abroad. I dare you.

While I support the move to increase the lower-limit to 2mbit/s, the reason for the ISP’s opposition to this is obvious: the financial implications are huge. BUT SPEED DOESN’T COST: Gigabytes do.

All differ depending on the technology in question, but generally speaking I can deliver you 1 gigabyte at 1, 20, 50 or 100 megabits and with a small variation in the actual cost of the equipment (ADSL, VDSL, Fiber), it costs me basically the same. Consider now the various plans available from Airtel, BSNL, Tata, Reliance and others with roughly the same size data-cap: with a price difference based strictly on speed. Doesn’t that piss you off?

(Case in point: Airtel’s 30 and 50mbit/s plans. Both 200GB data caps. Delivered at 30mbit/s or 50mbit/s. Price: Rs1,000 different). #FAIL

So while the slow speeds and tiny data-caps and FUPs may seem like profiteering now, at the current pricing levels (under Rs2000), mandating an increase to a minimum of 2mbit/s (which I personally am hoping for) to call the product “Broadband” would seriously damage profitability of ISPs whose costs can be up to Rs20/GB – or more (depending on their negotiating skills!)

That is, unless some things change.

First: wholesale prices need to come down - 1Cr per year for 155mbit/s is outrageous (even 50 lakhs is still outrageous). On USA-UK, Singapore-USA, Japan-USA, you can get 10Gbit/s for about US$10k/month.

Considering that of all the capacity to India (total is about 20-23 terabits right now) the total usage is still only being measured in gigabits, it’s clearly not a capacity problem, it’s a price problem.

Secondly, NIXI’s tariff structure to be changed to a flat-rate – nowhere else in the world charges per GB at the peering-exchange! In fact, I’d be happy to pay Rs3,00,000 per MONTH for 1gbit/s if the per-GB charges were eliminated.

Thirdly, Local Loop Unbundling – I would suggest (both as an foreigner and as someone starting an ISP) that this be done as soon as possible. Yesterday is better. In fact, it should have been done in 2004 when it was suggested originally – perhaps India would not be in the situation it is now.

But if it is done, then we can eliminate dependence on cablewalas, as they aren’t helping India’s Broadband situation, and BSNL/MTNL can start to get another revenue stream from ISPs who want to lease the copper.

Of course, I outlined all of this in the document to which Sushubh & I contributed but the author of this article (Caught in the Net of slow broadband) sort of failed to mention… well… almost all of it.

So as a consumer, I disagree with FUPs in general. As an ISP/business owner, I see the point of them and that they are a necessary evil.

So what’s my comprimise?

We don’t need to eliminate FUPs completely, just for the FUPs to be fair to the consumer.

This post was originally posted as a comment to the online version of the ToI article mentioned above, but at the time of writing had not been moderated/accepted. It has been modified from it’s original form for some clarification and comic effect.

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Morons abound here

Abhishek — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 04:34:01 +0000

I am not getting huge amounts of traffic since it not context linked extensively and the blog is seeing a drop in the rankings. Part of the reason is that there are a huge number of copycats who copy the content and post it under various heads to fragment the traffic for the advertising revenue. Further, I have been very slow to post here because of my prior commitments.

Anyway, I am glad that I have had to put up the comment moderation. It makes it easier to track the overall blog and see how it is faring. I get tonnes of comments on Reliance, people complaining about the same and resumes. I am not even sure that any dickhead from that company would even bother to read the way the companies are screwing around. For the minority, it is a daunting task to search and then land up on the blog thinking this to be a company website.

Nevertheless, I am posting a comment in it’s entirety for the kind of morons who populate the world. This of course is a sad reflection on the standards of our education but worse still, the lack of content in regional media. English is an alien language but then we pay for their rule!

Nevertheless, enjoy and have a good laugh!

hi mittal ji
i dharmendra mehra from ludhiana punjab running my own shop under the name of mobile plaza. last month your sales rep deepak sharma came to my shop and givin 100 activated sim and get the payment from shop . when i come on the shop i refuse him we will not sell activated then i inform to your airtel seniors officers mr sukesh ji.mr sukesh ji came to my shop and solve the problem.but from that day nobody is coming on my shop for service.and nobody is listioning me.i want just one thing from you please change my distributer point i think problem will solve automaticly .because they people are giving you a fake sale. with in the day they sell more then 100 activation but they all are fake.you please send your inspection team there then you will know every thing about them because they are just making the money . but (BCL) going in loss.

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Reliance Infocomm: Second innings

Abhishek — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:03:34 +0000

The earlier avatar was “meh”. Even though I was a “satisfied” customer because Mukesh Ambani’s concern had licked off my hard earned money ( and I wasn’t a man enough to admit it), I was happy to get rid of Reliance. The second time I chose Reliance for it’s unlimited call offer but the fact was that it had a PATHETIC coverage. Repeated emails or customer care complaints were to no avail.

Fuck them.

I was indeed surprised to read about Mukesh’s foray in the telecom business. This time in Broadband. Clearly there is a potential but he’s opted for Wimax delivery. It was all about Dad’s dream (as claimed earlier in the advertisements). It was clear to Mukesh and his team that in order to break through the clutter, they had to get something which was never heard off in the country before. Their “web stores” were one stop “digital hubs”. The idea, in theory was great. Yet, the gaming didn’t work off the way they wanted, it had severe billing issues and it appeared that Anil Ambani was interested to market the cellular version of telecom. Not the broadband variety.

Although, I am quite aware of the fact that they spent a huge packet of money to lay down the fibre optic cables and an attempt was made to provide for end to end connectivity. To add to their assholism (it is a very interesting mix of assholes trying to market something without creating a demand for it), their existing broadband plans sucked.

Any number of idiots mill around the forums to complain about Reliance but are totally unwilling to drag them to the court. You would find the same crop whining and sucking up later for the “new” wireless broadband because limited spectrum would mean that download limits would be rigorously imposed. Screwheads are aware of such issues yet claim a zillion times that they have been “ripped”.

Anyway, this interesting “brotherly rivalry” has no parallels. The billionaires with their army of lawyers are hell bent on making the “first move”. If I were in Mukesh’s telecom team, I would make the access “free”, charge for premium users and for those who wish to clog the networks, would have to pay the maximum. A free net access would mean that if your service has minimum downtime, more and more people would sign up for “premium services”. Simple logic but it’s beyond their thick skulls to understand. They are hard nosed businessmen. They think they know better.

See how this story evolves!

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3G et al

Abhishek — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:22:48 +0000

There have been readers over here claiming that the much advertised Tata Photon Plus and it’s ilk with Reliance Incorporated doesn’t offer the “same speed” as promised.

One has to be completely naive to believe it. Truly. There are enough pussies who believe the dished out crap and once they realize that they have been “shortchanged”, these assholes whine on these columns. I have to delete tonnes of crap piling up because of my prolonged absence from here.

I have been pushing for a community Wifi which is freely accessible. Yet, in the scheme of things, everything needs to be rationed. The only thing which is not is mercifully condoms which I believe, finds a lot of “reluctance” with the populace and explains the burgeoning population in the land.

A free community Wifi would definitely ease up the access. It would lead to content generation and perhaps new ideas. There can be ideas explored to fund it publicly or some advertisement driven model. Google has shown some way. Optic fiber is cheap. But there is institutional lethargy to implement new ideas. The existing apple cart would be sorely upset because the services are nationalized. But then, as I have repeatedly pointed out earlier, public money ought not to be spent on black holes like Employment Guarantee (NREGA) but where it matters the most.

It is a pathetic waste of spectrum for 3G. The existing players have gobbled up, no new players have come in the market and there is a whiff of a huge telecom scam. Much larger in scope and extent than the current IPL hoopla.

We are like this only.

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Late night thoughts on recent developments

Abhishek — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 17:04:59 +0000

Bharati has bought over Zain telecom in Africa. The exact details are “obscured” and frankly, I didn’t really bother much over the period of time because it was a “meh” news. I believe that Bharati has done the right thing because even if this is “over valued” deal, it would add to it’s stature. All the more, it would help Bharati to negotiate (on very favorable terms) for the 3G equipment only for the scale. Because size DOES matter.

All the more Bharati Telecom now needs to step up it’s customer acquisition for 3G and retain it’s existing customers before the mobile number portability is cleared for final implementation. This MNP would benefit the newer players in a big manner because the existing customer are fed up of the tardy implementation of the customer care by existing operators.

This is a familiar rant here for the regular readers on the blog and frankly, I am at pains to point out anything new or even “exciting” development. There is NONE. All the more, few operators are crying hoarse about EVDO or fancy WiMax (and some operators claiming that the existing technologies would not be able to support the data requests), some of them talk about “blazing speeds”, some like Tata Photon Plus are reducing their prices for the modem and very gladly claim that they would shift the existing customers to “higher speed slots”. Some like Reliance are still persisting with hollowed out infrastructure. Puke.

Assholes. Thats the word that comes on top of mind recall.

Now this is purely a personal opinion. We are a desperate nation. A hungry nation. An impatient generation. My “forefathers” would have been happy to accept the present state of affairs. When standing in a long queue was the norm for landline connections. One needed the “right approach” and ability to swing the deal in your favour. When the bloody lineman was the God because it was “His” mercy that your telephone worked.

We are a far cry from the “bastards”. But that mentality lingers on. It still does.

Maybe, in the backdrop of Bharati buying out the majority stake in Zain assumes more significance. For the first time, a company has thought big. They are planning big. They are now overturning the rules of the game on to favor themselves. I hate them for keeping the pace out; be it broadband or be it mobile service.

Although, “not exciting” but nevertheless, a significant development.

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