A report here, at Businessweek - titled A Wireless Revolution in India, about the fact that the number of Indian users accessing the Internet via the mobile has doubled to 38 million, quoting the TRAI as a source. How much of that access is really open access to the Internet, and not to operator walled gardens like “Airtel Live” and “Reliance Mobile World”? From what I gather - a majority. All-access GPRS users in the country are pegged at between 7-9 million, and even that fell a couple of months ago after an operator repaired a hack that allowed users to access the Internet via GPRS for free. Having GPRS compatible handsets doesn’t mean that it will be used - so all those expecting a gold-rush in mobile Internet in India...hold your horses. SMS is still big. The story appears to be a follow up on another fisk-worthy story earlier at Businessweek about why number of Internet (dialup) subscribers are falling - something we’d reported as well. Same “mobile Internet” logic there. However, I remain more bullish on wireless Internet than wireline because of serious service quality issues.
Source: contentSutra.com
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
Wireless Broadband Roundup : Indicom-NTT; RCOM-Verizon
-- Tata Indicom has tied up with Japan based NTT to allow NTT subscribers to use Indicom’s WiFi network in India. Indicom already provides a similar service to roaming subscribers of Singapore based Starhub. Indicom has over 350 WiFi hotspots in India, and has plans to increase that number to 1000. One can only hope that their WiFi works better than their broadband or their data card service. [via release]
-- Reliance Communications has tied up with Verizon (NYSE: VZ) to allow subscribers access to the Internet while traveling in the US. The company plans to expand services to Canada and Latin America, followed by Japan, South Korea and China. [via ToI]
-- Reliance Communications has tied up with Verizon (NYSE: VZ) to allow subscribers access to the Internet while traveling in the US. The company plans to expand services to Canada and Latin America, followed by Japan, South Korea and China. [via ToI]
Broadband Growth
Total Broadband subscribers base reaches 2.67 million by the end of September 2007. During September 2007 there is an addition of 0.11 million Broadband connections. The addition during six months (from April to September) in 2007 is 0.33 million as compared to 0.47 million during the corresponding period in the previous year.
Source : http://www.trai.gov.in/trai/upload/PressReleases/506/pr22oct07no91.pdf
Source : http://www.trai.gov.in/trai/upload/PressReleases/506/pr22oct07no91.pdf
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
BSNL WiMax Network + Motorola
While BSNL is planning to use the WiMax network for its ambitious 50,000 kiosk project, Motorola is planning to make a comeback as wirless giant in the US. BSNL is a truly government organization with several layers of fat making it difficult to move briskly. BSNL has the largest network in India and can very easily use to build broadband kiosks rather then waiting for policies and floating tenders around. Latest, feedback about Reliance WiMax is not very encouraging. [On the Forum, their seems to be a problem with DHCP servers and Reliance folks for some reason don’t fix it and consumers are down with internet for more than week]
Om Malik has an interview with P. Warrior, CTO of Motorola on the road ahead for WiMax. Though WiMax can deliver higher speeds than other wireless technologies, it is unable to keep the same throughput when tested under mobility. Voice over WiMax may be a distant dream.
Om Malik has an interview with P. Warrior, CTO of Motorola on the road ahead for WiMax. Though WiMax can deliver higher speeds than other wireless technologies, it is unable to keep the same throughput when tested under mobility. Voice over WiMax may be a distant dream.
Broadband loses speed
A consumer recently complained that his broadband speed continues to be lower than claimed in the plan and brochures. He opted for it in February. “Everytime I lodge a complaint with the customer service staff, the same is closed without resolution,’’ he says. Another consumer says his broadband works less than 5% of the time. Yet another has not got his connection in the first place- he’s been waiting for almost a year.
Despite Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) quality of service regulations, complaints of this nature keep pouring in. TRAI chairman Nripendra Misra admits, “There is tremendous scope for improvement in broadband services to consumers.’’
As Pritee Shah of Ahmedabad’s Consumer Education & Research Centre, who herself faced a broadband breakdown during a weekend, says, “Broadband providers don’t give a guarantee for speed in writing. This needs to be questioned.’’
On its part, TRAI has mandated service providers to give a testing link in their websites where a customer can test the speed. “It must be (at least) 80% of the prescribed limit,’’ says a TRAI official.
The official and Rajesh Chharia, president at Internet Service Providers’ Association of India (ISPAI), however, add that speed also depends on the PC, modem and the visited sites. They advise consumers to check whether their PC is virus-free. Shah though says, “These are standard answers.’’
The TRAI official draws attention to the fact that while bandwidth utilisation should not cross 90% of the total capacity, some have reached 92-94%. “Service providers have promised to improve it in the coming quarter.’’
To gauge consumer satisfaction, Consumer Voice of Delhi is independently conducting its own mobile and internet quality of service survey in the four metros. Its report will be ready in the next two months. “Broadband will penetrate very fast. And once that happens, the quality of service (issue) will have to be addressed,’’ says Voice’s Sri Ram Khanna.
TRAI’s Quality of Service of Broadband Service Regulations, 2006, specify that a connection must be activated within 15 working days, subject to technical feasibility. In case a service provider expects delay in activation, Chharia says, the applicant must be immediately informed.
If the consumer has already paid for the connection and yet the activation gets delayed, TRAI guidelines state, “A credit at the rate of Rs 10 per day, subject to a maximum installation charge or equivalent usage allowance shall be given to the customer, at the time of issue of first bill.”
Fault repair and restoration time must not cross three working days. Faults pending for 15 days would draw a rebate equivalent to one month of minimum monthly charge or equivalent usage allowance. The regulations also state that billing complaints should be under 2% per 100 bills and all resolutions must happen within four weeks. Refund of deposit after closure must take place within 60 days. Yet, the above-mentioned cases remain unresolved.
Despite Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) quality of service regulations, complaints of this nature keep pouring in. TRAI chairman Nripendra Misra admits, “There is tremendous scope for improvement in broadband services to consumers.’’
As Pritee Shah of Ahmedabad’s Consumer Education & Research Centre, who herself faced a broadband breakdown during a weekend, says, “Broadband providers don’t give a guarantee for speed in writing. This needs to be questioned.’’
On its part, TRAI has mandated service providers to give a testing link in their websites where a customer can test the speed. “It must be (at least) 80% of the prescribed limit,’’ says a TRAI official.
The official and Rajesh Chharia, president at Internet Service Providers’ Association of India (ISPAI), however, add that speed also depends on the PC, modem and the visited sites. They advise consumers to check whether their PC is virus-free. Shah though says, “These are standard answers.’’
The TRAI official draws attention to the fact that while bandwidth utilisation should not cross 90% of the total capacity, some have reached 92-94%. “Service providers have promised to improve it in the coming quarter.’’
To gauge consumer satisfaction, Consumer Voice of Delhi is independently conducting its own mobile and internet quality of service survey in the four metros. Its report will be ready in the next two months. “Broadband will penetrate very fast. And once that happens, the quality of service (issue) will have to be addressed,’’ says Voice’s Sri Ram Khanna.
TRAI’s Quality of Service of Broadband Service Regulations, 2006, specify that a connection must be activated within 15 working days, subject to technical feasibility. In case a service provider expects delay in activation, Chharia says, the applicant must be immediately informed.
If the consumer has already paid for the connection and yet the activation gets delayed, TRAI guidelines state, “A credit at the rate of Rs 10 per day, subject to a maximum installation charge or equivalent usage allowance shall be given to the customer, at the time of issue of first bill.”
Fault repair and restoration time must not cross three working days. Faults pending for 15 days would draw a rebate equivalent to one month of minimum monthly charge or equivalent usage allowance. The regulations also state that billing complaints should be under 2% per 100 bills and all resolutions must happen within four weeks. Refund of deposit after closure must take place within 60 days. Yet, the above-mentioned cases remain unresolved.
Delhi To Try WiFi Mesh Network
The Delhi government is planning to install a WiFi mesh network for providing wireless internet connectivity in Delhi, reports CIOL. They’re considering public-private partnerships for shops, marketplaces offices etc in Rajiv Chowk (Connought Place), South Extension and the computer peripherals hub - Nehru Place. The WiFi Zones will be established though public-private partnership. Not that it’s going to happen anytime soon. Last year, there was a story in ET, as per which Connought Place was to be WiFi’ed with free access by Jan 1 2007. That’s the story of broadband in India—all talk very little implementation. WiFi mesh networks have been installed successfully in the hilly town of Dharamsala by a voluntary organization - Air Jaldi. One criticism of mesh networks that I’ve heard is that they’re likely to be far less reliable in a city environment. The spectrum, however, is free.
Do check out the WiFi in India report.
Do check out the WiFi in India report.
Monday, October 15, 2007
OLPC being piloted in India with Reliance-ADA Group; XO Priced At $220
This comes as a bit of a surprise: the One Laptop Per Child Project (OLPC) project has been launched in India, after reports of having been rejected by the Indian government last year. The first pilot of the XO laptop is supposed to be in tribal village at Khairat (near Karjat, Maharashtra), and by March 2008, the project intends to cover more than 25,000 towns and 60,000 villages. Readers should remember that though the XO laptop has been spoken about as the “$100 laptop”, that pricing is based on large orders. Currently, it’s priced at $220 (around Rs. 8,800).
This time around, instead of approaching the government, the OLPC project has got the support of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-ADAG), which is providing Internet connectivity for the laptop, and - more importantly - has taken on the mandate of involving governments for creating a successful ecosystem for the project. It is crucial for the OLPC project to get large orders from governments in order to achieve the scale for bringing the price of the laptop down to $100...this pilot appears to be an attempt to woo the Indian government. For the Internet industry in India, anything that gets more Indian eyeballs online is a welcome - whether the OLPC project or Novatium’s NetPC. Mobile still seems to be the pervasive solution, if you ask me.
Source:contentSutra.com
This time around, instead of approaching the government, the OLPC project has got the support of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-ADAG), which is providing Internet connectivity for the laptop, and - more importantly - has taken on the mandate of involving governments for creating a successful ecosystem for the project. It is crucial for the OLPC project to get large orders from governments in order to achieve the scale for bringing the price of the laptop down to $100...this pilot appears to be an attempt to woo the Indian government. For the Internet industry in India, anything that gets more Indian eyeballs online is a welcome - whether the OLPC project or Novatium’s NetPC. Mobile still seems to be the pervasive solution, if you ask me.
Source:contentSutra.com
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Broadband in India : Press Interested
Here is the text of the email published in The Hindu (one of the lousiest commie pinko newspapers) under the heading “Bye Bye Tata”.
Another entry in the Slimes of India where they have highlighted the broadband woes.
Is it a proof that the mainstream press has woken up to the menace of the ISP’s? Would we see more and more coverage in the mainstream press regarding the pathetic state of affairs? My crystal glass is hazy. These morons would buckle under the lure of advertising money from the associated companies and/or the industry association. They have big bucks and treat the media like a discarded whore. Sadly, media is happy about being in that state.
Source : BroadbandBlog.in
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
ByCell To Invest $509 Mln On Infrastructure, Targets Eastern India
Swiss firm ByCell, which has applied for licence to provide telecom services throughout India, plans to invest $509 million on initial infrastructure, according to this Reuters article.
The company, which is 74 percent owned by Switzerland’s ByCell Holding AG and 26 percent by India’s Bitcorp Pvt Ltd, is focusing on less developed telecom circles of Bihar, Orissa, Assam, North East, West Bengal and plans to provide wireless phone, broadband and Internet protocol television services in India. ByCell aims to keep costs low by sharing infrastructure such as telecom towers and improving availability of cheap handsets at 1,000 rupees.
The company, which is 74 percent owned by Switzerland’s ByCell Holding AG and 26 percent by India’s Bitcorp Pvt Ltd, is focusing on less developed telecom circles of Bihar, Orissa, Assam, North East, West Bengal and plans to provide wireless phone, broadband and Internet protocol television services in India. ByCell aims to keep costs low by sharing infrastructure such as telecom towers and improving availability of cheap handsets at 1,000 rupees.
Airtel Launches 8Mbps Broadband Service
Airtel will launch an 8 Mbps broadband service first in Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Delhi and the NCR with plans to introduce it to Mumbai and Hyderabad users in the next few weeks, reports Economic Times.
With current speeds ranging from 256 KBps to 4Mbps, Airtel will become the first service provider in the country to offer such high speed broadband service. The financial daily quotes P V V Srinivas Rao, Airtel’s Chief Marketing Officer, as saying that users will be able to download a 5 Mb music file in five seconds, compared to 160 seconds on a 256 kbps connection.
The price point could be around Rs 2,000 for a download of 7-8 Gbs. Tariff plans and product offerings are also being worked out to enable customers, who do not want a 24-hour eight mpbs speed but want them for certain applications or a short duration of time, to avail the new offering.
With current speeds ranging from 256 KBps to 4Mbps, Airtel will become the first service provider in the country to offer such high speed broadband service. The financial daily quotes P V V Srinivas Rao, Airtel’s Chief Marketing Officer, as saying that users will be able to download a 5 Mb music file in five seconds, compared to 160 seconds on a 256 kbps connection.
The price point could be around Rs 2,000 for a download of 7-8 Gbs. Tariff plans and product offerings are also being worked out to enable customers, who do not want a 24-hour eight mpbs speed but want them for certain applications or a short duration of time, to avail the new offering.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Fight against the ISP's
This is a mail from the broadbandforum and I am reproducing it here for everyone else’s benefit.
Dear Members,
On this forum, we ask each others’ help to solve our technical issues, we also vent our anger at the poor services the ISPs provide, we even philosophize about what we could and should have to make surfing the net a better and quicker experience…
… that said, we all know that the attitudes at ISPs towards us consumers need to change and their services desperately need to improve!
We are a large platform of more than 1000 active members who can all help make a difference.
I recommend watching this one man’s experience with TATA-indicom (VSNL) on CNN-IBN this Saturday (06.10.2007) at 6:30 PM. The show is called “All about money!” Ajoy Eric Lal ( ajoyericlal AT gmail DOT com ) has taken his case all the way up. It is now with TRAI and even an RTI application has been handed in demanding answers. He plans to take it even higher in his fight to improve things for all of us.
Let that episode inspire you to also start approaching your ISP formally and escalating your story up to TRAI, let it inspire you to form user groups that will take on ISPs and demand better services and let it inspire you all to help each other where it really matters.
If you feel that you can contribute to some decent service levels, escalate the matter straight to TRAI and complain about your ISP’s. The whole point is to make your ISP accountable and make them pay for the downtime, if any. Our fight for higher speeds would continue anyway. This movement should not slacken and I would request you all to forward this on the communities like facebook or orkut.
Cheers and it’s time to kick their sorry butts.
Source : broadbandblog.in
Dear Members,
On this forum, we ask each others’ help to solve our technical issues, we also vent our anger at the poor services the ISPs provide, we even philosophize about what we could and should have to make surfing the net a better and quicker experience…
… that said, we all know that the attitudes at ISPs towards us consumers need to change and their services desperately need to improve!
We are a large platform of more than 1000 active members who can all help make a difference.
I recommend watching this one man’s experience with TATA-indicom (VSNL) on CNN-IBN this Saturday (06.10.2007) at 6:30 PM. The show is called “All about money!” Ajoy Eric Lal ( ajoyericlal AT gmail DOT com ) has taken his case all the way up. It is now with TRAI and even an RTI application has been handed in demanding answers. He plans to take it even higher in his fight to improve things for all of us.
Let that episode inspire you to also start approaching your ISP formally and escalating your story up to TRAI, let it inspire you to form user groups that will take on ISPs and demand better services and let it inspire you all to help each other where it really matters.
If you feel that you can contribute to some decent service levels, escalate the matter straight to TRAI and complain about your ISP’s. The whole point is to make your ISP accountable and make them pay for the downtime, if any. Our fight for higher speeds would continue anyway. This movement should not slacken and I would request you all to forward this on the communities like facebook or orkut.
Cheers and it’s time to kick their sorry butts.
Source : broadbandblog.in
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Will Voice Be The “Killer App” For Internet In India?
There seems to be a palpable change in outlook on the Internet in India over the past couple of months. Over the past year, we’ve seen a number of startups being launched, some of them being funded, and much excitement in the Internet domain. Reports have given numbers of between 24 to 47 million Internet users (with figures like “ever Internet users” to fuel interest and hype), and we’ve tried to do our bit by hosing down ”irrational exuberance”; been called sceptics and cynics (among other things), but that comes with the territory.
Everyone appears to be waiting for a watershed event in India for Internet to take off - some kind of a miracle that will spark an increase in usage. Internet adoption has been inordinately slow, plagued by relatively high costs, poor infrastructure and connectivity, dependancy on relatively expensive and immobile (pun intended) PCs, extremely poor quality of service, among other things...is it surprising that we’re only adding around 70,000-90,000 broadband connections a month, compared to 7-8 million mobile connections? I hope to be proven wrong, but I sense that growth in number of Internet users will continue to be painfully slow, with no sudden spurt in number of connections.
More in the extended entry.
One solution appeared to be the opening up of the last mile, but that doesn’t seem to be a priority. Even if the last mile is opened up, one can’t expact broadband to take off with poor connectivity and abysmal quality of service. As reader Mobstir had mentioned in one of the posts - where’s the content? Rather - where’s the use case? Matrimonial and job sites have provided a use case to one segment, and I’m wondering if voice will be a use case for a larger group. Mint reports today that around 40 ISPs are awaiting the governments nod for allowing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls to terminate in Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTN) - i.e. landline and mobile. Currently, only telecom companies are allowed to do this, but have obviously not pushed the service since it impacts their mobile/landline revenues.
People won’t take to broadband just because of low cost calls, though they might do so for free calls. And mobile operators will oppose free VoIP calls. Another interesting segment in this domain includes those like Fring, which is a mobile IM which allows voice calls and chat over GPRS, 3G and WiFi. ISPs are already opposing the likes of Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Skype offering free VoIP calls, as will mobile operators once (if) Internet becomes more pervasive in India. That’s what happens when changes in technology threaten business built around expensive legacy infrastructure.
Everyone appears to be waiting for a watershed event in India for Internet to take off - some kind of a miracle that will spark an increase in usage. Internet adoption has been inordinately slow, plagued by relatively high costs, poor infrastructure and connectivity, dependancy on relatively expensive and immobile (pun intended) PCs, extremely poor quality of service, among other things...is it surprising that we’re only adding around 70,000-90,000 broadband connections a month, compared to 7-8 million mobile connections? I hope to be proven wrong, but I sense that growth in number of Internet users will continue to be painfully slow, with no sudden spurt in number of connections.
More in the extended entry.
One solution appeared to be the opening up of the last mile, but that doesn’t seem to be a priority. Even if the last mile is opened up, one can’t expact broadband to take off with poor connectivity and abysmal quality of service. As reader Mobstir had mentioned in one of the posts - where’s the content? Rather - where’s the use case? Matrimonial and job sites have provided a use case to one segment, and I’m wondering if voice will be a use case for a larger group. Mint reports today that around 40 ISPs are awaiting the governments nod for allowing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls to terminate in Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTN) - i.e. landline and mobile. Currently, only telecom companies are allowed to do this, but have obviously not pushed the service since it impacts their mobile/landline revenues.
People won’t take to broadband just because of low cost calls, though they might do so for free calls. And mobile operators will oppose free VoIP calls. Another interesting segment in this domain includes those like Fring, which is a mobile IM which allows voice calls and chat over GPRS, 3G and WiFi. ISPs are already opposing the likes of Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Skype offering free VoIP calls, as will mobile operators once (if) Internet becomes more pervasive in India. That’s what happens when changes in technology threaten business built around expensive legacy infrastructure.
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