Airtel Broadband to double broadband speeds by June 2010 #airtelsucks
- Thread starter AjayJP
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And therein lies your conundrum. You're damned if you do & damned if you don't.
Airtel seem to be completely Bi-Polar... every 9 months they'll do a huge push for customers by offering decent plans, then drive them all away 9 months later by offering shit plans.
And it's not like they have no spare international capacity, nor even domestic capacity - SMW4 is under 40% utilization and that's only ~10% of what they have available in total.
They (Airtel) need to make a decision:
1. Do they want to keep existing customers and do they want to grow?
or
2. Do they just want to gain customers for a few months so they can boast things like 100,000,000 customers and then piss everyone off by introducing newer better (for who??) tariffs?
I mean WTF... even I'm losing track of their business strategy.
Agree with your comment MC. Airtel is pissing all of us off. What I really wonder is that if the chief Sunil Mittal knows about the wireline broadband scenario, or is it the broadband CEO level strategy? Having read so much about him and his aggressive management skills, it doesnt seem like he even knows about this side of the business. Or else, we would be using the unutilised capacity maybe for all I know. The guy has earned a huge place in the world telecom space, with Airtel having been ranked as one of the top 10 IT adopted companies in the Forbes/Fortune lists. It uses the best tech available on the planet for GSM services and outsources the software side to the likes of IBM and servicing thru Alcatel. This 1mbps to double upgrade thing not happening is a total let down. My hunch now says that a large no. of existing customers with 1 Mbps are going to get the call sometime in July with maybe a carrot saying "if you can pay 100 rupees(or onwards) as top up, your speed goes double..." kind of thing. The new rates and the FUP is pathetic anyways, didn't expect this kind of behavior from Airtel.
Airtel seem to be completely Bi-Polar... every 9 months they'll do a huge push for customers by offering decent plans, then drive them all away 9 months later by offering shit plans.
And it's not like they have no spare international capacity, nor even domestic capacity - SMW4 is under 40% utilization and that's only ~10% of what they have available in total.
They (Airtel) need to make a decision:
1. Do they want to keep existing customers and do they want to grow?
or
2. Do they just want to gain customers for a few months so they can boast things like 100,000,000 customers and then piss everyone off by introducing newer better (for who??) tariffs?
I mean WTF... even I'm losing track of their business strategy.
Agree with your comment MC. Airtel is pissing all of us off. What I really wonder is that if the chief Sunil Mittal knows about the wireline broadband scenario, or is it the broadband CEO level strategy? Having read so much about him and his aggressive management skills, it doesnt seem like he even knows about this side of the business. Or else, we would be using the unutilised capacity maybe for all I know. The guy has earned a huge place in the world telecom space, with Airtel having been ranked as one of the top 10 IT adopted companies in the Forbes/Fortune lists. It uses the best tech available on the planet for GSM services and outsources the software side to the likes of IBM and servicing thru Alcatel. This 1mbps to double upgrade thing not happening is a total let down. My hunch now says that a large no. of existing customers with 1 Mbps are going to get the call sometime in July with maybe a carrot saying "if you can pay 100 rupees(or onwards) as top up, your speed goes double..." kind of thing. The new rates and the FUP is pathetic anyways, didn't expect this kind of behavior from Airtel.
mgcarley
Founder, Hayai Broadband
Agree with your comment MC. Airtel is pissing all of us off.
See, this is the kind of stuff I need to show your politicians why India needs us
What I really wonder is that if the chief Sunil Mittal knows about the wireline broadband scenario, or is it the broadband CEO level strategy? Having read so much about him and his aggressive management skills, it doesnt seem like he even knows about this side of the business.
He maybe knows but can he control it is the question. That said, it seems that Airtel does want to focus more on mobile and/or mobile broadband than fixed line stuff. Not entirely surprising considering the situation on the ground. It isn't easy laying cables to everyone's houses without someone interfering.
Or else, we would be using the unutilised capacity maybe for all I know.
I'm not sure why they aren't simply light up another 100-200Gbit/s either. On all of their cables, for that matter. In my opinion, Airtel has the capacity to be #1, but they're being stingy. If they concentrated on what is good for the customer (better FUPs or the removal thereof), they could potentially overtake BSNL/MTNL in the areas which they currently cover.
And it can't be equipment... equipment isn't prohibitively expensive - it might seem so on the surface because we're talking about US$300,000 or more per unit, but considering these units are built to handle something like 500,000 customers, that works out to about Rs25 per customer - one time fee!
The guy has earned a huge place in the world telecom space, with Airtel having been ranked as one of the top 10 IT adopted companies in the Forbes/Fortune lists. It uses the best tech available on the planet for GSM services and outsources the software side to the likes of IBM and servicing thru Alcatel.
Alcatel will contract to anyone - Telecom NZ just had a major screwup on their new network which they're blaming on Alcatel. I'd say however that it is not the fault of Alcatel but the fault of Telecom NZ, simply because the outages also affected customers who were not on the new network.
This 1mbps to double upgrade thing not happening is a total let down. My hunch now says that a large no. of existing customers with 1 Mbps are going to get the call sometime in July with maybe a carrot saying "if you can pay 100 rupees(or onwards) as top up, your speed goes double..." kind of thing.
I would have imagined that they could simply change the software profiles within their routers or within the DSLAMs to upgrade everyones speeds... perhaps they have to do it exchange-by-exchange or something.
The new rates and the FUP is pathetic anyways, didn't expect this kind of behavior from Airtel.
All things considered, the new FUPs are definitely a step in the wrong direction. I can't say I'm surprised at Airtels behaviour but I likewise would not have expected it if for no other reason than they've basically upgraded their cable capacities by several Tbit/s in the last year.
Tell me Airtel, what's the point of laying these half-Billion-dollar cables if you're NOT GONNA USE THEM? They have serviceable lifespans of only 20-25 years anyway... I say fill the buggers up or give us better prices so that we can!!
See, this is the kind of stuff I need to show your politicians why India needs us
What I really wonder is that if the chief Sunil Mittal knows about the wireline broadband scenario, or is it the broadband CEO level strategy? Having read so much about him and his aggressive management skills, it doesnt seem like he even knows about this side of the business.
He maybe knows but can he control it is the question. That said, it seems that Airtel does want to focus more on mobile and/or mobile broadband than fixed line stuff. Not entirely surprising considering the situation on the ground. It isn't easy laying cables to everyone's houses without someone interfering.
Or else, we would be using the unutilised capacity maybe for all I know.
I'm not sure why they aren't simply light up another 100-200Gbit/s either. On all of their cables, for that matter. In my opinion, Airtel has the capacity to be #1, but they're being stingy. If they concentrated on what is good for the customer (better FUPs or the removal thereof), they could potentially overtake BSNL/MTNL in the areas which they currently cover.
And it can't be equipment... equipment isn't prohibitively expensive - it might seem so on the surface because we're talking about US$300,000 or more per unit, but considering these units are built to handle something like 500,000 customers, that works out to about Rs25 per customer - one time fee!
The guy has earned a huge place in the world telecom space, with Airtel having been ranked as one of the top 10 IT adopted companies in the Forbes/Fortune lists. It uses the best tech available on the planet for GSM services and outsources the software side to the likes of IBM and servicing thru Alcatel.
Alcatel will contract to anyone - Telecom NZ just had a major screwup on their new network which they're blaming on Alcatel. I'd say however that it is not the fault of Alcatel but the fault of Telecom NZ, simply because the outages also affected customers who were not on the new network.
This 1mbps to double upgrade thing not happening is a total let down. My hunch now says that a large no. of existing customers with 1 Mbps are going to get the call sometime in July with maybe a carrot saying "if you can pay 100 rupees(or onwards) as top up, your speed goes double..." kind of thing.
I would have imagined that they could simply change the software profiles within their routers or within the DSLAMs to upgrade everyones speeds... perhaps they have to do it exchange-by-exchange or something.
The new rates and the FUP is pathetic anyways, didn't expect this kind of behavior from Airtel.
All things considered, the new FUPs are definitely a step in the wrong direction. I can't say I'm surprised at Airtels behaviour but I likewise would not have expected it if for no other reason than they've basically upgraded their cable capacities by several Tbit/s in the last year.
Tell me Airtel, what's the point of laying these half-Billion-dollar cables if you're NOT GONNA USE THEM? They have serviceable lifespans of only 20-25 years anyway... I say fill the buggers up or give us better prices so that we can!!
mgcarley
Founder, Hayai Broadband
this is hilarious considering they are not even offering brilliant plans to corporates from what i know...
We've been approached by a network of schools currently served by Airtel... the cry coming from India is tempting me that I should just smuggle some CPEs in my suitcase
We've been approached by a network of schools currently served by Airtel... the cry coming from India is tempting me that I should just smuggle some CPEs in my suitcase
mgcarley
Founder, Hayai Broadband
haha. well i hope you can resolve that issue fast or at least find an indian supplier that can provide the same kind of equipment you want at reasonable prices.
Price isn't really an object but manufacturers of FTTx equipment are a little rare.
Price isn't really an object but manufacturers of FTTx equipment are a little rare.
mgcarley
Founder, Hayai Broadband
well i guess you might be able to find suppliers if you have enough demand for them. 
but then you would have tried everything already.
We want to start off with 10,000 devices for this year. But what I fear is 1. Getting equipment that doesn't work and 2. Making an agreement with a supplier and then having them not be able to deliver anything. That Gigabit requirement from our side has been a bit of a hurdle, but might as well start off with better equipment than have to upgrade almost immediately after launch.
but then you would have tried everything already.We want to start off with 10,000 devices for this year. But what I fear is 1. Getting equipment that doesn't work and 2. Making an agreement with a supplier and then having them not be able to deliver anything. That Gigabit requirement from our side has been a bit of a hurdle, but might as well start off with better equipment than have to upgrade almost immediately after launch.
