I have checked all your threads and website and everything makes excellent
business sense to me and hopefully you would be a lot better than BSNL, MTNL, Airtel or anybody else especially for high usage users. But I want to ask a few questions:
1. When will you launch in Delhi? And which areas of Delhi will you cover?
Yes, but Delhi proper is a mess. Even Gurgaon and Noida will happen before Delhi, but they're also messy, despite being "planned" cities... NCR is a huge challenge (possibly even more so than Mumbai, which is comparatively compact in it's geographical size, but also because NCR covers 3 telecom circles which creates administrative problems to a certain degree as well), so we're approaching that region with caution.
2. Will your network be like proper
ADSL broadband or will it be sort of a cable network. I am asking this because I have used Sify Broadband in the past which is somewhat of a cable broadband sort of network. And one big problem I faced with Sify was that they had virus in the network and I was bombarded by virus in those days and had a terrible time. And there used to be problems like their connections going off during hot summer days or during cold season or if someone touched their line etc. So, will the connection be similar to Sify broadband as you have also mentioned about login and internal network like it used to be with Sify. If that is the case then will it be virus free or can the whole internal network be affected by virus as it happened with Sify.
We are building an FTTH network. You should not encounter virus problems on our network unless you download something from another user. We are not currently planning to use DSL at all because it is not cost-effective to build in to a new network.
3. Will all your lines all over India be optical fibre networks or would it depend on the area etc.
At this time we have no plans to use copper because, although marginally cheaper, is not so much cheaper that it's "worth" doing - as in, using copper might save just a few rupees per month, but the performance hit would be significant.
4. I read that you provide your own
router. So, can I not use my own router. As you might know, wireless security is a big security issue here in India with misuse etc. and so I always keep my Wifi highly secured by configuring my
Netgear router properly. It would be great if you allow your customers to use their own router too.
There's nothing stopping you from plugging your own WiFi router in to our CPE, but our WiFi-enabled CPEs come standard with WPA2 and we're trying to get hotspot functionality built in (meaning anyone connecting to WiFi would use his own account credentials and have his own VLAN - meaning if someone connected to your WiFi AP, they would have to use their own account, therefore not contributing to your data usage)... of course, if we can't get that built in to the CPEs, then we will be putting WiFi hotspots around for that purpose anyway as part of a separate service.
5. What is a SME connection and how is it different from a flat rate home connection.
SME is intended for small businesses with 1-10 seats. We will not provide a residential connection to a business premises, nor will we bill a residential connection to a business.
6. How good is the privacy in the network. I do many financial transactions through the internet being a webmaster. So, how good is the privacy and if your network is internal network sort of thing then is there a chance that the bank details or other password details etc. will be logged in your system or accessed by other users or your customer representatives etc.
The same or better. Between your CPE and the OLT, traffic is encrypted by default with AES, but if you're doing financial transactions then this would be up to the website to use 128-bit or bettwe SSL encryption anyway and would be the same as any other internet connection. If your information gets stolen, it's more likely that you have malware including a keylogger installed or a man-in-the-middle attack is being performed on that site than anyone "listening in" to your traffic specifically. Excepting the government, of course.
Overall your network and plans sound great and I would be very interested in your first flat rate plan and might shift to the area in Delhi/Greater Noida to avail your service when I move to Delhi.
Please answer my questions above as that would probably important questions for webmasters, online traders or other users who need security and privacy for business needs.
For SMEs our day flat-rate might suit, since they're designed to be used during business hours... kind of the opposite of the residential night flat-rate option.
To be frank enough, even Guwahati, Assam might be a very good market as it is developing quite fast and BSNL has virtually no competition as there are no other big players here.
It's these areas that interest us quite a lot, but in many cases the challenge is getting (buying or building) good infrastructure there.
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