Unlimited broadband plans: what is the future?

[mgcarley]

256 is the minimum speed considered in broadband by TRAI...well some people here are more then satisfied by MINIMUM..i used 512 in 2004 on connect dsl and found it ok but not very good..in 2008 i used 2 mbps on airtel,it was good but not very good...last month i used reliance broadband +,it was very good but not excellent......i am waiting for something better than very good...rates are very high and speed very low....AUR KATE PE NAMAK CHIDKANE COMPANIES LAYIN HAIN FAIR USAGE POLICY....

We're looking at fantastic speed, cheap prices and decent quotas. Although we will have something *like* an unlimited plan, how much you use will depend on how much you pay. I've just written some new thoughts about this very topic on the Hayai Broadband pricing thread.

The government has no budget problems, I guess.


So, I guess they must be buying wholesale bandwidth from either VSNL or Reliance.

They buy from all 3, actually. BSNL I know has at least one STM-64 connection (or was recently tendering for one) which is just under 10GBits - how much bandwidth at other providers they have, I don't know from the top of my head.

 

[svagyan]

What's the possibility of a "bandwidth-hours" pricing scheme being introduced by someone?For example, if I buy 300 units, then if I want to visit Youtube, I can use it at 2Mbps for 20 hours (40 units), for some heavy downloads, 8Mbps for 10 hours (80 units) + 512kbps for 360 hours (180 units). Of course, there'll be a validity period, depending on how many units you buy. Bundled usage could be 30% capacity, so 12GB per 100 units, with the ability to buy additional traffic in blocks.The above may be a bit confusing for novices, but seasoned users should be willing and happy with such flexibility.

 

[iChaitanya]

They buy from all 3, actually. BSNL I know has at least one STM-64 connection (or was recently tendering for one) which is just under 10GBits - how much bandwidth at other providers they have, I don't know from the top of my head.

Thanks for the info.

 

[mgcarley]

What's the possibility of a "bandwidth-hours" pricing scheme being introduced by someone?

For example, if I buy 300 units, then if I want to visit Youtube, I can use it at 2Mbps for 20 hours (40 units), for some heavy downloads, 8Mbps for 10 hours (80 units) + 512kbps for 360 hours (180 units). Of course, there'll be a validity period, depending on how many units you buy. Bundled usage could be 30% capacity, so 12GB per 100 units, with the ability to buy additional traffic in blocks.

The above may be a bit confusing for novices, but seasoned users should be willing and happy with such flexibility.

The billing on that would be fairly complicated, I expect. The ISPs already have enough trouble with billing as it is!

The thing is, as I've outlined in some of my own threads, it's not the *speed* that costs to provide, it's the DATA - whether I send you 1GB at 512k or at 8Mbits or even 100Mbits, it's still going to cost me X-rupees per GB.

Airtel has this Speed on Demand system - if you have a 1Mbits plan, I think you can set it to 2Mbits for an hour or 2 for like Rs100 in order to get the data down more quickly. Is that what you're talking about?

(Sidenote: We won't have such a system: we're eliminating speed tiers altogether on most plans and just providing raw unadulterated bandwidth for your consumption as you require it. Need 1GB of data? 90 seconds and it's done...)

 

[svagyan]

The billing on that would be fairly complicated, I expect.

It's prepaid, so no billing hassles. You are buying units of bandwidth-hours and traffic, and then using the service. It's adaptive in real-time i.e. if you run into a traffic limit, buy additional traffic; if the speed is slow, buy more units and use them at a higher rate. Maybe, it's not in the best interests of an ISP for the user to optimize their net bill, but I think such a system could spur greater demand by allowing selectively faster yet affordable access to consumers (rather than having to choose between a cheap but slow fixed-speed plan and a fast expensive fixed-speed plan, both with rigid data limits). The Airtel facility is limited and the pricing was ridiculous last time I checked (120/hr for 2Mbps); Tata prepaid offers 4Mbps for 23/hr.

 

[saurabh28]

even cable walla in our area provides 150kbps (unlimited) @ Rs.420/- :thumbsup:whereas Reliance provides 75kbps (unlimited) @ Rs.400/- :wall: almost half speed :wall:

 

[mgcarley]

It's prepaid, so no billing hassles. You are buying units of bandwidth-hours and traffic, and then using the service. It's adaptive in real-time i.e. if you run into a traffic limit, buy additional traffic; if the speed is slow, buy more units and use them at a higher rate. Maybe, it's not in the best interests of an ISP for the user to optimize their net bill, but I think such a system could spur greater demand by allowing selectively faster yet affordable access to consumers (rather than having to choose between a cheap but slow fixed-speed plan and a fast expensive fixed-speed plan, both with rigid data limits). The Airtel facility is limited and the pricing was ridiculous last time I checked (120/hr for 2Mbps); Tata prepaid offers 4Mbps for 23/hr.

It might seem ridiculous, but at 2Mbps you can move 1GB in an hour, which costs a whole Rs15 or thereabouts to Airtel! (before margins, tax and overheads, that is...)

I quite disagree about users being able to optimize their net bill - in fact, I'm all for it. But the mentality in this country is one of restraint. If we just leave the taps wide-open 24x7 at no extra cost, what use is there for a service which "lets" you increase your speed for a small additional fee for that hour or 2?

Alliance Broadband Services Pvt. Ltd.

Alliance Broadband Services Pvt. Ltd.

These guys in Kolkata offer outstanding packages at incredible rates.From what I've gathered from my friends, the speed is exactly what they promise to give and that too with minimal downtime and a reliable after-sales service. If a small company like Alliance can offer such packages, why can't the big honchos like BSNL/Airtel/Tata/Reliance/MTNL etc offer somewhat similar packages, which is beneficial to us. The closest to these are the Airtel prices. Damn..someone should give these idiots a wake up call.

The only negative with them are that they are dependent on the local cablewalls and often a dispute between the two leads to the darned cablewallah shifting to absolutely horrible isp's like net4India,sify and others. I had immensely enjoyed the alliance broadband connection for a period of 3 years, but sadly had to shift to BSNL because of the above mentioned dispute. Presently Alliance caters to quite a few areas of Kolkata and are in the process of expanding to wider areas as far as I've heard.Personally, I would really like someone to come up with a pricing structure similar to theirs. At least the base plans of 2mbps-4mbps should be absolutely unlimited and then the fair usage policy can kick in for the plans with higher speeds. Is it too difficult for the bigger companies to implement?

We're planning to give these idiots a wake up call: all of the guys I've spoken to in the industry (at Tata, Bharti and Reliance alike) go bug-eyed when I tell them we're doing 100Mbit residential connections

The problem with unlimited in this country (and the necessary evil of FUPs) is that of the high-cost of bandwidth and the even higher cost of peering in India. I've already described these in great detail on other threads, specifically this one and this one.

I've heard of Alliance, but I've not heard many reviews. Yours sounds promising, and I hope my customers are as fanatic about us as you are of them.

even cable walla in our area provides 150kbps (unlimited) @ Rs.420/- :thumbsup:
whereas Reliance provides 75kbps (unlimited) @ Rs.400/- :wall: almost half speed :wall:

Thats... pretty... sad.

 

[saurabh28]

Thats... pretty... sad.

What is that?

 

[icycool25]

^^ The fact that Reliance is providing only 75 Kbps Unlimited @ Rs.400 pm. Look properly, the poster has replied to a "quote". So obviously the feelings are meant for the post in the "quote".

 

[saurabh28]

^^Also Replied to cable walla