Why broadband sucks in India...

[svagyan]

india needs the broadband revolution to stay competitive in the global environment.

broadband is what fuels the IT industry.

broadband is what fuels the BPO and KPO industry.

a lot of people are employed due to various industries which are totally dependent upon reliable internet connectivity.

You are talking about business; I'm not talking of the large or mid-sized business sector, but the Indian consumer. There isn't vigorous enough demand at present, irrespective of whether there should be. Managers and strategists may plandream all they want, but the market has to make the major move.

 

[Sushubh]

i am talking about people like me. who work from home. have international clients. we work totally from home and internet is the only raw material that is required.and i am not alone doing that. go to any site where contract works are given out like rentacoder and others. you would find thousands of indians who work from home totally relying on their internet connections. this is just a small minority.

 

[Topweb]

Once upon a time or say till 2001, cellphones were sold by Airtel and Hutch as symbols of Lifestyle. I remember the punchline for Airtel's ads in newspapers and magazines was:"THE GOOD LIFE". So Airtel was selling its Rs. 16.5 per minutes for both incoming and outgoing calls service as a something meant for the rich people to enjoy. Please note that cellphone service was not even promoted as something to help businesses but it was promoted as some costly wine to be enjoyed by the filthy rich. That is until MTNL and BSNL entered the market in 2002 and BJP government of that time moved aggressively to ensure entry of new private players (read Reliance and Tata) and the pricing dynamics for mobile phone industry chaged forever. Now calls were significantly cheaper and Airtel changed its ads to one in which a rickshaw puller was shown using a cellphone. Reliance was showing ads on TV with fishermen using a cellphone. That is how a competent government changed a industry. Now a vast majority of cellphone users in our country are in small towns and villages and are paying some of the lowest prices in the world for a service that they could not have imagined 7-8 years ago.So coming back to the opening post, why broadband sucks in India?Broadband in India sucks because current Indian government sucks. Our telecom minister A. Raja sucks because he is sitting on 3G spectrum auction for last 2-3 years. Basically he is helping current monopolies in looting the customers by not allowing 3G auctions to happen. Remember with 3G auctions, 4 slots of wimax spectrum are also to be auctioned in each circle. So when 4 wimax operators enter the market with wireless broadband service, prices of the service will fall. Wimax operators may not be able to provide solid service due to limitations of wimax technology but they can start a price war nevertheless and price wars always help the customers.So it all comes down to the government of the country. We don't have any government or governance in our country. Unless that change, we are destined to enjoy 256 kbps unlimited connections limited by FUP.

 

[Bleach]

Both mobile telephony and broadband in India are growing at a rapid pace. Mobile telephony is a very competitive place and the call rates have decreased nearly ten fold during the last decade. Though broadband cost has also decreased it really is very very costly when compared to the rest of the world. Mobile call rates in India are very competitive. I need not tell you call rates of different operators in India. When you compare the USA which India recently overtook as the second largest user of mobile phones, call rates in India are much cheaper.

Check this link:

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/splash/splash.jsp?v=1&lid=//global//plans//voice+plans//individual

( verizon wireless is a famous mobile service provider in the US )

You see that call tariffs in India are much much cheaper. :thumbsup:

But when coming to broadband, tariffs in India are much much higher. A typical 256 kbps ( not kBps ) unlimited connection costs Rs. 900 today. A 512 kbps connection costs Rs. 1500. For a 2 mbps connection you end up paying nearly Rs. 5000 to 8000 which is an extravagent price considering the quality and speed. :wall:

A fast broadband connection in the US is much much cheaper.

Check the links:

Verizon | Verizon High Speed Internet Plans


Verizon | FiOS Internet Packages and Prices

You will see that broadband prices in the US are much much cheaper. 2 mbps connection in india costs Rs. 5000 whereas a 3 mbps connection in the US costs Rs. 1260 ( in rupee terms )

Consider a man in India earning 20,000 per month. When he goes to the US he earns atleast 80,000 ( in rupee terms ) which is 4 fold. So it would be correct if a thing in India costs 4 times lower than a similar thing in the US. So a 3 mbps connection should cost Rs. 315 but in reality all the ISPs in India cost us Rs. 6000 ( approx ) for a similar connection. Thus according to people's purchsing power broadband in India costs 19 times higher than it ought to cost. But India is the IT super power. :ashamed:

I just wrote this to let you know about the broadband in India when compared to other countries.

What do think is the reason for bad broadband services in India?
Are you happy with your ISP service?
Are you happy with the broadband tariffs in India?
Are you happy with the customer service they provide you?
Do you think broadband in India will improve. If so what timeframe will you give for a good service in India?

Please give in your comments...:redface:
For your first question I would say that "let's blame it on the IT ministers for not progressing or not letting it progress. They have crippled the entire system. We have enough money and power and infrastructure to provide quality broadband service and they can also reduce the price as well of the tariff plans but NO they won't do that cause if they do that then how can they make profits and eat all the remaining money, right"?

For all your question my answer to it is "NO" !!

 

[netant]

.......... we are destined to enjoy 256 kbps unlimited connections limited by FUP.

yes brother , FUP = F'ked Up Plans :hysterical:
even so call unlimited, is not an "unlimited" anymore

 

[westwoodwizard]

all i got to say is Corruption

i've been on the internet for 6 years now and out of this 6 years 4 were from a cyber cafe and 2 years on my own PC. and all these 6 years i just learn 1 thing, internet in India sure sucks big time.

i'm so jealous of the other people with whom i chat on msn who live in the US, China, Europe, etc. first of all they all dont have any connection below the 1mbps mark. In india they can't even make the minimum speed as 512kbps.

verizon, virgin, BT, etc offer great speeds. just compare the speeds given above in the verizon link.

Download up to 1 Mbps / Upload up to 384 Kbps - $17.99/month (with Phone)

thats comes to around Rs. 810/month. for this amount we don't get a 512kbps connection here in India.

Download up to 7.1 Mbps / Upload up to 768 Kbps - $37.99/month (with Phone)

thats around Rs. 1710/month. LOL we dont get a 2 mbps line here for that price.

moreover all of the plans are unlimited there. if internet in India has to improve first they got to remove the limit cap.

apples and oranges analysis?

First of all, if you don't like the price of broadband in India, don't buy it. Your economy and history have not depended on it the way the US has.

Second, who invented the internet and paid for it? The US Department of Defense and where did they get the money from? We the American taxpayer. The Internet is 40 years old and many of us have been using it much longer than you. So, don't complain about something that was handed to you for free.

Thirdly, if you do not like the price of broadband, do something about the overall infrastructure in your country like spend some money. Since 1900, we the American taxpayer have spent more than a trillion dollars (2009 dollars) on infrastructure including telecommunications. It is obvious in India you have neither spent the money nor have had the same technological drive as the Americans.

Fourth, stop surfing US websites if you do not like the cost of broadband in India because you do not have much capacity in your connections to the United States. Alternatively, you the Indian taxpayer or consumer should spend billions of dollars laying cables to the United States if you want cheaper broadband and at the same time want to surf and download our content.

Finally, just think about that cheap healthcare system you have in India which only costs you 72 billions dollars per year (per capita $60) while we in America spend 2.5 trillion dollars (per capita $8333). Think about that cheap university education you have in India also compared to what we spend in the USA. So you have no perspective on relative costs. Your total expenditures on all goods and services whether necessary or not is less than $500 billion. We spend 5 times that on healthcare alone.

Basically, we in America have invested the money in developing our infrastructure so that we could benefit from technology while you guys in India want the technology handed to you for free and then complain about the cost of the services within your country. You never think about all of the other costs that went into those technologies and of course our prices are lower since those technologies belong to us and we have used them much longer and for more things.

Oh...there is no such thing as unlimited data. Everybody has a limit. If you download constantly 24 hours a day 7 days a week for a month you will have downloaded a finite amount...not unlimited. If you do what I just described, you will receive a letter from Verizon stating that the usage is inconsistent with normal usage. In other words, read the terms of service carefully...it is basically a contract...it is not unlimited.

I do agree that broadband in India sucks...just keep it in relative perspective.

 

[Sushubh]

we get internet handed to us for free! wow.

 

[westwoodwizard]

we get internet handed to us for free! wow.

Well...there was actually more to the post than just that point but yes India made no financial or intellectual contribution to the development of ARPANET/Internet nor did India pay for it when the technology was transferred to her by the United States.

 

[Sushubh]

heh. if you are going to describe that as a free gift... i guess india gave you ZERO and lot more. if every country starts claiming 'rights' over the inventions and discoveries... its going to get a lot more insane.

 

[westwoodwizard]

heh. if you are going to describe that as a free gift... i guess india gave you ZERO and lot more.

if every country starts claiming 'rights' over the inventions and discoveries... its going to get a lot more insane.

1. To your immediate point, the short reply is I agree with you. We can take this back to the origin of mathematics and science and end up giving much credit to the civilizations of India and China for today's technology. But, the connection between those ancient times and today's technologies developed by the United States such as the Internet and GPS is not that direct...there were quite a few evolutionary steps in the chain.

2. The theme of the post was relative perspective. Far too often analysis of such matters by Indians in India seems to have limited perspective. I do not see much depth or critical thinking in their analysis such as when discussing the "cost" of something.