Why broadband sucks in India...

[shankey_1919]

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:

 

[Sushubh]

please do check the rates of mobile services in the US and compare them with india.

 

[shankey_1919]

For mobile services, call costs in India range from Rs 0.50 to 1 among different operators while in the US it costs around 20 cents which is Rs. 8.4 . A person in India who uses his mobile frequently can have his bill around Rs. 800 a month whereas a person in the US pays Rs. 1200 eventhough he doesn't make much calls. Sorry about the link to prices at verizon wireless. The link changes continuously so I am not able to provide the exact link.

 

[Prakash2004]

Also note that in India we don't get free phone but in US/UK depending on the tariff plan they get free phone(or at a discounted price), so their call rate will be a bit higher than ours.Also their mobile operators provide 3.5G services at a reasonable price, because of this their broadband providers must have better tariff plans than the mobile operators.I really hope that we get 3.5G service with a reasonable unlimited data transfer price in India soon lets see how many years we have to wait....

 

[sushant.surfer]

Corporates=corruption and cheating.

 

[mirzarocx]

I do agree with the point that broadband is crap in india. I have lived in London and used to pay 10 pounds (around Rs 750) per month for British Telecom unlimited broadband. My speed was 10 mbps!!!Compare this to my speed in india!!

 

---

[bob]

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.

 

[Deleted member 7160]

But the voice quality in the US is just fantastic, compared to India..When I was in US last year, I could even hear the baby crying in the 1st floor.. and absolutely no calls drop..

 

[svagyan]

Unlike the US, Indian consumers don't need the Internet that much. I think the predominantly middle-class makeup of the forum members here obscures the needs of the Indian market. The US has a much higher per-capita income, much better telecom infrastructure, and is still the hub of technological innovation and adoption, even including Western Europe and Korea/Japan. The mobile phone vs. broadband economic comparison isn't instructive, because mobile phones are simply a very convenient substitute for an already established essential technology in a modern society i.e. communication. The internet, on the other hand, is like a new shiny toy (historically speaking) and no fundamental part of social existence in India depends on the internet, especially a broadband connection. Once household computer penetration crosses a threshold and there's a decent presence of online services geared towards Indians, then broadband will become economical. Of course, this is partly a chicken & egg problem. I'd say, give it another 5-6 years.

 

[Sushubh]

you are mistaken my friend.

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.

cheap availability of internet is required to entice the unconnected people in our country to get a PC and get connected.

how useful a computer is to a family if it is not connected to the web? it would end up being a gaming machine or an eye sore.

---------- Post added at 08:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:34 PM ----------

airtel is being a douche for claiming that customers are being unfair if they use too much of their connection.

they claim it is mostly due to p2p and video sharing. what is wrong in either of them?

why is it wrong for me to continue watching youtube hosted videos day and night?

who are they to claim what i can and cannot do with my computer and an internet connection?

anyone who thinks that broadband is not a basic necessity today for anyone living in india is wrong.

 

[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