Tuesday, October 19, 2004

India: Broadband, Indo Mail and Open Sky

Last time I heard, Pakistan's broadband policy was to be announced two weeks ago. But what do PR managers for the Minister of IT know, eh? ;~) If you've seen any news confirming anything about the policy, do comment.

Meanwhile, the Indian broadband policy is serious about spreading the 'always-on' bug and getting 'Indo-Mail' back to India. Thanks to my friend Murali for the pointer.

From The Hindu news item of Saturday: "The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will monitor the speed offered by the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and consumers can cite the broadband policy and take the ISPs to court if the speed is less than the minimum of 256 kbps. 'There was no broadband and no classification. We were stuck at the dial-up network stage. My feeling is that people using dial-up will migrate to the `always-on' 256 kbps. They are paying Rs. 1,000 per month for low Internet speeds. Our initiatives will bring higher speeds for less than Rs. 500 per month.' The broadband policy has also attempted to cut through red tape. VSAT dish owners can start operations one month after all the documents are submitted for approval."

5 comments:

Teeth Maestro said...

Personally I think it just might be a fantasy dream to imagine that the Govt might move away from its cutback's and pass along a solid policy - there is always so much grey area (perfect place for cutbacks) that the users NEVER see daylight.

India I agree has a solid policy and you see the effects in the overall Indian Economy, Pakistan has to realize and reform our goal should be jsut like India - Internet in each and every home.

Who cares about making Internet cities in Khi, Lhr and Isb. I think we desperately need to look at the High Speed rates and imporve the dial-up speeds. Bring out something that is cheap enough that, at the minimum, any middle class person can get the high speed line - once you accomplish that then you can worry about restructuring the policy.

Im no expert so dont take me up on my words - Peace out

shobz said...

we need a good broadband policy. i envy my friend in chennai. he gets to pay 1200 bucks a month for a 1 mb dsl connection. why do we have to suffer????????????? why cant the government understand that people arent that stupid? its not as broadband is like fool's gold. its out there. all we need is a frickin policy which would remove all the stupid redtape and allow everyone to benefit. i fail to understand their limited thinking.

Zunaira said...

Doom and gloom, AllahBaba? Anything new?

Totally agree with you ref. ISPs not offering adequate dial-up. Cyber gives 50.0kbps rarely. I end up with 38 to 40.0 most times. Beyond that would feel like broadband ;~)

Teeth Maestro said...

Merlinx - an outstanding break down on the actual numbers - what SPIDER should actually do is something like a live polling of the connection speed for each ISP and then compile an overall ranking on the different ISP - almost like a BP on which service provider is providing a better service (be it speed or customer care) - In their sales pitch they all brag that they are the best but you never find out until you actually walk down tornado alley.

Zunaira said...

Yep, Spider should be doing all that and more.