Too Stubborn to Retract on the Part of the Governmment Maybe to Afraid of Speaking More on the Subject !

P.S. I Use a Wireless Connection From Local Provider Network Apex on Sify ISP’s a 256 kbps paying 1000 Rs. Reasonable seeing its wireless & Compared to the Wired Dsl rates but still poor to the foriegn Nationals especially to Scandinavian Countires too Sad from 7.5 million indian users Dont know and thus dont care for the Speeds of the Internet connection they are to happy with Orkut maybe popularity of Youtube maybe an eyeopener to them !?

Come on OM. This is India. You very well know it!

They never even give the promised speed. It is a shame that these carriers ask for a “1st world price” for a “3rd world service”.

Thanks for carrying the story. Here are some of my views about the arguments advanced by the apologists citing there is no un-limited free lunch.

-Tarun

Players like Tata Indicom, Reliance and Airtel are worse with several shady plans strewn around like manholes on an unlit road, you can easily walk into them if you are not looking hard enough. And sadly, TRAI does not seem to have the internet on its priority list at all.

I believe its other way around. US is following India on this. India has metered broadband from very start so your article is very confusing.

However Airtel offers the best rates and service quality. Other players include Reliance, BSNL/MTNL and Tata Indicom but they either don’t have unlimited plans or have higher priced plans than Aairtel. BSNL does have a 256 Kbps unlimited plan for Rs 700 ($14) though.

I cant see these guys getting away with this.Using the word unlimited here is false advertising. TRAI Consumer protections are pretty strong, and I for one will be making a complaint on their website.

Bandwidth caps are counterproductive in a country where few people(I think the number is 8 million as opposed to 75 million with internet enabled cell service) are using the internet on a PC. The selling point for these guys should be see how much you can do, instead of see how little you can do. At limits of a couple of GB all im going to be able to is check my email and basic surfing. So the argument becomes why would someone use the broadband internet on the PC instead of a cell phone, when the stuff I can do is about the same.

The situation is risen due to lack of competition, compounded by almost non existent landline infrastructure created by private players. And then, there is are cable networks who only started deploying optic fibre and digital cable over the past few years. The last mile of the cable operators network is still owned by untrained and unscrupulous small sub operators who see little benefit in upgrading their systems as long as network is working adequately for delivering cable.

And ofcourse, international bandwidth is not cheap, thanks to government policies that resulted in creation of what certainly looks like a cartel in bandwidth supply.

I switched from a 3 mbps plan, since I kept exceeding the 2.5 GB monthly limit, to an unlimited 192 kbps plan (yes, they call 192 kbps “broadband”!), and yet I notice my download bandwidth being throttled quite often, especially with certain sites.

I can’t wait to get back to the US where internet plans are still affordable and not considered a luxury.