01.11.07

Broadband woes. Solutions anyboy?

Posted in Miscellaneous, Technology at 7:34 am by PuneTalks

I have been one of those early adopters of Internet technology in India ever since VSNL introduced it at Rs. 15,000 per year. Since then the progress to the broadband speeds has been slow in coming but a welcome one. It is also fairly valued. Still, we as consumers must demand better, faster, cheaper, more reliable services. More importantly, the lacunae in these services must be pointed out so these PSU babus don’t take us for a ride! Being in Pune hailed as our answer to Bangalore, it is even more obligatory to keep vigilent as consumers of modern technology. So here’s my list of woes with Broadband:

(1) The specified, rated and marketed speeds are a mis-represented. The definition of Broadband is quite clear that the transmission speeds must be at least 256KB. But we never get that rate. While downloading speeds are faster, the uploading speeds are pathetic resembling more to dialup speeds. Who says Broadband is only one-way traffic? Why are they ripping off customers again?

(2) BSNL claims to provide triple-play broadband when they cannot provide decent service with just Internet! Who are they kidding? I find that the transmission just hangs up intermittently for no reason and resumes again a few seconds/minutes later for no reason!! Who is going to pay for denial of service (read waste of my time) here?

(3) Why are we being restricted to only 1GB bandwidth per month? Many broadband ISPs around the world offer no-limit services, why can’t we? Why do we assume that ‘a typical Indian customer’ is out to rip off the provider when it is just the other way around? My emails to TRAI and TDSAT have gone unanswered and unacknowledged about this FYI.

(4) How about starting a campaign to set up a Telecom Ombudsman who is empowered to handle complaints like this without dragging it through courts or such other elaborate means which is basically outside the limits for a typical consumer like me?

(5) Why do we Indians take such crap with ‘hota hai, chalta hai’ attitude? It takes a website such as yours to provide a sound-off board to take this campaign to its logical end.

Thanks for providing a Writing Wall.

Sincerely,
Paresh Kapadia

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