Broadband rates may fall this week

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Leased line rates in the country may be cut later this week, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) Chairman Pradip Baijal said during a panel discussion on "Enabling a regulatory framework for the digital age" at FICCI-FRAMES today.

Baijal also emphasised the need for lower broadband rates. According to him, while developed countries like South Korea had broadband rates as low as $1 (Rs 43.79) a month, India currently pays $4 per subscriber on a monthly basis for a 100 kbps broadband connection.

He said Trai was in consultations with the government to lower the rates to $1 a month. He highlighted the role of private players in the development of telecom infrastructure and said they had been responsible for the increase in tele density to 2.11 per cent in 2004 alone.

Source
 
The guys at anandtech get totally frustrated when their internet connections give them
''slow'' speeds like 100Kbps (bytes not bits).They start swearing and what not.

I think the slow speeds and all are due to the customers.Their lack of knowledge about the speeds of internet connections around the world etc.People think that having a 256kbps connection is great in India.
 
I would be very happy with 64kbps, as long as it is completely unlimited and the ISP doesn't play cunning (and stupid) by blocking ports, reducing speed after downloading x mb ...

I use sify, which gives me a good speed for low price (the scheme is 48kbps for rs 450, but I get 96kbps), but the damned ISP is always upto its tricks.
 
hahahahahahahahaaha... lol i use mtnl 700 rs unlimited internet usage.. damn its so good... easily downlaod around 8gb a month... reached 8.7 in feb!!!
 
@nikhlesh :
I agree with you partly on your statement there. The speeds we get here aren't the best in the world, but they are still something. A few years ago, such speeds were unimaginable, thus letting people believe that having a 256kbps connection is indeed great. For now, it is great, considering the fact that it hasn't been too long since "broadband" actually showed up in our country. I'd say that it's too early to say that we aren't going far as far as speed is concerned. We need to go a lot farther, but atleast we're moving in the right direction.

Regards
Inzider
 
ya man seriously me too wating for the rates to come down..... increased download limits ... but i think until the private players don't do much in terms of more downloading capacity then we'll be stuck with low download limits for quite sometimes..
 
nikhilesh said:
I think the slow speeds and all are due to the customers.Their lack of knowledge about the speeds of internet connections around the world etc.People think that having a 256kbps connection is great in India.
Click to expand...
this is so true. agreed 100%. people come out and say " Whoa! look at me i'm surfing net at 32 kBps yeah yeah lol lol " when they don't realise there are people around the world that would rather die than accepting to surf at that speed. The outside world is enjoying an avg of 250 kBps connections, at reasonable rates to be noticed too. :mad:
 
inzider said:
@nikhlesh :
I agree with you partly on your statement there. The speeds we get here aren't the best in the world, but they are still something. A few years ago, such speeds were unimaginable, thus letting people believe that having a 256kbps connection is indeed great. For now, it is great, considering the fact that it hasn't been too long since "broadband" actually showed up in our country. I'd say that it's too early to say that we aren't going far as far as speed is concerned. We need to go a lot farther, but atleast we're moving in the right direction.

Regards
Inzider
Click to expand...
No, i disagree when you say that its going in a right direction. Company's like Sify and MTNL advertise speeds like 32-128 kbps as broadband, which is definitely not acceptable in the broadband rules. And its heading towards a disaster. Indian isp's started off a bad base, and its only getting worse. Hopes for BSNL to change and revolutionize BB inn india was runied when they showcased thier pathetic plans. And on top of that when they limit and advertise their plans it makes my blood boil. Broadband itself means unlimited. Fast connection were made so people can download more in short time, that means more downloading of data when compared to dial ups so it should automatically become unlimited (just like the way it is outside India) BB are not supposed to have limits on the plans of any type. BB - meaning 24 hr online connection, if indian isp's agreed with this rule, their so advertiesed plans would finish in a week of usage. Things are going realllllly slow.

for someone who has tasted downloaded downloading 2-4 gigs in a couple of hours, and then coming back to 128 kbps where it take 24 hrs to dL a single gig, is unbearable, grrr. :mad:
 
I agree with you only on few points there. The download cap idea is a stupid one, and is absolutely illogical. But, these caps will go. I'm a Bangalore AirtelBroadband subscriber. I was earlier on a 350mb capped download plan at 128k. Then came the night unlimited surfing plan, and now, im on the 24hour unlimited 128k surfing plan. I have no problems. Keeping this as a basis for my argument, i still believe we are heading in the right direction. I don't believe that any company, as of now, will be reducing the download limit, not as long as there is another company offering a better service, at a little higher cost.

In Bangalore, i have seen, and even received brochures from cable operators, about unlimited net access over a 128k line. Even though the bandwidth in such cases wouldn't be good enough, atleast the downloads would remain uncapped. (I believe the provider here is Hathway or someone else, not too sure). The cable operators need a course in ethics as well, cuz most of the time, the unlimited connections suffer from poor bandwidth.

Coming to the issue of bandwidth. You can't really expect much from ISPs when it comes to bandwidth cuz they don't seem to have a lot of it at the moment, available to them. From what i have heard from sources (I dont remember who or what), there is a large amount of bandwidth that we sit on, but is not made available to ISPs just because of regulations here, and there.

What we require at the end of all this is as follows

ISPs who understand that trying to control the market using high bandwidth and low download caps is not the way to win the market. ISPs need to provide high speed (No 128k sh*t), unlimited (or even very high download caps. I've heard of a provider in Australia providing high speed net, with a 64GB download cap. Now thats a cap :) )
internet access.

Intermediate providers, such as cable operators, should be given a course in ethics for one, and also a strict set of plans to follow for the connections given. This would ensure that the connections at the cable operator level are error free, and provide quality service.

And finally the consumer, should be educated enough to know the difference between a 'b' and a 'B'. The sight of a lamer jumping around cuz he's connected at 56Kbps is simply suicidal.

Regards
Inzider
 
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