India broadband

I have been here in India for some time now and I think its about time I go back to UK and get my act together I have booked my ticket for next month… Yeh Virgin Atlantic.. you guessed it right Its the airhostesses.. not the fare which makes me go back to them every time.
I had a blueyonder broadband connection there which I got disconnected when I came to India as I didint want to pay for it when I was in India as it was a long trip this time around. I have spent this long hot and sweaty summer in Delhi and would love to go back to the damp cold and wet weather which does feel lovely for a few days after you get out of an oven which New Delhi is in summers..

Crap apart I am going to be without a broadband connection for a few days when I get to UK and as far as I know isp’s like bethere and ukonline who provide fast connections are still not available in Crawley (thats where I live) so I will have to put up with whatever is available like bt which is somethign I dont like due to a bitter experience a few years back and then there is blueyonder which has been alright but they are going to take a lot of time to get my connection up and running .. last time it took almost a week and I dont have a week to spare as I need the net 24/7 Yeh call me a geek if you like but thats how I make my living

As I was struggling to find out what all isp’s are available in Crawley my beautiful friend Anne shows up on messenger and told me about this broadband site which lets you see which all broadband providers are available in a given area and all you need to do is enter your post code and you get a list of what all is on offer by different isps and what is available for you to choose from with all the speacial offers and all those all singing and dancing packages they have for you. I am going for virgin media this time which has got some great offers and is very reasonably priced.. I would have gone for a 24meg connection from bethere but they are still not available in my area in westsussex.

Having said all the above I will have to wait for a few days before my connection is provided by virgin media as my flat is locked so I would need a way to connect to the WWW as soon as I land in UK because I also manage my own servers and with no one to help me on that front I have to have my e-mails accisible 24/7 as help comes at a price and I would rather blow that money in a pub instead of paying it to some server management firm who do nothing except for taking instructions from you and monitoring your server which any one with a little linux experience can do him/her self. I am going to get mobile broadband for starters when I get to UK and use it untill I get my wired broadband and this mobile broadband thing will also come in handy when I am travelling so it wont be a waste of money I guess.

Virgin media also provides wireless broadband which means they will provide you with a modem and a wireless router so you can use your wifi phone or laptop in and around your house without having to plug in a cable. I am planning to get this wireless router so I can use skype on my mobile phone when I am at home.

If you have any better ideas for me please leave your comments… And lastly I thank Anne for giving me such a wonderful idea Muaaaaahhhh.

It is big, exactly what they are claiming it to be! The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group launched its DTH service called Big TV last month. The service is supposed to revolutionize the TV viewing experience in India.

What makes it special?

With its entry, the Big TV service becomes the fourth DTH service provided in India. The Big TV service enters the market with an edge of the MPEG-4 technology over its two popular competitors. This technology helps it offer more channels than its competitors.

What are the features?

Video-on-demand: The Big TV service comes with 32 video-on-demand channels for you. With no advertisements interrupting movie watching, you can convert your home into a theatre and enjoy the good picture quality. You will be able to watch the latest movies as the movies on Big TV are updated every fifteen days. You can apparently watch as many as 600 movies a year.

Quality picture: The Big TV service promises better picture and audio quality as compared to other DTH providers.

Video-recording: The set-top boxes of the Big TV service have digital video recording facility.

Plan your viewing: It is extremely easy to keep track of the channel programmes with schedules for up to seven days are available with the Big TV service.

Set reminders: You will not miss your favourite programs anymore. Set reminders with Big TV and let it remind you of programs minutes before their telecast time.

Parental control: The Big TV service offers the flexibility to censor the channels for family viewing. Parents can block the channels they do want children to access.

Make a list of favourites: Viewers can customize the listing of channels that they like so that they do no have to look for their favourite channel later.

Better starting offers: The starting offers of the Big TV service are better than the offers by other providers, making its offer lucrative.

Better signal: With the Big TV service, there will be no worry of losing the signal during rain. This comes as great news for all the people tires of losing the TV signal in the midst of a downpour.

What is in store for the future?

The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group is confident that its DTH service will take over the market. Reliance’s DTH service has big plans of taking over forty percent of the Indian market over the next one year. The plan may sound ambitious but it is definitely not misplaced. With thorough study of the limitations of the earlier DTH service providers, the Big TV service has made a smart entry in the market.

The entry of the Big TV service is not only good for the people who will opt for the service but also for those who are with the other service providers. The service is definitely going to shake up its competition, thus forcing them to improve their quality of service.

Only time will tell if the Big TV service will live up to its name.

To discuss this furthur please visit Reliance Big TV DTH service forum.

The iPhone: What makes it special?

Apple says the iPhone is a phenomenon and will change the way people look at mobile phones. So, what is it that the iPhone offers? The Apple iPhone 3G is an internet-phone made for more things than just talking and texting. If you look closely at the features of the iPhone, you will find that it is several devices put into one. The Apple iPhone 3G is touted to revolutionize the electronic world. Let us look at what the iPhone offers:

* An iPod
* An internet-enabled computer
* GPS device
* A gaming console
* Friend-finding device
* A blogging platform
* A camera
* And of course, a talking device!

Let us look at the features that make iPhone an all-in-one device:

* Built-in iPod
* Internet access
* 3G network speed enabled
* GPS enabled
* Smart keyboard
* Microsoft Exchange
* Scientific calculator and calendar
* Access to infinite application
* 2 megapixel camera
* Photo storage

Will the iPhone be popular with the Indian consumer?

The urban Indian consumer is obsessed with gizmos. A product like the iPhone is targeted at the technically savvy urban consumer. Though the initial response to the iPhone in the Indian market has not been very exciting, there are definitely chances of its sale picking up in the next few months. The price of the phone proved a deterrent to the most ardent of gizmo lovers. However, there is hope that the price of the iPhone will reduce given the reaction of the Indian public. Currently, the iPhone in India costs almost four times of that in the US.

Let us look at why the Indian consumer will go for it.

Prior knowledge: The Indian public has been waiting for the iPhone to arrive in India for a while, so much so that people were looking for a crack for using the US version in India. As soon as the price comes down, the iPhone sales will increase.

Future prospect: India hopes to get the 3G network set-up in the near future. The iPhone is already enabled to provide the 3G support.

Access to applications: The technologically-savvy people will love the application store offered by the iPhone. A lot of the applications available can be downloaded for free.

Music, E-mail, Applications at one place: The iPhone’s music features make it very lucrative for the Indian consumer. The ease of doing everything on one hand-held device is what makes the iPhone a gotta-have commodity in India.

Apart from the price, the factors that could deter the Indian public are:

* Absence of SMS-forwarding and group-messaging features
* Absence of MMS
* Limited Bluetooth capability
* Absence of video recording

Apple’s sleek, stylish iPhone has been on the wish list of many a young people who want to be a step ahead of the times. The price cannot deter this generation for long. Moreover, it is not everyday that one come across something so chic and so useful.

Mobile broadband as we all know is catching up in UK and the rest of Europe aswell but the prices still remain very high in most of the countries. In UK a mobile broadband connection will set you back by around £15 every month depending on which mobile broadband provider you go with and the package you opt for. Almost all the internet service providers offering mobile broadband service have a cap on bandwidth usage which makes it mandatory to have a seperate residential broadband connection for heavy duity usage as otherwise you have a risk of exceeding bandwidth quota of your mobile broadband connection and possibly get a huge bill which can run into thousands of pounds as I have read on some forums where some people used these connections for downloading movies and music without realising that they will be paying for the extra usage.

The main mobile broadband service providers in the Uk are T-mobile, Vodaphone, 3g, Orange mobile broadband and thats it I think.. if you know any others please feel free to leave your comments. The best way to choose what suits you best is to compare mobile broadband offers by different internet service providers and go for the one which suits your pocket and your monthly requirements. I have used T-Mobile’s mobile broadband service for about a year and a half when it was first launched back in 2005 and at that time my town Crawley in Westsussex was not covered by 3g services due to which I had to rely upon gprs connection while in Crawley but now 3g is almost every where and I get excellent speeds where ever I go although I have changed my service provider now. While travelling its a great way to spend time surfing the net in a train as you can utilise the time doing something constructive. If I could change one thing about mobile broadband in UK that would be the harges while roaming internationally as its just out of reach for people like me to afford such high rates otherwise the prices in UK for mobile broadband have come down considerably in the last couple of years and thats whats spreading mobile broadband to every corner of the country.

Broadband penetration in UK is not as much as I would like it to be at the moment as countries like Japan, Tiawan, South Korea are far ahead of us in that respect. I have been trying to spread awareness amongs our local community about the benefits broadband brings with it which did help in increasing the number of broadband connections on my own street atleast

Broadband availability is still an issue in UK as I am not able to get the best broadband connection available in UK when it is first launched and I have to wait untill it is launched in my area but there is a way to keep track on what all broadband providers are available in your area by using this broadband availability checker. The first ever broadband connection I had in UK was from BT and the speed used to be 256kbps for which they used to charge £29 per month and after using it for six months they doubled everyones speed and I got my first 512kbps connection. It was called BT Yahoo back then which had some goodies from Yahoo in the package and then after a year or so they came up with 2mbps connections and I must have been one of the first ones to get their 2mbps connection which used to make me feel as if I had the fastest connection around which was true to some extent as I am talking about 2003 when broadband was still a little new not just in UK but all around the world including the United states.

Cable broadband was something I had never tried so I switched to Blueyonder and got their 4mbps connection which was again a great deal faster then adsl and unlike adsl the connection never used to drop although speeds were not as much as I would like. In 2005 Blueyonder (Telewest) came up with 8mbps connection and it was priced at £55 a month which included my television and phone line as well but I never got speeds more then 4-5 mbps except for when I used to do broadband speed test which showed speeds of more then 7mbps which is not bad considering the fact that you dont ever get the promised speed as they write it as upto 8mbps. Telewest was later merged with NTL and I being a broadband speed freak I switched again and got a connection from Bethere which is a 24mbps connection and to be honest I have never experienced anything better, probbably because there isint any other company providing faster connections then 24mbps offered by Be there broadband and it is priced very reasonably.

Mobile broadband is catching up really fast in UK as evident from Google trends and almost every one I know has a data card and I use a t-mobile data card which has made my life so easy as I can stay connected while travelling in trains or sitting at a coffee shop somewhere in London It does make a lot of sense to get just a mobile broadband so you can use it at home and outdoors if you are not a very heavy downloader as I am as most of the mobile broadband service providers have capped bandwidth usage ranging from 1GB to 10GB a month and some hide under the umbrella of fare usage policy and other fine print.

There are nearly 4 million broadband users in India and around a dozen broadband internet service providers. Last month, a survey on broadband usage in India conducted by PC World ended. Here are some interesting highlights from the survey results.

40 percent of the ones who participated in the survey have 256 Kbps connection. This is no surprise since not may seek a connection for more than mailings, chatting or a little surfing. A 256 Kbps connection proves to be comparatively reliable and meets the basic needs of the average internet user.

29 percent of the people have 2 Mbps connection. With big players like BSNL and Airtel extending offers to upgrade a 256 Kbps connection to a 2 Mbps connection, enthusiastic internet users are likely to go for the higher bandwidth.

49.6 percent people use the broadband connection to work from home. The working-from-home trend has picked up at a big scale in India lately. Thus, having a no-down broadband connection is needed.

Among other uses, online gaming and watching videos online are popular with internet enthusiasts. Of the participants in the PC World survey, 48.3 percent watch videos online and 30.2 percent indulge in games online. 84.1 percent people mentioned that they download media.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is the leading broadband service provider in India. Owned by the government of India, BSNL has the widest reach among all internet service providers operating in the city.

DataOne, a broadband service provided by broadband already covers more than 700 cities in the country. This September will see broadband reaching more than twenty thousand rural locations like panchayats, zila parishads, and district headquarters connect to the rest of the world through broadband, that is, when BSNL’s new, ambitious project materializes.

The service provider will employ advanced software technology for making this plan come alive. BSNL is also looking at making the telecom and broadband usage more cost-effective for its consumers.

Apart from this rural-reach plan, BSNL has quite a number of plans in its kitty. Extensive fiber networks across the country and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are just to name a couple of its plans. BSNL will be employing 3G telecom networks all over the country.

With government of India’s dream to offer free, high-speed broadband to all the citizens of India by 2009, I wonder what would happen to the other service providers in the country. They must gear up for the challenge.

Airtel broadband advantages

Airtel broadband service is considered to have a more organized, better customer support as compared to that provided by BSNL.

Airtel comes equipped with extra features, luring customers with varied interests. Airtel has recently come up with an on-demand usage scheme wherein the customer pays for as much as he/she uses. This plan will help Airtel stand strongly against less expensive service providers like BSNL.

BSNL broadband advantages

Thanks to the dedicated and wide network, BSNL’s broadband service has a wider reach compared to any service provider operating in India. The service reaches even the rural areas, unlike other major service providers.

BSNL’s broadband service is considered to be more cost-effective that other broadband service providers, making it a popular choice in an economical perspective.

Airtel broadband drawbacks

Compared to BSNL’s broadband service, the Airtel broadband service requires its subscribers to shell out more money.

BSNL broadband drawbacks

BSNL broadband’s popularity has made people queue up for its service. However, the long delay in getting a broadband connection may actually deflect the pursuers to another broadband service provider.

BSNL has not been known for its customer service. Its poor customer support is credited to its state-owned status.

Both the services are popular in their own right.

Is the quality of service commensurate with the telecom industry growth in India? The country is reported to have record increase in broadband subscriptions but the quality of service is not improving. If you happen to visit any of the online broadband forums, you will understand what I am talking about. Very rarely do you see anyone writing something good about a service provider.

India has almost a dozen big broadband service providers; however, none of them seem to satisfy the consumers. You will come across several instances of a foreign national writing off the broadband service scene in India. They ought to be frustrated given the stark difference of service between the broadband connectivity in India and that in other technologically advanced countries. For uninterrupted broadband connectivity for their business, they often make use of two or more broadband connections. This idea, though fine for businesses, does not work with individuals. Individual consumers cannot afford multiple connections.

The broadband consumers in India do not have anything to compare services with, but they are aware they are not getting a decent service, let alone optimum benefits from the service. To add to their woes, the frantic calls to the customer service for help remain unheeded.

Good internet connection is still considered a luxury in India. The Indian government wants to change the perception. Last year, in April, the government of India announced that all Indian citizens will enjoy free broadband service by 2009. The Indian government’s offer comes from its confidence in its service providers, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL broadband) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL broadband).

The Indian government is set out to offer 2-Mbps broadband internet connectivity to the citizens of India. The government proposes to fund this scheme by using the money generated in the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). This fund collects 5% revenue from all telecom companies operating in the country.

State-transmitted broadband scheme is already available in several municipal areas in the United States. India will need to set up the requisite infrastructure for the success of this ambitious project in the country. The Department of Telecom (DoT) will be building an optical cable network across the country. The internet service providers operating in the country will be required to connect to the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI).

It will be a great boost to the Indian economic dream if this plan of the Indian government materializes. Let’s hope it does.