Insanities offered by BSNL Broadband
January 13th, 2005 Leave a comment Visited 67 times, 1 so far today
Insanities offered by BSNL Broadband
BSNL has finally jumped in the broadband arena with a watered down offering. However, there is much more than that meets the eye and the primary precaution of caveat emptor (buyer beware) applies here.
One needs to appreciate the basic mentality of the government that takes our intelligence for granted every time. The tariffs so far announced have the provision to buy a modem outright or pay a non-refundable security of Rs 500/- Incase the modem is on rental it would entail the cost of Rs 100 per month. I believe that it is much more prudent to have a buy back offer for the same. What if one needs to shift on to any other service provider in the near future? This is not justified if we are saddled with a modem for which we would have no use. It is abusing the monopoly for its own ends. However, we do not have any say.
The download limits remain a bone of contention. This is inexcusable. The ISPs are worried about the abuse of their bandwidth being utilized for file sharing or downloading excessively. However, I fail to understand that if the current encumbment wants to enter in the streaming media offering or TV on Internet then how the current quota of 1 GB is proposed to be utilized.
I have mailed to the top heads of BSNL but have got no reply from them at all. Perhaps they feel that they are not answerable to the queries at all. In this age of broadband elsewhere, it is only on the dial up where one could get unlimited bandwidth. Albeit at a price which defies explanation in the age of falling tariffs. I suggest that in case one exceeds the download limit, the speed at the end user premises could be reduced. There is no rationale for charging extra for exceeding the limits, which are ludicrous. Moreover, BSNL has not clearly mentioned the way that they would be calculating the usage pattern of the downloads. There are lots of ifs and buts here. What would happen in case you load the data intensive page? At current estimates, the allotted bandwidth would finish off by around 9-12 hours. (for the 256 kbps plan at approx Rs660 per month inclusive of the rental and the service tax).Perhaps they could advertise as “Check email by speed of Broadbandâ€. This way I would not have felt offended to say the least. The media further compounds the problem by calling India as IT superpower. No wonder these people are hand in glove with each other. The silver lining is that its unlimited bandwidth for the first 6 months. A more prudent offer could have been a promise to review the prices in the near future with the charges recovered for broadband through value added services like streaming media, online gaming or the content that is proposed to be introduced after about 6 months. The net access could have been subsidized to more manageable levels easily. This could have ensured the rapid scale up of customers and the critical mass of people paying over the long term for the infrastructure costs. Low cost would spread Internet rapidly. Small incremental numbers make more sense than hoping for a magic wand to ramp up numbers at the day of launch itself.
Let us hope and wait for the customer review here its welcome in this Blog.
Currently the international bandwidth prices are dirt-cheap. It is the mode of last mile access that is difficult. ADSL is the tried and tested way of getting it to your doorstep. However, as I had mentioned earlier in the post, it is the refusal of BSNL to open up the local loop that is hindering the spread of internet. Why do they want to protect their network, which in fact belongs to the public anyway? Is there a case for filing in the courts on the basis of unfair trade practices? I believe that there could be one.
Ultimately, its clear that BSNL protests too much if there is any cut in the revenues. Perhaps the reason is the refusal of the finance ministry to bail out the overstaffed and bloated and incompetent wing of the government. It is for this reason that BSNL protested when the cut in the Access Deficit Charge was announced. It is no ones business if the end customer pays much more than it is required for.
Finally, we are all in this. I suggest that there ought to be an email campaign to be started complaining about the sorry state of affairs. Write back to the Minister of Communications and the top officers of BSNL. Make your voice heard to the respective General Managers of your telecom circle. Their email ids are publicly available. Until the time we do not get our act together, these people would take us all for granted. It is unfair that in matters of national importance we choose to sit back and let others take the initiative. In my experience, no one can jail you for complaining. It is another matter if you become abusive!
It is a matter of few more months. To capture the market share, these companies would have to reduce the prices further and remove the download limits. This can only come through if more competition is allowed in the market. Maybe Reliance could do something for broadband access that it did for the mobile tariffs. Since their broadband launch date is not known, it maybe prudent to sign up for BSNL broadband and keep hoping. As I mentioned, at least for the first 6 months its unlimited bandwidth. Perhaps the day when we d have REAL broadband at 1 Mbps and above, truly this country would have achieved its true potential.
For more on BSNL Broadband, Check out BSNL Broadband Blog
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January 14th, 2005 at 12:26 am
sack dayanidhi maran & all congress-upa inefficient fools !
Politicians who have ruled this country have failed miserably, especially the Congress which has ruled for over three-fourths of the time since Independence. India now has the largest percentge of poor people in the world. In 1960, China & India had almost the same percentage of poor, now India is double of China. The people are happy to live in poverty and watch Bollywood films as they starve. 40% of the world's poor are in India. 1 in every 2.5 people in poverty in the world is an Indian, and the number is rising drastically. Soon everone will be poor.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/eco_pov_sha...
January 14th, 2005 at 11:56 am
sack dayanidhi maran & all congress-upa inefficient fools !
Politicians who have ruled this country have failed miserably, especially the Congress which has ruled for over three-fourths of the time since Independence. India now has the largest percentge of poor people in the world. In 1960, China & India had almost the same percentage of poor, now India is double of China. The people are happy to live in poverty and watch Bollywood films as they starve. 40% of the world’s poor are in India. 1 in every 2.5 people in poverty in the world is an Indian, and the number is rising drastically. Soon everone will be poor.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/eco_pov_sha_of_all_poo_peo
January 14th, 2005 at 04:17 am
BSNL in advertisement claimed that before june there wont be any extra charging for over the quota usage. as far as that rental and non refundable deposit of ADSL modem is concerned, even if somebody wants to try any private player they are supposed to pay. Sify broadband charges Rs1500-2500 initially, its not only sify everybody is taking that non refundable deposit or activation charges. Sify is much worse, they mention one price in the website and the local cable operator charges Rs 100-200 extra as service charge(not service tax), call centre people say its common to charge extra, what a great service.
January 14th, 2005 at 03:47 pm
BSNL in advertisement claimed that before june there wont be any extra charging for over the quota usage. as far as that rental and non refundable deposit of ADSL modem is concerned, even if somebody wants to try any private player they are supposed to pay. Sify broadband charges Rs1500-2500 initially, its not only sify everybody is taking that non refundable deposit or activation charges. Sify is much worse, they mention one price in the website and the local cable operator charges Rs 100-200 extra as service charge(not service tax), call centre people say its common to charge extra, what a great service.
January 14th, 2005 at 08:32 am
thanks to exploitative pricing by isps, india has one of the lowest
rates of internet usages per capita in the world. the country cannot
become a developed nation at this rate.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/int_use_cap...
January 14th, 2005 at 08:02 pm
thanks to exploitative pricing by isps, india has one of the lowest
rates of internet usages per capita in the world. the country cannot
become a developed nation at this rate.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/int_use_cap&int=-1
January 14th, 2005 at 01:37 pm
Holy shit dude.. I just stumbled upon this site while searching for a solution to my Sify client logging out problem. Amazing stuff here, and believe it when I say that your thoughts are 100% similar to mine.
Consider me as your regular visitor from now on :)
January 15th, 2005 at 01:07 am
Holy shit dude.. I just stumbled upon this site while searching for a solution to my Sify client logging out problem. Amazing stuff here, and believe it when I say that your thoughts are 100% similar to mine.
Consider me as your regular visitor from now on :)
January 25th, 2005 at 06:58 am
Consider those that took the risk of using DIAS nearly two years ago:
The speeds were nearly 105kbps (of the rated 128) and was
infinitely better than the dial-up speeds experienced prior to that.
But then, sometime about a year ago, the speed dropped to about 72kbps
and never went up. Incidentally, this happened to coincide with a
thunderstorm in the city that felled trees and electrical & telephone lines.
{
Interestingly, around the time of the launch of the broadband, a few days ago,
the speed sometimes, peeked into the 105kbps range.
}
The customers continued with DIAS not the least of the reasons being the
staff appeared friendly in their new 'customer centric' avatar. Of course,
they'd also been made to pay upfront charges. They continuted inspite of
the fact that service & maintenance of their machines connecting to the 'net
had the habit of happening, usually, on week ends so as not to hurt the
'bigger' customers of DIAS ! That the home owner uses DIAS most often on
weekends was of little consequence apparently.
And now, the broad band offering of 256kbps is at half the price of what
old customers paid for less than one half of that speed. One would've
thought that old customers ( 'reference customers' ?! ) would be kept in
mind and that the Rs2000/= paid at that time (of course, 'non-refundable')
would at least get adjusted against, say, an outright purchase of their new
modem since the new offering requires no security deposit ( unless the
modem is to be rented from BSNL ). This is 'legally' probably correct, but the
message being sent by BSNL to old DIAS customers is, that, “those foolish
enough to have paid up early rather than waiting for the market forces to
reduce prices, did it at their own risk; and therefore the service provider has
no obligations towards him”. They're probably of this inclination because the
Rs500 has attracted many hopefuls ?
The statement in the application form that exisiting users' deposit would be
adjusted is, apparently, not to be taken seriously :|
Therefore, a customer of 2yrs now has to now forget his Rs2000 in the cause
of the higher bandwidth unless, of course, he wishes to continue with a less
than half speed for twice the tariff :|
January 25th, 2005 at 12:58 pm
Consider those that took the risk of using DIAS nearly two years ago:
The speeds were nearly 105kbps (of the rated 128) and was
infinitely better than the dial-up speeds experienced prior to that.
But then, sometime about a year ago, the speed dropped to about 72kbps
and never went up. Incidentally, this happened to coincide with a
thunderstorm in the city that felled trees and electrical & telephone lines.
{
Interestingly, around the time of the launch of the broadband, a few days ago,
the speed sometimes, peeked into the 105kbps range.
}
The customers continued with DIAS not the least of the reasons being the
staff appeared friendly in their new ‘customer centric’ avatar. Of course,
they’d also been made to pay upfront charges. They continuted inspite of
the fact that service & maintenance of their machines connecting to the ‘net
had the habit of happening, usually, on week ends so as not to hurt the
‘bigger’ customers of DIAS ! That the home owner uses DIAS most often on
weekends was of little consequence apparently.
And now, the broad band offering of 256kbps is at half the price of what
old customers paid for less than one half of that speed. One would’ve
thought that old customers ( ‘reference customers’ ?! ) would be kept in
mind and that the Rs2000/= paid at that time (of course, ‘non-refundable’)
would at least get adjusted against, say, an outright purchase of their new
modem since the new offering requires no security deposit ( unless the
modem is to be rented from BSNL ). This is ‘legally’ probably correct, but the
message being sent by BSNL to old DIAS customers is, that, “those foolish
enough to have paid up early rather than waiting for the market forces to
reduce prices, did it at their own risk; and therefore the service provider has
no obligations towards him”. They’re probably of this inclination because the
Rs500 has attracted many hopefuls ?
The statement in the application form that exisiting users’ deposit would be
adjusted is, apparently, not to be taken seriously :|
Therefore, a customer of 2yrs now has to now forget his Rs2000 in the cause
of the higher bandwidth unless, of course, he wishes to continue with a less
than half speed for twice the tariff :|
March 17th, 2005 at 04:45 am
respected sir,
hello sir i am from ahmedabad
i want my how much kbps use in my account
but i don't know on which site is check by usage
please send me link on usages checking site
March 17th, 2005 at 04:15 pm
respected sir,
hello sir i am from ahmedabad
i want my how much kbps use in my account
but i don’t know on which site is check by usage
please send me link on usages checking site
May 2nd, 2005 at 11:43 pm
hi ,
i just got the bsnl broad band in ahmedabad,service is very worse,and get disconnected very offten,people there dont have any clue about the maintence..Is there any one to whom to contact
May 2nd, 2005 at 01:13 pm
hi ,
i just got the bsnl broad band in ahmedabad,service is very worse,and get disconnected very offten,people there dont have any clue about the maintence..Is there any one to whom to contact
October 8th, 2005 at 02:22 pm
Hi,
That nice going… I am so to say … one of those who was attracted by BSNLs 500 Plan and that crap.. free timing. Result…. a 35000/- RS bill the next month.. (I hold Sify Partly Responsible as Sify Does NOT I mean DOES NOT provide broadband service in the Saltlake Area in Kolkata where I stay for this.) I did Complain… and Found out that .. I have been billed twice sometime thrice .. for the same time… on my same line I have a usage figure as follows…..
from 10 AM to 12 PM say 1 MB
From 1 PM to 3 PM say 10 MB
adn then Mark this..
From 9 AM to 6 PM (on the smae day) 3 GB…
And also some exactly 24hrs (matching the seconds also).. usage of 6 GB..
I am unable to understand how come my line got billed twice for usage during the same time..
Another Fact That many BSNL broadband users do not know that his Username and Passord can be used on any broadband line.. and he will billed for the usage… That is what happended in my case. What they are doing for that .. God knows..
The next month I again got a bill for RS 18000 when I had my line closed and never did connect to the net during this period.
I have been running from one dept from another .. feeling sorry for myself for taking the broadband.. Even went to the Deputy Engineer… Still so far I havent got any results…
Hope nerwer venturists in BSNL will read this before applying …
1 plea to sify WHEN ARE U COMING TO SALTLAKE? ??????????
regards,
Subhra
Regards
October 8th, 2005 at 03:52 am
Hi,
That nice going… I am so to say … one of those who was attracted by BSNLs 500 Plan and that crap.. free timing. Result…. a 35000/- RS bill the next month.. (I hold Sify Partly Responsible as Sify Does NOT I mean DOES NOT provide broadband service in the Saltlake Area in Kolkata where I stay for this.) I did Complain… and Found out that .. I have been billed twice sometime thrice .. for the same time… on my same line I have a usage figure as follows…..
from 10 AM to 12 PM say 1 MB
From 1 PM to 3 PM say 10 MB
adn then Mark this..
From 9 AM to 6 PM (on the smae day) 3 GB…
And also some exactly 24hrs (matching the seconds also).. usage of 6 GB..
I am unable to understand how come my line got billed twice for usage during the same time..
Another Fact That many BSNL broadband users do not know that his Username and Passord can be used on any broadband line.. and he will billed for the usage… That is what happended in my case. What they are doing for that .. God knows..
The next month I again got a bill for RS 18000 when I had my line closed and never did connect to the net during this period.
I have been running from one dept from another .. feeling sorry for myself for taking the broadband.. Even went to the Deputy Engineer… Still so far I havent got any results…
Hope nerwer venturists in BSNL will read this before applying …
1 plea to sify WHEN ARE U COMING TO SALTLAKE? ??????????
regards,
Subhra
Regards
November 19th, 2005 at 01:10 am
I am a subscrber to BSNL's Rs 500/month scheme of broad band internet connection.BSNL is not allowing me to check my internet usage.I routinely download during the time 2am to 8pm as BSNL promises unlimited download.But to my surprise ,my telephone bill reflected a usage charge of more than Rs 4000/-This is unbelieveable and I suspect the authenticity of billing by BSNL.If this continues I will be constrained to subscribe to Asianet broadband connection which is much better.It is high time the higher officials of BSNL look into this matter with serious concern
November 19th, 2005 at 12:40 pm
I am a subscrber to BSNL’s Rs 500/month scheme of broad band internet connection.BSNL is not allowing me to check my internet usage.I routinely download during the time 2am to 8pm as BSNL promises unlimited download.But to my surprise ,my telephone bill reflected a usage charge of more than Rs 4000/-This is unbelieveable and I suspect the authenticity of billing by BSNL.If this continues I will be constrained to subscribe to Asianet broadband connection which is much better.It is high time the higher officials of BSNL look into this matter with serious concern
March 2nd, 2006 at 03:08 pm
time for unlimited download in home 500 plan
March 3rd, 2006 at 02:38 am
time for unlimited download in home 500 plan
February 28th, 2007 at 09:35 am
hello,
we are customer os BSNL broadband internate application servic, but we are not know about the ckeaking the our account (How much we are use and what is left) so
kindly request you please give me guideline about the side to check and how to check
thanks
February 28th, 2007 at 09:05 pm
hello,
we are customer os BSNL broadband internate application servic, but we are not know about the ckeaking the our account (How much we are use and what is left) so
kindly request you please give me guideline about the side to check and how to check
thanks
March 17th, 2007 at 07:50 am
hi,
i am a user to BSNL’s home 500 plan.i never use the net to download anything,but the bsnl people billed me for downloading 8 gb as 6000 rs and said 2 gb was free.i am confused what to do.i never downloaded anything.the only thing i do with internet is checking my emails.what can i do for this thing.
March 16th, 2007 at 09:20 pm
hi,
i am a user to BSNL's home 500 plan.i never use the net to download anything,but the bsnl people billed me for downloading 8 gb as 6000 rs and said 2 gb was free.i am confused what to do.i never downloaded anything.the only thing i do with internet is checking my emails.what can i do for this thing.
February 25th, 2008 at 02:58 am
Hi..
I stumbled upon this site while searching for a solution to my BSNL billing problem. You are on my wave length. I could not have written better and more eloquently. You are right we all should bombard BSNL Authorities with emails so that they listen !!!
Thanks ….
February 25th, 2008 at 02:28 pm
Hi..
I stumbled upon this site while searching for a solution to my BSNL billing problem. You are on my wave length. I could not have written better and more eloquently. You are right we all should bombard BSNL Authorities with emails so that they listen !!!
Thanks ….