Tags: BSNL

Google’s googly on Wi-Fi

I am not very knowledgeable about Cricket- the national ‘waste time of India’. However, a googly is ball delivery that is tricky. I could not resist linking to a news story that talks of Google’s offer to provide free Wi Fi in San Francisco. I am not overtly enthused by the US market- its way behind the established markets like Japan or even South Korea. The governments have been pro active about introducing it on a large scale.

However, coming back to Google, the biggest question is that why are they entering in the ISP business? I believe that it is the final integration of the Internet services with the ad revenues and their lousy search engine. Despite criticisms galore, those blokes have not been able to fix the ubiquitous ’search engine optimization’- in simple words, delivering high ranking results in the search page. Detailed explanation is out of scope here.

In any case, it is interesting to see that Google has been behind the $100 laptop, that Media labs Asia wants to promote. However, I concur with Rajeev Srinivasan and I quote:

I lost faith in Nicholas negroponte and MIT’s media lab after their previous antics in India. They set up medialab Asia in India at some huge cost to the Indian government and then started acting like little imperialists. They did not have that much to offer and they wanted to dictate terms.

I guess this is why India is not in the list of privileged nations, which will get the new rubber laptop. In addition, there is the small matter of $100 million that he wants up front.

Negroponte, in my opinion, is a showman. I do not believe this initiative is really going anywhere, but gets lots of publicity.

The simputer is a lot better as an alternative. Note that there is no talk of local languages in the Negroponte blurb. However, I do like the idea of the hand crank, although that is more of a gimmick than anything else. AA batteries are available all over the place. A low power consuming battery operated device would be just fine.

What prompted me to highlight this story? Is the age of free Internet dawning on the horizon? Nope, not yet. This is because; the telecom operators need fixed revenue streams to survive, by hook or crook.

I could agree no less with Matt McKenzie (in the earlier link) when he is frustrated by his telecom company too. Oh well, BSNL clones all over the world, ‘tentacles of misery’as I would call? I quote:

But the prospect of genuine competition simply petrifies the telecom industry — in this case, our widely despised local provider, SBC Communications. I do not see them allowing this to happen without a legal and/or legislative fight, although they might think twice if they faced an opponent that could buy them — perhaps literally.

SBC has already been good for its usual comic relief: Witness company mouthpiece John Britton claiming, “There is already widespread broadband available today” in San Francisco. Well, yes, John, there is — provided you live in a cafe or a bookstore, or along parts of Castro or Chestnut streets where six-figure incomes are just enough to scrape by. Otherwise, you would have to — well, you would have to work for a telecom to say something that stupid.

I am still wondering, what do people who write about “digital lifestyles” have to say about it! Being industry’s mouthpieces does not really work- there is a strong undercurrent of resentment against the whole system. At best, you remain worthless caricatures mouthing platitudes and stooges for “subtle advertising”.

Google’s googly might be played in India too- perhaps when we clear of the massive mess in the structure. Or, Google may do a perfect Trojan horse thingy and collaborate with some telecom firm” for customer delight” (A corporate speak for assholism).

We have to live with it all.