Internet Penetration In India Is Lousy Says Report, CS Does A Study Of Its Own
Most of us already know this, Internettrafficreport.com has confirmed high bandwidth prices and artificial choking of available capacities make Internet services in India lousy.
According to this Hindu report, India has an overall index of 74 and a response time of 253 milliseconds. The US in comparison has 98 and 13 ms respectively. A higher index indicates a faster and reliable connection. Peru and Mexico fare better in internet connectivity compared to India. However, I checked, and we are marginally better than China (69) and Indonesia (70) and just behind Singapore at (79). Secondly, the router pinged by them is only that of VSNL, which is one of the Internet exchanges in India, so not all hope is lost. You can check out Response times and other India specific details here.
Indian ISP’s are artificial choking capacity inorder to maintain high prices states Chharia, President, Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI). As per the article, smaller ISP’s can’t guarantee quality of service because they can’t afford more bandwidth even if the capacity demands it. We have previously covered Chharia’s comments that the move to cancel district level ISP licenses will hurt small entrepreneurs and consumers. With Bharti laying its own cable, Tata going global with network handshakes and Reliance having FLAG, there is plenty of capacity at the headend, what’s stopping it from becoming cheap are vested interests in keeping the end user price expensive. I compared prices in India vs the UK, a dedicated 2mbps lease line costs approx Rs 50,000 per month in India whereas in the UK, even at its highest, costs approx Rs 40,400 for one year (including Broadband, TV, Phone & Mobile together)!
In case of our wireless hope, according to this Telegraph report, RComm is having troubles rolling out its WiMax services because of spectrum shortage. Reliance currently has 3.3 GHz of spectrum and plans to introduce retail WiMax in 12 cities in the next three months.
Nikhil adds: So now we need a report to tell us that Internet connectivity in India sucks? I think you just have to experience it to know that, and that TRAI’s performance indicators are an eyewash. More than bandwidth choking, at leased on wireline connections, it’s an issue of reliability. I’ve had problems with every connection I’ve taken so far - in chronological order: VSNL, Hotwire, Sify, MTNL, Tata Indicom (wireless) and RCom (Wireless). There’s no consistency, and there’s poor customer service. My MTNL connection has been troublesome for over a week now, and even making a complaint was difficult. No one followed up, and the call centre exec told me to contact the exchange directly since they can’t do anything about it. I spoke to the exchange SDO, and the connection is still not working properly…really, what does one have to do to get a reliable connection in this country?
Posted In:
Newsletter
Comments (8)
Mar 12, 2008 1:01 PM
Shift to Banglore :P?
Mar 12, 2008 10:36 PM
Not only is the penetration lousy but the speeds offered are laughable. While MTNL is advertising the 2mb connection as some big breakthrough, other companies around the world are kicking MTNL’s butt in the speed race…such as the following:
Verizon is expanding its 7-megabits-per-second DSL to 1.2 million additional consumers in 12 Eastern states and the District of Columbia. That is twice the speed of Verizon’s current fastest offer and costs $39.99 a month. The following locations are part of the 7 Mbps high-speed Internet expansion: Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, D.C. and West Virginia. In January, Verizon introduced its fastest Internet service to more than 400,000 home phone lines in the Great Lakes, Southeast, South and on the West Coast.
Mar 12, 2008 10:42 PM
Nikhil - In Bangalore I must say Airtel Broadband has been great for residential users. I can’t remember when it has gone down without me being notified by Airtel (for notification). The problem in Bangalore is that Airtel is not available in all localities (red tape issue)
Airtel Broadband’s customer service is very good. You have a human to speak with and they act on your complaint. Luckily I did not have to call them very often over the last 4 years.
I guess only BSNL can really increase the penetration in India as they have the last mile connectivity almost everywhere. They need to just get their customer service act together.
Mar 13, 2008 3:08 AM
I have to agree with Mahesh. We use Airtel both at home and at our offices and both connections have been very reliable, without any major downtime. Airtel’s customer service has also been outstanding. Our modem at home actually had a blown power adapter, and Airtel sent over a new adapter in ONE HOUR on a SUNDAY. That’s very impressive by any standard.
As far as prices and speeds go, I lived in the US for 4 years and obviously there is no comparison. But you can now get a fairly decent (claimed 1Mbps, not quite that but close enough) connection for about Rs. 2000/month.
Also - the UK vs. India comparison might not be accurate as the Quad-Play plan (in the UK) that you outlined is probably not a dedicated leased line but an upto 2Mbps connection. I’m not a 100% certain on this point but the quad play seems to indicate this.
So - all in all, we’re getting there.
Mar 13, 2008 3:09 AM
Sorry - forgot to mention - I live in Delhi
Mar 17, 2008 10:44 AM
India has some of the lowest leased line prices in the world. A 2MB, 2Km tail link costs less than $376 per year (BSNL). This in comparison to EU benchmark (lowest price) at $4802 annually.
In order to lower international bandwidth prices, TRAI had issued ceiling prices that brought down prices of international bandwidth by around 70% from their peak. The liberalization of the international gateway has meant greater competition and lowering of prices that have made price ceilings quite irrelevant. TRAI has also allowed resellers into the international bandwidth market that would further driven down prices.
Leased lines are a different species from retail broadband connections that the author above cites as example from the UK. Leased lines come with SLAs and dedicated connection that usually doesnt accompany retail broadband services.
To more about leased line price benchmarks and to get a more accurate picture Google “Leased lines LIRNEasia.”
Mar 31, 2008 11:32 PM
That the Internet in India is slow and burdensome does not come as a surprise to anyone. The wireline business is today controlled by BSNL and MTNL, which have only recently begun talking of Wireless.The international fiber prices still remain an order of magnitude higher.
It is only with the emergence of WiMAX players such as Tata Indicom, can WiMAX connectivity spread across the vast hinterlands of India and the Indian Internet become a meaningful network of its own.
Jul 20, 2008 12:28 PM
been using airtel 2mbps for the past year in blore.. no problems at all. excellent customer service.