After MTNL's ridiculously overpriced 3G rates were announced, it looked like affordable broadband would continue to be a mirage in India.
But BSNL has (soft) launched its 3G service in Chennai today and the rates are up on the site. The big news is that there is an UNLIMITED data plan (unlike MTNL) and at 3000 bucks a month it's VERY competitively priced. Even the 1000 buck plan looks better than anything MTNL has on offer since the first 5 gigs are free after which its 2048 bucks per gig (Rs 2/MB).
The rollout is going to be state by state so I'm hoping Delhi/Haryana/UP are next after the pilot project in Ambala! BSNL service is a bit of an enigma though. I recently applied for a landline in Gurgaon and they took my form and 500 bucks registration without providing any receipt or tracking/service number. They said they'd come in a day or two but there was no sign of them till more than a week later. They also landed up without any warning/phone call which means I was just lucky that someone was at home to receive them. I have a feeling that GETTING the 3G connection will be a pain but once it's up, hopefully the service will be tolerable.
Showing posts with label bsnl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bsnl. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Thursday, March 27, 2008
WiMAX Woes
After another frustratingly slow session of "Mobile Internet" using one of them USB data sticks, my thoughts drifted towards WiMax, which seems to be sliding downhill after a prolonged stay at the peak of the hype cycle:
I remember attending a live WiMax demo in Delhi as far back as 2004, though it turned out to be quite comical. The company had invited the tech press and some officials including the Wireless Advisor to the DoT. The latter was furious when he heard that the transmitter had been placed on the terrace of a building across the road and insisted that he had given permission only to place it on the terrace of the same hotel! The red-faced execs had to literally scamper after him with profuse apologies and eventually cooled him down with some hot chai!
Gartner (yup, the same guys who came up with the term 'hype cycle') has just come out with a report titled “Beware of WiMAX Hype in India” (subscription reqd) that predicts only about 218,000 users in India this year and maybe 7 million by 2011:
“In the near-term, the Indian WiMAX market is not very promising. Gartner advises carriers to focus on the enterprise market and high end residential subscribers. At the present time, it is not clear if vendors would benefit from risk-sharing models with Indian operators. Overall, the long term potential of the Indian WiMAX market heavily relies on spectrum allocation, WiMAX ecosystem maturation, and the timeliness of WiMAX and 3G licenses.” more (Press Release)
Well, BSNL (which along with MTNL will get automatic allocation of spectrum unlike the private guys who will have to bid) seems to have massive plans for WiMax, but given its current state of connectivity offerings, it's tough to be optimistic.
I wonder if anyone from BSNL attended the recent WiMax conference in Bangkok, where the CEO of Australia's first WiMax deployer Buzz Broadband, slammed the technology in front of a global audience. Quick Summary:
"disaster... miserable failure... mired in opportunistic hype"
I remember attending a live WiMax demo in Delhi as far back as 2004, though it turned out to be quite comical. The company had invited the tech press and some officials including the Wireless Advisor to the DoT. The latter was furious when he heard that the transmitter had been placed on the terrace of a building across the road and insisted that he had given permission only to place it on the terrace of the same hotel! The red-faced execs had to literally scamper after him with profuse apologies and eventually cooled him down with some hot chai!
Gartner (yup, the same guys who came up with the term 'hype cycle') has just come out with a report titled “Beware of WiMAX Hype in India” (subscription reqd) that predicts only about 218,000 users in India this year and maybe 7 million by 2011:
“In the near-term, the Indian WiMAX market is not very promising. Gartner advises carriers to focus on the enterprise market and high end residential subscribers. At the present time, it is not clear if vendors would benefit from risk-sharing models with Indian operators. Overall, the long term potential of the Indian WiMAX market heavily relies on spectrum allocation, WiMAX ecosystem maturation, and the timeliness of WiMAX and 3G licenses.” more (Press Release)
Well, BSNL (which along with MTNL will get automatic allocation of spectrum unlike the private guys who will have to bid) seems to have massive plans for WiMax, but given its current state of connectivity offerings, it's tough to be optimistic.
I wonder if anyone from BSNL attended the recent WiMax conference in Bangkok, where the CEO of Australia's first WiMax deployer Buzz Broadband, slammed the technology in front of a global audience. Quick Summary:
"disaster... miserable failure... mired in opportunistic hype"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
