Broadband prices may fall further-Rediff

[sujithtom]

Despite a steep fall in telecom tariffs and the entry of new players like Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, India will fall well short of its target of having 3 million broadband subscribers by December-end 2005.

Private and state-owned service providers had 610,000 high-speed Internet connections, compared with the 6.5 million dial-ups at the end of September 2005.

With less than three months to go, the ministry of communications and information technology has now brought its target down, and is hoping to cross the one-million mark -- a third of the broadband policy target of three million connections, set less than 12 months ago.

For consumers, there was reason to cheer on the tariff front. Broadband prices, which were as high as Rs 1,800 a month in January 2004, have now tumbled to Rs 250, and are expected to fall further.

Indian tariffs are also among the lowest broadband tariffs in the world. The charge per MB of download has come down to Re 1 compared with Rs 4 a year ago.

"It can be seen that the rate of growth is not adequate for achieving the broadband policy target of three million subscribers by the end of December 2005, and hence more concerted efforts are required by all service providers," the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said in its latest report.

BSNL and MTNL executives said progress on providing content-rich services had been slow and that it was the primary reason for the poor growth.

"In a bid to enrich content, we have already invited expressions of interest from content providers on a non-exclusive revenue-share basis, and will follow it up with tenders soon. Our subscribers will have access to Internet protocol and time-shifted television, video-on-demand, voice and interactive messaging, and next-generation gaming before the year-end," a BSNL executive said.

Operators such as Bharti and Reliance Infocomm have also begun test runs of IPTV on broadband speeds of 10 mbps. This is expected to hit the market in six to nine months' time.

For private players, growth has been hampered to a significant extent also by a lack of last-mile copper connectivity.

"The government's threat that the last-mile copper connectivity will be unbundled if BSNL fails to meet stipulated targets is very hollow. They will never resort to any such act and broadband growth will therefore continue to be slow," said the spokesperson of a leading private operator.

Source: *in.rediff.com/money/2005/oct/13broad.htm

Why are they trying to reduce cost now?? If u ask me now they should try to spread it throughout India and broadband must reach even in remote villages.

 

[selva1966]

Why are they trying to reduce cost now?? If u ask me now they should try to spread it throughout India and broadband must reach even in remote villages.

Internet will spread throughout the country only when the cost are reduced

 

[sujithtom]

Why are they trying to reduce cost now?? If u ask me now they should try to spread it throughout India and broadband must reach even in remote villages.

Internet will spread throughout the country only when the cost are reduced

Dude i know ppl will buy when cost is reduced but the prob is tht these services are not available in all areas. All these services are confined to cities only. They should try to spread their service rather than reduce its cost

 

[mario_pant]

the thing is that if they mainatain the standards at cheap price... and they take the initiative to inform ppl about it. ie. throught visual and audio media..... then only can it be spread to "every" part of the country.....

 

[selva1966]

Why are they trying to reduce cost now?? If u ask me now they should try to spread it throughout India and broadband must reach even in remote villages.

Internet will spread throughout the country only when the cost are reduced

Dude i know ppl will buy when cost is reduced but the prob is tht these services are not available in all areas. All these services are confined to cities only. They should try to spread their service rather than reduce its cost

When mobiles started reaching the rural areas? Not when the incoming rate is Rs.16/- per minute. As the rates are coming down the mobiles reached smaller cites and smaller towns as the companies started their number game and to become national level players. So the same will happen to internet in india when the rates are slashed.

 

[kato]

first thing is that customer should be able to afford it if he cant u dont have customer u get customers by giving them some offers or reducing the price of the comodity and wudnt everyone of us like to have the speed of 512kbps for 500 bucks. So its natural that if the prices are reduced they get more and more customers and they get their old customers to upgrade the plan or scheme they are using to the higher level one

 

[__Virus__]

so cheap it is in US that u get 4Mbps for $ 20 and 8 for $ 28

 

[sujithtom]

Think how will this thing end if the prices are falling under the current rate. My cousin in Singapore said that they are having free low speed internet connection. When i asked the speed of the low speed connection he said 256 kbps. Wish that day soon come in India also

 

[__Virus__]

lol and 256 is so called BROADBAND in here

 

[cryptid]

I've hearing bout the drop in broadband rates from past 1 year but havent seen any changes.i use to pay 600/- for 128kpbs unlimited package a year ago and i still do the same now

 

[sujithtom]

I've hearing bout the drop in broadband rates from past 1 year but havent seen any changes.i use to pay 600/- for 128kpbs unlimited package a year ago and i still do the same now

You r not having a broadband connection. To term a connection as 'broadband' the speed must be atleast 256kbps

 

[moshel]

Why are they trying to reduce cost now?? If u ask me now they should try to spread it throughout India and broadband must reach even in remote villages.

Internet will spread throughout the country only when the cost are reduced

i agree...the current adsl connection of bsnl is still pretty expensive

 

[champ_rock]

who will buy it at 3000 in a village...
no the rates must fall first

 

[Tech&ME]

Well! If your are talking or broadband in this Country, first I think they should upgrade their infrastructure. BSNL is the key player in this Country, since all lines to the Private Operators are actually go through BSNL's network to provide the actual internate connection. No Private Operator in this country has its own infrasturucture to provide Broadband services independently of BSNL.

Reliance is however working on independent Broadband infrastucture development in this Country as of now.

Nevertheless, we need a true backbone infrastructure today for a real Broadband experience in this Country. Although BSNL and private operators like Reliance is working on it. They still do not have a true fibre optic network. Networks in BSNL do use fibre optic but thats only for Exchanged based system and not consumer delivery system. Which simply means you donot get a fibre optic link at your residence directly, its still routed through the old copper wire.

For a true Broadband experience the connection at both ends but meet the same connection strength. Which is ofcourse missing here.

Although they said 256 will be called as true Broadband, how many of you are getting it as of now! is the question of the hour.

Making the broadband cheap is not a solution, this will infact make the network congetion, too many connections with no real infrastructure, will de-centralise the network bandwith and you will even loose the 128 kbps that you are now getting on your 256kbps line.

So, building true infrastruct is the most important here and should be there priority then making rates cheaper.

(this is my take on this subject, no punch intended!)

 

[sidewinder]

Believe me! I wont subscribe to broadband untill I get at least 10gb monthly transfer at reasonable cost(may be around rs 500) at 512 kbps.
Only then its broadband to me

 

[LeStat]

BSNL should aggressively expand their broadband infrastructure to remote towns and villages. When you have private players like Relaince and Airtel who are offering broadband in a small town where I stay, BSNL is supposedly going to take another year to offer their services.

 

[Aijaz Akhtar]

At the moment, the price reduction is merely cosmetic. BSNL advertised about 50% reduction in dataOne terriff. But was it the discount over the Rs 500 aplan? No it was a new plan with 400 MB limit. Anyway, lets hope for the best, sooner the better.

 

[shakti]

BSNL should aggressively expand their broadband infrastructure to remote towns and villages. When you have private players like Relaince and Airtel who are offering broadband in a small town where I stay, BSNL is supposedly going to take another year to offer their services.

 

[shakti]

who will buy it at 3000 in a village...
no the rates must fall first

 

[shakti]

who will buy it at 3000 in a village...
no the rates must fall first