The world that we live in

This is a post I wrote last year before I was able to finally get an internet connection at home. Reading it again made me relive the frustration and futility of the entire excercise of my experience.

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In 2004, during the US Presidential election campaign, when John Kerry said that if the city of Bangalore in India could be wired then why not all of America, he really had no idea of the reality of the Internet service situation in India. Well, for that matter neither does any of the Indian ISP’s! Each provides services better suited to the providers themselves rather than subscribers. We have been living in India since January 2004; first in Delhi, then Bangalore and now Mumbai. Each city has its different ISP’s and each is more confusing than the last.

Internet plans in India are usually either time-based or volume-based. In time-based, you are charged for the time you are connected. In a volume-based plan you are charged for the amount of downloads or number of pages that you visit. There is a free download quota, usually 500mb, and beyond that you are charged per mb. The volume-based plans are usually advertised as unlimited usage and only after reading the fine print and repeated questioning will the sales person admit that unlimited is only in regard to time as once you cross the free download quota, you will have to pay as per your usage.

In Bangalore, we opted for Airtel’s DSL service in a volume-based plan. The connection speed was to be 128kbps but in actuality varied from 56kbps to 99kbps. We got 450mb of free downloads and anything above that was charged at Rs 1.50 per mb. We purchased the modem for Rs 2,000 instead of paying a monthly rent. Our internet was coupled with our telephone service and we paid Rs 995 a month for the both services, which included certain free local calls. Any long distance calls and international calls we made were charged extra. With approximately 5 hours of daily surfing (playing games on Yahoo, seeing the daily photos on People magazine, reading New York Times), we never crossed our free download quota and our monthly bill for both telephone and internet never crossed Rs 1200.

In Mumbai, the scene is totally different. We have had a major problem getting connected at home as we have a laptop with a USB port instead of an Ethernet port. Only one provider offers a connection using a USB port, most sales people don’t even know the difference. So far only Tata Indicom has said yes, we offer connections with USB ports but whether it is available in our the area is still to be seen. After a week of them doing their findings, they said it is available in our area but some copper wiring needs to be installed and that it would take 8-10 days more. Another provider, Reliance offers a connection with a USB port but along with the internet connection, one has to take a phone connection and pay a non-refundable deposit for the phone instrument, which also has to be returned on cancellation of service. A third ISP, Sify told us the installation charges were Rs 5,000 (non-refundable) and that to convert my USB to an Ethernet port we need a converter, which would cost approximately Rs 4,000. Quite unreasonable, we thought, especially when those are not realistic prices at all. Ask them to explain what the installation charges are for and they will not be able to give you a decent answer.

It is a really confusing situation for a consumer who knows a bit about broadband, DSL and other methods of connection as here they try to make a fool of you as much as they can. We are at a disadvantage because we know basics of Internet connections and computers. If we knew nothing at all, we would have had no idea that we were being made fools of. Broadband is the most misused word in recent times in India. It can be used to mean anything and everything. According to the definition on Airtel’s website, a DSL connection ensures a certain minimum speed, but in actuality it will never be up to speed (no pun intended!).

MTNL also offers a broadband internet service. It is something called Tri-band, which makes it sound faster and more efficient, but is it faster or more efficient…No. Is it even available in all areas of the city…No. Our telephone is in the landlady’s name and to get anything added or removed from our existing service requires more documents and proofs and signatures than getting a passport.

We tried to get an internet connection from the local cable company; Lucky Cable and their sister concern Seven Star Internet. This was the worst experience of all our connection ones. When you call to ask about the service, they hurriedly ask for your address and say they will send someone over. When finally someone does come to the house, it turns out to be only a sales boy whose entire capability is to handout application forms and rate-plans to potential customers. Ask anything about connecting using a USB port, anything about the wiring (already been done in the apartment as my landlady used a cable connection), or anything else at all and you will get no answer at all. Information on whether they offer a connection using a USB port is considered as technical and technical help is only offered once you sign up for the service. Try explaining to them that we don’t want to sign up unless we know that the service they offer will be usable on our laptop!

So, here we are in India’s largest, most advanced and apparently most professional city and not able to connect. The common agenda of all Indian ISP’s seems to be to confuse and confound the consumer so they have no idea what they are signing up for. It’s the last thing one expected of Mumbai but this is the reality of life here.