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Rolling Out Broadband Internet, On The Cheap
Mathamota writes "The goverment controlled telephone company in the city of Kolkata (Calcutta), India is providing a Internet access service called DIAS (Direct Internet Access System) which provides 24 hour connection at 128kbps (when the phone is being used, it drops to 64). However, the best part is that the cost of Plan I (which has a data transfer limit of 500 megs) is only Rs 825 ($ 16.50) per month, all inclusive.
The technology used in this stuff is quite interesting, and there is a whitepaper available at the site of the company which developed the system." At first glance, it sounds just like plain old ISDN; but after reading the white paper, it's a bit different. Cool idea.
But 128K is still slow, after having a cable modem and unlimited monthly downloads, I cant go back! I mean cmon, 500 meg download limit? I do that in an hour on kazaa lite. :)
No I didnt spell check this post...
The cost of this is not inexpensive if you consider what most indians make at a yearly level. Not to mention the cost of the phone or computer. It's a step in the right direction.
Cheers to the government
other than some bizarre anomolies like the cost of living in bombay being the highest in the world at one time, the average salary in india is miniscule compared to (say) the western world. $16 a month or so for net access is a 1/2 to 1/3 of what you can pay here in california for a much faster service.
$16.50 is quite a lot of money
What are the options for a US citizen to get online right now?
- Pay AOL || MSN || Earthlink $20> / mo. for dialup
- Pay local Cable or Telephony Monopoly $50> / mo. for "broadband"
US ISP have some serious issues w/ their services - essentially, theres price fixing in both dialup and DSL/Cable options, which the FCC and the FTC are ignoring; despite continuous adoption of broadband, prices have yet to drop in the slightest - in fact, broadband providers regularly announce additional restrictions on bandwidth, personal site/email hosting, file upload/download, P2P file sharing, etc.It just seems like for all of our technological advantages, the US should have the highest rate of households w/ broadband, at the lowest prices, in comparison to any other nation. Instead, you have telephony companies in India providing their customers with affordable broadband, and nations like South Korea with the highest levels per capita of broadband usage.
Yes, it's always a good thing for american workers when 3rd world countries learn how to telecommute.
As an American worker you are garunteed your job for life. It is the government's job to protect you from competition foreign and domestic. Because we all know that moving jobs to the third world where there weren't any before is just exploitation by the capitalist pig dogs.
Is that what you meant, or just what you said?
.sig Karma out the wazoo, better to spend points elsewhere if this is above 2 or below 0
Only in the same way that individuals are free to do whatever they want, with only the consequences of the police taking them to prison.
States, even they claim sovreignty, are actually affected by numerous international agreements. Sure, Iraq *can* do whatever they want. But we saw the results of that didn't we?
Mad Software: Rantings on Developing So
Sorry to disappoint you, but language is not static, and "broadband" has come to mean "high capacity." That's just the way it is.
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Nice idea - maintain the low standard of living in India so undereducated, soft, lazy Americans can maintain their high standard of living.
It's amazing how people can believe in equal rights until it's they that have to give something up to a more talented but previously repressed foreign worker.
My advice? Start writing better code or further your education if you don't want your job given to someone willing to do a better job than you. And don't give me this outsourcing sob story - if your job can be done capably by someone who has virtually no contact with management, halfway around the world, then you're not doing a good job. If you are a good, educated programmer, you have nothing to worry about. If you have the ability to lead and manage projects, you have nothing to worry about. If not, then you're screwed, and you have no one to blame but yourself.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
> Sorry to disappoint you, but language is not static, and "broadband" has come to
> mean "high capacity." That's just the way it is.
I don't care what it has come to mean to a few people. Those few are wrong. That's just the way it is.
If you plan to redefine a word from what its been since the word was made, atleast have the decency to say so and not expect others to magically understand.
Why even have words if the meanings are totally different and random from person to person? Thats why a language aggrees that a word means one particular thing, then its defined. That is what the dictonary is handy for.
Websters defines broadband as:
broadband
adj 1: of or relating to or being a communications network in which the bandwidth can be divided and shared by multiple simultaneous signals (as for voice or data or video) 2: responding to or operating at a wide band of frequencies; "a broadband antenna"
Other than in the marketing department of US based cable/dsl companys, and thus in their customers imaginations, where else is broadband known to mean anything other than what the dictionary defines it as?
I guess you believe everything you hear on TV or that is forced down your throat from a corporation.
I see people who don't know anything about the earning of an average Indian complain how the broadband service being offered is expensive. Firstly let me clarify one thing and that is that the salary of an average Indian in higher than that know to people because people have lot of Black money which they don't disclose inorder to not get taxed.
Secondly I don't know how many of you realise that this a new venture in India and whenever a company starts a new venture the prices are higher that the cost price. Also just so that you know it wasn't until a few years ago that Broadband was made available to the public and it didn't start from $50 a month for 1.5mb connection.
And the this is for the dude who was supporting the telephone companies in US that my contribution of $50 bucks a month is like a drop in a bucket of water but just so that you know with any demand there won't be any production and since you are in business I should also tell you that you should treat your customers equally regardless of the fact that one deals in millions with you and the other deals in only a few hundered dollars. That is the mantra for a successful business.
Long ago, I was as pedantic as you are regarding language, always nitpicking on details of the language that conflicted with the dictionary or with an 8th grade grammar book.
Then, one day, I realized that the point of language is communication: despite what some English teachers might tell you, language isn't a static set of rules that were devised by some command authority, but is rather a fluid medium with which people exchange ideas.
In this particular case, broadband has come to mean "high capacity." That's how the vast majority---VAST majority---of people use it, and that is therefore the least confusing definition. In your particular domain and among your coworkers or buddies, broadband may mean something different, but to the general public, broadband means what I have said. This is a fact, and indisputable.
Look, I understand what you're saying, but the meaning has changed and you should just get over it and move on.
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Yawn. ACs are not worth replying to, but still.
Go see allegedly high-born castes ("Brahmins") pull rickshaws (human-powered carts) in Patna.
Go see Rajasthani Meenas (a "low-born" caste, under-developed until a few decades ago) get into the India's Civil Service and get cushy jobs in ever increasing numbers (affirmative action has helped somewhat here).
Look at the politics and bureaucracy of almost any South Indian state (especially Tamil Nadu) and see how Brahmins have practically been eliminated from both these spheres.
Look at how powerful the so-called lower-castes and tribals are in the north, in UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh.
Sure, caste isn't finished in India (it has had 2500 years to flourish here, after all) but things are a lot better now for 'low-born' Indians today. And that is a Good Thing(tm).
Today, how successful you are is usually decided by how well educated you are. And that's the way things should be. And thanks to affirmative action, there are *lots* of "low-born" Indians who get excellent education, 'reserved' seats in the best colleges and free/highly subsidized education, even in college and grad school.
Go somewhere random