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.

Comments

This is not very Cheap for most Indians

[fozzy(pro)]

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

Highlights issues w/ US ISPs

[drgroove]

This article really serves to highlight issues w/ US-based ISPs and the services they offer.

What are the options for a US citizen to get online right now?

1. Pay AOL || MSN || Earthlink $20> / mo. for dialup
2. 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.

Re:Highlights issues w/ US ISPs

[donkiemaster]

and still Northpoint DSL went out of business and Covad is sucking wind hardcore. Doesn't seem like to me they are gouging prices...Smaller close-knit countries with uniform telecom systems have a much better chance of providing broadband to more people. In the US it's too spread out, the type of DSL and cable broadband systems vary from region to region. I have had 7 different locations dsl lines in the last 5 years and have required 6 different hardware devices because they were almost all unique systems. (even though 3 of them were verizon)

Re:Highlights issues w/ US ISPs

[dledeaux]

The problem with the US is that we are, ironically, technophobic and very profit oriented.

We are slow to adopt new technologies. We see this in the cell phone industry, where other countries have a 2 year lead on cell phone technology compared with the US.

(This must be marvelous for the cell phone manufactures since they continue to reap profits on technology that is, according to the rest of the world, obsolete.)

The other problem is nobody wants to do anything unless they are going to be assured a profit. For example, SBC is reluctant now to roll out any more "last mile" additions to their DSL infrastructure since is will merely provide an avenue for other DSL providers to make more money off of their work. So they'd rather play they "if we can't have it, nobody can game" and make the general populace suffer.

Those two reasons in my opinion are why we don't, and will not for some time, see cheap reliable broadband being delivered in a timely manner.

Re:Highlights issues w/ US ISPs

[sneakcjj]

$16.50 for 128kbps is VERY expensive when considered with broadband prices. US based broadband prices are significantly cheaper than this. To get 1.5 at the same scale would be $196. So your accusation of price fixing U.S. broadband doesn't hold water. Dialup is still pretty close since there is a transfer cap.

The government (especially in Illinois) really screwed SBC over. They LOSE money on every line that a third-party provider installs. SBC has to give it to them below their cost. That is why you don't see DSL getting rolled out in more areas. The phone company CAN do it but they WON'T do it. Would you do something if you knew for a fact you would lose money? The phone company still has to make money to pay all their people. I can get 1.5Mbps SDSL if they fired up the RT I'm connected to but since they haven't I'm stuck with 384/128.

Cable modems are also expensive to rollout but the cable company doesn't have to share (go figure). Your $50 a month is a drop in the bucket compared to what it costs to install the cable modem infrastructure (even when added up over a year or so).

Please, try being your own ISP before complaining when your ISP is restricting you at $50 a month.

For my business I pay $500 a month for a T1 with NO CAPS/RESTRICTIONS WHAT SO EVER. If you want the same get something similiar or get 'business' class.

Oh, and de glad you don't live in Australia.

Re:What ifs...

[spRed]

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?

If you can't outcompete 3rd world workers...

[siskbc]

...you deserve your spot in the unemployment line.

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.

Re:128 kbps is hardly broadband

[dissy]

> 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.