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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.
If that is your real name.
/syle
The expansion of Internet access in anyway way is a good thing, but you must ask what will happen when this government ran internet service provider starts cracking down on it's citizens internet usage habits. Because it's a government ran internet service provider would the government be held accountable for file sharing crap going on?
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
Not on a 128kbps connection you can't. :)
Typical household income is about $1500/year. So that's like someone in the US paying $500/month for DSL.
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
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.
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
A lot of people seem to think that the pricing is too high. However, the target market - the middle-class/upper-class, could easily afford this. In my house the telephone bill (mostly due to net) comes to around Rs.2,500. I would jump at this opportunity, and so would almost all of my friends.
Now whether 128Kbps is broadband is a different argument, but it sure beats crappy 33.1Kbps, and there would be no per-minute charge!!
Slightly OT. The IIT (Indian Inst of Tech. ) decided a few years ago, that waiting for multi-nationals to bring in new tech that was cheap enough for use in India was pointless. The MNC's were used to at least $40 revenue per phone line per month, and that is what they were expecting in India. The IIT decided that it would go for lower-cost/lower-speed solutions using the latest in tech to drive the prices down, instead of increasing the features.
A famous anecdote that one of the Professors there likes to relate - Around the 80's , all the digital phone switches used in India were imported. Companies like Alcatel, Ericsson, etc. used to charge a hefty bundle for them. Then C-DoT (Center for Development of Telecom) stepped in and made their own digital switch for a fraction of the cost. Almost overnight, the MNC's were forced to drop their prices in order to compete. This is what Banyan Networks, and a host of other small startups, incubated at IIT, want to do in India.
All bow to his Noodliness!! His Noodle Appendage has touched me!