jtd wrote:
On Sunday 09 July 2006 02:12 am, Dinesh Joshi wrote:
On Sunday 09 July 2006 01:37, Harsh Busa wrote:
I still donot see monopoloy anywhere . i donot understand this .
they donot have a billing system in place ... they donot have
field staff trained and etc etc hen why would you even go with
them even if they gave cheaper than 999 a month ! ... such
services wud be called beta and sud be marked free :D
How many players are offering services in the same / similar
segment? Only one. Thats airtel. Well then it is called monopoly...
That is a virtual monopoly. There is no restriction on anybody setting
up an Internet service. It is not commercially viable outside limited
pockets to provide "propah" internet services. PC densities are
abysymal and usage patterns even worse. Moreover it is going to stay
that way until voice and voip is unshackled by babudom. At that point
small players will start creating the infrastructure neccessary for a
decent service.
Ok, at this point, I cant resist putting an accountant's input.
1. In no case is there a monopoly in internet services. The only case of
a monopoly is for cable internet because no one else can put up cable
lines (ref - cable mafia)
2. There are multiple operators, multiple technology, multiple pricing
available to you, choose the one which makes sense to you.
3. Simply because they are giving a much lower rate plan does not make
them a monopoly. A monoploy means that no one else is there to provide
that service (monopoly is not linked to pricing, but availability of the
service)
4. I know the bandwidth and infrastructure prices in India. No player
can offer decent Internet service without data-throughput caps. If you
want to use a service with large data transmission limits, you will need
to pay for it. No one can provide you with a lunch at the taj or oberio
at the price of a thali in a udipi hotel.
5. The internet service providers are going to provide services first
where they can make more money. First they will target corporate
business, then upmarket housing complex and when that market is
saturated, the common man. Your saying on this forum that Airtel sucks
or that they are going to loose money and customers does not make a bit
of a difference to them. They dont care. You are not their target
customer and they cant make money by giving you service. The cost of
catering to retail is 10-12 times the cost of catering to corporate
traffic. (I went and bought Bharti Televentures shares after seeing
their marketing plan and scheme).
6. The small players can not set up decent infrastructure. Even in so
called advance markets, there are only very large players in the
internet access market. In any case, it has nothing to do with
unbundling. The cost of international bandwidth in India is at least 4
times that of western countries. And there is very little local content,
so you have to go all the way to USA for your data. Till 2010 when VSNL
/ Tata monopoly over major fiber landing rights ends, the matter will
change only a little. (FYI, Reliance is ready for that, they have bought
the company that owns most of the fiber cables between India, Europe and
USA. I can only hope their corporate profit goals are same as India's).
The only reason why bandwidth prices have reduced to some extent is that
Bhartai laid fresh under-sea fiber cables from India to Singapore to
take advantage of fiber pipes from SEA to USA. But the ocst of bandwidth
for small players will remain prohabitive. Only the big players can gain
from economy of scale and volume pricing leverage.
7. Look at players like sify. They are offering 64kbps flat pipes at
pretty attractive prices. But you get perhaps 20kbps and in most cases
the possibility of you being able to do enough downloads using that pipe
is low. Same with hathway......Airtel is only giving you an attractive
pricing that they think you will not use more than 25%, so they are
going to laugh all the way to the bank. And they are right. I use a
reliance datacard @650 per month with 1 GB data transfer, 115kbps
connectivity speed. I use the laptop all the time, connected to the net
at least 10 hours a day, I have not even used half the data limit in any
of the last 5 months. That is the business customers, that is what they
are looking for and that is where they are going to make money.
8. Just for perspective, my client's branch office in Delhi was using
bharti silver internet service. We got them to change as they were not
giving anywhere close to the promised bandwidth and it was affecting
business and work. So what are you so happy about Bharti coming to
Mumbai ? Except that it will add another element of choice when you take
a connection. The only ISP that delivers what they promise is MTNL.
That is my input. Hope it educated some people, and appologies to those
who are bored by it.
Regards
Saswata
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