Siddhesh Poyarekar wrote:
What is sick about the ISPs (especially broadband) is that they charge a bomb for their service and give only the basic facility -- web browsing. Sify blocks Usenet services, disallows you from hosting anything at all, no web server, no ssh server, no ftp. This has been the case only since the last couple of years as I had hosted a website for a presentation during my final year exams in 2003.
Till 2003 the number of users and the kind of facilities they wanted were lower. Besides please remember that in 2003 you were probably paying 4 times what you are now paying for the connection. And the connection speed has improved in the meantime. So if the value / cost comes down, they have to comprise somewhere. They are doing it by restricting facilities or chargeing for them.
And they refuse us all these services saying that they're protecting us from malicious programs. They're catering to novice users of the internet and at the same time suffocating those who wish to really use their services to the fullest.
The question is can we do something about this or is this fair and adequate service that they're providing us?
If you need the extra facilities you need to pay for them. We have negotiated deals with ISPs for our clients at their offices. We had Exatt with whom we were unhappy, spoke to PaceNet and finally took the service from Vibes Online. 256kbps guarenteed 1:1 through put with 98% uptime supported with SLA having penalty clause of 2 times the value of down time. They have given us static IP and every thing we asked for. Ofcourse, we paid far more than what the home user will pay, but that is because the business requirement demanded it.
Finally, the ISP has to make money. They cant do that if they provide all services at Rs. 500 per month. They have to make money in some way. Either they will do that by charging you for MB downloaded, or restricting your facilities or charge you a fair rate. Bandwidth rates in India are still high (thanks to Tatas owned VSNL) and limited Last Mile connectivity (mostly owned by MTNL who refuses to share or new fiber wires which are costly due to lower usage volumes and because they are new). Add to this the stupid restrictions that the local municipalty puts to stop new fiber being laid down, the final result is that the ISP will need to charge you much more than you would like to pay for.
Everything finally follows the market. Most users only want the basics of being able to surf the net and get email. So they are happy to pay a lower price for even lower facilities. The ISP will provide a better package if you are willing to pay more.
Regards Saswata