Internet connections in India suck! This is the best way to describe them. They are pathetic, especially for a country that consider itself an IT superpower and emerging global superpower.
Let me explain with a personal example. I have access to several internet connections and all of them are pathetic. The only one that is more usable than others is my office network, and even that fails from time to time like it did last week when I couldn't do a voice Skype call with an app developer based in the UK.
Other then the office network, I use three internet connections. One is from the government-owned MTNL. It is a landline connection with speed of up to 2mbps. This is the same speed I used to get with the same amount of money in 2007-08. Since then it has remained stuck. Unfortunately, I am stuck with MTNL because the only other option -- Airtel -- is not available in my area.
So what is wrong with the 2mbps MTNL connection? Not only the speed is low, it is also unreliable. MTNL uses a ratio of 1:28 for its home connections, which is laughable. Then there are line problems and MTNL server breakdowns every month. Frequently, this is a net connection that is unusable.
The other two connections I have are 3G cellular data connections from Airtel. These too are very unreliable. They frequently switch to 2G network. The connection speed is always a lottery. On some occasions you get 5mbps while on some days you will be stuck with 50kpbs. The 3G data connections are also ridiculously expensive to be used as main internet connections.
I am sure this situation is not unique to me. The internet scene is somewhat better in Bangalore but in most of other cities, and in most of the areas in other cities, the choices for consumers are shockingly limited.
In nutshell, here are the main problems with the internet in India:
-- Bandwidth is prohibitively expensive, even on wired connection. For example 2mbps connection in India costs between Rs.1500 to Rs.2000. The cost may be lower if you are willing to put up with ridiculously low data limits like 10GB or 15GB. For 3G connections, bandwidth is even more expensive. Not only this is expensive in absolute terms but is also expensive when you see it in context of the disposable income of average household in India.
-- Almost all internet connections in India, especially from big service providers like Airtel, BSNL, and MTNL come with data caps. These are termed as Fair Use Policy by service providers but they are anything but fair. In fact, in many countries these practices are illegal.
-- Almost all internet connections in India are served with poor infrastructure. This means downtimes are frequent.
-- The quality of service is poor, especially with 3G data connection because no one is bothered about the customer experience. Pings are terrible on most of the internet connections in India.
So, what is government doing to make internet better in India? Nothing. Absolutely zero efforts. TRAI is sleeping. The Department of Telecom (DoT) is sleeping.
This is so unlike what other countries are doing. For example, this is what FCC, that regulates telecom services in the US said in its latest order:
"Reflecting advances in technology, market offerings by broadband providers and consumer demand, the FCC updated its broadband benchmark speeds to 25 megabits per second (Mbps) for downloads and 3 Mbps for uploads. The 4Mbps/1Mbps standard set in 2010 is dated and inadequate for evaluating whether advanced broadband is being deployed to all Americans in a timely way."
What is the definition of broadband in India? TRAI says that it is 512kbps, which is almost 50 times slower than what a person in the US gets.
Where does this sad state of internet leave India?
According to International Telecommunication Union, a UN body, India is among the poorest countries in terms of ICT Development Index. Here is how India compares to its Asian counterparts on this parameter. Even Cambodia and Mongolia fare better. India's performance is way below even among the developing countries.
But the government and TRAI just don't give a hoot. They have allowed telecom operators in India to monopolise different regions and markets. And these telecom operators are just not interested in serving the retail market of internet. They are busy selling bandwidth to companies and organisations at high prices. But because companies have to buy the bandwidth -- they can't function without internet -- they have no choice but to take out their wallets and pay through their nose.
It is like the whole telecom market has come to a standstill. In India, the growth in average internet speed, especially for wired connections, is nonexistent. The price of bandwidth on fixed internet connection has remained more or less same for the majority of consumers in the last 10 years. The price of bandwidth on 3G connections too has remained very high.
At the same time, there are no performance standards that are being enforced by TRAI, which as Nikhil Pahwa of MediaNama pointed out, acts like a body that protects the interests of telecom operators instead of consumers. Unfair (and possibly illegal) anti-consumer policies like Fair Use Policy go unchecked. Even on wired connections, internet speed often dips below 512kbps and yet TRAI rarely takes note of it and seeks explanations from service providers.
Again and again we have seen that in absence of government policy and proper regulations, the free market can't function efficiently. If there is no oversight, private companies start exploiting the market. This is what is happening in the Indian telecom market.
And it is a pity. If the roads or rail networks were one of the most primary requisites in the industrial era for a country to flourish, in the age of information technology it is the internet infrastructure that plays the same role. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like if the DoT or TRAI are interested in doing anything about the poor state of internet in India.
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