Well, it seems that Reliance is extending its launch
date by another 3 months. They do have commercial
services in couple of cities but that too in
isolated pockets and in “test phase”.
Initially, they are launching/planning to launch
Pre Paid landlines. To me, this defeats all the
purpose of owning one. However, Broadband would come
in much much later. This is as per the “insider
source”. Frankly, he was not willing to comment on
the pricing details it has not been finalized as
yet. Probably.
Therefore, we suffer more wait. IPTV is anyways
scheduled for end of this year. Maybe next year or
next to next year end. Or probably not!
This is of course coarse and gross stupidity.
Reliance would need a miracle to pull this off. With
increasingly aggressive BSNL and Airtel, they would
need to pull up something really “brilliant” from
their hats to make people switch. Unlike the churn
in mobiles, people hardly change their landline
numbers. So of course, it’s a longterm deal that
they are looking at.
For years, despite presence of another private
player in my neighborhood, I haven’t shifted from
BSNL. Frankly because HFCL Connect offers below par
services than BSNL. This is a highly contested claim
and it remains my opinion. They don’t reply to mails
nor any feedback comes in from their local office.
Plus, their asinine refusal to dig up for telephone
lines despite the fact that it’s just 500 meters
from the main road to my house.
In India, stupidity is not limited to BSNL. It is
cross spectrum. Connect in any case is banking on
32k/64k as “broadband” while over pricing the 256k
with just 400 MB as free limit. So much for the
private telecom revolution.
Reliance/ Connect would really have to entice me
with an offer that I cannot resist. For example,
using up free 100 GB in a month and then giving a
gift coupon or something. Or unlimited bandwidth
with assurance coming in from their CMD and 25 Mbps
throughput or fiber to home cabling or something
similar. Well, in my dreams!
Some day, I tell myself, we would not need to
bitch about ISP’s. Still, 10 years down the line, we
would see the broadband revolution limited to urban
areas. Until the last mile access is freed, this
wont spread to rural areas where it is more urgently
required.
Why doesn’t this fact register to a babu sitting
up and pushing files?
Why doesn’t Reliance understand this either?
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