Broadba... 'nuff said
Sorry to anyone who might get annoyed at my continuous ranting about broadband in India.
One friend recently told me his 600 kbps broadband connection has a data transfer limit of 350 MB per month.
Simple calculations -
600 kbps = 75 kB/s download. Let's say it works at 50 kB/s.
At 50 kB/s, 350 MB will take around (350 x 1024) / 50 seconds to download.
Which comes to around 7200 seconds.
Or, 2 hours.
So yeah. Broadband connection. With a 2 hour / month usage limit.
What this particular company can't get in their heads is that broadband is not to "get email fast". I don't give a fuck if my email loads in 2 seconds instead of 10. What I do care about is whether I can use VoIP or Video chat or not. Whether I can download the latest Linux distro CD or not. Whether my Windows update takes 10 minutes or 4 hours.
The guy is switching to "150 kbps unlimited" plan instead. 150 kbps is by no means broadband, by the way. At least it's better than "32 kbps broadband" that Satyam was selling up to only a year back.
The company in question is Reliance, in case you're wondering.
As for BSNL, their rates seem to be more in line with what they should be. 256 kbps unlimited plans start from Rs 900 per month. If only they would make it actually available to those who are not their existing customers. In the 2 or 3 years that it has been in operation, I have filed the application 5 times. No luck yet.
One friend recently told me his 600 kbps broadband connection has a data transfer limit of 350 MB per month.
Simple calculations -
600 kbps = 75 kB/s download. Let's say it works at 50 kB/s.
At 50 kB/s, 350 MB will take around (350 x 1024) / 50 seconds to download.
Which comes to around 7200 seconds.
Or, 2 hours.
So yeah. Broadband connection. With a 2 hour / month usage limit.
What this particular company can't get in their heads is that broadband is not to "get email fast". I don't give a fuck if my email loads in 2 seconds instead of 10. What I do care about is whether I can use VoIP or Video chat or not. Whether I can download the latest Linux distro CD or not. Whether my Windows update takes 10 minutes or 4 hours.
The guy is switching to "150 kbps unlimited" plan instead. 150 kbps is by no means broadband, by the way. At least it's better than "32 kbps broadband" that Satyam was selling up to only a year back.
The company in question is Reliance, in case you're wondering.
As for BSNL, their rates seem to be more in line with what they should be. 256 kbps unlimited plans start from Rs 900 per month. If only they would make it actually available to those who are not their existing customers. In the 2 or 3 years that it has been in operation, I have filed the application 5 times. No luck yet.
