Comparison of Indian ISPs

The comparison of prices, bandwidth, high-level terms & conditions of the internet connectivity services provided by ISPs anywhere is a real maze. For the Indian market, I’ve created a simple MS-Excel worksheet, alas WordPress doesn’t allow me to upload it. So, if you feel that this data could be handy, you could click on the following thumbnails, to view the full-size tables, as images. Note that these prices are from February’2008.

  

Incase, if you are interested in the Excel sheet, leave a comment.

In there, you would notice WiMAX services, from Reliance. I found it, when Google popped up an AdWords placed ad, during my ISP plan & review searches. Subsequent to it, I have also come to know that TataIndicom (rechristined as TataCommunications) also has launched WiMax services. Read the reviews regarding the quality-of-service being provided. I’d grade (based on the reviews), the WiMax services as still largely, “in-trials” with lots of initial hiccups etc. If that were not the case, I’d have happily switched to WiMax, but still haven’t.

Mobile Internet penetration in India

Mobile Internet, means different things to different people, and the answer depends on who you ask. People may relate the term “Mobile Internet” to a wide variety of service, technology, device or access mechanism. Fundamentally, it is Internet-access with mobility. The most common usage of this term however, refers to users who access Internet using their cellular mobile handsets, excluding those who treat their mobile handsets as a modem connected to their laptops.

Let’s take some apples and oranges first. Inspite of the fact that in India PCs & internet connectivity for end-users have been around for longer when compared to mobile phone  & cellular services, the reality as most of us know today is that the number of mobile phones in India, far supasses those of PCs and especially those that are connected to the Internet in some form. Of course, not all mobile handsets currently in use in this country could be used to connect to the Internet, however the number of GPRS enabled phones (from the GSM camp) in use can hardly be called insignificant. Similarly in the CDMA camp, for a while most handsets are data-capable, although some are capable of browsing only operator’s portal, and not reach out to the general Internet. Even with GRSP enabled handsets, of the fraction of total subscribers having such hand-sets only a smaller fraction really subscribes to GPRS data services to connect to the Internet, while another small fraction uses the operator portal for accessing content. So, the question is, why is mobile-internet penetration so low in India ? Is this in-line with the global trends of mobile-internet penetration and market uptake ? What are the reasons for the level of penetration in this country ? What could change or improve the scenario ? Today we briefly expore and try to find answers for these question.

The low penetration of Mobile Internet could probably be attributed to the following reasons:-

1. Handset capabilities.
   1. Small screen-size,
   2. Small keypad. Things like T9 / iTAP are probably okay for short messages, but for anything longer or with a mix of alphabets, numerals and symbols — they are still fairly painful. Even QWERTY keypads with minute keys make typing very difficult.
   3. Browser availablity,
   4. Browser ergonomics,
   5. Processing power & memory,
   6. Multi-media capabilities etc.
2. Connectivity experience.
   1. Bandwidth available,
   2. QoS (very variable bandwidth availability, variable latencies etc.),
   3. Availability,
   4. Network Coverage
3. Handset costs, for handsets which support somewhat usable browsing experience, are still 10K+, so not for the masses.
4. Compelling content & that too at a price that people can afford or are willing to pay.
5. Connectivity cost.

And IMHO, the reasons are more-or-less in that order of severity.

Note that 1st and 4th are a generic problem, world-wide (though many people don’t want us to believe that Compelling-content is an issue). Points 2nd, 3rd & 5th, are specifically relevant in the Indian context where next-generation high-speed mobile-internet connectivity is still a pipe-dream.

However, one feels very optimistic in this country because, once the spectral wars have died down and regulatory bodies brought some sense of semblence, the roll-outs of high-speed mobile networks should start happening. A lot will depend on the what price-points the handset manufacturers are able to offer. Volumes can do many tricks. Once more capable, mobile-internet friendly handsets become available at prices that people can start feeling very compelled to replace their current handsets, a mass market for mobile-Internet should crack open. Given the kind of love we Indians have for cricket, movies, songs etc., Entertrainment would probably be a big driver.

MVNO, in the Indian context

Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), are sometimes also incorrectly known as Mobile Service Providers (MSP). MVNO’s do provide Mobile services to subscribers or enterprises, however they do not own core network infrastructure. Some large & well-established MVNO’s do own some infrastructure s.a. Value Added Service (VAS) infrastructure or Service-Control infrastructure, however – not a very common thing. The MVNO’s buy discounted air-time in bulk, and make their money by rebranding & reselling air-time. MVNO owns the subscriber information, and takes care of customer-care, marketing and most importantly billing. The reason why MSP is not same as MVNO is because, while all MSPs are not MVNOs, all MVNO’s are MSPs. A telco’s owning the core network, are also MSP’s, but the term is loosely meant to refer to MVNO’s.

MVNO’s offered a good & profitable business-model few years back, when they were introduced. Take ‘Virgin Mobile’ for instance. The success, led to MVNO’s sprouting up like mushrooms in moist grasslands. The excellent marketing momentum, the differentiated service offerings and service levels that that large and generally established brands created in form of MVNO’s, slowly started losing steam. In a few years, as the mobile telecom industry’s average ARPU’s were dragged by gravity, and customer-churn ruined profitability predictions,  the Telco biggies owning the core-network, saw the (by-then) somewhat ailing MVNO’s as easy prey. While the weak died or withered-away, the better of the lot got consumed by the brick-n-mortar Telcos. It gave the Telcos immediate (large) subscriber-base. As a result, the reality today is that very few MVNO’s are doing well or even surviving.

Now with the phenomenal growth of mobile subscriber base in India and China, MVNO’s are getting attracted to these markets. Of course in India, regulatory constraints limit the operation in true MVNO model, however, a smart exclusive Franchaisee model is being adopted. The Franchaisee model and MVNO model are however not necessarily first cousins. While we need to wait to see how the model plays out in India, the difference that one may expect are that the customer-care and billing are not operated by the MVNO(-like) Franchaisee, but by the host Telco. Some “patch-on” branding will be possible (e.g. Franchaisee branded post-paid bills, or franchaisee branded SIM-card packs & recharge-coupons), however, it may not have the same impact of a true MVNO’s all-pervasive branding. And then, if the Telco’s were to host the rather ‘costly’ liability of customer-care & billing, the amount of discount they would be able to offer to the Franchaisee wouldn’t be in the typical range of 20-25%. As anybody could guess, most Indian telco’s are already under a tremendous cost-pressure. Another factor is that the churn in Indian Telcom industry is generally driven by one strong factor, i.e. “perceived cost/minute”. Quality of service, or quality of customer-care, differentiation in terms of Value Added Service availability or even coverage, are not highest determinants.

Net-net, it does not take a lot of imagination to analyse the viability of the MVNO / Franchaisee model, and predict the outcome. However, it could certainly make the already competitive Indian mobile telcom market, hotter.

Spawned, yes. But why that name!

After shunning & shrugging-off blogging as a passing fad, today I’ve to admit, how wrong I was.  This fad, just refused to pass. Not only did it not wither-away and die, it has grown into a phenomenon, driving readership and driving economy, and turning every average-Joe (like me) into a publishing powerhouse (yeah, I like to feel that way!). So here I’m have, having spawned…

Now why in the name of Mike, the name “Octapod”. Well, the name is the wishful thinking state of my mind, I wish I were born a freak… with 8 limbs (well, 8 hands, but 2 feet do me just fine). Now, what use do I have of 8 limbs ? Answer is simple — too much to do. Too many thoughts, too few fingers to take note of ‘em. Too many things to do, and too few hands to accomplish them.