Yearly Archives: 2002

Reliance Infocomm Now on the Web

Hey, Reliance Infocomm finally has a website! Crappy one (why do so many Indian companies have crappy websites?), and has an alarming tendency to choke (I sincerely hope this is not a harbinger of things to come ), but I … Continue reading

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What to Expect From Your CDMA Phone

Great article from Network Computing on what to expect if you wish to use your CDMA 2000 1X phone a lot for data. Given ping rates Indian dialup customers currently get, though, I think 500ms-600ms to the US (if possible) … Continue reading

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Bollywood Box-office Returns Down, Hollywood Up

The Telegraph: tremors in Bollywood as markets hug Hollywood. Not surprising. Given the most Indian directors haven’t gone beyond the tired themes of love, friendship and boy-meets-girl bubble romance, why should people pay to watch Hindi films, especially now that … Continue reading

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GSM Operators Spread FUD about Reliance

It’s interesting to read the responses of cellular operators (cellcos) in these two Business Standard articles to the Reliance WLL launch. It’s pretty clear that their preferred weapon for countering the WLL threat will be regulatory appeals and FUD. What … Continue reading

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Telecom in the North-East: a Sorry Tale

To close the day, here’s a (fairly typical) tale of government bungling, this time about telecom in the North-East.

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Rediff on Reliance's Phone Prices and Plans

Rediff coverage on Reliance’s prices and schemes. 600 rupees a month is certainly the right price to hook the Indian consumer. But I wonder what ‘free internet access’ they are talking about. And yes, this article does confirm that the … Continue reading

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Why Good Telecom in India is Worth Getting Excited About

Now that the launch is over, it’s worth thinking about why this launch mattered at all. India is a infrastructurally weak country: the only thing we really have is a set of railways that probably was the best thing the … Continue reading

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Reliance Reveals Pricing Plans

Reliance emerges from stealth mode: the opening plan will offer WLL, initially limited to the zone you sign up for (i.e., no roaming — already Reliance is expressing interest in cellular licenses, so this could change), at an upfront cost … Continue reading

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Clone Birth Rumour

Clone!. Pop culture presents clones as being identical to their parent, but I wonder what difference upbringing will make. This is the nature-vs-nurture debate that keeps popping up in any discussion about clones.

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India's Un-utilized Bandwidth

This page (dated Sep 2002) estimates India’s outbound bandwidth at something like 900G. The ground reality is that, of that, 160G is currently being used only for voice traffic because Bharti hasn’t received a security clearance yet for data (If … Continue reading

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