Comments on: Fair/Forced Usage Policy??

By: Madhu Ranjan

Madhu Ranjan — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:31:24 +0000

Hi Nikhil, Interesting article. Have a few thoughts here:

1. Earlier when we were all on good old frame relay networks though the speeds were exceptionally slow, there was a much easier way to monitor upper limits like PIR / and a guaranteed limit of CIR. Infact, you won’t believe it , this is still the in thing in many developed countries and India is way ahead in this field ( though not as much as US right now is!).

2. Someone has spoken about BSNL not working often. I have had these problems and one of the standard things that I keep changing are the DNS server IPs coz’ most of the times their DNS keeps crashing probably coz’ it exceeds the overall no that it can handle or someone just switches them off ! So atleast in the local setup,I have got a list of 4-5 DNS ips , all in different subnets and invariably (more than 95% of times) , it works after changing the DNS ips. Recently though I had this weird connectivity problem and the helpline folks told me that the entire data center near my place was facing connectivity problems . Can’t do much in such cases!

3. Lastly, there is a fantastic product from Cisco that many SPs around the world are deploying in order to manage subscribers / their usage/ what protocols they use etc in a much better manner called SCE ( and rightly Service Control Engine) -> http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6151/

By: Bharatwaj

Bharatwaj — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:14:58 +0000

@Nikhil…
I heard from my borther-in-law who is a lawyer btw, that a PIL is in the works against this and also a consumer fraud blah-blah-legal-jargon-something suit that will be filed soon regarding this. It seems that Bharti has left quite a few big legal loopholes in their T&C and this suit is going to be a nightmare for them. No comment about reliance n tata. But Bharti-Airtel is definitely in for a ride.
According to him, it is a straightforward case of consumer-malpractice-again-some-legal-blah-blah-which-i-dont-understand…..
He used to work under the attorney general before he started his own practice. //An SC lawyer

By: Nikhil

Nikhil — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 19:45:40 +0000

@Imti: I know of the US policies, but with the pathetic state of speeds in India, I thought they would have the shame of not applying FUP. Alas they are shameless.

@Rajath: I actually am not aware of the legal course of action, since they write in fine print that company T&C can be changed anytime, so I think legal course of action will not be feasible. Unless somebody takes up a Public Interest Litigation.

By: Rajath

Rajath — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 16:27:55 +0000

This is a good article. I never knew about FUP. Though one of my friend who uses the internet to download a lots of stuffs recently received a mail from his ISP(Airtel) stating that after 40 GB of download the speed gets reduced and all…we were pretty shocke dto hear that, as the connection type was “Unlimited”. This article did help me in figuring out why that is so.
BTW could we go to consumer court against this? or could we the users do something about this limiting by the ISPs?

By: Imti

Imti — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 09:23:39 +0000

I concur! The FUP as with AT&T and COMCAST in the USofA applies beyond 50gig when one continues the trend for two consecutive months. There’s no automatic termination or anything – the user gets a word of caution in his monthly statement. Following which they monitor your connection, if the trend continues – Next would be two follow up calls from their customer service executive who take it from there.
That said, my roomie has a rapidshare premium account and he consumes the full permissible download (2.6 gig per day if I am right) everyday (trust me)… We havent got any FUP advice as yet.
P.S: We are 4 such ppl with 4Tb external HD’s downloading shit all the time.. NIKKI – This article makes sense to me!!

By: Anilavo

Anilavo — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 20:44:46 +0000

Very well written added a lot of value thank you

By: boneless

boneless — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 12:30:47 +0000

ok pal just because bsnl hasnt introduced fup my love for it has increased and i was talking only in the context of home users

By: Saurabh

Saurabh — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 09:02:53 +0000

Really nice article Nikhil. Many people are unaware of the fact that a connection is called Broadband only when the speed is at least 256kbps. I totally agree with your thoughts.
This is the marketing trick of companies, by saying “Unlimited”, they actually mean “Extended Limit”. And people actually think it is unlimited just because they (decent user) don’t reach that “Extended Limit”. I had Sify 64 kbps (so called Broadband) “Night Unlimited” plan. Now this is Unlimited for me because you know when you download with 64 kbps, it actually downloads at 1/8th of the speed, i.e. 8 kbps. At this great speed if I keep my machine on and download whole night for all 30 nights of the months then also I won’t exceed the “Extended Limit”. (I was in that plan just because it was cheapest and Sify allowed my machine to get connected in LAN with lightning speed of 100 MBps)

By: Omkar

Omkar — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 09:00:21 +0000

Nice Article….

By: Frikki

Frikki — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 08:53:41 +0000

@ALL:

Its been a year since I spend around 3 months in India. The company I was working in had connections from pretty much all the suppliers, because the stability was so poor, that if one broke down we could MAYBE rely on another being up. Now, point is: It is too expensive and too unreliable. And there is NO “Unlimited”. Its bull and lousy marketing jargon. Web hosting companies follow the same trend. So, all in all, you have to read the small print in terms and conditions. If the companies — be it private or government owned — would stick with their advertising promises, they wouldn’t have to make these T&Cs. But the world is a vampire — and you’re the victim! Soon Boneless will also be bloodless.