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Basic telecommunications infrastructure in India is heavily regulated by a government that once actually proposed banning all VoIP services apart from the ones

Basic telecommunications infrastructure in India is heavily regulated by a government that once actually proposed banning all VoIP services apart from the ones they offer at premium prices. Thanks to a high degree of corruption and bureaucracy, it is near impossible to enter the ISP game unless you have serious monetary or political clout. Simply starting a competing ISP is not really feasible.

eklavya 12y ago
Sure it is, Beam telecom (ACT now), You broadband, Spectranet (citycom now, although it is older). If you are implying that serious investment is required to setup the infrastructure, you are correct. This is the nature of the telecom game.
- cookiecide 12y ago
  Fair enough. I suppose it is more accurate to claim that entering a business with high infrastructural costs is not possible for most people (where will the money come from?) and my guess is that only a small number of people who are in a position to start such a business would actually know and care about net neutrality.
dreamdu5t 12y ago
Reliance Communications Ltd must pay those entry costs as well. I don't see why that's relevant to my point at all.
- cookiecide 12y ago
  Reliance Communications Ltd is an arm of one of the largest companies in India, and one of a very very small number of players who can actually not only afford the entry cost, but actually outspend the competition. I understand that they aren't actively preventing people from competing with them, but it's not much of a stretch to imagine the other big players in Indian telecom following suit, resulting not in fast and slow lanes, but toll free and toll collected lanes. I don't think anyone's saying that Reliance is impinging on the freedom of others to compete with them as an ISP, they're objecting to life being more difficult for internet-based businesses that want to get off the ground without paying a fee to ISPs to get them on the toll free lanes.

eklavya 12y ago

Sure it is, Beam telecom (ACT now), You broadband, Spectranet (citycom now, although it is older). If you are implying that serious investment is required to setup the infrastructure, you are correct. This is the nature of the telecom game.

cookiecide 12y ago
Fair enough. I suppose it is more accurate to claim that entering a business with high infrastructural costs is not possible for most people (where will the money come from?) and my guess is that only a small number of people who are in a position to start such a business would actually know and care about net neutrality.

dreamdu5t 12y ago

Reliance Communications Ltd must pay those entry costs as well. I don't see why that's relevant to my point at all.

cookiecide 12y ago
Reliance Communications Ltd is an arm of one of the largest companies in India, and one of a very very small number of players who can actually not only afford the entry cost, but actually outspend the competition. I understand that they aren't actively preventing people from competing with them, but it's not much of a stretch to imagine the other big players in Indian telecom following suit, resulting not in fast and slow lanes, but toll free and toll collected lanes. I don't think anyone's saying that Reliance is impinging on the freedom of others to compete with them as an ISP, they're objecting to life being more difficult for internet-based businesses that want to get off the ground without paying a fee to ISPs to get them on the toll free lanes.