City Scenario

In the city-wise analysis of Internet Services in thecountry, Mumbai and Delhi head the list closely followed by Chennai, Ahmedabad,and Hyderabad. There are reasons why Internet services there are a shade morereliable than at other places.

Mumbai

VSNL’s international gateway here is the most distinctiveadvantage. Added to this is the presence of Hughes Tele.com and MTNL. BSESTelecom is halfway through laying 600 km of fibre across Mumbai. It is alreadyoperational in the suburbs. Tata Power is known to be drawing up plans too. Thecable operators, Hathway Cable and Datacom and In2cable.com, are offeringInternet cable connections up to speeds of 256 Kbps, scalable in future. DishnetDSL is already providing DSL access in some parts of the city. Considering thathere you have most of the existing undersea cables coming in and severalgateways lined up by private players too, Mumbai is ready to see uninterruptedInternet connections.

Delhi

Delhi was the first to have Ku-band private internationalgateway through Bharti BT Internet. Though there is no private basic serviceprovider here, Spectranet has made use of its ISP licence to wind up some of themost upmarket areas of the city with optical fibre. Also, AirTel has laid cablesand put up microwave radio links for its cellular services. Internet cable isbeing aggressively tested out by both ISPs and local cable operators. Manycorporates in adjoining Gurgaon have gone in for microwave radio option whereverline of sight is clear. Primus Telecom, Space Age, and Estel Communications arelikely to provide satellite-based Internet access to corporates in Delhi.

Chennai

Due to its natural location, it has the potential of becomingthe southern gateway to India for submarine cables. Bharti BT Internet andDishnet have announced plans to lay cable from here to Singapore. On the localaccess provision, the worry still persists because of the absence of analternative to DoT. However, on the DSL front Dishnet is laying its own copperpair while Internet cable operators like Cyberwave and Hathway are fastspreading their bi-directional networks across the city.

Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad has a better chance than other cities because ofthe number of local ISPs based there. Competing ISPs are testing outtechnologies like Internet-over-Cable, Internet-over-Ethernet Cable, apart fromusing leased-lines and microwave radios. All the major national ISPs like Satyam,Dishnet, and VSNL are present here. But local players like Icenet and Wilnet arethe more aggressive ones. Private gateways being planned here and entry ofReliance Telecom as the telecom infrastructure provider are the two most awaitedevents.

Hyderabad

The city with maximum number of "B" category ISPslike Southern Online, Nettlinx, Global Online, City Online, Pioneer Online,aponline.net, and In TechNet. Joining them are bigger players like Dishnet DSL,Wipronet, Satyam, Mantra, Global Electronic Commerce, STPI, and SwiftmailCommunications. But only a few of them cater to the corporate segment due tobandwidth crunch. Once the ISPs commission their gateways we can see a mad rushof ISPs targeting the corporates with attractive pricing schemes and morevalue-added services. Though the city has the advantage of having TataTeleservices as the basic service provider, most of the ISPs claim that Tata isnot in a position to provide optical fibre link to ISPs.

Rest of the Country

Quite often quoted by people in various forums, the"Digital Divide" seems complete when it comes to India. Development inIndia is taking place in pockets. You are not so lucky in Calcutta. Caltigerseems to be concentrating on providing free access to consumers.

ISPs here are now talking of providing broadband services. But it will takesome more time. Bangalore is a little better because of the presence of Wiproand BPLnet.com. If you are at Chandigarh and Jaipur, you are not so luckyeither. All the major national ISPs are there. But there are city-based ISPslike Glide and Data Infosys that are putting the efforts to build the requisiteinfrastructure to provide quality service to the corporates. Here, the activityon the basic services’ front by Shyam Telelink, Bharti Group, and HFCL Grouphas been a big help.