INTERNET SERVICES: Promises Dont Deliver

Technology Options



Enterprises have several options to consider before they begin their search

for an Internet service provider (ISP). The requirement and the extent of their

dependence on the service will determine the options they can opt for. The

requirement of an enterprise could be broadband or narrowband. For a majority of

enterprise users, broadband is the most practical option. Once it has been

decided that you need to go for broadband, you can further choose various

options. This also primarily relates to the access media, which the enterprise

can use to connect to the ISP’s nearest PoP. The right choice of access media

is the most critical decision that an enterprise should make when subscribing to

an ISP’s services, since that will decide the following:

• Always-on connectivity
• Uptime
• Flexibility of bandwidth usage
• Lead time for service installation

n ISDN: ISDN

provides digital service, typically in increments of 64 kbps. Its usage has

increased with the increase in Internet usage. The advantage here is that one

can access the Internet on one channel and make or receive voice calls on the

other. This service is offered by some of the leading ISPs like BSNL and VSNL.

n Leased-Line: This is a cost-effective Internet access solution offered

by a majority of ISPs. Corporates can receive high-speed Internet connectivity

and pay for the bandwidth, according to the usage. It is considered to be a more

reliable network, and corporates can get a leased line from basic service

providers. Leased lines come in 64 kbps and also in 124 kbps, 256 kbps and 512

kbps. Leased lines are offered by some of the service providers like VSNL and

BSNL.

n VPN: Service providers like BSNL, MTNL, and Sify are waking up to the

potential of IP-VPNs to bring them new customers. For a 2 Mbps line, BSNL is

charging 7.7 lakh while 256 kbps is being offered at 1.49 lakh. The minimum

assured bandwidth that is being offered is 25 percent of VPN port subscribed.

Though the adoption rates among enterprises have been slower than expected, but

it is emerging as a potential option for the corporates. Service providers are

expecting IP VPN to become a data connectivity medium of choice overtaking

traditional networks like ATM and frame relay. The factors for the growing

acceptance of IP VPN among the enterprises are its relatively lower costs and

flexibility. IP VPN is far more flexible–operationally–than ATM or Frame

Relay (FR).

Since IP VPN services can be delivered via the public Internet, a carrier can

easily connect to an enterprise with its business partners anywhere across the

globe. An enterprise’s global reach via frame relay or ATM is restricted to

the locations that have been fitted into its original network design. What is

more, the ATM and Frame Relay solutions are not easily scalable. An enterprise

is stuck with a predetermined amount of bandwidth, which makes it difficult to

quickly acquire more in order to cater to sharp and sudden increases in traffic

flow.

n Digital Subscriber Line (DSL): DSL uses the existing phone line

without requiring an additional line. It is a technology for bringing

high-bandwidth applications like video-conferencing and video-on-demand to home

and small businesses over ordinary copper telephone lines. Connection speeds in

DSL typically range from 512 kbps to 1.544 Mbps downstream and around 128 kbps

upstream. For accessing DSL services, one has to connect a DSL modem to the DSL

line of the local area network (LAN). Once connected, DSL modem provides

continuous connection to the Net. In order to get better DSL service, the

end-user must be within a certain geographical distance from the telephone

exchange, to avoid signal degradation.

DishnetDSL is a prominent player in this

segment. Bharti Telenet through its ZipNet brand has also made its entry

recently.

There is nothing wrong with the technology as such but it has not been

deployed widely.

n Satellites: Satellites can be used for accessing the Internet one-way

or two-way. To access the Internet, the corporate user has to put up a VSAT,

which comprises an antenna and an adapter card, at the subscriber’s PC

connected to the external outdoor antenna by a cable. The user sends the request

by the normal telephone line and downloads through a satellite broadcast that is

received by the VSAT and comes to the PC. In the two-way mode, both the request

and the download happen through the satellite. This offers significant benefits

to consumers, including an ‘always-on’ connection that saves time when

dialing up to the Internet and eliminates the need for a second telephone line.

It is provided by many operators like HECL, Bharti Broadband, HCL Comnet, and

Comsat Max.

n Fixed Wireless–LMDS and MMDS: Local multipoint distribution system (LMDS)

is a broadband wireless point-to-multipoint communication system operating above

the speed of 20 GHz (depending on the country of licensing) that can be used to

provide digital two-way voice, data, Internet, and video services. The

technology provides a competitive opportunity to embedded wireline or wireless

networks for providing high-speed data transmission. Multipoint microwave

distribution system (MMDS) channels come in chunks of 6 MHz and run on both

licensed and unlicensed channels. Each channel can reach transfer rates as high

as 27 Mbps (over unlicensed channels) and 1 Gbps (over licensed channels). The

problem with this access technology is that since it works on line-of-sight

concept, it does not works well in the mountainous terrain but is suitable for

rural areas where copper lines are unavailable. A typical set-up of an MMDS

system is a wireless system consisting of head-end and reception equipment at

every subscriber location. There are very few players in this segment.

Buying Tips 

Internet has become an important tool for doing business in India. The ability to do business at the speed of thought is every

enterprise’s dream, and the Internet is an enabling tool for the purpose. This

brings into picture the ISPs. But before deciding in favor of a particular ISP,

an enterprise should ponder over the parameters listed below and weigh all

options:

n Estimate the Right Bandwidth: This is the first thing to look for if

you are going for a high-speed connectivity. For constructive use of the

Internet as a business tool, planning for an Internet connection becomes

important. How much bandwidth does your company require?

What is the objective of investing on the Internet infrastructure? How does

it relate to the company’s overall objectives? First of all, you must decide

upon the benefits that are expected from subscribing to an ISP. Estimating the

right bandwidth requirement is a critical step.

Evaluate the ISP’s backbone: This will help you predict the kind of speeds

you will get with that ISP’s services. If the ISP is promising you the

bandwidth that is available on the backbone, find out how many users are there.

The more the users, the slower the speed will be. One may go for an E1 link and

later realize that the throughput is nowhere near 2 Mbps. This is very important

considering the fact that most of the ISPs are not so keen to offer service

level agreements (SLAs) because they themselves do not get it from their

bandwidth provider.

n Extent of Coverage: If your business necessitates connectivity with

your remote offices, you should go for an ISP with a national presence. If your

offices are concentrated at certain locations you have the option to go for a

good national ISP or any serious regional ISP.

n Points of presence: Accessibility of one’s ISP is of crucial

importance. How fast can you approach your ISP and get response from it? The

more the PoPs, the better the chances of not getting a busy signal.

n ISP’s Track Record: You should also take into account the ISP’s

prior experience, i.e. whether providing Internet services is its core

competency or not. The history of performance and brand image in the market

counts a lot. Never judge on the basis of the number of clients that the ISP

has. In fact, fewer number of clients may mean better bandwidth for you.

Ask the

ISP to provide you business cases of earlier projects executed by it. Also, see

that the ISP is having carrier-class equipment, redundancy and robustness in its

network and services.

n Insist on Service Guarantees: In India, service guarantee is still

regarded a premium. Many service providers simply refuse to provide any service

guarantees. With ISPs being allowed to build their own international gateways

and use alternative media of last-mile access, it’s high time that you as a

corporate insisted on signing SLAs. You can start by asking the ISP to guarantee

that your dedicated connection is not down for more time than a pre-agreed

period of time. If your ISP has an international gateway, then an international

private leased-line should come along with a minimum bandwidth throughput

guarantee. The bandwidth quality-of-service (QoS) guarantees offered by the US

ISPs are upwards of 99 percent.

n Security of Data: With the heightened vulnerability of networks being

exposed to security breach, it would be a better idea to crosscheck the security

system of your ISP. Ensure that it’s foolproof. Since your corporate network

is going to be connected to your ISP, you should insist on signing an SLA on

security. This becomes all the more important if your ISP hosts your site. Also,

find out if the ISP has a disaster-recovery mechanism in place or not. Find out

what security guarantees the ISP is ready to provide on its network. It is also

worthwhile to have a look at the ISP’s network itself to see if it is secure

enough. If you an SME, it would not be a good idea to go for your own firewall,

considering the cost of the security solution.

Package solution with guaranteed

security features built in it. The ISP should have end-to-end security scheme

that will provide true protection for sensitive data, all the way from the

desktop through the service provider network to the destination LAN. An IPSec

compliant service provider network that will allow full interoperability with

other service providers’ networks, besides offering full service offering

complete with digital certification technologies. An ISP who can work with you

in terms of selecting the right level of encryption for each site and one who

offers strong encryption (triple DES) would be the best choice.

n Network Reliability of the ISP: The reliability and performance level

of the ISP are equally important and it is advisable to find out about the

actual downtime in the last 6—12 months, notwithstanding claims otherwise.

n Services Matter, not Prices: Differences in rates of services between

ISPs are very marginal and so cost should not be an issue at all. The only thing

to remember is that the quality should not suffer due to cost, otherwise the

whole purpose will be defeated. It is better to go for high-cost services with

guaranteed connectivity rather than low-cost services accompanied with poor

connectivity. Do a cost/performance comparison of various types of Internet

connections before choosing a service.

n Round-the-clock Customer Care: Round-the-clock help desk is something

that everyone claims to provide but very few actually offer them. Ensure that

the ISP you are going for (no matter how reputed it might be), has a genuine

state-of-the-art customer contact facility, which can do remote troubleshooting.

The cost of calling for help is also important. There are ISPs who offer

toll-free 1,600 number series, which means a substantial cost saving for the

enterprise. Otherwise, if you do not reside in the same city as the ISP’s

office, you might end up calling an STD number.

Market Information

The number of Internet subscribers declined, showing a negative growth of 10 percent. In terms of numbers, it went down from

2.8 million to 2.5 million. The total number of operational ISPs came down to

130. To facilitate the process of ISPs to get out of the business, DoT came up

with a guideline simplifying the procedure for their exit. In all, DoT had

issued a total of 436 licenses till the end of March 2002. The industry grew at

a CAGR of 41.13 percent over the period of last four years.

Total revenue in the

fiscal 2001-02 reached a figure of Rs 1,123.8 crore as compared to Rs 971 crore

in FY 2000-01.

The process of shakeout began with four national ISPs, some from the stables

of India’s leading corporate houses, shutting down their operations

completely. BPLNet’s operations were taken over by Delhi-based Data Access.

The deal will allow Data Access’s NOW to extend its operation in south.

WiproNet, the corporate ISP arm of Wipro exited from the scene with Sify

acquiring its customers. Jain Internet too exited the business altogether. With

Reliance launching its countrywide network parallel to BSNL, and its plans to

offer high speed corporate Internet services, it will provide wide options to

corporates to choose from the range of services on offer. Even Bharti Broadband

integrated its operation and is providing an integrated solution to corporates.

MTNL and BSNL, seeing the competition coming in, have put their acts together

and become aggressive and are offering cutting-edge technologies like VPN. The

growth status of broadband access during the fiscal 2001-02 remained far from

satisfactory, largely due to the lack of content, compounded by last-mile

problems. Cable and DSL option continued its phase of experimentation with

Internet over Ethernet, apart from a selected ISPs who went ahead with their

fixed wireless access plans for the corporates.

EXPERTS PANEL Ajay Data, MD, Data Infosys Prasoon Srivastava, general manager (infrastructure solutions group), Tata Internet Services R Ramaraj, CEO, Sify