Wish List for Broandband In Pakistan
We have often talked about the sad state of affairs of Broadband in Pakistan here. Well, KO wrote an open letterto Internet Service Providers (ISPs) of Pakistan in Dec 2004 which was published in Spider magazine. I wanted to share it here because as KO says, Sadly, it’s just as valid today.Yes, most of it is, though for some of us things have improved a tiny bit with increased competition and lower prices. Since broadband situation varies significantly by location, the digital divide within Pakistan is huge as well.
My summarized version of the Wish List follows. Read the full and original version at Wired Pakistan.
1)Reliable and fast Internet service
2) My concern is not the means through which you offer that service, but the quality of the service which I receiveÂ
3) Future plans – I want broadband in the future at lower prices
4) Offer high speeds for LOCAL usage. For example, if I want to transfer data between two computers connected to your local network, I should be able to do so at a minimum of 1MBPS
5) Provide mirrors and local content servers.
6)The days of 15MB and lower mailboxes are long gone. Look into providing larger sized mailboxes and/or web space.
7)Provide a page on your website with the status of your Internet links
8) Provide some sort of customer forums, or online support system
9) Your policy regards VOIP should be clear
10) Start thinking about Video (conferencing) and how your network will cope under video traffic load
11) Provide more Pakistani content
12) Wireless is the only way to provide service to the poor, what are you doing about it?
Do you have anything to add to this list?
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Good post!
The price factor is a major issue for me. I mean as broadband becomes popular, prices *should* come down paving the way for more growth in this bandwidth-hungry country.
The reliability and quality of services need to be upheld as well, as you rightly pointed out.
Yah I agree with Raza that price has to be low, like not more that RS 500 for 256 K unlimited connection. I think it is fair price and when more people will use net PTCL and other providers will eventually make more money.
Hello Baber, i was wondering if there is any problem in your site while submitting something which has some links, last night i was trying to post something but it was going no where, why is that?
I’d add the following pionts:
1. Tiered (and possibly) paid customer services
2. Send your guys to (cheap but effective) regional technology summits and open up your minds to industry standards, norms and best practices for topics ranging from how to log your proxy server to how you settle in-user fights and allegations.
3. Work towards a regional IX. That is the only way of ensuring that your broadband offering can stand up to its name in at least one way.
I would like to see cheapest GPRS/3G connections.
What about VDSL (DATA and Video) becasue this is the future.
And about low cost BB i doubt because the authorities are least bothered about the users/customers they are interested in satisfying the foreign investment so the prices will remain at Rs.1000/256k with capped volume.
We need innovation in packages not just the traditional offerings..
Hello Wajid, yar multinet already has “unlimited volume” packages with following prices
Rs 999 for 128 k connection,
and Rs 1999 for 256 k connection.
I am with ptcl because there is no other service in my area otherwise i will shift to multinet 128k because i am not a download guy who need speed just to download, i can live happily with 128k.
Because most important thing is 24*7 connection without worrying about volume.
Its Rs 1500 for 128k unlimited
The Rs 999 is 256k with 2GB cap
yap you are right, i checked it again, they have changed it.
This 128K and 256K Shared or CIR?
But who cares for people like us living in the corner of RWP where there is no DSL provider yet…
I’d like to have a national online system where one can go and find broadband choices by location (city/area, postal code etc).
i dont understand why the broadband connections are capped. why cant they implement a fair usage policy ? a fair usage policy worked for me when i was in london. it allowed the ISP to regulate the usage of those who abused their service. Why cant these money hungry telecoms do something about broadband? i dont think they want any progress in the country as they are looking at short term gains. no one cares about the consumer.