Broadband Quality and Pricing

A serious mismatch in broadband quality

Express News Service
First Published : 04 Nov 2009 03:09:00 AM IST
Last Updated :

CHENNAI: There is disparity in the advertised broadband speed and the actual speed, according to the findings of a research project jointly carried out by Learning Initiative on Reforms for Network Economies Asia (LIRNEasia), TeNeT Group of the IIT Madras.

Prof Timothy A Gonsalves, professor and head of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT-M said the actual speed, measured using an open source-based software application named AT-Tester, showed that the advertised broadband speeds in the country can rarely help in selecting a broadband package.

“In the south Asian context, it is usual for the operators to advertise higher speed than they could offer. This has been observed in the testing done in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh,” he said.

He said the Indian scenario is more complicated because of the stipulation of the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to advertise the lowest speed instead of the highest.

As an example, he pointed out that a widely used series of broadband packages by the BSNL, earlier advertised 256 kbps-2 Mbps, is now advertised as 256 kbps but the actual speeds vary within a large range.

The research has also shown that among the six SAARC countries, India offers the lowest prices for a 256 kbps connection. “The annual cost in February 2009 was $145, having dropped from $241 a year ago,” it said.