DoT geared up to counter Satyam's ISP
12 July 1999 23:55 IST With Satyam Online - the first private ISP - entering the tourist state, the Department of Telecommunications has now woken up from its usual sluggishness to compete its commercial competitor.
But more than merely hiring better equipment, the local Internet subscriber however is deprived of a professional approach from the DoT, which still cannot come out of its habituated bureaucratic functioning.
Though a population of hardly 1.4 million, inflow of domestic as well as foreign tourists and high degree of computer awareness in the tiny educated state has attracted Satyam Infoway Ltd to Goa, to set up its 15th node here. "We expect every Goan house to have a PC in next five years", says Gerard Pushpanathan, regional manger of Satyam.
Though Satyam is targeting for around 2500 new subscribers within a year, the 2000 odd DoT subscribers are also fed up with the existing set up. In fact, many of them are prepared to shift over if Satyam could provide a better professional service.
The Panaji server, which was bom2 node of the VSNL server in Mumbai looked after by DoT till recently, has become a major irritant from the time it has been entirely shifted to DoT. It seldom functions smoothly and frequent breakdowns has become order of the day.
The Goan subscriber is slightly relieved since the number of modems have been doubled recently, from 65 to 125, which helps in getting connected little faster now. But this is not the guarantee for getting logged in as most of the time the server is found down.
Telecom officials however have been assuring the subscribers for the last one month to get additional equipment to make the server work smoothly. The DoT has also been promising to deploy round-the-clock staff on duty for the last three months, while the existing staff itself refuses to entertain the subscribers, except a few, when they are available.
Telecom officials admit that upgradation of the existing system is a must to survive in the market with the first private ISP entering the tourist market, which largely also caters to westerners, who prefer professionalism to bureaucracy. The Satyam may have an upper hand here.
"But they have presence only in four major towns and cannot have a state-wide network like us", claims one DoT official. "But getting connected to the server from my village is a miracle", quips Jason Noronha, a software developer from a coastal village of Assolna in South Goa. The village has only seven subscribers.
Goa is one of the few states having widespread telephone network, having 78.7 connections per thousand of population while the DoT workforce comprises of 11.03 per thousand telephones. However, the tourist state is demanding much more efficient and upgraded communication system to popularise Internet here in every household.
As Satyam cannot provide answers to these problems, they have been offering packages like CD application forms and free licensed anti-virus software and multimedia Internet training software in order to attract the customers.
Though on a little higher side, the Satyam rates are similar to the reduced amount announced by the DoT, beginning from Rs 2800 for 100 hours to Rs 8400 for 500 hours, besides Rs 500 for a connection. "The kind of service we are providing, subscribers would definitely be attracted towards us", claims Pushpanathan confidently.
