India Broadband

BEWARE OF SIFY INTERNET BROADBAND SERVICE PROVIDER

I have a Sifybroadband 256 kbps and have found mostly good speeds. I renewed every month package ( 256Kbps 500MB download) which according to the price list was Rs 380/- all inclusive for Taxes.

However, the Local Cable Operator charged me Rs 471/-claiming Rs 90/- as maintenance charges per month for last 03 months.

The bill never mentions nor gives details breakup of items. This additional collection was not mentioned nor updated anywhere by SIFY.

Also, prices vary from location to location with multiple cable vendor/francise within same region. Other cable operator in my region does not charge for Maintainence charges.

If I pay with my credit cards the charges are not taken into account.

SIFY IS “CHEATING CUSTOMERS” FOR HIDDDEN COST INVOLVED NOT MENTIONED DURING RENEWALS ON MONTHLY BASIS.

The charges for providing internet services are to be

borne by the service provider and not by the Customer

One solution is by providing profit margins to cable

operator rather billing valuable customer for repair

cost

There is no communication nor information available from sify for changes in operation/maintanence cost policy for all broadband internet subscribers.

I mailed customer care at Sify – and they replied that the cable operator could charge whatever he wants over and above the rate mentioned by Sify.. which means that Sify leaves us at the mercy of the cable operator, and leaves us to be fleeced by him!

Naturally, these maintenance charges problem came up only at renewal, and there were no maintenance charges initially!

Whatever relationship for cable operator with sify,

the service and charges needs to be fixed by sify as

Internet service provider mentioning all details for

the cost involved

I believe sify should prescribe cable maintenance charges upfront and not wash their hands off, and the charges must be mentioned in their rate list.

All Broadband users should be aware of hidden cost by SIFY broadband which is unjustified as compare to bandwidth usage charge on a daily basis.

I am rather disappointed and feel cheated, but naturally I am stuck, especially after having paid the initial connection charges of Rs 3000/. excluding NIC cost.

There are other broadband cable providers in this area, and I want to go in for TATA Broadband so as to get ride off “operation/maintanence” being charged by my Cable operator and at lower price as compared to sify broadband.

Awaiting for positive response and feedback for closure from sify only.

IOL Broadband has confirmed that they are now going to work with government owned telecom company BSNL to launch its IPTV services in India.

They have already started the trials of this service on the BSNL Broadband network in Bangalore.

This collaboration was confirmed in a notification sent to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

BSNL is one of the largest broadband service providers in the country with around seven lakh broadband ADSL subscribers all over India. They recently upgraded their network to provide speeds of up to 2 mbps to their customers.

IOL Broadband added that they have also signed a revenue sharing agreement for its IPTV Service with Anytime. Anytime is a consortium of major Hollywood Studios including Disney, FOX, Warner, and Universal. This would allow them to broadcast unreleased movies on IPTV services.

With the implementation of CAS in the metros in India, the DTH players are playing it aggressively in India. DISH TV recently announced their decision to slash their DTH prices by almost half.

Now, Tata Sky has an amazing new offer for new customers where they are offering 103 channels and all interactive services free of monthly rentals for six months.

This means that the customers can save around Rs. 1800 on rentals if they get a Tata Sky DTH connection now.

Customers having multiple television sets can save more. Even Reliance has said that they would enter the DTH market with their Blue Magic service by the middle of next year.

Tata Sky said that their ‘Free Television Viewing for 6 months’ promotion is valid only in New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata between Dec 28, 2006 and Jan10, 2007. Customers would be required to pay the setup and installation fee which comes to around Rs. 4000 per television set.

Customers are also waiting to get their hands on the MTNL provided IPTV service.

I recently read somewhere talking about these new packages mentioned in a local newspaper. We cannot confirm the accuracy of these packages though:

The plans according to a local paper from 1st January 2007 are -
Home 250 – 1GB limit, 90 paisa per MB over the limit.
Home 500 – 2.5GB limit, 80 paisa per MB over the limit.
Home 1000 – 5GB limit, 80 paisa per MB over the limit.
Home 1800 – 10GB limit, 70 paisa per MB over the limit.
Home 3300 – 20GB limit, 70 paisa per MB over the limit.
Night Unlimited on all Home plans except Home 250 is from 8 PM to 8 AM now.
There is no mention of the Home 900 UL plan.

Business 700 – 4GB limit, 80 paisa per MB over the limit.
Business 1200 – 8GB limit, 80 paisa per MB over the limit.
Business 3000 – 20GB limit, 50 paisa per MB over the limit.
Business 5000 – 35GB limit, 50 paisa per MB over the limit.
Business 9000 – 75GB limit, 50 paisa per MB over the limit.

Users are now more interested in knowing the status of Home 900 UL package. However, getting over 1mbps speeds on these cheap packages at night time is still a very good deal.

Chennai, India, November 21, 2006: Sify Communications Limited (SifyComm), a subsidiary of Sify Limited (Nasdaq National Market: SIFY), a leader in consumer Internet and Enterprise Services in India with global delivery capabilities, today received licenses to operate and offer NLD (National Long Distance) and ILD (International Long Distance) Services from the Department of Telecommunication.

Following this, Sify has, with immediate effect, transferred its VPN business to SifyComm. Both the companies had signed a MoU earlier this year to this effect. The licenses were applied for as they became a condition for the provisioning of IP VPN services in which Sify is the market leader.

Mr Raju Vegesna, CEO and Managing Director, Sify Limited, said “Sify is the leader in IP VPN services in India with best in class services to a wide range of customers spanning Indian corporates, multi-nationals and Government. I am confident that these licenses, along with our expertise, knowledge and infrastructure will help further strengthen our leadership in converged services over our data network.”

Mr. Bhaskar Sayyaparaju, Chief Technology Officer, Sify added, “With the NLD and ILD licenses in place, SifyComm will be able to enhance the portfolio of connectivity services to customers to build on our leadership in this space. These approvals will enable us to provide additional services over the robust, state-of-the-art meshed network infrastructure that Sify has developed.”

The licenses will enable SifyComm to offer Domestic Leased Circuits (DLCs) and International Private Leased Circuits (IPLCs) in addition to Long Distance Subscriber Telephony services. Many VPN customers, especially multi-nationals and the Information technology and Information Technology Enabled Services (IT / ITES) companies, subscribe to DLCs and IPLCs. The ability to offer these services together will give Sify an advantage, particularly with the company’s technical expertise in data services over IP (Internet Protocol) networks.

Sify has alliances with leading International carriers to offer end-to-end IP-MPLS solutions for VPN services, and constantly invests in bandwidth on both its sophisticated national and international network to offer redundant, reliable, secure, scalable and efficient traffic routing.

About Sify Communications

Sifycomm carries expertise in the Data Security and Trust Solutions and services space. Sifycomm’s areas of specialization include Cryptography, PKI & Digital Signature based solutions; Data protection and privacy solutions, Strong Authentication solutions, Digital Rights Management solutions, etc. Sifycomm created history in India by becoming India’s first licensed Certifying Authority (CA) under the Indian Information Technology Act 2000 and is today India’s largest Certifying Authority, providing services across India via a network of over 80 business partners.

In order to bring the “best of breed” technology to the Indian market, Sifycomm has tie-ups with leading vendors in this domain including VeriSign, SafeBoot, Swivel, Seclore, ElOck, Alladin, etc.

About Sify Limited:

Sify is among the largest Internet, network and e-Commerce services companies in India, offering end-to-end solutions with a comprehensive range of products delivered over a common Internet backbone infrastructure. This Internet backbone reaches 183 cities and towns in India. A significant part of the company’s revenue is derived from Corporate Services, which include corporate connectivity, network and communications solutions, security, network management services and hosting. A host of blue chip customers use Sify’s corporate service offerings. Consumer services include broadband home access, dial up connectivity and the iWay cyber café chain across 154 cities and towns. The company’s network services, Data Center operations and customer relationship management are accredited ISO 9001:2000.

For more information about Sify, visit www.sifycorp.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The forward-looking statements contained herein are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. Sify undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements.

For a discussion of the risks associated with Sify’s business, please see the discussion under the caption “Risks Related to Our Business” in the company’s report on Form 6-K for the quarter ended June 30, 2006 which has been filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and is available by accessing the database maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov.

The Financial Times has said in a news report that U.S. private equity groups Blackstone and Carlyle are currently talking with Indian telecom giants Reliance Communications.

The two groups are planning to invest as much as USD 1 billion in a new unit, which would work on telecoms tower business for Reliance.

This new entity is rumored to be called TowerCo and it might also receive investments from Singapore state investment agency Temasek and American Tower.

The report also said that Reliance is spinning off its wireless tower business to separate the heavy cost of building telecoms infrastructure from the parent company.

Defense Public Sector Enterprise Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has said in a statement that they have received an order to supply two lakh set top boxes (STBs) to Wire and Wireless India Limited (WWIL).

WWIL is a unit of the Zee Group and these set top boxes might be provided to the customers of CAS Service.

These boxes would be loaded with embedded conditional access software. It would allow the subscriber of the service to pick the channels of his choice and view them through this system. The deliveries are expected to begin from next month.

BEL said in a statement that they are in a position to meet the high volume requirements of service providers such as WWIL.

Telecom giants Reliance Communications has now announced the availability of a STD call card, which allows the subscriber to make STD calls at night for free.

This card costs around Rs. 675 and comes with a calling value of Rs. 601. Reliance said that people buying this card would be able to make free calls to any Reliance phone anywhere in India between 11 pm and 6 am.

For other calls made during the daytime, consumers would be required to pay Rs. 1 per minute. Reliance added that they believe that this card would be popular amongst couples staying apart or students in hostel wanting to keep in touch with their families.

Reliance said that this card could be used all Reliance post-paid, pre-paid phones.

After MTNL, it is the turn of the other government owned telecom giant BSNL to test launch their triple play service, which would offer voice, internet and television broadcasting facilities through a single connection.

BSNL’s director of planning and new services Ram Lakhan Dubey said that the tests of this service would last around a fortnight and after that, they would make it ready for a launch on a wider scale. They plan to offer this service to the subscribers of their internet services around the country.

The company plans to lay fresh copper cables to offer this multi-play network. And it would enable the customers to use television, internet and voice service at once. BSNL added that interested customers would have to pay the initial cost of the set-top box, installation. After that, he would be required to pay for the services he chose to receive.

This service is being tested in the Pune city in Maharashtra. BSNL said that it would remain free for the testing customers until it is commercially launched or up to 31 December, whichever is earlier.

German based automaker DaimlerChrysler has said that they are planning to expand into the Indian market. The company now is aiming to establish a second plant in India.

This new plant is expected to be located in or around the Pune city in Maharashtra. DaimlerChrysler believes that India has the potential to become a huge market for high end products from their stables.

DaimlerChrysler India Managing Director and CEO Wilfried Aulbur spoke about their plans for the Indian market: “We have plans to set up a new plant in India which could come up in and around Pune, as we have a good supplier network in the area.”

The company’s existing plant is based in Pune. Aulbur added: “We plan to manufacture products from our existing offerings in India in the proposed new plant. Also, it will give us the possibility to expand in the future.”

DaimlerChrysler entered the Indian market way back in 1995 and has been profitable in their Indian operations. The company sells Mercedes Benz branded cars in India and they had sold 1,915 cars in 2005. They are aiming to sell more than 2000 cars this year.

Aulbur added that they expect India to become a major market for them in the near future. However, they have no current plans to launch their other brands in India. He said: “The way forward is just going up… India is a very important part of our Asia strategy.”