In a Flat World - II

Today I was on my mission Malleswaram. By that I mean my schedule of roaming through the markets of Malleswaram, which is a pretty good market in itself now, with a number of grand showrooms, many of them opened in the previous 4 years, the time since I have come to college.

So when I was on my favorite shop, Temptation M, which is something just like Planet M, I saw a couple inquiring about the Ramayana of Ramanand Sagar (the old one) which was available there for Rs 3500.

The in charge of the shop told them and when they showed some reluctance, he started trying his luck and showed them the Mahabharata, Shri Krishna, and Vikram aur Betaal. But the couple had lost interest for some reason and confused, they left the place.

And I started thinking how would it be a waste of their money had they bought it.

Nowadays my mind is really giving me lots of troubles as it is making me think about lots of things I need not think. (so I think when I do not use my mind)

I started thinking how could they use those Rs 3500. First thing that can be done is, buy a Tata Sky connection with the amount of money. Or Dish TV, whichever you like more. In fact you can even have Reliance BlueMagic, but we don't really know in how much time is Mr Anil Ambani going to launch it, but anyways it is going to be cheaper than the two. At least that is what we expect from Reliance.

I think I went off the topic. Back.

So, we can buy a DTH connection and watch new Ramayana on the NDTV Imagine. And after a few days the new Mahabharata too, on Star. (according to reports) This way, we'll be getting a number of channels in addition to the Ramayana and Mahabharata we actually want which will be easier to watch as all the fights in the serials will be using higher quality animations compared to those of 80's.

Second option, we can have a broadband connection of any company. From a wired home broadband connection of BSNL or Sify or Airtel to USB/PCMCIA cards of Reliance/Tata Indicom. And then download and /or watch a hundred more national and international serials, series and shows from Youtube.

Actually I have learnt a lot from that shop itself. About the flattening of world. About technology getting cheaper and becoming more affordable. I have bought a number of CDs from this particular shop (in case u don't know, I am a big movie buff, and a bigger music buff, still buying movie CDs many times) and seen that CDs I buy at Rs 100 (in my case, that's the limit), are being sold for Rs 50 or 38 or 30 by Moserbaer or some company which has reduced its prices due to competition with Moserbaer.

So, in short, as the world is getting flatter, I think it is important for every human to get acquainted to its environment, so that we can get the maximum benefit of the things happening around us.

Hope u are keeping yourself updated.

Cable and Wireless

Indian telecommunication industry is going at a pace today where we cannot afford to think what happened yesterday. All we can think about is what is happening today and what is going to happen tomorrow.

First telecommunication meant radio, television, then in its true sense, telephones, and then, mobile phones. Even today when we think of telecommunications, first thing that comes to our minds is a cellular phone. But the fact is that today telecommunication means so much that we cannot even visualize instantly. Telecommunicationhas gone back into wires, and more amount of data than ever before is in the air simultaneously, with the existing and coming wireless technologies.

With the BSNL IPTV already in the market, and Airtel and others all set to launch theirs (Don't know if any other operator has launched IPTV), the telecommunications field has already got a new face, one that combines the information-centric internet and environment-primary television.

Internet on the go is no more a dream either, for those who really want it. With the PCMCIA cards and beautiful 1-x CDMA modems coming to a price range affordable for the middle-class, you can now find students working on their net-connected-laptops, which was used to represent business class flyers by airlines not long ago.

And then comes the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, better known as Wi-Max. The current year has seen Wi-Max starts from BSNL, Aircel, VSNL, Bharti, Reliance, and Sify. Among these, Bharti has already deployed its services in eleven cities and is planning to expand, and a lesser known Aircel has invested $1 bn in the upcoming technology.

Now we shall talk about another facet of telecommunication. The direct-to-home (DTH) service, once under the monopoly of DishTV, and later extended to DDDirect+ and Tata Sky, is soon expected to see a number of new operators with Bharti, Reliance, Videocon, and Sun TV all set to jump into the market, starting a new competition altogether.

Interestingly, DTH is a segment where we find only one or two operators in a place almost anywhere in the world. But here, four new operators are planning to start their services in a short span of time, with 3 operators already existing. And actually, I still hope they'll all find their market in the world's second largest population.

That's when we say, It happens only in India.