How it all began

In 1991-92, the internet was shaping up to what we know today as the world wide web and the vast array of systems across the world - known collectively as the Internet. VSNL was one of the very first organizations (along with Sprint and a few others) who took upon themselves the task of introducing the Internet to the parched Indian technological landscape. Back then VSNL (Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited) was a fully government owned telecom services provider with monopolistic lincense for international communication originating from or terminating at any location in the world outside the Indian territtory.

My first brush with VSNL began when I got myself a dial-up internet account in 1994. Back then life was simple - you used a modem (remember the AT commands), and dialed into a preset number. Since the world was text based at the time, one could exhaust almost all of the content on the www using just HyperTerminal!

As things hanged in the ensuing years, the Internet and the www became more closely integrated into business models until E-Commerce, web presence, and the boom and finally the bust happened at the turn of the century.

The era between 2001 and 2004 was a time for consolidation for the Indian telecom industry. Mobile phones and wireless connectivity became the norm and products were being released almost simultaneously in India as across the rest of the largest economies of the world.

I switched over to broadband connectivity pretty late - mostly because most of my connectivity needs were met at the office where we maintained multiple levels of redundancy on dedicated pipes to the Internet - at home I preferred to stay connected by choice via dial-up. We implemented VOIP and VPN at multiple offices and VSNL continued to remain at the top of the list when it came to dedicated bandwidth in the wake of very little competition and government controlled market conditions. Private ISPs made their presence felt since the late nineties and grew to offer some strong competition to the mammoths around 1997-98.

Tata (the largest industrial house in India) took VSNL under its umbrella due to VSNL's massive weight and spread. Along with internet connectivity, Tata invested a lot of moolah into CDMA telephony networks across India. They rechristened the the complete gamut of services under the common brand - Tata Indicom.

So... I switched over to broadband connectivity around 2004. By this time, there were a plethora of service providers, but given the lack of vision and planning of those at the helm of affairs, most geographies remained monopolies and the absence of competition led most service providers to become complacent and most customers to resign to their state. Connectivity was intermittent and pathetic. Misrepresentations were easy to get by with (kbps was conviniently represented at 1000 bytes per second... aaargh).

So in 2004 I shopped around and settled for what was probably the only viable choice for broadband (so-called) connectivity in the area where I reside. For a good two years I experience good connectivity and excellent speed until the ISP decided to withdraw from my geography for lack of subscriptions in 2006 due to wider competition and entry of bigger player (like Tata Indicom) into the market.

And here on 14-Jun-2007 began my experiments with Tata Indicom...

P.S. Until I come back to share more - feast yourselves on this - http://www.vsnl.in/aboutvsnl/biz-excell.php.