Re: cellular operator association has bizarre interpretation of Net neutrality

Branibata,

Here’s how AirJaldi does it.  AirJaldi, as some of you know, is an ISP doing broadband for rural India.  We’ve got some 10 separate operations in 5 or 6 states (Himchal, Uttrakand, Jharkand, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka).  See AirJaldi.net <http://airjaldi.net/> for a few more details.

AirJaldi buys wholesale IP bandwidth in a few place and then distributes it over infrastructure that we build, using long distance point-to-point and point-to-multipoint WiFi (think Microwave, but much cheaper).  Till now most of our business is supplying schools, banks, small-medium businesses (including a rural BPO) as well as some individuals.  Going forward we will likely supply hot spot service for mobile phones, and in fact have a project doing that in Rishikesh & Garwal.  We’re under NDA so haven’t announced it, but if you go to Rishikesh near Laxman Jula, you’ll find the signal and will then know some more.

We are structured as commercial company, registered in Dellhi (Rural Broadband Pvt Ltd.)  I’m a shareholder and Director of the company.  All of the infrastructure is built by people that we have trained, and those people do a great job.  The relays we build are usually solar powered. We do lots of pro-bono work, and a nice grant from Ford Foundation India has enabled us to reach some places in Jharkand that would otherwise be economically impractical.  Working with the government of Jharkand, we’ve recently upgraded the connectivity to 1Mbps, and it makes a huge difference. 

By the analogies in the earlier mail, we are road builders.  .  We are happy to work with government projects but do not want to be dependent on that, as it’s not our core competency.  In general, we seek to lower the cost of building those road so that they are affordable.  

Jim

> 
> Admittedly, I'm not too clued into the access/core network architeture of ISPs in India, but my simplistic view was:
> 
> - Data ISP's "own" and "operate" the access network (I'm not aware of any exceptions, since access isn't unbundled in India)
> - Data ISP's use leased-line (the only copper, fiber-optic or such, that could be riding over infrastructure of the multi-play telco biggies) transmission link to NIXI
> - NIXI runs the domestic and international POPs
> 
> There is indeed a significant infrastructure cost for the transmission network, but I really doubt that this cost is the the common denominator determining profitability of service providers. Much of this infrastructure that is already laid out, is already paid for. Incremental investment in this, should be fully recoverable from data revenues, without pushing price to subscriber to 6x.

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