GSM Versus CDMA Technology
The battle between GSM and CDMA technologies in India is hotting up! While the initial tilt was towards the GSM with players like Bharti, Hutch, Spice, BPL, Essar and BSNL preferring it, the TATAs and the Reliance have now entered the market putting their bets on CDMA. GSM stands for Global System for Mobile communications, and CDMA stands for Code Division Multiple Access. The GSM is built around the TDMA, or the Time Division Multiple Access concept.
Basically, the two technologies address differently the same fundamental problem of mobile communication, how to divide the finite frequency of airwaves between multiple users at the same time, or, how to make more than one person to carry on a conversation on the same frequency without causing mutual interference.
In common analogy, imagine a room full of people, all trying to carry on one-on-one conversations. In GSM (TDMA), each couple takes turns talking. They keep their turns short by saying only one sentence at a time. As there is never more than one person speaking in the room at any given moment, no one has to worry about being heard over the background din. In CDMA, each couple talk at the same time, but they all use a different language. Because none of the listeners understand any language other than that of the individual to whom they are listening, the background din does not cause any real problems.
In technical jargon, GSM (TDMA) does it by chopping up the channel into sequential time slices. Each user of the channel takes turns transmitting and receiving in a round-robin fashion. In reality, only one person is actually using the channel at any given moment, but he only uses it for short bursts. CDMA on the other hand, uses a special type of digital modulation called Spread Spectrum, which takes the user’s voice stream bits and splatters them across a very wide channel in pseudo-random fashion. The receiver undoes the randomization in order to collect the bits together in a coherent order.
GSM (TDMA) started getting used in mobile communication early in the mid-1980’s. A lot of time, energy and money has been spent upon improving the quality of the GSM (TDMA) technology, and because of these efforts, GSM (TDMA) won over as the standard of mobile communication in most developed nations, particularly in Europe, and as on date 500 million mobile customers all over the world use GSM (TDMA). Services like mobile banking, ticket booking, info services are today exclusively available on GSM (TDMA) networks only. A GSM (TDMA) mobile has a SIM card, which provides more functionality and is convenient (eg, change your phone, but keep your phone numbers and settings). Above all, you can take a GSM (TDMA) phone to virtually anywhere in the world and keep talking.
CDMA has its roots in pre-World War II America. In 1940, a Hollywood actor turned inventor, Hedy Lamarr, along with George Antheil, co-patented a way for torpedoes to be controlled ; the U.S. Navy at that time discarded their work as architecturally unfeasible. But in 1957, engineers at Sylvania Electronic Systems Division, Buffalo, New York, took it up, and used it to secure communications for the U.S. during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. After remaining classified for a long time, the CDMA technology was finally declassified in the mid-1980’s. Only in 1995 CDMA was, for the first time, used for mobile communication in the U.S.A. Today, the CDMA customer base hovers around 80 million, concentrated mainly in South Korea, North America, Australia, Taiwan and parts of China. Infact the very entry of CDMA into non-U.S. countries is the direct result of politics by the U.S. giant, Qualcomm which put its weight behind the CDMA technology. For example, Beijing clearly linked the entry of CDMA into the country to its US WTO deal. A CDMA phone does not have a SIM card, and therefore you have to stick to the phone you have been provided with.
Proponents of CDMA claim high communication security, high carrier efficiency meaning that the network can serve more subscribers at a time, smaller phones, low power requirement, ease of operation for the network operators, and extended reach beneficial to rural users. CDMA’s detractors say that due to its proprietary nature, all of CDMA’s flaws are not yet known to the engineering community. Also, as CDMA is relatively new, the network is not set up to provide as many facilities as GSM (TDMA). Being the standard for mobile communication in very few countries, CDMA also cannot offer international roaming, a large disadvantage.
Ideally, the GSM (TDMA) technology’s talk-range from a tower is 35 kms in comparision with CDMA’s 110 kms, and the power output of a GSM (TDMA)phone is 2W, in comparision with CDMA phone’s 200 mW i.e., CDMA implies lesser radiation hazard. But the talk time is generally higher in a GSM (TDMA) phone due to its pulse nature of transmission, in comparision with a CDMA phone which transmits all the time.
CDMA technology has a Soft Accommodation feature, that is, when the number of users of the network goes up, the voice quality progressively gets poorer. Though GSM (TDMA) will not accommodate more than a finite number of users (the user will get the Network Busy message if this number is exceeded), there won’t any be deterioration in voice quality due to traffic. In addition, GSM (TDMA) network is also equipped with Frequency-Hopping, i.e., when a lower frequency is cluttered, the mobile phone effortlessly jumps to a higher frequency (e.g., from 900 MHz to 1800MHz). GSM (TDMA) technology also employs the EFR (Enhanced Frequency Rate) add-on, which improves the voice quality greatly.
If a GSM (TDMA)phone determines that there is no intelligent data to transmit, it blanks out the audio, but to keep the listener comfortable, it inserts what is known as Comfort Noise, which mimics the volume and structure of the real background noise. This fake background noise assures the caller that the connection is alive and well. On the otherhand, in CDMA phones, background noise can be effectively suppressed even while the user is talking, so that Comfort Noise, as it is, is unnecessary.
CDMA technology facilitates a Soft Handoff, i.e., when a mobile phone has to choose between two cells, and then shift from one of them to another as you travel, the transition is very smooth. In GSM (TDMA), the handoff is a Hard Handoff, i.e., the phone first stops receiving and transmitting on the old channel, and then commences transmitting and receiving on the new channel. Therefore, if you are making a call during a handoff, the call needs to be dropped.
One of the main problems facing CDMA technology these days is channel pollution, and signal deterioration inside buildings. But CDMA really comes into its elements when you are out in the countryside with few sites covering large expanses of land. CDMA also has a very high data transmission rate, from 153.6 to 614 kbps. Hence the Reliance India Mobile’s claim to supply internet at 144 kbps speed.
But the GSM (TDMA), which can provide only 56 kbps data transmission speed today, is also catching up very fast, and moving towards the next generation protocols, the GPRS and the EDGE.
The final conclusion is that it is not so much over technology that a customer decides which network to adopt. It is basically performance! Whichever mobile communication provider puts in better efforts in giving a higher performance, the subscriber is bound to follow that path!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Advertising: The Awareness Builder
Advertising plays an important role in successful business ventures. It entails identifying and selecting the media that provide the greatest amount of exposure for a business and developing effective, yet appropriate materials for each medium. It is more than running an ad in a local newspaper, on a radio or television station or just simply hanging a sign outside the business and waiting for the customers to purchase product. It requires that one knows his product - that is, the selling points - and that one develops literature that can arouse the customers' consciousness levels to the point that they are curious enough to investigate it, and then raises their need or desire levels to the point that they are willing to purchase it.
The media formats that can be used are:
Newspaper, radio, or television ads (newspaper advertising is the least expensive and television advertising is the most expensive of these formats). Professional advice and assistance may be needed when developing ads for these media formats.
· Business cards
· Classified ads in the local newspaper
· Direct marketing
· Telemarketing (this format can be expensive, also)
· Yellow Pages advertising
· Sampling - mailing or distributing free samples of your product or a flyer about your service to the public.
· Advertising in community-based magazines or newspapers.
In this paper the endeavor is to develop an integrated marketing communications plan built around the Reliance's core strengths. For the last few years, the focus has been on emphasizing Reliance’s heritage as "Dhirubhai Ambani Initiative" The problem with the old tagline, however, is that many in the youth (an obviously prime target market) perceived the tagline to mean that the service was "old." At the same time, the company was developing a quality initiative to increase the quality of service -- and the quality of customer care. The new tagline that has emerged is: "Changing India…Changing lives".
To achieve the objective we have looked at the company's current communications -- Website, handouts, flyers, ads, etc. and analyzed it as a brand. The major changes that are noticed belongs to the domain of TV adds that the company is showing these days which have clearly ceased to mention Dhirubhai ambani’s name, rather they communicate the quality of the service that reliance is providing along with a host of features and benefits and that too for rock bottom prices, something that has not been offered by any of the other service providers as yet. Looking at those commercials it can be deciphered that reliance is not trying to please a particular segment , rather it is trying to mass market its services by coming up with a range of TV commercials that are addressing to different market segment. Here one may come up with a question that how can one same service or a product can cater to the needs of a variety of customers? The answer to this lies in a range of handsets that reliance is able to offer with each having different features that fulfill the needs and requirements of different segments. Also there are optional services like R-world that one can avail only if he is ready to pay an extra price. The marketing strategy clearly stands out to be differentiation on quality and price. All this is really helping reliance, particularly reliance India mobile in emerging as one of the strongest brand name in the telecom market built up on quality initiative rather than on the name of “Dhirubhai” that sounded irrational in a competitive market and was not really successful in capturing the attention of the young and educated India. Finally the paper focuses on developing recommendations on what needs to be done to strengthen its branding and image.
Few words for Reliance Infocomm
Infocomm Vision
Increase India’s teledensity by providing connectivity and mobility at disruptive prices affordable by the masses.
Broadband applications for enterprises to enhance productivity.
Triple play for the home segment to fully meet customers’ needs for information, communication and entertainment.
Leverage digital infrastructure (fiber backbone) to realize the full potential of India’s talent pool
Platform for building a global Infocomm business Ushering in ‘A New Way of Life’.
Infocomm Strategy and quality initiatives
Fully integrated across the entire Infocomm Value chain covering:
Ø Content Applications Network Service CPE
Ø Ubiquitous network providing 100 MBPS of bandwidth per CPE
Ø Digital distribution network fully capable of offering:
Ø Voice, Video & Data
Ø Using CDMA 1x/EV-DO, FTTB, LMDS technologies
Ø Customer ownership through control of last mile
Introduction
1.1. Problem Statement
Producers of all goods and services — from cookies to cars, from on-line data to distributed database management systems, from ATM drivers to portfolio management companies — have frequently confronted a situation in which their offerings no longer perfectly match consumer preferences. The extent to which the two are mismatched could vary from marginal to catastrophic misalignment (as in the case of Ford’s Edsel). In all cases the sellers face the same dilemma: to what extent do they change the product (respond constructively to market place demands), to what extent to they advertise the virtues of their product (in an attempt to change market preferences), and to what extent do they use advertising deceptively (to attempt to change the perception of their product to a less accurate, but more favorable set of attributes, more in line with market preferences). The sellers’ dilemma in effect represents the problem of choosing from two basic strategies that are open to them; product modification and advertising. Product modification involves making changes to one or more attributes of the product to bring it in line with the market’s preferences. Advertising presents two different sub-options. Sellers may advertise either the virtues of their product (in an attempt to change market preferences) or they may use advertising deceptively (to attempt to change the perception of their product to a less factually accurate set of attributes more in line with market preferences).
Each of these strategies has different cost implications, depending on the nature and complexity of the product, the size and spread of the market, and the gap between desired perception and current market perception of the product. However, as we shall see below, the nature of products and services, the costs associated with changing them, and the costs associated with communicating these changes to consumers, have all been profoundly altered, even transformed, by the net. The selection of the optimal strategy from among the three has always been dictated by costs and benefits: Changing the product is expensive. If done well and communicated well to consumers, however, the benefits will include current sales, credibility with consumers, and future sales. This strategy offers an annuity value, akin to the value of good will or of brand strength created by a satisfied set of buyers who will probably be repeat buyers and who will also help persuade other buyers to adopt the product in the future. As an example, consider firms that invest in quality and constantly bring out high quality upgrades of the product. They often do so for one of these two reasons. (1) It is possible to extract higher rents from a customer base that is convinced about the product’s quality, and (2) the firm’s reputation for quality will often be transferable to a variety of products and brands offered by the same firm. The firm’s reputation for delivering customer satisfaction acts as an annuity for the firm, representing a stream of rents that will accrue to the firm in the future.
Changing market preferences sometimes is often both expensive and time consuming, and is thus rarely effective. Given the costs associated with changing the market’s preferences, a firm may attempt to do this only if the benefits of engineering such a change can be disproportionately reaped by the firm itself. If, after an expensive campaign to change the market’s preferences, the profits could possibly be competed away, the firm’s incentives to undertake such a campaign would stand diminished. Citibank made considerable investment in direct mail and media advertising to convince retail consumers that they could get their credit cards from any bank, not merely from the bank where they maintained their checking accounts. This has profoundly transformed the credit card industry, but much of the benefit has been captured by monolines — banks that only offer credit cards, and would have had no customers had Citibank not created the conditions that allowed them to compete effectively for profitable customers. Finally, in some instances changing the perceptions of the market may be infeasible; for example, this would be an awkward time to convince many people that smoking is actually good for their health. In some instances, changing the perception of the product may be the least expensive option available, or it may be the most valuable. Even if the purchaser is dissatisfied with the initial purchase, collateral sunk investments made by the customers may preclude them from returning their purchases, in which case this option is quite attractive to the firm. Moreover, if the product
purchased has long term switching costs, then consumers may be forced to buy upgrades or supplies from the original seller, providing the firm with an annuity value and further justifying its choice of this strategy. Alternatively, if returns are high and the damage to consumer credibility is long-lasting, lying would be a very poor strategy. These choices are even more significant today. This is in part due to the many ways in which the net reduces the barriers to entry and decreases the costs of providing information to consumers. However, these choices have also become more significant in part due to the different nature of information production goods (such as database management systems) and the higher switching costs associated with consumers’ initial selections. There is a clear distinction between the options open to the dissatisfied buyers of an information consumption product such as say, an Encyclopedia on a CD and an information product , say, a relational database. The significant switching costs associated with latter drive sellers to adopt very different strategies in marketing these products. The advent of the Internet has lowered barriers to entry to an extent that has resulted in a proliferation of products and services. This proliferation has in turn imposed a cognitive cost on the buyer who wishes to inspect products and services in order to make an informed choice. Thus the role played by a brand in mitigating the “cognitive clutter” is becoming increasingly significant. In the financial services industry, the reduction of barriers to entry allows anyone to offer financial services, and therefore the role of a brand as a surrogate for more complex measures of quality becomes increasingly important.
1.2. Role of Brand for Different Product Categories
Brands play different roles in different classes of products. The importance of brand in the case of physical consumables arises from the ease of communicating any statement to the consumer and for what the brand signifies. When the attributes of a product can be easily changed, such as in the case of a cola or a cookie, the consumer is only too aware of the fact that the product can be easily reformulated between two successive purchases. A consumer’s decision problem while shopping for a physical consumable, say, a cookie, is two fold – (1) how does she decide which cookie to buy? and (2) once she identifies a taste that she likes from the many that she has sampled, how can she be sure that the taste will remain unchanged in the future? For the sellers of these products the primary use of a brand may be to assure the consumer that the product has not changed and will not change. The risk of brand dilution in this class of products stems from buyers’ perception that the seller has changed the product or that the brand no longer signifies immutability of the product attributes that mattered to them. When Coca Cola changed its formulation, there was much criticism from the market and its analysts, forcing the company to revert to the old formulation soon. In the class of products known as information consumables, branding plays a role somewhat different from the one discussed above. Products such as the Wall Street Journal, the Encyclopedia Britannica and ZD Net’s electronic product rating service are all examples of information consumables. An Information consumable is characterized by a cost structure very different from that of the physical consumables. An Information consumable is a high first copy cost product which means that it is costly to produce but cheap to reproduce. It has a very low marginal cost that is often negligible, especially in the case of digitizable information products, but is characterized by a very high investment in acquiring the capability to produce a specific kind of information. It is often exceedingly difficult and in some cases impossible
2 Creating the Advertising Plan for Reliance
Developing an effective advertising plan requires that consideration be given to budget, competition, customers, advertising vehicles and consistency.
Budget
In developing a business plan, one must be sure to include some expenditure for advertising. For start up or small business owners, one can think in terms of 3-5% of his total projected annual revenues. If 3-5% is not viable, one can go for 2% or whatever is affordable. The point is: put something in the budget to reach your potential customers. As a comparison, large consumer product companies like Reliance infocomm spend as much as around 25-30% of their revenues on advertising. We need to think in terms of resource allocation when developing an advertising budget. One might be spending more time than actual money in the start-up phase of business.
As far as Reliance is concerned, it wouldn’t face any problems regarding the budget as it has deep pockets.
Competition
Be very aware of your competitive edge. What is it that your product/service does different and better than your competitors? Be sure your competitive edge is highly visible in your advertising approach.
Do a little research on the kinds of advertising your competition is doing. Sometimes your competitive edge can be that you do a better job of advertising. Has your competition purchased display ads in the yellow pages? Design a better ad. Purchase a larger ad. If your competition is leaving flyers on customer’s doors, do something else. Choose another way to get information to your customers. Find a way to stand out from the crowd. Here in this area Reliance stands out to be quite impressive as it ha
s already revamped its contact centers and also the billing systems that was actually giving problems to many customers due to which people started considering it bad on quality which is certainly not the issue these days .Also it has come up with innovative services like R-world that keeps the subscribers abreast of the latest news from around the world . Reliance is able to publicize it through the TV ads and print adds that really communicate the message in a complete and immaculate way to the target audiences. Also they have shed the “dhirubhai” name from its ads and focusing on the features and the wide range of handsets to woo the young customers.
Customers
identify your perfect customer. Determine who is most likely to buy your product/service on a continuing basis. If your customers are individuals, give some thought to some key issues that might be important. Consider their age, gender, income level, geographic location and lifestyle issues.
If your customers are other businesses, look at issues such as specific industries, size of company (either number of employees or sales volume), geographic location, etc.
Once you have visualized this individual or business, and then consider - Where are you likely to find them? In what kinds of places do they congregate? What kinds of publications do they read? What kinds of television programs do they watch? What radio stations might they listen to?
Here the major customers are middle and upper class people between the age of 18 to 40 who are mostly either students or professionals and people who are mobile most of the time. The business model is largely B to C. Therefore Reliance has come up with its own retail stores called “Web world” at most of the commercial market complexes where the target segment can be addressed. Also reliance is coming up with TV and print ads in popular TV channels at prime time and most subscribed news papers respectively on a perennial bases.
Advertising Vehicles
Choice of advertising vehicles is dependent on the issues discussed earlier: budget, competition and customers. Since most start up businesses have limited advertising budgets, advertising vehicles might include:
Networking
After determining where your potential customers are likely to congregate, put together a plan to be visible in those places. Join your local Chamber of Commerce, Rotary or professional trade association and attend meetings regularly. Join a committee, volunteer to help on an event or find other ways to be useful and noticeable.
In case of reliance it has come up with its own retail stores called “Web world” at most of the commercial market complexes. Reliance Web World is a nationwide chain of retail stores for digital entertainment and communication and also serves as a one-stop-shop for Reliance Infocomm products and services.
Each store contains three key modules –
A Customer Convenience Centre,
JAVAGREEN a gourmet coffee bar and
A Real Broadband Centre to showcase Broadband connectivity through applications like Video Chat and Conferencing, Multiplayer Online Gaming, Digital personalized music, Digital theatre, Digital photo imaging, Virtual office and Real Broadband high speed internet - about 100 times faster than the dial up access in today's homes.
Publicity
Writing great press releases (be sure the information is really “news”, put who, what, where when and why in the first paragraph, and use double spacing), then identify the appropriate writers or editors at local newspapers and magazines and begin relationships with them. Locate trade publications in your industry and send press releases regarding new product/service offerings, new personnel, etc. Reliance is quite often doing that and that too in the best selling newspapers.
Also, Reliance has started sponsoring events associated with youth like the Olympic torch relay held in Delhi that is giving it a young and sophisticated image.
Another medium to address the target customers is the web site. The Reliance web site is quite well maintained and contains all the relevant information on the company’s products and services. But still lot has to be done to make it interactive and e-commerce enabled. This is one front where the company hasn’t been able to do something outstanding.
Print Advertising
Ads in community or specialty newspapers, ads in community publications such as monthly magazines newsletters can be cost effective. Postcard mailings are relatively inexpensive, sent to the right target list with an appropriately attractive offer. Flyers distributed in targeted neighborhoods or at focused special events can also be very effective. Reliance is quite often doing that and that too in the best selling newspapers
Conclusion
Whatever advertising vehicles are selected; the key to all effective advertising is consistency. Studies indicate it takes 8 impressions of the same message to reach a customer who has never heard of your product/service. It takes 3 impressions of the same message to reach an existing customer who knows you and may currently be using your products/services. The choice of vehicles is important; consistency is critical. Whatever advertising you choose, do it and do it often. An integrated marketing communications plan has all parts of tactics working together. For example, if the marketing communications plan calls for print advertising, the same theme of print ads should be reflected on web site. If customer gets the same message and visual clues in both places, they are much more likely to comprehend your marketing message. By doing this, you will build your brand with that customer who will remember you when they are ready to buy. The marketing strategy of Reliance clearly stands out to be differentiation on quality and price. All this is really helping reliance, particularly reliance India mobile in emerging as one of the strongest brand name in the telecom market built up on quality initiative rather than on the name of “Dhirubhai” that sounded irrational in a competitive market and was not really successful in capturing the attention of the young and educated
The media formats that can be used are:
Newspaper, radio, or television ads (newspaper advertising is the least expensive and television advertising is the most expensive of these formats). Professional advice and assistance may be needed when developing ads for these media formats.
· Business cards
· Classified ads in the local newspaper
· Direct marketing
· Telemarketing (this format can be expensive, also)
· Yellow Pages advertising
· Sampling - mailing or distributing free samples of your product or a flyer about your service to the public.
· Advertising in community-based magazines or newspapers.
In this paper the endeavor is to develop an integrated marketing communications plan built around the Reliance's core strengths. For the last few years, the focus has been on emphasizing Reliance’s heritage as "Dhirubhai Ambani Initiative" The problem with the old tagline, however, is that many in the youth (an obviously prime target market) perceived the tagline to mean that the service was "old." At the same time, the company was developing a quality initiative to increase the quality of service -- and the quality of customer care. The new tagline that has emerged is: "Changing India…Changing lives".
To achieve the objective we have looked at the company's current communications -- Website, handouts, flyers, ads, etc. and analyzed it as a brand. The major changes that are noticed belongs to the domain of TV adds that the company is showing these days which have clearly ceased to mention Dhirubhai ambani’s name, rather they communicate the quality of the service that reliance is providing along with a host of features and benefits and that too for rock bottom prices, something that has not been offered by any of the other service providers as yet. Looking at those commercials it can be deciphered that reliance is not trying to please a particular segment , rather it is trying to mass market its services by coming up with a range of TV commercials that are addressing to different market segment. Here one may come up with a question that how can one same service or a product can cater to the needs of a variety of customers? The answer to this lies in a range of handsets that reliance is able to offer with each having different features that fulfill the needs and requirements of different segments. Also there are optional services like R-world that one can avail only if he is ready to pay an extra price. The marketing strategy clearly stands out to be differentiation on quality and price. All this is really helping reliance, particularly reliance India mobile in emerging as one of the strongest brand name in the telecom market built up on quality initiative rather than on the name of “Dhirubhai” that sounded irrational in a competitive market and was not really successful in capturing the attention of the young and educated India. Finally the paper focuses on developing recommendations on what needs to be done to strengthen its branding and image.
Few words for Reliance Infocomm
Infocomm Vision
Increase India’s teledensity by providing connectivity and mobility at disruptive prices affordable by the masses.
Broadband applications for enterprises to enhance productivity.
Triple play for the home segment to fully meet customers’ needs for information, communication and entertainment.
Leverage digital infrastructure (fiber backbone) to realize the full potential of India’s talent pool
Platform for building a global Infocomm business Ushering in ‘A New Way of Life’.
Infocomm Strategy and quality initiatives
Fully integrated across the entire Infocomm Value chain covering:
Ø Content Applications Network Service CPE
Ø Ubiquitous network providing 100 MBPS of bandwidth per CPE
Ø Digital distribution network fully capable of offering:
Ø Voice, Video & Data
Ø Using CDMA 1x/EV-DO, FTTB, LMDS technologies
Ø Customer ownership through control of last mile
Introduction
1.1. Problem Statement
Producers of all goods and services — from cookies to cars, from on-line data to distributed database management systems, from ATM drivers to portfolio management companies — have frequently confronted a situation in which their offerings no longer perfectly match consumer preferences. The extent to which the two are mismatched could vary from marginal to catastrophic misalignment (as in the case of Ford’s Edsel). In all cases the sellers face the same dilemma: to what extent do they change the product (respond constructively to market place demands), to what extent to they advertise the virtues of their product (in an attempt to change market preferences), and to what extent do they use advertising deceptively (to attempt to change the perception of their product to a less accurate, but more favorable set of attributes, more in line with market preferences). The sellers’ dilemma in effect represents the problem of choosing from two basic strategies that are open to them; product modification and advertising. Product modification involves making changes to one or more attributes of the product to bring it in line with the market’s preferences. Advertising presents two different sub-options. Sellers may advertise either the virtues of their product (in an attempt to change market preferences) or they may use advertising deceptively (to attempt to change the perception of their product to a less factually accurate set of attributes more in line with market preferences).
Each of these strategies has different cost implications, depending on the nature and complexity of the product, the size and spread of the market, and the gap between desired perception and current market perception of the product. However, as we shall see below, the nature of products and services, the costs associated with changing them, and the costs associated with communicating these changes to consumers, have all been profoundly altered, even transformed, by the net. The selection of the optimal strategy from among the three has always been dictated by costs and benefits: Changing the product is expensive. If done well and communicated well to consumers, however, the benefits will include current sales, credibility with consumers, and future sales. This strategy offers an annuity value, akin to the value of good will or of brand strength created by a satisfied set of buyers who will probably be repeat buyers and who will also help persuade other buyers to adopt the product in the future. As an example, consider firms that invest in quality and constantly bring out high quality upgrades of the product. They often do so for one of these two reasons. (1) It is possible to extract higher rents from a customer base that is convinced about the product’s quality, and (2) the firm’s reputation for quality will often be transferable to a variety of products and brands offered by the same firm. The firm’s reputation for delivering customer satisfaction acts as an annuity for the firm, representing a stream of rents that will accrue to the firm in the future.
Changing market preferences sometimes is often both expensive and time consuming, and is thus rarely effective. Given the costs associated with changing the market’s preferences, a firm may attempt to do this only if the benefits of engineering such a change can be disproportionately reaped by the firm itself. If, after an expensive campaign to change the market’s preferences, the profits could possibly be competed away, the firm’s incentives to undertake such a campaign would stand diminished. Citibank made considerable investment in direct mail and media advertising to convince retail consumers that they could get their credit cards from any bank, not merely from the bank where they maintained their checking accounts. This has profoundly transformed the credit card industry, but much of the benefit has been captured by monolines — banks that only offer credit cards, and would have had no customers had Citibank not created the conditions that allowed them to compete effectively for profitable customers. Finally, in some instances changing the perceptions of the market may be infeasible; for example, this would be an awkward time to convince many people that smoking is actually good for their health. In some instances, changing the perception of the product may be the least expensive option available, or it may be the most valuable. Even if the purchaser is dissatisfied with the initial purchase, collateral sunk investments made by the customers may preclude them from returning their purchases, in which case this option is quite attractive to the firm. Moreover, if the product
purchased has long term switching costs, then consumers may be forced to buy upgrades or supplies from the original seller, providing the firm with an annuity value and further justifying its choice of this strategy. Alternatively, if returns are high and the damage to consumer credibility is long-lasting, lying would be a very poor strategy. These choices are even more significant today. This is in part due to the many ways in which the net reduces the barriers to entry and decreases the costs of providing information to consumers. However, these choices have also become more significant in part due to the different nature of information production goods (such as database management systems) and the higher switching costs associated with consumers’ initial selections. There is a clear distinction between the options open to the dissatisfied buyers of an information consumption product such as say, an Encyclopedia on a CD and an information product , say, a relational database. The significant switching costs associated with latter drive sellers to adopt very different strategies in marketing these products. The advent of the Internet has lowered barriers to entry to an extent that has resulted in a proliferation of products and services. This proliferation has in turn imposed a cognitive cost on the buyer who wishes to inspect products and services in order to make an informed choice. Thus the role played by a brand in mitigating the “cognitive clutter” is becoming increasingly significant. In the financial services industry, the reduction of barriers to entry allows anyone to offer financial services, and therefore the role of a brand as a surrogate for more complex measures of quality becomes increasingly important.
1.2. Role of Brand for Different Product Categories
Brands play different roles in different classes of products. The importance of brand in the case of physical consumables arises from the ease of communicating any statement to the consumer and for what the brand signifies. When the attributes of a product can be easily changed, such as in the case of a cola or a cookie, the consumer is only too aware of the fact that the product can be easily reformulated between two successive purchases. A consumer’s decision problem while shopping for a physical consumable, say, a cookie, is two fold – (1) how does she decide which cookie to buy? and (2) once she identifies a taste that she likes from the many that she has sampled, how can she be sure that the taste will remain unchanged in the future? For the sellers of these products the primary use of a brand may be to assure the consumer that the product has not changed and will not change. The risk of brand dilution in this class of products stems from buyers’ perception that the seller has changed the product or that the brand no longer signifies immutability of the product attributes that mattered to them. When Coca Cola changed its formulation, there was much criticism from the market and its analysts, forcing the company to revert to the old formulation soon. In the class of products known as information consumables, branding plays a role somewhat different from the one discussed above. Products such as the Wall Street Journal, the Encyclopedia Britannica and ZD Net’s electronic product rating service are all examples of information consumables. An Information consumable is characterized by a cost structure very different from that of the physical consumables. An Information consumable is a high first copy cost product which means that it is costly to produce but cheap to reproduce. It has a very low marginal cost that is often negligible, especially in the case of digitizable information products, but is characterized by a very high investment in acquiring the capability to produce a specific kind of information. It is often exceedingly difficult and in some cases impossible
2 Creating the Advertising Plan for Reliance
Developing an effective advertising plan requires that consideration be given to budget, competition, customers, advertising vehicles and consistency.
Budget
In developing a business plan, one must be sure to include some expenditure for advertising. For start up or small business owners, one can think in terms of 3-5% of his total projected annual revenues. If 3-5% is not viable, one can go for 2% or whatever is affordable. The point is: put something in the budget to reach your potential customers. As a comparison, large consumer product companies like Reliance infocomm spend as much as around 25-30% of their revenues on advertising. We need to think in terms of resource allocation when developing an advertising budget. One might be spending more time than actual money in the start-up phase of business.
As far as Reliance is concerned, it wouldn’t face any problems regarding the budget as it has deep pockets.
Competition
Be very aware of your competitive edge. What is it that your product/service does different and better than your competitors? Be sure your competitive edge is highly visible in your advertising approach.
Do a little research on the kinds of advertising your competition is doing. Sometimes your competitive edge can be that you do a better job of advertising. Has your competition purchased display ads in the yellow pages? Design a better ad. Purchase a larger ad. If your competition is leaving flyers on customer’s doors, do something else. Choose another way to get information to your customers. Find a way to stand out from the crowd. Here in this area Reliance stands out to be quite impressive as it ha
s already revamped its contact centers and also the billing systems that was actually giving problems to many customers due to which people started considering it bad on quality which is certainly not the issue these days .Also it has come up with innovative services like R-world that keeps the subscribers abreast of the latest news from around the world . Reliance is able to publicize it through the TV ads and print adds that really communicate the message in a complete and immaculate way to the target audiences. Also they have shed the “dhirubhai” name from its ads and focusing on the features and the wide range of handsets to woo the young customers.
Customers
identify your perfect customer. Determine who is most likely to buy your product/service on a continuing basis. If your customers are individuals, give some thought to some key issues that might be important. Consider their age, gender, income level, geographic location and lifestyle issues.
If your customers are other businesses, look at issues such as specific industries, size of company (either number of employees or sales volume), geographic location, etc.
Once you have visualized this individual or business, and then consider - Where are you likely to find them? In what kinds of places do they congregate? What kinds of publications do they read? What kinds of television programs do they watch? What radio stations might they listen to?
Here the major customers are middle and upper class people between the age of 18 to 40 who are mostly either students or professionals and people who are mobile most of the time. The business model is largely B to C. Therefore Reliance has come up with its own retail stores called “Web world” at most of the commercial market complexes where the target segment can be addressed. Also reliance is coming up with TV and print ads in popular TV channels at prime time and most subscribed news papers respectively on a perennial bases.
Advertising Vehicles
Choice of advertising vehicles is dependent on the issues discussed earlier: budget, competition and customers. Since most start up businesses have limited advertising budgets, advertising vehicles might include:
Networking
After determining where your potential customers are likely to congregate, put together a plan to be visible in those places. Join your local Chamber of Commerce, Rotary or professional trade association and attend meetings regularly. Join a committee, volunteer to help on an event or find other ways to be useful and noticeable.
In case of reliance it has come up with its own retail stores called “Web world” at most of the commercial market complexes. Reliance Web World is a nationwide chain of retail stores for digital entertainment and communication and also serves as a one-stop-shop for Reliance Infocomm products and services.
Each store contains three key modules –
A Customer Convenience Centre,
JAVAGREEN a gourmet coffee bar and
A Real Broadband Centre to showcase Broadband connectivity through applications like Video Chat and Conferencing, Multiplayer Online Gaming, Digital personalized music, Digital theatre, Digital photo imaging, Virtual office and Real Broadband high speed internet - about 100 times faster than the dial up access in today's homes.
Publicity
Writing great press releases (be sure the information is really “news”, put who, what, where when and why in the first paragraph, and use double spacing), then identify the appropriate writers or editors at local newspapers and magazines and begin relationships with them. Locate trade publications in your industry and send press releases regarding new product/service offerings, new personnel, etc. Reliance is quite often doing that and that too in the best selling newspapers.
Also, Reliance has started sponsoring events associated with youth like the Olympic torch relay held in Delhi that is giving it a young and sophisticated image.
Another medium to address the target customers is the web site. The Reliance web site is quite well maintained and contains all the relevant information on the company’s products and services. But still lot has to be done to make it interactive and e-commerce enabled. This is one front where the company hasn’t been able to do something outstanding.
Print Advertising
Ads in community or specialty newspapers, ads in community publications such as monthly magazines newsletters can be cost effective. Postcard mailings are relatively inexpensive, sent to the right target list with an appropriately attractive offer. Flyers distributed in targeted neighborhoods or at focused special events can also be very effective. Reliance is quite often doing that and that too in the best selling newspapers
Conclusion
Whatever advertising vehicles are selected; the key to all effective advertising is consistency. Studies indicate it takes 8 impressions of the same message to reach a customer who has never heard of your product/service. It takes 3 impressions of the same message to reach an existing customer who knows you and may currently be using your products/services. The choice of vehicles is important; consistency is critical. Whatever advertising you choose, do it and do it often. An integrated marketing communications plan has all parts of tactics working together. For example, if the marketing communications plan calls for print advertising, the same theme of print ads should be reflected on web site. If customer gets the same message and visual clues in both places, they are much more likely to comprehend your marketing message. By doing this, you will build your brand with that customer who will remember you when they are ready to buy. The marketing strategy of Reliance clearly stands out to be differentiation on quality and price. All this is really helping reliance, particularly reliance India mobile in emerging as one of the strongest brand name in the telecom market built up on quality initiative rather than on the name of “Dhirubhai” that sounded irrational in a competitive market and was not really successful in capturing the attention of the young and educated
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
A review on - WiFi
What Is WiFi?
A wireless network uses radio waves, just like cell phones, televisions and radios do. In fact, communication across a wireless network is a lot like two-way radio communication. Here's what happens:
1. A computer's wireless adapter translates data into a radio signal and transmits it using an antenna.
2. A wireless router receives the signal and decodes it. It sends the information to the Internet using a physical, wired Ethernet connection.
The process also works in reverse, with the router receiving information from the Internet, translating it into a radio signal and sending it to the computer's wireless adapter.
The radios used for WiFi communication are very similar to the radios used for walkie-talkies, cell phones and other devices. They can transmit and receive radio waves, and they can convert 1s and 0s into radio waves and convert the radio waves back into 1s and 0s. But WiFi radios have a few notable differences from other radios:
• They transmit at frequencies of 2.4 GHz or 5GHz. This frequency is considerably higher than the frequencies used for cell phones, walkie-talkies and televisions. The higher frequency allows the signal to carry more data.
• They use 802.11 networking standards, which come in several flavors:
• 802.11a transmits at 5GHz and can move up to 54 megabits of data per second. It also uses orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), a more efficient coding technique that splits that radio signal into several sub-signals before they reach a receiver. This greatly reduces interference.
• 802.11b is the slowest and least expensive standard. For a while, its cost made it popular, but now it's becoming less common as faster standards become less expensive. 802.11b transmits in the 2.4 GHz frequency band of the radio spectrum. It can handle up to 11 megabits of data per second, and it uses complimentary code keying (CCK) coding.
• 802.11g transmits at 2.4 GHz like 802.11b, but it's a lot faster -- it can handle up to 54 megabits of data per second. 802.11g is faster because it uses the same OFDM coding as 802.11a.
• 802.11n is the newest standard that is widely available. This standard significantly improves speed and range. For instance, although 802.11g theoretically moves 54 megabits of data per second, it only achieves real-world speeds of about 24 megabits of data per second because of network congestion. 802.11n, however, reportedly can achieve speeds as high as 140 megabits per second.
• WiFi radios can transmit on any of three frequency bands. Or, they can "frequency hop" rapidly between the different bands. Frequency hopping helps reduce interference and lets multiple devices use the same wireless connection simultaneously.
WiFi Hotspots
If you want to take advantage of public WiFi hotspots or start a wireless network in your home, the first thing you'll need to do is make sure your computer has the right wireless gear. Most new laptops and many new desktop computers come with built-in wireless transmitters. If your laptop doesn't, you can buy a wireless adapter that plugs into the PC card slot or USB port. Desktop computers can use USB adapters, or you can buy an adapter that plugs into the PCI slot inside the computer's case. Many of these adapters can use more than one 802.11 standard.
Once you've installed your wireless adapter and the drivers that allow it to operate, your computer should be able to automatically discover existing networks. This means that when you turn your computer on in a WiFi hotspot, the computer will inform you that the network exists and ask whether you want to connect to it. If you have an older computer, you may need to use a software program to detect and connect to a wireless network.
Being able to connect to the Internet in public hotspots is extremely convenient. Wireless home networks are convenient as well. They allow you to easily connect multiple computers and to move them from place to place without disconnecting and reconnecting wires. In the next section, we'll look at how to create a wireless network in your home.
Building a Wireless Network
If you already have several computers networked in your home, you can create a wireless network with a wireless access point. If you have several computers that are not networked, or if you want to replace your Ethernet network, you'll need a wireless router. This is a single unit that contains:
1. A port to connect to your cable or DSL modem
2. A router
3. An Ethernet hub
4. A firewall
5. A wireless access point
A wireless router allows you to use wireless signals or Ethernet cables to connect your computers to one another, to a printer and to the Internet. Most routers provide coverage for about 100 feet (30.5 meters) in all directions, although walls and doors can block the signal. If your home is very large, you can buy inexpensive range extenders or repeaters to increase your router's range.
Photo courtesy Consumer Guide Products
A wireless router uses an antenna to send signals to wireless devices and a wire to send signals to the Internet.
As with wireless adapters, many routers can use more than one 802.11 standard. 802.11b routers are slightly less expensive, but because the standard is older, they're slower than 802.11a, 802.11g and 802.11n routers. Most people select the 802.11g option for its speed and reliability.
Once you plug in your router, it should start working at its default settings. Most routers let you use a Web interface to change your settings. You can select:
• The name of the network, known as its service set identifier (SSID) -- The default setting is usually the manufacturer's name.
• The channel that the router uses -- Most routers use channel 6 by default. If you live in an apartment and your neighbors are also using channel 6, you may experience interference. Switching to a different channel should eliminate the problem.
• Your router's security options -- Many routers use a standard, publicly available sign-on, so it's a good idea to set your own username and password.
Security is an important part of a home wireless network, as well as public WiFi hotspots. If you set your router to create an open hotspot, anyone who has a wireless card will be able to use your signal. Most people would rather keep strangers out of their network, though. Doing so requires you to take a few security precautions.
To keep your network private, you can use one of the following methods:
• Wired Equivalency Privacy (WEP) uses 64-bit or 128-bit encryption. 128-bit encryption is the more secure option. Anyone who wants to use a WEP-enabled network has to know the WEP key, which is usually a numerical password.
• WiFi Protected Access (WPA) is a step up from WEP and is now part of the 802.11i wireless network security protocol. It uses temporal key integrity protocol encryption. As with WEP, WPA security involves signing on with a password. Most public hotspots are either open or use WPA or 128-bit WEP technology.
• Media Access Control (MAC) address filtering is a little different from WEP or WPA. It doesn't use a password to authenticate users -- it uses a computer's physical hardware. Each computer has its own unique MAC address. MAC address filtering allows only machines with specific MAC addresses to access the network. You must specify which addresses are allowed when you set up your router. This method is very secure, but if you buy a new computer or if visitors to your home want to use your network, you'll need to add the new machines' MAC addresses to the list of approved addresses.
Other Wireless Networking Standards
Another wireless standard with a slightly different number, 802.15, is used for Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs). It covers a very short range and is used for Bluetooth technology.
WiMax, also known as 802.16, looks to combine the benefits of broadband and wireless. WiMax will provide high-speed wireless Internet over very long distances and will most likely provide access to large areas such as cities. WiMax technology will be available in most American cities in 2008.
A wireless network uses radio waves, just like cell phones, televisions and radios do. In fact, communication across a wireless network is a lot like two-way radio communication. Here's what happens:
1. A computer's wireless adapter translates data into a radio signal and transmits it using an antenna.
2. A wireless router receives the signal and decodes it. It sends the information to the Internet using a physical, wired Ethernet connection.
The process also works in reverse, with the router receiving information from the Internet, translating it into a radio signal and sending it to the computer's wireless adapter.
The radios used for WiFi communication are very similar to the radios used for walkie-talkies, cell phones and other devices. They can transmit and receive radio waves, and they can convert 1s and 0s into radio waves and convert the radio waves back into 1s and 0s. But WiFi radios have a few notable differences from other radios:
• They transmit at frequencies of 2.4 GHz or 5GHz. This frequency is considerably higher than the frequencies used for cell phones, walkie-talkies and televisions. The higher frequency allows the signal to carry more data.
• They use 802.11 networking standards, which come in several flavors:
• 802.11a transmits at 5GHz and can move up to 54 megabits of data per second. It also uses orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), a more efficient coding technique that splits that radio signal into several sub-signals before they reach a receiver. This greatly reduces interference.
• 802.11b is the slowest and least expensive standard. For a while, its cost made it popular, but now it's becoming less common as faster standards become less expensive. 802.11b transmits in the 2.4 GHz frequency band of the radio spectrum. It can handle up to 11 megabits of data per second, and it uses complimentary code keying (CCK) coding.
• 802.11g transmits at 2.4 GHz like 802.11b, but it's a lot faster -- it can handle up to 54 megabits of data per second. 802.11g is faster because it uses the same OFDM coding as 802.11a.
• 802.11n is the newest standard that is widely available. This standard significantly improves speed and range. For instance, although 802.11g theoretically moves 54 megabits of data per second, it only achieves real-world speeds of about 24 megabits of data per second because of network congestion. 802.11n, however, reportedly can achieve speeds as high as 140 megabits per second.
• WiFi radios can transmit on any of three frequency bands. Or, they can "frequency hop" rapidly between the different bands. Frequency hopping helps reduce interference and lets multiple devices use the same wireless connection simultaneously.
WiFi Hotspots
If you want to take advantage of public WiFi hotspots or start a wireless network in your home, the first thing you'll need to do is make sure your computer has the right wireless gear. Most new laptops and many new desktop computers come with built-in wireless transmitters. If your laptop doesn't, you can buy a wireless adapter that plugs into the PC card slot or USB port. Desktop computers can use USB adapters, or you can buy an adapter that plugs into the PCI slot inside the computer's case. Many of these adapters can use more than one 802.11 standard.
Once you've installed your wireless adapter and the drivers that allow it to operate, your computer should be able to automatically discover existing networks. This means that when you turn your computer on in a WiFi hotspot, the computer will inform you that the network exists and ask whether you want to connect to it. If you have an older computer, you may need to use a software program to detect and connect to a wireless network.
Being able to connect to the Internet in public hotspots is extremely convenient. Wireless home networks are convenient as well. They allow you to easily connect multiple computers and to move them from place to place without disconnecting and reconnecting wires. In the next section, we'll look at how to create a wireless network in your home.
Building a Wireless Network
If you already have several computers networked in your home, you can create a wireless network with a wireless access point. If you have several computers that are not networked, or if you want to replace your Ethernet network, you'll need a wireless router. This is a single unit that contains:
1. A port to connect to your cable or DSL modem
2. A router
3. An Ethernet hub
4. A firewall
5. A wireless access point
A wireless router allows you to use wireless signals or Ethernet cables to connect your computers to one another, to a printer and to the Internet. Most routers provide coverage for about 100 feet (30.5 meters) in all directions, although walls and doors can block the signal. If your home is very large, you can buy inexpensive range extenders or repeaters to increase your router's range.
Photo courtesy Consumer Guide Products
A wireless router uses an antenna to send signals to wireless devices and a wire to send signals to the Internet.
As with wireless adapters, many routers can use more than one 802.11 standard. 802.11b routers are slightly less expensive, but because the standard is older, they're slower than 802.11a, 802.11g and 802.11n routers. Most people select the 802.11g option for its speed and reliability.
Once you plug in your router, it should start working at its default settings. Most routers let you use a Web interface to change your settings. You can select:
• The name of the network, known as its service set identifier (SSID) -- The default setting is usually the manufacturer's name.
• The channel that the router uses -- Most routers use channel 6 by default. If you live in an apartment and your neighbors are also using channel 6, you may experience interference. Switching to a different channel should eliminate the problem.
• Your router's security options -- Many routers use a standard, publicly available sign-on, so it's a good idea to set your own username and password.
Security is an important part of a home wireless network, as well as public WiFi hotspots. If you set your router to create an open hotspot, anyone who has a wireless card will be able to use your signal. Most people would rather keep strangers out of their network, though. Doing so requires you to take a few security precautions.
To keep your network private, you can use one of the following methods:
• Wired Equivalency Privacy (WEP) uses 64-bit or 128-bit encryption. 128-bit encryption is the more secure option. Anyone who wants to use a WEP-enabled network has to know the WEP key, which is usually a numerical password.
• WiFi Protected Access (WPA) is a step up from WEP and is now part of the 802.11i wireless network security protocol. It uses temporal key integrity protocol encryption. As with WEP, WPA security involves signing on with a password. Most public hotspots are either open or use WPA or 128-bit WEP technology.
• Media Access Control (MAC) address filtering is a little different from WEP or WPA. It doesn't use a password to authenticate users -- it uses a computer's physical hardware. Each computer has its own unique MAC address. MAC address filtering allows only machines with specific MAC addresses to access the network. You must specify which addresses are allowed when you set up your router. This method is very secure, but if you buy a new computer or if visitors to your home want to use your network, you'll need to add the new machines' MAC addresses to the list of approved addresses.
Other Wireless Networking Standards
Another wireless standard with a slightly different number, 802.15, is used for Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs). It covers a very short range and is used for Bluetooth technology.
WiMax, also known as 802.16, looks to combine the benefits of broadband and wireless. WiMax will provide high-speed wireless Internet over very long distances and will most likely provide access to large areas such as cities. WiMax technology will be available in most American cities in 2008.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Broadband focus - overview
Broadband is often called high-speed Internet, because it usually has a high rate of data transmission. In general, any connection to the customer of 256 kbit/s (0.256 Mbit/s) or more is considered broadband Internet. The International Telecommunication Union Standardization Sector (ITU-T) recommendation I.113 has defined broadband as a transmission capacity that is faster than primary rate ISDN, at 1.5 to 2 Mbit/s. The FCC definition of broadband is 200 kbit/s (0.2 Mbit/s) in one direction, and advanced broadband is at least 200 kbit/s in both directions. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has defined broadband as 256 kbit/s in at least one direction and this bit rate is the most common baseline that is marketed as "broadband" around the world. There is no specific bitrate defined by the industry, however, and "broadband" can mean lower-bitrate transmission methods. Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) use this to their advantage in marketing lower-bitrate connections as broadband.
Broadband transmission rates
Connection Transmission Speed
DS-1 (Tier 1)-- 1.544 Mbit/s
E-1 -- 2.048 Mbit/s
DS-3(Tier 3) -- 44.736 Mbit/s
OC-3 -- 155.52 Mbit/s
OC-12 -- 622.08 Mbit/s
OC-48 -- 2.488 Gbit/s
OC-192 -- 9.953 Gbit/s
OC-768 -- 39.813 Gbit/s
OC-1536 -- 79.6 Gbit/s
OC-3072 -- 159.2 Gbit/s
In practice, the advertised bandwidth is not always reliably available to the customer; ISPs often allow a greater number of subscribers than their backbone connection can handle, under the assumption that most users will not be using their full connection capacity very frequently. This aggregation strategy works more often than not, so users can typically burst to their full bandwidth most of the time; however, peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing systems, often requiring extended durations of high bandwidth, stress these assumptions, and can cause major problems for ISPs who have excessively overbooked their capacity. For more on this topic, see traffic shaping. As takeup for these introductory products increases, telcos are starting to offer higher bit rate services. For existing connections, this most of the time simply involves reconfiguring the existing equipment at each end of the connection.
As the bandwidth delivered to end users increases, the market expects that video on demand services streamed over the Internet will become more popular, though at the present time such services generally require specialized networks. The data rates on most broadband services still do not suffice to provide good quality video, as MPEG-2 video requires about 6 Mbit/s for good results. Adequate video for some purposes becomes possible at lower data rates, with rates of 768 kbit/s and 384 kbit/s used for some video conferencing applications, and rates as low as 100 kbit/s used for videophones using H.264/MPEG-4 AVC. The MPEG-4 format delivers high-quality video at 2 Mbit/s, at the high end of cable modem and ADSL performance.
Increased bandwidth has already made an impact on newsgroups: postings to groups such as alt.binaries.* have grown from JPEG files to entire CD and DVD images. According to NTL, the level of traffic on their network increased from a daily inbound news feed of 150 gigabytes of data per day and 1 terabyte of data out each day in 2001 to 500 gigabytes of data inbound and over 4 terabytes out each day in 2002.[citation needed]
Technology
The standard broadband technologies in most areas are DSL and cable modems. Newer technologies in use include VDSL and pushing optical fiber connections closer to the subscriber in both telephone and cable plants. Fiber-optic communication, while only recently being used in fiber to the premises and fiber to the curb schemes, has played a crucial role in enabling Broadband Internet access by making transmission of information over larger distances much more cost-effective than copper wire technology. In a few areas not served by cable or ADSL, community organizations have begun to install Wi-Fi networks, and in some cities and towns local governments are installing municipal Wi-Fi networks. As of 2006, high speed mobile Internet access has become available at the consumer level in some countries, using the HSDPA and EV-DO technologies. The newest technology being deployed for mobile and stationary broadband access is WiMAX.
DSL (ADSL/SDSL)
Multilinking Modems
It is possible to roughly double dial-up capability with multilinking technology. What is required are two modems, two phone lines, two dial-up accounts, and ISP support for multilinking, or special software at the user end. This option was popular with some high-end users before ISDN, DSL and other technologies became available.
Diamond and other vendors had created dual phone line modems with bonding capability. The speed of dual line modems is faster than 90 kbit/s. To use this modem, the ISP should support line bonding. The Internet and phone charge will be twice the ordinary dial-up charge.
Load Balancing takes two internet connections and feeds them into your network as one double speed, more resilient internet connection. By choosing two independent internet providers the load balancing hardware will automatically use the line with least load which means should one line fail, the second one automatically takes up the slack.[1]
ISDN
Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN) is one of the oldest high-speed digital access methods for consumers and businesses to connect to the Internet. It is a telephone data service standard. Its use in the United States peaked in the late 1990s prior to the availability of DSL and cable modem technologies. Broadband service is usually compared to ISDN-BRI because this was the standard high-speed access technology that formed a baseline for the challenges faced by the early broadband providers. These providers sought to compete against ISDN by offering faster and cheaper services to consumers.
A basic rate ISDN line (known as ISDN-BRI) is an ISDN line with 2 data "bearer" channels (DS0 - 64 kbit/s each). Using ISDN terminal adapters (erroneously called modems), it is possible to bond together 2 or more separate ISDN-BRI lines to reach speeds of 256 kbit/s or more. The ISDN channel bonding technology has been used for video conference applications and high-speed data transmission.
Primary rate ISDN, known as ISDN-PRI, is an ISDN line with 23 DS0 channels and total speed of 1,544 kbit/s (US standard). ISDN E1 (European standard) line is an ISDN lines with 30 DS0 channels and total speed of 2,048 kbit/s. Because ISDN is a telephone-based product, a lot of the terminology and physical aspects of the line are shared by the ISDN-PRI used for voice services. An ISDN line can therefore be "provisioned" for voice or data and many different options, depending on the equipment being used at any particular installation, and depending on the offerings of the telephone company's central office switch. Most ISDN-PRI's are used for telephone voice communication using large PBX systems, rather than for data. One obvious exception is that ISPs usually have ISDN-PRI's for handling ISDN data and modem calls.
It is mainly of historical interest that many of the earlier ISDN data lines used 56 kbit/s rather than 64 kbit/s "B" channels of data. This caused ISDN-BRI to be offered at both 128 kbit/s and 112 kbit/s rates, depending on the central office's switching equipment.
Advantages:
Constant data speed at 64 kbit/s for each DS0 channel.
Two way high speed symmetric data transmission, unlike ADSL.
One of the data channels can be used for phone conversation without disturbing the data transmission through the other data channel. When a phone call is ended, the bearer channel can immediately dial and re-connect itself to the data call.
Call setup is very quick.
Low latency
ISDN Voice clarity is unmatched by other phone services.
Caller ID is almost always available for no additional fee.
Maximum distance from the central office is much greater than it is for DSL.
When using ISDN-BRI, there is the possibility of using the low-bandwidth 16 kbit/s "D" channel for packet data and for always on capabilities.
Disadvantages:
ISDN offerings are dwindling in the marketplace due to the widespread use of faster and cheaper alternatives.
ISDN routers, terminal adapters ("modems"), and telephones are more expensive than ordinary POTS equipment, like dial-up modems.
ISDN provisioning can be complicated due to the great number of options available.
ISDN users must dial in to a provider that offers ISDN Internet service, which means that the call could be disconnected.
ISDN is billed as a phone line, to which is added the bill for Internet ISDN access.
"Always on" data connections are not available in all locations.
Some telephone companies charge unusual fees for ISDN, including call setup fees, per minute fees, and higher rates than normal for other services.
T-1/DS-1
These are highly-regulated services traditionally intended for businesses, that are managed through Public Service Commissions (PSCs) in each state, must be fully defined in PSC tariff documents, and have management rules dating back to the early 1980s which still refer to teletypes as potential connection devices. As such, T-1 services have very strict and rigid service requirements which drive up the provider's maintenance costs and may require them to have a technician on standby 24 hours a day to repair the line if it malfunctions. (In comparison, ISDN and DSL are not regulated by the PSCs at all.) Due to the expensive and regulated nature of T-1 lines, they are normally installed under the provisions of a written agreement, the contract term being typically one to three years. However, there are usually few restrictions to an end-user's use of a T-1, uptime and bandwidth speed may be guaranteed, quality of service may be supported, and blocks of static IP addresses are commonly included.
Since a T-1 was originally conceived for voice transmission, and voice T-1's are still widely used in businesses, it can be confusing to the uninitiated subscriber. It is often best to refer to the type of T-1 being considered, using the appropriate "data" or "voice" prefix to differentiate between the two. A voice T-1 would terminate at a phone company's central office (CO) for connection to the PSTN; a data T-1 terminates at a point of presence (POP) or datacenter. The T-1 line which is between a customer's premises and the POP or CO is called the local loop. The owner of the local loop need not be the owner of the network at the POP where your T-1 connects to the Internet, and so a T-1 subscriber may have contracts with these two organizations separately.
The nomenclature for a T-1 varies widely, cited in some circles a DS-1, a T1.5, a T1, or a DS1. Some of these try to distinguish amongst the different aspects of the line, considering the data standard a DS-1, and the physical structure of the trunk line a T-1 or T-1.5. They are also called leased lines, but that terminology is usually for data speeds under 1.5 Mbit/s. At times, a T-1 can be included in the term "leased line" or excluded from it. Whatever it is called, it is inherently related to other high-speed access methods, which include T-3, SONET OC-3, and other T-carrier and Optical Carriers. Additionally, a T-1 might be aggregated with more than one T-1, producing an nxT-1, such as 4xT-1 which has exactly 4 times the bandwidth of a T-1.
When a T-1 is installed, there are a number of choices to be made: in the carrier chosen, the location of the demarc, the type of channel service unit (CSU) or data service unit (DSU) used, the WAN IP router used, the types of speeds chosen, etc. Specialized WAN routers are used with T-1 lines that route Internet or VPN data onto the T-1 line from the subscriber's packet-based (TCP/IP) network using customer premises equipment (CPE). The CPE typical consists of a CSU/DSU that converts the DS-1 data stream of the T-1 to a TCP/IP packet data stream for use in the customer's Ethernet LAN. It is noteworthy that many T-1 providers optionally maintain and/or sell the CPE as part of the service contract, which can affect the demarcation point and the ownership of the router, CSU, or DSU.
Although a T-1 has a maximum of 1.544 Mbit/s, a fractional T-1 might be offered which only uses an integer multiple of 128 kbit/s for bandwidth. In this manner, a customer might only purchase 1/12th or 1/3 of a T-1, which would be 128 kbit/s and 512 kbit/s, respectively.
T-1 and fractional T-1 data lines are symmetric, meaning that their upload and download speeds are the same.
Wired Ethernet
Where available, this method of broadband connection to the Internet would indicate that the Internet access is very fast. However, just because Ethernet is offered doesn't mean that the full 10, 100, or 1000 Mbit/s connection is able to be utilized for direct Internet access. In a college dormitory for example, the 100 Mbit/s Ethernet access might be fully available to on-campus networks, but Internet access speeds might be closer to 4xT-1 speed (6 Mbit/s). If you are sharing a broadband connection with others in a building, the access speed of the leased line into the building would of course govern the end-user's speed.
However, in certain locations, true Ethernet broadband access might be available. This would most commonly be the case at a POP or a datacenter, and not at a typical residence or business. When Ethernet Internet access is offered, it could be fiber-optic or copper twisted pair, and the speed will conform to standard Ethernet speeds of up to 10 Gbit/s. The primary advantage is that no special hardware is needed for Ethernet. Ethernet also has a very low latency.
Rural broadband
One of the great challenges of broadband is to provide service to potential customers in areas of low population density, such as to farmers and ranchers. In cities where the population density is high, it is easy for a service provider to recover equipment costs, but each rural customer may require expensive equipment to get connected. A similar problem existed a century ago when electrical power was invented. Cities were the first to receive electric lighting, as early as 1880, while in the United States some remote rural areas were still not electrified until the 1940s, and even then only with the help of federally funded programs like the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
Several rural broadband solutions exist, though each has its own pitfalls and limitations. Some choices are better than others, but are dependent on how proactive the local phone company is about upgrading their rural technology.
Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISPs) are rapidly becoming a popular broadband option for rural areas.
Satellite Internet
Main article: Satellite Internet
This employs a satellite in geostationary orbit to relay data from the satellite company to each customer. Satellite Internet is usually among the most expensive ways of gaining broadband Internet access, but in rural areas it may only compete with cellular broadband. However, costs have been coming down in recent years to the point that it is becoming more competitive with other high-speed options.
Satellite Internet also has a high latency problem caused by the signal having to travel 35,000 km (22,000 miles) out into space to the satellite and back to Earth again. The signal delay can be as much as 500 milliseconds to 900 milliseconds, which makes this service unsuitable for applications requiring real-time user input such as certain multiplayer Internet games and first-person shooters played over the connection. Despite this, it is still possible for many games to be played, but the scope is limited to real-time strategy or turn-based games. The functionality of live interactive access to a distant computer can also be subject to the problems caused by high latency. These problems are more than tolerable for just basic email access and web browsing and in most cases are barely noticeable.
There is no simple way to get around this problem. The delay is primarily due to the speed of light being only 300,000 km/second (186,000 miles per second). Even if all other signaling delays could be eliminated it still takes the electromagnetic wave 233 milliseconds to travel from ground to the satellite and back to the ground, a total of 70,000 km (44,000 miles) to travel from you to the satellite company.
Since the satellite is usually being used for two-way communications, the total distance increases to 140,000 km (88,000 miles), which takes a radio wave 466 ms to travel. Factoring in normal delays from other network sources gives a typical connection latency of 500-700 ms. This is far worse latency than even most dial-up modem users' experience, at typically only 150-200 ms total latency.
Most satellite Internet providers also have a FAP (Fair Access Policy). Perhaps one of the largest cons against satellite Internet, these FAPs usually throttle a user's throughput to dial-up speeds after a certain "invisible wall" is hit (usually around 200 MB a day). This FAP usually lasts for 24 hours after the wall is hit, and a user's throughput is restored to whatever tier they paid for. This makes bandwidth-intensive activities nearly impossible to complete in a reasonable amount of time (examples include P2P and newsgroup binary downloading).
Advantages
True global broadband Internet access availability
Mobile connection to the Internet (with some providers)
Disadvantages
Very high latency compared to other broadband services, especially 2-way satellite service
Unreliable: drop-outs are common during travel, inclement weather, and during sunspot activity
The narrow-beam highly directional antenna must be accurately pointed to the satellite orbiting overhead
The Fair Access Policy limits heavy usage
VPN use is discouraged, problematic, and/or restricted with satellite broadband, although available at a price
One-way satellite service requires the use of a modem or other data uplink connection
VoIP is not supported.
Satellite dishes are huge. Although most of them employ plastic to reduce weight, they are typically between 80 and 120 cm (30 to 48 inches) in diameter.
Cellular broadband
Cellular phone towers are very widespread, and as cellular networks move to third generation (3G) networks they can support fast data; using technologies such as EVDO, HSDPA and UMTS.
These can give broadband access to the Internet, with or without a cell phone because Cardbus, ExpressCard, and USB cellular modems are available, as are cellular broadband routers, which allow more than one computer to be connected to the Internet using one cellular connection.
Advantages
The only broadband connection available on many cell phones and PDA's
Mobile wireless connection to the Internet
Available in all metropolitan areas, most large cities, and along major highways.
No need to aim an antenna in most cases
The antenna is extremely small compared to a satellite dish
Low latency compared to satellite Internet
Higher availability than WiFi "Hot Spots"
A traveler who already has cellular broadband will not need to pay different WiFi Hot Spot providers for access.
Disadvantages
Unreliable: drop-outs are common during travel and during inclement weather
Not truly nationwide service
Speed varies widely throughout the day, sometimes falling well below the 400 kbit/s target during peak times
Asymmetric service: the upload rate is always much slower than the download rate.
High latency compared to DSL and Cable broadband services.
Often more costly compared to other methods
Power-line Internet
This is a new service still in its infancy that may eventually permit broadband Internet data to travel down standard high-voltage power lines. However, the system has a number of complex issues, the primary one being that power lines are inherently a very noisy environment. Every time a device turns on or off, it introduces a pop or click into the line. Energy-saving devices often introduce noisy harmonics into the line. The system must be designed to deal with these natural signaling disruptions and work around them.
Broadband over power lines (BPL), also known as Power line communication, has developed faster in Europe than in the US due to a historical difference in power system design philosophies. Nearly all large power grids transmit power at high voltages in order to reduce transmission losses, then near the customer use step-down transformers to reduce the voltage. Since BPL signals cannot readily pass through transformers, repeaters must be attached to the transformers. In the US, it is common for a small transformer hung from a utility pole to service a single house. In Europe, it is more common for a somewhat larger transformer to service 10 or 100 houses. For delivering power to customers, this difference in design makes little difference, but it means delivering BPL over the power grid of a typical US city will require an order of magnitude more repeaters than would be required in a comparable European city.
The second major issue is signal strength and operating frequency. The system is expected to use frequencies in the 10 to 30 MHz range, which has been used for decades by licensed amateur radio operators, as well as international shortwave broadcasters and a variety of communications systems (military, aeronautical, etc.). Power lines are unshielded and will act as transmitters for the signals they carry, and have the potential to completely wipe out the usefulness of the 10 to 30 MHz range for shortwave communications purposes.
Wireless ISP
This typically employs the current low-cost 802.11 Wi-Fi radio systems to link up remote locations over great distances, but can use other higher-power radio communications systems as well.
Traditional 802.11b was licensed for omnidirectional service spanning only 100-150 meters (300-500 ft). By focusing the signal down to a narrow beam with a Yagi antenna it can instead operate reliably over a distance of many miles.
Rural Wireless-ISP installations are typically not commercial in nature and are instead a patchwork of systems built up by hobbyists mounting antennas on radio masts and towers, agricultural storage silos, very tall trees, or whatever other tall objects are available. There are currently a number of companies that provide this service. A wireless Internet access provider map for USA is publicly available for WISPS.
iBlast
iBlast was the brand name for a theoretical high-speed (7 Mbit/s), one-way digital data transmission technology from Digital TV station to users that was developed between June 2000 to October 2005.
Advantages:
Low cost, high speed data transmission from TV station to users. This technology can be used for transmitting website / files from Internet.
Disadvantages:
One way data transmission and should be combined with other method of data transmission from users to TV station.
Privacy/security.
Lack of 8VSB tuner built into many consumer electronic devices needed to receive the iBlast signal.
In the end, the disadvantages outweighed the advantages and the glut of fiberoptic capacity that ensued following the collapse of the Internet bubble drove the cost of transmission so low that an ancillary service such as this was unnecessary, and the company folded at the end of 2005. The partner television stations as well as over 500 additional television stations not part of the iBlast Network continue to transmit separate digital signals as mandated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
WorldSpace
WorldSpace is a digital satellite radio network based in Washington DC. It covers most of Asia and Europe plus all of Africa by satellite. Beside the digital audio, user can receive one way high speed digital data transmission (150 Kilobit/second) from the Satellite.
Advantages:
Low cost (US$ 100) receiver that combine digital radio receiver and data receiver. This technology can be used for transmitting website / files from Internet.
Access from remote places in Asia and Africa.
Disadvantages:
One way data transmission and should be combined with other method of data transmission from users to Worldspace HQ,
Privacy/security.
Pricing
Traditionally, ISPs have used an "all you can eat" or flat rate model, with pricing determined by the maximum bitrate chosen by the customer. However the use of high bandwidth applications is increasing rapidly, with increased consumer demand for streaming content such as video on demand, as well as peer-to-peer file sharing.
For ISP's who are bandwidth limited, the "all you can eat" model may become unsustainable as demand for bandwidth increases. Fixed costs represent 80-90% of the cost of providing broadband service, and although most ISP's keep their cost secret, the total cost (January 2008) is estimated to be about $0.10 per gigabyte. Currently about 5% of users consume about 50% of the total bandwidth [2].
Some ISPs have begun experimenting with usage based pricing, notably a Time Warner test in Beaumont, Texas. Bell Canada has imposed bandwidth caps on customers, with pricing ranging from $1 to $7.50 per gigabyte for usage over certain limits. For comparison, note that a typical standard-definition movie is 700mb-1.2GB, while a high-definition movie is 6GB-12GB. This could conceivably result in a charge of $90 to view a movie.
gist will be posted soon.
Broadband transmission rates
Connection Transmission Speed
DS-1 (Tier 1)-- 1.544 Mbit/s
E-1 -- 2.048 Mbit/s
DS-3(Tier 3) -- 44.736 Mbit/s
OC-3 -- 155.52 Mbit/s
OC-12 -- 622.08 Mbit/s
OC-48 -- 2.488 Gbit/s
OC-192 -- 9.953 Gbit/s
OC-768 -- 39.813 Gbit/s
OC-1536 -- 79.6 Gbit/s
OC-3072 -- 159.2 Gbit/s
In practice, the advertised bandwidth is not always reliably available to the customer; ISPs often allow a greater number of subscribers than their backbone connection can handle, under the assumption that most users will not be using their full connection capacity very frequently. This aggregation strategy works more often than not, so users can typically burst to their full bandwidth most of the time; however, peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing systems, often requiring extended durations of high bandwidth, stress these assumptions, and can cause major problems for ISPs who have excessively overbooked their capacity. For more on this topic, see traffic shaping. As takeup for these introductory products increases, telcos are starting to offer higher bit rate services. For existing connections, this most of the time simply involves reconfiguring the existing equipment at each end of the connection.
As the bandwidth delivered to end users increases, the market expects that video on demand services streamed over the Internet will become more popular, though at the present time such services generally require specialized networks. The data rates on most broadband services still do not suffice to provide good quality video, as MPEG-2 video requires about 6 Mbit/s for good results. Adequate video for some purposes becomes possible at lower data rates, with rates of 768 kbit/s and 384 kbit/s used for some video conferencing applications, and rates as low as 100 kbit/s used for videophones using H.264/MPEG-4 AVC. The MPEG-4 format delivers high-quality video at 2 Mbit/s, at the high end of cable modem and ADSL performance.
Increased bandwidth has already made an impact on newsgroups: postings to groups such as alt.binaries.* have grown from JPEG files to entire CD and DVD images. According to NTL, the level of traffic on their network increased from a daily inbound news feed of 150 gigabytes of data per day and 1 terabyte of data out each day in 2001 to 500 gigabytes of data inbound and over 4 terabytes out each day in 2002.[citation needed]
Technology
The standard broadband technologies in most areas are DSL and cable modems. Newer technologies in use include VDSL and pushing optical fiber connections closer to the subscriber in both telephone and cable plants. Fiber-optic communication, while only recently being used in fiber to the premises and fiber to the curb schemes, has played a crucial role in enabling Broadband Internet access by making transmission of information over larger distances much more cost-effective than copper wire technology. In a few areas not served by cable or ADSL, community organizations have begun to install Wi-Fi networks, and in some cities and towns local governments are installing municipal Wi-Fi networks. As of 2006, high speed mobile Internet access has become available at the consumer level in some countries, using the HSDPA and EV-DO technologies. The newest technology being deployed for mobile and stationary broadband access is WiMAX.
DSL (ADSL/SDSL)
Multilinking Modems
It is possible to roughly double dial-up capability with multilinking technology. What is required are two modems, two phone lines, two dial-up accounts, and ISP support for multilinking, or special software at the user end. This option was popular with some high-end users before ISDN, DSL and other technologies became available.
Diamond and other vendors had created dual phone line modems with bonding capability. The speed of dual line modems is faster than 90 kbit/s. To use this modem, the ISP should support line bonding. The Internet and phone charge will be twice the ordinary dial-up charge.
Load Balancing takes two internet connections and feeds them into your network as one double speed, more resilient internet connection. By choosing two independent internet providers the load balancing hardware will automatically use the line with least load which means should one line fail, the second one automatically takes up the slack.[1]
ISDN
Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN) is one of the oldest high-speed digital access methods for consumers and businesses to connect to the Internet. It is a telephone data service standard. Its use in the United States peaked in the late 1990s prior to the availability of DSL and cable modem technologies. Broadband service is usually compared to ISDN-BRI because this was the standard high-speed access technology that formed a baseline for the challenges faced by the early broadband providers. These providers sought to compete against ISDN by offering faster and cheaper services to consumers.
A basic rate ISDN line (known as ISDN-BRI) is an ISDN line with 2 data "bearer" channels (DS0 - 64 kbit/s each). Using ISDN terminal adapters (erroneously called modems), it is possible to bond together 2 or more separate ISDN-BRI lines to reach speeds of 256 kbit/s or more. The ISDN channel bonding technology has been used for video conference applications and high-speed data transmission.
Primary rate ISDN, known as ISDN-PRI, is an ISDN line with 23 DS0 channels and total speed of 1,544 kbit/s (US standard). ISDN E1 (European standard) line is an ISDN lines with 30 DS0 channels and total speed of 2,048 kbit/s. Because ISDN is a telephone-based product, a lot of the terminology and physical aspects of the line are shared by the ISDN-PRI used for voice services. An ISDN line can therefore be "provisioned" for voice or data and many different options, depending on the equipment being used at any particular installation, and depending on the offerings of the telephone company's central office switch. Most ISDN-PRI's are used for telephone voice communication using large PBX systems, rather than for data. One obvious exception is that ISPs usually have ISDN-PRI's for handling ISDN data and modem calls.
It is mainly of historical interest that many of the earlier ISDN data lines used 56 kbit/s rather than 64 kbit/s "B" channels of data. This caused ISDN-BRI to be offered at both 128 kbit/s and 112 kbit/s rates, depending on the central office's switching equipment.
Advantages:
Constant data speed at 64 kbit/s for each DS0 channel.
Two way high speed symmetric data transmission, unlike ADSL.
One of the data channels can be used for phone conversation without disturbing the data transmission through the other data channel. When a phone call is ended, the bearer channel can immediately dial and re-connect itself to the data call.
Call setup is very quick.
Low latency
ISDN Voice clarity is unmatched by other phone services.
Caller ID is almost always available for no additional fee.
Maximum distance from the central office is much greater than it is for DSL.
When using ISDN-BRI, there is the possibility of using the low-bandwidth 16 kbit/s "D" channel for packet data and for always on capabilities.
Disadvantages:
ISDN offerings are dwindling in the marketplace due to the widespread use of faster and cheaper alternatives.
ISDN routers, terminal adapters ("modems"), and telephones are more expensive than ordinary POTS equipment, like dial-up modems.
ISDN provisioning can be complicated due to the great number of options available.
ISDN users must dial in to a provider that offers ISDN Internet service, which means that the call could be disconnected.
ISDN is billed as a phone line, to which is added the bill for Internet ISDN access.
"Always on" data connections are not available in all locations.
Some telephone companies charge unusual fees for ISDN, including call setup fees, per minute fees, and higher rates than normal for other services.
T-1/DS-1
These are highly-regulated services traditionally intended for businesses, that are managed through Public Service Commissions (PSCs) in each state, must be fully defined in PSC tariff documents, and have management rules dating back to the early 1980s which still refer to teletypes as potential connection devices. As such, T-1 services have very strict and rigid service requirements which drive up the provider's maintenance costs and may require them to have a technician on standby 24 hours a day to repair the line if it malfunctions. (In comparison, ISDN and DSL are not regulated by the PSCs at all.) Due to the expensive and regulated nature of T-1 lines, they are normally installed under the provisions of a written agreement, the contract term being typically one to three years. However, there are usually few restrictions to an end-user's use of a T-1, uptime and bandwidth speed may be guaranteed, quality of service may be supported, and blocks of static IP addresses are commonly included.
Since a T-1 was originally conceived for voice transmission, and voice T-1's are still widely used in businesses, it can be confusing to the uninitiated subscriber. It is often best to refer to the type of T-1 being considered, using the appropriate "data" or "voice" prefix to differentiate between the two. A voice T-1 would terminate at a phone company's central office (CO) for connection to the PSTN; a data T-1 terminates at a point of presence (POP) or datacenter. The T-1 line which is between a customer's premises and the POP or CO is called the local loop. The owner of the local loop need not be the owner of the network at the POP where your T-1 connects to the Internet, and so a T-1 subscriber may have contracts with these two organizations separately.
The nomenclature for a T-1 varies widely, cited in some circles a DS-1, a T1.5, a T1, or a DS1. Some of these try to distinguish amongst the different aspects of the line, considering the data standard a DS-1, and the physical structure of the trunk line a T-1 or T-1.5. They are also called leased lines, but that terminology is usually for data speeds under 1.5 Mbit/s. At times, a T-1 can be included in the term "leased line" or excluded from it. Whatever it is called, it is inherently related to other high-speed access methods, which include T-3, SONET OC-3, and other T-carrier and Optical Carriers. Additionally, a T-1 might be aggregated with more than one T-1, producing an nxT-1, such as 4xT-1 which has exactly 4 times the bandwidth of a T-1.
When a T-1 is installed, there are a number of choices to be made: in the carrier chosen, the location of the demarc, the type of channel service unit (CSU) or data service unit (DSU) used, the WAN IP router used, the types of speeds chosen, etc. Specialized WAN routers are used with T-1 lines that route Internet or VPN data onto the T-1 line from the subscriber's packet-based (TCP/IP) network using customer premises equipment (CPE). The CPE typical consists of a CSU/DSU that converts the DS-1 data stream of the T-1 to a TCP/IP packet data stream for use in the customer's Ethernet LAN. It is noteworthy that many T-1 providers optionally maintain and/or sell the CPE as part of the service contract, which can affect the demarcation point and the ownership of the router, CSU, or DSU.
Although a T-1 has a maximum of 1.544 Mbit/s, a fractional T-1 might be offered which only uses an integer multiple of 128 kbit/s for bandwidth. In this manner, a customer might only purchase 1/12th or 1/3 of a T-1, which would be 128 kbit/s and 512 kbit/s, respectively.
T-1 and fractional T-1 data lines are symmetric, meaning that their upload and download speeds are the same.
Wired Ethernet
Where available, this method of broadband connection to the Internet would indicate that the Internet access is very fast. However, just because Ethernet is offered doesn't mean that the full 10, 100, or 1000 Mbit/s connection is able to be utilized for direct Internet access. In a college dormitory for example, the 100 Mbit/s Ethernet access might be fully available to on-campus networks, but Internet access speeds might be closer to 4xT-1 speed (6 Mbit/s). If you are sharing a broadband connection with others in a building, the access speed of the leased line into the building would of course govern the end-user's speed.
However, in certain locations, true Ethernet broadband access might be available. This would most commonly be the case at a POP or a datacenter, and not at a typical residence or business. When Ethernet Internet access is offered, it could be fiber-optic or copper twisted pair, and the speed will conform to standard Ethernet speeds of up to 10 Gbit/s. The primary advantage is that no special hardware is needed for Ethernet. Ethernet also has a very low latency.
Rural broadband
One of the great challenges of broadband is to provide service to potential customers in areas of low population density, such as to farmers and ranchers. In cities where the population density is high, it is easy for a service provider to recover equipment costs, but each rural customer may require expensive equipment to get connected. A similar problem existed a century ago when electrical power was invented. Cities were the first to receive electric lighting, as early as 1880, while in the United States some remote rural areas were still not electrified until the 1940s, and even then only with the help of federally funded programs like the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
Several rural broadband solutions exist, though each has its own pitfalls and limitations. Some choices are better than others, but are dependent on how proactive the local phone company is about upgrading their rural technology.
Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISPs) are rapidly becoming a popular broadband option for rural areas.
Satellite Internet
Main article: Satellite Internet
This employs a satellite in geostationary orbit to relay data from the satellite company to each customer. Satellite Internet is usually among the most expensive ways of gaining broadband Internet access, but in rural areas it may only compete with cellular broadband. However, costs have been coming down in recent years to the point that it is becoming more competitive with other high-speed options.
Satellite Internet also has a high latency problem caused by the signal having to travel 35,000 km (22,000 miles) out into space to the satellite and back to Earth again. The signal delay can be as much as 500 milliseconds to 900 milliseconds, which makes this service unsuitable for applications requiring real-time user input such as certain multiplayer Internet games and first-person shooters played over the connection. Despite this, it is still possible for many games to be played, but the scope is limited to real-time strategy or turn-based games. The functionality of live interactive access to a distant computer can also be subject to the problems caused by high latency. These problems are more than tolerable for just basic email access and web browsing and in most cases are barely noticeable.
There is no simple way to get around this problem. The delay is primarily due to the speed of light being only 300,000 km/second (186,000 miles per second). Even if all other signaling delays could be eliminated it still takes the electromagnetic wave 233 milliseconds to travel from ground to the satellite and back to the ground, a total of 70,000 km (44,000 miles) to travel from you to the satellite company.
Since the satellite is usually being used for two-way communications, the total distance increases to 140,000 km (88,000 miles), which takes a radio wave 466 ms to travel. Factoring in normal delays from other network sources gives a typical connection latency of 500-700 ms. This is far worse latency than even most dial-up modem users' experience, at typically only 150-200 ms total latency.
Most satellite Internet providers also have a FAP (Fair Access Policy). Perhaps one of the largest cons against satellite Internet, these FAPs usually throttle a user's throughput to dial-up speeds after a certain "invisible wall" is hit (usually around 200 MB a day). This FAP usually lasts for 24 hours after the wall is hit, and a user's throughput is restored to whatever tier they paid for. This makes bandwidth-intensive activities nearly impossible to complete in a reasonable amount of time (examples include P2P and newsgroup binary downloading).
Advantages
True global broadband Internet access availability
Mobile connection to the Internet (with some providers)
Disadvantages
Very high latency compared to other broadband services, especially 2-way satellite service
Unreliable: drop-outs are common during travel, inclement weather, and during sunspot activity
The narrow-beam highly directional antenna must be accurately pointed to the satellite orbiting overhead
The Fair Access Policy limits heavy usage
VPN use is discouraged, problematic, and/or restricted with satellite broadband, although available at a price
One-way satellite service requires the use of a modem or other data uplink connection
VoIP is not supported.
Satellite dishes are huge. Although most of them employ plastic to reduce weight, they are typically between 80 and 120 cm (30 to 48 inches) in diameter.
Cellular broadband
Cellular phone towers are very widespread, and as cellular networks move to third generation (3G) networks they can support fast data; using technologies such as EVDO, HSDPA and UMTS.
These can give broadband access to the Internet, with or without a cell phone because Cardbus, ExpressCard, and USB cellular modems are available, as are cellular broadband routers, which allow more than one computer to be connected to the Internet using one cellular connection.
Advantages
The only broadband connection available on many cell phones and PDA's
Mobile wireless connection to the Internet
Available in all metropolitan areas, most large cities, and along major highways.
No need to aim an antenna in most cases
The antenna is extremely small compared to a satellite dish
Low latency compared to satellite Internet
Higher availability than WiFi "Hot Spots"
A traveler who already has cellular broadband will not need to pay different WiFi Hot Spot providers for access.
Disadvantages
Unreliable: drop-outs are common during travel and during inclement weather
Not truly nationwide service
Speed varies widely throughout the day, sometimes falling well below the 400 kbit/s target during peak times
Asymmetric service: the upload rate is always much slower than the download rate.
High latency compared to DSL and Cable broadband services.
Often more costly compared to other methods
Power-line Internet
This is a new service still in its infancy that may eventually permit broadband Internet data to travel down standard high-voltage power lines. However, the system has a number of complex issues, the primary one being that power lines are inherently a very noisy environment. Every time a device turns on or off, it introduces a pop or click into the line. Energy-saving devices often introduce noisy harmonics into the line. The system must be designed to deal with these natural signaling disruptions and work around them.
Broadband over power lines (BPL), also known as Power line communication, has developed faster in Europe than in the US due to a historical difference in power system design philosophies. Nearly all large power grids transmit power at high voltages in order to reduce transmission losses, then near the customer use step-down transformers to reduce the voltage. Since BPL signals cannot readily pass through transformers, repeaters must be attached to the transformers. In the US, it is common for a small transformer hung from a utility pole to service a single house. In Europe, it is more common for a somewhat larger transformer to service 10 or 100 houses. For delivering power to customers, this difference in design makes little difference, but it means delivering BPL over the power grid of a typical US city will require an order of magnitude more repeaters than would be required in a comparable European city.
The second major issue is signal strength and operating frequency. The system is expected to use frequencies in the 10 to 30 MHz range, which has been used for decades by licensed amateur radio operators, as well as international shortwave broadcasters and a variety of communications systems (military, aeronautical, etc.). Power lines are unshielded and will act as transmitters for the signals they carry, and have the potential to completely wipe out the usefulness of the 10 to 30 MHz range for shortwave communications purposes.
Wireless ISP
This typically employs the current low-cost 802.11 Wi-Fi radio systems to link up remote locations over great distances, but can use other higher-power radio communications systems as well.
Traditional 802.11b was licensed for omnidirectional service spanning only 100-150 meters (300-500 ft). By focusing the signal down to a narrow beam with a Yagi antenna it can instead operate reliably over a distance of many miles.
Rural Wireless-ISP installations are typically not commercial in nature and are instead a patchwork of systems built up by hobbyists mounting antennas on radio masts and towers, agricultural storage silos, very tall trees, or whatever other tall objects are available. There are currently a number of companies that provide this service. A wireless Internet access provider map for USA is publicly available for WISPS.
iBlast
iBlast was the brand name for a theoretical high-speed (7 Mbit/s), one-way digital data transmission technology from Digital TV station to users that was developed between June 2000 to October 2005.
Advantages:
Low cost, high speed data transmission from TV station to users. This technology can be used for transmitting website / files from Internet.
Disadvantages:
One way data transmission and should be combined with other method of data transmission from users to TV station.
Privacy/security.
Lack of 8VSB tuner built into many consumer electronic devices needed to receive the iBlast signal.
In the end, the disadvantages outweighed the advantages and the glut of fiberoptic capacity that ensued following the collapse of the Internet bubble drove the cost of transmission so low that an ancillary service such as this was unnecessary, and the company folded at the end of 2005. The partner television stations as well as over 500 additional television stations not part of the iBlast Network continue to transmit separate digital signals as mandated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
WorldSpace
WorldSpace is a digital satellite radio network based in Washington DC. It covers most of Asia and Europe plus all of Africa by satellite. Beside the digital audio, user can receive one way high speed digital data transmission (150 Kilobit/second) from the Satellite.
Advantages:
Low cost (US$ 100) receiver that combine digital radio receiver and data receiver. This technology can be used for transmitting website / files from Internet.
Access from remote places in Asia and Africa.
Disadvantages:
One way data transmission and should be combined with other method of data transmission from users to Worldspace HQ,
Privacy/security.
Pricing
Traditionally, ISPs have used an "all you can eat" or flat rate model, with pricing determined by the maximum bitrate chosen by the customer. However the use of high bandwidth applications is increasing rapidly, with increased consumer demand for streaming content such as video on demand, as well as peer-to-peer file sharing.
For ISP's who are bandwidth limited, the "all you can eat" model may become unsustainable as demand for bandwidth increases. Fixed costs represent 80-90% of the cost of providing broadband service, and although most ISP's keep their cost secret, the total cost (January 2008) is estimated to be about $0.10 per gigabyte. Currently about 5% of users consume about 50% of the total bandwidth [2].
Some ISPs have begun experimenting with usage based pricing, notably a Time Warner test in Beaumont, Texas. Bell Canada has imposed bandwidth caps on customers, with pricing ranging from $1 to $7.50 per gigabyte for usage over certain limits. For comparison, note that a typical standard-definition movie is 700mb-1.2GB, while a high-definition movie is 6GB-12GB. This could conceivably result in a charge of $90 to view a movie.
gist will be posted soon.
focus on telecom market and know-how
dear friends
here i am launching a new blog for telecommunication know-how and market on focus..
it will contain total conversation concept....
here i am launching a new blog for telecommunication know-how and market on focus..
it will contain total conversation concept....
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