What do customers expect in an ISP?

Internet subscribers believe that the advent of private ISP's will mean easier Internet access. With so many ISP's, can all of them provide the kind of services the customer expects? Seems pretty unlikely. So how does the consumer pick a good ISP? Every one of the Internet newbies will want to be able to get connected at the first dial-up attempt. In the Indian context, both ISP's and their potential customers are relatively inexperienced. Can private ISP's live up to this popular expectation?

Choosing an Internet service provider may not seem like a difficult decision at first, but a little research can help you avoid busy signals and poor performance. If you do end up with a lemon, getting your mail forwarded and changing your website address can be quite a challenge. Therefore, before you begin your search, be sure you known exactly what you want out of your ISP.

Think long-term: Internet access is a given, but does the ISP support higher speeds? Could you see yourself using Web space for more than just a resume and candid shots of your cat? Will you be traveling and need nationwide access to your account? Check out ISPs in your area for the following -

Gateways

Quality:
Simply put, gateways are an ISP’s access point into the Internet. Broadly speaking, an ISP has three options: use VSNL’s gateway, set up its own, or taps an international gateway. Setting up a new gateway is not an easy task as the funds required would be close to Rs. 100 crore. An ISP, which plans to use VSNL’s gateway, will have to tackle the issue of being a direct competitor. As far as using an international gateway is concerned, that’s still uncharted territory.

The customer must check if the ISP has unrestricted access to a good gateway.

Location:
This is as important as the gateway itself. For example, a gateway located in Delhi may not be able to cater adequately to the requirements of a user in Mumbai. The weak link is the capacity of the pipe (bandwidth being the technical term) that connects the gateway in Delhi to the ISP’s main server in Mumbai.

Though the capacity of a gateway could be 36 mega bytes per second (MBPS), the bandwidth of the link between the gateway to other cities may be only about 2 MBPS. So as a consumer, you will be best serviced by an ISP whose gateway is in the same city. But each ISP can’t set up its own gateway in every city.

It may not be viable for a single ISP to set up gateways across the country, as the capital costs would be high. There are two possible scenarios that are likely to emerge:

One, we could see ISP's entering into some kind of agreement on a shared network of gateways. The second possibility is a foreign telecom company coming into India and setting up a gateway network.

Cost:
After checking the availability and location of an ISP’s gateways, the next thing for a consumer to look at would be the cost of the gateway to the ISP. This will directly determine the Internet access tariff that he will be paying. Remember that any increase in the cost of using the gateway could be passed on to the subscriber.

For instance, if an ISP using a VSNL gateway emerges as strong competition to the state-owned giant, it would be logical for VSNL to hike the rate at which it is giving the ISP access to the gateway. What better way to hit the competition?

Connection-to-phone ratio

Ask any Internet user what his biggest problem is, and the likely reply will be, “I am just not able to get through.” One of the main reasons for this problem is the number of Internet connections that an ISP offers for every telephone.
In international markets, consumer-oriented ISP's have a ratio of as much as 50 connections per telephone line. For corporate users the ratio is lower at 25:1. But this will be really inadequate in Indian conditions. A ratio of 10:1 would be reasonable in India

 

Tariff structure

ISPs will usually bill you in one of two ways, either a pay-by-the hour charge, or a flat rate monthly, quarterly or yearly fee that entitles you to a certain number of "free" hours. Which method of payment suits you will depend on your individual needs. If you are planning on using the Internet for web browsing, playing online games and such, you will be better off buying an amount of time to use. If, however, you plan only to use email or access newsgroups (activities which can be mostly done off-line), an hourly rate may be quite reasonable.

There are other charges to take into account, also. Extra hours over your allocated time will be charged for - some will simply log you off when time's up; many will charge a one-off setup fee, and some even charge for technical support. There is also the extra amount on your telephone bill each quarter to take into consideration too. This can be quite a surprise if you haven't thought about it first.

The best advice here is to do your homework and compare prices and services offered. You'll be surprised at how different they can be. Remember, with Internet access, like all services, you get what you pay for, so you'd be well advised to spend those few extra dollars if you can afford them. Cheaper ISPs run on a much tighter budget, meaning that technical support may be a bit slower in coming, and there will probably be more frequent or longer periods of down-time, which you pay for by 'trying again later'. If these problems are unacceptable to you, choose an ISP that will guarantee you of fast service and access first time every time. If, however, you are a personal user who doesn't mind going a day or two here and there without access, then you could save yourself quite a bit of money by choosing a less expensive ISP.

At the end of the day, your choice will be determined by how much the connection is going to cost. The secret here is not to look at merely the rate but also the structure of the tariff.

With competition hotting up, ISP's will start innovating with tariff structures. So to get the best deal, study your Internet usage pattern and pick a tariff structure that best suits you.

Also keep in mind the fact that a good ISP will make the effort to map the usage pattern of its subscribers. This helps the ISP service subscribers better. Therefore, make sure that your ISP has software like Open View which helps map usage patterns.

Access flexibility

If you are a corporate user, you may want to restrict access to game sites. Or you may want to keep your children away from sexually explicit pages on the Internet. Make sure then that your ISP gives you the option of restricting and monitoring access to certain sites. Some ISP's for example, offer

Products free with every connection, which allow you to block, access to undesirable sites. These products also protect your PC from viruses, hacker’s etc.

 

Location

Location is very important. If you live in a major metropolitan area, then you're lucky. You have lots of ISPs to choose from. If, however, you live in a rural area, your choice is a little more limited. There are many ISPs who service rural areas and the number and areas covered are growing rapidly. Most importantly, make sure the dial-in number you will be using to connect is a local call - a few hours on the 'net can add an enormous amount to your phone bill if you are dialing STD. If you are unsure whether the number is a local call, contact your ISP to make sure. There have been many cases of people getting a nasty surprise when their phone bill arrived because they thought they were making a local call. This is not the ISPs problem. It is up to you to make sure you know your local call area.

 

Ease of start and use

For instance, does the ISP allow you to pay online? You might prefer that to visiting the ISP office to renew your connection. You will also need online updates on the hours you have left. And make sure your ISP provides toll-free telephonic trouble shooting, customer support and training.

Know your cable operator

An ISP-cable TV operator combination is ideal to take the Internet to the home. In fact, a cable operator from Chennai has already made a beginning in this direction.

Very soon, you should be able to browse the Net through your cable TV connection, courtesy a set-top box. If you do buy an Internet connection from your cable operator, make sure he has the backing of a good company. Providing a cable TV connection is one thing, but giving Internet access is a totally different ball game.

Also ensure that the cabling is of superior grade and that the wire has not just been carelessly strung across the neighbourhood. Television channels can live with such a slapdash approach, but not the Internet. Perhaps the most organized cabling network operates in Kerala — Asianet was able to convince the state government to allow it to use electricity poles.
You will also need to choose a good set-top box, but not too much information is available regarding set-top boxes. This is primarily because cable is not yet a big player in the Net business abroad (the US in particular). But that doesn’t mean the ISP business won’t leap a generation in India. The boxes could cost anywhere between Rs. 20,000 and Rs. 25,000 according to current estimates. But prices are expected to come down.

Security and privacy

Never ignore either of these issues. Soon you will be paying for merchandise over the Internet with your credit card. So security will be of the utmost importance.
Also make sure that your ISP has a properly stated privacy policy that screens spam (blanket junk mail), cookies (software that tracks you down when you access parts of the WWW), and flame (offensive messages).
So now you know the broad areas that need to be considered before signing up for an Internet connection. But the market is still evolving, and so are consumer needs. This list certainly will grow with time and Internet uses. So stay tuned.