'The Disconnect in Connectivity' - An article by Mr.Srinivasan S, CIO of TVSi, featured in 'The Economic Times' dtd 16th Sept 2011

1. The Disconnect in Connectivity
SSRINIVASAN service provider ,to give effect up of a microwave tower being
in hours, if not minutes. And outsourced to a subcontrac-
yet, there are instances where, tor's subcontractor, sans guar-
The competition commission for several days, there is not antee of safety, acceptance of
has struck a blow for the con-
even an acknowledgement r:esponsibility or liability in
sumer through a hefty fme on case of afault.
from service providers, leave
a leading real estate fIrm for alone making the change. A doublewhartuny awaits the
ramming one-sided contracts
Since last-mile connectivity typical automotive supplier in '
on hapless customers. Offensi- is sensitive and vulnerable, the event of a connectivity
ve, irrational and high-handed loss. The vehicle manufactur-
the ORUS is on service provid-
contracts are neither new nor
confmed to real estate. Take an ers to provide fail-safe fallback er can levy a penalty tliat is se-
links. And yet, there are insta- veral times the value of goods
example from telecom. nces where the last-mile tech- defaulted due to the outage. On
Leaving out the hopelessly nology has c0mpletely failed the other hand, the service pr-
vulnerable small business sec-
only half-a-day downtime. in bandwidth cuts no ice, and with neither alternative solu- ovider will compensate (a) on-
tor for the moment, we can ex-
amine contracts between me- However, if this is reviewed such clauses hold sway even if tions nor compensation to the ly if, the outage is beyond the
over a one-year span, as inSist- the customer compensates customer. Add to this, there liberal allowances provided,
dium-sized organisations and (b) to the extent of the time
some giant communication ed by service providers, seven traffic elsewhere. There is, are many· instances of last-
days of ,continuous downtime thus, an insistence that busi- 'mile link failure on account of lost, and (c) only through extra
service providers. What is the ttsage of service'andnotthrou-
is well within limits. Such a nesses must run uniformly for assorted reasons such as road
experience of a typical con- gh cash reimbursement.
protracted disruption can be years. Other unsaid compul- widening and flooding. The
cern with a service provider Skirting such crucial aspects
fatal to business. Though high sive offerings are poor line, service provider accepts no re-
while subscribing to a data of performance, service provi-
communication network? availability is far more critical quality, abrupt line termina-' sponsibility for the jarring in-
The customer has to commit during the day, there is no dis- tions and erroneous billing, terruption or for providing in- ders thrust bulky standardis-
tinction between night and Other than persevering with fl'lrmation on the re-establish- ed contracts that deal more in
subscription at fIxed rates, peripherals such as hair-split-
day,and service levelis reckon- the service provider, there is mentoftheline.Inthelightof
anywhere up to three years, ed on 24-hour basis uniformly. little recourse for the custom- such imponderables, since bu- ting terminologies, defmitio-
despite steeply falling tariffs. nsandthejurisdictionof cour-
In return, the only assurance Key clauses stipulate that the- er, legally or otherwise, as siness continuity cannot be co-
re can be no changes in the qu- these would be laborious or mpromised, customers have ts. Will the Telecom RegUlato-
from the service provider is a ry Authority of India, the Tele-
antum of bandwidth regard- prohibitively expensive: no option but to have redun-
'service-level guarantee' for less of the diffIculty in guaran- One of the signifIcant benefI- dant and idle networks that on- com Commission and the Tele-
uptime of the network that is teeing the exact bandwidths in ts of changing from conventio- ly add to costs. com Dispute Settlement Appe-
shallow in content. To start llate Tribunal take a leaf outof
the same nodes for years. nalleased lines to multiple pr- While it is fashionable to talk
with, an uptime guarantee is , Enhancements in bandwid- otocollabel switching (MPLS) of total responsibility, it is illu- the competition commission's
meaningful only if the review- ths are welcomed while reduc- protocol is to avail 'bandwidth minating to see to what extent book and remove the gridlock
ingtime span is limited. A98% tions are not accepted. The on tap'. Here, if a customer this is translated in practice. present in lopsided contracts?
performance level, when re- (The author is a senior IT
premise that business is dy- asks for a change in bandwid- There are instances of erec-
viewed over a month, permits namic and requires changes th, it should be possible for the tion work such as the setting executive. Views are personal)
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