The Hindu : Usage based charges for DIAS service

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 26, 2003

National

National

Usage based charges for DIAS service

By R. Prasad

CHENNAI FEB. 25. The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has moved away from charging a flat rate to actual usage based charging for its Direct Internet Access System (DIAS). With this the consumer would no longer pay a flat amount of Rs. 1,800 every month but Rs. 850 for 0.5 GB (Gigabytes) of Internet data accessed. The flat rate based charging was immaterial of the amount of time spent on the Net or the quantum of material downloaded.

The flat rate based charging had proved to be a dampener especially with home-based consumers, according to a senior BSNL official. This despite the advantages that DIAS offered 24 hours `always on' mode, higher connectivity speed of 128 kbps (kilo bites per second) and simultaneous access to Net and telephone.

Usage based charging is based on the amount of data accessed by a consumer. A typical household consumer uses it for two hours a day on an average. These two hours are called the `activity factor.'

Even when the activity factor is two hours, one does not use the Net for all the two hours. In a typical scenario of e-mailing, the time taken to type or read the mail does not involve using the bandwidth.

It is only when mails are sent or received that the bandwidth is used.

In essence, the Net is practically used only for small periods of time even though he uses the Internet facility for two hours. Actual usage of the Net is thus `bursty.' The burst factor defines how bursty the usage is.

The activity and burst factors and not just the time that one is connected to the Internet as in dial up connection serve as important parameters for determining the actual usage.

"Considering a burst factor of 10 per cent and activity factor of two hours, a normal home user would not use more than 0.5GB per month," said K. V. Nair, Chief Operating Officer, Banyan Networks Pvt. Ltd, Chennai.

But the price one pays in the case of dial up connection is high. Cost towards engaging the telephone connection for two hours works out to Rs. 1,512. Cost would go up as the number of interruptions rises.The cost paid towards the Internet Service Provider hover around Rs. 20 for two hours. This is again considering that the connection is seamless for all the two hours. Users from smaller towns end paying the ISPs nearly 40-50 per cent more compared to a metro user. The price one pays with a dial up connection is nearly Rs. 2,100 for two hours connection against Rs. 850 in the case of DIAS. The DIAS consumers do not pay Rs. 600 as ISP charges as BSNL serves as an ISP. The savings are higher if the consumer is from a smaller town. Heavy users would pay additional Rs. 120 for every 100 MB of data accessed.The billing system required for calculating the quantum of data accessed has been installed in seven circles. Similar systems have to be installed in the remaining seven circles, according to Mr. Nair.

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