Are you computerphobic?

[Rsachi]

Dear rasikas,
After finding that many are- like I was before - not too keen on using computers and the Internet as they find them a bit daunting, I just decided to write a series blog articles to make people start using computers a little better.
My main advantage is that I am NOT an expert! So perhaps the lessons I share here are also easy.
Please click here if you are interested in visiting this blog:
Are You computerphobic?

If you have tips to share, or articles and pictures/videos on this, please send me. I will acknowledge the source and share it.

[cacm]

INTERESTING IDEA!....Congragulations. VKV

[cmlover]

Though I qualify to be called a Computermanaic (according to my wife) I will enjoy your blog!

[Rsachi]

Hello folks,
I have written seven blog pages, and got 225 page views already.
Please visit
http://bit.ly/cccphobic

Ciao

[Ramasubramanian M.K]

RSachi: Congrats!! Now digital neanderthals like myself can rush in(where angels fear to tread!!)

[Rsachi]

Sir, computers are much more prosaic and mundane than Carnatic music, where you are an expert!

[vasanthakokilam]

Rsachi: Good idea to write about such topics. I am sure it has been quite useful to a lot of people.

I have a few topics along these lines in mind. I will raise them later but for now there is topic about which I am not clear about myself. Let me start with that.

It is about accessing online services using the mobile phone in India. By online services, I include Email, Facebook, Twitter, online music, online video like youtube etc.

If you have a smartphone plus a data service like 2G, 3G 4G, LTE is easy to explain along the lines of : You have cellular voice service which is used for phone calls and SMS. The data service is used for accessing the internet ( for email, facebook, twitter, online music, youtube video, browsing etc. ). Once this is established, then it is easy to explain that you pay separately for voice + SMS and for data. Overages can then be explained properly. Voice Minutes, SMS count and bandwidth in Megabytes.

This is already getting complicated but possibly manageable since there is a logical division between functionality, type of services and what you pay for.

But what gets confusing is Voice, SMS and some limited set of online services are sold even with non-smart phones for the lower end customers in markets like India. I have noticed that it is possible to access gmail with some old Nokia phones. People use Blackberries for email and BBM ( like SMS but with other blackberry users ) but not as a full fledged smartphone for general purpose internet access. And how these are billed to the consumer and how overages are charged. Do you have to sign up for a data plan for such things? Is that 2G, 3G or it is something else? How does one know if their phone has these capabilities?

Rsachi, if you can write a blog post for these things in the Indian environment, I think it will demystify it for a lot of people and can end up saving them some money too in the process . Thanks.

[Rsachi]

Sure! I will do so in the next couple of days, using the example of my own Airtel plan.
It is quite imple once I share the bill structure.
Thanks for the tip.

[Rsachi]

Here's my take on mobile internet:
Http://bit.ly/WShhJl

[Nick H]

Mobile data charges seem, to me, to be absurd. They sell it as if you can do everything that you can do at home, but to do so would cost thousands.

When travelling, I prefer to leave the internet at home, but will use it on the phone for specific important things like checking a PNR status for a train journey. Thus, I do not have a specific data plan. I tried tacking a train journey on Google Maps, and it cost me several hundred rupees! I've thought of buying pre-paid short-period data plan, but do not want to upset my long-established plan which, with 10ps SMSs, is very good.

Whereas my broadband connection costs about Rs1600 a month, I prepay Rs500 on the phone about twice a year! You can see that, with this minimal usage, I find most people's mobile phone bills, even just for talk, to be very high indeed!

[Rsachi]

Nick, that's very clever of you. Maybe you don't call out-station or overseas much?
It's not only in India, my experience is phone companies play Robin Hood, charging less for basic prepaid connections from the subsidy they get by ripping off Internet-hungry folks.
The best landline broadband plans seem to be from BSNL.
Mobile data plans are ALWAYS tricky, but their rates are coming down.

[vasanthakokilam]

Rsachi: Good write up. Thanks. A few follow up questions.

1) I mentioned earlier that I had seen someone using a Nokia feature phones to check email from their gmail account. This was a couple of years ago. How does that work? Is that some kind of 2G data plan bundled in without really explicitly stating it or it is some other technology that is limited to just some email.

2) You wrote that you have been using mobile data for 11 years. That is quite impressive. Is that in India?

3)If you get a blackberry and get some voice+sms+email service on it, are you really signing up for a data service also behind the scenes? In India, can BB be used for general internet surfing too or that is a different tier plan you have to sign up separately?

4) Finally, are there carriers who offer facebook and/or twitter on feature phones ( non-smart phones ) quite economically ( and without requiting to sign up for an expensive data service ). I heard this is a possibility for markets like India but I do not know the details about specific offerings.

[Rsachi]

Any phone that can access email in India today is on a 2G network, as far as I know.
Yes I have been using 2G or 3G in India since 2001. It was not called 2G but edge etc.
The scope of Gmail, and Internet access is all a function of your plan with the carrier. All carriers have such plans for BlackBerry. Blackberry USP is email and private messaging. They use their own servers. You can also set up Gmail and Yahoo and Outlook on BB phones, I did it several times over the years.

All FB, Twitter etc. are promos done by carriers to encourage more subscriptions, they are device specific. As you can imagine,hand phone makers, FB, Yahoo etc. and carriers are a big oligopoly. Right now we have great plans and low fees in India. How long it will continue is anyone's guess since everyone seems to be in the red.
Bottom line, take your phone to the carrier's care centre and they will help you.

Any new plan or connection needs ID, address proof, PAN card and employment proof, after Nov. 2008.

All phone calls and SMSs and email, FB, tweets are policed. So much for privacy indeed!

[Nick H]

Nick, that's very clever of you. Maybe you don't call out-station or overseas much?

I might spend a whole hundred rupees on a call to UK once a year or so, or on an expensive roaming-charge call occasionally --- although not from UK, I have a Virgin sim to use there. Apart from that, I actually hardly call at all. It's not so much a phone as a husband/wife intercom! Others I tell, "I'm deaf... please email or SMS me!" My Aircel plan is a very old one: I've had it since 2004. If I really want it, though, it does give me both 2G and 3G data possibility.

Biggest recent sting was a SingTel sim in Singapore. It just kept eating S$s. I bought the wrong sim: I actually wanted data, but had quite the wrong plan for that. I joked that the SingTel skyscraper was being financed by me!

Landline broadband depends on which city you are in, and, of course, subject to cabling presence, whether or not there is any competition in your street at all. Currently, Airtel give me the best service, and speed/FUP-cap/cost compromise.

Time for the big rant: India has some of the highest bandwidth prices in the world. Broadband internet has never been about anything other than corporate profit on a "luxury" service. Luxury is in quotes, because, according to international standards it isn't even fast. But... 4Mb/sec is enough for me.