Knowing what a dry topic this can be, I was initially tempted to skip it...but on second thoughts decided to give it a shot because I feel that it is something that concerns all of us and that which we need to know. Having said that, I’ll try to make it as simple and “light weight” as possible without using heavy tech jargon...
ISP - short for Internet Service Provider, is a company that provides access to the Internet. For a monthly/quarterly/yearly fee, the service provider gives a software package, a username, a password and an access phone number. Equipped with a modem, a user can log on to the Internet and browse the World Wide Web and send and receive e-mail. In addition to serving individuals, ISPs also serve large companies, providing a direct connection from the company’s networks to the Internet. ISPs themselves are connected to one another through Network Access Points (NAPs). ISPs are also known as IAPs (Internet Access Providers) in some countries.
Types of ISPs
There are two kinds of ISPs who offer internet related services, free and paid. We, in India, by and large have 99.90% paid ISP and as far as my knowledge goes, Caltiger is the only one that offers free services. If Mumbaiyites remember, there was another one by name Cheecoo (or some such thing) which was forced to close shop without even celebrating its first birthday.
Paid ISPs
Typically, all ISPs have something called “Setup and Infrastructure costs” running into hundreds of crores of rupees apart from the hefty license fees imposed by the various regulatory authorities in India. Having incurred these costs, an ISP naturally cannot offer its services free of cost to its users, unless of course it intends to do a lot of social service. In India, we have ISPs like Satyamonline, MTNL, VSNL, Now, Tatanova, i4net, Netkracker, etc. to name a few. Most of them offer pre-paid packages ranging from 5 hours to 5000 hours or between 1 month and 3 years, obviously whichever is earlier. I think Now ISP is the only one which bills the user on a “pay-as-you-use” basis.
Free ISPs
Free??? Remember, there’s nothing like a free business lunch. Likewise, there’s no such thing as a really free “free ISP”, . The business model behind free ISPs is very tentative, since they rely on advertising to pay for their service. Advertisers pay to advertise on the ISP’s site and customers receive free Internet access. Agreed that the most obvious benefit of choosing a free ISP is the cost. But while no money is involved, you do pay by giving the ISP other items of value like your “on-screen real estate” and some very private information about yourself. Among the information commonly required are your name, age, and address, date of birth, gender, educational level, income range, types of cars you own, whether you rent or own your home; how often you shop online and what types of items you buy, etc. This is the sort of information used to determine which ads get to you and which would be a waste of your time and the advertiser’s money. All these gimmicks also slow down the performance or “Bandwidth” considerably with the result that while one normally takes about 10-15 minutes to check e-mails, the same could easily take double that time on a free service.
Most free ISPs require their customers to download something called a “dialer”, a small software which is to be used every time one wants to connect to the internet. This dialer comes with a huge banner that takes up, on an average 15-20% of the desktop. Now starts the real fun...once you connect to the internet, your desktop is flooded by a plethora of ads (thankfully silent) at regular intervals.
The free ISP does not offer its free services in all cities, it only does so in a select few cities. Advertising-supported service is generally a money-losing business model, and a month or a year down the road when the ISP itself figures this out, bad things can happen to the service, such as it disappearing without a trace, with or without notice.
The “costs” involved with a Free ISP
Concurrent usage restrictions - An important distinction between paid and free ISPs is that most free ISPs do not allow different users on the same account to access the Internet at the same time. Most paid ISPs do allow concurrent usage, and that is essential in an office setting.
Hour limitations - Paid ISPs are relatively cheap and can be afforded for as low as Rs. 99 (unlimited access) per month. While these do not place any restrictions on the usage hours, free ISPs may limit your hours by imposing restrictions on the timings when one may avail its service.
Lack of technical support - Unlike paid ISPs, many free ISPs do not have adequate technical support. Sometimes a question that can be simply answered by a technician can take you hours to figure out on your own.
Banner ads - Free ISPs have intrusive banner ads which keep popping up on the screen. The advertisers have developed all sorts of ads that refuse to be shut down. These ’’pop-up’’ ads, or interstitials, are incessant and are sometimes impossible to close down.
Spam - Spam is the primary problem with free ISPs. Spam is any unsolicited email. Many Free ISPs make money by selling your name to spam lists, which in turn, barrage your inbox with junkmail. One an soon expect to have an unmanageable mess of new messages that take hours to sort. To make it even more fun, these spam messages often have deceptive subject headings that make it impossible to detect them at first sight.
Is It Worth It? If you dislike the idea of having companies watch over your shoulder and are curious to know all about you, your habits, income levels and a hundred other things, a free ISP is probably not for you.
You may, however, be the sort of person who enjoys taking marketing surveys and having a voice in how things change (if you don’t have any better work, that is) or you may even have no objection to your habits being known to the whole world as long as no name is attached to your information and you can remain reasonably private...in which case, a free ISP is a bargain.
Would you prefer to pay a nominal amount on a monthly/yearly basis and surf the net at your own terms and time or be a “Kanju” and prefer to spend more time gazing at ads, filling online questionnaires and sorting spam mail rather than doing something productive ? It’s for you to decide...
Remember? A Carrot is a carrot is a carrot...until proved otherwise.