Why I am not interested in a 4G connection
4G is the buzzword in India. Politicians believe that 4G would propel Digital India into a future where everything cool will be just bits away, ready to be accessed with your phones. Telecom companies believe that 4G will be an end to all your internet woes, helping you surf websites of all kinds at supersonic speed. They even tantalise, by advertising, rather proudly, that you will be able to download BluRay, which is illegal by the way, in a matter of minutes.
This 4G technology, says everyone who is in any way connected to the telecom sector, is the solution that is going to provide a digital nirvana to all phone and internet users.
It is also bullshit.
If you have a 3G connection from Airtel in your smartphone, chances are that you must have already heard from the company, asking you to take a 4G SIM card and a 4G connection. If you are not an Airtel subscriber, you will probably hear about the 4G soon from your telecom operator. You will be told that it is the magic bullet for all your internet-related problems.
But the reality is that you don't need this 4G connection. Instead, what you need is a decent 3G connection. But the companies that are pushing you to subscribe to costly 4G are the same companies that can't deliver usable 3G services.
A 3G service is, theoretically, capable of providing an internet speed of above 20mbps. In the real world, with varying network conditions, this is closer to 10mbps. But even 10mbps is around five times more than the average internet speed in India. But there is no telecom provider, including Airtel, that can consistently offer even a speed of 5mbps. On most occasions, the 3G speed is closer to 2-3mbps. What is worse, when you are on the road - the time when you really need 3G - it is hard to get speeds above 1mbps. In fact, when you travel, you would be lucky to have a working 3G connection.
At the same time, there is the issue of call drop. The same companies, which are hyping 4G connections, are the companies that can't even manage the call volume properly on their networks. On the same network that we shout "hello, hello" in our phones, praying that the person on the other end would be able to hear us, these companies are offering to roll out services that claim to give internet speed of above 25mbps. Doesn't it sound too good to be true? A lot of people are already reporting that when they travel, they find it difficult to get an internet speed of even 1mbps on their 4G network.
The story of 4G is just the repeat of the 3G rollout. When several years ago, Indian telecom operators started rolling out 3G networks, they promised that this was the technology that would do wonders. 3G was supposed to be the fix of all our connectivity woes. Initially, it even seemed that the telecom operators were right. But as more people moved to 3G, the network soon got congested. The 3G story stopped before it even started properly.
But instead of fixing the 3G story by investing in telecom infrastructure, the companies are now gung-ho on 4G. After all, it is easier to hype something, show people big dreams, instead of actually investing money and building services that are reliable and true to their promise. Talks are easy. Actual work is hard.
The real problem with India's internet - and both government and telecom companies are responsible for it - is that the country lacks wired connectivity. Across the world, wired connectivity powers high-speed internet. But in India, wired connectivity has been neglected. Instead, the government here has chased the chimera of wireless connectivity and telecom firms, happy at the easy deal they get, have cheered from the sidelines.
But as expected, it hasn't worked. So from time-to-time, to show that something is being done to improve web connectivity in India, these buzzwords pop up. Earlier it was 3G. Now it is 4G. Tomorrow, when the 4G story turns out to be similar to the 3G one, telecom operators and the government will talk of 5G.