I usually find that Gmail phone performs lot better then Skype for calls to PSTN. Usually latency on Skype is high as compared to Gmail phone in India (in US it was almost no difference).
I looked around today and here’s bit of test data I collected by calling couple of numbers from Skype & Gmail phone & monitored UDP traffic to collect information about destination servers which is very likely IP-PSTN gateway.
Just now realized that I have over few thousand files in “Latest IP” directory. This is result of poor workaround I created sometimes back to keep track of IP address.
To fix it, I wrote a quick shell script and good enough - it works! :)
Prime purpose of this script is to write latest IP address along with date/time stamp. Thus, one can simply call this script from cron job to keep track of IP address usage.
Yesterday I called MTS Data Card support but their IVRS system was failing in giving me my balance details. Eventually I decided to email their support and glad to say support email was also easily available on their website.
Today I saw acknowledgement mail in spam. No big deal but I usually dig around genuine mails which go in spam to find exact cause. In this case I found mail was sent to me from customercare.del@mtsindia.in and the server which relayed this mail was:
DNS Lesson time!
Today, I was just looking into website - ideaisp.net
This site is overall pretty interesting as it’s showing various upstream links of IDEA Cellular ISP backbone. Seems like they are just using Cable & Wireless for most of International bandwidth although IDEA ISP is not functional yet. Anyways, this post is not about their geeky upstream peers & routing tables but how bad one can setup DNS! :)
Today, I was reading New Telecom Policy from Dept. of Telecom. Must say I am disappointed. Everyday I hear a new story on 3G & LTE in India. About wireless we all know that due to super limited spectrum, it’s good only smartphones. Hard to call even LTE as an alternate even to DSL. LTE has yet to come, but still it will hardly compete with DSL in tier 3 cities and rural India. For tier 1 cities like Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and tier 2 cities like Gurgaon, Jaipur - broadband still suffers badly and we all know but just not accepting that wireless broadband is not way out to that. I am not against wireless broadband. I totally agree to fact that for mass deployment wireless is way to go but I strongly feel that another serious effort is needed in wired broadband connectivity. I am happy to get 2Mbps connection via 3G on my Idea cellular phone, and I don’t really complain for it’s cost because of spectrum crunch and all but I feel super surprised on fact that I get 512Kbps capped broadband on DSL when technically it can go over 16Mbps easily. It’s hard to comment on how well fiber connections to Gram Panchayats will perform. All we can say it’s good and nice initiative given they don’t create parallel infrastructure. But why Govt. is missing out demand in big cities where wired infrastructure is “decent” or can be made decent (based on demand)? I don’t see any good efforts being made by Govt. for improving broadband speeds or connectivity by making maximum use of existing copper infrastructure. Working professionals in cities like Gurgaon/Chennai still suffer badly for “decent” broadband while most of them could have given broadband - demand & technology - both of things are there. Just missing willingness on side of Govt. What’s point in FTTH now which “can” give 1Gbps speed given one is ready to pay ~$1500 a month for that sort of speeds?