Snooping on YouTube

 

If you are curious about something but nobody is willing to tell you, what do you do?

Recently, BBC reported on an interesting method of gathering market intelligence. The question researchers at the University of Massachussetts were trying answer was - how big is YouTube?

This may sound like a simple question but for various reasons - commercial, or otherwise - this is not the kind of information YouTube, or its parent company, Google, would like to place in the public domain. As the article puts it - 

In its 20 years of operation, YouTube has shaped entire generations' sensibilities and redefined global culture. Surveys show YouTube is the most popular social media site in the US by far, with 83% of adults and 93% of teenagers among its patrons. It's the second-most-visited website on Earth by most estimates, topped only by Google.com itself. But as the platform enters its third decade, the most basic facts about YouTube are still a closely guarded secret.

So how did the researchers at UoM get this information?

They started with the URLs that appear for almost all YT videos. They all start with  "youtube.com/watch?v=", and a unique 11-character identifier. Eg - Gangnam Style's identifier is 9bZkp7q19f0. 

This is where the raw computing power comes in. 11 random alpha-numeric characters can be arranged in more than 18.6 quintillion ways! So the researchers then wrote a program that would trawl the internet with random addresses and download the videos that scored a hit. It seems to collect the first 10,016 videos, the scraper tried more than 18 trillion potential URLs!

The conclusion?

When Google first acquired the platform in 2006, around 65,000 videos were uploaded every day. By 2022, they calculated that YouTube housed more than nine billion videos. By mid 2024, that number had grown to 14.8 billion videos, a 60% jump!!

In the cat and mouse game of corporates and snoops, perhaps it is just a matter of time before YT/Google comes up with ways to foil this kind data-collection and verification. 

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REFERENCES & LINKS

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250213-youtube-at-20-a-computer-that-drunk-dials-online-videos-reveals-statistics-that-google-doesnt-want-you-to-know

Swartz and the Free Internet

Until today I had not heard of the name Aaron Swartz. A dive down one twitter rabbit-hole led me to this documentary and I was quite amazed to learn about this child prodigy, this teenager who was one of the founders of Reddit, an architect of Creative Commons, the slayer of draconian legislations that restricted internet freedom, and conscientious young man who was driven to kill himself by MIT and the Obama administration. 

As if all these were not achievements enough for a lifetime, Swartz also gets the credit to enabling the discovery of a test that leads to the early detection of pancreatic cancer!

A friend who studied at MIT thought there was nothing new or shocking about MITs role in making a scapegoat out of Swartz. "It is difficult to admire MIT if you're a thinking person", he said, "Most of the research there is centred on war weapons and the best way to kill". So it may not be surprising that the Obama government wanted to make an example of a man whose principal crime was to get past the JSTOR paywall and download years of public-funded research papers.

Until last year I would have thought such a move went against the very grain of USAs self-proclaimed   position as a 'land of the free'. The aggressive rise of China, the Covid-19 pandemic, Galwan, and the nine-dash-line leads me to a more hardline position against authoritarian regimes who are trying to turn this freedom into some kind of liability.

If internet freedom and free access of research from US universities only leads to a one-way flow of information and technology, it may not be a bad idea to temper the zeal of youngsters, who, for all their deep knowledge, are unable to see the big picture of global geo-politics.

ERR_INTERNET_DISCONNECTED

Sitting in our metro cities it is difficult to imagine a world of alternate realities. The internet and our access to it, is perhaps one such world. One where screens suddenly blank out and you end up with a digi-dinosaur hopping over cactus.

At a panel discussion organised by the Indian Express yesterday, a group of experts sat on the stage to discuss what seemed like a rather vague and tenuous topic - "Is Internet Shutdown a New Order for Law and Order"? The fact that this event - IE Thinc - was sponsored by Facebook made me all the more skeptical about its relevance. 

The panel had an interesting mix:  a young bureaucrat responsible for an internet shutdown at Ranchi; a representative from the Intenet Freedom Foundation, one from the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), and an economist. Except for the last one, who seemed long winded and disconnected like most economists, the other three made sense. 

I was surprised to know that the Government of India is very secretive about sharing data on internet shutdowns. Data accessed from other sources (mainly UN) indicate that there have been at least 254 shutdowns in 19 states during the period 2012-2018. 

While the initial intent of many had been to prevent riots and loss of lives from the the rumours spread on Facebook, Whatsapp etc., internet shutdowns were now being implemented for reasons that could only be described as flippant and irresponsible. In the most recent case, in Udaipur, Rajasthan, the internet was shut down for a few days to prevent cheating in a government recruitment exam!

Considering how internet shutdowns affected the lives of millions of citizens - loss of business, access to basic services, education, payments and so on - what was the legal basis for such disruptions? Here are some of the laws/rules enumerated:

• Article 19(2) - places "Reasonable restrictions" on freedom
• Section 144 CPC - "Unlawful Assembly" -- used against freedom fighters during freedom struggle to confiscate Gandhi Caps, now used to shut down the net.
• Rules for Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services, 2017 -- just requires an SP+ officer to issue order
• Section 95 CPC - banning of books
• Section 6.2 of Telegraph Act - used for phone/network tapping

I am glad I decided to attend this event. If not anything else, it was a sobering reminder that it takes very little to turn the smartphone in our hands into a useless lump of plastic and metal.

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LINKS:

- Rules for suspension of telecom services, 2017 - http://www.dot.gov.in/circulars/temporary-suspension-telecom-services-public-emergency-or-public-safety-rules-2017
- Internet Freedom Foundation - https://internetfreedom.in/
- Report on IE event -7 Sept., 2018 - https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/iethinc-debates-implications-of-internet-shutdowns/1305181/

USB Vulnerability

Ever so often, whenever I pick up a USB memory stick, a certain train of thought crosses my mind.
"Here is a miracle device", I remind myself, "which one of the 6 billion+ across the world, one that has made data-transfer and battery charging so amazingly simple, and yet, contains within it the power to destroy nuclear plants, water and power supply grids and to unleash starvation, misery and death across the world!"

A few years ago, the Economist highlighted positive features of the 'thumb-drive' in an article very aptly titled. "In Praise of the Humble USB". While reading this piece, I was delighted to know that a computer architect of Indian origin,  Ajay Bhatt, had a key role to play in creating this amazing interface, which his parent company, Intel, decided to make 'the cheap USB plug and socket an open standard, available to manufacturers everywhere free of all royalty charges and licensing fees'. This one move destroyed the Firewire standard that had been patronised by Apple, and made USB a de facto standard across the world.

The ease with which the USB drive could be used also made it a handy tool in the hands of spies, spooks and saboteurs. The most famous example of this is the Stuxnet virus which CIA and Mossad used to destroy a thousand centrifuges in Iran. Ever since I heard of this cyber-attack, I have been awed by the sheer scale of destruction that can be unleashed through the USB drives. It also led me to the mistaken belief that the Iranian nuclear program had been irreparably damaged because of Stuxnet.

A recent documentary by Alex Gibney - "Zero Days" - suggests that in the real world, things are not what they seem. In their eagerness and impatience to destroy the Iranian nuclear centrifuges, Mossad apparently changed the codes created by their CIA/NSA collaborators, and released a version that was a lot less subtle, and left behind an electronic trail that was being used against the USA. It seems Iran has now built up one of the largest cyber-armies in the world, one that was behind two major warning attacks: one on the largest oil company in the world, SaudiAramco, destroyed every line of code on 30,000 computers, and then a surge attack on banks in the USA that crippled commercial operations.

As a friend recently pointed out, our biggest vulnerability is that new technology is being built on old systems that were not intended to be on a network. So, by default, we have gaping holes in just about all the things that now run our lives - utility supplies, banking & finance.

Even the ubiquitous USB works on FAT-32 system which has since evolved into exFAT and NTFS. However, the base continues to be FAT32, and as long as this is the case, our systems will continue to be inefficient - and utterly vulnerable.

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LINKS & REFERENCES

* Stuxnet - Alex Gibney's Zero Days - https://youtu.be/AcgUGujn_nY
* FAT32, exFAT and NTFS - http://www.pcworld.com/article/3109559/hardware/why-your-usb-drives-file-format-matters-fat32-vs-exfat-vs-ntfs.html

Kirana Broadband

A few years ago experts had predicted that the arrival of malls, hypermarts and then the online stores would spell doom for the Kirana shops - the tiny mom-and-pop corner stores.No such thing has happened, at least in our corner of the world.

In Noida, corner stores continue to thrive, even while charging premiums, or at the very least, the Maximum Retail Price (MRP) for their goods. Unlike the mega-malls and online stores, they continue to be better tuned in to customer needs. Their range of goods tends to be rather limited but with longer hours (06:30 - 22:30) and options of making monthly payments, the strong point continues to be personalised services.

Something similar is now happening in the broadband services space.

The first-mover here was the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). They were the first to lay an extensive optic-fibre network and had a captive market of residents with fixed-line telephones. It was a great business opportunity and they blew it - thanks largely to their amazing line-men who just could not kick the habit of demanding bribes, making shoddy wire-connections, just to ensure failures and, in turn, to keep the speed money flowing.

Repeated complaints to senior BSNL officials had absolutely no effect. This was the classic Rhett Butler approach to customer satisfaction - 'Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!'

The local entrepreneurs soon sensed a business opportunity. Now we have three competing broadband entrepreneurs - Paramhans Internet, Fiberworld and RT Radiaant. Each of them offers competitive prices, access to an optic-fibre network, and built in multiple redundencies to ensure minimum down time.

For instance, Fiberworld uses an optic fibre network with a set of six Radio Frequency (RF) antennas providing a backup. It was using the optic-fibre network from Triple Play until it switched over to Perfect Internet, a few weeks ago.

The good thing about these local service providers is that they operate on the Kirana work-ethic. Quick response to customer complaints, customised services with no demand for bribes. On the down side, their wiring is messy and ugly, not unlike the cable-TV guys who had a cobweb of cables dangling across buildings. Exposed cables also tempt the companies to keep competition at bay by cutting cables, and corners.

Now all the Kirana Broadband guys are looking over their shoulders, anxioulsy awaiting the arrival of Reliance-Jio, the King Kong in broadband arena.

Reliance Jio claims to have laid more than 250,000 kilometres of fibre-optic cables, covering 18,000 cities and over 100,000 villages, with the aim of covering 100% of the nation’s population by 2018. In the first phase itself, Jio aims to have 100 million wireless broadband and 20 million Fibre-to-Home customers.

Will the Kirana Broadband service providers be able to survive the Jio marketing blitz? Will they fare better than the cable-TV companies that had got decimated by DTH services?

Whatever the outcome, the customers are like to get better, more reliable options, as the days go by!

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REFERENCES & LINKS

* Reliance Jio - http://www.ril.com/ourBusinesses/Jio.aspx
* Triple Play - http://www.tptl.in/
* Perfect Internet - perfectinternet.in

WiFi and Basic Needs

This illustration says it all.

It might be stretching things a bit, but it does indicate how staying connected seems to have becomesome sort of a desperate, visceral need. We now choose hotels and eateries based on their ability to provide reliable bandwidth as much as the quality of accomodation or food. There is now a joke going around that, even at home, the best way to have a family get-together is to switch off the wireless router!

In an earlier post, I had figured that all WiFi devices talk to each other in the 2.4 GHz frequency, and that as per international protocols this band is divided into 79 channels (each 1 MHz wide) which the devices can change up to 1600 times per second, just to keep a data connection going.

I still have no idea how the scientists managed to create anything that sends out 1,000,000,000 vibrations per second, let alone how they go about slicing it like a cake and passing it around with all the icing and toppings intact.

Perhaps it is easier to understand things that are happening at an individual device level. Here are two parameters from my WiFi analyser:

The first screenshot shows that the signal strength ranges from -100 dBm (decibel milliwatts) to -40 dBm. The key unit here is that of power - Watts. It takes a thousandth (1/1000) of a Watt to send out signal equal to 0 dB.

The negative sign comes from the log scale. To quote WirelessAnnonymous:

Under a log 10 scale, a value of -2 represents 10 to the -2 power, which equals 0.01. Likewise, a negative dBm means that you're applying a negative exponent in your power calculations; 0 dBm equals 1 mW of power, so -10 dBm equates to 0.1 mW, -20 dBm equates to 0.01 mW, and so forth. It's a lot easier, and more useful in some calculations, to describe a weak signal as -100 dBm as opposed to 0.0000000001 mW.

The following shot illustrates how the signal strengh drops the further you move away from a router. The closest ones are sending out signals stronger than -50dBm while the farthest ones have the green bands diminishing into the -90 dBm range.



Then you have the next most important thing: the media access control (MAC) address.

When you have millions of data signals riding piggypack on radio waves, it is necessary to ensure that they reach the right destinations. For this, each WiFi device comes with a unique MAC address and they all use the address resolution protocol (ARP) to avoid cross-talk. If we compare the whole set up to city traffic, MAC represents the final destinations (a mall, home or fuel station). Vehicles (data packets) traveling along the roads (the internet protocol/IP) are capable of reaching anywhere but get an entry only to those places which have a matching MAC address.

This brings us to the next basic need - how do we stay safe from the carjackers, and hackers hiding in the dark streets?

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REFERENCES & LINKS

* Reading signal strength -- http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/9782-43-read-signal-strength
* How to Geek - MAC Address - http://www.howtogeek.com/169540/what-exactly-is-a-mac-address-used-for/
* Ask Leo: IP address vs. MAC address -- https://askleo.com/whats_the_difference_between_a_mac_address_and_an_ip_address/

Two URLs

Consider the following two URLs:

* http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67525?utm_content=buffer616b1&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer

and

* http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67525

The first one takes you to a page on Turkey. The second one takes you to exactly the same webpage using a far more compact address, quite unlike the ones you get from sites like TinyURL. The difference is that the first one was approached through a link on Twitter.

The extra elements in the URL, starting with "?", seem to contain three distinct components separated by a and ampersand "%", and each of these describes something called "utm". So what exactly is this?

It seems UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Modules created by Google Analytics to help track traffic sources. These tags apparently help you create unique links for different campaigns and enable them to be tracked while they are being distributed through emails, banner ads, or even offline marketing campaigns.

Good to know.. :)

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LINKS:

* Google Analytics - Traffic - URL Builder - https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867?hl=en

* UTL Link Tracking Explained - http://www.intownwebdesign.com/google-analytics/google-analytics-utm-link-tagging-explained.html

* Explain the Internet to a 19th century Street Urchin -- http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662563/infographic-how-to-explain-the-internet-to-a-19th-century-street-urchin

What makes Estonia different?

Soon after the collapse of the Berlin wall, the Soviet Union imploded in the early 1990s. In the chaos and power vacuum that followed, a number of Soviet 'satellites' dropped out. Among them were the three tiny Baltic states - Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

Even before the last Soviet troops had pulled out, all three became a part of the European Union in 1994. All three had access to new technology and markets, yet, two decades later, there is only one state in the former Soviet Union that emerged as a sturdy economy and a technology leader  - Estonia.

Estonia transformation is quite fascinating. This country, about the size of Haryana state (~44,000 sq.km), with a population of just 1.3 million, is now the most "wired" and among the best e-governed countries in the world. One of the best known Estonian products is something that is likely to be on your own toolbar - Skype.

How did Estonia achieve this transformation, in less than two decades?

By all accounts, at the center of the Estonian transformation were two men -- Toomas Hendrik Ilves and Linnar Viik. Not unlike the bullet-train revolution in Japan, this transformation too rested on a tech-savvy political head (Ilves) working closely with a techie with a vision (Viik).

Ilves came from the Estonian equivalent of an NRI family. It had fled the country as soon as USSR took over in the mid-1940s. As a result, Ilves did his schooling in Sweden, and then in USA. Having imbibed a good dose of the Scandinavian work-ethic and having seen the way computers were transforming America, a little nudge from CIA is perhaps all that was needed to take him to a leadership role back home.

However, unlike most US implants (think Karzai), Ilves seems to have been just the right person at the right place and the right time. Soon after he took over as the first president, his focus was on getting the  big picture right. Tariffs were abolished, prices freed, tax made ultra-simple, foreign players were brought in to take over many industries.

Then came in Linnar Viik with his Project Tiigrihüpe ("Tiger Leap"). WiFi hubs came up all over the country. All schools in Estonia were linked up with high-speed networks. Children were encouraged to learn programming when they were 5-6 year's old. in 2000 Viik helped Estonia become the first country in the world to adopt a system of e-governance, changing its cabinet meetings to paperless sessions using a web-based document system, with ministers able to take part from anywhere.

The Tiigrihüpe  logo said it all -- a cheerful, toothy tiger, cheerfully leaping through a boxy computer screen, into the world beyond.

Why is it that India's own 'tigers' are huddled in isolated sanctuaries across the country?


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REFERENCES & LINKS:

Economist (30 Jul 2013): HOW DID ESTONIA BECOME A LEADER IN TECHNOLOGY? --- http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/07/economist-explains-21?spc=scode&spv=xm&ah=9d7f7ab945510a56fa6d37c30b6f1709

BBC (2013): HOW ESTONIA BECAME E-STONIA, 16May13 --- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22317297

The Guardian (2012): How tiny Estonia stepped out of USSR's shadow to become an internet titan, 15Apr12 -- http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/apr/15/estonia-ussr-shadow-internet-titan
- Linnar Viik, a lecturer at the Estonian IT College, a government adviser and a man almost synonymous in Estonia with the rise of the web.
- Not bad for country where, two decades ago, half the population had no phone line.
- Why only Estonia? -- the country's ethnic Estonian majority feel Nordic, rather than Slavic or eastern European. In the early 90s, this meant they looked to tech-happy Scandinavia for both inspiration and investment.
- From the early days, government philosophy was not to hire programmers, but to use the services of private companies, which in turn increased the competitiveness of the Estonian IT sector
- Acta, the hugely controversial international agreement that opponents fear will curtail the rights of individual internet users.

* Linnar Viik - Estonia's Internet Guru -- http://www.eubusiness.com/europe/estonia/040420021538.qhs3vusx
- Blog - http://linnar.viik.ee/

Project Tiigrihüpe ("Tiger Leap") -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiigrih%C3%BCpe
- http://www.tiigrihype.ee/en

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonia

* Economist (1999): ESTONIA'S LAST CHALLENGE, 11Mar99 -- http://www.economist.com/node/319371?zid=307&ah=5e80419d1bc9821ebe173f4f0f060a07
- Estonia's first government of radical reformers (average age: around 35) took office in 1992, only to be ousted two years later
- The incoming reformers, by contrast, have their sights set on overhauling the machinery of government.

* Farivar, Cyrus (2011): THE INTERNET OF ELSEWHERE - The Emergent Effects of a Wired World, Rutgers University Press, 2011 --- http://www.worldcat.org/title/internet-of-elsewhere-the-emergent-effects-of-a-wired-world/oclc/643762511

* New Yorker (2013): Annals of Technology -- http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/07/08/130708fa_fact_baker

India - States - area-wise: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territories_of_India_by_area

Three Divers Make India Crawl

Three Egyptian divers damaged three undersea cables near Alexandia Port, and India's internet speeds have come down to a crawl.

What happened? Are our internet lifelines so vulnerable?

According to newspaper reports --

 "The current outages that affect three of the eight communications cables that connect India to the rest of the world — SMW-4, IMEWE and EIG — are likely to impact services provided by Bharti Airtel, Tata Telecommunications, Reliance Communications and public sector service providers BSNL/MTNL."

Which are these eight cables? What do these acronyms stand for?

• SMW-4 (South-East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4): One of the eight cables carrying traffic between Egypt and Europe. SMW-4 also carries voice and data communications between 15 countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and France.
• IMEWE (India-Middle East-Western Europe): is a 13,000 km cable system between India and France. It has cable landing stations at Mumbai, Karachi, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Italy and France.
• EIG (Europe India Gateway): Connects India with 11 European, African and West Asian nations.

What about the other five cables?

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LINKS & REFERENCES

Kurup, Deepa (2013): DUDE, WHAT'S WRONG WITH MY INTERNET SPEED?, The Hindu, 31Apr2013 ---url--- http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/internet/dude-whats-wrong-with-my-internet-speed/article4564798.ece

Economic Times: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/bsnls-internet-capacity-down-due-to-cuts-in-undersea-cable/articleshow/19307846.cms

Ghosh, Sauvik (2013): http://www.livemint.com/Industry/dzPwMJvhTIkNmyjBavchvO/International-communication-links-in-India-to-be-hit-for-two.html
http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RhHb2bR1ZVIaarxSF5VqlK/Egypt-arrests-scuba-divers-accused-of-cutting-Internet-cable.html

BSNL 3G - An Exercise in Frustration

.
A few days ago, I was taken in by a BSNL campaign and purchased a 3G data-card which promised high-speed (7.2 Mbps), value-for-money Internet connectivity. It has been a disappointment.

The promise of high speed has remained just that - a promise.

I had initially shortlisted three service providers, after consulting folks (I thought) who knew better - Tata-Docomo, Reliance and BSNL. All three provided 3G services but I was told that the first two - Tata and Reliance - offered this service only on a CDMA platform whereas BSNL had it on the more widely used GSM platform. I wanted a connection that could be used throughout India and BSNL, with its huge, government-backed infrastructure seemed like a logical choice.

POINT-OF-SALE

The first thing you notice about BSNL is that they offer no brochures or instruction pamphlets to its potential customers. The basket of services on offer keeps changing so frequently that sales personnel themselves are unclear about what they are selling. They have clearly laid out procedures for giving out connections (application, id proof & address proof) and in exchange for the fees (R 2500+) you get a data-card, helpline number (1503) and a verbal assurance that the service would be activated by 4:00 PM the same day.

ACTIVATION

The actual activation took more then three days. At the promised 4:00PM, the customer service officers (CSO's) at the helpline number 1503 said that I had been misinformed by the sales personnel - actual activation would take 24 hours. After 24 hours they said new connections take 24-48 hours, and after 48 hours they informed me that the connection had been activated but would work only if I purchased a "recharge" for more than R50.

What about the 500MB data that was supposed to come free with a new connection? Sorry, you were misinformed.

CONNECTION SPEED

Neither sending nor receiving speed ever exceeds 100 KBps - at least in Trivandrum, Kerala.

Here is what R. Dinakaran writes about this issue in the Hindu Business Line (16 May 2011):
Another operator attracts customers by advertising speeds of 7.2 MBPS. When a potential customer wanted to test the speed at the operator's demo zone, he was informed that the services were still not ‘stable' and that he would get speeds of only around 3 MBPS. The speed test revealed the real speed — it never crossed 2.2 MBPS!

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

"Thank you for calling BSNL 3G Broadband Services...Your are in Q...your estimated hold-time is one minute...".

The first time I called 1503, a monotonous, deadpan voice went on repeating this message for 10 minutes before the call was finally picked up by a customer service officer (CSO). The wait may have been worthwhile if the problem got resolved, but it didn't.

Most CSO's were found to be inconsistent, evasive, and quite unhelpful. The only exception was a lady named Sunita. All other CSO's have this uncanny ability to cut the call whenever you ask them to explain something. At the customer help-desk at the BSNL office Statue, Trivandrum, the youngsters were found to be especially cocky and rude.

Some samples of red herrings from BSNL Customer Support Officers-

• A call to *123# is returned with an SMS giving you data usage status but since it did not contain the updated validity period, I asked a CSO. Their reply - "Just send a message 'DATA3G' to 53733 for this information". The reply from 53733? - "This option is not available on your mobile number. Pl dial *123# to check details"!!

RECHARGE CONUNDRUMS

The BSNL website has a chart listing recharge rates for 3G prepaid services.  However most retailers in Trivndrum (Vattioorkavu, Shastamangalam) prefer to exclude BSNL from their list of mobile support services. The rare ones that do offer a recharge claim to be unaware about the current rates. Even those with a retailer's access to BSNL website is unable to tell the customer the exact recharge amount (eg. R203) without which he is unable to complete a transaction!   What prevents BSNL from communicating its tariff plans to its own vendors & retailers?

BSNL's tag-line for its 3G services is "Faster than your thoughts". Surely somebody out there has a wicked sense of humor...
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LINKS

• 3G Hiccups (R. Dinakaran), The Hindu Business Line (16 May 2011)  - http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/eworld/article2021374.ece
• BSNL 3G - http://www.bsnl.co.in/service/3G/3GHomepage.htm
• MediaNama - http://www.medianama.com/2010/03/223-bsnl-3g-data-card-tariff-evdo/
• India Broadband Forum - http://broadbandforum.in/bsnl-3g/