by ORLANDO MARVILLE
I wrote a long time ago about the inconvenience of having to call a certain bank. The problem was that the bank had gone all modern with little consideration for practicality. You got a robot voice which instructed you to press numbers from one to five, none of which was likely to satisfy the particular need you had.
It was impossible to talk to someone in business accounts or even personal accounts. I have not called that bank’s general number ever again, so I do not know if they have been smart enough to have changed. However, I do have occasionally to call CBC or Cable & Wireless and that can at best be a bore.
At CBC, credit must be given to the young women who answer the phones. They have very pleasant voices and they seem ready for complaints, so they try as best they can to attend to the person calling.
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PUNE: Come November and there would be just one single licence required for provision of all
telecom and broadcast services, including
internet telephony and telecom services offered by broadcasting and cable operators. And operators would have option to choose from four kinds of licences, depending on their requirements.
The full Unified Licensing/ Authorisation Regime (ULAR) is expected to be implemented by mid-November, 2004, exactly a year after phase one of the unified licensing for all access providers — basic as well as cellular — was implemented. That had enabled basic service operators like Reliance and Tata were allowed to offer mobile services.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has already submitted its final recommendations for a full ULAR to the government for examination, after receiving comments from various stakeholders, according to Devendra PS Seth, member of Trai. «We expect the Government to pass it in a month’s time», he said.
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By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer
NEW YORK Only 4 percent of Americans have ever used the Internet to buy prescription drugs -- and even fewer do so through foreign pharmacies -- despite Web sites maintained by a handful of states to help citizens import medicines more cheaply from Canada, a new study finds.
A majority -- 62 percent -- say they believe drugs bought online are less safe than those purchased from a local pharmacy, accepting the federal government’s stated concerns in opposing drug imports, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said in a report Sunday.
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Thomas K. Thomas
That’s the issue at the heart of the tussle between BSNL and Internet service providers or ISPs. Here’s taking a look at what’s at stake.
EVERYONE wants a level playing field for sure, but defining what is `level’ is a difficult matter. It all could depend on which side of the field you are playing, for how long you’ve been playing, and the revenue you could win or lose, or fight to retain. One scene that captures this confusion over what is level is the telecom arena:
Tracing some of the events first, before coming to the larger questions, recently, R Ramaraj, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Chennai-based Internet services company Sify, rushed to Delhi for an urgent meeting with the Communications Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, and the Chairman of the Telecom Commission, Nripendra Misra.
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By Garrett Ordower Daily Herald Staff Writer
Sharon Anderson talks to her daughters in southern Illinois almost every day. When she tried to call long distance last month, it became clear Sept. 8 wasn’t shaping up to be one of those days.
«For some reason, they had cut off my long-distance service,» the St. Charles resident said.
The next day, she tried to find out why and what to do about it.
Anderson — like many people dealing with telecommunications and cable companies — said she ran into a maze of automated systems that couldn’t answer her questions. And customer service representatives, which she described as ill-informed and occasionally ill-tempered, pushed her off to others.
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