Sops push up off-peak internet usage by 80

MUMBAI, SEPT 4: The price sensitive Indian market has registered a big leap in internet usage during off-peak hours. The over 80 rise in...

MUMBAI, SEPT 4: The price sensitive Indian market has registered a big leap in internet usage during off-peak hours. The over 80 rise in usage comes on the back of mega incentives announced by all major internet service providers ISPs for this slot last month.

Reacting to the second price cut by MTNL, ISPs introduced deep discounts for off-peak hours to remain competitive without getting into a price war. VSNL dropped prices by 50 for usage between 11 pm and 8 am on weekdays and on Sunday. While Satyam Infoway, the largest private ISP, announced subscribers would get one free hour between 11 pm and 7 am for every hour of regular usage.

This has ensured optimum usage of resources without additional costs and investment in infrastructure for the ISPs. quot;We wanted to be competitive and also make use of bandwidth which was going idle,quot; said VSNL acting CMD Amitabh Kumar. The VSNL monitoring facility had recorded about 10 capacity bandwidth utilisation during off-peak hours. This figure indicatesinternet usage throughout the country because VSNL is currently the sole provider of gateway Software Technology Parks of India is a very small player services.

Post-August, after major off-peak hour incentives were announced, bandwidth utilisation more than doubled and in some cases came close to peak hour traffic. Data recorded on September 1 showed traffic was around 32 Mbps mega bits per second at midnight 8211; the same as traffic at 12 noon. At 1 am, traffic was still high 8211; and higher than traffic recorded at 9.30 am. Usage gradually tapered off touching an all-time low at 5 am.

The new usage patterns show traffic is highest between 11 am and midnight. Area-wise, all of Mumbai recorded high usage on Sundays except for South Mumbai which is predominantly a business district. Maximum incoming traffic recorded was 38.3 Mbps which represents 85.1 of the total bandwidth. Average incoming traffic recorded was 22.4 Mbps 49.7. All three ISPs 8211; which together account for nearly 90 of subscriber base -have a strategy for off-peak hour usage.

VSNL with over 2 lakh subscribers has a major influence on usage patterns. Satyam has the distinction of being present in maximum number of cities.