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- RUCHI & SHUBH
HOW to read the site?
The site is designed to read through conversations and texts, which are meant to be confusing, not structured. The texts do not perform any learning, but produces an image of the conversations which are mainly hidden under our screens.
These conversations are based on how a broadband company runs, and how they function. To understand this, one needs to know how the internet runs. It has a strict structure, a web. But the ground reality shows how this structure is supported by these parallel ecologies.
R went on to find details of the client by contacting him, meanwhile a station near a different colony was shut down due to rains. The line needs to get repaired. S went on alone to check on the problem. Monsoon and unexpected winds and rains become a problem for the line, otherwise there is not much of a problem. Now that last year we got power backups for all the stations and hubs for uninterrupted internet for all our clients. It cost us a great deal of money to do it, but it was necessary during lockdown. Our entire network was working on full capacity, and it was a good investment on the equipment.
S called in the office, for another wire change. The wire was burned down due to a short circuit at a client's router. A newer router was also supposed to be installed to them, as they asked for it. We suggested they buy one from Amazon, and use ours as a proxy till theirs come in, but they insisted on getting one for them, mainly because they at times lack some knowledge about these devices. All seem the same, but all work very differently.
T went later with a packed box of router and the splicer from the storage room to S, and by the time S received the router, he started to change the cable. In the early days of cable and DTH, we used twisted copper and the coaxial cable for internet connection, so if there is a complaint from the earlier clients, or an upgrade is needed, the newer wire works better for higher speeds and latency. So in this scenario the wire burnt out, as it was copper, so now the newer wire will be laid to them.
I threw the ball over to the other terrace. He pulled the rope, which eventually was tied to the wire, he pulled the rope until he got enough of the new wire. At the substation, he connected the wire, and asked me to drop the excess through the duct, where our previous wire lay, to reach madam’s house. I used the optic fiber splicing tool to check and connect the cable, while R went back to madam’s place. The splicing took a while for some reason. I was not receiving any of the signals from our main substation, but after some tweaks, the signal arrived and the splicing was successful. By the time I assembled my equipment again, R had already finished connecting the other end at madam’s house, and tested as well.
The internet connection seemed to be working. I checked her phone to see whether WhatsApp worked or not, and it was working nicely. She handed over some money that we refused to take. We usually don't take money from her, rather we have been only taking money from her of the plans, and not any service ones. We drank the tea and leftover sheera that she offered us and then left the place.
As we reached the security, I got a call from S, saying that a new connection inquiry has come in a different colony, via phone call, and needs to be addressed by the end of the week. I told him, we are coming to the office and will discuss then. S and T had reached office by the time we reached. Joshi has always commented, “Aa gaye vapis, itna jaldi?”. We nodded and moved on to our office.
It's a lousy Monday, nothing new, nothing old. The same old time playing in the moods of everyday. The noise of the city, constantly breaking the silence of the room periodically. Beeps the machines and honks of the cars, almost sounding like a melody for the right ears. The day had its warmth and water, but the room was kept dark and cold. R was sipping on his morning tea when I arrived. R comes early to the office, he cleans the place and keeps it spotless. He works alone, or rather he likes to work alone. It's been a few years since he has been working for me. A reason why I could leave the office for a vacation and take a break was because of him.
The business had been slow for the past few months. Lockdown was a big success for us, we were almost about to shut down. The competition had been tight, it was neck and neck, the only matter was who cuts whose throat first. Corporations were watching this rat race, but decided to do nothing about it. They stay quite, stay hidden, but drop bombs to destroy entire neighbourhoods and communities.
It's Eid today, R had asked to leave early to go home for the celebration. He invited everyone from the office. I would have gone, but it's a relative's birthday, so I cannot. S and T are going, but havent come to the office yet. They stopped by a client to fix a connection. They live nearby, and the call was early. Monsoons are harsh for our business, the conditions are difficult and calls turn in more, winters are easy, summers are expensive. Since the COVID slowed down, the business has too.
R went to the inventory to bring the equipment, ball and ropes, while I did the entry for the same. We left the office, informing Joshi of the same, and as usual, he offered chai, and we left in a hurry on my bike.
Ayyangar madam has been calling for a while to the office, and everytime we visit, everything works fine. She calls often because her YouTube is not working, and quite often it's because she switched to her mobile data. She is old and funny, and a gem. She lives with only her two cats, or rather the cats keep her, and her daughters are married offshore. Her husband died a long time ago from an attack.
We reached her place, greeted the guard, and went upstairs on the 7th floor. The apartment was relatively new in the suburbs, which meant more difficulty for us to let our line through. I remember it took a week for the secretary to just put an 8mm wire to the terrace of this place. A damn headache. R was asking not to put the line in the first place, but we still got the client anyway.
Security intercommed her, and as usual, she filled some water for us, in her antique jar. She opened the door as we arrived on the floor by the lift. Everytime I visit her house, it smells of strong attar and chai which she makes for us. She walks slowly, and probably speaks slower than that. R sat down on the floor near her TV unit, where we installed and started checking on the connections.
Broadband: The transmission of wide bandwidth data over a high speed internet connection.
ISP: Internet service provider; a company that provides individuals and organisations access to the internet and other related services.
IP: Internet protocol; the method or protocol by which data is sent from one computer to another on the internet.
Network: A group of two or more computers or other electronic devices that are interconnected for the purpose of exchanging data and sharing resources.
WAN: Wide area network; a collection of local-area networks (LANs) or other networks that communicate with one another.
Port: virtual places within an operating system where network connections start and end. They help computers sort the network traffic they receive.
Backbone
Network: A part of a computer network which interconnects networks, providing a path for the exchange of information between different LANs or subnetworks.
Network
Technology: It involves the use of a data system to manage and deliver digital resources over a computer network.
NAP: Network Access Point; The point from which an Internet service provider (ISP) drops down its lines and establishes a peering arrangement to provide Internet connectivity to customers.
Protocol: An established set of rules that determine how data is transmitted between different devices in the same network.
Routers: a physical or virtual appliance that passes information between two or more packet-switched computer networks.
Institutional Network: a communication network which is constructed or operated by the cable operator and which is generally available only to subscribers who are not residential subscribers.
DHCP: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol; a network management protocol used to dynamically assign an Internet Protocol (IP) address to any device, or node, on a network so they can communicate using IP.
"Sir, chai loge?” asked R.
“Ek cutting chotu ko bol lane, aur yeh Ayyangar madam ke vaha ka line check kiya?”, I replied.
“Mene T ko bola tha, voh abhi jaane vala hai S ke saath, late hoga unko aate aate.”
“Ek kaam kar, chai ko chod, apan jaake aate hai, do din ho gaye unka call aake, aaj line lagana hai.”
“Thik hai, mein Joshi ko bolu ki, lock karke jayege?”
“Joshi ko bolde, S and T aayege toh unko aane lagega.”
“Kashe aahat tumhi kaku? Barrech Divas zhale.”
“Ho, tula barech divasani baghte, R tar yet rahto ghari, he ghe, chah ghe”
“Thank you kaku.”
“Tujhe lagna zhalaka?”
“Nahi oo kaku, kahi pan vichartat tumhi.”
Meanwhile, R diagnosed the problem, and started working on it. The glass in the line broke due to the rain. We needed a replacement for the same. R went downstairs to get the fiber, rope and ball from the bag on the bike, while I had my gossip with kaku.
She repeated her story about her daughters, how one got married to her colleague at job, and how the other got married in the USA. Even though she lived alone, she never felt alone, she would call her daughters anytime she would want, and they would be there on the call. Whenever the internet didnt work, she dialed from her landline to call me, and be really prompt about the internet. But we didn't complain much about her callings, and usually helped her out outside our scope to make sure she seemed fine. A sweet lady indeed.
R sent the equipment upstairs on the lift, and moved to the neighboring building. I went upstairs and waited for R to get upstairs. The old guard in the other building knew R, but he shifted somewhere else and a new guard was appointed. He stopped R and asked him to prove papers and ID, and asked him to wait, while he called the secretary.
“Haa sir, yeh ek aadmi aaya hai, usko Kamla Avenue mein wire dalna hai, apne building ke terrace pe jaana hai usko… Haa, uska naam R hai… Thik hai sir… Jaao tum, entry karlo idhar bas”
He arrived on the terrace. Meanwhile, I tied the ball with the rope (through the hole).
“Sir ball pheko, yeh baju”, he shouted.
LAN: Local area network; A computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, school, laboratory, university campus or office building.
“Sir, Ayyangar madam ka kya problem tha?”, S asked.
“Baarish.”, I replied and he understood. New connection inquiry had come, from far off than I had thought of. It was a kilometer away from our “territory”. All of us in the office went into a comic silence for a minute. T said, “Yeh jaane do, aur mileage connections baad mein, risk bohot hai, lamba bhi hai.”
“Lamba hai, lekin uthar ka response accha aaya toh, voh area mein bhi expand karege, pehle se abhi naye connections ka inquiry kaam aa raha hai '', R responded.
“Udhar voh dusre company valo ka monopoly hai re, mushkil hai. Upar se udhar ek station bhi daalna padega.” I commented.
“Daal dege sir, lekin voh area mein kitna badega dekho na tum. Naya naya building ban raha hai, redevelopment mein jaa rahe hai sab. Apna line pehle hi dala toh pura pura building mein jayega apna.”
“Baat toh sahi hai. Apna naya jo connection ka inquiry aaya hai, voh building naya hai ki purana dekhke aao, naya rahega toh udhar hi station laga sakte hai, lekin iske pehle bhi voh client ko puch apna contact kidhar mila aur udhar ka dusra ISP ka rate kya hai?”
“Sir, office se T ke saath bees metre jitna fibre bhi bhijva do”
Name: Varun Patil
Society: New Kamla CHS
ID: Aadhar card details
“Sir, isko phone lagata hu, aap baat karlo isse”
“Haa, sir Varunji, mein broadband company se baat kar raha hu, aapne inquiry dala tha connection ke liye. Hume apse thode saval hai aapke paas time hai 5 minutes?”
“Haa boliye.”
“Sir, aapka building naya hai na? Hume aapke building mein humara station lagana hoga. Toh building committee se permission lena padega. Aur agar aapke building mein aur bhi logo ko connection chahiye toh hum discount bhi de sakte hai.”
“Permission ka tension maat lo aap, mere papa hi secretary hai building ke, mein puchta hu aaju baaju, shayad do aur gharo mein connection chahiye. Mein baat karke bolta hu aapko. Aap connection kab tak lagva rahe ho?
“Sir kal shaam tak ho jayega, aapke plan aur payment kar diya?”
“Haa aapke aadmi ko GPay kar diya tha mene.”
“Ok sir, mein check kar leta hu.”
The next day S called to check if the line was working and connected to our servers. It was working fine and even the hub. But after a while, the ping did not come through after a few tweaks, so me and R decided to give the new colony a visit.
We went to the new building for a small inspection before we rolled our sleeves over the fiber. The new building was a twenty floor building, very far from our last station. The cost of the fiber is a hell of an investment and risk on its own. We are not sure how much this will or this should impact the connection, but if this works out, we are going to get a lot of connections, and probably more profits, and a larger client base.
Everything hangs on an if right now, making it difficult to process, and just going with the risk for now. In my nine years in this business, from me working for BSNL and then starting my own company, I have stayed in a comfortable position and bubble where I operate, and have hardly taken any risks. If this investment does not pay off, it takes me back for two quarters with hardly any profits.
Hub/ Switch: the connection point in a computer device where data from many directions converge and are then sent out in many directions to respective devices.
The distance between the office and the clients became a problem. The expansion was not paying off as it should have, and renting another office in that area would mean I would have to set up another full system, and the expense is not affordable.
“Sir, office se T ke saath bees metre jitna fibre bhi bhijva do”
“Sir, line laga diya hai, apne pehle vale substation ka line chalu karo pehle. Vaha se connection aage lete hai”
“Sir, connection chalu ho gaya hai.”
“Sir, voh colony ka naya connection lagana hai. Aur vaha kal call bhi aaya tha, internet ka complaint. Aaj voh do ko hi handle kar sakte hai.”
“Mereko lagta hai sir, mera ek dost hai, usko bhi kaam pe laga du kya? Voh sab chota mota kaam kar lega, yeh ball doori vagera ka. Usko bulao kya mein kal office mein.”
The line was dropped, it didn't take time. We had to ask 5 buildings for permission to carry over the wire, and then the new colony had its underground lines to take the connection forward. R and S are very good in persuading the societies to let the wire pass, mainly the reason why diversity in this business is a selling point.
The risk paid off, at least till we start finding profit from such a decision. The client was happy with the connection. Varun had circulated the name of our company for broadband connection at his society. It got us a few more clients. We installed a separate power backup for that society just after a month because of the positive response.
But certainly this did not last for long. The office was being stretched. Complaints in that area were becoming difficult to handle, slowing down the operations. Our small team was working overtime, and way above capacities to handle the work.
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Each Local ISP is assigned a particular area in which they supply network. The wires of the network are transferred from one building to another.
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Each and every ISPs will be connected to one another. Also smaller networks will be established more.
The idea to structure the business in this type of organisation is to build up friendship between people. In this Organisation the ISPs are interconnected with each other. As a result, one ISP acts as a backup plan for the other one in need. For example, if electricity supply shuts down of an area, other ISP connected to it can provide internet to it for that certain time. Therefore no ISP needs to have an extra wire for backup from higher headquarters. Now as each ISP is allotted a particular area for supply, if it gets client from another area, he will connect the client to that region’s ISP. So another benefit of this organisation will be that each ISP will have to keep their connections and supplies good all the time because they not only have to work for their clients but now for another one’s client also. This friendship will also prove beneficial for the business as it sets a base ground for smaller ISPs to come together to fight off larger corporate companies. For customers, it will be easier to connect to the internet as what happened earlier was that if they used to contact the ISP of other region, then they would have look deeper into getting in touch with their ISP. And this process was time consuming. But now interconnectedness of the ISPs makes the process smoother and more efficient.