TELECOM TALK

Investigative journalism is wide known term. But can bloggers investigate? We at Telecomtalk turning us into investigative bloggers. But all these are not without any reason. There are reasons.

In November, 2010 we published an interview with MG Carley of Hayai Broadband which had status of yet-not-launched-but-coming-soon. After almost 6 months Hayai is not launched.

During these time our team started following the activity of Mathew just to share exclusive news of Hayai roll out to our readers. But we find some irregularities with it, which must be shared with our readers.

Here are the various reasons which make us feel MG Carley’s Hayai broadband claims are not true.

We are splitting reasons into two:
a) Reasons backed by proof
b) Reasons without proof, but with logical explanation.

Reasons backed by proof:

1.Misleading Indian broadband forum users about test launch.

In one of his posts at IBF, he wrote – It worked well for the 10 people that got to try it.

while in email to our team ,MG said – No-one is testing Hayai in Mumbai or anywhere else.

Well contradictory statements.next,

2. Speed tests & ping tests.

In one of his posts at IBF, he gave up speedtest & ping test results of…..of Hayai broadband! Well, service never launched, still he was “able to” get speed & ping test results. If you observe speedtest.net badges as shown on that page, you will see Network is always HNS – Honesty Net Solutions – nothing related to Hayai.

He just claims that they are his partners, but just misleads users telling them speed test result of Hayai broadband and while in real they are just of a server placed in a datacenter. If anyone want, we would be happy to post speedtest result of TelecomTalk.info server placed in Planet Datacenter!

If you observe traceroutes given on that page – again they are also from same server placed in HNS. MG Carley mentions that in one of his last posts that servers are placed in HNS, but point is – Hayai aims to deliver high speed fiber to end users homes and not datacenter.

Showing test result of speeds given to a server from a different which technically seems to be having no relation with Hayai make whole post meaningless and mis-guiding.

3. No Solid proof with licence to operate

MG Carley claims of having Class A ISP licence to operate in India on his post here & here. But whenever asked, he refuses to give any solid proof. We have asked him a couple of times about solid proof – like documet from Govt. of India bodies like doT or TRAI etc. In one of his last mails to (TT Team), he wrote:

Unfortunately the way we obtained the license created an unforseen complication in the legalities surrounding the same. As of now, everything is being converted to the Hayai name under 2 separate Hayai companies (1 for infrastructure, 1 for services). Because much of the paperwork is still in processing due to my clearances from the MHA being required, it can’t be released yet, but when the formalities are complete, everything will be released.

This one seems highly misleading and wrong.

4. False claims in New Zealand based forum

We just had an eye on a New Zealand based forum post of MG. Here, he starts with following words:

I have an FTTH ISP in India and having recently returned to NZ after several years of being away in a variety of countries, to find the state of Broadband in this country as bad or worse than when I left,

This one is highly mis-leading – considering fact till now he has no licence (proof), no client, no service but still calling himself as FTTH ISP. Even in that forum post, you will find people later on start doubting MG, and eventually consider him as fake.

5. Peering with Google, but no ASN!

Someone from that New Zealand based forum pointed out very interesting point that MG Carley, in one of his posts at IBF says – We peer with Google, but would be nice to get Youtube India on our network/in our DC

Before we go ahead, let us explain what that means. Various networks on the Internet are connected much like in way we build roads. We get National highways, next we make State highways, followed by city highways and eventually streets. Networks are also built on same pattern.

We have very big carriers Tier 1 Networks followed by Tier 2, and so on. (Note tier 1’s definition is way beyond that, and quite complex). All these networks – Tier 1, 2, 3 – interconnect with each other which is called “peering”. ISP’s peering with multiple ISP’s often do it using BGP protocol, and they advertise their IP blocks along with their ASN using BGP.

ANS is known as Autonomous System Number - which is allocated networks which are peering with multiple networks. ASN is given from regional registries. Like for Asian region APNIC is responsible.

Now in simple – in order to “peer with Google” a network must have an ASN number. We see NO ASN associated with Hayai name. When someone in New Zealand based forum asked about that in detail, MG denided to mention it, without giving any reason. At the end of lengthy discussion, he replies – At which point did I say I was not sure that we had registered under another name? This is part of the reason I did not tell you the AS number to begin with.

This again seems very misleading. What we see is – there’s no ASN number associated to Hayai & MG claiming to peer with Google is totally wrong (in technical terms). Hiding ASN number is much like hiding your name!

6. Fake claim about Infrastructure setup

We found in his numerous posts – about Infrastructure setup of Hayai. MG claims that Hayai is setting up Infrastructure (already) even when he doesn’t have any permissions to operate (licence) in India yet. Now in a city Mumbai, it costs around 80lakh – 1crore Rs/Km – the amount which ISPs pay to local Municipal bodies.

Cost of fiber, termination equipment, slicing fibers, fusing fibers, digging ground, all is extra. Does it makes any sense for an ISP to spend such heavy amount in infrastructure – even without getting licence/permission from Govt. of India?

Apart from that, MG has been found claiming that Hayai’s infrastructure is all completed, while he is waiting just for CPE’s. He says – In India, whether you believe it or not, we have everything *in place* but not yet in operation because of one tiny little but entirely vital thing.

This seems misleading again. Forget CPE part, where exactly Physical infrastructure of Hayai is? We see pillars of BHARTI, TATA (TTSL + VSNL) etc. Did anyone ever came across Hayai pillars? Is there is any network map of where exactly Hayai placed fibers in? Where are central offices of Hayai – like we have exchanges in case of BSNL & MTNL?

7. Fake claim about CPE problem

We found MG claiming that CPE is one of big problems delaying his launch. As we pointed out in last point – he says that’s the only problem which is delaying launch. Reason for CPE problem according to MG’s post was ban of Chinese equipment in India.

This seems misleading. We all know well ban on Chinese equipment was on core network related equipment and that too for GSM/3G based telephone services and not really on any CPE. Reason for the ban was concern by Security agencies of India – about data leaking from these core equipment to China.

We can clearly see MG misleading in public forum of other countries and misleading members. Again, we repeat point 6 - CPE is Customer Premises Equipment i.e the box which is placed at end user home – like DSL modem, cable modem etc. This all comes AFTER one puts an Physical infrastructure up. Without Physical infrastructure, it’s much like purchasing cell phone when there’s no cell phone tower in city at all!

8. Fail to name investers

While we all can see FTTH is very expensive to setup, MG seems OK with money. His point remains is – we have good investors backing us. Out of 6, 4 are in board of members….etc.

Now here point is – ever MG gave name of ANY investor? If yes, then anyone found if that investor really exists? In real world, investors are really rich guys, who have ton of money (atleast when they plan to invest in FTTH) apart from public appearance.

You won’t really find any investor who has 100crore+ money, and no one just knows him. We found MG constaly denies naming those investors for just no solid reason. This again makes us believe whole Hayai idea is all about misleading Indian tech generation with a good prank.

Next, we put few logical points which are not backed with a “hyperlink” to any post but which logically tell why Hayai seems fake to us.

1. ISP’s are not stupid!

Current ISP’s – BSNL, Airtel, Tata, Reliance, MTNL – all play in billion dollar figures. Now to set a new ISP in India, one actually depends on their infrastracture for domestic as well as International backbone. Unless MG is going to fund few billion $$ in totally new (or say 70% +) of own infrastructure, we don’t see any good reason for players like Tata, Airtel or Reliance to actually support Hayai.

At the end of day, Hayai will be eating up end users of Airtel (DSL). Why really Airtel would be interested in such a deal – even when we found CEO/COO of Hayai shouting publically on these companies.

2. Cost of last mile buildup

MG accepts that it costs around 80lakh to 1crore/Km to put fibers in city like Mumbai (just the amount paid to Municipal bodies) but still he feels Hayai will be profitable business?
How? According to MG, in 1Km area, there are MANY users living who will be potential users of Hayai.

Here he seems misleading again. Firstly in (overcrowded) Mumbai there isn’t that much demand for Internet itself, forget alone the high speed fiber. Next, important point is – FTTP is point to point link and not really a point to multi-point. Putting a fiber will get connectivity to neareast street pillar and not like a cell phone tower which covers 2-3Km.sq of circular area.

We do not see any technological advantage Hayai has to lower cost of build, other then giving misleading reasons. When BSNL, Tata, Airtel all seems failing depite of fact they have ton of money to invest, we don’t see any cool thing in Hayai buildup, thus it’s hard to believe how MG claims to build last mile network.

3. Hayai Zone

MG constantly excites people with so called “Hayai zone” and he plans to run file sharing related stuff like torrent tracker + DC++ hub.

Well in real world, over 95% of torrents and p2p traffic via dc++ is for pirated/copyrighted content like movies, porn, softwares, etc. Do you think Indian govt. is sleeping that much that it will let MG to allow such stuff on his network at 1Gbps?

Downloading a movie in just 1second! Sounds good in technical terms, in real world absolutely no way. If that was possible, BSNL/MTNL would have done that much earlier. It costs almost nothing for BSNL to send traffic within it’s own network and if it charges say 2-10Rs for every such GB transfer, it would be still making a lot of money.

Say BSNL comes with (additional) plan to get 10Mbps speed within it’s network for just 5Rs/GB. In that one can download a movie within 10mins?

All will promote just piracy and Govt. of India will never permit that. Hayai zone seems just meaningless to us. It’s all about creating excitement with 1Gbps speed with no real application.

4. Bandwidth purchase logic

MG claims that he will be purchasing bandwidth from Tata, Reliance & Airtel. He needs over 80% of bandwidth from them due to high International traffic. He will be still in position to offer broadband for cheap rates because he is getting bandwidth at cheap rates! (aaah?).

He claims that since he is purchasing bandwidth “in bulk”, that’s why he is getting bandwidth for very very low rates – even companies like BSNL pays more then him. Really?

Its hard to believe that proposed Hayai network in a couple of cities will be consuming more bandwidth then entire BSNL’s network which has presence across whole India!Infact BSNL/MTNL are one of biggest bandwidth consumers for International bandwidth wholesellers. Claim to be bigger then them even before launch seems of no meaning and highly misleading.

From above points, all we can say is – Hayai seems like no real company. It’s nothing other then a person named “MG Carley” (no other representative of company other then founder himself).

He seems creating total buzz and excitement in Indian tech. population in forums/blogs but seems not having any new idea, any investor or any real technological advantage. He seems constantly giving fake claims about himself and his company with no real evidence.

Disclaimer:

This post is not meant for any personal attack towards MG Carley or to Hayai Broadband,In Nov last year we also did an interview of MG thinking that the tall claims he made are possible in India but after some analysis and research we have came across a conclusion that his claims seems fake.

We approached Mathew couple of times via e-mail and we  dint got any satisfactory answer from him regarding license .We are also not against FTTH service in India we would be more than happy if any operator comes with FTTH affordable rate ..

We would be more than happy if Mathew proves our analysis wrong not by comments by launching its service to end users.

Note:- Please Note we are not going to approve anymore misleading comments from Mathew.We will entertain only some solid proof  like license from DOT or  launch of Hayai broadband for “Real” end users.

Disclaimer:This post is based on the email conversation between MG Carley and the information available on world wide web TelecomTalk take no liability for the views expressed by the Guest author.

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