India To Offer Free Broadband by 2009 245
codecracker007 writes "The Government of India is planning to introduce free 2 mbps broadband for all residents of the Indian subcontinent by 2009. The expected service shall be launched by the government owned telecom operators BSNL and MTNL. Quoting from the article: 'The government proposes to offer all citizens of India free, high-speed broadband connectivity by 2009, through the state-owned telecom service providers BSNL and MTNL. While consumers would cheer, the move holds the potential to kill the telecom business as we know it.' The India Times has an extensive editorial on the decision. It must be mentioned that the Indian government and its autonomous regulatory bodies are very proactive in holding the consumer interests above the operators', managing to reduce the long distance and wireless tariffs by a up to factor of 20 in less than 7 years."
More Outsourcing? (Score:4, Interesting)
I think the greater issue, however, is the potential boon this might be to companies looking to outsource operations. One of the driving forces behind outsourcing is the penetration of cheap telecom into emerging markets. Here, you'd have a situation where companies wouldn't even need to pay for internet access to hire workers. They could just have them telecommute from home. If that's the case the amount of outsourcing could increase rapidly. It's a smart decision by the Indian government, as their investment would pay off ten fold if that were case. For the American engineer, though, this is perhaps not such a good development.
I'd love some speed first please (Score:3, Interesting)
Btw 256 kbps is also the maximum they're offering in my area in my city, I can't even upgrade if I want to.
Service level will be poor (Score:3, Interesting)
My former employer built an office in India. The prices we were quoted for internet bandwidth were roughly 8X what we paid in the US. In the end, we settled for a quarter of T1 speed for about double the US price. In exchange for all of this, the throughput sucked. Packet latency and loss were simply miserable. The parent article's quote about "...regulators are very proactive in holding the consumer interests above the operators" is total BS as far as I'm concerned.
Power is free in India, which leads to overconsumption and underinvestment in the power grid. Politically, free power is untouchable, yet there is no money available to make it reliable. Anyone who truly needs power learns to generate their own on-site. The same holds true for bandwidth -- bring your own.
Re:Broadband -ne Food (Score:3, Interesting)
I was having a conversation recently with a well educated, wealthy, middle class Indian lady. She was telling me how high the average Indian wage was now. I was staggered at the figure she quoted, which, upon some questioning didn't include anyone not 'middle class'. Or, in other words, most of the country.
Something tells me this is the type of person who decided it would be offered to 'every citizen', for a suitable definition of 'every citizen'
There's a huge shortage of landlines for a start, which help the mobile boom ( again, for the middle classes ) and can be seen in the vast number of STD/ISD booths all over Delhi.
And this is just Delhi. Are they going to cable up Srinagar or Jammu in the next couple of years ? somehow I doubt it.
It's a laudable aim, but a dose of realism is needed I think
Rubbish! (Score:3, Interesting)
-My $1.4 million salary [newnetworks.com]
-$2 - $7 million/yr in campaign contributions [opensecrets.org]
-Dozens of attorneys to sue Vonage out of existence
Mateo LeFou, CEO, Verizon/AT&T
Re:Subsidized (Score:1, Interesting)
You might want to give that another shot...