Live data from Hacker News

Launch HN: Wifi Dabba (YC W17) – Low-Cost Wifi in India

news.ycombinator.com

11–20 of 100 posts

Re: Launch HN: Wifi Dabba (YC W17) – Low-Cost Wifi in India

#11
My God, this is such a good idea and I have so many questions.

a) I'm guessing you are expecting people to use this WiFi on their smartphones? Are your prices coming under the usual Indian telecom data prices?

b) If Facebook comes to you tomorrow and tells you they'll help cut your margins by 75% if you favour their traffic. Would you do it? You'd be able to pass on the price drop to other Indians.

Re: Launch HN: Wifi Dabba (YC W17) – Low-Cost Wifi in India

#12
post #11

My God, this is such a good idea and I have so many questions. a) I'm guessing you are expecting people to use this WiFi on their smartphones? Are your prices coming under the usual Indian telecom data prices? b) If Facebook comes to you tomorrow and tells you they'll help cut your margins by 75% if you favour their traffic. Would you do it? You'd be able to pass on the price drop to other Indians.

A. We're entirely focussed on the 10 minutes when you're standing at the tea stall drinking your tea and flipping through your phone. Our prices are 5x cheaper than mobile data.

B. Favour their traffic? No way.

Re: Launch HN: Wifi Dabba (YC W17) – Low-Cost Wifi in India

#13
post #10

That looks really cool, it's like the Starbucks/McDonalds wifi points, but for every shop for a really cheap price. I'm curious about a few things: How fast is super fast ? How does it work? Is there a 4G hotspot hidden in the yellow box? or do you require your bakeries partners to install some specific router at their location (i.e. the bakeries must have a pre-existing internet connection setup) ?

It's super fast because we draw a 100mbps line to each store. We install our own routers. It's totally free for the store owner, we charge nothing up front. We split revenue with the store owner 80-20.

Re: Launch HN: Wifi Dabba (YC W17) – Low-Cost Wifi in India

#14
post #10

That looks really cool, it's like the Starbucks/McDonalds wifi points, but for every shop for a really cheap price. I'm curious about a few things: How fast is super fast ? How does it work? Is there a 4G hotspot hidden in the yellow box? or do you require your bakeries partners to install some specific router at their location (i.e. the bakeries must have a pre-existing internet connection setup) ?

It's super fast because we draw a 100mbps line to each store. We install our own routers. It's totally free for the store owner, we charge nothing up front. We split revenue with the store owner 80-20.

Where are you getting fast Ethernet pipes to stores there?? Having been there I find it hard to believe that infrastructure is there.

Re: Launch HN: Wifi Dabba (YC W17) – Low-Cost Wifi in India

#17
Congratulations Karam and Shubhendu!

Two questions:

1. Does this mean you are an ISP? If so, how did you go about registering as an ISP.

2. Most other WiFi (ex: at Cafe Coffee Day) requires one to register via SMS and pay by credit card. So the mobile number and Credit Card number becomes the primary key for our Government's Big Brother program to track the person. Have you side-stepped that by selling tokens that one can purchase anonymously using cash?

Post reply on HN