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Two Years Ago, India Lacked Fast, Cheap Internet – One Billionaire Changed That

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Re: Two Years Ago, India Lacked Fast, Cheap Internet – One Billionaire Changed That

#31

Post by kamaal »

Investopad wrote: post #27
piyush_soni wrote: post #21

Yes, he is the game changer when it comes to bringing fast and cheap internet in India (along with unlimited calls, data, 'national roaming' etc.). Unlike some countries like US, national roaming wasn't really free in India until Jio happened. So much that it forced every other telecom company in India to have similar plans (at least close to that) even if that meant huge downfall in their profit. Such is the power o…

Hi Piyush. Great points but would like to say that not even half of India has access to internet just yet. While Jio is certainly expediting this growth, we have a long way to go. You can find my reference here: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/...

One reason could be lack of very cheap Smartphones. I mean like good sub 1000 rupees phones.

India has a great Android phone ecosystem and the sub 10,000 rupee phones are really good. But 10,000 rupees is still quite a bit of cash for many people.

Re: Two Years Ago, India Lacked Fast, Cheap Internet – One Billionaire Changed That

#32

Post by TwiNNatioN »

sgr wrote: post #7

I'm on Jio and paying $5 for 84 days. I get 1. Free voice calls 2. 100 SMS/ day 3. 1.5GB High speed data/ day (20+ MBPS)- Post which unlimited @ 64 Kbps 4. Subscription to Jio apps like Music/ Movies/ News The page shows pricing at $5.7, everyone I know has always received a discount voucher for Rs 50. https://www.jio.com/en-in/4g-plans

For 80$ per month in Canada: - Unlimited call + texts - 6GB per month

And this is considered a good deal

Re: Two Years Ago, India Lacked Fast, Cheap Internet – One Billionaire Changed That

#33

Post by codegeek »

Investopad wrote: post #27
piyush_soni wrote: post #21

Yes, he is the game changer when it comes to bringing fast and cheap internet in India (along with unlimited calls, data, 'national roaming' etc.). Unlike some countries like US, national roaming wasn't really free in India until Jio happened. So much that it forced every other telecom company in India to have similar plans (at least close to that) even if that meant huge downfall in their profit. Such is the power o…

Hi Piyush. Great points but would like to say that not even half of India has access to internet just yet. While Jio is certainly expediting this growth, we have a long way to go. You can find my reference here: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/...

"500 Million by June 2018".

Even though that is still less than half of India's population, it is a bit misleading to put it that way because 500 million internet users is a HUGE number specially for a country like India where GDP Per capita is still very low compared to other similar economies. So I would say that is AWESOME. Long way to go for other things but Indians are way forward when it comes to Telecom/Internet in my opinion

Re: Two Years Ago, India Lacked Fast, Cheap Internet – One Billionaire Changed That

#34

Post by puranjay »

sgr wrote: post #14
puranjay wrote: post #12

Jio's dominance has also forced broadband providers to up their game. Airtel used to dominate in my part of the city, offering mediocre speeds and expensive plans. About 1.5 years ago, my broadband bill was about $30 at 16mbps capped at 80GB/month from Airtel. Now Airtel is offering me 100mbps at ~$13 capped at 250GB/month

+1 I'm paying $15/ month for 100mbps with FUP at 750GB/ month https://www.actcorp.in/personal/fibernet/plans/hyderabad

I recently switched to a local internet provider. INR 850/month (~$12) for 50mbps with no download limit.

Internet in India has suddenly become really good. Made my work so much easier

Re: Two Years Ago, India Lacked Fast, Cheap Internet – One Billionaire Changed That

#35

Post by r3bl »

dang wrote: post #13
cooper12 wrote: post #8

What a crap title and article, which spends half its time bootlicking Mukesh Ambani and how he's so rich, when the second paragraph says: > has shelled out $35 billion of the company’s money I'm also tired of all these publications that brainlessly give credit for achievements to the CEO like those that suck Elon Musk off for things his engineers have done. Not that I should expect anything better than a journal name…

Perhaps you have a valid point in there, but it's not ok to fulminate like this on HN, so can you please not? I feel like we asked you this many times before and then you fixed it, so it would be good not to backslide. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Out of topic, out of curiosity: Is one person behind this profile? Do multiple people share the login info?

During my years of HN usage, I don't remember ever seeing another username enforcing the rules, only yours.

Re: Two Years Ago, India Lacked Fast, Cheap Internet – One Billionaire Changed That

#36

Post by r_singh »

ganarajpr wrote: post #25

About 5 months or so ago, one of my cousins called me ( video call on whatsapp ) from one of the snow covered mountains in the himalayan range. I know its not the top of mount everest and the place does see a decent tourist traffic, but still I was surprised by the fact that he could do a clear video call from that location. THIS, compared to me, sitting on a train ( not underground! ) just 10 miles away from London…

This reminds me of how a friend from SF texted me saying he missed 4G speeds in India. I genuinely thought he was being sarcastic at first.

Another thing hard to ignore is the cost disparity between data in India and the developed nations; data in India is cheaper by at least a few times.

Re: Two Years Ago, India Lacked Fast, Cheap Internet – One Billionaire Changed That

#37

Post by markdown »

peter303 wrote: post #28

The Arnold Carnegie of India. Mr Carnegie funded hundreds of public libraries around the USA in the 1800s. He was a rags to riches 19th century steel billionaire in modern valuations.I have read dozens of testimonials of how small town middle class children use their libraries to enter ivy league universities and onto fantastic careers. I am one of these people.

Andrew Carnegie :)

Re: Two Years Ago, India Lacked Fast, Cheap Internet – One Billionaire Changed That

#38

Post by [deleted] »

piyush_soni wrote: post #21

Yes, he is the game changer when it comes to bringing fast and cheap internet in India (along with unlimited calls, data, 'national roaming' etc.). Unlike some countries like US, national roaming wasn't really free in India until Jio happened. So much that it forced every other telecom company in India to have similar plans (at least close to that) even if that meant huge downfall in their profit. Such is the power o…

[deleted]

Re: Two Years Ago, India Lacked Fast, Cheap Internet – One Billionaire Changed That

#39

Post by kamaal »

puranjay wrote: post #30
pnenp wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had to re-read to see 1.5 GB per day . Wow. I used to think we had it good in Austria (10GB for €10 per month ). But that is fantastic.

You can get a 5GB/day plan for INR 799 (~$11) per month. That's more data than most will use in a single day. That's not all - you also get free access to Jio's music service, movie library, streaming TV, and cloud storage.

>>That's more data than most will use in a single day.

Not to take away anything from your point.

But I see plenty of cab drivers watch movies, youtube and use other services like Google maps.

But there are other inspiring stories. A few months back I saw a video of street flute seller who learned to play the flute through the internet. Here is one story of a Coolie who prepared for civil services exams using internet: https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/08051...

You will see plenty of stories where people are using internet to do something of value.

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