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

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81–90 of 152 posts

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

#81
post #45

Well that billionaire raised a loan of $14 Billion from the Indian Banks to start Jio and recently he again raised additional $500 Million, such huge investments rarely recover if at all. Previous 5 quarters are showing a loss.

Jio was never profitable from start. It won't be profitable anytime soon either. Please note this isn't first time Mukesh Ambani is dipping his feet into telecommunications. He did before too, but he lost that business to Anil Ambani. Apparently Jio is like his dream project.

> Jio was never profitable from start. It won't be profitable anytime soon either.

I don't get this. Jio has been posting profits for a while[1].

1. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/news/rel...

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

#82
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

In Kenya on Airtel, I pay $10 per month for 6gb data, 400 minutes and 2000 SMS. The unused balance gets rolled over into the next month. Oh, and there are no tethering limits. For home use, I pay $50 for unlimited 25mbit fibre to the home

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

#83
post #46
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Russia for ~$7: - Unlimited high speed data (4g) - 500 sms per month - 500 minutes And you can probably get a better deal as well.

We don't uave unlimited mobile data in Germany. I think I pay 20€ for 3GB per month.

Doesnt aldi sell unlimited sims for like 13 euro? I've lived in Hamburg now for 7 months but still use Google Fi since its also very cheap and has yet to not work in any country I go to. But I always thought you could get something SUPER cheap in Aldi.

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

#84
post #23
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

100$ for 200GB 4g plan on China Mobile Pakistan

Not long ago they are selling $1.5 for 100MB in China.

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

#85
Everyone is comparing Data Price in India to that of west/south. Considering it's so much cheaper in India, It's an irony that Indian's egress charges are 200% of the USA egress charges. [1]

Ex:

CloudFront egress for India: $0.170/GB.[Jio gives to user : $0.044/GB under ideal daily max consumption].

CloudFront egress for USA: $0.085/GB .... This is HALF of Indian rates.

https://aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/pricing/

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

#86
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you f@cking kidding me? There is literally no excuse for companies to charge us the way they do in the west at this point.

Until you realize what labor costs are (or deployment density is) in the West compared to those countries? Also, price is a function of what the return value and need to have capital to invest with, not just the minimum cost to operate once things are set in place.

[deleted]

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

#87
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100$ for 200GB 4g plan on China Mobile Pakistan

Not long ago they are selling $1.5 for 100MB in China.

China Mobile Pakistan != China Mobile from PRC

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

#88
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

Are you f@cking kidding me? There is literally no excuse for companies to charge us the way they do in the west at this point.

Leaving aside the fact that Jio seems to be an Uber-like play and the prices aren’t sustainable, there are several other problems with your argument. In the west, the cost of building and maintaining telecom networks is dominated by labor costs. Jio is paying Indian wages to lay and splice backhaul fiber, or to fix a downed line, not US or German wages. And even in the US or Germany, this isn’t minimum wage work—it requires skilled, often unionized labor. Another big expensive for a cellular provider is tower leases. Jio is paying for leases based on Indian property prices. Jio is paying Indian wages for network operations engineers. Etc. All else being equal, the cellular equipment will cost the same, but that’s not equal either. Jio is deploying LTE a decade into its lifecycle. Western carriers deployed LTE when it came out, when equipment was far more expensive, and now are moving onto 5G. It’s clear Jio is also skimping on backhaul capacity, which is another huge expense.

Telecom infrastructure is like any other infrastructure—vastly more expensive to build in the west, and in the US in particular. New Dehli’s new subway sections were built for about $70 million per km. Typical in Europe is $200-500 million. New York spent $1.7 billion per km on its newest subway sections.

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

#89
post #76
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100$ for 200GB 4g plan on China Mobile Pakistan

Whoa! That's expensive. One of the reason for India's economic success in the digital age is awesome and affordable telecommunications infrastructure. You can't run a good start up ecosystem, or even a decent economic ecosystem without these things these days.

Jio is cheaper per Gigabyte, but they wouldn't let you spend all your quota in a day. That's the trick

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

#90
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

> And this is considered a good deal

No it's not. There are tons of cheaper plans out there from cheaper carriers like Public Mobile/Koodo/Fido and etc. You just have to look up for them. I used to pay 40 for 4GB/month and now I am at 12GB/month for 55. Still not cheap, but not as bad as what you are saying.

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