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Facebook Takes $5.7B Stake in India’s Jio

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Re: Facebook Takes $5.7B Stake in India’s Jio

#121

Post by newyankee »

sachoo wrote: post #69
sumanthvepa wrote: post #25

I'll take a contrarian view. This is good! All investment into India is good. (Yes even Chinese investment.) We are a poor capital starved country. We need every bit of cash we can get and that $5.7B will generate employment and create another strong telecom player. I strongly supported net neutrality in 2016 in India, but circumstances have changed. Jio needs the money, as does India. The poor cannot afford principl…

Remember what Mukesh ambani said. DATA is new oil. He asked govt to keep data in India from companies like Facebook. Now this boom lol

In an era of reverse globalization, i feel homegrown billionares and/or Govt controlling Indian data might be better than Chinese or American companies. Also i think India has the talent to build what our audiences need so we are not in the same boat as say some hypothetical small African country which does not have an option. The Indian market size will make a difference.

Re: Facebook Takes $5.7B Stake in India’s Jio

#123

Post by newyankee »

ddrt wrote: post #52
kumarvvr wrote: post #14

This is too much control for one company. This is really bad for democracy. JIO is deeply embedded into the rural populace. Exactly the ones who are vulnerable to disinformation campaigns. And facebook just bought a key to the gates.

Isn’t their leader an extreme nationalist? How does it get worse than that?

What is extreme nationalist ? India is a 5000 year old civilization.

Does banning triple talaq and medieval Islamic laws count as nationalism ?

Does bringing modern 21st century laws (including women equality and inheritance laws) to a territory given special status for merely political reasons count as nationalist ?

The condescending attitude is very off putting. If you base your opinions on the international media portrayal of Indian politics i would definitely say one thing is extremely lacking: nuance, it is mostly agenda driven drivel.

Re: Facebook Takes $5.7B Stake in India’s Jio

#124

Post by intended »

newyankee wrote: post #114
just42 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So no solace, because it's even worse. Jio is a bigger danger than FB to us Indians, we just don’t seem to realize/care (as in being an information monopoly). I don’t think even Jio realizes it. They may believe that they are doing God’s service in providing affordable 21st century services to the masses. But that’s how the really bad stuff usually starts.

as opposed to what, no cheap internet ? As compared to which comparable country, China ? Where literally the Govt controls everything. I appreciate the enthusiasm for privacy and all, however the priorities for Indian citizens is having a cheap, reliable internet service that becomes a backbone of the modern economy. Now i am not defending any business practices here, however you will be hard pressed to find somethin…

Agreed - a primer for people interested in the Indian telecom story:

Indian telecom had one terrible moment which ended a near dream run for consumers.

Prior to the SC auction verdict we had a huge amount of competition.

Getting telecom market structure right is a hard thing to do, because there are always people working hard to pervert the system.

America has an auction where famously, telcos his the PIN codes for the areas they wanted in the auction bids.

This verdict ensured that many firms pulled out and significant market consolidation took place, till we went from a multitude of firms to 3 + BSNl.

At the point you have three firms, you have cartel behavior.

Then came yet another SC verdict which was devastating (arrears due to the govts was based on total profits, not just on spectrum related profits.)

This is why they were asking for help.

And finally Jio. Jio is doing a perfect job competing in its full throated style to end at least one of the debt burdened and teetering competition.

Sadly they also oppose net neutrality, and have had some amazing shenanigans ignored entirely by the regulator.

It’s not a good time for Indian telecom consumers.

Re: Facebook Takes $5.7B Stake in India’s Jio

#125

Post by newyankee »

screamingninja wrote: post #53
searchableguy wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably but are laws real without enforcement? I have seen few people getting beaten up badly and two dying due to mob killing them with law enforcement involved for speaking against "religious stuff" and a politician. Just a recent thing that got some attention - https://twitter.com/ShefVaidya/status/1251818372343439361?s=... But I assure you, this happens way more in small towns and villages.

Your Twitter reference has nothing to do with what you described above. Nice try with the rumor mill.

Very disingenuous reply, you can clearly see what happened in the video. Unconfirmed reports from different media sources (which hesitated to report this extensively for obvious reasons) indicated rumors from the fact that they were organ harvesting to that they were thieves etc.

Re: Facebook Takes $5.7B Stake in India’s Jio

#126

Post by tushar-r »

a-ve wrote: post #5

This is bad. One executive at Jio already confirmed they use DPI to monitor traffic on their networks, and their apps, be it their MyJio, JioTV, JioNews, etc. ask for almost every permission there is. Also, it looks like the Zuck hasn't given up on his internet.org thing yet. He failed the first time, might as well join hands with a person who literally is the Government in India. Can't switch to Idea because they we…

>One executive at Jio already confirmed they use DPI to monitor traffic on their networks,

Most ISP's worldwide do this, with varying levels of competency. Some provide the data for advertising, others use it for providing specific features/packs/traffic control.

Not excusing Jio, but I'm quite certain AirTel does this too (they had Sandvine many years ago), and other ISP's have trialed this technology in India as well.

Re: Facebook Takes $5.7B Stake in India’s Jio

#127

Post by type-2 »

newyankee wrote: post #123
ddrt wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t their leader an extreme nationalist? How does it get worse than that?

What is extreme nationalist ? India is a 5000 year old civilization. Does banning triple talaq and medieval Islamic laws count as nationalism ? Does bringing modern 21st century laws (including women equality and inheritance laws) to a territory given special status for merely political reasons count as nationalist ? The condescending attitude is very off putting. If you base your opinions on the international media…

1)What does being a 5000 year old civilisation warrant anything? 2)You're just cherry picking points to your favour.

Re: Facebook Takes $5.7B Stake in India’s Jio

#128

Post by paxys »

dingdongding wrote: post #57

So Facebook paid 5.7 billion dollar to buy "influence" in India. The biggest influencer of India is Mukesh Ambani who has strong influence in Indian politics. Now it will be a matter of months and WhatsApp payments will get regulatory approval to go ahead to launch WhatsApp payments in India. That is the boss move here IMO. Jio is just a way to solve for regulatory hurdles in India.

WhatsApp payments already had regulatory approval before this deal.

Re: Facebook Takes $5.7B Stake in India’s Jio

#129

Post by taikawatiti »

ddrt wrote: post #52
kumarvvr wrote: post #14

This is too much control for one company. This is really bad for democracy. JIO is deeply embedded into the rural populace. Exactly the ones who are vulnerable to disinformation campaigns. And facebook just bought a key to the gates.

Isn’t their leader an extreme nationalist? How does it get worse than that?

Sheltered white liberal whose only window to the world is CNN or the occasional poverty tourism to Asia when he's not doing CSS programming thinks this is still 19th century and he gets to decide who rules a country. Newsflash- India is a democracy. While you guys were making up Russia collusion and giving pulitzers over it to subvert your own democracy (yes I'm an Indian in India from where it's easy to see US politics objectively), India handed over a landslide victory to a party that decided that muslim women couldn't be divorced over text. Not that I mind Hindu nationalist. Why this Hinduphobia? What has atheism achieved that Hinduism hasn't? Scat porn and netorare (I hear its popular in cali)?

Re: Facebook Takes $5.7B Stake in India’s Jio

#130

Post by just42 »

haltingproblem wrote: post #102
just42 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So no solace, because it's even worse. Jio is a bigger danger than FB to us Indians, we just don’t seem to realize/care (as in being an information monopoly). I don’t think even Jio realizes it. They may believe that they are doing God’s service in providing affordable 21st century services to the masses. But that’s how the really bad stuff usually starts.

Twice Mukesh Ambani has built telecom services that have lowered prices by an order of magnitude and greatly expanded coverage . Reliance Communications which Anil ran into the ground was built by Mukesh and changed the competitive landscape the first time around. Jio did it again and now India has the cheapest data in the world. I am struggling to understand what exactly is the problem and why is Jio a danger? Becau…

I am not sure why I am biting this, but here goes: If you are the only Internet people know and can afford, it doesn't matter if you are a private entity or the Govt.

I can't satisfy your curiosity because I too also sincerely don't know what flavor of undesirable behavior a monopoly creates but that they create bad behavior is as intuitive to me as is breathing to anyone else.

A first person anecodote which doesn't necessarily further my point but still - I had Jio fiber installed for a relative, I was visiting in a small north Indian town - unbelievable price, offering, everything great. But it took me 3 days of multiple hours on the phone, and I still couldn't access Hackernews, or reddit or even New York Times. Pages for these and quite a few other sites just wouldn't load. The first canned response - 'Reliance only blocks what the Govt. has told it to block' (paraphrasing). I didn't anymore have the energy to analyze if it was a technical problem, casual censorship or just customer service issues because of fast scaling.

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