Most of the comments here are just opinions without any citations.
Also, in many of the comments there seems to be a seamless conflation between business and government.
India announces plan to connect 600k villages with optical fiber in 1000 days
81–90 of 124 posts
Re: India announces plan to connect 600k villages with optical fiber in 1000 days
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
laughs in gigabit fiber for 10 euro/month in Eastern Europe The reason why you're in this situation is that under Helmut Kohl, despite advice from experts to use fiber, the German government wired the whole country with copper instead because the ministry of infrastructure at the time had stocks in the copper business.[1] And also, in present times, German politicians still don't see the value the internet brings to…
If it’ll make you feel better, Maggie Thatcher killed-off the UK’s then-nationalised BT’s plans for nationwide FTTP in the late-1980s because it was anti-competitive to the nascent cablecos who were busy carving up our pavement (sidewalks) laying coax: https://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/how-the-uk-lost...
Seems like the UK was spared from the crappiness that is FTTP. Relying on ancient copper for the last 50-300 meters sucks, and the issues that plagued ADSL are still present.
Re: India announces plan to connect 600k villages with optical fiber in 1000 days
#83As an Indian, I've heard countless plans like these every few years. I'll get excited when it actually happens.
True. In 2016 Smart City mission was heavily promoted and 100 cities won the rights. Not a single one has been developed in 5 years. My parents live in a planned newly built (< 10 years) area of a major city and they don't have either fibre or telephone cable. Internet is by very poor 4G. Recently a private fibre has started.
The budget for the entire project was just way too low. The Center allots 500cr for each smart city, matched by 500cr by the state. When you're dealing with city-wide infrastructure, this much money goes away very quickly
Re: India announces plan to connect 600k villages with optical fiber in 1000 days
#84As an Indian, I've heard countless plans like these every few years. I'll get excited when it actually happens.
> As an Indian, I've heard countless plans like these every few years I agree the previous Governments never did act on their plans. I find a lot of difference between them and the current Government when it comes to desire, commitment and execution. Take Highways for instance. Rapid construction across the country. In 2014, when Modi came to power, it was 4260 km per year. In 2018, 10800 kms of highways were built.…
As another commenter mentioned, they changed the definition of how highway lengths are calculated.
Stunts like these is what makes me sceptical of government claims (being sceptical of governments, imo, is necessary for democracy). You have to read the fine print of every statistic.
I agree that there is no more policy paralysis. But I will also say that there is a lack of follow through of initial plans. This government is a lot like a new entrepreneur - you have tons of great new ideas and lots of energy. But you keep trying out new ideas instead of focusing on one single thing.
The government needs to pick one agenda and go all out on it. I hopeful that they'll see the pandemic as an opportunity to push local manufacturing and will go all out on it.
Re: India announces plan to connect 600k villages with optical fiber in 1000 days
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have backpacked through one of the regions where some of the construction you are talking about is going on. In one of the Himalayan states, one of their ambitious highway projects has caused destruction with little benefit to the local populace and far negative consequences to the terrain and environment. Pursuing development is good but it shouldn't come at the cost of destroying your ecology and environment, spe…
I am not disputing that there might be some bad ecological impact of road construction projects. I bet such issues exist in every part of the World where development is taking place. Here is a list of all the Highway revolts that took place in United States alone for various environmental violations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_revolts_in_the_United_... The numbers are staggering in comparison to what viola…
I apologize if it looked like I was singling it out, my intention was to just point out that not all construction might be something to feel happy about; some of it should definitely be questioned.
Regarding the US example, since most of the freeway construction in US happened long time back. A lot of these oppositions are old, we are now much more aware about the human impact to ecology. Also, isn't it better to learn and not repeat the mistakes of even others.
Re: India announces plan to connect 600k villages with optical fiber in 1000 days
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Comments like these give proper context to foreigner like me who don't know how inclined the Indian government is to follow through on their promises.
So what facts did you glean from that comment? > Comments like these give proper context to foreigner like me who don't know how inclined the Indian government is to follow through on their promises You do realize that India is a Democracy and that there is no one "Indian Government" but successive Governments that set their own policies right? Just because it was the case some 10 years ago doesn't mean it will conti…
> So what facts did you glean from that comment?
That there is not a culture of following through on promises like these. That doesn't mean that they won't this time, but it also means that I shouldn't be surprised if they don't.
> You do realize that India is a Democracy and that there is no one "Indian Government" but successive Governments that set their own policies right
In systems like India (and my own country, Canada), we re-use the word government to mean two different things. One is the entity which controls the state, which is constant over elections, and the other is the group of people currently in charge, which frequently changes with elections. I was using the former usage.
Re: India announces plan to connect 600k villages with optical fiber in 1000 days
#87Wow! This is really good. Few days back my brother-in-law happily announced that Jio Fiber has reached their homes and that I can visit my home-town and stay longer without swearing about the Internet "availability". For context, I'm from Manipur[1], a pretty remote corner at the extreme north-east corner of India. Earlier, I was consulting with a friend who owns a part of an ISP there. I wanted to pull a fiber all t…
That's so heartening to hear! I had friends from Assam who were similarly disappointed by the broadband coverage there, and had planned doing something about it, but the problem was too hard to solve unless you had deep pockets. It's great to see Government doing it instead of leaving it up to private operators.
Additionally, the recent announcement of laying Fiber cables to the Andaman and Nicobar islands is another good thing - I don't remember anybody talking any policy related points about the remote islands ever. Note: Andaman is far from Indian mainland (1200km) - about as far as New York is from Georgia, and it's closer to Myanmar (100km). It has a paltry population of only 300,000, spread across scores of islands.
Re: India announces plan to connect 600k villages with optical fiber in 1000 days
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Yes it fails in some (demonetization) and wins in most but at least there is no policy paralysis like in the UPA era. This is OP's personal perception and opinion of the current and the former government.
Not OP, but those are well known facts. Quick Google search would show dozens of articles from multiple sources of media.
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Re: India announces plan to connect 600k villages with optical fiber in 1000 days
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
> As an Indian, I've heard countless plans like these every few years I agree the previous Governments never did act on their plans. I find a lot of difference between them and the current Government when it comes to desire, commitment and execution. Take Highways for instance. Rapid construction across the country. In 2014, when Modi came to power, it was 4260 km per year. In 2018, 10800 kms of highways were built.…
I have backpacked through one of the regions where some of the construction you are talking about is going on. In one of the Himalayan states, one of their ambitious highway projects has caused destruction with little benefit to the local populace and far negative consequences to the terrain and environment. Pursuing development is good but it shouldn't come at the cost of destroying your ecology and environment, spe…
These kinds of comments show the paradox of the modern urban professional. The ones who have reached the top 1-2% in terms of educational achievement and career prospects.
They live in cities or remote locations with full amenities - car, electricity and internet, smartphones, laptops. They use apps powered by the global internet and consume from the global supply chain. And they hike in the Himalayas with their DSLR, patagonia/north face gear and post the snaps to instagram.
They just want to freeze the state of development, fossil fuel usage, roads, etc. Because they see no benefit to themselves of any more of those things. Everything is swell for them.
This denies the benefits of development to the hundreds of millions who still need access to education, health care and economic opportunities.
There is NO country in the world that has reached first world status without going through development. I am sure you think there is a way but it is just one way to deny the poor of benefits. There is no widespread environmental destruction. Every measure forest cover, pollution, habitat has improved over the past decades.
Just because things are great for you is not an excuse to unintentionally wage class warfare.
Re: India announces plan to connect 600k villages with optical fiber in 1000 days
#90As an Indian, I've heard countless plans like these every few years. I'll get excited when it actually happens.
> As an Indian, I've heard countless plans like these every few years I agree the previous Governments never did act on their plans. I find a lot of difference between them and the current Government when it comes to desire, commitment and execution. Take Highways for instance. Rapid construction across the country. In 2014, when Modi came to power, it was 4260 km per year. In 2018, 10800 kms of highways were built.…
Only thing great about the current Indian government is their PR.
BharatNet was launched on 25 October 2011 (previous government), to connect all the villages in India through Optical Fibre network. The deadline for the completion has extended several times and the last deadline was March 2020. By today's announcement, the deadline is extended by 3 more years!