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India has the highest data usage per smartphone

thehindu.com

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Re: India has the highest data usage per smartphone

#121

Post by type-2 »

signal11 wrote: post #110
inapis wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> govt run mobile payments infrastructure that is literally a free Stripe+Paypal+Venmo+Alipay UPI or Unified Payments Interface. I cannot stress how innovative this payment mode is. * No risk of fraud (can't approve a transaction without a PIN on your mobile) - fraud as in card cloning, malware infected websites running off with card details. Does not preclude social engineering where users fall into clever tricks. *…

> no privacy issues yet (money is directly debited from account without a mastercard/visa involved) Isn’t Aadhar (fingerprints + iris scan) needed to have a bank account? If yes, then it’s a bit disingenuous to say there are no privacy issues. > No risk of fraud A cursory search will show plenty of press articles re UPI fraud. For instance [1]. [1] https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/personal-finance/...

you don't need an aadhar card to open a bank account only a pan card(no biometrics) issued by tax dept, which you can link with your aadhar card by your own choice. The govt wants you to do this but the caanot force you as the supreme court has said.

Re: India has the highest data usage per smartphone

#122

Post by Scoundreller »

bhouston wrote: post #74

I think it is because there is much less usage of home internet in India. Thus what North America and Europe split between mobile and home internet is all on India's mobile. This means that India is actually much lower in total bandwidth usage per month per person than North America and Europe overall.

True, but it also means that wireless networks are physically capable of replacing physical infrastructure, but aren’t in developed countries because of artificially high per gb prices.

Re: India has the highest data usage per smartphone

#123

Post by agsamek »

krzyk wrote: post #28
taneq wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy crap, why am I paying $35/mo for 500mb? >.<

Where are you? In Poland I pay ~ 13.30 USD for 12 GB per month (with additional 12 GB on top of that for 1 year) + unlimited calls/sms/mms. And my plan is pretty crappy in comparison to currently available ones.

Crappy indeed. $7/mo for 15GB/mo is a current standard in Poland. I'm at 10GB/mo, $7/mo because I'm lazy recently and never used that much.

Re: India has the highest data usage per smartphone

#124

Post by cpursley »

justaguyhere wrote: post #70

Americans are going to be livid when they learn how cheap data plans are in India. The reason this works is free market, unlike the US where the likes of Comcast have monopoly in the regions they operate. Hasan Minhaj did a show this week on Netflix, you should watch it - he explains pretty well how horrible Comcast like companies are.

It's weird. I'm an American living in Russia. Here, we have many more choices for cell phone plans. And they're all cheap and innovative vs even the cheapest US plan. Competition really does work!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_industry_in_Russi...

Re: India has the highest data usage per smartphone

#125

Post by gingabriska »

catchmeifyoucan wrote: post #90

I'm from India. I can confirm this. It's because unlimited LTE data costs about rs700 per month or 10 dollars. It can be spotty at times - but it works. Mobile is by far the most used form factor. Search for "Jio" on your app store and you'll see a variety of apps like JioTV, JioCinema, JioNews etc.. That means free news, live tv and movies all for the price of a cell phone subscription. Jio is the name of the servic…

What gave so much confidence to Jio to discount that much? Did their flavor of party come to power during that time?

Also, India would have better date quality if market was open to foreign players without requiring Indian stakes.

India has very high density in many areas where these kind of data rates are possible and we all would be on 1gbps connections

Re: India has the highest data usage per smartphone

#127

Post by Danieru »

Scoundreller wrote: post #97
H8crilA wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To counter-act this simply position yourself on the other end of American ridiculous data prices: buy $AMT, $SBAC. Those are cell tower REITs. They're up >900% and >2000% since the 2009 crisis.

They’re up because they’re leveraged to the hills. Investing in them is a play on interest rates more than anything. Lots of télécoms came out like bandits by selling their infrastructure at very high valuations.

I'd love to learn more on your opinion about these REITs.

Looking at the lastest financials report: https://s22.q4cdn.com/758587962/files/doc_financials/quarter...

They are reporting a leverage ratio of ~7. My initial hot-take: That's a leverage multiple; not a ratio. Yet reading their formula they are reporting that 7 as DEBT / PRE-DEPRECATION-PROFIT. Thus such a formula is not an LTV but rather a formula one might use if one acknowledged the underlying assets only had cashflow value.

Using an LTV formula they look more reasonable at 0.7LTV. Which indeed is high, about half the equity common to the REITs I've looked at. Yet with a 10% return on invested capital it does not seem the infrastructure was overvalued.

Now this is not an area I know much about so I'm mostly hoping you can show me where I'm wrong and thus I can learn more.

Re: India has the highest data usage per smartphone

#128

Post by Shorel »

vijaybritto wrote: post #41

This is so true. My mom watches all her Serials, news and funny vids in her mobile. Our TV is deserted now! Jio forced everyone to bring down the prices. Now all those companies have begun posting quarterly losses and they don't have a humungous cash cow like jio. This is not gonna end well.

Is that good for her eyes?

This is a serious question.

Re: India has the highest data usage per smartphone

#129

Post by fastball »

inapis wrote: post #98
catchmeifyoucan wrote: post #90

I'm from India. I can confirm this. It's because unlimited LTE data costs about rs700 per month or 10 dollars. It can be spotty at times - but it works. Mobile is by far the most used form factor. Search for "Jio" on your app store and you'll see a variety of apps like JioTV, JioCinema, JioNews etc.. That means free news, live tv and movies all for the price of a cell phone subscription. Jio is the name of the servic…

> You could also imagine why it might be hard for Netflix, Spotify and Prime movies to compete in India Till a certain extent. Netflix, Prime Videos, Hotstar etc have much more variety and higher quality and some are VERY AFFORDABLE. Prime videos and Hotstar (HBO, Game of thrones, Veep, Silicon Valley like shows) can be had for $14 USD per year EACH. So upwardly mobile Indians can subscribe to multiple OTT streaming…

PewDiePie v T-Series?

Re: India has the highest data usage per smartphone

#130

Post by Scoundreller »

nwatson wrote: post #48
lunchables wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll likely have the same experience in Houston, Phoenix or Nashville (etc). San Francisco is just too dense, too many people and devices.

You'll find most U.S. urban areas are just as connected as San Francisco. SF NIMBY mindset prevents infrastructure improvements required to improve connectivity.

Connectivity can be built if the desire is there.

Paris isn’t particularly high density, and practically everything is historical, but you don’t see big ugly base stations everywhere to provide excellent coverage.

And their telecom (wired and wireless) rates are dirt cheap.

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