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Indian Consortium To Offer 2 Mbps At $2.30/month
leoaugust writes "The State Govt of Andhra Pradesh in India, has awarded a contract for a fiber-optics based network to a consortium led by Aksh of India that aims to charge just Rs 100 (around US $2.30) a month for a domestic broadband connection. The project will provide services with a minimum bandwidth of 2Mbps. The execution of the project is scheduled to begin in April 2005 and will be completed by December 2006. The strength of the consortium is evident by the participation of top-notch Indian corporations which include Railtel Corporation India Limited, Tata Indicom, VSNL Limited, INcable Network (Andhra) Limited, Spectranet Limited and Nuziveedu Seeds Limited."
Manitoba. You didn't think I was going to say India by any chance, did you?
-Dizzle
"I most likely AM so interested in myself."
Now i can post my webcam videos of students giving oral sex at blazing speeds!
Based on the local economic conditions in India, $2.30 is probably totally reasonable.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Callcenters in India are already feeling the pressure from independent remote maintenance specialists working from home...
As I see, most Slashdotters - instead of commenting - decided to RTFA and check possibilites of emigrating to and working in India.
OK, guys, if you've already checked it - how much does a plane ticket from Europe to India cost? And are there good employment perspectives?
Sweet, that means dial-up should only cost about 20 cents per month! where do I sign?
Electrons are free; it is moving them that becomes expensive.
Yeah, in india, US $2.30 buys you a call center rep for 4 weeks.
"Good afternoon, this is Sanj--err, Jake."
I blow indian trolls for 2.99 fiber optic connectivity
Roll with the outsourcing trend! Simply put two servers into each home in the region, and share the bandwidth.
:-)
Let the indian family use one, and sell the other as ultra-cheap hosting
what country are you in? I'm paying $20/month for 3mbit.
Such as japan , where you get ludicrous speeds for low cash. or Norway where its dirt cheat for fat pipes :)
... to me, it's the infrastructure of this project that's more notable than the price they plan to charge. I really wish we had more of this kind of stuff going on in the states. Other places like Japan have been doing "bigger, better" broadband for a while now, and the excuse over here was that Japan was such a small area, so it was easier to implement. But now, look at India.
There is a difference between saying you're going to do something, and doing it.
They haven't started yet. Lets congratulate when its finished.
looking at ur level of dissatisfaction i think you should consider moving to India...! Im proud and satisfied at the progress
Lay a big fiber optic cable, resell the bandwidth from india to somewhere else, profit!
Yes I know... Its a pretty bad joke
Nuclear war would really set back cable. - Ted Turner
I'm paying 100$ for 50mbps (fiber optics). :->
my opinion anyway.
All your base are belong to Google.
What more can I say? I - and probably everyone else here - am paying far more for far less.
On the good side, it's probably an indication of future prices in the rest of the world - we probably won't get that low, but things should get at least a fair bit cheaper than they are now.
I say that because if they can sell bandwith for that, it must be getting damn cheap.
Good initiative but unless the operating system, office programs , games are translated into their local language it will not benefit much. In India still the internet and outsourcing are the possesion of a prized few who know english. There are many more analtycal minds tied up just for the lack of english knowledge. If only could the Indian government unshackle the internet and make it truly multilingual then it is true freedom for indians.
Chris ,
Php Programmers.
I am from the neighbouring state karnataka (yes in Bangalore and yeah it is definitely true that I am taking american jobs, we don't have anything to eat so we don't need broadband and yeah I catch an elephant to work every morning).
I definitely wish our chief minister takes notice, but I don't have much hope because of the deputy chief minister (who is like Sauron behind Saruman).
Congrats to the telugu (APs language) guys, we have been beating them in everything (including letting them think that we actually wanted M$ to establish a center in bangalore...yeah like anyone would *want* that *evil grin*). But on a serious note it is a good thing, I hope they can really use this to reduce corruption in the state department.
Anyway some random rant, why we need IT and internet in the government is to actually alleviate poverty. How that would happen (as I see it) would be that by automating mundance tasks like getting sites and homes approved, land for agriculture, eastablishing industries etc., it would take the power away from the government employees and reduce corruption (or atleast push corruption to higher echelons of power like in the US). This would mean that the politicians need to actually approve projects from companies to get money which would mean more power to us.
Most moderators won't read till here so people
observe I will be modded flamebait.
I would rather freeze my balls off here. Who needs nice weather and cheap internet.
Whats the point of a cure for cancer or aids? Most people who need it and dont have the money wont be able to afford it.
"The network will have optic fibre connectivity right up to the village level."
From my understanding, India is a country of Very rich and Very poor. The middle class, if you would, is a newer concept (thanks to the tech boom).
So, if these villages lean to the poor side (assuming if you had $ you would live in a city) would you even have a computer? If not, what good is broadband?
In terms of IT sector India is the best........ but in other matters...... its the worst.
...Now, I can expect even more phone calls with even less customer service as the lowest end of the marketing and support business gets even lower end.
While the best outsourcing phone banks do a reasonable job, the average ones are crap, and this will set the low end bar lower than ever.
Fiarly soon, we can expect little differentiation between a call to a vendor for help with our firewall, and say....line noise. Oh, wait, I have a sonicwall. I've already passed that mark.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
Its too bad that Americans that want cheaper broadband are too addicted to the internet to boycott the isps into giving us lower prices. It'd be nice though. We should find a rich friend who will let us stay in his/her house and borrow their connection until the ISPs lower their prices. Imagine the hardware you could buy if a connection costed $3 a month.
Well I am paying £20/month for 512kbps in the UK, and that is quite reasonable, for unlimited broadband... (makes it about $38 I think)
This friend of mine who lives in France was shocked when I told him that I pay $45 for 3Mbps/384 Kbps dsl. Over there, there are 2 Isps offering 8, 15 and 20 Mbps dsl for between 15 and 30 euros (all taxes included).
Two years ago, the best you could get over there was 512 Kbps and they were starting to roll 1Mbps connections in select regions.
Part of the reason why I came to the U.S in the first place were superior broadband speeds. I feel betrayed now.
Indian geeks everywhere are now dancing to this song: http://www.worth1000.com/satyr.asp?sid=83167/
Wow! if this is implemented, this is simply wow!! Though promise of a really Fast pipe and ultra-blazig speeds are still not fulfilled, i can vouch for the temendous improvements in net connection speed/options that has happened in India,especially bangalore.
I remember the times when I had to connect to my web server (verio) using modem/phone Lines, data actually used to come in trickles and any "work" was done during night only. The only good side effect was that you developed buddha-like patience.
Now people are providing broadband over Cable wires/CDMA network/anything. Mobile network providers are into GPRS and now its actually possible to plug your mobile in LapTop and go net surfing.
No
You think that's bad? I'm paying $85/mo for 512/128, and I only get download rates of 50kb/s.
I've seen similar offers even in Germany, but you usually only get the first 500 MBs included, after that they nickel and dime you. Since the article didn't mention it, does anybody know whether this includes flatrate service or not?
Additionally, there might be an internal speed of 2Mbps, but isn't it the peering agreements that make or break the speed to the rest of the internet? Without disclosing them, it's easy to provide such fast lines little...
Just like this project is being done in only one state in India, I know of at least one state in the U.S. that is doing this. Utah. There is a fiber optic network known as UTOPIA that is being rolled out state wide...except where I live. I live in Provo, and the city planners decided to do it their own way. I will grant, however, that Provo's network is being rolled out a lot faster than UTOPIA is being done. There's already a significant portion of the city with access to iProvo (it's on the richer part of town, of course). But, I don't live in that area. I'm a student barely managing to survive on Top Ramen, and really crappy broadband.
[RANT]The stupid ISP that handles the Internet access for my apartment complex doesn't know how to set up their network! They put idiotic bandwidth limits on users - you get 64 kbps for free, any faster and you have to pay more - and the lousy network they set up can't even handle a fifty percent load. I paid extra for 256K, and I only get that in the morning when everyone else is at school, or late at night when everyone else is asleep. Oh, and you're only allowed to use your internet connection for 5 hours a day. Any more than that and they charge you a dollar an hour. Not to mention how poor the installation was.[/RANT] O.K., now I feel better. Next semester I'm moving into a house and getting cable for my broadband.
This space for rent...
Does this mean that we are going to see even more Bollywood movies on file sharing networks?
Oh god. You thought you were paying for 512 kiloBYTES/sec? Sorry bro.
im paying 80 a month for 3mbit
That's funny. I'm paying $80 / month for 512/128. Stop complaining.
im paying $73 USD (448 NOK) for 1024/256 in norway :'(
This looks like some sort of political move to reassure investors that the government is not going to be hostile to tech industries.
Andhra Pradesh had a very progressive chief minister for the last two terms (Chandrababu Naidu). Many of his policies were technology centred, and he made massive improvements in the infrastructure. But it seemed to many that his improvements were only for the major cities, and the farmers in the villages were left out. This was partially true, but largely false.
The most recent elections proved to be a monstrous defeat for his party and YS Rajasekhara Reddy was put in. YSR is seen to be a "farmer's CM", so to speak. His main issue was that the state ministry will focus more on the issues at the villages, and not solely on technology development.
Recently, this has scared away a lot of big business from investing in AP. But AP is severly cash starved, thanks to tons of money grubbing politicos (just like any place else in teh world). Maybe you see the dilemma now. The government needs the money from them, but it cannot look like it is supporting them.
If you ask me, this is just a political move to play both sides of the game. I do not believe it straight out. I have heard things like this being proposed for so many years now that it's made me quite cynical. The project will probably become another place to divert funds from.
And yes, I was from AP. I've lived in both the cities and the villages. Now I live in bangalore.
The only thing that this article shows is that here in north america, we get ripped off because the perception is that we have more money and that we have no choice but to by that internet service for $40 US/month. Not true, in canada during the late 1980's, a community cable service was set up (in ontario) and the charged about $3.60/month and were proffitable!! But, the two big cable copanies in canada (rogers and shaw cable), got the govement to step in and raise the rates to "a normal" $26/month. This is a typical example of how corporations in N.A. have go us all trained to pay huge amounts of money to them and think this was normal. Just look around now, how long do you think this will happen, pretty soon, with china and india soon to be the new industialized 1st world superpowers, and here in North America, we will soon be a 3rd world power (tell me, how many items you buy are made here in N.A., how many in china?). The simple fact is that people must rise up and kick these companies in the ass, it it's proffitable to pay $3 for internet in india and slightly more in korea for fast internet, the let's kick the providers in the ass and demand better/cheaper service!
Most of the broadband services here (India) put unrelistically small download limits on their connections. However 'unlimited' download connections are popping up and with a speed of 2mbps there won't be, hopefully, any download limit.
All I can say now is: Damn. I live in Bangalore which is supposed to be the Silicon Valley of India (but its not in Andhra Pradesh). Here the cheapest connection people can get is s 128kbps unlimited connection for Rs. 1,000 (about 20 USD) pm. (There are cheaper ISPs but they are not available in most places of the city or the customer should have a cable TV connection from them)
Demand our rights to low-cost internet!!!
Revolutions occur for good reasons!!! Demand better service for your money, youu are not their slaves, remember that!!
Among other customers, the proposed broadband network will provide broadband services to 40,000 government offices across the state. This will enable the government departments to deliver various citizen services through eSeva centres, Rajiv Internet Village Kiosks and web-based online services. The network will also enable the rural folk to access video-conferencing, internet surfing among other facilities.
This project seems to be a part of e-governance. The Govt is not starting a broadband service, like other telecom giants.
I pay approx USD 21 per month for 64 kbps connection. Dial-up sucks and costs even more. People use it since broadband still not as pervasive as cable TV. Access to internet is *very expensive* in India. It is still considered a luxury. And to certain extent, it is!
Here in Ontario I am paying $100 for a 10Mbps/1Mbps connection. Flatrate, basically static IP, have free reign to run what ever I want.
Do they get access to the rest of the world? This maybe great for the india-wide-web and thats about it.
Heh, I can pretty much bet that the Rs. 100 minimum package will be mega capped on downloads. BSNLs package which comes in at around Rs. 850 a month in another state in India has a 500MB cap per month after which you pay Rs.1 per MB downloaded... Well, the government here has big BroadBand plans and things seem to be moving in a lot of states here, but they're pushed by influential guys who want changes :)
Personally, I tested for BSNLs nationwide broadband service 2 years back, which was 2x2MBps uncapped lines, and yes that service totally rocked...it was in collaboration with a private company called iSpatial, but for some reason they scrapped the actual rollout plans. But well 1yr of uncapped broadband with those speeds in India at that time was cool :)
256k dsl was set at 150LE or 12.5usd at the current black market rate of 6le/usd.
this does not include the modem @ 430le (modem + 4 port switch + splitter)
but it does include monthly adsl suscription cost to the telco
currently, the ministry of interior has a deal for its officers for 80le/month and the army has one too for 75le/month.
--
go ahead its time to mod me a troll
_ In Egypt Networks: Network Solutions with a Twist
Well, blow me down. Here in Poland, our monopolistic telco takes around 10% of the average income for a 512/128kbps line, and have outages of more than a month. You need to pay the bill for the time the line was down, of course -- unless you're willing to face a 5-10 years long legal battle for your money. Lost profits? Who cares.
Thus, if India is a 3rd-world country, the US are 4th-world, Zambia 100th and Poland approximately 89th.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
... if you catch an elephant to work every morning, are you perhaps posting to Slashdot using IP-over-pigeons? :)
Stop complaining
Why? I'm still on dial-up simply because the local broadband providers simply provide too little for too much. Someday I hope it will be priced so I can get off dial-up.
What sucks is the cable operator thinking they can play the bundle card to keep people off Satelite TV. You can get broadband for less if you are also getting cable TV. I don't have cable TV. To me that means there is a $15/month penalty for not having cable TV. That runs the marginal price up out of reason. So yes, I'm still on dial-up and I'm still complaining.
I do have excelent broadband at work. DSL reports makes makes broadband cable or DSL look like dial-up in comparison. I download my distro's, patches, and OSS software such as Mozilla, Firefox, and Open Office, at work.
Dial-up is ok for posting on Slashdot at home and reading e-mail.
The truth shall set you free!
Why is every corporation listed including "Limited" in its name? They're described as important companies, but if they are all truly "limited", why are they so? There are LLC (limited liability comapnies) in the U.S., but they tend to be smaller, and once you get bigger, you usually incorporate. So, what's the difference in India?
im paying $70AUD a month for 512/128 with 40gig download limit... thats after the plan has been upgraded for free a few times.. i was on the same price with 6gig to start with only a year ago..
I'm paying 39 (Euro)/month for 1mbps/320kbps ADSL in spain (unlimited traffic).
Internet is bad for my Karma!
In other news, it was discovered today that people in India generally make far less than the average American/European and have a lower standard of living.
It was also discovered that Slashdot editors know nothing about economics and that you can't just convert things to US dollars and declare "it's cheaper!".
News at 11.
I pay around USD 40/mo for a 24 Mbit connection. The same company forced me to "upgrade" my previous 8 Mbit connection which was USD 50/mo. Rates are certainly dropping.
Standards Schmandards
now we know how the spent money from the tsunami victims are being used.. instead giving them food they bought cheap 3mbit lines to keep people calm...
You lucky, lucky bastard.
I pay $60 a month for 512k
Let me guess...metropolitan Australia, with an
Optus 512k unlimited plan?
Those terms seem familiar...
One wonders what the average Indian hillbilly would need video-conferencing for.
No one has mentioned it so I thought I should, but the thought having this much bandwidth for this little money available in villages in India is probably giving pirates wet dreams. I'm not familiar with how much pirated software/media or spam comes out of Andhra Pradesh (or all of India for that matter), or with how the authorities deal with it, but I'd be willing to bet no one will be jumping to honour a US court order based on a copyright violation.
On the other hand maybe good will come out of it all. Maybe the spam czars and pirate groups will organize a program where they provide computers with internet access to schools and local businesses in exchange for allowing them to set up a porn/warez/spam server on their premises. That wouldn't be such a bad thing would it? Hell I'd sign up for it, but I'll be damned if I'm going to share my bandwidth with anyone.
It's hard to soar like an eagle when you're surrounded by turkeys.
This is what Indian geeks are dancing to now! http://www.worth1000.com/satyr.asp?sid=83167
...they're going to outsource the work to China.
This is what Indians will be downloading:
u talk about"shit hole" pal.. u live in a country that believes in sueing a gynec for pulling a wrong tooth!!
"Perhaps the issue is solely one of the US dollar being too strong."
I know that's what you wrote, perhaps you want to do 1/2 an hour of study and then come back with some words that have some meaning.
As you've written them, this is just drivel.
Bandwidth Limited Inc.
I second that !!
This guy's an example of what happens when you have a state-run monopoly on education.
Ironically, technical support for the Indian broadband customers will be provided entirely by low-paid Americans.
"Thus, if India is a 3rd-world country, the US are 4th-world, Zambia 100th and Poland approximately 89th."
Sure, because Internet download speeds are really what determine quality of line [rolling eyes]
wow, the power of slashdot!
1/4/2005 - IMPORTANT UPDATE FROM THE WORTH1000 TEAM
We are currently experiencing extremely high traffic levels and have disabled guest access to certain pages. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please try back later today or register an account here for immediate access (it's free).
Considering I get 3 MBps in Canada for $34.95 CDN, and judging form the US commercials I have seen, I would say it is about average.
I pay $60AUD /month for 512k with a 16GB download limit :( After that I get throttled. I got throttled last month and it was *painful* downloading stuff at 6KB/second.
Australia *sucks* for internet access.
-- The doctor said I wouldn't get so many nose bleeds if I just kept my finger out of there!
I was about 8 or 9 when I first got my hands on Usbourne Basic. I didn't have a computer, but I used the book to learn Basic commands, for next loops, goto, gosub, that sort of thing.
Then I found a store about 20 minutes from school which had computers on display that the public could play around with. I spent weeks and weeks going to that store for about 20 minutes at a time, practicing my Basic skills.
That Christmas, I demanded a spectrum 48K from Santa Claus.
He's still alive today, so you know I got my hardware.
I live in sweden. I pay ~20-25 dollars/month for a 10/10 MBIT connection. ;P //Cray-on @ sweclockers.com
I can upgrade that to 100/100 MBIT if i want to pay like 50-60 dollars a month, but I think that's a bit expensive
All this talk of Mbits isn't that useful if the company imposes a download quota on you. For example, my Dad was considering getting 'cheap' broadband for roughly the same cost as dial-up. Unfortunately, although you get roughly 750kbps (decent by UK standards), the quota is 1gig/month, which is useless unless you plan on just surfing the web, and downloading a few small items.
I can, and have on occasion, downloaded almost to my limit of 1gig per *day*. Granted, he won't want that much, but speed isn't that meaningful if you can't download much.
For such users, the biggest benefit is probably being 'always connected', which I must admit is at least half the appeal of broadband in the first place.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
same thuff here in czech republic (but its getting better).
... did i mention that ports other than http/ftp/pop3 are throttled to maximum 5kbyte/s speed?
... dialup is 50 cents per hour, gprs is 30$ monhtly... DSLs usualy have fair use limits ... like 500mbyte per month or they are overpriced ...
35 $ per month for 800/100 kbit with unreliable speed, having to pay 150$ to get special (and) modem! well, its at least mobile (CDMA)
and this is best service in area i live (50 km from capital)
-- Technology for the sake of technology is as pathetic as eschewing technology because it's technology.
the indian middle class has more people than the entire populations of britain and france.
umm yeah pretty big
In Soviet Russia, broadband pays $2.30 a month to rent YOU!
You sure??
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
...and $100 is DEFINITELY NOT 1 month's pay for an architect. Why, fresh B.E.s start off at a minimum of around $400 a month. Architects make a lot more. The average salary here is above $1000 a month for a moderately experienced professional. So I'll take it you meant 1000 and not 100.
:) Apartment rentals start at around Rs.6000 a month. Movie tickets are around Rs. 150.
Just to give you an idea of the living expenses, if you eat out every day, food can cost you between Rs. 100-300 a day in a good restaurant in the famous city of Bangalore - I'm not talking fastfood
To put the "broadband" rates here in perspective, the going rate now is about Rs.800 (less than $20) for a 256kbps connection with about a 500 MB traffic limit. So a 100 bucks for 2Mbps is an excellent deal.
Find a job you like and you will never work a day in your life.
Here, here! I will happily try to live on minimum wage in the US before I sleep on a dirt floor in a one donkey villiage.
It's a *third world* country - remember that!
In South Africa you have to pay about 180 USD for 512k upstream 256k downstream capped at 3gig.
We only have one Telecom called TELKOM and they are just about the most expensive telekom in the world. (http://www.hellkom.co.za/info.htm)
Every time you enquire about why they are so expensive they give the excuse that people in other countries have lots of other hidden costs they have to pay (yea right).
To get a 2.5 Mb fixed line from them would cost more per month then what I earn per year and I am not so unlucky with my salary then most in my country (third world)
Try $25/month for 9.6 - 14.4 dialup. Sprint wont fix bad lines if you can still talk on them...
in sri lanka the government telco (Sri Lanka Telecom) is giving 2mbps/512kbps at USD80 per month. it is not widespread (i have it in my office but not at home) and is only given with new phone connections ..
the fact of the matter is that the connection gives that speed only to the distribution point. iirc SLT only has an 80mbps uplink to the SEAMEWE cable, which means that EVERY user is competing for extremely limited bandwidth
i would love to run an ISP, use a decent 802.11g wireless net and a phat pipe to provide service (iirc there was a wireless protocol that gave 5 mile range.. it was on slashdot a while back) for a fair rate, but the problem lies in the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission. you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy
originally created to make sure that the people were getting a decent deal on telecom, the telcos have been paying them off to ensure that a. rates are kept artificially high, and b. keep anyone who offers lower rates off the market
case in point: in 2000 there was a company trying to offer widespread VOIP based international calling for what was about 5% of what the SLT was charging. slt forced the trc to FORCE this guy to raise his prices until he was on par with them.. jsut so they could maintain dominance. there are other stories but you get the idea
and the government is talking of doing an e-srilanka project.
bah and humbug
Suchetha
learn from yesterday, plan for tomorrow, party tonight
or one out of three ain't bad
So is hipcrime going to cause even more havoc on usenet now?
Here in Croatia, due to Deutsche Telekom monopoly we pay 25$/month for 320/56 connection. And additional $3.5 for every 512 MB of traffic...
India's had a reputation for spotty utility service. So have things improved enough that you'll be confident that the lights won't go out in the middle of the download? And how much is the monthly electric bill?
If you can go for an entire week with only one 30-minute power outage, you're doing as good as around here.
We must pay about 24USD/month for an adsl 128/64kbps (unlimited) here in Moscow. And this is the cheapest price you can get here. For such megabit ADSL line, over 100USD/month is normal, and plus you have only some gigabytes of traffic included :(
MS-DOS since 6.0, Windows since 3.1, Novell Netware since 4.5 and FreeBSD since 4.5
and need to find a multiplexer
1. Not necessarily. It may be a lot of money for - say a locksmith in India, but not for somebody who is - say - using *new* (this is about India, please remember) technologies like internet, telephony etc. Even a basic internet connection (read NO Broadband) at home costs a lot more than 100Rs. So, in this perspective, 100Rs IS cheap.
2. You CAN buy a plenty of chicken with rice/pita in 4$ in downtown NYC (5$ if you buy soda with that). Yeah, it wont be a restaurante, but it will still be good and plenty for lunch.
Internet options:
Dialup:
26.4k on a good day, $15/mo for the ISP, $20 for the line.
ISDN:
128kpbs, something like $50/mo line+$50/mo ISP+per minute charges+hardware and setup.
IDSL:
144/144, DSL over ISDN, $100/mo+$300 setup
Satalite:
$70/mo+$300 setup or $100/mo. Anal terms of use, anything over 165MB slows back down to dialup speeds, that takes Windows Update out of the broadband arena.
Next step:
T1.
Cable? Nope. Noone delivers to my area, and those that deliver near don't offer internet.
ADSL? Our phone system is on the last line available, this would give me hope that they're going to upgrade soon, but neighboring areas actually have more lines in use than good lines. So a few bad lines get passed around to people that haven't complained for a while.
Begging to the phone company to upgrade or put in a repeater or something?
This didn't work when my dad tried it while he was a systems tech FOR the phone company. He's since retired from the phone company and is now working in other places in the field.
Broadband is a no-show in my area. I'm about 30-40 miles away from the Governator.
Often I feel like I'm using the demo version of the internet.
-
If you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance -- Derek Bok, president of Harvard
I'm paying 40 + taxes for 512/128. Also very funny. I hate european humour
Just a thought - if a developing country/state can afford to go that cheap, why here in US we have this rampant prices ?? Someone(Corporate world) out here is making big money. Isn't it time companies act in the interest of consumer rather than their own ??
That there are basically four primary dialects of the English language:
British
American
Australian
Indian
I don't think they're going to have as much problems as you'd think. That, combined with the fact that a good portion of the actually usable functionality is available as Open Source code and has already been internationalized or is in the process thereof for India... Well, let's just day your argument kind of falls flat on it's face- hard.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
At those speeds, and at that cost, I can afford to cancel my cable modem and buy a dial-up account with them!
I am enjoying super bandwidth of 35kbps in the "Silicon city" of india, Bangalore. This remindes me of a proverb in kannada "yettige jora bandre, yemmege bare haakidru!" Meaning - "When a cow was dying of illness, they gave the medicine to a buffalo"
The simple secret is that they value education and intellectual endeavors while US culture belittles it. So their kids will strive for higher education. These two countries start from incredible handicaps of poverty and bad political systems, despite some glorious periods of history. However they are improving, will catch up and exceed the lazy and bloated USA.
Just type VSNL into google groups and you'll see a strong relationship with newsgroups with abuse in their name (in the old google groups interface, you got this nice hint that 'news.admin.net-abuse.blocklisting' was a relevant group for your query).
I hope the 'new' network gets a better network operations center with a good abuse-department.
The Virtual Bookcase: book reviews
Finally, I would have gotten to do a little outsourcing of my own. Give the telecom companies here a taste of their own medicine. Free market and all that.
(Then the drugs wore off...)
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
thats another 'poorer' country with faster and much cheaper internet than us Brits. *sobs*
Well, it sounds good in theory, but all isp's here are notorious for low download limits.
/- i.e. 140$ for a 6GB transfer limit..
Broadband Internet in India right now is much more expensive than other countries.
The only decent connection in my area is Tata Indicom broadband which gives DSL connections. My DSL line which is 512/512 costs 6000 Rs.
The so called unlimited cable isp's give very low speeds (lower than dialup) and have frequent outages.
Just set up a wireless NIC in your house (if you live in a neighborhood or apartment), I'm sure some gracious neighbor has set up an unencrypted AP. FREE.
The parent didn't mention the article that he is making a joke about. Here it is.
Google search results
Executive yacht payments are much lower in India than here.
the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur - A.N. White
Well I pay £23 for the same (Pipex), and I think it's disgusting.
Where do you get the idea that the US dollar is strong gout of this??? Lets say that a roll of Kodak film cost $3.50US in the USA that same roll of film in India cost $0.35US in India. The roll of film hasn't changed it is still the same roll of film. The only thing is that it cost you MORE in the US because the US dollar is WEAK!!!! it ain't worth as much as other people's money. The roll of film hasn't changed has it??? No the only diffenance is what you pay for it. Your buying power is not as great which means you money is no good!
In 1972 I made 3.10 and hour here in the US. I had a nice house a car took trips and could afford to go our on the town every now and then. Now I make $20.00 per hour and I can't hardly afford to live. My life style hasn't changed except for the fact that a dollar will not buy what it would in 1972. Personally I would rather work for the $3.10 and be able to buy a loaf of bread for $0.35 and a gallon of gas for $0.50
You have been buying into the media crap too much an not doing your own math. The reason labor is cheap there is not that their money is no good but that ours is no good. Labor is labor and has its own worth. What regulates worth is the value of the money. Not the value of the work.
Buying Power = Money Value
Yes I will work for $5000.00 a year if I can have a nice apartment, eat go out, go on a vacation, and be able to enjoy life. I'm sure not doing those things with the powerful US Dollar we have now!!!!!!!
Sure? "Among other customers" is, arguably, a rather key phrase, and implies strongly that the government offices are only a subset of those who will be connecting.
Try to get from India to anywhere around the US and see what your latencies are? FLAG is starting to show its age, I think, or at least whatever they're using of it seems to be overburdoned.
I've worked with remote offices in India, even with a 3Mbit link on their end, getting decent latency between us, or them and anywhere in this hemisphere was a challenge.
I like music
I am not sure if am really happy with this news because broadband in North India still costs a lot the last time I checked it it could cost easily Rs 600 p.m or $13 for 96 kbps and can only be used between 9PM and 9AM. This is even after the govt. has said that nothing less than 256kbps can be considered as broadband. Suck.
That said, I cant fscking wait for this service to come out. I know infrastructure is going to be sloppy, but I can deal with that. Right now I pay aprox USD 22 (Rs 1000) for 128kbps cable connection. 512kbps dsl connection costs 4-5 times that. Which is reasonable for small businesses but not home users.
Pick your poison.
The prices here are the worst...
I pay 54 USD per month for 512/128 ADSL.
And starting on june, I will be paying the same for 1024/256 with a 8gb per month cap.
That is $ 140 (1 USD = $ 2.8) for a mediocre, capped connection.
Another case of Telcos monopolizing the market and corruption of the communications regulatory comition, government, etc.
I have a 128k no-download-limit DSL from Airtel which is costing me Rs.1000 per month (around...ummm $22?). With BSNL broadband coming out this month...prices may become cheaper...but Rs.100 p.m for 2 Mbps is highly unlikely to say the least.
http://shit.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/04/0 443251
Unless the Indian companies backing this project take a very hard-line anti-spam and anti-virus stance (anyone know what the market penetration of Windows vs. Linux/BSD/MacOS is in India?), I can see this turning into a giant clusterfuck for the rest of the Internet.
You think the American zombie botnets are bad, wait 'till there are a couple hundred thousand Indian Windoze boxen all on 2-meg symmetric connections. This has the potential to bring an entire country to its knees if the virus authors co-ordinate properly and the Indian users are just as clueless as their American counterparts.
Of course, if Linux/BSD/MacOS is significantly more popular there than Windows is, you can probably ignore most of this cynicism.
p
In Korea, long hair is for old people!
Seriously - at 100R/month, hosting is literally dirt cheap. So cheap in fact that it's probably as cheap to also hire someone to change a backup tape or DVD-Rs daily or weekly and mail them to you, as it is to host the line yourself in North America.
Sounds like the ideal new wave of piracy!
phpAds_blockView[2]1099956574127.0.0.1 /102416620674562967303974097705629672939*
You're on the same plan as me, aren't you ;)
Internode has a good mirror though, most of my big downloads just get pulled down for free off of their mirror. Which saves a fair bit of the paid bandwidth.
I hope all the jobs for it end up out of India.
Reasonable for who, yeah in Europe I guess it's reasonable, but here in the US I'd scoff at such a price/speed ratio. I can get 3.0/768k for $30 (plus rape you in the ass charges), though it's only a special in the NY Metro area with Verizon, still a hell of a lot better than 512.
I'd buy 10 connections and still be paying less than I am now. It is so sad that the US cannot keep up with the technology far poorer countries.
Average Income Per Capita: US$350
Source: LetsGo
That's quite likely, because for a long time VSNL was India's only ISP. So ANY India based spammer would have to use it.