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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."
Based on the local economic conditions in India, $2.30 is probably totally reasonable.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Such as japan , where you get ludicrous speeds for low cash. or Norway where its dirt cheat for fat pipes :)
I am from the neighbouring state karnataka (yes in Bangalore and yeah it is definitely true that I am taking american jobs, we don't have anything to eat so we don't need broadband and yeah I catch an elephant to work every morning).
I definitely wish our chief minister takes notice, but I don't have much hope because of the deputy chief minister (who is like Sauron behind Saruman).
Congrats to the telugu (APs language) guys, we have been beating them in everything (including letting them think that we actually wanted M$ 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.
It's not like they are planing to cover the entire country with this service. They "just" plan to operate in Andhra Pradesh.
I don't read replies by ACs.
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.
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...
No. Manitoba is in Canada.
I just don't trust anything that bleeds for five days and doesn't die.
...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.
"Every indian who comes here has a Masters in Mathematics, which is not as rigorous as a basic engineering degree from a US university."
i ties2000/scitech/sci.overall.html
Dude, that's an anomaly. The best and the brightest Indians go for engineering and medicine. Mathematics is not even considered an employable profession in India. I didn't mean this to be a comparison contest, but was only saying that the top Indian engineering colleges are world class and cheap as hell to boot.
"A person who checks groceries for a living in the US does better than the professionals you mention in India."
Perhaps. However, that doesn't mean that the software professionals in the US are all millionaires either. I've been to Texas and California several times. Yes, the standard of living is definitely high in the US. However, and this may come as a surprise to you, i found that i lead an equally good life in India. The only difference is that in the US, even if you don't have skills or an education, you can life comfortably. In India, a person without a decent education gets plastered. However, a person with good skills leads a diametrically opposite lifestyle, and can live a very very decent life.
To add, while the IITs may not be the best in the world, they're ranked 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8 in Asia.
Source: http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/features/univers
"any underlying "flaw" in the U.S. economic system"
You misunderstood. I never meant to say that the US economy is going down or whatever. In terms of education and technology, US is still miles ahead of anybody else. However, most people think that because Indian computer professionals get paid so cheaply in dollar terms, they must also be starving to death while elephants walk the road. What they don't realize that stuff in India, in most cases, is cheaper by a magnitude of 5 or more. I buy a movie ticket for $2. I get my car washed everyday, and i pay $4 a month for the service. You can get house-help for as little as $10 a month. A good chauffeur charges about $100 a month. Books are dirt cheap, and even cheaper if you buy them on the roadside.
While the life may be bigger and better in the US, India pampers you, if you've got a little dough. There's no way i can afford all this in the US, even if i earn $100k.