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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."
"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?
Well you've raised the interesting question: how much is the cheapness of Indian programmers the result of an overly weak Rupee (read strong US dollar), and how much the fact that Indian programmers are just cheaper.
If a programmer in India, earning $5,000 a year, can afford 2MB broadband, a nice appartment, food, etc. (i.e. as much as a programmer in the US), then who is to say that Indian programmers are underpaid. Perhaps the issue is solely one of the US dollar being too strong. As work moves offshore, the effect of this will be (in the long run) that money flows to India, the rupee rises, and US programmers become more competitive again.
Just a thought...
Cheers,
Robert
--- My dad's political betting
I agree with your point. One thing though. $100 = Rs. 4500 isn't that big a deal in India :-)
Perhaps an architect could get by with $100 a month IF he/she lives alone or with their parents, has no loans, cooks at home, and takes the bus everyday. $100 is also roughly what a student (from a no-name college with no campus placements) would expect to get paid with 0 experience.
A typical middle-class Indian would earn about $200-$300 a month, live in a 2BHK rental/govt flat (Bedroom, "Hall" aka living room, Kitchen), own a scooter or a 100cc motorbike (100cc bikes give insane mileage - 1 liter = 100km!), and have a 4-5 member family (husband, wife, 2 kids, grandma).
I agree. $2.30 pm is quite reasonable. However, PC prices in India are exorbitant. Forget purchasing power parity. The same PC that costs $500 in the US would cost about $800 in India! This is the reason why the PC penetration in India is so low. To add to it, most Indians tend to buy stuff with cash after they've saved for it. Hence, they usually plan to save for about 2-4 years if they want to buy a PC for their kid.
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.
Is it?
In 1985 you got 11 rupees to the US Dollar. Now you get 44. That's a four fold *strengthening* of the dollar in the last 20 years.
If we returned to 1985 exchange rates against the rupee, then Indian programmers would cost $20,000 a year to employ.
--- My dad's political betting
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.
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go ahead its time to mod me a troll
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