India To Offer Free Broadband by 2009

codecracker007 writes "The Government of India is planning to introduce free 2 mbps broadband for all residents of the Indian subcontinent by 2009. The expected service shall be launched by the government owned telecom operators BSNL and MTNL. Quoting from the article: 'The government proposes to offer all citizens of India free, high-speed broadband connectivity by 2009, through the state-owned telecom service providers BSNL and MTNL. While consumers would cheer, the move holds the potential to kill the telecom business as we know it.' The India Times has an extensive editorial on the decision. It must be mentioned that the Indian government and its autonomous regulatory bodies are very proactive in holding the consumer interests above the operators', managing to reduce the long distance and wireless tariffs by a up to factor of 20 in less than 7 years."

Comments

Forget about "kissing"!

[Random Q. Hacker]

Richard Gere kissed an actress in public and they both had warrants issued for their arrest. What do you think will happen when all of these rural Indians come across pictures a tad more extreme than kissing on the interweb?!

I hope you like curry.

Re:Broadband -ne Food

[fiannaFailMan]

You're responding to a post about a:

(*) Technical innovation in a developing country
( ) Product shipped to a developing market
( ) General discussion about IT in the developing world

The location is:

( ) Africa
(*) India
( ) Bangladesh
( ) China
( ) Somewhere else in Asia
( ) South America
( ) Central America
( ) Other ______________

You're objecting to it on the basis that:

(*) Poverty hasn't been eliminated in that country yet
( ) American jobs will be lost

Your argument is bogus because:

(*) Poverty hasn't been eliminated in the developed world either, that doesn't mean we should halt all technological research
(*) This will not adversely affect any efforts to alleviate poverty
(*) This will help to alleviate poverty
( ) Poverty in that country isn't as widespread as you say it is
( ) The US does not have a divine right to keep all the cool jobs