Bharti Airtel has launched 16 Mbps broadband, the fastest wireline DSL broadband connections in India. The service will be initially available in Delhi – NCR, Chennai and Bangalore with coverage extending to Pune, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Kolkata later.

The connection is available in two different plans:

Speed Combo 2999 – 16 Mbps speed with monthly data transfer limit of 20 GB for Rs 2999 / month

Speed Combo 4999 – 16 Mbps speed with monthly data transfer limit of 50 GB for Rs 4999 / month

Airtel had about 9.92 lakh broadband subscribers as of December 31st, 2008.

via release

Comments

• April 6, 2009, Rohan commented: Great, rates are also very affordable! 3K for 20 GB @ 16m is very cheap I think. BTW, about 2 months ago when I ask my local cable operator for cost of bandwidth for hosting server, he quoted mt Rs. 22K pm for 2 mbps unlimited data transfer :X focourse, I did not buy that :P
• April 8, 2009, sohail commented: I have checked the airtel broadband site for the plan of 16 mbps, they say that the speed of 16 mbps is till the isp node. that means from customer end to isp end(airtel) from then on the speed will not be 16 mpbs.....dont know exactly how much speed can we get.
• April 8, 2009, impatientones commented: We have launched 'The Impatient Ones' campaign in relation to introducing 16Mbps speed. It talks about the virtue of impatience via three young achievers from different fields. There's also a competition to choose the fourth impatient one. More details are on the Airtel Impatient Ones micro-sites- website:http://www.impatientones.com facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/ImpatientOnes/60387... youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheImpatientOnes twitter: https://twitter.com/Impatient_Ones
• April 10, 2009, Jeeten commented: But the bandwidth caps are not good. I wonder when we get Verizon FiOS like services in India. Sorry Airtel !!
• October 15, 2011, Jessie Gill commented: Open Relatie

Akamai recently released their latest State of the Internet quarterly report (last quarter 2008).

Here’re the stats related to state of Internet in India:

% of Attack Traffic originating from India: 1.16%

Number of unique IP addresses: 2,629,923

Unique IP’s per capita: <0.01

Average Internet speed: 772 KBps

% above 5MBPS connections : 0.6%

% above 2 MBPS connections: 3.7%

% below 256 KBPS: 26%

As you can see below, the stats havent changed significantly as compared to the last figures reported in the 2nd quarter 2008.

% of Attack Traffic originating from India: 1.02%

Number of unique IP addresses: 2,108,790

Unique IP’s per capita: 0.00

Average Internet speed: data not available

% above 5MBPS connections : 0.6%

% above 2 MBPS connections: 4.6%

% below 256 KBPS: 26%

The major change as you can notice is in the number of the unique IP addresses – There was an increase of 521,133 unique IP addresses reported in India between 2nd Quarter 2008 and 4th quarter 2008. And that’s a good thing, because unique IP addresses is a direct indication of Internet penetration. In other words, the more the unique IP addresses, the more the people connecting to the Internet from different Internet connections. Of course, these unique IP addresses metric is a bit skewed for markets like India & China, where a significant Internet usage happens in cyber cafes. Even with this increase, India still significantly lags other countries in terms of adoption – for instance, China had about 40 million unique IP’s as compared to India’s measely 2 million.

You can access the entire report here (free registration needed to download)

• India had 2.6 million Internet connections in 3rd Quarter

Comments

• March 31, 2009, Sachin commented: Nice information..but why "% above 2 MBPS connections" are reduced? I don't think that they have been moved to > 5MBPS as it is same at 0.6%.
• March 31, 2009, pranav commented: Sachin, thats a question that popped in my mind as well. I guess people downgraded from 2 mbps to slower connections ? Thats the only explanation that i could think of.
• April 1, 2009, Sachin commented: Hmm..but very strange.
• April 1, 2009, Santhanam commented: Dear Pranav, I feel that a report which talks in terms of % only cannot reveal the real ground realities. Atleast in Cochin(Kerala), i could observe that there is a real price war between the broadband service providers(of course induced by BSNL) & ISPs are actively wooing for more subscribers. More homes which have computers are becoming broadband connected. Education & Entertainment (Music, Movies & Games) are the prime motives. Also most of the Indian ISPs are allocating dynamic IPs. So we should have a formula for working out the real number of connections. I feel that TRAI should come out with similar report(if it has not done already). My opinion is that TRAI's report will be much more reliable compared to Akamai, atleast in India, since all ISPs are reporting to it. With Regards Santhanam P.S.: 1) http://www.financialexpress.com/news/bsnl-launches-broadband-value-added-services/439849/
• April 1, 2009, Tim commented: There is sure a long way to go in take up and access to the internet. It will be one of the key drivers in economic growth that's for sure. Tim
• April 5, 2009, pranav commented: santhanam certain metrics are possible only in % -- for instance Internet adoption etc. Trai reports the # of broadband customers in its monthly reports.
• May 25, 2010, Lacey Cook commented: Broadband internet these days are getting much faster and cheaper too. ;*~
• June 29, 2010, Alfie Davies commented: everyone wants fast broadband internet these days, i got some 5 mbps connection at home..;,
• August 29, 2010, Alexis Martin commented: broadband internet these days are dirt cheap, there are more and more broadband companies offering cheap service too`:.
• October 7, 2010, Zak Fisher commented: the nice thing about broadband internet is that it gets cheaper each year*"-

Indian Government has unveiled plans to produce a $10 laptop as part of a government sponsored education scheme.  As per R P Agrawal, the laptop should be available within 6 months.

The laptop will have 2 Gig memory and Internet connectivity and run on a Linux flavor. $939 million have been earmarked for the project and I wont be surprised if the laptops are heavily subsidized by the government funding. But that’s still ok, if the govt can actually make it happen.

I still have my own doubts about the Internet connectivity and how successful this project will be. It’d be unfair to make any judgements or comments about it yet, since there’s no working prototype yet.

If we can make it happen though, it will be a huge step forward — Just like the TATA Nano, we can go unlock the potential in other emerging and underdeveloped countries.

Do you think the $10 laptop is feasible ? If its doable, do you think it will benefit our society ?

via release

Comments

• February 3, 2009, Sachin commented: As per my point of view it is not feasible..but after Government subsidy anything is possible. But I will wait for it to buy at least 4-5 for my family. :)
• February 4, 2009, Santhanam commented: It is very much doable. Already lots of subsidies are given to areas where it is not properly targeted or not necessary. For example, Tamil Nadu Government is giving free electricity to all farmers, Free Television set & Free Gas Stoves with Gas Connection, Groceries during pongal festival for all (Ofcourse with an eye on vote bank) & Bicyle for High School Students . Education is considered as foremost priority by all segments of people(More so by middle class & lower class). If a $10 laptop is made available, there is a strong possibility that governments will soon announce free laptop as a poll sop. Personally i feel that if it is possible to get the used computers from all over the world (where most of it ends up in garbage) & do some recycling in a smart way, $10 Laptop is very much feasible with less subsidy. Regarding Internet connectivity, it can be provided in schools, where students can plugin their laptops. Some broadband providers like Asianet have affordable tariff plans & also lots of money is there in USO fund which can be used for this purpose. In almost all villages have cable TV connection/Network, which can be used to provide Internet connection.
• February 4, 2009, pranav commented: @santhanam, i agree regarding the recycling part -- in fact there are a few for profit companies that already do something of this sort.. cant recollect the names from top of my mind..
• February 5, 2009, Sachin commented: UPDATE: 10$ laptop is a hoax. :(
• February 6, 2009, Rabi commented: yeah even i read it at arun's blog tht its a hoax.... wht a crap!!
• February 7, 2009, Pratik commented: Its good that government is taking some action which is needed for rural educational development. The present education system really needs to come of age if we need to look at 21 century.But I think they are going in the wrong direction as our strength has always been in mathematics and science. If we start using computers students wil start using word ad excel and become puppets of Microsoft. SO i think they need to think their position and not launch such stuff which is environmentally not very viable and we as a country loose our competitive advantage.
• February 9, 2009, vikash commented: This will only increase extra garbage ; coz in the world of technology every thing becomes poor after a couple of months
• February 9, 2009, pranav commented: @sachin, @rabi, I'm gonna withhold any statement till we see the product launched. If they can make it happen (even with the govt subsidy and what not), it could still be a winner. but i agree that the announcement was much ado about nothing.

Google is taking to grass root approach to educate and increase Internet awareness in India by starting a mobile Internet bus in India. The bus will tour 15 towns across the state of Tamil Nadu and provide access to content in English and Tamil to people in these towns.

As per Prem Ramaswami, Google product manager,

It is like a pilot study (for us). More than 19 per cent of Tamilians prefer Google Tamil for accessing the Internet and that is also one of the reasons to launch the bus project from Tamil Nadu

What do you think of this grass root approach ? Do you think we need similar approaches to increase Internet adoption in smaller towns and rural areas in India ? Will it fly ?

via release

• How hot is consumer Internet space in India ?
• TRAI quarterly stats for mobile and Internet subscribers in India
• Google is king of the Indian market

Comments

• February 4, 2009, Santhanam commented: Definitely. Now itself most of the people in village has heard about Internet ( through movies / TV Channels) . But of course, these people has not seen internet or used it. This Google Bus will give such people, the first experience with Internet. Focus can be on areas relevant to Rural/ Small Town people like Agricultural market prices, Agri Research, Education & News. Most of Tamil Writers worth their salt have websites/blogs. Also many bloggers who taste/refine their writing skills are able to publish books( print / offline). I think this is the same case with other Indian languages also. Newspapers(both National & Local) have internet presence. As i can remember what my grandma has told me that when Tea was introduced to Indian People(during British Times) , the Tea Companies(at that time british) used to go to festivals/fairs where many people gather & give them free cup of Hot Tea. Once the people used/tasted it, Tea companies started selling Tea through shops & people bough it. I personally feel that Google Bus is doing the same thing with Internet to the Rural/Small Town people.

As per figures released by the Internet Governance Forum, which meets at Hyderabad on Dec 3rd, India has 81 million Internet users. India ranks fourth in the world in terms of Internet users and US, with 220 million Internet users, tops the world.  China, with 210 million users, comes in a close second.

It seems that estimating the number of Internet users in India is pretty much like using a magic 8 ball. Shake the ball and chances are that every other time, you might just get a different number. Yipee !!

via ET

• India had 2.6 million Internet connections in 3rd Quarter
• Broadband numbers – this time from eMarketer
• TRAI quarterly stats for mobile and Internet subscribers in India

Comments

• December 2, 2008, Rizwan commented: Heyyyyy that's really good - looking at the sorry state of out connection. The speeds are pathetic and despite that the Indian market has braved to sit through their downloads and video streams.......I like it....proud to be an Indian - we got the best chalta hay attitude in the world

Akamai released its ‘State of the Internet’ quarterly report, which indicates that India had 2.6 IP addresses in Q3, registering a 23% growth.

Key highlights of the report:

• India ranked No. 20 in terms of number of observed IP addresses with 2.6 million connections. In Q3, the growth in IP addresses was 23%
• In comparison, China had 38 million and Unites States had 109 million unique IPs, while being ranked at No. 2 and No. 1 respectively
• India ranks a low No. 153 in terms of number of IP addresses per capita, with 2.3 unique IPs per thousand people
• In comparison, China had 30 unique IPs per thousand people and United States had 360 unique IPs per thousand people, while being ranked at No. 94 and No. 6 respectively
• The percentage of Internet connections from India with speeds above 256 Kbps was at 74%, indicating gradual shift from dial-up speeds to high speed connectivity
• The percentage of Internet connections from India with speeds above 2 Mbps was at 5%, growing 16% compared to Q2
• In comparison, China had 4.3% connections above 2 Mbps and United States had 64% connections above 2 Mbps
• India ranked 12th in terms of global attack traffic origination in Q3, contributing 1.6% to observed global attack traffic – last quarter India was ranked at 15th

You can read the entire report here.

• State of the Internet in India
• Broadband numbers – this time from eMarketer
• What is ailing the broadband adoption in India ?

Comments

• November 26, 2008, Rizwan commented: Dude club this with http://www.startupdunia.com/2008/11/19/india-planning-to-launch-satellite-for-internet-connectivity/ you get an astounding number of connections that would go up....mainly the rural connections making the per capita connections higher...... also China and US both have satellites already deployed for basic mobile and internet connectivity with uplinks in terrabyte ranges.

It’s common knowledge that Internet penetration in India is miserable.

In order to make Internet more common place, BSNL has launched a scheme of free dialup Internet service for two months. All you need is a valid BSNL telephone connection and you can use it to access the free dialup Internet service. No registration is needed and local call charges still apply.

All in all, sounds great. However, 3 weeks since launch and only 1000 users have signed up the service yet.

What do you think ? Will this fly ? Will this scheme help more folks to get online ? Or just a fancy marketing gimmick ?

• 8 Mbps broaband line in India
• TRAI quarterly stats for mobile and Internet subscribers in India
• India Online – from a Global perspective

Comments

• September 29, 2008, Ranjith commented: I have been using an Account less Dialer for a long time. I am not sure how is this different from that !!! Ranjith
• October 2, 2008, ekerala commented: I thought its been there for years now. I do remember BSNL directory having instructions about this type of dial in to browse model.
• October 6, 2008, umesh commented: whts th username and password tht should be entered...can u tell me briefly abt it
• October 14, 2008, Ranjith commented: Hi Umesh , Please check this URL. http://www.ne1.bsnl.co.in/bsnl_netone_accountless_internet.htm Thanks, Ranjith
• October 14, 2008, jitendra kumar yadav commented: new connection
• October 21, 2008, Guru Krishnan commented: Well, when ISP offers more bandwidth why would one will stick with this Dial-up connection, which is really going at a snails pace

TRAI released quarterly report for the quarter ending December 2007.

Some highlights:

• Wireless market grows 11.74% and total wireless subscriber base stands 233.62 million
• Internet subscriber base reaches 10.36 million
• Broadband subscriber base reaches  3.13 million users. Rate of growth in this quarter is 17.23%
• There are 57.83 million wireless Internet subscribers (capable of accessing Internet through mobile handset (GSM/ CDMA))
• 54% of ISPs failed to meet the benchmark of service provisioning/activation within 2 weeks

• Wireless and broadband subscriber numbers at end of August 2007
• Sify announces F1Q07 results
• India Internet statistics

Comments

• July 17, 2008, devki nandan commented: i thankful to u for providing information but ur information is too old if possible then provide latest information

Erick@Techcrunch had an interesting post – The Internet from a global perspective. While US had the maximum number of Internet users (161.6 million), China was catching up fast (96 million).

With a user base of 25.2 million users, India came in at the 8th position. We (me included) keep whining about how Internet penetration in India is still negligible, but if you look at it from a global perspective, even with the pitiful penetration, we managed to come in at number 8. If the penetration increases by only 10% this year (wishful thinking), we’ll very easily jump two places in this list.

If you see the above penetration in terms of percentage of population, the table looks like below:

US – 53 %

china – 7.2 %

japan – 42.3%

germany – 40%

uk – 53.3%

france – 43.2%

south korea – 53%

India – 2.23%

And you can see exactly why China and India offer such a huge room for growth. The world’s most populous nations and the Internet penetration is still in single digits. Thanks to the forward looking communist regime, China is making tremendous progress in the Internet front (disregarding the online censorship, ‘great firewall’ etc.). Sadly, such aggressive efforts are still missing in India. The Indian Government’s initiative last year – “2007 – year of the broadband” was a big disappointment. Subscriber base grew at a much slower rate than projected. We need to act & act fast.

Another interesting slide from the TC post was how home grown players in several countries are more popular than the Internet biggies.

Of course, the common thread is that all of the above are non-English speaking countries.

For the Indian market I’d say that the top 3 would be Yahoo India, Rediff and Google (all Google network sites included). In fact, a similar trend has also been observed in the Indian Web 2.0 market – global Web 2.0 companies have captured more Indian users than home grown players.I guess majority of the current, online Indian population is English speaking and that explains why they’ve latched on to the Western Internet portals.
As more non English speaking Indian users come online, do you think it will tip the usage in favor of home grown sites like Guruji and OneIndia ?

• Comscore releases India Internet usage numbers
• Broadband numbers – this time from eMarketer
• Size of India Web 2.0 market is 1.5 million users

Comments

• March 23, 2008, Cyril Gupta commented: Excellent review. I think there is plenty of growth for content in local languages, but rediff may not be the winner. I expect a sort of micro-localization to occur, in which the winners will be local companies run by people who have a deeper understanding of the local culture and expectations. It will be interesting to see what really happens. :)
• March 23, 2008, Jagannath commented: India has sheer numbers :D but if quality and speed of connections were even given small weightage India would have completely vanished from any stats... so pathetic are our broadband connections :(
• March 27, 2008, Jay commented: Anyway, I don't often see a lot of good coming out of the internet usage that is being done. People can use something like orkut for good, but all they do is put up their rock star-like photos and have found another forum for gossiping.
• March 28, 2008, dDude commented: excellent review - i feel india is at an advantage right now cause it has very less broadband users compared to other big nations. this proves there is a huge potential to grow and even with this less numbers we are rocking the internet space. imagine what it would be when broadband and wireless access is easily available in india?
• March 31, 2008, pranav commented: @jagannath - I agree..this report doesnt include the speed / quality of the connections. If so, Japan and S Korea would be topping the charts.. and India might not have appeared in the list at all. @cyril - you present an interesting perspective -- my question is -- will the Internet penetration ever drill down to those levels ? @dDude - yes..there is immense room for growth.

Last week, I described one of the two ideas that struck me while I was in Bangalore. Here’s idea # 2.

How about starting an affordable conceirge service for everyday, household services ?

For instance, my friend was having a plumbing problem at his place.  The plumber agreed to drop by the day after around 2 pm. My friend decided towork from home so that he would be around when the plumber showed up. The plumber, of course, failed to show up. Repeated calls to the plumber’s mobile were in vain. The same thing repeated itself the next day. Finally, on the 4th day of the ordeal, the plumber showed up for the job, much to my friends relief.

Towards the end, my friend was so exasperated that I dont think he would have hesitated to pay a bit extra for some prompt service. His gripe was – “Kaash ek call mein kaam khatam ho jaata”.

And just like him, I dont think there’s a dearth of other folks (who’re strapped for time and super stressed) who’ll shell up a bit extra for added convenience.

I wont be surprised if such conceirge services already exist for the super rich and elite.  But such a service could be pretty successful amongst the IT demographic as well. And the service can be made affordable, considering that it can make up for the cost in volume.

• Startup Idea for Entrepreneurs
• Beyond the world of Content Management Systems (CMS)
• 8 Mbps broaband line in India

Comments

• February 18, 2008, Saurabh Garg commented: Hi Pranav, Interesting idea. In fact Kishore Biyani promoted Future Group has already started it and they call it Mr. Right. A friend ran a similar service in Delhi with limited success and had to eventually shut down. Lets see if Kishore Biyani can crack the magic formula. Warm Regards, SG
• February 18, 2008, pranav commented: thanks for providing the info saurabh..as you said, it'd be interesting to see how the retail czar cracks this market. what were some of the problems that you friend ran into ?
• February 19, 2008, Chandoo commented: hey Pranav, nice idea. I think this one is already in implementation in few IT companies in Chennai (I am sure it is in other cities as well). We have something called ServiceSquare where they do some free services like (check dropping, booking movie tickets) and some paid services (like rly ticket booking, deposits, plumbing, house shifting, looking for maid / electrician etc.) The charges are reasonable and once competition comes in I think the prices should subside.
• February 23, 2008, Vishnu commented: Dear friends, We are offering Plumbimg, Electrical maintenance, House painting / Car-Rentals / Courier / Electricity Bill payments / Property tax payments / BSNL / Mobile Bill payments etc., (Paid services) and cheque drop in Drop Boxes / ATMs (free of cost). We have House-keeping & Security Service Departments to take cae of all related services in Hyderabad. Please contact us at admin@vishnu-consultants.com.
• February 25, 2008, shyam commented: You could also use this website www.homecrayons.com Its anew one I cam across while trying to buy some used furniture. They have a section where you could list your expert services or find one. hope this helps
• February 27, 2008, Sudhanshu commented: You may like www.justdial.com too. If you search for plumber and give a locality, they'll give you the contact numbers of all plumbers around that locality. And moreover they have a presence in several cities all over India.
• June 17, 2008, salonika commented: good idea but it is good if we offer and treat all types of help at decent rates and as if they are professional workers in their fields of work.. perhaps the helpers will also be motivated to get on the bandwagon.. otherwise what's in it for them ? we pay $100/time for a 2000 sq ft home for cleaning..and are just average IT folks in the US. Our home is not fancy either. it is'nt about money really but they work hard so we treat them well and they don't let us down. thanx salonika

Bernard has a nice post titled ‘State of Innovation in India‘ over at ReadWriteWeb. While it makes an interesting reading, I feel he has left out one very important “Ace” – the state of broadband infrastructure in India.

I’d couple the broadband issue with the “reliable low cost telecommunications” and make the title more generic like “reliable, pervasive communication infrastructure”.

Broadband in India is still lacking on several fronts. For starters, based on my conversations with several folks, getting a broadband connection is a struggle in itself. It is unreliable and not “always-on” in the true sense. Frequent disruptions are a common thing. Only 20,000 new broadband connections were added in India in October 2007.

From what I hear, things are getting better. But as long as broadband is not pervasive and ‘always-on’, it still remains a big impediment to the innovation ecosystem – at least to the consumer Internet industry.

• BSNL offers free dialup Internet service
• How hot is consumer Internet space in India ?
• What is ailing the broadband adoption in India ?

Comments

• January 2, 2008, Amit Kumar commented: bernard's post is bullshit he does not understand about indian scenario. Has he looked where is the VC money going? there is no early stage VC fund available in india. India is country where angel investor look for cash flows in your balance sheet
• January 2, 2008, pranav commented: Amit Thats a very valid point...Seed / angel funding is still very small in India. Sramana Mitra has addressed this topic several times..hopefully the scenario gets better this year.. -p
• January 4, 2008, bernard lunn commented: Thanks for tracking to my article. Re Broadband, yes I was less focussed on domestic consumer internet plays and the lack of broadband at home is a limitation for those. However compare to 10 years ago and you have a) low cost mobile and b) low cost bandwidth for businesses (call center etc). This is good enough to operate on the world stage. That was not true 10 years ago. Re lack of VC, I really do disagree. Sure you have to work to get and thats true in the US as well and that is as it should be. Good article here on this: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/BizNext_Gen-next/By_invitation_Bill_Davidow/articleshow/2661507.cms
• January 6, 2008, amit commented: Bernard, The article does not convince me either. I have first hand experience of dealing with angel investors. Look at the portfolio companies of angel investors you will get the rough idea, except minglebox, i don't think so any other company has got early stage funding without being revenue positive.

You read it right..Airtel announced the launch of 8 Mbps broadband line on Wednesday. The service will initially be available in Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Kolkota, Delhi – NCR. Availability in Mumbai and Hyderabad will be after a few weeks.

The service is likely to cost around 2000 Rs. for the 8 Mbps pipe. Apparently a pay per use pricing scheme is also in the works. So, you can order the extra bandwidth as and when you need (and you get charged for it), while rest of the time, you can use your 256 kbps / 2 Mbps connection. A la bandwidth-on-demand.

via ET

If anyone has any additional details about the 8 Mbps pipe from Airtel, please let me know.

In the meanwhile, compare this – the median real-time download speed in US is 1.9 Mbps.

• What is ailing the broadband adoption in India ?
• Bangalore gets residential WiMAX from Reliance, enterprise WiMAX from VSNL
• India had 2.6 million Internet connections in 3rd Quarter

Comments

• October 10, 2007, Madhu commented: I have a good experice with reliance broadband itself. I have opted for the 2MBPS/4GB which is around 750/month. The speed which I am getting is always more than 2MB and reachng to 3.5MB/s some time...The download rate also coming to 500KB/s sometimes.... More details read on http://reliance-wimax.blogspot.com/
• October 12, 2007, Aalaap commented: 8Mbps for Rs. 2,000 per month? Where do I sign?
• October 12, 2007, pranav commented: i guess the service is going to be launched..
• November 1, 2007, Ebrahim Mafooz commented: I just checked with the airtel website and found no traces of the 8MBPS line and as for now they offer unlimited 512KBPS for Rs.1999/month. Will have to wait for some time before it goes online i guess Ebrahim Mafooz www.diginet.com
• February 8, 2008, Jeeten commented: Btw, the mean spped if we talk abt.. its 61 MBps in Japan.. Note the capitalized MB in "MBps"
• July 11, 2008, Praveen commented: I don't think that it is possible to give 8 MBPS broadband @ cheap cost. BSNL and other private providers are fooling people in the name of broadband access. Visit this link for more info http://pkmcybernetics.net/document.php?id=1

Back in August, TRAI decided not to put a cap on the number of telecom operators in India. And this has triggered a frenzy in getting telecom licenses.

Day by day, it looks like every big Indian firm, who is sitting on a pile of some extra cash, is applying for a telecom license. You have the real estate companies (DLF, Parsvnath, IndiaBulls Real Estate Ltd., Unitech Ltd.). And now, with Russian company Sistema acquiring Shyam Telelink, even foreign players are jumping in.

While some of the license applicants maybe serious about their telecom foray, I think majority are aiming to get a piece of the pie – and then sellout at a premium at a later time.

Just like DoT announced that no new applications will be accepted for mobile licenses starting Oct 1, at this rate, such an announcement should come soon for the telecom sector as well.

• How hot is consumer Internet space in India ?
• IAMAI pegs Indian e-commerce market at Rs 9000 crores by 2007-2008
• India Online – from a Global perspective

TRAI has released the latest numbers for the wireless and broadband subscriber base, ending August 2007.

As per the release, the wireless subscriber base in India has reached 201.29 million users with 8.31 million users added in August.

Broadband connections (>= 256 Kbps) have reached 2.56 million. There was an addition of 90,000 users in August 2007.

Detailed report here (PDF file).

• TRAI quarterly stats for mobile and Internet subscribers in India
• Broadband numbers – this time from eMarketer
• BigAdda releases numbers

There have been numerous reports and projections of the number of Internet and broadband subscribers in India – the IAMAI report, JuxtConsult report, TRAI numbers (PDF doc), Comscore numbers. Now, eMarketer offers its own report on the number of broadband subscribers in India.

Key points of the report:

* eMarketer projects 3.2 million broadband connections in India by end of 2007, with a penetration rate of 1.6%

* Instead of the Indian Govt. projections of 20 million broadband users by 2010, eMarketer projects that India will have only 10.5 million broadband connections by 2011

* While Comscore Networks puts the number of Internet users at 22.8 million (discounting access from cyber cafes), eMarketer pegs the Internet user base at 33.2 million at January 2007 (eMarketer definition of Internet user as someone who has accessed Internet at least once in the last 30 days)

* With 2.3% of Indians going online, India has the lowest penetration rate in the Asia Pacific region

* With the Internet user base growing at 33% (one of the highest in the world), India holds the maximum promise

Again, the entire story here.

Update: It looks like the government is taking notice of the poor broadband penetration. Aggressive, corrective actions need to be taken if the broadband projections for next year are to be met. In line with that, TRAI has invited comments (PDF doc) from interested stakeholders on the growth of broadband in India.

• Wireless and broadband subscriber numbers at end of August 2007
• How hot is consumer Internet space in India ?
• TRAI quarterly stats for mobile and Internet subscribers in India

First of all, apologies for the slow posting lately. Things have been insanely hectic the last 1-2 weeks thanks to all the traveling. But by this week, things should stabilize a bit and posting will hopefully get to normal.

While still on the road, I had to make time for this post – more so, I felt compelled to write this post.

As part of the latest issue, BusinessWorld has a great cover story on the state of broadband adoption in India. Besides stating the obvious – that broadband penetration in India is miserable – the story also tries to uncover the reasons for the poor adoption. That is one of the things I have always found missing from most of the other broadband related ‘studies’.

Here’re some of the interesting pieces from the BW story:

India has 2.52 million high-speed connections, compared to 60 million and 55 million for the US and China, respectively. At least 50 per cent connections in India are with corporates; consumer broadband is barely 1.3 million. But there is a sleight of hand even in these dismal numbers. India follows an archaic definition of broadband, using the term to describe any Internet connection that moves data at more than 256 kbps (kilobits per second). This is not enough to download movies, use Internet telephones, etc. To the rest of the world, a broadband connection must be at least 2 mbps (megabits per second). By that definition, India has only about 400,000 high-speed lines.

Only 400,000 high speed residential connections !!

Amongst other reasons, the story puts the blame on the service providers – BSNL, VSNL, Airtel, Reliance:

Ironically, India’s optic fibre capacity — the pipes that deliver broadband — far exceeds current usage. At least 40 per cent of the 700,000-km optic fibre laid has not been operationalised by telecom companies, according to Trai.

While Reliance has laid the most — 100,000 km — optic fibre, the largest mobile company Bharti Airtel has just 40,000 km. Others have less than 10,000 km each. They continue to drag their feet in reaching the optic fibre to the customer and their offerings remain limited to a handful of geographical pockets in and around the top dozen cities. Instead, their investments and management are largely focused on the highly profitable mobile business.

The reason, as Bharti Airtel’s President Atul Bindal says, is that “broadband equipment costs are much higher than mobile equipment”. Every optic fibre line to the consumer costs telcos at least $750 (Rs 30,000) while mobile phone networks can be set up for as little as $90 (Rs 3,600) a line. “Broadband is a lot more challenging,” says Prakash Bajpai, CEO of broadband business at Reliance Communications. “Here you need to lay fibre, get permissions from municipal authorities, housing societies, etc. In mobile there are no such issues.”

High cost for broadband is also a deterrent for higher adoption:

What’s more, broadband providers such as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Reliance charge Rs 3,300 per month for a 2-mbps connection — itself a rare commodity. That is nearly five times what a similar line costs in Japan and South Korea, and more than three times what it costs in the US.Little wonder, then, that in the first six months of this year, India has barely added half a million subscribers (256 kbps). In comparison, China is adding 1.5 million new subscribers, most of them using 1-2 mbps lines, every month.

I really enjoyed reading the story — instead of hyping the numbers like some of the other studies / reports, it paints a more realistic picture.  All hope is not lost though – one look at the figure (1) below and you’ll notice that though India has miserable numbers when it comes to broadband penetration, it has the highest rate of growth (93.39% for Q1 2007) for broadband connections in the world.  Something to cheer about ?

Give it a read here and let me know what you think.

• Broadband numbers – this time from eMarketer
• Broadband – The Missing Ace
• Wireless and broadband subscriber numbers at end of August 2007

Comments

• August 27, 2007, Ashish Jain commented: Thats really an eyeopener. I didn't read that issue of BW, but the way you have summarized everything is neat.
• August 28, 2007, rAm commented: I am not surprised by this. I also don't see any improvement in the situation. I stay in bangalore so called silicon valley of India and struggling to get a good broadband(read atleast 128kbps and full time on) connection for over two months. Imagine the state in other cities.!! None of the companies are interested to serve the customer, they somehow treat the broadband as a step child (I get a hang of the reason from your post). But what I don't understand is why should only the telcos provide broadband. Pranav any inputs here?? What needs to be done is allow independent ISP's to provide the connection. Also regulation needs to be brought on to make broadband penetration cheaper and easier (pus wimax based stuff, make the cabling stuff centralised, etc).
• October 24, 2007, Rahul commented: checkout the Reliance wimax connection. It is pretty faster now...More details availble here. www.reliance-wimax.blogspot.com

India had a target of 3 million, 9 million and 20 million broadband Internet users by 2005, 2007 and 2010 respectively. In contrast, current broadband figures stand at 2.5 million users.  The gap is expected to widen to 10 million by 2010. So, instead of the projected 20 million broadband users, India will have only 10 million users. As noted in an earlier post, penetration currently is less than 1%.

These are the findings of a paper to be published on Wednesday – brought out jointly by ASSOCHAM and Frosh & Sullivan and aptly titled “Broadband in India“. The paper also correctly cites poor PC penetration in India as a contributing factor. Besides PC adoption, localized content and WiMAX will be key enablers of broadband in India.

Based on this startling realization, the Indian Government has decided to re-allocate funds from the Universal Services Fund (USF) to meet the target projections of 20 million broadband users by 2010. R. Bandhopadhyay, Secretary of Ministry of Communications and IT, reassured that all the target projections will be met by tweaking an redefining the govt. policies.

This and more of his keynote address at the ASSOCHAM organized “Broadband 2007: Connecting the Unconnected” conference here.

• Broadband numbers – this time from eMarketer
• How hot is consumer Internet space in India ?
• India Online – from a Global perspective

Majority of the VC firms from Silicon Valley now have an India focused fund and several Indian companies as part of their portfolio.

Yes, India’s market is blazing hot right now and ‘Go East’ is the new mantra.
There’s no denying that India is hot – but how hot exactly is the consumer Internet space in India ?

The Comscore India report put the Indian Internet penetration rate at 3% with the total user base at 22 million.

That pegs the total Indian population at 733.33 million.

As per the latest Indian census report, the urban population accounts for 27.8% of the total Indian population.

Assuming India’s population is 733.33 million, this puts the urban population at ~203 million (27.8%).

Now, as per the latest TRAI figures (PDF file), broadband subscriber stands at ~2 million.

Getting real that broadband is still a distant dream in rural areas in India, the 2 million can be safely assumed to be contributed from urban areas.

So, 2 million of ~203 million urbanites have broadband – roughly 1%. Thus, broadband penetration in India can be assumed at about 1% (if you calculate it for the actual Indian population of ~ 1 Billion, the penetration rate will dip way further down).

Do these figures give enough incentives for VC’s to invest in the Indian consumer Internet space ?

Let us briefly look at the major VC investments in Indian consumer Internet companies:

Sequoia India – Guruji, Travelguru, MingleBox, ApnaLoan, Shaadi

Helion – Komli, MakeMyTrip

Matrix Partners – seventymm

Norwest Venture Partners – Yatra, Sulekha

Canaan Partners – bharatmatrimony

NEA IndoUS Venture Fund – Via / Flight Raja

KPCB – cleartrip, naukri

If you look closely, you’ll notice that majority of these investments are either into travel portals or existing, prominent portals (shaadi, sulekha, naukri etc.).

Very few are actually “startups” in the true sense.

Well, okay – the penetration rate is miserable. But look at the growth rate – 33%, fastest in the world as per Comscore. Yes, true..the growth rate is stupendous. But the growth rate does not actually depict broadband / “always-on” usage – the piece that is key to the proliferation of consumer Internet space.

Is that in any way, affecting the VC investment decisions in the Indian consumer Internet segment ? Should we be betting on the double digit growth rate or be wary of the poor penetration rate ?

Note: I’ve tried to be as accurate as possible. in case you notice any errors, kindly give me some leeway – its 3 in the morning as i write this

• Broadband numbers – this time from eMarketer
• India Online – from a Global perspective
• Indian govt plans action to meet projections of 20 million broadband connections

Comments

• July 15, 2007, satpal commented: Nice analysis Pranav.You could have made this look more interesting by adding some economic aspect like size of online advertising (life blood of present day internet ventures) and revenue and cash flow of existing ventures (reddif,indiatimes,info edge). I would like to add that from consumer point of you indian internet market is very cold.I hardly see any entreprenuer comming with local idea with global standard execution.Too many me-toos donot make it a exiting place. ANothey way to look at this is that indian internet market is vigin. Tt is more open then for experimentaion then any other market.No visible brands.No great success stories. Problem with indian internet market is its user base.User base have not reached to a critical mass can lift (and hence reward) a (original) idea overnight.To be successful in indina it isnecessary to have both online and offline presence for whcih you need lots of capital.This create a chicken and egg like situation.You will not have traction becoz u lack offline presence and u would not like to have offline presence till u get proof of concept online and get a VC to fund your expension. IMHO we dnot need VCs we need ideas and people who can execute those ideas to the prefection.
• July 15, 2007, pranav commented: Satpal, very true - the travel portals that have been so successful - these have combined the offline - online model well. To reach the 'critical mass', you need to go offline as well :-)
• July 15, 2007, pranav commented: Let me see if I can come up with an interesting way to plot the dimensions of advertising and revenues against the figures from this post...
• July 20, 2007, Indian govt plans action to meet projections of 20 million broadband connections commented: [...] Indian govt plans action to meet projections of 20 million broadband connections Tag: India broadbandIndia had a target of 3 million, 9 million and 20 million broadband Internet users by 2005, 2007 and 2010 respectively. In contrast, current broadband figures stand at 2.5 million users.  The gap is expected to widen to 10 million by 2010. So, instead of the projected 20 million broadband users, India will have only 10 million users. As noted in an earlier post, penetration currently is less than 1%. [...]
• March 28, 2008, dhingana commented: very interesting read....i have a strong feeling that in 2008 more investments are going to be in the social networking domain...

Just last week, there was an announcement that Sify had signed a deal with Railways, to get access to their fiber optic cable network, RailTel. Now, RailTel has announced plans to launch Wi-Fi access points at 500 railway stations. Bangalore will be the first to get Wi-Fi access in the next two – three months, followed by Jaipur.

via ET 

Comments

• August 16, 2007, Rohit commented: Hi, this is big deal with the Sify, one who has strong Skilled persons and one has Too large Fiber network!!. Now , we can just imagine what will happend...!!!

Sify has signed a deal with Indian Railways to lease their excess bandwidth capacity. The Railways has a robust fiber optic cable network – RailTel – and the deal will enable Railways to earn higher revenues by better utilization of the excess bandwidth. RailTel comprises of a 28,000 km optic fiber cable connecting 2200 towns and cities. Sify will use the RailTel infrastructure for its own operation as well as setting up cyber cafes.

via ET