
India has the highest data usage per smartphone - zadd
https://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/india-has-highest-data-usage-report/article28078254.ece
======
catchmeifyoucan
I'm from India. I can confirm this. It's because unlimited LTE data costs
about rs700 per month or 10 dollars. It can be spotty at times - but it works.
Mobile is by far the most used form factor. Search for "Jio" on your app store
and you'll see a variety of apps like JioTV, JioCinema, JioNews etc.. That
means free news, live tv and movies all for the price of a cell phone
subscription. Jio is the name of the service provider. No surprise India has
the highest data use - there's almost no need to buy a TV anymore to watch
content. You could also imagine why it might be hard for Netflix, Spotify and
Prime movies to compete in India - because those services are bundled out of
the box (no secret pay walls and great quality) for the price of your cell
service. The mobile revolution in India wasn't about the phone - it was about
access to fast mobile data. India has the lead on this one. We're paying too
much in America.

~~~
inapis
> You could also imagine why it might be hard for Netflix, Spotify and Prime
> movies to compete in India

Till a certain extent. Netflix, Prime Videos, Hotstar etc have much more
variety and higher quality and some are VERY AFFORDABLE. Prime videos and
Hotstar (HBO, Game of thrones, Veep, Silicon Valley like shows) can be had for
$14 USD per year EACH. So upwardly mobile Indians can subscribe to multiple
OTT streaming services (I do Netflix, Hostart, Primve Video + Apple Music).
For the price of one Spotify sub in US, you can subscribe to 5-7 music
streaming services in India.

For the rest, Indian creators on YouTube have pretty much surpassed every big
name streaming company. TVF, Timeliners etc have created content which
resonates with 18-35 year olds on an emotional level. Netflix et al. will
never have that emotional connect so easily.

~~~
cameronbrown
> Indian creators on YouTube have pretty much surpassed every big name
> streaming company.

I think T-Series would like a word.

In all seriousness I think the proliferation of independent content creators
is incredible. Maybe content is of lower quality, but it's more fun.

~~~
inapis
T-Series is not comparable to TV Shows. Yes, it has more subscribers on
youtube but it doesn't have that stickiness and loyalty that channels live
TVF, AIB (did?), Timeliners etc have.

TVF created a series set in 90s India which resonated with the current late
20s crowd so well that it spread like wildfire. If tomorrow, TVF would launch
a movie, it will pretty much fill all the theaters in the country.

~~~
cameronbrown
I'd argue that stickiness has transitioned to independent content creators.
Feels like an individual can always be more honest than a corporation even if
they're in it for profit.

~~~
xvector
I honestly feel the opposite. It is so much easier to manipulate individuals
into shilling for your product than it is a large company.

I would trust Wirecutter reviews more than my favorite YouTubers’ reviews, for
example. The livelihoods of the reviewers is not dependent nearly as much on
how well they are paid by their sponsor.

------
totaldude87
Jio revolution is the main reason for this, after Jio almost every other
vendor is giving you 30Gb(1Gb per day) for $5-6 , no wonder, there is a %30-40
utilization of data.

Majority of this utilization would be on Streaming, Torrent downloads etc etc,
Also to note that , many of the calls made in India are VOLTE calls..

~~~
purplex
I totally agree with you. Even though Jio has blocked many torrent website,
still people find holes to download the content. Normally people subscribe for
the 1 or 1.5 GB/day plan, which was earlier very much affordable compared to
other operators. Not others too have reduced their prices to stay in
competition.

One advantage is that Jio was totally new to the market so they started with
4G networks directly. The connectivity, voice clarity and bandwidth was very
good due to only-4G network. Other operators were are still working on 2G, 3G
and 4G.

I had earlier worked for Jio for 5 years and I feel proud today that I
contributed for the country - in allowing the easy access of data to public. I
remember, before 6 years I used to get 1 GB data for Rs. 250. Today for the
same amount I can nearly get 50 GB data.

My wife also worked for Jio and today is her last day. I feel very sad now.

~~~
z3phyr
The torrent websites might be blocked, but the actual torrent protocol works.
You just need to find magnets.

~~~
tellme_throwa
Nope, many trackers are blocked too and that is problematic for regional
content

but there are things like free online leechers, telegram groups that freely
share pirated content..

------
sandGorgon
and we arent even close to peaking.

The biggest telcos in India havent even started content plays. Netflix _just_
entered India.

And we still have HALF A BILLION people not on the internet. This is in an
environment with constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights to privacy
(that cannot be reversed by the govt), a govt run mobile payments
infrastructure that is literally a free Stripe+Paypal+Venmo+Alipay and perhaps
the world's largest pool of software developers.

There are multiple large/successful venture funded startups in India started
and run by non-citizen expatriates (incl women). English is pretty much the
language of business and India-US/India-EU have excellent non-double taxation
laws.

Healthcare is dirt cheap and very good.

Its a brilliant time to do a startup here.

~~~
inapis
> govt run mobile payments infrastructure that is literally a free
> Stripe+Paypal+Venmo+Alipay

UPI or Unified Payments Interface. I cannot stress how innovative this payment
mode is.

* No risk of fraud (can't approve a transaction without a PIN on your mobile) - fraud as in card cloning, malware infected websites running off with card details. Does not preclude social engineering where users fall into clever tricks.

* no privacy issues yet (money is directly debited from account without a mastercard/visa involved)

* anyone can make a UPI app (all banks have their own, Google Pay, Paytm, PhonePe etc)

* no cards to duplicate

* you can manage multiple VPAs on one account, so I can create different identities for different purposes all debiting money from one account.

Exceptions - UPI still doesn't support recurring payments or subscriptions and
some other cases.

But as a regular consumer, I find plastic outdated. I've never used
WeChat/AliPay so can't comment on that but the only time I have to use a
credit card is when I have to pay international companies (DO, GSuite etc) in
USD/EUR.

EDIT - expanded on kinds of fraud.

~~~
signal11
> no privacy issues yet (money is directly debited from account without a
> mastercard/visa involved)

Isn’t Aadhar (fingerprints + iris scan) needed to have a bank account? If yes,
then it’s a bit disingenuous to say there are no privacy issues.

> No risk of fraud

A cursory search will show plenty of press articles re UPI fraud. For instance
[1].

[1] [https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/personal-
finance/...](https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/personal-
finance/defrauded-while-transferring-money-using-upi-apps-such-as-bhim-google-
pay-or-phonepe-here-is-what-you-should-do-next-4097321.html)

~~~
inapis
>Isn’t Aadhar (fingerprints + iris scan) needed to have a bank account? If
yes, then it’s a bit disingenuous to say there are no privacy issues.

Nopes. Govt tried really hard. Attorney General didn't really sound far from
Facebook's primary lawyer. But Supreme Court shut it down.

>A cursory search will show plenty of press articles re UPI fraud. For
instance [1].

I should expand that I meant technical fraud - your card being cloned on a
PoS, or a malware infected website siphoning card details, lax controls by
card issuers etc (Amex is notorious for approving payments with just the card
number and CVV)

Stuff like this is hard on UPI BUT it is isn't idiot proof. You can't really
make a system secure when the human victim willingly hands over information as
was alluded by your link.

~~~
signal11
I believe Aadhar is mandatory if you're filing tax in India[1]. And the
government earlier in the year passed a bill to undo some of the supreme court
protections and facilitate sharing of Aadhar data with third parties[2].

So unless you're too poor to file taxes (or are not an Indian resident), bank
accounts can always be linked to Aadhar, even if it happens via the PAN.

[1] [https://qz.com/india/1351263/supreme-court-verdict-how-
india...](https://qz.com/india/1351263/supreme-court-verdict-how-indias-
aadhaar-id-became-mandatory/)

[2]
[https://www.livemint.com/Opinion/jmxPkXXGWeEfiAsCsA1xnO/Opin...](https://www.livemint.com/Opinion/jmxPkXXGWeEfiAsCsA1xnO/Opinion
--The-Aadhaar-amendment-and-private-sector-access.html)

Re Aadhar -- HN readers should note that IndiaStack (indiastack.org, very
popular with VCs operating in India) relies a lot on Aadhar, so a lot of
people in Indian Startups have a financial interest in not seeing the
downsides of Aadhar.

~~~
inapis
You're moving goal posts.

Aadhar being necessary for tax filing !== Aadhar is mandatory for operating a
bank account, claims which you made in previous posts.

Yes, going backwards government can indeed find your bank accounts because you
might quote them on tax forms but having Aadhar is NOT necessary for operating
a bank account. I have multiple accounts, none of which have been closed or
service being denied for lack of an aadhar number.

>Re Aadhar -- HN readers should note that IndiaStack (indiastack.org, very
popular with VCs operating in India) relies a lot on Aadhar, so a lot of
people in Indian Startups have a financial interest in not seeing the
downsides of Aadhar.

This is exaggerated. People can lead perfectly functional lives without
quoting Aadhar to anybody except the taxman. You're pushing it.

~~~
miohtama
Also I am pretty sure government can find all of your bank accounts without
Aadhar, using a court order.

~~~
signal11
A huge criticism of Aadhar is that with Aadhar, a court order isn’t necessary.
The Aadhar act allows any lookup authorized by mid level bureaucrats.

Also, given that a lot of Aadhar data has leaked (even the biometrics have
leaked in some states[2]) and given the lack of privacy legislation in India,
it’s trivial for private entities, including scammers, to know your bank
accounts.

Wide availability of bank account info has enabled a number of social
engineering attacks[1].

Separately UPI remains vulnerable to SIM cloning as the phone number is
crucial to UPI identity.

[1]
[https://www.google.com/search?&hl=en&q=upi+fraud+in+india](https://www.google.com/search?&hl=en&q=upi+fraud+in+india)

[2] [https://medium.com/karana/gujarat-biometric-leak-and-
registe...](https://medium.com/karana/gujarat-biometric-leak-and-registered-
devices-a4ea9940b770)

------
harias
For 6 dollars 50 cents, you get 1.5 GB/day for 91 days.

Data-plans on offer: [https://www.jio.com/en-
in/4g-plans](https://www.jio.com/en-in/4g-plans)

And they manage to remain profitable (only-telco in India that reported profit
this quarter) : [https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-
stories/relian...](https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-
stories/reliance-jio-q4-net-profit-jumps-64-to-
rs-840-crore-119041801060_1.html)

~~~
taneq
Holy crap, why am I paying $35/mo for 500mb? >.<

~~~
krzyk
Where are you?

In Poland I pay ~ 13.30 USD for 12 GB per month (with additional 12 GB on top
of that for 1 year) + unlimited calls/sms/mms. And my plan is pretty crappy in
comparison to currently available ones.

~~~
philjohn
In the UK Three does a sim only plan that offers unlimited data (I've pulled
down 100GB in a month before), tethering and use abroad (including the US) for
£20 a month on a two year contract.

------
lota-putty
3.5GB/day, 100 SMS/day, unlimited Local/STD calls @ $2/Month at a remote town
in India.

At peak hours I see 1+ Mbps, 8+ Mbps during least(10pm - 8am) traffic hours.

I use DNSFilter along with DoT & DoH for Smartphone. Stubby for my Laptop's
Ubuntu over USB hotspot.

Yes, JIO changed data market with its bullish 4G investment. Prior to that,
subscribers could ride free on with zero/month for only incoming calls. Now
every subscriber has to pay $2-4/annum for the same ride.

After this mandatory fee, I suspect #subscribers in overall fell. Edit: Indeed
latest stats see a dip in Mar-2019. Last year it saw double digit growth in
subscriptions.
[https://main.trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/PR_No.40of2019....](https://main.trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/PR_No.40of2019.pdf)

~~~
tellme_throwa
Hello,. also from a remote village but for most people jio has been
economical.

I remember browsing at ~10 KiB/s on BSNL 2G network at 20MB/day for INR 4, now
at nearly same cost, I can get much better internet, though not even near to
foreign speeds.

------
justaguyhere
Americans are going to be livid when they learn how cheap data plans are in
India. The reason this works is free market, unlike the US where the likes of
Comcast have monopoly in the regions they operate.

Hasan Minhaj did a show this week on Netflix, you should watch it - he
explains pretty well how horrible Comcast like companies are.

~~~
cpursley
It's weird. I'm an American living in Russia. Here, we have many more choices
for cell phone plans. And they're all cheap and innovative vs even the
cheapest US plan. Competition really does work!

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_industry_in_Russi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_industry_in_Russia#Mobile_phone_service_providers)

~~~
2Ccltvcm
Woah woah. Do you have a professional license and liability insurance to
practice that opinion in public near the presence of children?

------
rohan1024
Jio has set the entire market on fire. I remember 3 Years back I was paying
Rs. 1000/month @ 1Mbps unlimited to my local broadband service provider. Today
the same service provider is offering me unlimited data @ 50Mbps without
change in cost!

Edit: Also, the entire network is ipv6 enabled from the beginning. India went
from white to green within months on ipv6 graph at

[https://www.google.com/intl/en/ipv6/statistics.html#tab=per-...](https://www.google.com/intl/en/ipv6/statistics.html#tab=per-
country-ipv6-adoption)

~~~
zeristor
How much of the 50mbps do you get though? Contention is one of the names of a
high speed internet connection if the company doesn’t invest enough in the
backend.

Or to put it another way, would you stream 4K video with it?

~~~
SJetKaran
This mainly depends on the location. In the denser areas of the metros, speed
is lower (depends on time of the day as well). But the coverage across the
India landmass is pretty good. I was streaming netflix hd on mobile, while
traveling to another city on a bus.

~~~
rohan1024
I think he is not asking about Jio but the local service provider.

~~~
zeristor
No Jio, it’s cheaper to have a sustainable high speed connection for one
person, but a lot more capital intensive for lots of people.

In the UK you can buy a 200mbps connection, but at peak times in the evening
it slows to about 10mbps since they don’t have the capacity.

I suppose they point is peak time usage.

------
dzhiurgis
Can someone explain why in countries with established infrastructure,
automation and cheaper capital cost (albeit higher labor cost) the internet
cost is around 10-20x more than in India?

Additionally, it's often ~5x slower than in 2nd world countries...

~~~
jbarham
Mobile data in Canada is notoriously expensive. The official justification is
that it's a large, sparsely populated country. The actual explanation is
regulatory capture by a cozy/corrupt domestic oligopoly that has successfully
lobbied the government to stop foreign competitors.

Like Canada, Australia is also a very large, sparsely populated country but
mobile data is fast and reasonably priced (e.g.,
[https://www.aldimobile.com.au/plans/value-
packs/](https://www.aldimobile.com.au/plans/value-packs/), which I use).

~~~
kalleboo
I remember visiting Canada (this was many years ago) and looking into local
prepaid SIM cards. The cost of roaming data was actually cheaper than the data
pricing on the local prepaid SIM cards...

~~~
Scoundreller
It’s very embarrassing as a Canadian when foreigners visit and do things with
their phones here that I wouldn’t dream of doing myself on a local plan.

Time for me to email my MP tonight.

------
bhouston
I think it is because there is much less usage of home internet in India. Thus
what North America and Europe split between mobile and home internet is all on
India's mobile.

This means that India is actually much lower in total bandwidth usage per
month per person than North America and Europe overall.

~~~
Scoundreller
True, but it also means that wireless networks are physically capable of
replacing physical infrastructure, but aren’t in developed countries because
of artificially high per gb prices.

~~~
bhouston
It is especially possible in a 5G world. :)

------
LyndsySimon
Ugh.

I live in Arkansas, and my AT&T bill this month is $410. Granted, about $150
of that are payment plans for devices, but still. The base rate plan is $110,
and there's a $20-30 per line fee for four separate lines.

I have an iPad Pro 11" LTE and an iPhone X, my wife has an S10+, and I handed
down my 6th Gen iPad LTE to my 10-year-old. It's a lot more than "needed", and
our aggregate data usage is 30+ GB/month, but still. The difference in cost is
staggering.

~~~
dman
Why dont you use tethering and use the connection from your phone on your
ipad?

~~~
LyndsySimon
It drains the battery, for one thing. For another, it's one extra additional
step that I have to go through to get online on the iPad, and the lack of
friction to doing things online that are more substantial than is comfortable
on a phone is the primary purpose of the device.

Finally, I very often tether my MBP to my iPad, because the iPad's battery
lasts much longer. If my phone battery is low I pretty much need to charge it
so I can get calls from family. If my iPad's battery dies I'm merely
inconvenienced for a while.

------
vijaybritto
This is so true. My mom watches all her Serials, news and funny vids in her
mobile. Our TV is deserted now!

Jio forced everyone to bring down the prices. Now all those companies have
begun posting quarterly losses and they don't have a humungous cash cow like
jio. This is not gonna end well.

~~~
sbmthakur
This is exactly going well. Those companies had formed some sort of a cartel
and were bleeding people (especially the poor folks) with their high prices.
As a student in 2015, I'd never imagined having a data enabled on my Vodafone
Sim. But then things changed for good.

~~~
vijaybritto
Yes but when the competition is completely demolished by Jio they can setup
the prices as they please. That's the problem. I don't see the govt doing
anything to prevent complete monopoly. It benefits you immediately but not in
the future.

------
Frost1x
I wonder how population density effects price for cellular carriers. One
reason wireless is expensive in the US, to my knowledge, is because much of
the surface area is sparsely populated with customers requiring more wireless
tower infrastructure to cover fewer people (then costs are spread across most
the national or regional customer base).

In dense cities, I imagine towers can theoretically serve more people.
Obviously you reach a saturation point where a tower can only serve so many
people and has to be expanded but I suspect this lowers infrastructure costs.
One would have to be able to handle larger "burst" demands in a densely
populated area though.

On top of that, I'm not familiar with topography of India, but certain areas
in the US are mountainous and as a result, require even more towers to provide
coverage (for typically sparse populations). In dense cities where you have
near line of sight, I imagine that increases range reducing infrastructure
demands some (though this constraint may be moot based on typical tower
saturation).

In India I would expect cheaper prices based on that line of reason, though I
may be missing something critical (I'm no telecom expert).

~~~
notfromhere
Something like 90% of the population lives on 15% of the land. We have a
telecommunications oligopoly, which is why service is expensive in the U.S.

------
cyberjunkie
It might be the videos shared on WhatsApp, TikTok, Youtube, then the Netflix,
Amazon Prime and Hotstar consumption.

We were deprived for the longest, being offered a gigabyte for a month for $5
- $10, and now we have practically free mobile connectivity with data.

~~~
harias
> Netflix, Amazon Prime

Very few subscribe. Youtube would be the majority in my opinion. Hotstar too,
but only during cricket matches.

Local content on Youtube is on the rise.

Example:

Technical Guruji (A Hindi tech channel) has way more subscribers than MKBHD -
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOhHO2ICt0ti9KAh-
QHvttQ](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOhHO2ICt0ti9KAh-QHvttQ)

A Punjabi song is nearing a billion views :
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpkJO_GrCo0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpkJO_GrCo0)

It is a largely untapped market and ripe for takeover.

~~~
makepanic
> Technical Guruji (A Hindi tech channel) has way more subscribers than MKBHD

From looking over it, he has more subscribers but way less views per video.

MKBHD is easily over 2M views per video where Guruji never really breaches 1M
views and seems to be around 400K per video.

~~~
harias
The gap is closing real fast (views in the last 30 days)

MKBHD - 39 Million[0]

Technical Guruji - 41.5 Million[1]

[0] -
[https://socialblade.com/youtube/user/marquesbrownlee](https://socialblade.com/youtube/user/marquesbrownlee)

[1] - [https://socialblade.com/youtube/channel/UCOhHO2ICt0ti9KAh-
QH...](https://socialblade.com/youtube/channel/UCOhHO2ICt0ti9KAh-QHvttQ)

~~~
piyush_soni
Wow. That's insane! And still Technical Guruji doesn't get as favorable
treatment from Google as MKBHD does (like giving phones one month before
release to try, calling him in all conferences etc.)

~~~
toasterlovin
MKBHD's audience has more money to spend.

------
tsjq
Most responses here extolling Jio for the low-cost mobile data.

not to forget how Jio scammed their way into existence:

[1] [https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/spectrum-
grab/art...](https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/spectrum-
grab/article9103427.ece)

[2] [https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/the-great-
telecom...](https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/the-great-telecom-
swindle/article10008167.ece)

and, this artificially low cost data is killing competition, which will impact
a lot of their debt held by banks. and to keep these banks alive, govt shall
resort to some more "recapitalization".

effectively, Jio's low cost data is being funded by taxpayer money.

we all need to keep that in mind.

------
axyjo
I wonder how much of this is attributable to a rise in streaming (Amazon
Prime, Hotstar, etc.) but a lack in investment for fixed-line internet.

~~~
lb1lf
Last mile fixed lines are outrageously expensive compared to wireless
infrastructure, with the result being that many countries with limited land
lines have wireless infrastructure other, more industrialized countries can
only dream about.

To put it this way: I had more reliable coverage and lots more bandwidth
available just outside Mogadishu than I've ever had in San Francisco.

I am not joking.

~~~
lunchables
You'll likely have the same experience in Houston, Phoenix or Nashville (etc).
San Francisco is just too dense, too many people and devices.

~~~
nwatson
You'll find most U.S. urban areas are just as connected as San Francisco. SF
NIMBY mindset prevents infrastructure improvements required to improve
connectivity.

~~~
Scoundreller
Connectivity can be built if the desire is there.

Paris isn’t particularly high density, and practically everything is
historical, but you don’t see big ugly base stations everywhere to provide
excellent coverage.

And their telecom (wired and wireless) rates are dirt cheap.

------
tellme_throwa
Think I can list a few reasons.

[ _] Movie piracy: continuing through telegram groups

[_] WhatsApp - people share videos on whatsapp a lot these days..

[ _] YouTube - Here I don 't think ppl are much into paying for Netflix /
Amazon, but YouTube is used a lot.

[_] Others: services like hotstar, voot ( movie / TV live streaming ), audio
streaming services. Most of these are ad supported. And of course, seems quite
a lot at adult content..

This is what I observed in surroundings. Indian people don't care much about
ads and that also has been a monetization strategy for jio. I personally don't
use any of their apps but many do. Also their cheap feature phones embed
advertising.

------
denzil_correa
This is also because for most people a smartphone is their first computer and
mobile Internet is their first Internet connection.

~~~
lkbm
My initial thought was roughly the same -- I have wifi at home, at work, at
the gym, at the coffee shop. The only time I go over 2GB in a month is if I
turn off wifi for some reason and forget to turn it back on when I got to
work/home.

But to your point, I also watch videos primarily on my laptop, not my phone. I
also have a phone with plenty of storage so I can cache all my most listened
to music, my audiobook, and latest podcasts.

I technically have unlimited data, albeit dropping down to 2G speeds after
2GB, but I almost ever hit that limit. The cost isn't a factor for me, since
it's flat-rate. I know it is to some people, but it's the presence of wifi and
my preference for watching videos on my laptop that keeps mobile data usage
low.

------
wil421
In my limited experience, my Indian coworkers had 2 SIMs minimum. Some had 3
or 4 but one would likely be a promotional “free” one.

This was in Delhi and they said the providers could be very flakey. A back up
was necessary. Some people also used their phone and it’s hotspot as the main
source of internet.

Are having multiple SIMs common in India? Or was I just working with Software
Engineers?

~~~
harias
Almost all mobile phones come with dual-sim support. Some with the second sim
tray being utilized as an External memory card slot/Sim card slot. This is
pretty common all over SE Asia.

~~~
wil421
I’m asking about the need for 2-3 SIMs, not the capability. They’ve had them
on phones for a while and it should become obsolete with eSIMs. The new iPhone
features a physical SIM and an eSIM.

~~~
djpr
In this case, the capability is caused by a need. As the other person said,
it's about optimizing between different special offers & discounts given by
different mobile operators.

Source: Indonesian with family that needs two-sim cards phones.

------
ycombonator
Part of it is because of this messaging use case
[https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-internet-is-filling-up-
beca...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-internet-is-filling-up-because-
indians-are-sending-millions-of-good-morning-texts-1516640068)

------
habosa
It's been interesting to watch (from way over here in the US) as Jio totally
changed the Indian market.

For anyone reading this from India: is there any negative sentiment about Jio
or is everyone just really excited to have cheap reliable data access?

~~~
shripadk
The only negative sentiment around Jio is that Jio isn't available in certain
remote corners of India (only if you are travelling to remote villages) and
that Jio GigaFiber (the FTTH solution) hasn't be deployed yet (The
infrastructure has already been setup. Launch has been delayed as they are
releasing it phase-wise). I am waiting to switch from my current FTTH provider
to Jio GigaFiber once it launches.

I currently have a 100Mbps + 200 GB per month plan but looking at the tariffs
of Jio GigaFiber I can get 100Mbps + 100GB per month + complimentary 40GB per
month for a fraction of the price. Once Jio GigaFiber launches with proper
tariff plans I am sure I can opt for the 1Gbps + 1TB per month plan for the
same price I am paying my current FTTH provider.

[https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/features/story/jio-
giga...](https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/features/story/jio-gigafiber-
may-launch-soon-apart-from-cheap-prices-what-else-jio-will-
offer-1552165-2019-06-19)

[https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/features/story/jio-
giga...](https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/features/story/jio-gigafiber-
prices-leaked-50mbps-broadband-could-start-at-rs-600-per-month-could-offer-
jio-hometv-1553749-2019-06-21)

------
grwthckrmstr
I pay Rs 499 (~$7) for 84 days of 1.5gb data/day, unlimited calls, and 4g
speeds between 1-10mbps. This is one of the best things that happened to India
in recent times. All thanks to Ambani/Jio.

Even broadband here has reached next level. I pay $30/mo for 200 Mbps speeds
and 1 TB data transfer. It's hilariously cheap. This is thanks to ACT
Fibernet.

I think UPI is up there in the list. At present I make 80% of my digital
transactions (and close to ~100% transactions below $10) via UPI. I can't
believe something this cool came out of a body of our country.

Game changers.

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dapids
If they don't have the infrastructure for vast modern cable based connections
and wireless installations, why not use the already existing cell
infrastructure? India isn't the only one.

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osrec
Cheap data is probably the driver of this, but I've noticed a number of my
friends and family from India love to send picture messages, videos and GIFs
every morning to ALL of their contacts, simply wishing them "good morning
friends". Then same again in the evening - "good night friends". It's a bit
weird to be honest, and it wouldn't surprise me if the data added up to a
significant number!

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gingabriska
Don't compare your American plans, most of the cities in India are facing
severe water shortage and temperature is rising every year. There are still
power cuts even in the largest cities. Air quality is worse, just look at the
AQI index.

All this is because of mismanagement and lack of effective regulation, which
Jio is a byproduct of.

No wonder it doesn't exist in America.

------
est
You can play with the visualization here

[https://www.ericsson.com/en/mobility-report/mobility-
visuali...](https://www.ericsson.com/en/mobility-report/mobility-visualizer)

~~~
sbmthakur
Nice. How accurate is this?

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the_mitsuhiko
Finland's monthly data usage per SIM is 23.8, Austria's is 9.9. Both of which
are higher than the number quoted for india in the article if the assumption
is made that SIM = smartphone.

~~~
fastball
I believe many Indians have multiple SIMs.

~~~
vardump
People in Finland and Austria probably have multiple phones with 4G SIMs as
well.

~~~
fastball
Having multiple phones with a sim each would keep the usage per SIM static.

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2T1Qka0rEiPr
Do most Indians have good internet access at home? As in, is a portion of this
accounting for home-usage which is replaced by a home connection in other
countries?

~~~
signal11
Broadly, no. I know the other reply said:

> 35$ for 1TB up/down, 150 Mbps. Available in all major cities. Good enough?

But that's affordable for a _very_ thin slice of the population. Remember that
India's average nominal income, i.e., not PPP-adjusted, is $140 per month.
Also, this only works in the better-off areas of the "major cities" (Delhi,
Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and similar) -- there's a lot of the
population who live outside these cities.

Considering local factors, wired internet is a marker of being upper middle
class, or even 'rich', and living in a great residential area in a top-tier
city.

~~~
2T1Qka0rEiPr
Thanks. I suppose my question was less about the _affordability_ of a landline
connection, but consumption of. Interesting that you said its a marker of
wealth - but are you essentially saying that for everyone else it's not that
common. At the heart of what I'm asking is: Did India skip this generation of
high-landline consumption, and jump straight to mobile internet?

~~~
signal11
Yes, for now.

Jio's rival Airtel owns satellite/cable tv platforms and even supplies wired
internet in parts of major cities. No one with any ambition has really tried
wired internet in India -- for a long time the only way to get it was via the
government-run telecoms provider (who are -- surprise! -- not very good).

Jio's parent company produces a lot of movies in India and in Hollywood,
including Arrival, Ready Player One, Ghost in the Shell, Lincoln, etc. They
know the value of a converged platform that serves data + video. And they
don't have a satellite/cable tv network because the Jio vision was all-
digital, all IP. And they have been building the backhaul to do this at scale
across India (lots of planning applications are online) and are now slowly
trialling Jio GigaFibre (a Gigabit Home Fibre service) in parts of India.

What I don't know is if they can turn these trials into a compellingly priced
proposition Indians will pay for (and get rid of their cable tv subscriptions
for -- and cable is very popular in India, even wired cable tv -- even in low-
income neighbourhoods. So clearly India can solve the last-mile wiring problem
if they want to). But they have been able to do it with 4G and I suspect they
wouldn't trial a Gigabit fibre product if they didn't have a proposition in
mind.

Incidentally if you're wondering: "won't 5G make wired internet redundant" \--
India has lots of cell towers but also lots of people connecting to each of
those towers. This means that often speeds during the daytime are pathetic. I
personally used Jio and Airtel while visiting India recently in May, and even
web pages had trouble loading (on both networks) in the afternoon^. I suspect
the effective bandwidth available per subscriber in even small Indian cities
(1M would be small in India) would be quite variable, and certainly small
during busy periods.

Sorry if this is too much detail. I just find the ambition involved in
bringing internet at scale to an entire country (especially one the size of
India!) endlessly fascinating.

^ May is 'peak summer' in India, and the afternoon sees very few people on the
roads and the bazaars are deserted as people rest or take a siesta. I suspect
internet usage goes through the roof then.

~~~
2T1Qka0rEiPr
No, very interesting, thanks

------
JoshTko
US has decent plans if you search - Visible, Verizon owned Prepaid MVNO, has a
$40/mo unlimited plan.

~~~
asenk
That is if you define $40/mo "up to 5 Mbps" as decent.

------
rpvreviews
In my Google Fi plan i pay $10 for 1 GB

------
spraveenitpro
What about Toilets?

~~~
geodel
Well India has implemented ODF (Open Defecation Framework) where citizens can
defecate on railway tracks, roadside or any empty lot openly. Millions of city
dwellers are already availing these services.

~~~
kshacker
you had me on "Open"

------
Zarathustra_
This is surely due to cost of data. It baffles me that we have so much
regulation and so many entrenched players that there is little room for
competition, leading to higher prices. The question is, how do you prevent the
natural monopolies of a finite resource (like wireless spectrum)? The first
thing I could think of is stopping the Sprint - T-Mobile merger, but I'm not
confident Sprint will keep its head above water much longer without it. Maybe
it's better to have the airwaves resold? Or maybe not, as one of the big
existing telcos will buy them at auction.

Can any one conceive of a reasonable solution to this? Ideally one which
involves minimum government intervention.

~~~
ksec
I thought T-Mobile has been gaining more customers with their lower price and
reasonable quality? And I have always assumed Sprint and T-Mobile merger will
give T-Mobile more firing power to continue the fight.

I think people often view MNO in Cost / Data. In reality the Data is "free".
The MNO will need a way to paid for everything from Spectrum, Telecom
Equipment Lease, Rent, Fibre Connection, all of these are _Fixed_ Cost. Unless
something is different in the US I don't understand why the cost of Mobile
plans are so much more expensive than European counterpart.

