First you could not bribe your way to a broadband connection; and now there is a price war going on in India for broadband services. This is how India works I guess, at least from a telecom perspective. A few days after incumbent carriers – BSNL and MTNL – started selling a barebones 256 kbps service for around $10 a month, Bharti Airtel’s Broadband unit has started offering the very same package, at the same price. A month ago, Bharti was charging six-times as much for that meager connection. “We will reduce prices to match BSNL offer and an announcement will be made in a few days,” said Prem Pradeep, chief executive officer, ABTS. It is only a matter of time before others – Sify and Tata Indicom respond with their price cuts. Here is an honest, no-holds barred assessment of Indian broadband market.
True broadband with always on and “cappless” download is still miles away in India. I try to cover a lot of the Indian broadband action in the lower end of the price spectrum, and am quite disappointed with what we presently have. The least available “unlimited” download 24×7 option is @ 64kbps and costs more than Rs.1000 per month, and that IMO is *very* *very* expensive.
Cheers,
Sudhir.P
http://sudhir-lp.blogspot.com
I agree, the true broadband is still many years away, but I feel it is coming and well, I am hoping something is better than nothing.