Time passes, things change ....

TEN YEARS OF INTERNET, MOBILES IN INDIA
S Sadagopan
The Financial Express

The year 2005 is special, indeed. It is not only the 10th year of Java, but also marks 10 years of Internet usage and mobile phone adoption in India. These 10 years have been historic, not just for the technology landscape, but for the common man and woman as well. Let me elaborate.

It was on August 23, 1995, that mobile telephones started ringing (that, too, in the most unexpected place in India, namely, Calcutta (it has since changed its name to Kolkata and is trying to change its face under a new age ‘Buddha’). Interestingly, Internet was first made available to an average Indian by the monopoly public sector overseas telephone service provider, VSNL (that has now become a Tata company!) on August 1, 2005. Though the Ernet project brought the Internet to educational institutions in 1998 and Nicnet brought it to government officers in 1991, Internet was not available to the general public until VSNL started offering its service.

Look at the extent of growth over 10 years and the significant ‘paradigm shifts.’ In the whole of the first 20 months, India could not add 2,00,000 customers; the average rate across mobile phones was Rs 16.40 per minute; mobile to landline cost Rs 32.80! Mobile phone handsets cost above Rs 20,000. Today, India is adding 80,000 customers every day. The average rate is Rs 0.40; there are handsets available for Rs 1,100, though many taxi drivers in Mumbai buy camera-fitted phones that cost about Rs 6,000.

The MNC service providers (AT&T, Singtel, Telstra, Hutchinson) entered the market and exited after getting tired of government apathy and corruption (minister Sukh Ram was the epitome). But all of them have quietly re-entered the Indian market through partnerships and acquisitions. The highest FDI, of more than $2 billion, is in telecom. Landlines numbered just 80,000 in 1947 (when India attained Independence), crossed one million in 1971 and five million in 1991.

In October 2004, the mobile phone population surpassed the landline population of 46 million. And on January 14, 2005, the Indian telecom population officially crossed 100 million! Bharti Telecom became a billion dollar company in 2004. We download one million paid ring tones a day (average cost of Rs 9) and send 100 million SMS messages every day.

(The writer is director of IIIT, Bangalore.)

Came across this article today. Makes me remember the time Bobby's dad used to bring back Wrigley's, Nikes, push button pencils, Knight Rider/Freegle Rock videos, Mitsubishi TVs, Hitachi VCRs & other such 'imported' stuff from the gulf in the late 80s & me & Jolly used to stare wide-eyed with amazement at them. Now, the scene is a little bit different. These very companies/products are after Indian consumers like me & it feels great!