Internet to become ubiquitous in India
Years ago, I watched the Shah Rukh Khan starrer, Baadshah. Media now addresses SRK by this name, which, now you know, started by this movie. But I’m not going to blog about that. Yes, I know you would have preferred that any day. But, what the hell, this is Web-Advertising-Technology. See, no mention of Bollywood ! OK, so, in one of the scenes, the protagonist, a detective named Baadshah , is in a flight. The airhostess comes with a plate of chocolates and offers him. “Free hain?”, Baadshah asks, and on receiving a positive response, picks up a handful. That is my point. India is a price-sensitive market. Goodies are good, only if they are cheap. And in best case, free. So be it, said the Internet companies.
Internet companies are now providing the Internet access to Indian population at dirt cheap rates. And hold your breath, even for free.
Tata Teleservices, the CDMA cellular service provider has introduced the monthly mobile Internet service for Rs.100. The lowest anywhere in the country. The new service will come installed even at the lowest range handsets, priced at Rs.2000. Opera Mini, the coveted mobile browser will be pre-installed on the phones. The chipset will be provided by Qualcomm, the developers of the CDMA standard.
Another player called Ahem Management Solutions is planning to set up Internet kiosks. Each Kiosk will have five LCD monitors and skilled operators. The kiosks will be called Nethotzones. The services will be started at Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot. Later, the service will expand to 155 tier-II cities. Any user can just walk into any kiosk and just start using the Internet. Free of charge. Revenue will be generated through online and offline advertising.
Now that’s what may steer mass adoption of the Internet. However, there will have to be a good number of supported services for people to make use of such services. The population can make use of the Internet. The move by Tata and Nethotzones is a welcome step.
Even government of India is coming up with something called Common Service Centers (CSC), which will be hi-speed Internet access centers. I hope with a lot of cheap connectivity and useful services and engaging content, the Internet adoption in India gets that much-needed boost
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“Nethotzones” too modern name .. can’t become household name in India . Surely not atleast in tierII cities. Dude, kindly convey them to change the name
forget it “student”. the names have to be aspirational for internet kisosks acceptability. net hot zones will deliver the goods
and the whole idea is that internet will have to get commoditized to mass acceptance. names will not matter in the long run i am sure.
Amazing post Ankit - love the start. Merging cultural artefacts such as cinema with your observation just makes it better!
@Student
I do not see any problem with the name.
As Manoj said, name will not matter in the long run.
Moreover, we cannot ask someone to make changes to their business in any way. Thats not what WATblog does.
@Manoj
You have a point.
Internet will have to be commoditized
@Harshil
Thanks a lot, man.