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The success story of Internet communication

India - In recent decades, the Indian economy has been considered one of the fastest growing.

  The national domain of India is .in. The number of Internet users, based on 2016 data, is approximately estimated at 462 million people, which is 34.8% of the total population. Other sources point to 368 million users, which is 28.8%. The first information network connecting educational and scientific institutions was established in India in 1986, and Internet access became available to the public in 1995.

In terms of the number of software developers, India ranks second in the world, second only to the United States. The city of Bangalore, known as the IT capital of the country, is sometimes called the second Silicon Valley. Hundreds of thousands of specialists from this region work remotely, which makes it an important center for many IT projects. German, Japanese and American companies actively offer Indian IT specialists job offers and visas.

The technology sector in the country is actively developing, in particular due to the affordable and high-quality Internet connection, which contributes to the further growth of the Indian IT industry.

However, was everything so good with the Internet before 2016? and what happened to the Internet in India anyway?

Mukesh Ambani, the heir of the oil refining holding Reliance Industries, expressed his intention to solve one of the urgent problems of India: to provide the population with fast and affordable Internet in any corner of the country.

In 2010, Mukesh acquired a 95% stake in Infotel Broadband Services for $3.8 billion, which was subsequently renamed Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited. This company owns 4G frequencies with support for VoLTE (Voice over LTE) voice transmission technology.

Since then, the construction of an extensive network has begun, including hundreds of thousands of cell towers connecting 18 thousand cities and 200 thousand villages. Jio has developed a system of economical and compact towers, the installation of which takes only 5 hours. These towers, imitating a palm tree by design, are not only effective, but also integrated into the landscape, preserving its visual harmony.

In just six years, from 2010 to 2016, Jio achieved coverage of 99% of India's territory with a 4G Internet network, while Mukesh Ambani needed to invest $35 billion. This period was accompanied by an impressive technological breakthrough: in the first year of operation, in 2016, the number of subscribers increased by 150 million people. Tariffs have become affordable even for the least well-off segments of the population. As an example, given the average salary in India in 2022 of 31,875 rupees (approximately $400), one of the tariff plans with unlimited calls and Internet capacity of 0.1 GB per day costs a subscriber only 75 rupees in 23 days.

And what about the poor strata of the population in the country? How did you solve this problem?

With the awareness of the need to reach low–income segments of the population, Mukesh Ambani introduced the JioPhone, a push-button smartphone with a large color screen, available for rent for a symbolic deposit of $22. The user has the opportunity to return the phone and get his deposit back at any time. Launched in 2017, the initiative instantly led to the capture of 47% of the smartphone market, almost displacing Samsung from the country.

Currently, Jio is a comprehensive ecosystem that includes telephony, high-speed home Internet, smart home systems, media platforms, streaming services, business tools, messenger, marketplace, cloud services, lifestyle applications and other innovative solutions.

Most local mobile operators were forced to either cease their activities or unite to survive, and existing tariffs were significantly reduced – currently there are only three main operators. Despite the attempts of the operators to file lawsuits related to violations of antimonopoly legislation, court decisions were not in their favor.

At that time, Jio became one of the most influential brands in the world, ranking fifth in the TOP 10, closely following CocaCola.

What is the internet speed in India now?

The average fixed Internet speed of 47.40 Mbit/s (mobile 14.39 Mbit/s) indicates a relatively high bandwidth, which provides fast and stable access to the network. Such indicators indicate a good Internet connection quality, which can be an important factor for various online activities, including video streaming, file downloads and games.

What results will we summarize with you?

1. The country managed to achieve coverage of 99 percent.

2. The Internet speed in India is sufficient. The cost and speed of the Internet in India before Jio entered the market was simply a disaster.

I think this story is a good example for a possible future direction in this industry for Kazakhstan, perhaps we will have our tycoon who wants to become the oneMukesh Ambani

P.S. I would like to express special thanks to Pavel Fedotov for his post about 6G in India, the post inspired me to tell the reader the history of the Internet in India.

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Всегда рад! Рынок Индии вообще очень интересная штука — несмотря на относительную бедность (подчеркну — относительную!), там просто невероятный по емкости рынок + какой-никакой английский. С бору по сосенке, как говорится — вполне себе ниша для любого стартапа...

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Да, полностью согласен! Страна с самым большим ИТ сообществом, и многие ошибочно полагают что там только бедность, однако там просто невероятные контраст между обеспеченной прослойкой, и нуждающейся. Но мне кажется тяжеловато стартапам на рынке Индии из за большой все таки конкуренции.

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Спасибо большое автору. Очень интересная информация

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Спасибо Вам за прочтение! Очень рад что информация оказалась полезна Вам.

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