[This is based on the presentation I made in Barcamp Bangalore 3,
Mobile revolution
We have seen the Mobile Revolution in
The growth of mobile penetration is mind-boggling and is quite dramatic. It came about because of some of the factors listed below. Note that it is always easy to look back and analyze why it happened. That’s what I am doing here.
Key Factors for this explosion
* Late start
* Cheaper equipment
* Pent up Demand
* Innovative and Bold Deployment Strategies
* Population
First,
State of
Take a look at current broadband penetration in
The penetration of broadband will increase in the next few years and will catch like a wildfire when suddenly the cost of adoption and network deployment and maintenance will turn out to be extremely low compared to the kind of market demand it has.
The drivers will be-
# Decreasing cost per line
# Decreasing operating expense
# Decreasing cost of PC (or similar device)
# Social attitudes and habits embracing broadband facilities
# More Indian content
Broadband Revolution in
In effect, I believe that there is a very big room for growth of broadband penetration in
The pieces of puzzle are falling into place. With advent of wireless broadband (such as WiMAX and WiFi), with decreasing costs of PC, we will see the penetration grow slow and suddenly, when the price points have achieved that critical milestone, it will take a dramatic upswing and go on an exponential path for the next few years. In my estimation, by end of 2011, Indian will have more than 35 million broadband subscribers and by end of 2013, we will have nearly 1 million subscribers.
My question to all of us
Indian telecom operators are smarter than the rest of us. They usually wake up quite early to realize the potentials of Indian markets. They will definitely get themselves geared up for this oncoming Broadband Revolution. However, will the Indian entrepreneurs, Indian telecom vendors, Indian VCs, Indian startups wake up to this? When Indian Mobile Revolution happened, it was foreign telecom vendors which benefited. They supplied the radio access network equipments, and they supplied the core network equipment. They also supplied the mobile handsets and PDAs. Indian telecom operators had no choice but buy equipment from these foreign players.
Operators like BSNL, Airtel and Reliance throw open tenders worth billions of dollars, and most of these monies are taken up by foreign companies. Almost no domestic company seems to wake up to capture some of this market share. We could give ourselves an excuse that Indian ecosystem was not conducive to create such suppliers in
2 comments:
Nice article. I really hope it happens.
I a way the VC's and entrepreneurs have seen that the internet revolution (which is the side effect of the broadband revolution) is going to happen. That is why you see so many Internet Consumer companies and Travel Portals getting funded.
Sujai,
Your projections about the growth of broadband is becoming based on some of the assumptions you are making and I would love to know what they are.
Also, while the mobile penetration is increasing, and the broadband is also increasing, I believe what we will see in India actually is going to be very unique - that is broadband to the mobile phone. I strongly believe that the cost of the PC while it will drop, the features that are getting added to the phones for the current price points of Rs 5k-10k is much more. I don't see why we cannot leverage that to increase the access to content.
The interesting companies that will really be able to capture the most value and become great successes will be those who will upfront make the commitment for a online+mobile strategy.
Again, this is how I see things emerging.
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