Entertainment and Telecom in India

Entertainment and Telecom in India

Should we broaden our focus on technology as a whole and include other hip happenings? I have searched for clues in the media or talking to people as a whole. Apart from entertainment, there is nothing that works in this country. Therefore, you have those endless saas bahu serials and soaps, which never cease to exist. The fact is that Indians are permanently fascinated by the brainless clichés. Technology as a ways and means of life exists in a few pockets and often over priced for comfort. Therefore, the boy’s toys are available off the shelf and hence affordable for a chosen lucky few.

Why am I mentioning this here? Fact is that there is very little happening on the telecom or the technology front. There are “n” numbers of customers added every quarter but I have repeatedly mentioned that the number is a suspect. The statistics on the ground have their own story to detail. Is it not that just 3% of the population owns the mobiles; that is the documented mobile penetration in North India. Dial up users exceed the existing “broadband customers”; numbers are estimated to be in “millions”. Yet the PC sales have remained stagnant over the past few years. Customers have no idea as to what is involved in buying off the shelf PC hardware. No appraisals and no cross checking with what the moneys worth they are going to get.

As I mentioned, Entertainment is one thing that drives the market. It is indeed asinine for Intel to advertise that a young girl matures and blossoms into becoming a doctor by sitting in front of a PC. I wish I could become a specialist this way. End of all troubles for me. Color TV sets are far more in number and indeed on the wish list of every Indian.

Anyone who understands this basic fact would rule the Broadband market. Reliance has understood this concept. BSNL is slow as ever; there seems to be no urgency. Mate the telecom wire with TV and sell this as a concept. I am sure there would be people who would be glad to sign up for the same.

A tall expectation indeed from the telecom companies.

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This post was submitted by Dr. Abhishek Puri on the Broadband Blog on Techwhack.