India to offer free broadband internet by 2009

The Indian Government is set to introduce free broadband service for all it’s citizens by 2009. The launch is expected to be through BSNL, and MTNL, which are government owned. "The government proposes to offer all citizens of India free, high-speed broadband connectivity by 2009, through the state-owned telecom service providers BSNL and MTNL. While consumers would cheer, the move holds the potential to kill the telecom business as we know it." Which is a very good point when you think about it. From a consumer point of view, who can really complain about 2 mbps of free internet? On the other hand, you have now officially locked out any competitors, and are diminishing the probability of competition, faster expansion, and other developments which here would be called a Monopoly. The only particular part of interest about this, is that the Indian government is "very proactive in holding the consumers interests above the operators’, managing to reduce the long distance and wireless tariffs" and from a logical point of view, most of the infrastructure was already in place to get up and running. It might be the right move for the country after all. We shall wait and see, but if there was one country that could pull off free internet for everybody, then my bet is on India. Just make sure no one makes a Richard Gere MySpace India page.

[Via SlashDot]

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Jonathan S. Geller