Google realizes that it isn’t smartphones that hold the biggest important in India, but the broadband connectivity, which is as poor as Android Marshmallow’s adoption rate.
After the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, N. Chandrababu Naidu tweeted that the govt. is planning to provide 15Mbps household broadband connectivity for just Rs. 149 per month, little did he know that he is going to face competition from the ones who are rocking 1GBps speed in the U.S.
We're providing Internet through APSFL at Rs.149/month for a 15 Mbps line to households & offices will get 100 Mbps line at Rs.999/ month.
— N Chandrababu Naidu (@ncbn) March 17, 2016
Google’s Eric Page (spokesperson for Mr. Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google) was quoted saying “We realize the need for broadband connectivity in India, but also keep in mind the speed since we don’t like to see our YouTube videos to be buffering most of the time”, “We are planning to have three tiers of speeds, from 50 Mbps to 150 Mbps, and we want it to be as affordable as the Android One series, and similarly, we will have yearly upgrades to the speeds for next two years for free”.
Hearing this, whoever had retweeted the tweets from @ncbn silently did the “undo retweet” and started tweeting about the upcoming Google broadband, and took no time in criticizing N. Chandrababu Naidu and the AP Govt. in cheating public by pricing it high because Google has cheaper options.
While this begins a controversy in Andhra Pradesh, the broadband service providers in North India, especially in the NCR region, are already planning to shut down their businesses. ACT Fibernet, a leading provider in states like Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, is looking for a tie-up with Google after realizing how much will their business get hurt.
Mr. Ramanath Chaudhary, a resident from Visakhapatnam who is struggling in finding a job and is counting days with work-from-home job was worried about the Internet pricing and how it affects his monthly savings. “I never expected our CM to cheat us with a pricing higher than what a U.S. company, I forgot the name of, is going to charge us”, “It was a welcome move for us when he tweeted about the broadband plans, but now, we feel cheated and disappointed”.
During a recent visit to the Srikakulam district in Andhra Pradesh, Google Fiber’s team decided they will be offering the Internet at this cost, with an FUP limit of 10GB. “10GB should be more than enough because people here use 2G connectivity and still are able to watch a few videos, download songs, email, use Facebook for almost 18 hours a day, and still some data is left out of the 1GB package they purchase every month”
When asked about the knowledge of FUP and its cons, Govind Reddy, a bank employee from Srikakulum said he is very happy with the price mentioned by Google and he doesn’t care what FUP is. “Why should I know what FUP is? What matters for me is the speed of Internet and the amount I have to pay for it”, “I should be able to download movies at higher speeds as I watch as many as 20 movies in a month, without visiting the theater even once”.
Helpless as always, CM N. Chandrababu Naidu has asked the Department of Telecommunications to hold immediate counseling programs and awareness camps to let people know about FUP limits and how low is the 10GB limit for a user. We have contacted the AP Govt. to find out how much they plan to have the FUP set at, but the team has not responded yet.
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This piece is a work of fiction, some of the names mentioned in the article are imaginary, and you should take this as a satire, and you may leave the page if you are too sentimental, too serious or too young to understand what this line means. The article is a part of the Offbeat series we have started on Gizmo Times.
