This country has for centuries lived with a stark division between the haves and the have-nots. Access to telecom has been no exception, though the line of division has shifted: whilst almost all of us have the ability to access basic voice services today, most are still without easy access to the internet. The 900 million mobile-haves of India are still chiefly data-have-nots. In a world where economic advantage and social connectivity requires data access, the have-nots stand to lose. They are in danger of falling foul of what is commonly referred to as the digital divide.
Cometh the need, cometh a smart phone revolution which promises to wipe away much of the digital division that stands shakily before us. Smart phones are set to become the new tool for democratisation. Much has already been achieved: the price point of smart phones has dropped dramatically from around INR 10,000 a couple of years’ ago for a reasonable smart phone to around INR 5,000 today, and high-speed networks are available in more places than before, and most importantly, people are beginning to use services. A few more developments are being seen too:
The result: as much as 20% of all data usage is now generated from India’s rural areas, where data is picking up, and a city such as Mumbai now has a higher level of data penetration than many European cities.
India’s democratisation project continues. After the spinning wheel, the railway and the printing press, the smart phone is the latest tool which will help it take the next bold steps.
(A note of thanks is due to Abhinav Jha for his contributions to this post).
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