Just read an unusually badly written Red Herring article about Reliance's ascent as a telecom company in India. Found at least a couple of factual errors and even two spelling mistakes!
I was attracted to the article by the headline and byline ("Reliance conquers telecom in India and eyes the rest of the world.") but the article itself hardly touched upon Reliance's international ambitions.
The article is good otherwise but I'm still a little disappointed. Some excerpts:
In addition to being India’s largest mobile provider, Reliance became a global telecom power overnight when it purchased one of the largest fiber-optic networks in the world in 2003, Fiber Link Around the Globe (FLAG), which stretches 55,000 kilometers, spanning four continents and touching 75 percent of the world’s population. FLAG transports traffic for over 180 of the world’s largest telecommunications operators and Internet service providers as well as large corporate clients like Samsung Networks.
...
Reliance packaged handsets with services, asking only for a 500-rupee [about US$10] down payment for the handset, with the rest of the cost of the phone to be paid in 200-rupee-per-month payments over two years.
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Unlike many mobile operators in the West that charge exorbitantly high prices for mobile data, Reliance decided to give mobile data for free [offering] over 120 mobile data applications.
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[Reliance has] a goal of covering all 640,000 villages and 5,000 towns in India.
It seems the company's broadband network is being used in conventional areas such as interviewing foreign workers and playing multi-player online games. But the article also refers to parents interviewing prospective "son-in-laws" (sic) via videoconference!
I am looking forward to seeing this infrastructure being put to use by India's entrepreneurs and consumers. Wireless content, services and applications are bound to boom (they have already begun to do so) and not only on Reliance's own network. The advent of true broadband means that the prospects for "thin" and cheap networked PCs as envisioned by Rajesh Jain look better and better.
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