my2cents
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I don't understand why everyone is so fixated on the short term money this brings in. Faster mobile internet at reasonable costs will bring about tremendous benefits to the people and economy. Smart phones are getting cheaper by the day, eventually everyone will be able to afford one. Small time mobile app companies will spring out of nowhere providing much needed services. Restaurant bookings, route navigation, news alerts, e-government services, and so much more
Looks like Pakistan has adopted Indian example by auctioning both 3G and 4G spectrum together. We also kept our base price very low in order to encourage many telecom players to get involved. The idea was to upgrade to modern technology because the benefits are enormous. So, it was not all about money but early adoption of technology.
If I recall most of our bids were just above the base price. Our telecom operators planned beforehand not to bid each other out and decided to opt for different cities instead. Only Delhi and Mumbai got multiple bids. Because of lower spectrum costs, they are able to offer their services real cheap and to wider number of people.
Because of penetration of smart phones more number of people are able to access the Internet. Mobile data usage has doubled and the revenue of telecom operators has also doubled.
Here are few highlights....
- India has more internet traffic coming from mobile phones than desktop computer.
India has 39 million 3G subscriptions as of Q4 2011 with 4% penetration rate.
- India now has 121 million Internet users with a population penetration rate of 10%.