I give it shot, btw you underestimate me Sam.<LOL>
(1) How many Indian homes have cable TV connections?
Approxmimately 27 to 30 million, expected to go to 50 million in couple of years.
(2) What is the largest Cable company in India in terms of number of subscribers?
There a a few here as the market is fragmented becuase of regional and linguistic differences. Some of the larger ones will be SitiCable,Asia Net and the like. Here is site where you can get some more info on it
info-sat.com )
(3) How many Indian homes have dial-up internet access?
Unfortunately not many at the moment Sam,probably about 500K at the moment but it is growing at the rate 140%. With the competition now in full swing resulting in reduced rates this number should go up trmendously. But CableTv will be the next thing in ISP many are working on it Siticable is almost there and may will be right behind them.
(4) Who is the largest ISP?
The government monopoly VSNL with +300k subscribers, the 2nd and largest ISP is Satyam Infoway, they are adding 15 to 20K new subscribers every month and expanding to more cities rapidly, currently they are in about 31+ cities but the fun will start when Satyam starts offering internet subcription via cableTV,they are already testing this in 4 or 5 cities.
(5) To what extent has government regulation affected the market?
To a great extent as they hold the key to the growth in the sector. Now with the new telecom policy private ISPs will be allowed to setup their own gateways bypassing the government monopoly,this should drastically expand the segment in the coming months and years.
(6) If private sector telecom development is not being totally stymied by the government, what is the new generation of computer millionaires (what is the word for this in Hindi?) such as Infosys' Murthy doing to spur development of telecom infrastructure?
I think primarily they are lobbying the government to improve the infrastruture and persuading them to pass market friendly telecom policies etc,with great success I might add. The current government takes the advice of private technocrats very seriously, they have recently set up a telecom commission compirsing mostly of private tech gurus and biz tycoons, the purpose of it being to advice and guide the government to institute the right policies for faster reforms in technology and infrastructure.I also heard the government is very receptive to ideas from successful non-resident Indians especially from the Silicon Valley.
I don't know how accurate my answers are but they are close if not 100% accurate. |
