5 ms·

> And Indians are using more data than ever before—4GB on average every month, projected to grow to 11GB per month in the next four years. Cheaper data through

> And Indians are using more data than ever before—4GB on average every month, projected to grow to 11GB per month in the next four years. Cheaper data through carrier innovation and greater access to public WiFi such as Google Station makes the richness of the internet more accessible to Indians. This has to be the worst PR news from Google I have ever read. For one, taking credit for something they have not delivered. Anyone and everyone in India will tell you the whole thing has to do with Reliance Jio and not much to do with Google wifi at all. Though given the cost of spectrum in India it remains to be seen if the data plans remain cheap. They have already increased from 309 for 3 months to 459 for 3 months ie more than 48% increase (surprisingly plans are still cheap compared to the old plans). Then it talks about Android Go, even though there is a full fledged release page. Tez already exists with it's own PR page. So, the only two things are: > The Google Assistant for the JioPhone Even after reading twice I don't understand what is special about this other than the carrier branding. > Two-wheeler mode in Google Maps comes to India first This looks promising though with even bigger risk than the general maps. So kudos, I guess?

matt4077 9y ago
Nowhere is Google claiming to be responsible for increased internet access in India. It is merely making the point that the country is an important market going forward.
- thisisit 9y ago
  To repeat from my sibling comment: > Cheaper data through carrier innovation and greater access to public WiFi such as Google Station makes the richness of the internet more accessible to Indians.
  - dewey 9y ago
    "such as" doesn't imply that it's Google Station exclusively
sharpercoder 9y ago
> For one, taking credit for something they have not delivered. I don't read it in that statement. I read it as a factual representation of the current state of the internet in India. Why do you interpret this as "taking credit"?
- thisisit 9y ago
  Here's the line in question: > Cheaper data through carrier innovation and greater access to public WiFi such as Google Station makes the richness of the internet more accessible to Indians. The accessibility of Internet has changed dramatically in the last year through "carrier innovation" called Jio. But Google Station has a very limited reach. In comparison Jio Hotspots have wider reach but gets no mention at all.
  - Gigablah 9y ago
    Seems like you're just upset that a company's press release doesn't mention other companies.
  - vijaybritto 9y ago
    They haven't structured the sentence well. They are taking credit only for their WiFi networks. Besides Google is not a carrier and hence they can't logically take credit while talking about carrier innovation.
dingo_bat 9y ago
I can't say about the other stuff but tez is surprisingly awesome. Tez + UPI + Adhaar just blows away everything I've seen. This has potential to cut out the cc middlemen completely.
- piyush_soni 9y ago
  I' have to agree. UPI (Tez/BHIM etc.) is so awesome and a pleasure to use, I don't even like credit card payments anymore. Wonder why the USA doesn't have anything like that.
  - nindalf 9y ago
    I'm curious, have you never seen failures happen? I've seen it happen a few times - a payment to a merchant times out and they don't receive it till days later. By then you've already paid twice and its difficult to recover the money. This isn't a problem with credit cards where you can simply issue a charge-back. Until UPI has a grievance redress system, it will struggle to gain mainstream acceptance. That's not the only issue. Operating this system isn't free. For now, no transaction fees are being levied but banks are eagerly awaiting the day that the RBI will allow them to. 1-2% of a txn might not seem like much, but it'd be a tough sell to consumers asking them to pay more when they could use cash instead.
    - piyush_soni 9y ago
      I've made numerous (at least more than 100) UPI transactions, but haven't seen a single 'failure' as such. Yes, there's been delay at times, but it's just that, a delay. It's a little inconvenience at that time, but it's comparatively much rarer (and less frustrating) than OTP SMS not received problem for a credit card transaction which I just started hating. Most of the times, UPI (Tez) transactions are instant for me. About 1-2% charges, if they ever start using it, wouldn't it still be better than credit cards? Most merchants don't charge extra for those (but some do even for credit cards).
    - sdenton4 9y ago
      My understanding is that these high latencies are due to failures in the backing bank's infrastructure. Here's a workaround: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/tez/AHKZjmtUxp8 https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/tez/AHKZjmtUx...
kyrra 9y ago
For data usage, Google India announced[0] an app called Datally[1] to help users track and understand their data usage per app. It also has a datasaver mode of some kind to help keep usage under control. [0] https://india.googleblog.com/2017/11/meet-datally-new-way-to-understand.html https://india.googleblog.com/2017/11/meet-datally-new-way-to... [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.freighter https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...
dannyr 9y ago
> This has to be the worst PR news from Google I have ever read Looks like you're grasping straws here trying to find something negative so you can be upset about something. Good luck.
- pikiejoe 9y ago
  Google "doing the needful" to now slurp up India's data as well is not a net good.
  - kinkrtyavimoodh 9y ago
    I think we have probably reached the stage where more Americans say 'do the needful' in a vain attempt at linguistic elitism than actual Indians speaking regular Indian English.
VeronicaJJ123 9y ago
> For one, taking credit for something they have not delivered. Google has provided free wi-fi across various Indian railway stations which I am told carries more traffic than entire cellular 3G-4G traffic. India has 13000 trains running at any given time and carries over 8B passengers every year (legally). Google has put a lot of efforts in providing Google services in over 10 different Indian languages. That is why my driver is able to use Google maps. He does not understand English. Google like many other tech giants has surely played an important role in making Indians use internet more and more.
jacksmith21006 9y ago
Doing business in India can be tough and is a long term play with significant up front investment. Kudos to Google for doing it.
Eridrus 9y ago
> > The Google Assistant for the JioPhone > Even after reading twice I don't understand what is special about this other than the carrier branding. The JioPhone is a feature phone, i.e. it doesn't run Android.
- mirajshah 9y ago
  It runs Android Go, a highly-optimized version of Android that is built by Google.
  - Eridrus 9y ago
    No, it won't: http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/mobile-tabs/reliance-jio-lyf-4g-volte-feature-phone-to-come-with-kaios-and-everything-else-we-know-4759916/ http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/mobile-tabs/reli...
RestlessMind 9y ago
> For one, taking credit for something they have not delivered They explicitly said "cheaper data through carrier innovation" > Even after reading twice I don't understand what is special about this other than the carrier branding. You yourself said "everyone in India will tell you the whole thing has to do with Reliance Jio". So having Google Assistant for JioPhone is special in that context. > This looks promising though with even bigger risk than the general maps What's the risk you are seeing?

matt4077 9y ago

Nowhere is Google claiming to be responsible for increased internet access in India. It is merely making the point that the country is an important market going forward.

thisisit 9y ago
To repeat from my sibling comment: > Cheaper data through carrier innovation and greater access to public WiFi such as Google Station makes the richness of the internet more accessible to Indians.
- dewey 9y ago
  "such as" doesn't imply that it's Google Station exclusively

sharpercoder 9y ago

> For one, taking credit for something they have not delivered. I don't read it in that statement. I read it as a factual representation of the current state of the internet in India. Why do you interpret this as "taking credit"?

thisisit 9y ago
Here's the line in question: > Cheaper data through carrier innovation and greater access to public WiFi such as Google Station makes the richness of the internet more accessible to Indians. The accessibility of Internet has changed dramatically in the last year through "carrier innovation" called Jio. But Google Station has a very limited reach. In comparison Jio Hotspots have wider reach but gets no mention at all.
- Gigablah 9y ago
  Seems like you're just upset that a company's press release doesn't mention other companies.
- vijaybritto 9y ago
  They haven't structured the sentence well. They are taking credit only for their WiFi networks. Besides Google is not a carrier and hence they can't logically take credit while talking about carrier innovation.

dingo_bat 9y ago

I can't say about the other stuff but tez is surprisingly awesome. Tez + UPI + Adhaar just blows away everything I've seen. This has potential to cut out the cc middlemen completely.

piyush_soni 9y ago
I' have to agree. UPI (Tez/BHIM etc.) is so awesome and a pleasure to use, I don't even like credit card payments anymore. Wonder why the USA doesn't have anything like that.
- nindalf 9y ago
  I'm curious, have you never seen failures happen? I've seen it happen a few times - a payment to a merchant times out and they don't receive it till days later. By then you've already paid twice and its difficult to recover the money. This isn't a problem with credit cards where you can simply issue a charge-back. Until UPI has a grievance redress system, it will struggle to gain mainstream acceptance. That's not the only issue. Operating this system isn't free. For now, no transaction fees are being levied but banks are eagerly awaiting the day that the RBI will allow them to. 1-2% of a txn might not seem like much, but it'd be a tough sell to consumers asking them to pay more when they could use cash instead.
  - piyush_soni 9y ago
    I've made numerous (at least more than 100) UPI transactions, but haven't seen a single 'failure' as such. Yes, there's been delay at times, but it's just that, a delay. It's a little inconvenience at that time, but it's comparatively much rarer (and less frustrating) than OTP SMS not received problem for a credit card transaction which I just started hating. Most of the times, UPI (Tez) transactions are instant for me. About 1-2% charges, if they ever start using it, wouldn't it still be better than credit cards? Most merchants don't charge extra for those (but some do even for credit cards).
  - sdenton4 9y ago
    My understanding is that these high latencies are due to failures in the backing bank's infrastructure. Here's a workaround: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/tez/AHKZjmtUxp8 https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/tez/AHKZjmtUx...

kyrra 9y ago

For data usage, Google India announced[0] an app called Datally[1] to help users track and understand their data usage per app. It also has a datasaver mode of some kind to help keep usage under control. [0] https://india.googleblog.com/2017/11/meet-datally-new-way-to-understand.html https://india.googleblog.com/2017/11/meet-datally-new-way-to... [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.freighter https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...

dannyr 9y ago

> This has to be the worst PR news from Google I have ever read Looks like you're grasping straws here trying to find something negative so you can be upset about something. Good luck.

pikiejoe 9y ago
Google "doing the needful" to now slurp up India's data as well is not a net good.
- kinkrtyavimoodh 9y ago
  I think we have probably reached the stage where more Americans say 'do the needful' in a vain attempt at linguistic elitism than actual Indians speaking regular Indian English.

VeronicaJJ123 9y ago

> For one, taking credit for something they have not delivered. Google has provided free wi-fi across various Indian railway stations which I am told carries more traffic than entire cellular 3G-4G traffic. India has 13000 trains running at any given time and carries over 8B passengers every year (legally). Google has put a lot of efforts in providing Google services in over 10 different Indian languages. That is why my driver is able to use Google maps. He does not understand English. Google like many other tech giants has surely played an important role in making Indians use internet more and more.

jacksmith21006 9y ago

Doing business in India can be tough and is a long term play with significant up front investment. Kudos to Google for doing it.

Eridrus 9y ago

> > The Google Assistant for the JioPhone > Even after reading twice I don't understand what is special about this other than the carrier branding. The JioPhone is a feature phone, i.e. it doesn't run Android.

mirajshah 9y ago
It runs Android Go, a highly-optimized version of Android that is built by Google.
- Eridrus 9y ago
  No, it won't: http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/mobile-tabs/reliance-jio-lyf-4g-volte-feature-phone-to-come-with-kaios-and-everything-else-we-know-4759916/ http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/mobile-tabs/reli...

RestlessMind 9y ago

> For one, taking credit for something they have not delivered They explicitly said "cheaper data through carrier innovation" > Even after reading twice I don't understand what is special about this other than the carrier branding. You yourself said "everyone in India will tell you the whole thing has to do with Reliance Jio". So having Google Assistant for JioPhone is special in that context. > This looks promising though with even bigger risk than the general maps What's the risk you are seeing?