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The monopoly of Jio is extremely bad for India. It's an open secret that the Ambani's have significant control over most politicians and political parties in I

The monopoly of Jio is extremely bad for India. It's an open secret that the Ambani's have significant control over most politicians and political parties in India. Any of the big tech companies who wish to make a significant presence in India have to go through Jio. The monies that Facebook and Google spent buying stakes in Jio is to assure them that their operations wont be hurt.

flak48 6y ago
Exactly. Many people I know, myself included see the 'investments' being routed to Jio as buying assurances from the government that regulations like data localization and other pro-privacy, anti-west measures are halted or watered down. A shakedown, in other words.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
eklavya 6y ago
I am pretty sure they are all investing because jio will come up with a one stop digital shop with them controlling it end to end. They will be launching a cloud. All these companies are investing now to get a piece of the big pie. There will be an IPO.
sbmthakur 6y ago
> The monopoly of Jio is extremely bad for India. Any form of monopoly is bad. However, it's important to note that prior to Jio's entry in the market, the data prices were unaffordable for majority of the population. Post Jio's entry, the same incumbent network providers had to slash their prices.
el_programmador 6y ago
As a plebeian, the only thing I'm worried about is my internet bill. Why should I worry who Ambani has political ties with as long as I'm getting cheap bandwidth?
- bluecatswim 6y ago
  The usual reasons monopolies are bad. Jio in particular is known for being highhanded in blocking websites. A couple weeks ago duckduckgo was unavailable on their network across India. [0] Last week, the government of India proposed some changes to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process which would make it easier for corporations to cause ecological damage without repercussions. A couple organizations published articles condemning these changes and explained the procedure to oppose this process, their websites were promptly blocked. [1] [0] https://twitter.com/DuckDuckGo/status/1278288303532302336 https://twitter.com/DuckDuckGo/status/1278288303532302336 [1] https://thenextweb.com/in/2020/07/14/india-reportedly-blocks-websites-of-3-environmental-organizations/ https://thenextweb.com/in/2020/07/14/india-reportedly-blocks...
  - el_programmador 6y ago
    Firstly, DDG was blocked by ALL Indian ISPs during that instance, not just Jio. People using Airtel, Vodafone, etc. were as much complaining in forums as the Jio users. From what I recall, BSNL was the only one who didn't block (due to their inefficiency perhaps!) Secondly, with the kind of minuscule market share DDG has, they or their users can hardly get impacted by a couple hours' block. If anything, Indian govt. made them a favor by making them more famous! I for one don't recall #DDG ever trend on Twitter in recent history.
    - spians 6y ago
      > Secondly, with the kind of minuscule market share DDG has, they or their users can hardly get impacted by a couple hours' block I would like to know the exact market share of DDG in India. Also people who use DDG use it as their search engine. It would impact that "minuscule" percent of people the same way the majority of people would get impacted if google.com was banned for a couple of hours. > If anything, Indian govt. made them a favor by making them more famous Really? > I for one don't recall #DDG ever trend on Twitter in recent history So it's not that minuscule market share?
      - 6y ago
blocked_again 6y ago
> The monopoly of Jio is extremely bad for India. Jio made Internet affordable to 100s of millions of Indians. It resulted in huge drop in data price. The results so far have been pretty good to the Indian society in general. Let's see what happens in future. Also Jio only accounts for 50% of Internet users. > Any of the big tech companies who wish to make a significant presence in India have to go through Jio. Okay. So? American tech companies have millions of users. It's almost impossible that one day Jio/Indian gov wakes up and decides to ban these websites. The public is not dumb. Banning Chinese Internet is not the same as banning the Internet. Unless the US decides one day to start claiming land in India or ban non US internet companies in USA. The likelihood of that happening is very very low. > The monies that Facebook and Google spent buying stakes in Jio is to assure them that their operations wont be hurt. Or they want to invest in a promising tech company and don't want to be left out?

flak48 6y ago

Exactly. Many people I know, myself included see the 'investments' being routed to Jio as buying assurances from the government that regulations like data localization and other pro-privacy, anti-west measures are halted or watered down. A shakedown, in other words.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

eklavya 6y ago

I am pretty sure they are all investing because jio will come up with a one stop digital shop with them controlling it end to end. They will be launching a cloud. All these companies are investing now to get a piece of the big pie. There will be an IPO.

sbmthakur 6y ago

> The monopoly of Jio is extremely bad for India. Any form of monopoly is bad. However, it's important to note that prior to Jio's entry in the market, the data prices were unaffordable for majority of the population. Post Jio's entry, the same incumbent network providers had to slash their prices.

el_programmador 6y ago

As a plebeian, the only thing I'm worried about is my internet bill. Why should I worry who Ambani has political ties with as long as I'm getting cheap bandwidth?

bluecatswim 6y ago
The usual reasons monopolies are bad. Jio in particular is known for being highhanded in blocking websites. A couple weeks ago duckduckgo was unavailable on their network across India. [0] Last week, the government of India proposed some changes to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process which would make it easier for corporations to cause ecological damage without repercussions. A couple organizations published articles condemning these changes and explained the procedure to oppose this process, their websites were promptly blocked. [1] [0] https://twitter.com/DuckDuckGo/status/1278288303532302336 https://twitter.com/DuckDuckGo/status/1278288303532302336 [1] https://thenextweb.com/in/2020/07/14/india-reportedly-blocks-websites-of-3-environmental-organizations/ https://thenextweb.com/in/2020/07/14/india-reportedly-blocks...
- el_programmador 6y ago
  Firstly, DDG was blocked by ALL Indian ISPs during that instance, not just Jio. People using Airtel, Vodafone, etc. were as much complaining in forums as the Jio users. From what I recall, BSNL was the only one who didn't block (due to their inefficiency perhaps!) Secondly, with the kind of minuscule market share DDG has, they or their users can hardly get impacted by a couple hours' block. If anything, Indian govt. made them a favor by making them more famous! I for one don't recall #DDG ever trend on Twitter in recent history.
  - spians 6y ago
    > Secondly, with the kind of minuscule market share DDG has, they or their users can hardly get impacted by a couple hours' block I would like to know the exact market share of DDG in India. Also people who use DDG use it as their search engine. It would impact that "minuscule" percent of people the same way the majority of people would get impacted if google.com was banned for a couple of hours. > If anything, Indian govt. made them a favor by making them more famous Really? > I for one don't recall #DDG ever trend on Twitter in recent history So it's not that minuscule market share?
    - 6y ago

blocked_again 6y ago

> The monopoly of Jio is extremely bad for India. Jio made Internet affordable to 100s of millions of Indians. It resulted in huge drop in data price. The results so far have been pretty good to the Indian society in general. Let's see what happens in future. Also Jio only accounts for 50% of Internet users. > Any of the big tech companies who wish to make a significant presence in India have to go through Jio. Okay. So? American tech companies have millions of users. It's almost impossible that one day Jio/Indian gov wakes up and decides to ban these websites. The public is not dumb. Banning Chinese Internet is not the same as banning the Internet. Unless the US decides one day to start claiming land in India or ban non US internet companies in USA. The likelihood of that happening is very very low. > The monies that Facebook and Google spent buying stakes in Jio is to assure them that their operations wont be hurt. Or they want to invest in a promising tech company and don't want to be left out?