Actual Cost of Data to ISP in India
If we as Indians are thinking about the Internet cost to be one of the lowest in the world, then we might need to analyse carefully the various technical aspects regarding the various costs involved in providing Internet service to end users from the Internet Service Providing Companies. After the entry of Jio in the telecom sector and free 4 G internet access to people, it is being assumed that Internet service is very economical but we need to know the actual cost of the data that the ISPs charge from us and that can be done through analysis of various costs involved like infrastructure costs and here the cost is about the amount of Data and not the speed of delivery. According to recent study by Survey companies, the average spending by an Indian on Internet is 2.6 % from their per capita income as compared to other developed nations where spending is 0.4 to 0.6 percent. Hence, a considerable portion of an Indian person's per capita income could be utilized towards other development works of the economy.
Talking about the actual cost of providing Internet Service, if we talk about some company for example Jio, providing information about its various costs involved in providing service would help the company build greater trust within the customers and earning greater revenue. As customers will not be suspicious about being fooled by the company about being overcharged for their internet usage, this might sound weird but according to Analyst Mason Report Data tariff is high in India.It looks surprising to me as well especially after the Reliance Jio frees Sim distribution. According to report, Data tariffs are approximately Rs 250 per Gigabyte and this being the reason why mobile companies are not able to penetrate over 30% of Indian Market. A considerable amount of users have increased however with the entry of Jio in the telecom market in.India.
Hence, the need actually is to understand the cost of Internet Data in terms of quantity and not merely the speed of Internet browsing.As the low cost internet will benefit the Indian economy as a whole and also by spreading awareness in the rural areas about Internet more than just Facebook and whatsapp can help a lot in preventing corruption prevailing in our system and moving closer to Digital Indian dream.The various costs involved for Internet service providers are spectrum cost,cost of laying fibre optic cables through which high speed data travels in form of packets and cost of laying other infrastructure as well including electronics equipments costs.But as some of these are fixed costs, the ISPs should be transparent to customers about the Expenses in order to maintain their trust and confidence. The customers on the other side can ask the company representatives regarding any doubts about their Tariff plan costs. This way mutual consideration between the company and the customers can help us look at the bigger picture. According to 4G internet provider Jio, it spent about 2000 billion Rupees which is 100 billion per year capital cost.Hence, here they can explain to customers as justification for charging the Tariff price from them.
