Question

analyze for one of the following WSJ cases for the technology standardization and its impact on innovation, consumer value, and/or economic growth. 1 Page paper

Star Wars Game Help Lift Sales, Profit at Electronic Arts

Enterprise-Technology Companies Trigger Investor Zeal

Facebook's Crypto Plan Borrows From China

Europe Pushes for Commercial Drone Expansion, Possibly Using AI

Two Years Ago, India Lacked Fast, Cheap Internet-One Billionaire Changed All That

Answer 1

Two Years Ago, India Lacked Fast, Cheap Internet—One Billionaire Changed All That

Mukesh Ambani’s national 4G network for Reliance Jio, which charges pennies for data, is bringing hundreds of millions online for the first time, creating potential consumers for the world’s tech and retail giants.

Infrastructure and affordability barriers are being broken in India by Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani and his initiatives, a new survey said on Friday. A growing affluence has lifted over a billion people out of poverty, creating a new middle class — in many countries for the first time — and driving a growth in consumer demand.  Asked which factors were driving, or were likely to drive, increased internet adoption, the respondents highlighted pull factors like the increased availability of high-quality infrastructure, improved affordability and better public understanding of the internet as factors that would drive increased uptake.

Despite economic challenges, cellular coverage providing broadband access continues to expand, particularly in certain regions. The most dramatic current example is in India, where the world’s largest extension of cellular coverage is taking place.

The Indian telecommunications firm Jio is radically disrupting cell phone markets in the country through heavy investments in infrastructure and by providing data and cell phone services that are almost free.

As the story goes, a few years ago a Yale college student was home visiting her father during a school break and complained about the low-quality internet in their house.⁹

The college student’s father, Mukesh Ambani, is chairman of Reliance Industries, a petrochemical consortium in India, and the country’s richest person. As he tells it, his daughter’s complaints, as well as his country’s poor internet infrastructure overall, inspired him to launch Jio and promptly spend $35 billion building out a high-speed 4G cellular network across India. Jio built 200,000 new cell towers and laid 150,000 miles of fiber optic cable in about two years.

In 2016, Jio opened the network to consumers, offering free phone calls, free texting, and six months of free data, after which data charges were about one-fourth industry average. Usage skyrocketed, both in terms of subscribers, now over 200 million, and data usage, which is now the highest in the world for any telecommunications company.¹⁰

In 2017, Jio introduced the “JioPhone”, a hybrid feature phone / smartphone that takes advantage of 4G data speeds. Among other features the phone comes pre-loaded with 500 streaming TV channels and music in 17 languages. The phone is essentially free: it requires only a $23 deposit, which is reimbursed with the return of the phone.

Josh Woodward, Group Product Manager of Google, who has led teams building new web services in India, says that thanks to Jio and the JioPhone, “hundreds of millions of users are now going to come online faster than all the models projected.”⁹

At the moment, there are 800 million Indians who still don’t have access to the internet – but they will soon. Recently Mukesh Ambani claimed his network was still only at 20% capacity. He said, “we are determined to connect everyone and everything, everywhere.

Asked which factors were driving, or were likely to drive, increased internet adoption, the respondents highlighted pull factors like the increased availability of high-quality infrastructure, improved affordability and better public understanding of the internet as factors that would drive increased uptake.

“This ties in neatly with the infrastructure — as opposed to the human — barriers, the removal of which our respondents identified as being key to unleashing the potential of the Next Billion.

“With projects such as the $35 billion investment in 4G by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, these barriers are quickly coming down in India,” the report emphasized.

As on March 31, the subscriber base of Reliance Jio stood at 306.7 million. The average data consumption per user per month was 10.9 GB and average voice consumption 823 minutes per user per month.

“We at Jio are truly overwhelmed and proud to now serve over 300 million subscribers. The growth in data and voice traffic at this scale has been unparalleled,” Mukesh Ambani said.

The average Jio customer data consumption per user per month was 10.9 GB and average voice consumption 823 minutes per user per month.

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For the survey, Booking Holdings surveyed tech experts and tech leaders in three markets — China, India and Indonesia. Nearly 74 per cent respondents in India said internet access is a basic necessity.

One of the most heartening and economically significant impacts of the expansion of connectivity in Asia was the corresponding improvement in the lives of women and girls.

Nearly 79 per cent of respondents said gender was not a barrier to internet adoption in their country.

“Nearly 86 per cent said that increased gender equality would drive adoption and 91 per cent said greater digital participation would also improve gender equality in their country,” the findings showed.

By large majorities, the respondents expected their countrymen and women to benefit from digital inclusion in ways that would help them become more educated and more prosperous — allowing the connected to rise up the social ladder.

“This inspirational edge to gathering digital transformation of all three countries reveals a growing individualistic and entrepreneurial culture that would not be out of place in Silicon Valley,” the survey noted.

According to Glenn Fogel, CEO, Booking Holdings, much of this explosion of commerce and entrepreneurship is due to the growing availability and ease of internet connectivity in Asia.

“In India, the e-commerce market is expected to quadruple in size between 2017 and 2022 to a value of $150 billion… Asians are going online to sell and to shop,” he said.

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