Internet search engine giant Google recently made a slew of announcements that can boost India’s broadband subscriber base.
There are obvious reasons why Google is getting support in India for its Internet strategies as compared with the new rival Facebook.
Indian broadband market
It’s interesting to note that India’s broadband subscriber base – both fixed and wireless — rose just 0.03 percent in June 2016 from May 2016. On the other hand, India’s mobile service subscriber base grew 0.19 percent during the period.
TRAI states that India’s wireless subscriber base increased from 1,033.16 million in May 2016 to 1,035.12 million in June 2016. Broadband subscribers increased from 159.76 million in May 2016 to 159.80 million in June 2016 in the Indian telecom market.
It’s a well known fact that the slow growth in broadband subscriber base is impacting both Google and social media giant Facebook in India.
India’s top broadband operators include Bharti Airtel with 40.61 million subscribers, Vodafone (32.28 million), Idea Cellular (27.02 million), BSNL (20.56 million) and Reliance Communications Group (14.38 million).
Fixed broadband operators are BSNL with 9.88 million subscribers, Bharti Airtel (1.82 million), MTNL (1.10 million), Atria Convergence Technologies (1.02 million) and YOU Broadband (0.56 million).
Wireless broadband service providers are Bharti Airtel with 38.79 million subscribers, Vodafone (32.27 million), Idea Cellular (27.02 million), Reliance Communications Group (14.26 million) and BSNL (10.68 million).
Google’s Internet plans
Google has revealed five new products at its India event with aims to widen its Internet services in India.
India, with a crowd of around 1.3 billion, will be one of the most promising markets for data services in the coming years with both Reliance Jio and Airtel competing for supremacy in Internet market. Google aims to focus on increasing the internet penetration of the country, by making the video service compatible with poorly connected users also.
A telecom research report from Researchmoz said that India had over 100 million fixed broadband subscriptions in 2015, with fixed broadband penetration increasing only marginally between 2011 and 2015. The market grew by nearly 10 percent in 2015-16. Moderate growth is also expected for the next five years up to 2021.
Google has revealed its agenda to give all Indians access to the Internet, with its previous ventures paying off as expected.
The products designed for the Indian market include YouTube Go, the Google Assistant in Hindi inside messaging app Allo, faster browsing for Google Play on 2G connections, the Google Station Wi-Fi platform and new data-saving features in Google Chrome for mobile.
YouTube Go is an app that enables YouTube users to save and watch videos in poor connectivity also, allowing transparency and control over data consumption. YouTube Go was developed on the basis of analysis conducted in 15 cities in India by teams of engineers, designers, and researchers with hundreds of people, and will be launched full fledged in the next few months.
In addition to offline viewing capabilities, YouTube Go will support other data-friendly features such as video quality controls, previews and even a new sharing feature that will let users transfer videos directly from one phone to another without the need for a cellular data connection.
Users in India can sign up to test YouTube Go at this link, though Google has not yet announced when the app will be released. Google CEO Sundar Pichai did suggest that the app will eventually make its way to markets outside of India, though he didn’t give any sort of timeline.
Google for Internet
Earlier, Google announced partnership with RailTel and Indian Railways to provide Wi-Fi at railway stations in India, with more than 50 stations offering high speed internet to 3.5 million people each month. The new Wi-Fi platform Google Station is expected to boost India’s broadband traffic.
The free Wi-Fi initiative, with about 15,000 user additions per day, offers average broadband speeds hovering around 3Mbps, with the service set to go online at over 100 stations by the end of the year.
This new technology platform will work with partners to roll out Wi-Fi hotspots, offering carriers, system integrators (SIs), and venues an easy way to set up Wi-Fi to provide more people in India and around the world with fast, reliable, and safe Wi-Fi in public areas.
Also, Chrome is now empowered with a Data Saver mode which will cut down data uses on Android mobile devices, computers, and Chromebooks by automatically optimizing pages when 2G networks are detected.
In addition, Google is also funding the installation of Google Developers Codelabs at major State Technical Universities in India, with intentions to make India a global hub of innovation and produce high quality mobile developers who will build not just for India but for the world, revealed the company.
Facebook lags in Internet programs
Facebook with 130 million users in India, is set to improve its adoption in the country with many initiatives lined up directed for the Indian broadband market specifically.
Somehow, Facebook’s Internet programs are not getting adequate support in India, the second largest telecom market in the world, as compared with Google. Google’s focus is to enhance the availability of Internet search on phones and PCs at a time when Facebook is trying to grab user base for its social media network.
Vina Krishnan
editor@telecomlead.com