**The High Cost of Broadband in India: A Critique of Government Promises**

The government's promise to launch a "Digital India Revolution" is a lofty goal, but it remains to be seen whether they can deliver on their promises. One aspect that raises eyebrows is the high cost of broadband plans in India. The data rates in India are absolutely high, and politicians seem more interested in promising digital revolution than actually taking steps to make it affordable for the masses.

**BSNL's Broadband Plans: A Case Study**

To illustrate this point, let's take a look at BSNL's (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) broadband plans. These are government-owned entities that have a significant reach in rural India, covering over 80% of the country. However, their pricing strategy is often criticized for being too high. For example, the first plan offered by BSNL costs ₹499 per month and comes with speeds up to 2 Mbps for just 2 GB. A slightly higher plan costs ₹545 and offers speeds up to 2 Mbps for up to 5 GB. This pricing strategy seems unfair, especially considering that BSNL is a government-owned entity.

**Flexi Plans: Not as Affordable as They Seem**

Another type of plan offered by BSNL is the "flexi" plans, which are very popular among users. These plans come with speeds up to 2 Mbps for just ₹500 per month. However, the broadband charges are calculated differently in these plans. For example, after using 3 GB of data, the user has to pay ₹30 per megabyte for the remaining bandwidth. This means that for 1 GB of data, the user has to pay ₹300. This pricing strategy seems excessive, especially considering that BSNL is a government-owned entity.

**Private Operators' Pricing: A Better Alternative?**

Private operators like ACT Broadband and Exite Broadband offer more competitive pricing plans. For example, ACT Broadband offers 25 Mbps speeds for just ₹600 per month. Similarly, Exite Broadband's "AOS" plan comes with unlimited speed for just ₹800 per month. These prices are significantly lower than what BSNL is charging, and they seem to be offering better value for money.

**The Need for Affordable Internet**

The hypocrisy of calling India a "Digital India" country when the cost of broadband plans is so high is staggering. If private operators can offer affordable internet plans, why can't government-owned entities like BSNL do the same? The answer lies in the fact that BSNL and other government-owned entities are often not incentivized to keep their prices low. They are more focused on maximizing profits than providing affordable services.

**A Call to Action**

The situation is so bad that even Amit Bani, a tech enthusiast, has taken it upon himself to start an online petition on Change.org. The petition has already garnered over 85,000 votes, and it's clear that many people are fed up with the high cost of broadband plans in India.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, the high cost of broadband plans in India is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. While private operators like ACT Broadband and Exite Broadband offer more competitive pricing plans, government-owned entities like BSNL seem more interested in maximizing profits than providing affordable services. The situation demands urgent attention, and it's time for the government to take action.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi there this is Ranjit and this is going to be a very different kind of a video it's not a review of a product or anything but I feel this is actually really important if you want to see India change and we have been hearing about this uh called digital India Initiative for the last couple of years but I frankly feel it's just a joke it's just these politicians just to make it look good called that digital India Revolution but on the lower level where it matters they are not taking any action about it what is digital India digital India is people getting access to information and for that you need affordable data and this uh data Revolution sort of started last year with Gio they were giving the data for free but uh before Gio and now this free offers from Gio are also going to come to an end uh but if you just recall prior to Geo if you had a mobile phone and a mobile data plan uh 1 GB of data was costing anywhere between about 250 rupes to 280 rupes and now things are changing but again this was done just due to the fact that Gio came and now other operators are jumping into it but from a government point of view that is BSNL and others they haven't done anything yet and still data rates are actually pretty high and we don't know after this Geo whatever promotional offers if the data rates are going to stay low or not and I frankly feel uh this 200 rupes 50 250 rupees per gigabyte of data is actually very high yes you and me can sort of afford it but what about the majority of the Indians uh they will simply not pay the price of about 250 rupees for 1 GB of data and I frankly feel these data rates are actually very high and things have to change and to give you a very crude example uh due to this Geo reeven ution I would say uh things have changed and I've seen this for example my driver I had given him my old phone and he got a GEOS he has put on that and I'm noticing from the past couple of months he's asking me very intelligent questions about how this thing works he has searched about it online so the thing of digital Revolution starts from here even take the case of my maid uh his brother actually has a basic smartphone and they got a geoc connection and they are accessing internet in fact my uh maid now has a bank account and she asks me to actually uh the monthly whatever salary to remit it online so this is the digital change that we are seeing and this is happening and this is simply happening because of low data cost do you think if the price per gigabyte was around 250 rupees these guys would have even thought about doing that no but still the sad fact is the data rates in India are absolutely High these politicians just for the sake of promising digital India re Evolution and whatnot they say that but what happens in the Grassroots take the example of even bsnn things are not good let me actually show you the screenshots these are BSNL what do you say rates that I have uh seen and these are for V Broadband Guys these are not mobile so these are for V broadband and as you can see these are the popular combo plans what they say and you look at the first plan it says 499 rupees per month and for that what do you get speeds up to 2 mbit for just 2 GB okay if you go to a slightly higher plant that is about 545 then uh the speeds are up to 2 megab for up to just 5 GB so I feel these prices are actually very high considering the point that BSNL is a government entity and these guys should empower the digital India Revolution BSL still has a reach of about 80% to the rural India and where it matters where private operators cannot do stuff and if you think uh these again let me show you uh one more screenshot these are the combo plants of BSN and as you can see these are known as the flexi plants very popular plants that I'm looking at and for 500 rupees uh users will get 2 megabit speeds up to just 3 GB and notice that red line down there where I've circled and after that let's say uh uh 3 uh GB the Broadband charges are 30 P per megabyte so if you translate that for for 1 GB the price is 300 rupees so imagine this this is a garment BSNL is a garment entity and these guys are charging around 300 rupees per gigabyte so where will this digital India Revolution start and uh if you if you say that oh the Broadband plans are very expensive and something like that that is not true because let me actually give you an example uh on my Hindi channel that is ganit in Hindi I uh had posted a video about four or five days ago that we need another digital Revolution and I asked you guys most of you users to submit what is the Broadband plans that you guys are using and I got over 1,900 comments from there and many of you actually have replied about the plans that you have from various parts of the Cities let me actually show you uh this is from subot from Alliance and he says that he get unlimited 5 megab plan uh and a 3 megabit unlimited upload for just 575 from Alliance Broadband again guys this is a private operator so and this is from Delhi yogender says he's getting 40 megabit speeds for just uh 1,700 rupees for 3 months and uh see this is for example here in Hyderabad we have act broadband and for 600 rupees they're offering 25 megab speeds and I also use act Broadband here in Hyderabad and for IP around 1,300 repes and I get 75 megab upload and download for 250 GB of uh what do you say data so as you can see again let me show you some more example this is somebody said from exite broadband he says he's using AOS 800 rupees and he gets 20 megabit unlimited without fup so if private operators can offer these kinds of speed I don't get uh the point why can't the government entity that is BSNL and mtnl which have the largest reach can provide affordable internet no but they want to charge 250 300 rupees per gigabyte this has to change and the hypocrisy of calling digital India if you want if you guys the politicians are you guys are really serious should change uh again uh uh Amit bani from phone radar recently actually uh has made a online petition on change.org it has already got about 85,000 votes so if you guys really care about this I'll have the link for that petition in the YouTube show notes give your vote that this is just too much charging to 250 rupees per gigabytes it's just too much and if you want a true what do you say digital revolution in India the data rates have to actually come come down so guys uh uh I never say this uh but again if you strongly uh feel what I'm saying uh makes sense uh support this video share this video and also uh go to that petition and sign up that petition I'll have the link for that petition in the YouTube show notes so guys that's it for now for this video If you're not subscribed to my YouTube channel hit that subscribe button thanks for watching this is ranit and I hope to see you in my next videohi there this is Ranjit and this is going to be a very different kind of a video it's not a review of a product or anything but I feel this is actually really important if you want to see India change and we have been hearing about this uh called digital India Initiative for the last couple of years but I frankly feel it's just a joke it's just these politicians just to make it look good called that digital India Revolution but on the lower level where it matters they are not taking any action about it what is digital India digital India is people getting access to information and for that you need affordable data and this uh data Revolution sort of started last year with Gio they were giving the data for free but uh before Gio and now this free offers from Gio are also going to come to an end uh but if you just recall prior to Geo if you had a mobile phone and a mobile data plan uh 1 GB of data was costing anywhere between about 250 rupes to 280 rupes and now things are changing but again this was done just due to the fact that Gio came and now other operators are jumping into it but from a government point of view that is BSNL and others they haven't done anything yet and still data rates are actually pretty high and we don't know after this Geo whatever promotional offers if the data rates are going to stay low or not and I frankly feel uh this 200 rupes 50 250 rupees per gigabyte of data is actually very high yes you and me can sort of afford it but what about the majority of the Indians uh they will simply not pay the price of about 250 rupees for 1 GB of data and I frankly feel these data rates are actually very high and things have to change and to give you a very crude example uh due to this Geo reeven ution I would say uh things have changed and I've seen this for example my driver I had given him my old phone and he got a GEOS he has put on that and I'm noticing from the past couple of months he's asking me very intelligent questions about how this thing works he has searched about it online so the thing of digital Revolution starts from here even take the case of my maid uh his brother actually has a basic smartphone and they got a geoc connection and they are accessing internet in fact my uh maid now has a bank account and she asks me to actually uh the monthly whatever salary to remit it online so this is the digital change that we are seeing and this is happening and this is simply happening because of low data cost do you think if the price per gigabyte was around 250 rupees these guys would have even thought about doing that no but still the sad fact is the data rates in India are absolutely High these politicians just for the sake of promising digital India re Evolution and whatnot they say that but what happens in the Grassroots take the example of even bsnn things are not good let me actually show you the screenshots these are BSNL what do you say rates that I have uh seen and these are for V Broadband Guys these are not mobile so these are for V broadband and as you can see these are the popular combo plans what they say and you look at the first plan it says 499 rupees per month and for that what do you get speeds up to 2 mbit for just 2 GB okay if you go to a slightly higher plant that is about 545 then uh the speeds are up to 2 megab for up to just 5 GB so I feel these prices are actually very high considering the point that BSNL is a government entity and these guys should empower the digital India Revolution BSL still has a reach of about 80% to the rural India and where it matters where private operators cannot do stuff and if you think uh these again let me show you uh one more screenshot these are the combo plants of BSN and as you can see these are known as the flexi plants very popular plants that I'm looking at and for 500 rupees uh users will get 2 megabit speeds up to just 3 GB and notice that red line down there where I've circled and after that let's say uh uh 3 uh GB the Broadband charges are 30 P per megabyte so if you translate that for for 1 GB the price is 300 rupees so imagine this this is a garment BSNL is a garment entity and these guys are charging around 300 rupees per gigabyte so where will this digital India Revolution start and uh if you if you say that oh the Broadband plans are very expensive and something like that that is not true because let me actually give you an example uh on my Hindi channel that is ganit in Hindi I uh had posted a video about four or five days ago that we need another digital Revolution and I asked you guys most of you users to submit what is the Broadband plans that you guys are using and I got over 1,900 comments from there and many of you actually have replied about the plans that you have from various parts of the Cities let me actually show you uh this is from subot from Alliance and he says that he get unlimited 5 megab plan uh and a 3 megabit unlimited upload for just 575 from Alliance Broadband again guys this is a private operator so and this is from Delhi yogender says he's getting 40 megabit speeds for just uh 1,700 rupees for 3 months and uh see this is for example here in Hyderabad we have act broadband and for 600 rupees they're offering 25 megab speeds and I also use act Broadband here in Hyderabad and for IP around 1,300 repes and I get 75 megab upload and download for 250 GB of uh what do you say data so as you can see again let me show you some more example this is somebody said from exite broadband he says he's using AOS 800 rupees and he gets 20 megabit unlimited without fup so if private operators can offer these kinds of speed I don't get uh the point why can't the government entity that is BSNL and mtnl which have the largest reach can provide affordable internet no but they want to charge 250 300 rupees per gigabyte this has to change and the hypocrisy of calling digital India if you want if you guys the politicians are you guys are really serious should change uh again uh uh Amit bani from phone radar recently actually uh has made a online petition on change.org it has already got about 85,000 votes so if you guys really care about this I'll have the link for that petition in the YouTube show notes give your vote that this is just too much charging to 250 rupees per gigabytes it's just too much and if you want a true what do you say digital revolution in India the data rates have to actually come come down so guys uh uh I never say this uh but again if you strongly uh feel what I'm saying uh makes sense uh support this video share this video and also uh go to that petition and sign up that petition I'll have the link for that petition in the YouTube show notes so guys that's it for now for this video If you're not subscribed to my YouTube channel hit that subscribe button thanks for watching this is ranit and I hope to see you in my next video\n"