Re: Dr. Roy's suggestion on Email in India....

[Arvind Kumar <arvind.kumar@rocketmail.com>]

---vamsi@siliconcorp.com wrote:
>
>     I am a bit surprised to hear from Dr. Roy that Email is spreading
> rapidly or even that he is convinced that it will spread rapidly in
> India - who are we comparing ourselves to?  Antarctica?

I am surprised too. ERNET of course has been around  since the late 80s.
So IITs, IISc, IIMs, a few RECs and a few other colleges were connected.
The reality  is that not all people even in these places were given
e-mail access. One person I know who teaches in
Bombay's TOP Engineering college tells me that if she has to send an
e-mail, she is supposed to type it in  and submit it in a floppy so that
the person in charge can send it! I was surprised and mentioned this to
my friend who was at IISc. He says it was the case
there too until 1993 or so. Only in '93 did they  open up. What is this
if not inferirity complex and therefore oppressing people who report to
them? As for VSNL, the cost is far too high for those who work in India.
Private services began with Satyam Online only 3-4 days back but they
are priced at  nearly the same as VSNL. The reason is that they are
forced to use VSNL's gateways (that is not privatised yet). Moreover,
there is no competition. Why would there be? Competition has been kept
out by having an
exorbitant bank guarantee.  Those who have an email id in their office
are better off if their office has taken a leased line. Otherwise, they
are in the same boat as VSNL  ubscribers.

-Arvind


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