hi,

You are right - but before that, if telephones are made a basic requirement, that will automatically enable access to the internet. But I suppose it is now easier to get a telephone line now that private operators are in the business.

i think cable lines are the future. and reliance already has a nation wide optical fibre link. Their infrastructure can support much more bandwidth than they are using now.

Then we would need some desi-Dell to make cheap Linux machines. And some big store(s) to start selling those machines with a credit facility. I think shelling out ~20K upfront is still a big hurdle for many in India. But if they were just asked to pay about 5000 upfront and about 600 every month?

How much does it cost(in India) anyway to build a low end Linux machine i.e 5/10GB hard-drive, 256MB RAM, 15" monitor, CD-ROM drive, modem...

How expensive/cheap/easy/difficult is it to make the TV as a display unit (instead of using a CRT monitor?) - will it save money. Lot of people have TVs! Is the quality any good? Anyone tried it?

so we need more zenith like vendors. assembling/(getting assembled) is always a cheaper proposition. actually now PCs _are_ penetrating homes and business. question is to connect them to the internet.

anand