This is an area of interest - what internet access is like generally in Mumbai and other major cities in this country.

Cheers,

Jon.

(Having stayed in both UK and India) Internet access in India is currently more expensive in both absolute + relative terms.

In most urban areas of UK, you can get unlimited 512Kbps/1MBps broadband for 10 pounds a month. For starter plans, you may have a connection fee of 20-30 pounds, but you do often get a basic ADSL modem for free. You do have to sign a contract for 12 months though. Normally, 1 MBPS access shall give you download speeds of upto 100kbps from a UK or european mirror site. (and expect around 50kbps from 512Kbps connection).

You can also get some "monthly download limit capped" broadband for an even cheaper rate. (6 pounds pm?)

In India, you pay close to 700-1000 Rupees (10-12) pounds for a slightly slower copnnection. Depending on the ISP, you may have monthly caps on downloads as well. I am not very sure what the rates currently are, (looks like they have gone down a bit). In Bangalore, till last year, you could expect to pay 1000-1200 per month for a 128Kbps "broadband" from an ISP called Hathway, which had a download limit of 2GB pm, and you paid 2 rupees per Meg after that.

In summary, 1) rates in absolute terms are generally higher than UK for comparable services. 2) If you consider this in relation to average wage, its even higher. (minimum wage in UK ~5 pounds per hr)

p.s. and we never had a freeserve like ISP in India :-( !!