According to Communications in India wiki, India is marching towards billion telephone (landlines and mobile) subscribers. Even though the mobile phone connections are exploding like anything, there is always a need for landlines exclusively for Broadband connection. In India, wireless broadband has not yet taken off and the speed is very slow when compared to wired broadband connection.
The Internet Usage Statistics in India is 81,000,000 i.e 6.9 % and is expected to grow more. Also major telephone operators in the subcontinent are taking advantage of this growth.
Even though Mobile phones can act as a modem for connecting to internet, it cannot withstand due to following reasons
1. Lack of Towers and hence low coverages
2. Battery will drain out.
3. you need to charge every now and then.. etc
Need for the new device…
Communication became the important part of our daily life now-a-days. we communicate via Facebook/Internet, phone, voip etc. For each of these, we are using a separate device like laptop/desktop computer, mobile phones or internet phones specically. we also required modem to connect our laptop to internet.
why not have a single device which can do this all?
We cannot call that device as Phone. As per TheFreeDictionary.com
Telephone is an instrument that converts voice and other sound signals into a form that can be transmitted to remote locations and that receives and reconverts waves into sound signals.
Phone can refer only things which can transmit sound signals. But today, we are transmitting data (voice, documents, videos) as bits and bytes. Hence we can call that a communication device.
What feature it should have?
A new Integrated communication device should posses the following characteristics
1. Easy to use with Intuitive interface.
2. Always be connected with Internet i.e ADSL+ enabled or what ever the latest.
3. Camera enabled – Speak with your friends / families using Video capabilities.
4. Text Enabled – Send and receive text
5. 1-Touch Call
6. Voice Recognition
7. a Wi-Fi / LAN enabled to get our laptop/computer connected
8. Digital phone book
9. Built-in Bill Payment facilities for Phone service, Electricity etc
10. Mic / Speaker enabled. Support for headset should be also available.
11. Wireless Handset so that you need not be at phone while talking.
Basically, it should be a blend of
1. Today’s Smart-Phone
2. Skype
3. Landline
4. DSL Modem
5. Camera
Every feature i specified here decribes the funtionality it can do. Hence i did not explain much about the feature.
The Demand…
Airtel, one of the biggest private telecom operator in India is getting revenue 50-50 between voice and data. The demand for this kind of device will increase as operators are trying to give Value added services to their customers.
Landline phone is the easiest technology product that people have learned today even before mobile phones. Every body knows to dial and make a call. The reach to the masses will surely be achieved with this kind of integrated device.
Business Model
This will be a hardware business. To start with, a prototype should be made and demo it to the largest operator in the country. At-least they will do trial run at few places and would see the response for such kind of device. the cost of integrated communication device should be very low compared to the combined cost of phone + wifi / LAN modem or any internet phones. If it is being accepted, they it will sell like anything. Telecom operator can bundle the device along with the package which is sold now. You can take the share of every device sold.
Who’s the target audience?
This device is *not* for the techie people who already use / learned to use the device. This is a new generation device which will go mainstream like the normal landline phone we have now. Most of the people in India will be connected via this device.
Prototype
what do you think about this concept? comment about it.
Note: The mashup is created using GIMP. I took phone picture and icons from Google Images.
Beyond Work 
I like the idea. India doesn’t have the internet bandwidth yet. Access is very slow and expensive. The dollar cost is approx the same, which is very expensive in India. They would also have to implement rock solid VOIP QOS routers to handle the traffic properly.
where can I get above phone in Image for My Phone
it is a graphical image i created. not a real phone.