India's richest man is rolling out a $20 billion mobile network that could bring lightning-fast Internet to hundreds of millions of people. 

 

印度首富正斥资200亿美元建设移动网络，或可使十亿人高速连接互联网。

 

Indian consumers are already celebrating the arrival of Mukesh Ambani's new Reliance¹ Jio service, seizing on the billionaire's promise to deliver rock bottom prices and download speeds that will enable streaming video. 

 

The 4G network, which reaches more than 80% of the country, officially went live Monday with a set of generous introductory offers. Indians will be able to use Jio for free until the end of 2016, and pay as little as 149 rupees ($2.25) a month for data after that. 

 

"Anything and everything that can go digital is going digital -- at an exponential rate," Ambani told investors² last week at his company's annual general meeting. "Life is going digital." 

 

Only one fifth of adults in India have access to the Internet. Few public Wi-Fi spots exist, and fast broadband connections require infrastructure³ that is rarely found in poorer urban areas, much less rural ones. 

 

But that is changing fast. If the Jio network succeeds, Ambani will be able to capitalize on a seismic⁴ shift that could see hundreds of millions of Indians come online in the coming years -- in most cases via a smartphone.

点击收听单词发音