More Bars in More Places

Matt Mullenweg, who is in New Delhi with me to attend WordCamp India, made a funny and somewhat ironic observation about the cellular coverage here, especially on his iPhone: More bars in more places. Of course, that is the (somewhat misleading) tagline for AT&T’s wireless service.

The reason for the better coverage is tied to the large number of cell towers that sit on top of both homes and commercial buildings (see pic). These cell towers are everywhere; they’re as visible as the cable TV lines strung on the side of electricity poles. The cell tower business in India has drawn some major investor interest, and there has been a lot of consolidation in the market. Comparatively speaking, we actually have much bigger towers in the U.S.