[masalachai]

> In case people aren't aware, the Indian mobile sector was one of the cheapest and most pioneering markets of its time.

Not sure in what way you mean pioneering but it was definitely not the cheapest! Everything cost money. Text messages, phone calls, data, roaming between states, out-of-state phone calls. Everything. All this in addition to the cost of the cell phone itself - no bundled offers with phone like AT&T did with Apple in the US.

Furthermore, you could get away with a connection from private companies like Airtel and Vodafone if you lived in a big city. Rural coverage by these players was notoriously bad. The only substitute available was the one provided by the government itself - BSNL - which got a reputation of having the "best coverage".

All that changed dramatically when Reliance came up with a Rs.500 phone which included a connection with free unlimited calls between two Reliance phones. That was the beginning of true mass adoption of cell phones in India.

> People created the 0 cost phone call - farmers and mobile users could give a missed call to a number they heard on the radio, and then they would get a call back.

This is not an example of a model working well. This is an example of a workaround to mitigate high call costs.

[intended]

You can check what ARPU and per individual costs were in the world comapred to India historically for calls. India has always been one of the cheapest places to have calls, and one of the lowest ARPU in any market - and it managed to get multiple mobile phones per person and has a thriving telecom market.

The 0 cost phone call is an example of the market working well - people at the bottom of the pyramid have no money to spend, and given what ARPU was, expecting even lower prices is the stuff of fantasies.

This is innovation at work. I don't know what people are expecting when what they had was already impressive for the time.