Convergence Plus Journal

“It’s not the end of the world when you can’t say ‘hi’ to your Reliance girlfriend, dash off an SMS to your principals in Germany, or simply give your granny a welcome morning call on her landline”. No, but it certainly appears like that to frustrated customers who were consistently wooed into becoming mobile addicts.

It may sound painfully simplistic to say that it is the right of every paid up customer to be connected, and the duty of service providers to connect, and such is the expectation of the 50-million telecom customers in India. Mahajan expects the figure to double by the end of the year, and then double again the following year, and so on. Is this a vision or a pipe dream, given the present unrest?

Instead of the buzz of Star Wars we have more a case of a civil war. We have an assortment of building blocks within the telecom system: Private firms, MTNL/BSNL, GSM, WLL and what you will. Each is willing to snatch market share yet none can do it alone. Each one is a giant in its own right, a massive building block, but totally unstable without a plasterer.

Unless the wide differential in tariffs and access charges is sorted out the bonding will never be smooth. The GSM operators had hoped to make a statement by blocking the WLL connections. Then there was the case of BSNL/MTNL blocking the service to cellular operators. Sadly, this is a shooting star battle that can be played with devastating impact. The very structure can collapse, or very nearly collapse, as we have seen. Who then will be the necessary plasterer to cement these disparate bricks and rocks into a functioning whole? Is it the TRAI? Or a sensible Think Tank? Or Minister Pramod Mahajan?

We could attempt a new-look TRAI, boost it with Government trust and strong teeth, so that it is not prone to be challenged from every quarter like cellular operators hollering that they pay access charges through the PSTN while WLL does not*. A modest reply, that the differential in income was factored, puts it on the back foot and the herd stamps aggressively around it. We must have foresight to anticipate that since mobility is allowed on the WLL service platform, it would be futile to differentiate between mobile WLL, and cellular services by building a boundary wall around WLL! Wise judgments from a powerful, respected body are needed, and not the Supreme Court or TDSAT as the end game for each strife. How about sensible beginnings?

Perhaps a starting point could be a recommendatory forum, where the minister and the operators can meet and discuss policy measures. This is especially important in a competitive multi-operator environment where players are using rival technologies, and demanding the abolition of sectoral licensing. No need to block. If things get pear-shaped the government could always cancel specific services within the larger license.

Then there is the question of growth, the vision of Mahajan. The industry needs an investment of over Rs. 1668 billion in the next five years. If it gets contentious, it instantly becomes a ‘bad bet’. Pramod Mahajan humorously talked about a futuristic scenario where a patient could plonk a mobile against his heart, and seeks his doctor’s advice. To us the heartbeat SMS of the industry is loud and clear: Speed up Consensus. Forget not the Consumer.

Postscript: At the time of going to print, WLL operators have also been instructed to pay access charges.

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