VoiP has not happened here in India. Plain vanilla voice calls rule the roost and contribute to the “bottom line”. VoIP would usher in cheaper and better voice calls as compared to the POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service).

Convergence isn’t happening either.IPTV was supposed to ‘revolutionize’ the viewing habits and patterns. Besides a handful of early stage adopters, there hasn’t been much of a headway in that. The early adopters are cribbing about high cost of access, the limited viewing choice and the so called “fair usage policies”.

We are slowly moving towards an inertia in reforms because till the time the commitment comes from the top, things are not going to change. The most lucrative segment of telecom industry is the scarce spectrum because it allows the people in charge to play God and bend rules to their whims and fancies.

So far, there has been no clear cut guidelines regarding the spectrum allocation nor the way 3G is to be rolled out. Underhand dealings have created havoc with the way we use our services; dealing with the established oligopolies.

I am cynical about the way things have taken a turn and with the allocation of telecom portfolio to the same minister, the outlook seems worse for being stuck in the narrow band policy for times to come.