Published on
21st May 2005 in
Indian Telecom.
Tags: Access Deficit Charge, Airtel, Broadband, BSNL, CDMA, India, Indian Telecom, MTNL, Opera, Reliance, Tata.
Foreign Direct Investment seems to be manna frm heaven in India. I d agree to an extent about the inflow of money in this country; not in crucial sectors of Telecom. I held this view long time back and still hold it now too.
Over the past 2 days, there has been a quiet tectonic shift in the Indian Telecom; I have yet to see it’s condemnation. First, Maran insists that Access Deficit Charge(ADC) should stay on to subsidise BSNL for rural operations I fail to understand as to how this is actually helping the growth of telecom. In any case, it’s a sheer fallacy that BSNL is increasing it’s wireline infrastructure in the rural areas. Buoyed by increased demand for mobile and CDMA services, it is getting congested. Hence, the percieved benefits of affordable telephony are simply missing.
Further, Broadband would remain a pipe dream and a whole generation would grow up with a digital divide. This is not in the best interests of the nation.
Now, the juvenile fascination with merger between MTNL and BSNL. Why dont they leave these two companies alone? In anycase, we have had to suffer them for years together. “Synergies” would only double the misery. Period. More than that, it may be a prelude to selling them en block since either alone it wouldn’t make a good selling proposition to any “foreign buyer”. Don’t get me wrong here. I d still hold that it is an attempt to subvert our crucial infrastructure.
A significant development this week; Singtel upped it’s investment in Airtel. I had earlier mentioned that Singapore based companies remained a front for Chinese to enter India through backdoor. This is indeed a graver security threat ; any economist would know. I vae no idea as to why BSNL persisted with Huawei modems and not anyone else. Why patronise the Chinese and not spur on development in India for the same?
What is more disturbing here is the typical PRO speak here. It says and I quote,”We believe that SingTel’s increase in the stake is an expression of confidence in India,” said New Delhi-based Bharti Tele-Ventures.
All in all, I d still hold that Indian Telecom party has lot to achieve on it’s own rather than stand on the crutches of foreign funds. It is debatable. Still wondering. Reliance and Tata’s have considerable presence in India- we don’t get to hear much on that front. Why Bharti and their ilk are diluting their stakes in their own infrastructure?
This is bit out of place here. However, Nitin Pai has a bit about Chinese blogging; how chinese tend to subvert the freedom of expression online.
Of course, I had raised doubts about China surging ahead in Telecom sector. Much of it remains fluff and most of the propaganda is directed for the ordinary Chinese to give them a “feel good factor”. These “statistics” also help the “foreign companies” to cook up the accounts- corporate ethics have gone for a toss anyway. Enron Scandal is still fresh in our minds.
Anyway, there is no last word on this.
Much has been made out of controversial issue of Access Deficit Charge and how it’s hurting the growth of affordable Telecom.
BSNL is getting fatter because of the abuse of it’s natural monopoly.
Read how the ADC kitty has sweeled up to whopping 11000 crores! No wonder, given the fact that it has no incentive to change, the status quo would remain the same in coming years.
In the dog eat dog world of marketing, Media has resorted to several gimmicks.
If Mumbai disnt generate such flurry of activity as for the launch of newspapers there, I wouldnt have bothered. Times of India remains a stooge to capitalist’s interests. And so does Hindustan Times.
it now appears that Airtel tied up with Hindustan Times to distribute it’s newspapers Hindustan Times gets it’s assured subscribers and Airtel would get discounted ad rates.
All gung ho isnt it? Airtel would find it’s way in editorials soon; being hailed as the next best thing that happened to Indian Telecom phenomenon.
Watch this space.
Indian Telecom has it’s own sob story of litigations. For example, SC notice to BSNL on TRAI plea They decide who is the boss.
Anyway, there is an interesting story on development of new generation broadband. It is called as VDSL2 and optimises the current ADSL2 platform for data delivery. Is it the new wave of future? I am wondering whether we would see MbPs factor speeds as routine. One rumour that is floating around is that Reliance is planning similar moves to deliver data over Ethernet at speeds in excess of 100MbPs factor. Thats the kind of infrastructure they have readied as they plan to enter broadcasting in a big way. In any case, this isn’t awe inspiring as the Gigabit networks in HongKong. There entertainment industry is going gaga over the delivered content. India, alas is a developing country. Of course, I am swallowing my pride at 256Kbps.
As former colony of England, Indians and English share somewhat common mentality. Much maligned BSNL has comfort to know that British Telecom is accused of red tape; it has spread it’s tentacles of misery in every brits life. However, faced with imminent threat to it’s viability, it opened up it’s last mile to private players and reaping the benefits of being a monopoly. Mr Maran, read this BBC report which says that BT is now making one new broadband connection every 10 seconds.
I am happy at unlimited dial up. Admittedly, for the first time I experienced such a thing.
If there is anyway one needs to get confused about choosing a product for yourself, trust yourself to read newspapers regularly.
For example, this write up details the various packages available for broadband.
For an average user, broadband only means anything faster than a dial up. There is no objective criteria to call an Internet connection as “fast”. Still, we have data caps as low as 500MB with speeds of 512 KBps and marketed as “broadband”.
Enough! TRAI wake up and stop this nonsense. It’s happening right under your nose.
China is mixed bag; it is being promoted at the cost of internal dissensions. It is hailed as the model of communism mixing up with capitalism and therefore, the “most happening country in Asia”. Sarcasm apart, China is groaning and creaking under the weight of it’s own lopsided policies.
The Hindu(newspaper) makes a pertinent point to project China, come what may. It’s panel of “intelligent people” are willing to ignore the ground realities and instead focus on the huge shopping malls and buildings coming in. As globalisation spreads its tentacles in there, traditional Chinese way of life is being destroyed. Of course, keeping a tight lid “behind the iron curtain” is the state media.
A recent report insists that Chinese have taken to Short Message Service(SMS for short) in a big way.
Further insists,” China’s telephone subscriber base has touched 674 million, including 325 million fixed line phones and 349 million cellular phones, both occupying first place in the world”.
Even if half the numbers are true, India is way behind the numbers. There has been enough controversy about the numbers, rather than actual usage. This is one area where we clearly fall behind China. Given the current juvenile fascination with comparing India and China on the world stage and crop of “analysts” springing up to offer their “insights”, there is an enormous room for skepticism here.
The details for their Telecom Regulation are sketchy. One could really take comfort in numbers for us. It is a classic story of missed oppurtunities. 50+ years and we are grappling for decent infrastructure.
