Finally, it goes to the Indian consumer.

It doesn’t include me for obvious reasons. And the webmaster. Two of us decided to fight the spin single handedly via the medium best known to us- blogging. Perhaps, this is the lone blog dedicated to the telecom crap that’s happening in India.

But why the Indian consumer? In my email campaign to BSNL head office fighting for ‘unlimited’ broadband, I came across a multitude of spineless frigging good for nothing swarm of idiots who hung out on the forums without being of any use to themselves or to the community. The scum was cynical, pulled me down on many occassions, happy to be a part of the curious onlookers and derided anything positive that came out.

Unlimited Broadband was announced; much to the relief of a dedicated group of people who stuck out and mass mailed to the boffins in Sanchar Bhawan. We as consumers have no fucking say in the way we want it. Either take it or leave it. The state of affairs is much because we are not united in demanding what is most appropriate for OUR OWN needs and not otherwise. Companies may crow about huge expenses lined up, including the cost of the employees et al. Frankly, it beats the crap of logic as to how they declare obscene profits quarter on quarter.

TRAI is the toothless tiger. Lamed and f***ed beyond any recognition, till recently, it has failed to uphold any consumer interest. By all means, we tend to elect and have appointed idiots in position of power who are not even remotely concerned with the intricacies of running a telecom system in this nation.

The present impasse is to be blamed on you all because you all chose to keep your mouth shut.

I had a lot of guys clicking on the “online petitions” for which no one gives a shit about. Many people feel good about the “clicktivism” that may perhaps relieve them of the guilt feeling that they have done nothing to fight back the system. These online petitions are a minefield for spammers of all hues and your email starts getting the huge amount of spam that you never ever thought of.

For all this, asshole of the year award goes to you.

Cheers for the new year.

I was reading this comment on the Broadband Blog and realized that we have enough players in the market. At least in the major cities.

What we need now is number portability. That ability to change service providers without changing mobile numbers would be awesomeness.

That would be the best way to get the companies to give the best values to the customers. They don’t want to but they would have to. If only TRAI goes ahead and implement it.

It may be a good news for Ruias who hold a stake in Hutch Telecom. Their windfall would be in billions, if at all they decide to sell their stake. By all possible indications, Anil Ambani is keen on buying out Hutch’s stake and propel himself to the “top” of the heap. It would give him a ready access to the GSM subscribers.

In my opinion, if I am right, Ambani would drive his CDMA in the rural hinterland given the price advantage that CDMA can afford. GSM would be his mainstay in the cities- the erstwhile Hutch driving his brand strategy. Plus give him access to the lucrative Mumbai market with a ready made subscriber base.

Airtel’s Mittal doesn’t want to loose this golden goose and wants to convert Hutch into another crappy service provider called as Airtel. It is all about the subscriber base isn’t it? Millions and millions? I am sure that the valuation would be far less than that is being reported in media. Media of course, has it’s sources but then one can never trust them. Hence, there are wild figures being quoted; in the range of billions.

The excat quantum of payments made would perhaps be never known. These are private companies and their shares are not publicly traded.

Ruias ran ESSAR steel which ran in debts. They were another wannabe big shot industrialists who just happened to invest in telecom as an afterthought. It clicked.

Why is it a bad idea for Hutch to be sold off?

I believe that it would create very strong oligopolies. As it is the companies don’t give a hoot to TRAI, the so called regulator. Further, these oligopolies would resist any consumer friendly initiative. Primarily, number portability. They would see the churn and shift of the subscribers would need additional investments hurting their “profits”. Ambani, like a rampaging maniac, would turn this company into another ‘reliance’ and make a mess of it.

I believe that Government should step in and avoid any sale in the best interests of the subscribers. I believe that the subscribers should have a say as to whom they would want to manage their affairs. We are just quoted as ‘numbers’ and nothing else. A price to be paid for.

On an afterthought. What would be Hutch’s communication strategy post sale to any other company? I would surely miss the pug. Imagine Ambani claiming that it was his “papa ka sapna” (father’s dream) or Amitabh’s voiceover crowing about what Reliance has done. It would be a sorry state of affairs for a company that had the potential to make itself better but screwed it up with lousy plan intiatives.