Though they claim to adhere to “highest standards of corporate governance” (whatever that means), Airtel has been accused of “cooking their books” by showing increased revenues for national long distance carriage charges which attracts a lower revenue than the mobile division.

Most of the telcos claim that they are running into losses since their account books are not open for public scrutiny. They resort to “shady deals and practises” to keep themselves afloat. No one knows their real valuations and the truth behind “window dressing”.

The strange thing, despite the “losses”, companies can afford to expand, go on an advertising spree and hire their “brand ambassadors”. No one knows for sure as to how much money exchanges hands.

Does that make a difference to you? Should you be concerned? The higher termination charges and the fact that companies have resisted all attempts to reduce the interconnect charges means that you continue to pay extremely high charges for all your calls. Clearly, value added services has added to their kitty but their practise of using differential tariffs for different markets has paid them rich dividends. They are slowly becoming monopolised and cartelised and even though you may think that you are the king, they suck you out of your money.

It’s high time these buggers need to be made accountable for the practises because the spectrum they use is clearly public property. They are just service providers and despite their claims of paying for the spectrun doesn’t give them the divine right to own it too. Plus, they owe thousands of crores to the Government (indirectly you and me) in terms of unpaid licencing money.

Scam. It’s a scam. It’s always been a scam.