Waiting for Calamities...

I was sitting in a leading VSAT service provider’s office in Bangalore,

discussing the Gujarat earthquake, when this phone call came. The caller, a

senior officer of the VSAT Service Providers Association of India, wanted to

know if this company had any existing VSAT networks in that area or if they

could set up a few VSATs at the earliest, so that some communication between the

quake affected areas and the rest of the country could be started. The caller

said that the government officials have promised that no regulations would come

in the way, as this was an emergency situation. After the conversation was over,

my friend laughed as well as sympathized. For a long time, VSAT service

providers have been demanding that policies be liberalized for better and

simpler communications.

An almost similar story was repeated at the office of a Calcutta based radio

trunking equipment vendor, just a few days after the Calcutta Airport incident

in which a police constable went on a shooting spree. It was only after this

mishap that police authorities woke up, and were now insisting that a radio

trunking network for airport security be set up within no time.

Why do we have to wait for calamities? After many of the serious rail

accidents in the recent past, there were several communication projects that

were to be taken up for railway safety. Nobody has heard anything about them

after that. One big reason is that high profile task forces and groups of

ministers seem to be the only things we know how to set up. We are trying the

top-down approach, when it should actually be the bottom-up. Groups should be

set up at operational levels, comprising of people who will actually use the

communications networks. Their recommendations should then be acted upon.

Coming from God-sent calamities to man-made calamities, these days, one has

also been hearing a lot about the current economic slowdown hitting infotech

too. It is true as far as PCs, peripherals and software are concerned. Vendors

in the networking and communications segment are, however, talking of a 50

percent plus growth. Their explanation is that it is consolidation time in the

market, and organizations are trying to better utilize their investments in IT

(by improving networking and communications) rather than buying newer PCs and

software. Several new areas are also opening up–such as communications enabled

services and telecom services. It’s therefore time to make merry and look

forward to a challenging, yet positive, growth ahead.

ibrahima@cmil.com