Consumers on Alert

Lifetime incoming free, off-the-shelf mobile music, and
free airtime for billing error! The deals offered to consumers in the mobile
arena are getting creative by the day. All meant to grab new customers to
increase the subscriber base. No one can deny the fact that the Indian mobile
telecom industry is a major success story. This has made the industry highly
competitive. In the race to gain new subscribers, the players are offering such
good deals that the consumer is forced to think if there's a catch somewhere.
Mostly, if a consumer cared to dig deeper, he would find the facts in no time.

Take the case of 'lifetime incoming free'. On the face
of it, it appears to be a scheme, which offers free incoming calls for one's
lifetime. But if you ever read the ad copy carefully, you would have realized
that lifetime means only for as long as the operator has a license. This is
similar to saying 'lifetime imprisonment', which only means 14 years in
jail. There's nothing wrong in advertising 'lifetime incoming free' as
long as the intention is not to mislead the consumer, and the ad clearly spells
out the definition of 'lifetime'. To prevent any miscommunication, TRAI has
laid out the rules for the operators. A telecom service provider has to mention
up front the exact month the scheme expires in.

The call charges are fixed under the 'lifetime incoming
free' scheme and are on the higher side of the spectrum from the ones on offer
these days. Therefore, a person opting for the lifetime plan needs to figure out
what the call rates are and get a rough idea of how many calls he will make
every month. With an estimated monthly usage in place, he should compare it with
other plans to see if he is ending up spending more or less. Like all tariff
plans, this one too suits certain sections of users, and the trick is for
everyone to figure out the sections they are a part of.

What is surprising is that India hasn't seen too many
organized consumer forum groups, as is the case in the West. Some of the largest
consumer groups in the US are opposing AT&T's proposed acquisition of
Bellsouth, a telecom company based in Atlanta. If the acquisition goes through,
it would create a company that would be amongst the largest service providers in
the world. This news, which would normally come into the category of
M&As-has jostled the consumers into action because the acquisition means
that the consumers have fewer telecom service providers to choose from and that
could drive up prices. Though more services with better pricing may emerge from
the merger, consumer groups are knocking the doors of anti-trust authorities to
make their case.

T-mobile, a telecom service provider in the US ended up
paying $135,000 to New York City in a ruling last December. The Department of
Consumer Affairs of the US Government took up the case saying that T-mobile and
two other operators did not fully comply with the National Consumer Law and
misled their consumers through deceptive advertising. The law tries to ensure
that what is promised in the headline of an ad cannot be taken away through
conditions in fine print, which a consumer does not see.

India seems to be a long way off from such a scenario.
However, initiatives such as the 'right to information' and aggressive
consumer right campaigns on TV and radio will gradually usher in an atmosphere
of openness and transparency. This will make the consumer bolder, more alert,
and ready to fight for his case. But a proactive group opposing a move and
putting pressure on their government to take its side is still something we have
to work very hard at.