Harbingers of Change in the Past Decade

The last decade has been a harbinger of change and has contributed significantly to the growth of telecom services, taking the industry on the road of development by giving it newer dimensions.

On one side where the industry saw the launch as well as auction of 3G services that generated unexpected huge revenues, it also saw the launch of other remarkable services like the revival of one paisa per second call rates by operators, entry of new players in the market, rollout of the much delayed MNP, etc.

Here's a list of the personalities who made waves.

 

A Raja

Raja is credited with bringing down tariffs, which made cellular services affordable for the masses. During his tenure, both BSNL and MTNL launched 3G services, and broadband prices came down. His second innings as telecom minister finally saw the 3G auctions that generated some unexpectedly huge revenues and also saw the implementation of the much delayed MNP.

Raja however was in the news in the recent past for his alleged fathering of the infamous 2G spectrum scam. The controversy surrounding Raja is that he accorded licenses and spectrum at cheap rates to a host of new applicants, of which 2 new licence holders, Unitech and Swan, made a fortune by selling a part of their stakes. The series of events and allegations on the telecom minister however forced the minister to leave his chair. However in an all-confident mode Raja still maintains clearly that his resignation doesn't mean that he accepted the allegations against him.

Apart from the never-ending vicious circle of the 2G scam that has engulfed many biggies, Raja's last tenure as telecom minister also saw the BlackBerry controversy. The BlackBerry issue came to the fore after the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence expressed its inability to intercept any conversation between hawala dealers and militant groups that use BlackBerry sets.

Arun Sarin

Arun Sarin is one of the few Indians to head a global multinational company. Considered to be the face of Vodafone once, Arun Sarin takes the credit of transforming Vodafone's mobile services across the globe making it the world's largest telecom company.

Way back in 1994, he played a pivotal role in creating Bell's spinoff AirTouch resulting in its merger with Vodafone in 1999. In 2000, he became the CEO of Infospace and in 2001 he formed his own company Accel-KKR Telecom to invest manage budding telecom ventures and technologies around the globe. Sarin was appointed at a time when the investment community wanted Vodafone to concentrate on managing its businesses efficiently and returning cash to shareholders, after its dramatic takeover driven expansion between 1999 and 2002.

Later in Dec 2002, he was announced the new CEO of Vodafone. Since then he focused on emerging markets such as India, Turkey,and Romania instead of developed markets such as Japan and others. It was under his able leadership, that Vodafone successfully bid $11.1 bn for 67% stake in the Indian mobile operator, Hutch, now rebranded as Vodafone. Though industry hailed this as the best acquisition for Vodafone Plc, the $2 bn tax demands from the Indian IT department can make holes in the financials of the MNC.

Dayanidhi Maran

Dayanidhi Maran, the former union communication minister broke all boundaries and opened gates for foreign investment in manufacturing, making Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai manufacturing hubs. With his sheer determination, Maran convinced some of the world's large manufacturing giants to open up manufacturing facilities in India. It was due to Maran's dedication and commitment that India today boasts of manufacturing units of Nokia, Motorola, etc. Maran also reduced the mobile and landline call rates drastically during his tenure as the Union IT and Communications Minister in 2004-06. During his period the growth of Internet subscribers including broadband was also higher. The broadband policy was announced during his tenure with a vision of covering 20 mn broadband subscribers by the end of 2010.

Maran however could not escape himself from engulfing in controversies as well. He had been accused of demanding from the Tatas, 33.33% shares from the Tata-Rupert Murdoch DTH project (Tata Sky) for the Sun Network. Maran had to resign from the union cabinet as he was said to be up against the women of DMK patriarch and M Karunanidhi's family. These series of events resulted in Karunanidhi removing Maran from his position as Union Minister. The Prime Minister refused to dismiss him, and the situation was not resolved till Maran himself resigned. The industry was mostly disappointed when he had to resign after just 2 years, but there were some reports that he favored GSM operators over CDMA.

Mukesh Ambani

The Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Infocomm laid the network across the country and offered mobile telephony at real cheap rates to the masses for the first time. He launched Reliance Infocomm which changed the rules of the game. Under his leadership, the company offered cheap mobile phone tariffs and effectively forced other mobile operators to cut tariffs.

Reliance Infocomm was one of the few companies which realized the importance of broadband before its arch rivals. After a bitter family feud, the company later went under the leadership of his brother Anil Ambani in 2006.

Four years later, Mukesh Ambani is back in telecom industry, and with a bang. Mukesh Ambani's billion-dollar bet on 4G wireless broadband technology marks the return of a huge player in the segment. The farsightedness of this entrepreneur can be estimated by the fact that when the Indian market is still awaiting proper implementation of 3G network by major players, Reliance has started testing 4G connections.

The last time Ambani got into telecom, he slashed call rates and forced every company in the business to figure out how to make money by charging around 1 rupee per minute and the big question here is, will this elder brother manage to do the same with 4G wireless broadband as well?

Nripendra Misra

One of the most independent regulators ever to head Trai (from 2006-09), Nripendra Misra will be mostly remembered for introducing the Conditional Access System (CAS). In his tenure the two most satisfying and forward looking achievements were setting up of 2 major reforms-one of 3G and the other is second generation reforms. The recommendation (on 2G reforms) was made in August of 2007, which tackled cross-technology issues, merger and acquisition issues, rollout obligation issues etc. Misra is also credited with taking a strong stand on VoIP inspite of resistance from the industry.

Misra however lost his crowning glory, with the 3G auctions not happening during his tenure. The auctions that were supposed to be held in January never happened and Misra retired in March 2009. However, he would be remembered for his unwavering stand on early 3G auction.

During Misra's tenure, tariffs for both GSM as well as CDMA came down dramatically, thanks to his policy of forbearance.

Ratan Tata

The VSNL (currently known as Tata Communications) buyout is the biggest feather in the already over-feathered cap of Ratan Tata. Under his leadership, Tata Communications transformed itself from an old-economy PSU like VSNL into a new-economy global company. It was under his able leadership that the brand became successful to have a strategic joint venture with Japanese telecom giant NTT DOCOMO in November 2008. Tata DOCOMO had about 32.82 mn users at the end of June 2010. On November 5, 2010, Tata DOCOMO became the first private sector telecom company to launch 3G services in India.

Ratan Tata effectively heads one of the biggest private telecom groups of the country. Tata Teleservices, Tata Communications, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) are some of the telecom companies under the aegis of the Tata Group. He has put India in the major league of ILD players, with the acquisition of Tyco and Teleglobe International.

This veteran industrialist has been hogging most of the limelight news for the last couple of days because of his alleged conversation with corporate lobbyist Nira Radia. Tata recently moved to the Supreme Court with the petition on infringement of his privacy related to his telephonic conversations with lobbyist Nira Radia which was tapped by the government.

Sam Pitroda

Sam Pitroda is best known as the father of Indian telecom revolution. Founding chairman of the Telecom Commission in India, this telecom czar is widely known as the brain behind the proliferation of the yellow PCO boxes which can be seen anywhere throughout the breadth and length of the country. He has also been involved in the use of telecommunications as a means to expedite the process of development and nation building. He is particularly known for having introduced microprocessors in telephone switches leading to early digital switching.

With around 100 patents to his credit, Sam Pitroda is held as a leading name in telecommunications and information technology for more than 3 decades. He founded the Center for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) in 1984. His key contribution at C-DOT was the Rural Automatic Exchange, which will always be a memorable one. Telecom development guru, inventor, and entrepreneur, Pitroda has also contributed to drafting India's telecommunications policies. In October 2009, Sam Pitroda was appointed as advisor to PM of India, Dr Manmohan Singh on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations with the rank of cabinet minister.

In August 2010, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh approved the setting up of a National Innovation Council, headed by telecom czar Sam Pitroda, with special focus on micro, small and medium enterprises for 2010-20. Hence, Pitroda's vision and achievement is noteworthy and it will surely pave the way to lead towards advanced nations. He has unfinished tasks too. His recommendations for the revival of BSNL are yet to find acceptance.

Shyamal Ghosh

Ghosh was the chairman of the Telecom Commission and the secretary of India's Department of Telecommunications when he retired from civil services in May 2002.

During his tenure as chairman for the Telecom Commission, major reforms in the telecom sector were initiated and implemented leading to the complete opening up of the telecom sector in India for private sector participation. He was credited with starting the telecom revolution in the country. One of Ghosh's biggest achievements was the corporatization of BSNL during his tenure.

Sukh Ram

Sukh Ram has been the most influential union telecom minister of recent times. Not only did he take the important decision of opening telecom services to private participation, he also tried opening local services first, going against the international norm of opening long-distance first. The master negotiator often personally negotiated with technology suppliers to DoT's services arm (now BSNL) to bring down prices of equipment and helped achieve savings of crores of rupees for the government. He believed that indigenous manufacturers could effectively help the growth of Indian telecom.

The Central Bureau of Investigation in 1996 seized `3.6 crore in cash concealed in bags and suitcases from his official residence. The cash was allegedly collected by him committing irregularities in awarding a telecom contract. He was convicted and sentenced to 3 years' rigorous imprisonment by a Delhi court in 2002. Though many people associate him with the telecom scams of 1996, and blame him for trying to start licensing without first creating a regulator, his achievements surpass the negative.

Sunil Mittal

Last but not the least, Sunil Bharti Mittal, the Indian telecom moghul, philanthropist and the founder, chairman and group CEO of Bharti Enterprises. Mittal along with his 2 siblings, takes the credit for transforming Bharti Enterprises into India's largest mobile phone operator in just 10 years. Mittal changed the dynamics of the telecommunications market. He is credited with the birth of the outsourcing model by which Bharti outsourced all the non-core activities of the company to vendors.

Under Mittal's leadership, Bharti crossed the 200 mn subscriber mark this year to become the largest telecom operator in the country, both revenue and subscriber wise. Bharti recently also started operations in Sri Lanka. It was under Sunil's able leadership that Bharti Airtel performed the acquisition of Zain Telecom. Bharti Airtel has access to Zain's African mobile operations in 15 countries.

Mittal, who always wanted Bharti to be a global telecom powerhouse, missed the bus by a whisker when he failed to seal a deal with South Africa's MTN. The combined entity would have been the world's third-largest telco.

Sunil Mittal has been awarded global telecom industry's highest honor-GSM Association Chairman's Award 2008, for his contribution to the development of India's telecom sector. In 2007, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honor.

Selection of top 10 names of the telecom eccentrics that were in the news and hogged maximum limelight and eyeballs in the last decade was not easy. Out of the 10 names, Sam Pitroda, Sunil Mittal, Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani and Dayanidhi Maran may find a place in the next few years as well. Have an exciting 2011-2020 too.

Ritu Singh
ritus@cybermedia.co.in