Limited Mobility, Unlimited Chaos

I

read an article on who is actually becoming a crorepati in the teleserial KBC.

The author said that apart from the participants and the viewers of the game

show, everybody else, including the TV channel, the producer, the host and the

telecom carrier facilitating the show were making crores from the show.

On the same lines, the government of India, the Fixed Service Providers (FSPs),

the cellular companies, as well as industry chiefs are clamoring with claims and

counter claims, and charges and counter charges. Telephone users need to

understand the nitty gritties of limited mobility before forming an opinion.

FSPs claim that they want limited mobility because they want to enhance low

cost telephone penetration. If one goes by their track record, then the DoT has

for years played a subscriber unfriendly monopolistic truant, and only been able

to provide a teledensity of over 2.8. And we are well aware of the track record

of private FSPs with respect to teledensity! Further, the investments required

to offer limited mobility services are huge, and it would not be surprising if

the subscribers later see lots of strings attached to the claimed price of Rs

1.2 for a 3-minute call.

The government is also using the same arguments among allegations that it is

trying to help the MTNLs and BSNL and a few big private FSPs. These players

offer multiple services, including cellular and ISP fixed services. Some of them

are even setting up their own backbone, which will bring them into a really

powerful position. The end result could be the death of smaller and niche

service providers, whose presence has its own advantages, and the birth of a few

private telecom giants with monopolistic tendencies.

Plus, at a time when communication technologies are fast moving towards

offering convergence because of which service providers in one area, such as

ISPs, can offer voice services too, the government’s policy making style can

be termed nothing but shortsighted.

The cellular companies are opposing limited mobilty to FSPs because they fear

their revenues and market share will be hit. Limited mobility from FSPs will

really force them to rethink their business models. And this should result in

better prices and services, even for the masses.

Clearly, as of now, everybody in the game has their own interests. And nobody

is really worried about the end user.

ibrahima@cmil.com