The Incorrigible Monolith

We were travelling towards Bangalore airport when we were hit. Hit by the collapseof the national communications services. Courtesy, the DoT. My colleaguesuddenly discovered to his dismay that he was not getting connected to thenetwork. He almost panicked because he had to make several important businesscalls.

We all know how individuals and organizations suffer when DoTemployees strike. But last month saw one of the worst phases of modern Indiantelecom. The striking employees held the entire nation to ransom. At a time whenthe country is trying to get on to the forward path, there was chaos andembarrassment.

Doubts are being raised about the feasibility of the twoindustries where India is expected to be a world player, namely, softwareexports and communications-enabled services. Leading luminaries from IT industryand management consultancy experts have indicated that one area which needs alot of improvement is communications infrastructure. The confidence of theinternational community is at stake. Let us not forget the famous words of anindustry expert, "Countries are fighting to get investor's attention".Also, it is high time the country gets a minister exclusively devoted tocommunications.

This act of national subversion will definitely force peopleto think. The Government may not bother about public opinion, but the consumerswill definitely look at other options.

We also learnt a few other things. One, our cellular service providers do nothave a back-up infrastructure. Two, though there has been a lot of talk aboutthe private basic service providers coming in, they are being very slow in theirrollouts. With the kind of agreements the Government has got into with theemployee unions with regard to job security, perks and benefits, andorganization structure in the wake of DoT’s corporatization, there is hardlyany hope for change towards better services. Those who still want to cling tothis incorrigible monolith will realize that they are on board a sinking ship.

Ibrahim Ahmad