As for TRAI,there are several issues that need to be clarified.However,I shall restrict myself only to the recent ruling of TDSAT that usurped the jurisdiction of TRAI over the dispute arbritration.TRAI unfortunately has been reduced to noneity.Infact ocassionaly they mange to awaken themselves from intellectual rigor mortis and say something sensible.The last word on the same was on the broadband policy(which got rejected in toto)This reflects the true extent of TRAIs power anyway in the corridors of decision making.
Agreed. I meant the same thing by suggesting that BSNL and DoT must not protect each other.

At the risk of repition,infrastructure funds would flow only when there is clear regulatory regime.Hence provide the invstors a bang for their buck.
Again at the risk of repetition, I fail to understand… How exactly does regulatory regime from TRAI ensure infrastructure funds?

There was no provision for Reliances fixed operator licence. Not true.. WLL is a fixed license operators service. That is why CDMA operators only have wireless phones (with landline rates). All CDMA operators are free to provide this service, not just Reliance. FYI, BSNL has it too. How Reliance escapes fines though is a matter for discussion. ;-)

TRAI indeed has no role(I believe) in the manner in which the telecom companies raise funds.However,last year most of companies fell short of the quality of infrastructure in most of the circles�you AirTel and Hutch included.Reliance had just started its services then. Which means they must improve.. What do you feel TRAI should do about this? Ban operators who don’t come up to these benchmarks?

Predatory pricing is again a fallacy.If acquiring the customers is one issue,then by hook or crook they mange to get it anyway.
How exactly will they acquire these customers?

If Tatas have launched in Punjab,they offered free calls to Tata phones till April.Free Internet access with Free data cable till Feb end.However,thats just the introductory offer.Is that not predatory to existing Reliances customers?Every operator indulges in the same.Perhpas their PTT which is very cheap at Rs.99/- per month.Is that not predatory?
These are temporary offers to penetrate a new market. If these were permanent, giving existing customers a reason to permanently shift; then it would be predatory.
PTT is a non real time point to point messaging service. It basically uses the infra of WAP (also offered at 99/- by most operators). The receiving party must support the same to, it does not (in the present implementation offered by operators) allow messages to landlines and mobiles as a phone call. A VERY important difference. It is essentially a repackaged MMS, to put it very crudely. Does that mean operators should not provide internet messaging, WAP, internet access without an ISP license? Or news videos without a TV license? Texts without a postal license??? Services are converging and that is why the unified license has come about. It must of course keep up with increasing convergence. TRAI has announced the same. Whether it will come through (read BSNL) is another matter.

This is the reason that the prepaid segment is larger than the post paid.Scale up customers,give money upfront and then forget about them.
So simple according to you, isn’t it? ;-) If one operator offers these services to the volume segment (prepaid), it would become a monopoly in no time wouldn’t it? I wonder why not even one operator (at least the struggling ones!) in India has figured this one out yet. Please tell me why it hasn’t happened. And how you think at least one operator can be made to do it. Don’t just tell that it should.

As for TRAI,there are several issues that need to be clarified.However,I shall restrict myself only to the recent ruling of TDSAT that usurped the jurisdiction of TRAI over the dispute arbritration.TRAI unfortunately has been reduced to noneity.Infact ocassionaly they mange to awaken themselves from intellectual rigor mortis and say something sensible.The last word on the same was on the broadband policy(which got rejected in toto)This reflects the true extent of TRAIs power anyway in the corridors of decision making.
Agreed. I meant the same thing by suggesting that BSNL and DoT must not protect each other.

At the risk of repition,infrastructure funds would flow only when there is clear regulatory regime.Hence provide the invstors a bang for their buck.
Again at the risk of repetition, I fail to understand… How exactly does regulatory regime from TRAI ensure infrastructure funds?

There was no provision for Reliances fixed operator licence. Not true.. WLL is a fixed license operators service. That is why CDMA operators only have wireless phones (with landline rates). All CDMA operators are free to provide this service, not just Reliance. FYI, BSNL has it too. How Reliance escapes fines though is a matter for discussion. ;-)

TRAI indeed has no role(I believe) in the manner in which the telecom companies raise funds.However,last year most of companies fell short of the quality of infrastructure in most of the circles�you AirTel and Hutch included.Reliance had just started its services then. Which means they must improve.. What do you feel TRAI should do about this? Ban operators who don’t come up to these benchmarks?

Predatory pricing is again a fallacy.If acquiring the customers is one issue,then by hook or crook they mange to get it anyway.
How exactly will they acquire these customers?

If Tatas have launched in Punjab,they offered free calls to Tata phones till April.Free Internet access with Free data cable till Feb end.However,thats just the introductory offer.Is that not predatory to existing Reliances customers?Every operator indulges in the same.Perhpas their PTT which is very cheap at Rs.99/- per month.Is that not predatory?
These are temporary offers to penetrate a new market. If these were permanent, giving existing customers a reason to permanently shift; then it would be predatory.
PTT is a non real time point to point messaging service. It basically uses the infra of WAP (also offered at 99/- by most operators). The receiving party must support the same to, it does not (in the present implementation offered by operators) allow messages to landlines and mobiles as a phone call. A VERY important difference. It is essentially a repackaged MMS, to put it very crudely. Does that mean operators should not provide internet messaging, WAP, internet access without an ISP license? Or news videos without a TV license? Texts without a postal license??? Services are converging and that is why the unified license has come about. It must of course keep up with increasing convergence. TRAI has announced the same. Whether it will come through (read BSNL) is another matter.

This is the reason that the prepaid segment is larger than the post paid.Scale up customers,give money upfront and then forget about them.
So simple according to you, isn’t it? ;-) If one operator offers these services to the volume segment (prepaid), it would become a monopoly in no time wouldn’t it? I wonder why not even one operator (at least the struggling ones!) in India has figured this one out yet. Please tell me why it hasn’t happened. And how you think at least one operator can be made to do it. Don’t just tell that it should.

Another fundamental.. How much profit do you believe a company can or should make? 0%? 2%? AirTel is a large integrated player, being the only private operator with a pan-India presence. That allows them a lot more savings that what their competition can achieve. They spend among the lowest per subscriber in the industry. They are very efficient, period. The TRAI has set ceilings on the phone rates possible.
Let’s say AirTel did drop call rates. Making full use of the advantage they had. That would kill and destroy most other operators, who cannot sustain the low rates Airtel could possibly provide. That is predatory pricing which is what the TRAI stops. Otherwise a monopoly could emerge. This means that looking into the interest of all, operators and consumers, in the long term, they cannot let AirTel drop their prices further.
Which is also why they have MBA executives, with fat paychecks, who help them achieve this kind of efficiency and profit, making full use of the investment that their shareholders have put in. Such companies will encourage investors in India to put more money into them. Then FDI can be dropped. ;-) It can’t happen both ways, let’s face it. Low profits and heavy investment is a lot to expect any investor to risk.

There is always something you must give when you take something. You want the lowest FDI, huge investments from the local market, call rates such that companies make zero profit, and thus shareholders whose investment gives them no returns. Find me these national philanthropists.

With respect to Reliance petrochemicals, what is perhaps needed is the Petrochemicals Regulatory Authority of India. ;-) Who will determine price ceilings as appropriate. If TRAI does not prevent the same for Telecom, then we have an issue. But with the current scenario, with their current limitations, in terms of the market, they have done what can be done. With the long term in mind.

The only current concern I have is that the monopoly of BSNL is being sustained. And this is a company that need not post such high profits, since the money goes to the government exchequer anyway. The license fee the other operators pay, is just returned to BSNL. It should use all its profits for rural expansion. It can afford to take this risk, since it has government backing. Perhaps a target (number of new rural landlines per month?) should be set to it. Which can also be used to determine the total ADC it receives. That way BSNL has to work to get its profits, not such use their monopoly. When the ADC was reduced, the blackmail from BSNL knew no bounds. “We have to increase call rates, rentals, reduce free calls” etc. Why not post lower profits? This is where the cartel theories are best applied.. Protect BSNL’s profits so that these cartels (read:politicians) make money. :-(
When TRAI recommended the last mile should be unbundled, DoT (read: BSNL) rejected the proposal. This would mean losing a monopoly it enjoys! Perhaps TRAI needs to have the veto in such cases, when no valid reason is provided! And the link b/w DoT and BSNL needs to be eliminated.
And if you don’t like COAI figures, read TRAI figures. Either way my point regarding the volume model stands.
Looking at cross-subsidisation closely, only the integrated players have submitted their accounts. Pure play private operators have not done so. And I believe a very detailed account is expected by TRAI, containing sensitive information. I do not know more on the matter other than the show cause notice being issued, so I cannot say what really is happening and who is not doing their job.

A clarification: by “quality” of infrastructure I mean the actual phone call, not ancillary services like customer care, fault handling, etc. I mean the quality of the actual phone call. Ancillary services are the first to take a hit when prices drop. Which goes to explain the paltry customer care prevalent today. And that is as far as I want it to go. I don’t want the degradation to extend to the actual phone call.

I have never been a Reliance/CDMA customer. When my friend got a reliance phone, I made a call. And I was shocked at how bad it could get. (No comfort noise generation! What kind of a phone is that? Use VAD, then use it properly for God’s sake!! =:-0) I’m guessing here, but you must be a reliance customer (& fan ;-) ) to be able to say that the quality is good here in Bangalore. Or you have not heard a call from another operator here. CDMA has a defect known as a soft capacity, the signal SNR degenerates as the number of users increase. Reliance ought to put more towers when the SNR drop is noticeable. Well, let’s leave it to the ear of the beholder ;-)

Another fundamental.. How much profit do you believe a company can or should make? 0%? 2%? AirTel is a large integrated player, being the only private operator with a pan-India presence. That allows them a lot more savings that what their competition can achieve. They spend among the lowest per subscriber in the industry. They are very efficient, period. The TRAI has set ceilings on the phone rates possible.
Let’s say AirTel did drop call rates. Making full use of the advantage they had. That would kill and destroy most other operators, who cannot sustain the low rates Airtel could possibly provide. That is predatory pricing which is what the TRAI stops. Otherwise a monopoly could emerge. This means that looking into the interest of all, operators and consumers, in the long term, they cannot let AirTel drop their prices further.
Which is also why they have MBA executives, with fat paychecks, who help them achieve this kind of efficiency and profit, making full use of the investment that their shareholders have put in. Such companies will encourage investors in India to put more money into them. Then FDI can be dropped. ;-) It can’t happen both ways, let’s face it. Low profits and heavy investment is a lot to expect any investor to risk.

There is always something you must give when you take something. You want the lowest FDI, huge investments from the local market, call rates such that companies make zero profit, and thus shareholders whose investment gives them no returns. Find me these national philanthropists.

With respect to Reliance petrochemicals, what is perhaps needed is the Petrochemicals Regulatory Authority of India. ;-) Who will determine price ceilings as appropriate. If TRAI does not prevent the same for Telecom, then we have an issue. But with the current scenario, with their current limitations, in terms of the market, they have done what can be done. With the long term in mind.

The only current concern I have is that the monopoly of BSNL is being sustained. And this is a company that need not post such high profits, since the money goes to the government exchequer anyway. The license fee the other operators pay, is just returned to BSNL. It should use all its profits for rural expansion. It can afford to take this risk, since it has government backing. Perhaps a target (number of new rural landlines per month?) should be set to it. Which can also be used to determine the total ADC it receives. That way BSNL has to work to get its profits, not such use their monopoly. When the ADC was reduced, the blackmail from BSNL knew no bounds. “We have to increase call rates, rentals, reduce free calls” etc. Why not post lower profits? This is where the cartel theories are best applied.. Protect BSNL’s profits so that these cartels (read:politicians) make money. :-(
When TRAI recommended the last mile should be unbundled, DoT (read: BSNL) rejected the proposal. This would mean losing a monopoly it enjoys! Perhaps TRAI needs to have the veto in such cases, when no valid reason is provided! And the link b/w DoT and BSNL needs to be eliminated.
And if you don’t like COAI figures, read TRAI figures. Either way my point regarding the volume model stands.
Looking at cross-subsidisation closely, only the integrated players have submitted their accounts. Pure play private operators have not done so. And I believe a very detailed account is expected by TRAI, containing sensitive information. I do not know more on the matter other than the show cause notice being issued, so I cannot say what really is happening and who is not doing their job.

A clarification: by “quality” of infrastructure I mean the actual phone call, not ancillary services like customer care, fault handling, etc. I mean the quality of the actual phone call. Ancillary services are the first to take a hit when prices drop. Which goes to explain the paltry customer care prevalent today. And that is as far as I want it to go. I don’t want the degradation to extend to the actual phone call.

I have never been a Reliance/CDMA customer. When my friend got a reliance phone, I made a call. And I was shocked at how bad it could get. (No comfort noise generation! What kind of a phone is that? Use VAD, then use it properly for God’s sake!! =:-0) I’m guessing here, but you must be a reliance customer (& fan ;-) ) to be able to say that the quality is good here in Bangalore. Or you have not heard a call from another operator here. CDMA has a defect known as a soft capacity, the signal SNR degenerates as the number of users increase. Reliance ought to put more towers when the SNR drop is noticeable. Well, let’s leave it to the ear of the beholder ;-)