The influence of Reliance Infocomm on the Indian Telecom Scenery
General Thoughts, Indian Telecom, Reliance Broadband February 8th, 2005 187 views
Tags: Airtel, BSNL, MTNL, Reliance, Sify Broadband, Tata
The influence of Reliance Infocomm on the Indian Telecom Scenery
Reliance industries have straddled the Indian economy like a giant. Dhirubhai Ambani knew the value of political contacts. There was a write up on him recently, which Rediff had carried out. It is clear from his public pronouncements that he valued political contacts for furthering the established businesses. For the same, he was known to have “managed the environmentâ€. In effect getting regulatory approvals from the hair brained idiots who had choked the growth of the industry because of their narrow vision. How he created the world’s largest grassroots refinery at Jamnagar, Gujarat is a story in itself. Reliance has always thought big and achieved its aims; the one it sought out to do.
However, platitudes apart, the thrust of the post is on the telecom venture. I had earlier mentioned the concept of choke point. Having interests in the petrochemicals, Reliance has artificially raised the ceiling prices for its products. This has a detrimental effect on the economy. The monopoly does not affect us directly, and out of scope here. Yet the basic ingredient of this post is that Reliance is capable of leveraging its might to capture the market at any cost.
Realizing the potential in Telecom early on, Reliance set out its GSM network in the Northeastern states. However, that was the pet project of the younger brother and is not really much in the news. I had heard someone that the customer service remained excellent, yet the prices were excessively high. I may be wrong since it was not a direct experience. However, these people know the value of first mover advantage that I have been repeatedly mentioning. This explains their breakneck expansion in areas where BSNL had set up their exchanges. By the end of the year, they hope to cover 3/4th s of Indian land mass.
Reliance got a fixed operator license and used the same to provide “mobile†services. The head on collision arose with the GSM operators when Reliance offered, “Roaming†facility using its call divert feature. After the outcry settled down, the government of the day announced a change in the telecom policy and ushered in the ear of unified services. The timing of course is a suspect. Reliance got the spectrum dirt-cheap by paying the license fees for fixed line services. They converted the same into full-fledged mobile services by paying a meager amount that did not hurt them in any way; given the massive plans of 25000 crores investment. Contrast the existing GSM operators who outbid in their enthusiasm to provide “cheap†services to Indians.
The initial foray to provide services was a dampener. The demand projection was over projected and advertising was slack. Then came in the all-infamous Monsoon Hungama scheme, which saw the fastest addition of mobile customers’ Indian telecom ever saw. The reason why it was “infamous†was that people signed on in little realizing the fine print when they would have had to surrender their phones. The billing system threw up glitches that took a long time to rectify. I feel that Reliance’s strategy was right considering that it has healthy mix of post paid and pre paid customers. In fact, unlike GSM operators, who relied on pre paid services to ramp up volumes, Reliance has a winner at its hands.
The launch of pre paid created the real buzz in the market. The prices saw a real drop across board for all the customers. I believe that part of the reason why people remain with the previous operators is that they do not wish to change their numbers. If the number portability across the networks becomes a reality, it would be a serious competition to other established GSM players.
Driving the growth is Reliance’s strategy to dominate the entire spectrum of Telecommunications market. With this objective, it bought over Flag telecom. It laid down its optic fiber throughout the length and breadth of the country. Very soon, it may be launching its broadband. In fact, from insider sources I gather that it may be as early as next month. Yet, the same can be postponed, and cannot be said with certainty. In the scheme of the things, they plan to offer streaming video and triple play over the optic fiber.
All this points towards their quest for dominance and act as choke points. Any ISP needs a gateway; it would have to go to Reliance. Any operator needs a gateway to route its international calls, would have to go to Reliance. Any customer down the line needs to access cable TV services would have to go to Reliance. It is a distinct possibility because Reliance is very aggressive in its approach towards customers.
The financial engineering that its owners did is a case that stands out like a sore thumb. By routing investments illegally, Mukesh Ambani made sure that the Reliance investor indirectly invested in his telecom business. The same was reported extensively in Business World. Though the company has denied such claims, it remains to be seen how this could be sorted out. The matter had barely settled when Reliance was accused of diverting the international calls as local in order to avoid paying the Access Deficit Charge. It is surprising that despite all these events, Reliance managed to get award for corporate excellence! None other than by Business World! Irony of fate; sad reflection on the state of media.
Admittedly, there many issues that need to be pointed out, yet this venture of Reliance is worth looking out for. If media reports are to be believed, Ambani might just sell this off given the right valuation. This remains the topic of speculation and I do not wish to go further in the same.
Discuss on: Sify Broadband, Tata Indicom, Airtel Broadband, Reliance Broadband, MTNL – BSNL Broadband, Dial Up, Others
This post was submitted by Dr. Abhishek Puri on the Broadband Blog on Techwhack.
hi, i heard about reliance’s dairy .. i heard that reliance going to satrt new business of dairy ? is it true or not ?
hi, i heard about reliance’s dairy .. i heard that reliance going to satrt new business of dairy ? is it true or not ?
i want to know about abroad coverage of relance infocomm,opportunity in abroad…
i want to know about abroad coverage of relance infocomm,opportunity in abroad…
The Saga of lies….
Reliance info comm foray into the Wimax (Wifi Internet provider) came with lots of promises and today even after 3 yrs it stands as a bag full of lies.
The scenario which i am portraying is not in terms of money but covers greater issue an issue of trusting the company which deals with not only internet but also trades in stock – market , power sector investments and various segments such as food etc which touches customers life and their trust in the organization.We trust them with our life when we consume their food product,we trust them with our belief when we hear information from them and we trust them with our life and future when we invest our life savings with them…
But question arises here… is our trust one sided only… are they misusing our trust for small profits … is their policy itself based on lies ,mislead and cheating customers from step to step no matter how small or how low the organization stoops to have its share of profit by scraping and slicing the trust and the hard earned money of the costumer.Well this organization certainly does that… its not story of mine but millions other who have been cheated and today may be this blog makes the world hear and see the truth.
Day 1 : A call from reliance info comm telling immediate installation of equipment on payment of installation charges: 500 bucks.I paid it and to my surprise 10 days had passed before installation finally took place.
Day 11: The system was setup and the net connection was finally completed.
Day 12: Oops… No Net Connectivity : Call to costumer care to put a complaint
came with a pleasant surprise :Sorry your details are not updated.But they promised to rectify it within 24 hrs.
Day 13: I placed another call to the call center… *** Why am i mentioning the calls to call center ? Answer : I am paying for each callcharges@per minute from my pocket and i finally get to hear a voice only after auto-voice response has been processed. ***
Day 14:Same as above : only difference i called 4 times.
Day 15 …. Day ….Day 18…. Till day… ( I think the promised 24 hrs of the first call was never fulfilled.)
Now the cherry top to the story :
Even after so many days the excuse given to me is: Sorry sir,your details have not been updated on out system.
Well if a organization cannot update a simple request details of where he has installed his system ,how can we expect them to handle our money,how can we trust them with our life cause here every time they were deceiving me… lying to me … with no sense of responsibility and utter ignorance towards the needs and care of customer… The reason : Customer already paid 500 bucks … he has to pay his monthly committed bill amount … and worst the ignorance he’s just one customer from a large customer pool… why care for one customer.
Nothing would be an apt than my story as a classic satire
and its quiet a comic relief if you read about the way they talk about “Dreams” on their website :
http://www.reliancecommunications.co.in/webapp/Communications/rcom/Aboutus/aboutus_home.jsp
I am not writing this letter as a complaint about Reliance Infocomm , Reliance Communications India.
But pose a question to the Investors who invest in this company in stock market, individuals who consume their food products, people who trust their information network and all the people who are related to Reliance Communications India, putting their trust ,hopes ,aspirations and dreams…
The Question is : Can you really trust them? Are they worth it… Because amongst all this …
you and i are finally one amongst their large customer pool…?
Think is there any other organization available… if you have already placed your trust just re-eval your options available because an organization that deceives one customer would not hesitate for others and especially if the stakes a higher… and stock profits are better.
Place : Bangalore.
Date : 1st July 2008
- Salil Shekharan
salil_shakes@yahoo.com
The Saga of lies….
Reliance info comm foray into the Wimax (Wifi Internet provider) came with lots of promises and today even after 3 yrs it stands as a bag full of lies.
The scenario which i am portraying is not in terms of money but covers greater issue an issue of trusting the company which deals with not only internet but also trades in stock – market , power sector investments and various segments such as food etc which touches customers life and their trust in the organization.We trust them with our life when we consume their food product,we trust them with our belief when we hear information from them and we trust them with our life and future when we invest our life savings with them…
But question arises here… is our trust one sided only… are they misusing our trust for small profits … is their policy itself based on lies ,mislead and cheating customers from step to step no matter how small or how low the organization stoops to have its share of profit by scraping and slicing the trust and the hard earned money of the costumer.Well this organization certainly does that… its not story of mine but millions other who have been cheated and today may be this blog makes the world hear and see the truth.
Day 1 : A call from reliance info comm telling immediate installation of equipment on payment of installation charges: 500 bucks.I paid it and to my surprise 10 days had passed before installation finally took place.
Day 11: The system was setup and the net connection was finally completed.
Day 12: Oops… No Net Connectivity : Call to costumer care to put a complaint
came with a pleasant surprise :Sorry your details are not updated.But they promised to rectify it within 24 hrs.
Day 13: I placed another call to the call center… *** Why am i mentioning the calls to call center ? Answer : I am paying for each callcharges@per minute from my pocket and i finally get to hear a voice only after auto-voice response has been processed. ***
Day 14:Same as above : only difference i called 4 times.
Day 15 …. Day ….Day 18…. Till day… ( I think the promised 24 hrs of the first call was never fulfilled.)
Now the cherry top to the story :
Even after so many days the excuse given to me is: Sorry sir,your details have not been updated on out system.
Well if a organization cannot update a simple request details of where he has installed his system ,how can we expect them to handle our money,how can we trust them with our life cause here every time they were deceiving me… lying to me … with no sense of responsibility and utter ignorance towards the needs and care of customer… The reason : Customer already paid 500 bucks … he has to pay his monthly committed bill amount … and worst the ignorance he’s just one customer from a large customer pool… why care for one customer.
Nothing would be an apt than my story as a classic satire
and its quiet a comic relief if you read about the way they talk about “Dreams” on their website :
http://www.reliancecommunications.co.in/webapp/...
I am not writing this letter as a complaint about Reliance Infocomm , Reliance Communications India.
But pose a question to the Investors who invest in this company in stock market, individuals who consume their food products, people who trust their information network and all the people who are related to Reliance Communications India, putting their trust ,hopes ,aspirations and dreams…
The Question is : Can you really trust them? Are they worth it… Because amongst all this …
you and i are finally one amongst their large customer pool…?
Think is there any other organization available… if you have already placed your trust just re-eval your options available because an organization that deceives one customer would not hesitate for others and especially if the stakes a higher… and stock profits are better.
Place : Bangalore.
Date : 1st July 2008
- Salil Shekharan
salil_shakes@yahoo.com
Hi every one… Salil here,
to begin with a correction :
Above article was written and
Posted on : 1st August 2008
Place : Bangalore
My typo mistake … i guess my thoughts were still clouded by the week when i got that call….
Thanks to every one who read my article and one who are reading it now.The reason to write this article was to show to every one what reliance infocomm WiMax is all about …. and how they are as an organization …
Further in the story…
Day (I have lost count of it ) may be 20 something :
Have been calling regularly but still waiting for someone to come over… and best part on 4th they finally told me my details are being reflected (clap clap clap … finally nearly after a month i am their customer…) but wait what’s this … the system says i haven’t paid any money… WOW… the company is so great that it actually gave all the equipment to me for free… they actually had the cosmic-realization that i needed internet… lies ..lies .. lies.. huh.. what’s more … guys i am still waiting… no network …not even for a flash…
Lets see how long these guys remain like this … its more like a routine … call these guys on customer care … mail them … now days i have actually started enjoying their lies and ignorance… Aaah… the way they give excuses and assurity… beyond imagination.
I would further be updating the status… bye the way i have a Questionto every one isn’t there any law to make these guys understand there’s something immoral the way they are handling things?
Well bye for now.. hope to post some day from my home rather than this pay and use Cyber-Cafe…
Just for flash update : No Resolution Yet…
-Salil
Hi every one… Salil here,
to begin with a correction :
Above article was written and
Posted on : 1st August 2008
Place : Bangalore
My typo mistake … i guess my thoughts were still clouded by the week when i got that call….
Thanks to every one who read my article and one who are reading it now.The reason to write this article was to show to every one what reliance infocomm WiMax is all about …. and how they are as an organization …
Further in the story…
Day (I have lost count of it ) may be 20 something :
Have been calling regularly but still waiting for someone to come over… and best part on 4th they finally told me my details are being reflected (clap clap clap … finally nearly after a month i am their customer…) but wait what’s this … the system says i haven’t paid any money… WOW… the company is so great that it actually gave all the equipment to me for free… they actually had the cosmic-realization that i needed internet… lies ..lies .. lies.. huh.. what’s more … guys i am still waiting… no network …not even for a flash…
Lets see how long these guys remain like this … its more like a routine … call these guys on customer care … mail them … now days i have actually started enjoying their lies and ignorance… Aaah… the way they give excuses and assurity… beyond imagination.
I would further be updating the status… bye the way i have a Questionto every one isn’t there any law to make these guys understand there’s something immoral the way they are handling things?
Well bye for now.. hope to post some day from my home rather than this pay and use Cyber-Cafe…
Just for flash update : No Resolution Yet…
-Salil