Disappointing role of media in reporting Indian Telecom

Disappointing role of media in reporting Indian Telecom

Often I have wondered the purpose of this telecom Blog. Over the period of time, there has been much change in the telecom scenario in India. What started off as a small time operation in New Delhi way back in 1996, has now covered practically most of the land mass in India. It has been a roller coaster ride for the companies in India and despite the major hiccups; affordable telecom is here to stay with further price cuts expected.

My primary source of Information remains the mainstream media. However, it has disappointed me to extreme when I realized that it was being taken for a ride for all practical purposes. The nature of the business involves huge amount of funds and back room manipulation in the corridors of power that terms like corporate responsibility sound really hollow. In this backdrop, I realized that there is much more than that meets the eye.

A random Google search for Indian Telecom news is extremely disappointing, since there are not many people reporting on the same in an INDEPENDENT manner. Most of the publications are owned and funded by the telecom representatives themselves. Expect glowing reviews or something for the poor sods in media to copy from. The sole industry magazine remains just that. A vehicle for self-promotion and for reaching out to the select customers. Perhaps that is why their on line publication remains out of reach for majority of people. Self-assessment demands that any point made in public ought to be open for discussion and hence criticism. Sadly enough, people prefer to buy more on the peer recommendation rather than critically analyze the pros and cons of a particular operator.

It is too much for asking because none of the mainstream publication would ever publish any user reviews about the telecom operator or quality of services. Most of them are content to publish the TRAI’s findings, which by themselves are not rigorously analyzed. For coming to a conclusion, a set of questions cutting across the user bias has to be formulated. On what basis has TRAI conducted its surveys is beyond me or I am not aware of the same. For example, at some point of time, I am not happy with Airtel for whatever reason that would be reflected in the quality of services indicating bias, which needs to be excluded.

Therefore, looking at the various possibilities, I decided to “expose” their claims. What we intend to do on this website is to bring forth the user experiences; the purpose is not to malign anyone. Why these companies still take the user for granted is because blogging as a phenomenon has not taken on the full time basis. It is very difficult to get user feedback about the various write-ups over the past few months that have appeared on this website.

I therefore find it encouraging to get some on the same. People have narrated their experiences with the private and public telcos. Something that I would not have been able to experience that same for myself. This is a disclaimer here. Even though I am extremely happy with Reliance that does not mean that, it clouds my judgment for speaking out about them. The fact is that I owe much credit to them for making telecom affordable to large number of people.

The recent launch of broadband by the government majors, BSNL and MTNL made a lot of hoopla about the low entry prices and dreams of “millions of customers” signing up for the same by the next 5 years. The fact is that these statistics are rolled out in order to make the people “feel good” about the sector, which is supposed to be the “fastest growing” in this country. Much of it is cooked up in order to add a spin to the events. Have a look around you. Most of the European, American, Russian, and Japanese Telecom majors have stayed away from investing seriously in this “dynamic sector”. This thought occurred to me when I realized the cross holding patterns of existing telecom players.

Much of the discussion is juvenile being based on privatization. There have been comments from some readers saying that the government telcos should be privatized. Much like selling the family silver in times of excess does not fetch good returns. This is established fact. The private telcos are far worse in some respects that say BSNL or even MTNL. Given their share of problems with the customer acquisition and retention.

All and all, what we do not do is represent any trade body or anyone related to the industry. My interest in the same perked up following the newspaper reports about new schemes of operators in various parts of the country. Based on that I realized that much of the efforts are made to pull wool over the people’s eyes in terms of new plans and schemes. The media as usual remained comatose, refusing to comment on anything. Experiences with the customer care and feedback from those who worked in the industry helped me to form my own opinions.

For example, take privatization. I had earlier mentioned that increase in the FDI limit is a threat to national security. Bharti group was at the forefront of having increased inflows. Now it seems like that they are planning to sell off their telecom venture to other private players. Based on the reports, it seems plausible that Bharti group needs to scale up in order to increase its valuation get a good price and invest in nascent fields of agriculture and airports. I shall deal with the privatization issue in detail later.

Yet, with increased foreign funding in the sector, which is crucial to the economy and national security, it seems surprising to see the persistence with ideas that have long outlived their utility. Reliance and Tata’s have funded their expansion entirely from their internal accruals and loans. Whatever Reliance may have done, they have given the possibility to have a world-class infrastructure to India in the process of creating jobs for a long-term security.

Another idiocy of media is not to look at the larger picture ever. I had earlier mentioned that Bharti has one of the lowest ARPU’s given its size. Given the jittery management executives to shore up revenues, they decided to indulge in gimmicks across board. Hence the stunts for their superstars. Given the fragmented advertising industry across board, it is difficult to assess the impact of their splurge. Well, they could have spent the same money in improving the quality of infrastructure or perhaps find out ways and means to increase the broadband penetration. They did not and hence it is their loss. With the end result for the consumer who would be forced to pay higher prices for the same.

Hence, for every issue there are two sides of coin. One has to sit back and analyze the trends as they are happening. I am trying to do that in order to inform the consumer about the same.

As usual, comments are welcome here for your experiences with the telcos. Feel free to post it here. Rest assured any pertinent queries would be answered in the future posts here.

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.