B'ring' in some cheer

G. Rambabu

WRONG number!

How many times have you shouted into your mobile and punched it shut in exasperation, worried at the huge bill payments that will confront you at the end of the month? All for no fault of yours.

Well, if it is any consolation, you shouldn't be paying for wrong incoming numbers in the first place. As per the licence agreements of the cellular operators, ''no charges will be levied to the mobile subscriber if the subscriber terminates an incoming call within five seconds.'' And it takes no less than two seconds to terminate a wrong call. Then why are we still paying?

My guess is as good as yours.

The cellular mobile operators, especially in the ''high growth'' centres of Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, have been getting away with murder, and there seems to be no stopping them.

Even if these services are provided by certain operators, a majority of the subscribers are not aware of it. While they are going overboard in their effort to woo the customer with value-added freebies, they often tend to ignore the basic services that they are mandated to provide.

The licence agreements, for instance, clearly state that the operators have to meet the minimum standards of service, failing which their licences can be terminated by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). These include emergency call services, call success rate of 99 per cent, timing to release calls of two seconds, group 3 fax, conference call, free phone, reverse charging, scratch pad memory etc. What is more, clause 1.2.2 of the tender states that air time charges at 10 seconds per unit will be levied.

Does your mobile operator offer any of these services? Even if he does, are you aware of them?

Add to it the fact that the operators have to, as per their licence agreement, publish a directory of all their subscribers. It's more than five years since they started operations and not a single directory has been issued.

Then again, as per their licence agreements, the operators are not expected to charge for the caller line identification (CLI). Practically no one adheres to this rule.

Despite frequent interventions by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the cellular providers continue to take customers for a ride, for all they are worth, complaints by consumer organisations notwithstanding.

Then of course, there is the question of the high tariffs being charged by them. Strangely enough, contrary to normal practice the world over, the cellular tariffs have been reduced at a lesser pace than the growth in subscribers. Infact, operators reduced the tariffs only when faced with competition. In Delhi and Mumbai, for instance, it took a State-run organisation, the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), to make them see red.

Until then, both the existing operators in the metros have been providing nearly similar tariffs and services - a duopolistic arrangement of sorts, leaving the poor customer with very little option in this ''free market.''

The customer may be king, but certainly not if he is a mobile subscriber.

Thankfully, this kind of arrangement won't last for long.

According to analysts, the next three months should see a shakeout in the whole industry. Especially with the entry of the fourth cellular operators and the falling prices of the CDMA handsets. The entry of the fourth operators should see some real competition in the market. The existing cellular providers will be forced to stick to their licence terms and further slash their rates.

Then of course there is the limited mobility WLL service, that is to be launched by the basic operators. It is being touted as the ''cheaper mobile phone for the masses,'' which is expected to spark a phone revolution in the country.

Until a week ago, it seemed ludicrous (a poor man's mobile did you say?), what with the CDMA handsets for use with this service themselves costing a minimum of Rs 10,000. However, now it does seem probable. The cost of CDMA handsets for use with the limited mobility WLL service - the biggest entry barrier to date - has started plummeting down to the GSM handset levels. They are now available in the market for as low as Rs 4,500.

According to S.C. Khanna, Secretary-General, Association of Basic Telecom Operators (ABTO), this is just the beginning. Once the demand increases, the rates of the handset are expected to crash even further. In the next couple of months, the price of the cheapest CDMA handset could reach close to Rs 2,000.

Manufacturers such as Samsung have already started flooding the market with cheaper variants of their CDMA phones. Others such as LG, Hyundai and Motorola are expected to follow suit.

Basic operators are also negotiating with these companies to introduce basic handsets at a low cost of Rs 3,000. They are also working out an agreement with Qualcomm for supply of cheaper chips used in the manufacture of CDMA handsets. Once the cost of the chips comes down, the handsets will automatically be available at much lower prices.

Add to it the real cost saving in the airtime charges. At the rate of four calls per day (of three minutes duration each), it would work out to 120 calls per month. A consumer using the WLL service would pay Rs 144 for outgoing calls , while the cellular costumer would pay Rs 1,008. Similarly for an equal number of incoming calls, while the WLL service user would pay no money, the cellular service would charge Rs 576.

With a host of private basic operators led by Reliance Telecom, Tata Teleservices and Bharti gearing up to offer WLL services throughout the country, this could well be the cellular operators' worst nightmare come true.

But then in the end, it is the customer who will benefit with the changing telecom scenario and the realignment of market forces.

The cellular providers may be forced to stick to their commitments sooner than expected. As they say, you can fool some people some of the time and some people all the time. But you cannot fool all the people all the time.

grambabu@thehindu.co.in

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