The Hindu Business Line : Be heard!

You can remain a dissatisfied, cribbing consumer or you can do something about your problems - like telecom consumers do. They are loud and clear - but focussed - in conveying their preferences. Here's how they make sure their voices carry...

IF the telecommunications industry is one of the most active and talked about in the country, then can telecommunications consumers be far behind?

There are about 21 consumer groups and non-governmental organisations registered with the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). And they appear to have come far, from the times when the most forceful method of protest was to take a `dead' telephone in a funereal procession to the office of the telephone exchange. Protestors themselves are becoming more technology-savvy, more alert and more knowledgeable.

When TRAI issues a consultation paper before the introduction of any service or regulation, the views of these registered organisations are sought. In fact, they are collected and even put up on the TRAI Web site for everyone to read.There is even an Indian Consumer Charter, created around five years ago by the TRAI and consumer groups. This lays down reasonable expectations for various services with respect to quality.

One well-known organisation is the Bombay Telephone Users Association or BTUA. Its members, who use the Yahoo Chat group facility, apart from their actual meetings, are quite active on the telecom front in the city. Open sessions are regularly attended by its chief, Achintya Mukherjee.

When public sector telecom company Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd invested around Rs 200 crore in bonds of Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation some years ago, it was BTUA which raised a hue and cry over what it considered a fruitless investment. Senior BTUA members never go unheard, says a senior MTNL executive.

Better telephone junction boxes, their standardisation, better wiring and materials, reasonable Internet speeds, return of deposits made to MTNL for various cancelled services, publicity for telephone Lok Adalats, more courtesy from MTNL staff, better coordination with the municipal authorities in the matter of digging up of roads... ... these are the common concerns of BTUA. But their activism appears to be not just about themselves as consumers of telecommunication services. Should MTNL be a victim, then they take up cudgels on its behalf too.

Many `film people' have obtained telephone connections in the Versova exchange and just run away without paying their bills, says one of the list of concerns on their Yahoo chat lists. MTNL needs better anti-fraud systems, it adds.

There are other mechanisms set up by public sector organisations too. MTNL has a complaint section and customers still dissatisfied with it can send their grievances to the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum.

Another outfit called Voluntary Organisation in the Interest of Consumer Education (VOICE) also concerns itself with telecommunications issues. "VOICE strongly supports telecom liberalisation, so that the competition between the service providers would result in quality service to the consumers and translate into affordable price to the rural and urban consumers," it says in a statement. VOICE has also participated in a field survey on telecommunication as part of a national campaign on a citizens charter for telecom service providers, so as to know consumer expectations and the service providers' commitment. In fact, VOICE, which calls itself "a leading protagonist of reforms in the telecom sector," has organised two workshops in collaboration with Mahanagar Telephone Nigam to educate participants on `quality of service' and `grievance redressal systems'.

The organisation submits memoranda to TRAI and other authorities on pricing and quality of service standards and the like, and, like BTUA, participates in all the open-house sessions of TRAI.

VOICE is also a supporter of the Global Internet Policy Initiative (GIPI) that "supports the adoption of the legal and policy framework for an open and democratic Internet. The project works with local stakeholders in consultative, coalition-based efforts to promote the principles of a decentralised, accessible, user-controlled, and market-driven Internet."

And Indian organisations are now networking internationally as well. VOICE was invited by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for the Asia-Pacific regional meeting of consumer societies in Thailand last year, to make a presentation. According to a VOICE statement, GIPI and VOICE presented "the Internet scenario in the country, suggesting policy initiatives to increase Internet penetration." GIPI is supposed to "serve as a resource to local stockholders in the Internet policy development process."

Novel ways of protest

With respect to the private telecom service providers, it becomes more difficult for consumers to come together, but there is one Hyderabad-based group that coordinates complaints from across the country from subscribers to one particular private telecom service. They collect and coordinate complaints by e-mail and send them to the dealers, distributors, senior officials and even the managing director of the company!!

"When communication with the distributors or agents reaches a dead end, we start sending copies of our correspondence directly to the managing director of the company as well as to members of the press," said one of the complainants. After months of such follow-ups, he says, he has been able to solve his individual problem with the company. Now, he helps others solve their problems.

Other closed user groups, rather away from the public eye, register protests in their own unique way. The Government's ban on Yahoo group chat has got quite a few user groups up in arms. Going by e-mail exchanges available to one, many users are exchanging mails, exhorting each other to use the very same communication facilities in protest - to send copious e-mails to flood and to jam the mail boxes of the Telecommunications secretary, the Minister for telecommunication and of his department officials.

Yet another move which is being planned and which has happened only once in India is the coordination of a flash mob. A flash mob is coordinated through SMS. Participants SMS other people known to them and try to get a sizeable group together. The entire group — many unknown to each other, but agreeing on a common cause — gathers suddenly together at a public place; all are instructed to shout slogans..cheer/protest... .as the case may be, then disperse, to vanish as suddenly as they got together.

Yahoo chat group users were furiously trying to coordinate flash mobs in several major cities of the country to protest against the government ban immediately after it was enforced. But they have not yet got around to actually doing it.

However, some months ago, a flash mob did indeed get successfully arranged. Hundreds of people suddenly appeared, as though out of nowhere, at Crossroads, a high-profile shopping mall in Mumbai. The mob briefly shuffled about, cheered or shouted a few things, and dispersed even before the security could find out what was happening. "No one knows exactly what they said or why they got together," says a Yahoo chat user who is hoping that his group too can manage a protest through `flash mobbing'.

"The advantage today is that telecommunications of all kinds has made people - even unknown people and groups - more accessible to everyone; everyone, however small, has a voice and everyone however big, is accessible too, in some way or the other," says a senior official with a cellular company. "One must remember a whole protest against a government happening some years ago in the Philippines— almost entirely through word-of-SMS. There is no saying what power telecom can give the common man."

Picture by Parth Sanyal

kripram@thehindu.co.in

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication

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