The Hindu Business Line : Time to score more hits

A number of consumer-oriented initiatives have been lost in the brouhaha over a booming cellular market. This is one call that cannot be put on hold.

"In reality the spectrum crunch is there only in about the top 20 cities across the country. In other places, operators have enough spectrum to offer good quality services."

Are the consumers of telecom services in India being taken for a ride? One would not imagine so when subscribers are enjoying the cheapest tariffs in the world and are growing at a rate of 6 million new users a month.

However, if one were to look at the fate of most initiatives aimed at bringing more choice, better service and cheaper tariffs to consumers, they have either been put in cold storage by the operators or are gathering dust in the files stacked away in the corridors of Sanchar Bhawan, the official address of the Ministry of Communication.

A number of consumer-oriented initiatives have been lost in the brouhaha over a booming cellular market and the excitement over the arrival of some new revolutionary technologies in communication.

Quality of service

Take, for instance, the issue of quality of service being offered to the consumers, which remains sub-standard despite the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) repeatedly asking the operators to get their act together.

Over the last two years, TRAI has brought out a number of reports highlighting the poor quality of services being offered by the operators.

However, apart from merely taking note of the deteriorating service levels on a quarterly basis, there seems to be no tangible measures either from the operator's side to improve the quality or from the Government's side to punish service providers who do not meet the set benchmarks. The result: consumers have to put up with frequent call drops and `your voice is breaking' type conversations.

While TRAI says it does not have enough powers to take punitive measures, the operators blame lack of adequate spectrum, the basic raw material required to offer cellular services.

"We are extremely concerned with the poor quality of service being offered to users and have therefore written to the Government to give TRAI the powers to take punitive measures against companies who do not meet the quality of service norms. Without such powers, TRAI cannot do much except highlighting it from time to time," says Nripendra Misra, Chairman, TRAI.

The mobile operators, on the other hand, claim that they do not have adequate spectrum to accommodate the exponential growth in the cellular user base. They also blame lack of proper interconnection with the State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd as the reason for increasing congestion levels.

"India is the fastest growing market with nearly 6 million new subscribers a month and yet operators are getting a maximum of 15 MHz spectrum, that too in phases. In contrast, operators in some of the fast growing markets in the world have nearly 25 MHz. Operators have put in place the necessary infrastructure but they need more spectrum to improve the service levels," says T.V. Ramachandran, Secretary General, Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI).

Spectrum crunch, a `red herring'

Industry insiders, however, admit privately that the `spectrum crunch' is a red herring being put forward by the cellular operators to squeeze out more radio frequency from the Government.

"In reality the spectrum crunch is there only in about top 20 cities across the country. In other places, operators have enough spectrum to offer good quality services," says a senior executive of a telecom major.

To be fair, the Government on its part had taken measures to make available more radio frequency to operators by the end of 2007 but now these projects have been delayed. This means that consumers will have to put up with the call drops for some more time.

Taking a call on MNP

And if that was not enough, there are indications that another initiative, called Mobile Number Portability — which would have enabled dissatisfied cell-phone users to change the operators without having to change their telephone numbers — may also be pushed back due to technical and commercial issues raised by the operators.

TRAI had earlier set a deadline of April 1, 2007 for all operators to introduce the system. The move to introduce MNP has, however, been opposed by the cellular operators on account of the huge investment required (pegged at Rs 1,000 crore) to implement the system.

To enable operators to recover their cost, TRAI had suggested that subscribers porting their numbers be charged a one-time fee of Rs 200, which the telecom companies say is too less. Operators have also raised technical issues such as interoperability and creating a central database of phone numbers, as a hindrance to proper implementation of the system.

Cellular operators have said that instead of spending the resources in implementing MNP, it would be better to focus on rolling out mobile infrastructure in rural areas.

TRAI had issued its recommendations in March and asked the Department of Telecom to change the licence norms to accommodate MNP. However, even after seven months since the recommendations were made, DoT has not taken a view on implementing the system.

Consumer groups, on the other hand, have been pushing for MNP and have said that cellular operators are worried about the huge churn that might happen in case the system is implemented.

A survey conducted by a private research firm had indicated that having to change mobile phone number was the single most important reason that users were wary of changing the operator.

To counter it, the COAI conducted another consumer survey which showed that mobile phone subscribers did not accord high priority to number portability. Mobile number portability has already been implemented in places such as Hong Kong, the UK, Australia, the US, Germany, France, Netherlands and Singapore.

The issue of CAC

Another issue that been buried for the last three years is that of allowing consumers the freedom to choose long-distance operators through carrier access codes (CAC).

The issue has been on the backburner after the discussion between private operators and BSNL over bearing the cost of upgrading their network to accommodate the two-digit access codes ended in a deadlock.

Telecom CAC was introduced with the objective of allowing telephone users to choose their domestic long-distance operator.

Bharti and BSNL were allotted `55' and `50' as CAC. If a subscriber opted to route the call through Bharti's NLD service, he would have had to dial `55' before dialling the STD code followed by the destination number. Currently, the access providers — mobile operators and fixed-line service providers — choose the NLD carrier. However, operators now say that CAC may have lost relevance because competition is achieving the objectives of the system.

"The primary objective of the carrier access codes was to offer consumers choice between tariffs and quality of service. But the STD market is so competitive that no one can afford to compromise on quality or on tariffs. So there is no point in operators being made to bear the cost of implementing the system," says a private long distance operator.

But consumer groups have given representations to TRAI seeking quick implementation of the CAC irrespective of the level of competition. They point out that there are a number of new players such as AT&T and British Telecom who are keen to launch long distance services in the country and if CAC is implemented, consumers will get more choice.

Addressing complaints

There is also no proper forum for addressing consumer problems, leaving harried users with issues related to billing and overcharging. The huge number of complaints landing up at TRAI is a pointer.

While TRAI had earlier suggested setting up of an Ombudsman exclusively to look into consumer-related issues, that's another initiative that is yet to take off.

"There is hype being created that consumers in India are getting the best deals, best in service and the best of technology. But all one needs to do is to travel to countries like Singapore to know the difference in quality levels," says Viswas Mallik of the Telecom Consumers in Action Forum.

Market watchers also point out that the operators are tinkering with the tariffs to increase them marginally. The last few tariff plans submitted to TRAI by operators point to this trend, say industry sources.

The TRAI and Government say that they are committed to upholding consumer interest and are taking up the issues with the operators constantly. "All our regulations or orders have kept the consumer at the top and it is going to be so in the future,' says Misra.

One snag — the operators think that they already stand for the consumers. This is probably going to be one long ride.

tkt@thehindu.co.in

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Time to score more hits