TELECOM MEET
- Dhara Kothari.

‘Going Rural’, is the new mantra for most telecom operators in India. That’s what they discussed over lovely tea and sumptuous lunch at the Indian Merchant Chamber’s organized fourth International Conference on communications convergence: connecting India- the global challenge, last week in Mumbai.

A lot of prominent speakers and the industry who’s who were present. Amongst more than two dozen speakers, the best speakers we voted were Dr. Vijay Bhatkar, Chairman, Dishnet Wireless Ltd and Ms. Lara Srivastava, telecom policy analyst, ITU, Geneva. Their speeches enthralled the audience and points were fast noted. Facts and figures were the order of the two day meet, which was rather impressive we can put forth. Virtually everyone agreed that urban India has more or less been covered and the expansion merely now lies internally, towards rural.

Going rural is not easy as it looks so tempting. Many hitches like set up and making the mobile telephony and broadband far cheaper to make it economically viable for hordes of small and big companies to go rural. A few companies explained the possibilities of going hi-tech and the future of wireless technology to made applicable at large level. Copper is out and only wireless is a mass scale feasible technology that can cover millions, without raising the cost dramatically. Over this a very important issue was raised related in companies sharing a single tower, rather than each having a multitude of them and making the countryside look like a mass of poles. Just like an airport is shared by all flyers, so also a wireless tower can be shared by many companies, having their own code and frequency. This way the cost of providing and maintaining mobile telephony and broadband goes down considerably to be affordable to all. The only high cost will remain is that of the handset itself.

A good policy framework and low cost of licensing can only be possible to see the realization of future in rural growth and India becoming the number one in terms of tele-density and usage. Another important factor, which most companies were over looking, was the exact definition of broadband. Anything less than a certain top speed is actually considered narrow band and not broadband. Consumer welfare representative pointed out a number of things, plus a strong mention of having a consumer grievance cell to be made mandatory for all present and new companies. This way the consumer can connect to a human and not just a tired call centre executive, who only passes the messages. It is indeed shocking to learn that prominent government owned companies have no redressal system in place and the consumer is at a loss as to whom to turn to in the event of a problem. Security issues were also addressed. Overall it was a learning experience for all present, including few engineering students and professors, who came along to meet and learn the latest buzz in the global telecom industry.

‘Customer is the king, but we believe in Democracy’. Guess who had the last laugh?