What is TRAI doing?

[hovs 0]

It's absolutely correct and perhaps unarguable that the entry of Reliance has changed the face of the industry. Unfortunately reliance seems to have lost the best possible opportunity by trying to chew more than it can - I mean for the vast network and perhaps the second largest and fastest grown customer base they should have doen a littel home work before venturing. There was no need for the company to keep its mouthshut about the tariffs till about the last moment they came into the service. Ofcourse, it is also obvious to me that their clout in places that matter have given them the policy of having presence in all the telecom cirles. That was denied in the beginning just because that will lead to a monopoly or oligopaly. The most recent thing they have apparently managed is the roaming beyond CDMA. Well, this is apparently in public interest that we can bear a lesser cost to be connected. But the methodology of the company and the almost blatant support by the Govt is too obvious. I have reproduced the TRAI regulation in another post that the IUC regime is wef 1.5.03 Reliance has charged us even in march and april. You can also browse the TRAI's website (www.trai.gov.in) in which it is clearly mentioned that the operators started filing their plans only after 10 th march 2003 i.e. several weeks of the euphoria generated by Reliance infocom. And the reduced profit for the govt in the revenue sharing formula appears more of a backdoor arnitration to compensate for the loss in license fee for the GSM mobile operators. COAI's decision to withdraw the case of roaming in hon'ble supreme court only proves this.

It therefore looks as if the govt is looking after Reliance and BSNL (because most calls wil be between these two large players) at the cost of all other operators. So whether it is postpaid or prepaid, the attitude of Reliance seems to be one that will eventually give them a monopoly in the market as BSNL may never grow to be a match for the private sector in so far as marketting is concerned.

Despite my miserable personal experience of disgust dealing with Reliance, I have to admit that there handsets and coverage are the best.

Perhaps the moral of the story is that despite several operators in the cut-throat business, the customers' throat is the softest and easiest to cut or slit