Achche Din for Broadband Users in India?

[crashnburn_in]

So I guess the only option I have to just accept the facts and do not be critical about the government because the whole system is messed up. Alrighty! I should also ignore the fact that only thing that has somehow worked in favor of the consumer was also discarded by the government when they decided to delay the implementation of 2mbps as minimum speeds for wireless internet. I mean telecom operators are already under so much pressure... Why force them to boost their post-fup speeds!

Now you are being sarcastic. Is the govt policy withou flaw? No. Are the telcos without flaw, No? Are some officials on both sides not "less than optimal" to tackle these issues.. Yes. I've seen this across several continents where I have consulted with Telco companies and regulations. Do they listen to all recommendations made? No.
A lot of people/ officials in these positions end up being old gen, big egos.. Unfortunately.

Force? What force? Its like me trying to recommend healthy digestive plan for better sustenance and you/ other sides want to use purgatives..

This is the issue - You are all thinking I am making points against you .. No. I am saying its a lot more complex than you are making it out to be. I've been a consultant across continents for telcos.. and its a complex mix issues.

Approaching the bidding v/s low fixed price thing.. neither extreme is right or good.. Seriously!

I understand the argument that providing cheap Spectrum to telecom industry does not mean that telecom industry will provide better services to the consumers.

But you didn't read my posts carefully. I recommended two way approach.

Firstly, allocate Spectrum to Telecom industry at reasonable price. NOT via auction. India's telecom industry is underdeveloped and burdening it with costly Spectrum payments will depress the industry.

Secondly, TRAI should continue to raise minimum internet/broadband speed so that benefit of cheap spectrum actually translate into better service to customers. TRAI should strictly monitor QoS of telecom industry to ensure that customers are getting benefit of cheap spectrum allocated to telecom industry.

Basically Telecom ministry should provide resources to Telecom industry at cheap price and TRAI, our regulatory authority, should check that telecom industry is functioning in good faith for benefit of consumer.

And yes, its obvious that our telecom market reacted to Spectrum Auction with needless over excitement. They didn't considered the future of operations carefully. Now Telecom industry crying that their Balance sheets are full of Debt which will takes years, if not decades to get paid. I think Telecom industry would've rejected the auctioning process. India never had real discussion and debate about our Telecom policy. They're making fixes as they're going along. Like trying to repair a broken car while its still moving.

Red to Green - How bulk spectrum needs to be bought/ managed and how it needs to trickle down optimally for benefit of consumer with fair business & pricing for people, telcos and regulatory authority. PRICING is a complex beast.

BTW - You want to see debt and equity on balance sheets.. please go check non telco industries and every damn big company and how their cash flow works.. Everyone is running on rolling debt.. The kind of proportional debt timeline and accomadation (not in size/ magnitute) that a small business would never get.

Mallyas ran a loss making airline with zero knowledge of running a high cost overhead airline industry and kept on piling debt. They had it easy in the liquor business and same bravado in another industry.

I've seen telcos in the US spend crazy money in wrong direction internally for their operations..

The problem with most big corporate is most of them leverage excessively - financial 2008 crash is an example - Done correctly can reap rewards.. with egos and bravado.. god help..

Auction means outbidding others. Outbidding others to capture a monopoly over a resource. A resource such as spectrum with no other alternative would obviously make profit-seeking companies salivate and make them bid with their eyes closed and that's what has happened. Now you can say that companies were at fault to bid at unreasonably high prices but the fact is that consumers are suffering for this rash and greedy act of companies and govt. I can see that whereas 1gb of 3g data which was available at Rs. 150 earlier is now being sold at minimum Rs.250 by mobile companies now. Even 2g data is being priced almost same as 3g data. In prepaid sector no top up with 28 days validity is available for less than Rs. 200!
Compare this with the mobile hardware industry where no auction route is being followed by govt. Mobiles are getting cheaper and better by the day even in the face of mounting Dollar!
People here advocating auction route might as well advocate auction for all other resources like water resources or the air we breathe or auctioning of parking space etc as well. I am sure it will fill govt coffers and govt would use this money for welfare of common man!

You think without an auction there would be no such hyper competitive/ want a monopoly tendencies?

Neeraj - Stop taking anology of spectrum to cost of silicon devices.. seriously.. next you will compare it to automotive.. very different industry dynamics... and how the hell will government apply auctions to MOBILE HARDWARE?
Spectrum is a public resource.. allocated and manged by govt / regul authorities. and a limited resource in a nation/ region.
Hardware cost & pricing is governed by variety of dynamics from technology shift & evolution to manufacturing and material costs of silicon, aluminium (iPhones etc) and tons of things that make part of BoM.

I have one simple question.. how many of you have spent time consulting telco industry across continents and taken time to go through deep issues from regulatory to financial and to telco operations?

We need fixes.. but its a big beast that needs tons of tweaking.. small tweaks at lot of places.. auction vs low fixed price or over excitement in bidding or mandating QoS are all very narrow approaches.. A lot of stuff needs to be taken into account to BALANCE and MODERATE all these things from every angle.

Its not as simple as you guys are making it out to be.

I am done talking. You can compare chocolate making to spectrum allocation pricing if you'd like now

 

[Sushubh]

Nothing is simple. I should just be thankful that I at least have cellular Internet even though it costs me 300 bucks for a GB. Thank you for great insight. I now wait for 2020 for 2mbps on wired Internet.

 

[India_King]

@crashnburn_in

You are trying to make an argument only for sake of making an argument.

My point is clear. Expensive Telecom Spectrum has undeniably been a major factor curbing growth of industry. Now something needs to be done. You are coming up with usual excuses - Things are not that simple. Things are complicated. Pricing is complex. etc

What i recommend is by no means "perfect" but its the right thing to begin with under current circumstances.

There are people who come up with excuses and there are people who come up with solutions. I heard only excuses. What are your solution? I know there are no simple solutions. But you didn't even give a basic outline of some sort of solution.

I have one simple question.. how many of you have spent time consulting telco industry across continents and taken time to go through deep issues from regulatory to financial and to telco operations?

Our country is full of experts. They come up dozen by the dime.

We need a policy change. And we need a proposal. I have proposals. Not perfect but reasonable and logical. Am i an expert? haha...

Check the cabinet of our Govt. Full of incompetent/uneducated/unprofessional/communal & corrupt leaders. Those who are unqualified to even become a clerk becomes a minister in our country. Yet people entrust these buffoons to make national policies.

I am not an expert. I am just a simple Indian citizen.

 

[neeraj0272]

Mr. Crashnburn_in
Maybe you are over analysing telecom sector when there is no such need to do so. I don't see anything special in the case of telecom sector that would warrant such over analyses.
Just a simple question is why when all electronics and such items are reducing in prices where humongous funding is needed then why 3g data for common man is increasing. It's increasing because govt is getting more revenue. Now do you have faith in the govt that it will judiciously spend this revenue? I don't have such faith in even AAP govt let alone old corrupted parties like BJP and Congress.
So once again if you want to over complicate matters by finding process to shackle any industry, you will find means such as auction or any other such route. Otherwise it's very simple. You give licenses based on payment of a reasonable amount and don't let govt patronise monopolistic practices by a few companies.

 

[Sushubh]

I hope the shitload of money government makes from sale of spectrum sale is at least used to lay down fiber throughout the country so that we can at least hope for better wired connectivity in the future. oh wait.

 

[moindear]

Why do we need bandwidth at all? I guess in few years there would be hardly 100 sites which will be available, rest will be banned on one pretext or the other.

 

[Sushubh]

Internet.org or Airtel Zero would provide access to the few services that the government feels are safe for us.

 

[India_King]

I hope the shitload of money government makes from sale of spectrum sale is at least used to lay down fiber throughout the country so that we can at least hope for better wired connectivity in the future. oh wait.

I hope they will Build Bullet Trains, 100 Smart cities, 6 Crore affordable houses for common man as promised by Modiji.

But why don't they fulfill all these promises by bringing 70 Lakh crore Black money stashed abroad which Modiji promised to return to India within 100 days.

But all these promises turned out to be "jumlaas" meaning jhootay chunavi vaade.

 

[Sushubh]

I prefer delivery of promises that actually benefit me directly.

 

[India_King]

My point is Govt doesn't need to milk Spectrum cow to get revenue.

Why bother about 1 Lakh crore from Spectrum sale?

Why don't Modiji fulfill their election promise of bringing Back 70 Lakh crore black money stashed abroad? Didn't they promised to do that in 100 days?

Even in terms of Modiji's Logic - Bringing back black money will help us lay Fiber optic Network from Kashmir to Kerala. You will be greatly benefited.