THE NEW TELECOM POLICY – RECIPE FOR DISASTER

On Shri Narasimbha Rao’s visit to the United States, he carried a gift – a New Telecom Policy which would allow multi-nationals and private investors in the basic telecom services in India. This  opening of … Read more

The Communications Revolution

A few years back, there was a revolt of the indigenous people in Chiapas, Mexico. When the Mexican Government moved in with the army and started a very repressive campaign, the Zapatistas, the group behind … Read more

Telecom Policy: Ideology and not Technology Dictates Policy

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Thus, we had a New Telecom Policy introducing competition in telecom basic services in 1994. In 1999, we are once again introducing another brand new … Read more

Induction Of Private Sector In Basic Telecom Services

(Courtesy: Economic & Political Weekly February 7,1996) The introduction of competition in telecom basic service has become mired in controversy. A major policy change of such nature should have seen a wide ranging debate and … Read more

The Telecom Tariffs and Policies: Surrender to Private Operators

The New Telecom Policy, 1999 (NTP99) show the abject surrender of BJP before the private operators and foreign interests. The National Telecom Policy, which more aptly should be termed as an Anti-national Telecom Policy has … Read more

Building World Class Telecom Facilities

One of the supposed goals of the new telecom policy of 1994 was the development of world class production. However, even after the Department of Telecom (DoT) has started ordering equipment from the telecom majors … Read more

MP3 and the Music Monopolies: Holding Back the Waves

The growth of digital technology has put it into a direct collision course with the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime. The monopoly conferred by Copyright Laws — for printed works, music, and other artistic creations … Read more

Who Regulates the Regulator: TRAI and the Telecom Mess

TRAI’s tariff proposals were a time bomb waiting to explode. It speaks volumes of the incompetence or the complicity of the Government that it intervened to hold the increase of tariffs in abeyance only when … Read more

Telecom License Fees: BJP’s New Caper

With the attention of the country focused on the icy  reaches of Kargil, the BJP government is all set to change the basic policy on Telecom. That this is a government which has already been … Read more

Strange Are the Ways of TRAI – From Competition to Prevention of Competition

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has in the past, claimed that it was encouraging competition and therefore some of the steps it was taking such as raising tariffs for the subscribers was only … Read more

Corporatisation of DTS: Death Blow for Telecom Expansion

THE current telecom reforms – such as corporatisation of DoT/DTS and Long Distance Competition — have little to do with increasing telecom penetration, the crying need in the country today. Instead, it proposes to let … Read more

Skimming the cream

The ongoing developments in the telecommunications sector in India are not oriented to the growth of rural telephony and teledensity, which were the objectives set down in policy statements in the past. THE telecom sector … Read more