US CAN And Others CAN’T: The Story of ICANN

THE recently concluded World Information Summit in Tunisia last month was supposed to address the yawning digital divide: both between nations and within nations. Instead, most of the public focus was in who would control … Read more

Rural Teledensity, ADC And Maran’s Flat Rate For Long Distance Calls

THE telecom scenario is currently seeing two policy changes that could mean worsening of the already poor rural teledensity figures. The gap between the urban and rural areas is widening rapidly; while teledensity is increasing … Read more

The Union Budget And Alternative Transport Policies

BEFORE the budget, there is the recurring refrain that the only way forward lies in lowering taxes and stimulating” growth. If the neo-liberal economists are to be believed, the Left, in asking for higher taxation … Read more

Software Patenting: A Huge Blow To Indian History

THE latest Patent ordinance has already raised strong protests from the people for favouring global pharmaceutical MNCs. What has gone relatively unnoticed is its attack on the software industry, where computer programmes (read software) can … Read more

Reliance Infocomm: Robbing The Poor To Pay The Rich

THE Consultation Paper by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on rural telecom services has brought out clearly that the rural telecom penetration is slowing down and the gap between rural and urban Teledensity … Read more

Raising FDI Limits in Telecom or Rewarding Law Breakers?

THE government’s policies on vital sectors such as telecom have less to do with actual policies for the sector and much more on how to look at financing needs of private capital. If we look … Read more

New Broadband Policy: Action Required, Not Just Wishes

THE most important part of the new Broadband policy announced by the minister of communications and information technology, Dayanidhi Maran is not what it contains but what it does not contain. The contentious recommendation of … Read more

INTERNET ANNIVERSARY

MANY commentators have argued that the information revolution currently underway is as momentous a phenomenon as the industrial revolution. The latter was an integral part of the capitalist social formation, which represented a fundamental change … Read more

Chidambaram’s 74 Per Cent Argument

THE finance minister, P Chidambaram has proposed that the FDI caps for Insurance, Civil Aviation and Telecom be raised to 49 per cent for the first two and 74 per cent for the telecom sector. … Read more

MOBILE OPERATORS CARTEL Will TRAI Act or Allow the Loot?

WITH the increase of cellular tariffs by about 15-20 per cent by all major cellular operators except BSNL soon after they have received fresh concessions on revenue sharing and lower interconnect charges, it is now … Read more

Unified Telecom License: Arun Shourie Vitiating a Sensible Move

ARUN Shourie, the minister of communications has been arguing that the TDSAT judgement on Wireless in the Local Loop (WiLL) cannot be implemented, as it will lead to “more litigations.” This argument should have been … Read more

Poor Teledensity: A Recipe For Backwardness

THE telecom sector, vital for the economic growth of the country is now entering a phase where the well off subscribers bills are being reduced, while the pace of telecom penetration reduces. The last year … Read more