The Big Picture - Crisis for Indian telecom companies

Guests: Ravi Visvesvaraya Sharada Prasad, Independent Telecom Consultant; Yatish Rajawat, Senior Journalist; Rajan S Mathews, Director General, Cellular Operators Association (COAI);Gulveen Aulakh , Special Correspondent, Economic Times

Anchor: Frank Rausan Pereira

[rp]

Thank you so much for inviting me on your program. I am extremely grateful to you. It is a real privilege to appear on Rajya Sabha Television. Excellent analytical questions asked by the anchor Frank Rausan Pereira.


Ravi Visvesvaraya Sharada Prasad

[rp]

Excellent in depth questions asked by Anchor Frank Rausan Pereira.

Brilliant analysis by Yatish Rajawat on the causes of the crisis and the way forward.

Gulveen Aulakh's stories have been in depth.

Rajan S Mathew lucidly provided the operators point of view.

It is always a privilege to appear on Rajya Sabha Television. Thank you for inviting me.

Ravi Visvesvaraya Sharada Prasad

[umeshiitk]

COAI Director-General Rajan Mathews says: "We are implementing this new direction from Trai which will kill the caller tunes business. After the completion of this process on all subscriptions, we expect 80-90 per cent of the caller tunes business to be dead. It has serious repercussions on the overall revenues".

Seems like telco revenue fell off because of drop in sms and caller tune deactivation ..

As 2nd employee of a VAS based company, I can relate to that .. because 90% of revenue of that company came from these illegal means .. And when I raised it, management thundered that he can raise the revenue to 2X in a single day but he doesn't do it because he is decent ..
Seems like people regulator finally woke up and put some measures and industry got in trouble because it can no longer loot ..

[ranvijaysingh]

Rajan Mathews always has a smiling face :)
Appreciate that :)

[iriliral]

Fantastic discussion from RStv, thanks for dropping politicians out as they will reduce this as a shouting match. Yatish is the balanced mind you need for solving the crisis but Ranjan talks as if telecom companies are generating all the revenues and giving their own family money to govt.Remember how airtel looted the consumers. Airtel mittal now talks about joining hands with Gio, so if you cant beat them then join them and form cartel.

[kubervishwas]

All panelist excuse me, Its a open economy & gvot doesnt have business in private telecom companies.
If some companies r falling, its mean they r lagging in compatative market economy.
In fact some telecom companies have looted customers literally .(u know all, the prizes of 'data' now and then.)
Govts real bussiness is to improve there own telecom company.
About debt, companies have taken & its their responsibility to repay.

[umeshiitk]

@Rajan Mathews : whats your opinion on backend activation of VAS services .. Does that come under milking consumers ..

[prashantsinghparihar]

Valid point made by Frank -- two minus will never make plus in reality