Cheques amp; Balances

No free lunches and no free incoming callsThe Delhi High Court has spoilt the party for operators of cellphone services by staying the fa...

No free lunches and no free incoming calls

The Delhi High Court has spoilt the party for operators of cellphone services by staying the facility of quot;free incoming callsquot; to their subscribers which was to have become effective on November 1. Free incoming calls were part of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India8217;s TRAI bonanza to cellphone users at the cost of those using ordinary fixed phones.

Since TRAI does not bother to discuss problems arising out of its decision with consumers or consumer bodies, it is clearly unaware of the burden that its decision will impose on ordinary users and the problems it could create.

If we discard the clever description of this facility as quot;free incoming callsquot; or quot;calling party paysquot; and switch to a more accurate description of TRAI8217;s bonanza to mobile phone users, which would be quot;ordinary user pays to keep cellphone companies in businessquot; then the picture becomes far more clear. It is safe to bet that most telephone users have no idea that they will payfor the quot;freequot; facility to mobile users or how high this cost would be.

Firstly, the higher charge for calls to mobile phones is as good as imposing long distance rates for local calls, with all the attendant problems and complaints attached to the misuse of such facilities. Under the calling-party-pays system, a telephone users pays a minimum of Rs 2.40 per minute on calls to cellphones as against the maximum of Rs 1.20 for three minutes paid on calls to fixed lines. This is comparable to making long distance calls from local phones. It also means that if someone misuses your phone to chat for an hour to a cellphone user, it would cost you almost a cool Rs 100. Why should a fixed phone user have to pay a higher price for calling a mobile phone? After all those who subscribe to mobile phone services do so because they can afford it or feel the need to be reachable all the time.

Small firms, large companies, big families with several teenagers and all others who have barred STD and ISD facilities fromtheir telephones for fear of misuse will now have to worry about calls to cell phones. Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd MTNL, says a source, has other worries. Unlike long distance calls, local calls to mobile phones cannot be separately monitored and it anticipates a huge increase in billings disputes. According to a source, MTNL had suggested to TRAI that its dynamic STD/ISD locking facility could be extended to calls made to cell phone numbers as well, so that users could specifically opt for the facility and prevent future disputes and misuse. TRAI turned down the request. MTNL will, however, bar calls from coin operated public phones to cellphones. This will inconvenience both ordinary users and those with mobile phones.

The TRAI8217;s decision to fix the charges to be paid for calls from landlines to cellphones is the second absurdity. In Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, both cellphone operators in the two States charge their subscribers a mere Rs two per minute for outgoing calls. Thanks to TRAIdecision, these companies will now earn a hefty Rs 2.40 per one minute call from ordinary users, while their own subscribers pay a lower rate for outgoing calls. The situation gets more ludicrous in Calcutta, where a service provider who did not want to charge anyone for incoming calls was stopped by TRAI from providing the facility, probably because other service providers who would be shown up in bad light.

Thirdly, TRAI8217;s decision has in one stroke increased the market for cellphone operators from a combined 1.2 million subscribers to a whopping 20 million, which is the population of fixed phone users in the country. It does not stop at that. TRAI has ensured that the operators simply sit back and collect their money. The entire burden of billing and recovery of payment has been transferred to DoT and MTNL, who will also have to deal with disputed billing and irate subscribers without any cost for the service. If the new telecom minister asks cellphone operators to submit a list of theiroutstandings and disconnections because of disputed billing and simple non-payment, then the extent of TRAI8217;s bonanza to cellphone companies will become clearer.

This harassment to ordinary users is particularly preposterous because those who use mobile phones do so because they can afford them. While they would certainly like to pay less for the service, it would have been more to the purpose if TRAI had studied why there is such a huge variation in tariffs charged by cellphone operators across the country. TRAI did not even wait to study the improved viability of these companies after the bonanza that came through the reduction in licence fees.

Cellphone companies had only themselves to blame for miscalculating market size and paying higher fees. Yet, they lobbied aggressively and secured a controversial reduction in license fees. Will someone explain why these companies are being pampered so much at the cost of retarding the growth of the landline network in the country? Maybe if TRAI was less focussedon fighting MTNL and more concerned with the ordinary phone users, it would serve a far more useful purpose and make itself better accepted.

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It is apparent that claims made by cellphone operators are far more acceptable to the government and the regulator. Does this have something to do with the fact that cellphone companies are very generous about handing out free phones to everybody who influences decision making in the country? It is only in the Indian system that a sensible decision to set up independent regulators can turn into yet another source of dispute and aggravation with overburdened courts turning into the only resort for those affected by the regulators8217; decisions.

Tailpiece: Nearly a hundred telephone users have sent in their bills to the Bombay Telephone Users Association, and all these show that the hike in charges, has on an average been 100 per cent excluding STD calls. Maybe TRAI, which has access to all the numbers, can now explain how it justifies such a steep increase in callcharges? For those who use the internet regularly, the high cost of net surfing is beginning to hurt. In my case, the bill on the telephone linked to the internet is 150 per cent higher than that used for regular calls 8211; earlier they were always on par. If MTNL and TRAI do not find a quick way to make net access affordable, it will be a matter of time before Independent Service Providers tie up with cable operators and provide much cheaper net access, bypassing the phone companies altogether.

Author8217;s mail:suchetadalalyahoo.com