Mamatadi8217;s actually anti-consumer

For the other, what8217;s recommended is that you switch on your computer, log on to the internet, and go to a site called kallback.com 8212; that, of course, is if you can afford the internet since Mamatadi8217;s more or less ensured that internet rates will not be slashed the way the TRAI was planning.

But more of that later. Kallback.com is just one of the many sites advertised by companies offering cheaper international callrates than those usually offered by the national telecom carriers of a country. For calling up the US from India, using Kallback8217;s services, you pay just Rs 36 a minute, as against Rs 84 to VSNL. And if you want to pay even less, and have a standard pentium computer, use internet telephony. For around Rs 500, discrete service providers will hook up the necessary software and hardware to your PC, and allow you to, via the internet, slash your bill to a mere Rs 5 a minute see The Indian Express, April 11, 1998 for details.

But all this is illegal, Mamatadi will say, and what8217;s it got to do with the TRAI8217;s proposals anyway? Very simple, all these illegal services are proliferating primarily because the rates charged by the state-owned VSNL are so high that it8217;s profitable to bypass the official network. Policing the network, to ensure that people don8217;t misuse th-eir internet connections or leased lines to operate such services, is of little use since very few operators actually get caught. As in the case ofgold smuggling, the only way to actually stop it is to bring rates in line with global ones 8212; in fact, following the increase in import duty on gold, intelligence agencies are already reporting an increase in gold smuggling.

Global long-distance telecom rates, in fact, are roughly half of what they are in India negotiated rates for high-volume traffic can even go down to a third. In other words, all of us who make international calls are being charged double or more than we should. Not surprisingly, even the Kallback service provider is charging Indians more than what he does from other countries essentially, wherever the local rates are higher, the illegal or Kallback rates are also higher.

Now what the TRAI had proposed was to slash long distance telephone rates by about half over three years, to bring them more or less in line with global tariffs. For the internet, it proposed to lower rates by asking internet provide-rs to pay a mere Rs 96,000 for using a 64 kbps line for over 500 km as against theexisting Rs 11.25 lakh 8212; this would have resulted in a sharp decline in the internet tariffs paid by common users. And yes, despite all Mamatadi8217;s ranting, telecom tariffs would actually go down for users making more than a thousand calls a month. So, essentially what the TRAI was doing was to reduce the high degree of cross-subsidisation, using profits from STD and ISD to subsidise local call traffic.

Now, in her concern for the downtrodden, what Mamatadi seems to have forgotten, is that they too have progressed and would have benefitted from the proposals. Most calls in rural areas, contrary to what Mamatadi thinks, are actually long-distance ones, and so a rate cut in STD rates could only be beneficial. Similarly, if India has to be part of the modern information age, and its citizens be allowed to benefit by at least learning about changes the world over, access to information is vital. That8217;s what the slashing in internet and STD/ISD rates would have encouraged.

The argument given by other worthiesin Parliament, as well as the Department of Telecommunication DoT is that slashing STD rates will dramatically lower its income, and hence its ability to set up phones in villages. This again, is a half truth. For one, roughly half of DoT8217;s revenues come from 3 percent of its subscribers. So, to reduce the DoT8217;s vulnerability, it actually makes sense to broaden its revenue base a bit 8212; given DoT8217;s service, it8217;s not too difficult to see it losing these customers to the upcoming private telecom companies.

So, it was just a matter of time before the DoT began losing revenues and hence its ability to provide rural telephones 8212; the TRAI, by contrast, may actually have increased DoT8217;s viability. Equally, till telecom rates are uneconomic, there8217;s little question of the private sector entering the sector in a big way. And the reason why the private companies were brought in initially was that the government didn8217;t have funds to put up all the telephones on its own.

In other words, the TRAI8217;s proposals willactually benefit customers. By slashing rates for services such as STD/ISD and internet, and by making it profitable to actually expand networks in rural areas. Of course, if the idea is to let Indians remain in their shells, to make just local calls to their neighbours at low rates in networks that are close to breakdown, and fear making long distance calls because of their prohibitive costs, then Mamatadi8217;s objections are valid ones. You decide.