Comments on: Telephones

By: Parminder Chahal

Parminder Chahal — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 00:12:48 +0000

Competition is what brings the customer in a better situation and Government shouldnt control it in any way.

I read a few comments and a guy here is confusing him self between government control and the need of legal machinery.

If a corporate is cheating its got nothing to do with competition atall its purely a matter of criminal justice which is a need regardless of if there is any competition or not.

By: The Indian Economy Blog » Blog Archive » Corruption: A License To Kill

Sat, 24 Jun 2006 06:40:04 +0000

[...] people — discretion inevitably leads to corruption. So what’s changed there? Competition. The private sector was allowed into telecom, and now I’m spoilt for choice in [...]

By: Nanda Kishore

Nanda Kishore — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 12:21:40 +0000

offending part = offending party

By: Nanda Kishore

Nanda Kishore — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 12:20:20 +0000

Do we really have a choice? The same 6 players in the market;

Dr. Puri, I guess you were being deliberately cynical, but there was a time when there REALLY WAS NO CHOICE. Now we have SIX to choose from! And I don’t think being “online” while on a train through remote Western Orissa is just notional connectivity. Yes, we have ways to go, but this is truly one sector where there has been nothing short of a revolution.

The whole thrust ought to be on making these buffoons accountable.

That, as we know, is the most difficult part, particularly if the offending part is a PSU.

By: Vulturo

Vulturo — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 09:35:59 +0000

This is turning out to be a great debate, as well.

By: Dr Abhishek Puri

Dr Abhishek Puri — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 02:20:35 +0000

Do we really have a choice?
The same 6 players in the market; entrenched oligopolies; ineffective regulator and almost next to nil compliance. Then DoT loves to play the BIG daddy of them all.

Yes, there has been a sea change of attitude but in isolated pockets. I don’t feel the same way for BSNL at my place; it’s still stuck in time warp as if isolated from rest of the world. Notional connectivity is no better than having one. Or whatever version of broadband that is advertised as!

The whole thrust ought to be on making these buffoons accountable.

By: RR

RR — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 16:11:23 +0000

Non sequitor. Rule of law is not being contested. Justification for the kind of “law” (ie, Regulation) that Reliance broke, is.

By: Mridula

Mridula — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 14:25:31 +0000

And I am also just trying to say that till such rules exist, there is no excuse for breaking them.

By: Nanda Kishore

Nanda Kishore — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 12:06:13 +0000

Mridula, the point Amit has been trying to make is very basic - the laws of the land, if implemented properly, will take care of most transgressions (I say most, because in some cases new legislation may have to be framed). Even without TRAI, BSNL could have gone to the courts, couldn’t they? Regulation, as in the case of TRAI, creates a number of problems while solving few. Look at the history of economic regulation in India and it becomes clear. The MRTP, for example. The evidence is overwhelming.

Let me also add something here, there are people who are going off at a tanget on the ‘evil empires’ like Walmart etc. Remember that India needs to solve a lot of issues that are essentially a hangover of the License Raj and central planning. Comparing our situation with that of the US everytime someone talks about the need for reforms is just way off base.

By: sumeet

sumeet — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 11:53:20 +0000

Mridula, I get a somewhat twisted sense of deja vu here. About a year ago (or something like that) when the reliance issue was current, I had a similar discussion with someone on Gaurav’s blog (he had comments back then), where I said exactly what you say now - everything else remaining equal, including unfair rules, Reliance cheated and deserved to be penalized. And I stand by that. I was misunderstood as being pro-regulation back then, of all the ironies… The point I am making is: I am not endorsing Reliance’s practices, merely pointing out the flaw in the regulation which led to it, and hence asserting that a call for further regulation only exacerbates this systemic problem by creating unnecessary rules that can be bent by unscrupulous Reliances.