Set the interconnect issue right

 Communications minister’s ‘India One’ scheme has everyone excited. While the minister himself cannot stop gloating over the Re 1 per minute call from anywhere to anywhere in India, several others see it as no more than a political stunt. Whether the common man will really benefit from this move, it’s too early to say. But if experts and analysts alone are heard, most feel it’s a move, which, if not ill conceived, is at least not fully thought through. While BSNL may hem and haw about the loss of revenue and others may point to the fine print saying it does not really help anyone except the big users, and that too only if you are on the same network and that the hiked rental offsets any advantage that the common man may really have had, there are more pertinent issues which seem to have been disregarded. For one, as this paper pointed out in a column a while ago, the primacy of India’s telecom watchdog to set tariffs has been undermined yet again. From all available information, the Trai was not consulted on the issue, unless the minister considers informing the watchdog as consulting. In any case, shouldn’t something like this be left for competition instead of pushing it through with an official diktat? Secondly, and most importantly, if there actually is a spurt in telephone usage, as the minister so proudly has been claiming it would, it would create havoc with interconnectivity. It is no secret that the main cause of deteriorating call completion rate in the country is the abysmally inadequate interconnectivity capacity available. Why then has India One been pushed through without even pretence of tackling this issue? There is not much difference between what Maran has done and what the tourism ministry had done with the Incredible India campaign. The snazzy campaign raised hype about the nation’s tourism potential to a new high even as the situation on the ground remains shameful. While it may have helped attract more people to India, it has also put off a great many who came here expecting the sky, only to be delivered an unpleasant experience. The only reason it has not yet backfired is because the country has so much to offer that visitors are willing to overlook the shortcomings! But this cannot go on. The situation concerning interconnectivity is worse. Forget rural areas, even between the metros, the situation is alarming.

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