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First week of July saw 3 major telecom companies increase tariff by 10-25% across plans, Congress calls it a case of thriving off “crony capitalism” under Modi

sabrang — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 13:57:41 +0000

In the first week of July, new and increased call and data tariff rates of three major telecom companies—Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea—came into force. These new rates saw an increase by up to 10-25% across prepaid and postpaid plans. The said decision, which has garnered major criticism by the political opposition and the citizenry, has been justified by the telecom firms by stating that such a move was essential for a financially sustainable business model. They said firms have also argued that without the hike, it would be difficult for them to invest in network upgrades and 5G rollout. It essential to note that this marks the first tariff increase by telecom companies since November 2021. However, the increase is so significant that it came as a jolt to masses, who are increasingly becoming dependent on internet for everything from payments to entertainment.

The latest Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) report shows India has around 930 million broadband users, and 95% of those use these three telecom companies for data services. As per the survey, the household consumption survey states that the share of consumer services, which includes telephone charges, internet etc. in household consumption expenditure, has gone up from less than 4% in 2011-12 to over 5% in 2022-23, showing a surge in data usage. In regards to these three big names that have increased their prices, the TRAI report depicts that out of the total 930 million broadband users in India, and around 95% of them use these three telecom companies for data services.

It is essential to highlight here that by providing cheaper data has India be able to ensure a move towards establishing itself as a powerhouse in the digital economy. With these changes, India will no longer be able to boast of having one of the world’s cheapest data costs, wherein 1GB data used to costs less than Rs. 20, a price that only a couple of other countries provide.

The news of increase in tariffs had hit in the month of June. After Bharti Airtel had announced a 10-21 per cent hike in prepaid and postpaid mobile tariffs, a day after larger rival Reliance Jio announced an increase in rates. Later that day, loss-making telecom operator Vodafone Idea (Vi) also announced its plan to raise mobile tariffs by 11-24 per cent from July 4.

As per reports, effective July 3, 2024, Reliance Jio has increased its cell phone user’s charges from 12 per cent to 27 per cent and the average increase is 20 per cent while effective July 3, 2024, Airtel has increased its cell phone user’s charges from 11 per cent to 21 per cent with the average increase being 15 per cent. Additionally, effective July 4, 2024, Vodafone Idea has increased its cell phone user’s charges from 10 per cent to 24 per cent with the average increase being 16 per cent. The issue whether, after the increase in the rates, digital services will remain affordable for all has been raised again and again by many.

Criticism by the opposition:

After the decision regarding the hike in tariffs came out, the Congress party clamped down at the government for allowing three private firms to simultaneously increase mobile service tariffs, and accused the union government of “fleecing” 109 crore cell phone users. They questioned the government on the regulation that government in such situations, asking how can the firms be permitted to unilaterally increase rates without any oversight. As per Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala, this unilateral decision that will have an impact on many was a part of Modi 3.0 where the thriving of “crony capitalism” continued.

At a press conference at the AICC headquarters, Surjewala said “The Narendra Modi government is fleecing 109 crore cell phone users by sanctioning profiteering by private cell companies”.

Surjewala alleged that cell phone market in India had been working as an ‘oligopoly’, with Reliance Jio having almost 48 crore cell phone users, Airtel having 39 crore cell phone users, and Vodafone Idea having about 22.37 crore cell phone users. He further said that “Effective July 3, the three private cell phone companies, i.e. Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, have increased their tariffs by an average of 15 per cent. The three private cell phone companies have a market share of 91.6 per cent, or 109 crore cell phone users out of a total of 119 crore cell phone users as on December 31, 2023.”

At the conference, Surjewala also cited the TRAI report to highlight that a total additional yearly payment from the pockets of the common man and woman of India seeking connectivity after increase in tariffs will be around Rs 34,824 crore per year. This data was for the 109 crore cell phone users of these three private cell phone companies.

As per the report of Hindustan Times, Surjewala stated that “Two things stand out. Firstly, the date of announcement of increase of tariffs, appears to be clearly in consultation with each other by the three private cell phone companies. Secondly, the date of effective implementation of increased tariffs is the same.”

Surjewala also accused the Modi government and TRAI to have abdicated their duty and responsibility towards 109 cell phone users. “Wasn’t the increase in cell phone prices withheld till the conclusion of the Parliament elections as the Modi government would have been questioned on the justification for burdening 109 crore cell phone users and fleecing them of an extra Rs 34,824 crore?”

He raised questions regarding the studies and research that were conducted before this decision was taken by the private companies by asking “Did the Modi government or TRAI conduct any study on need of CAPEX or impact on profitability by purchase of spectrum through auction after taking into account the previous set of concessions on AGR payable under Telecom Policy, 1999 or deferring of “Spectrum Auction Instalments” by Modi 2.0 on November 20, 2019 or other related factors.”

He raised further questions by asking “How can all Private Cellphone Companies increase their average tariffs by the same range of 15 per cent-16 per cent, despite the fact that their profitability, investment and CAPEX requirements are completely different? Why is the Modi government is then turning a blind eye to the same?”

Surjewala concluded his conference by alleging that the union government have been functioning as a sleeping trustee, rather than protecting the rights of its citizens. “Isn’t it correct that the Supreme Court of India, in “Delhi Science Forum versus Union of India” clearly stated that ‘the central government and the Telecom Regulatory Authority have not to behave like sleeping trustees, but have to function as active trustees for the public good?”

No intention to interfere: union government

After the attack of the opposition and in the face of criticism, a response was given by the union government wherein they had clarified that neither the government, nor the telecom regulator have any intention to intervene in telcos’ decision to increase prices. They had also clarified that even with the present changes, the tariffs in India are still among the cheapest in the world. As per a report of the Economic Times, the authorities rather want the companies to ramp up their focus on quality of services. “There is enough competition in the telecom sector and the situation is not critical that requires intervention of the authorities. Consumers may feel some pinch of the price rise, but the hike has happened after three years,” one of the officials had anonymously told ET.

After the press conference by Surjewala, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) had responded by saying that the rates are determined by market forces where the government “does not intervene”. Calling the Congress’ claim related to the tariff hike “misleading”, the DoT also said that the Telecommunications Service Providers had raised tariffs after more than two years, during which time they had invested heavily in rolling out 5G services. The ministry also clarified that rates are regulated by the TRAI.

“While protecting the interests of subscribers, for orderly growth of the telecommunication sector, which includes investments in the latest technologies like 5G, 6G, IoT/M2M [internet of things/machine to machine] for Industry 4.0 etc., the financial viability of the sector is important,” the ministry of communications said in its statement.

The complete statement can be read here:

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=2031169

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TRAI’s Cable TV Regulation: Coming of Ambani Raj

Thu, 14 Feb 2019 06:24:26 +0000

Remember what happened to the Indian telecom sector after Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Mobile was launched? Jio offered dirt cheap call and data tariff. It destroyed many telecom companies. Some disappeared for ever, some merged to stay afloat. Government has advised the state run BSNL to think about the possibility of closing down! Same thing is going to happen in Cable TV and Broad Band industry in India. The facilitator is Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) with its new tariff regime.

TRAI’s new tariff regime is purported to help the customers. Customers can choose which channels they want to watch and pay for only for them. But, there’s a catch. TRAI gave the cable companies just one month to implement the new tariff regime. Many small Cable TV operators didn’t have the time or infrastructure to implement the new system. They went to the court to stay the order. They didn’t get any relief. What they are doing now would be at their own peril.

I used to pay Rs 200 for a month for about 300 TV channels. After the TRAI regime was implemented I had to choose the channels. My local cable TV operator didn’t give me the option to choose individual channels I want to watch. Perhaps they didn’t have the time to implement the infrastructure. What they are offering online now is a bouquet of channels. If I want to watch a few of my favorite channels I have to pay double the amount now. It’s emptying my pocket as well a as a strict violation of TRAI regulations. Even after paying about Rs 400 I can’t now watch NDTV News, one of the most balanced news that I can get on TV!

There are four important points to remember.

The Cable TV operator is violating TRAI order and may get a stricture from TRAI
It’s emptying my pocket
It’s controlling information flow just before the national elections
It may affect the circulation of News Papers, as consumers may not be able to afford to pay both Cable TV and News Papers, thereby controlling the flow of information.

This is the situation of most of the small Cable TV operators around the country. They may get a stricture from TRAI and their license may be cancelled as well as the possibility of losing consumers.

However, all is not lost! Mukesh Ambani’s there to save us, like he saved India’s telecom industry. Jio GigaFiber a Cable TV/Broad Band fiber network is slated to be launched as early as next month. Registration for which started on August 15, 2018. As build up to its launch Reliance industries acquired India’s two of the largest cable TV/Broad Band operators Hathway and Den! Even before its launch Ambani controls most of Cable TV in India. Now, when the small operators go bankrupt, GigaFiber will either acquire or allow them die and fill its space by offering the consumers a dirt cheap package. Soon, the Cable TV and Broad Band industry in India will be under the control of Ambani!

Remember the 8 November 2016 Demonetisation announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi just before Jio Money was launched? P.M Modi will go all the way to ensure that his boss Mukesh Ambani gets full benefit of his investment before his term comes to an end. Don’t be surprised if you see more abrupt announcements on Cable/Broadband industry in the coming months!

Modis may come and go. Ambani Raj is here to stay. Big Brother Ambani will decide what you watch, read and hear and monitor you too!

Binu Mathew is the Editor of Countercurrents.org

Courtesy: Counter Currents.org

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Neither Free Not Basic, say over 100 IIT and IISC Professors

Fri, 01 Jan 2016 07:46:03 +0000

In a strong and cogent statement issued to challenge the aggressive campaign by Facebook in promoting its ‘Free Basics’ proposal, over 100 IIT and IISC professors have challenged the ‘lethal combination’ that threatens to control usage, dictate costs and access personal information of millions of Indians, that too by an entity based on foreign soil

The statement rejects Facebook’s misleading and flawed ‘Free Basics’ proposal

Allowing a private entity

to define for Indian Internet users what is ‘basic’,
to control what content costs how much, and
to have access to the personal content created and used by millions of Indians

is a lethal combination which will lead to total lack of freedom on how Indians can use their own public utility, the Internet. Facebook’s ‘free basics’ proposal is such a lethal combination, having several deep flaws, beneath the veil of altruism wrapped around it in TV and other media advertisements, as detailed below.

Flaw 1: Facebook defines what is ‘basic’.
The first obvious flaw in the proposal is that Facebook assumes control of defining what a ‘basic’ service is. They have in fact set up an interface for services to ‘submit’ themselves to Facebook for approval to be a ‘basic’ service. This means: what the ‘basic’ digital services Indians will access using their own air waves will be decided (if the proposal goes through) by a private corporation, and that too one based on foreign soil. The sheer absurdity of this (on political, legal, and moral grounds), is obvious.

To draw an analogy, suppose a chocolate company wishes to provide ‘free basic food’ for all Indians, but retains control of what constitutes ‘basic’ food — this would clearly be absurd. Further, if the same company defines its own brand of ‘toffee’ as a ‘basic’ food, it would be doubly absurd and its motives highly questionable. While the Internet is not as essential as food, that the Internet is a public utility touching the lives of rich and poor alike cannot be denied.

What Facebook is proposing to do with this public utility is no different from the hypothetical chocolate company. In fact, it has defined itself to be the first ‘basic’ service, as evident from Reliance’s ads on Free Facebook. Now, it will require quite a stretch of imagination to classify Facebook as ‘basic’. This is why Facebook’s own ad script writers have prompted Mr. Zuckerberg to instead make emotional appeals of education and healthcare for the poor Indian masses; these appeals are misleading, to say the least.

Flaw 2: Facebook will have access to all your apps’ contents.
The second major flaw in the model, is that Facebook would be able to decrypt the contents of the ‘basic’ apps on its servers. This flaw is not visible to the lay person as it’s a technical detail, but it has deep and disturbing implications. Since Facebook can access un-encrypted contents of users’ ‘basic’ services, either we get to consider health apps to be not basic, or risk revealing health records of all Indians to Facebook. Either we get to consider our banking apps to be not ‘basic’, or risk exposing the financial information of all Indians to Facebook. And so on. This is mind boggling even under normal circumstances, and even more so considering the recent internal and international snooping activities by the NSA in the US.

Flaw 3: It’s not free.
The third flaw is that the term ‘free’ in ‘free basics’ is a marketing gimmick. If you see an ad which says ‘buy a bottle of hair oil, get a comb free’, you know that the cost of the comb is added somewhere. If something comes for free, its cost has to appear somewhere else. Telecom operators will have to recover the cost of ‘free basic’ apps from the non-free services (otherwise, why not make everything free?). So effectively, whatever Facebook does not consider ‘basic’ will cost more.

If Facebook gets to decide what costs how much, in effect Indians will be surrendering their digital freedom, and freedom in the digital economy, to Facebook. So this is not an issue of elite Indians able to pay for the Internet versus poor Indians, as Facebook is trying to portray. It is an issue of whether all Indians want to surrender their digital freedom to Facebook.

That the ‘Free Basics’ proposal is flawed as above is alarming but not surprising, for it violates one of the core architectural principles of Internet design: net neutrality. Compromising net neutrality, an important design principle of the Internet, would invariably lead to deep consequences on people’s freedom to access and use information. We therefore urge that the TRAI should support net neutrality in its strongest form, and thoroughly reject Facebook’s ‘free basics’ proposal.

Signed by:

Krithi Ramamritham, Professor, CSE, IIT Bombay
Bhaskaran Raman, Professor, CSE, IIT Bombay
Siddhartha Chaudhuri, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIT Bombay
Ashwin Gumaste, Associate Professor, CSE, IIT Bombay
Kameswari Chebrolu, Associate Professor, CSE, IIT Bombay
Uday Khedker, Professor, CSE, IIT Bombay
Madhu N. Belur, Professor, EE, IIT Bombay
Mukul Chandorkar, Professor, EE, IIT Bombay
Amitabha Bagchi, Associate Professor, CS&E, IIT Delhi
Vinay Ribeiro, Associate Professor, CS&E, IIT Delhi
Niloy Ganguly, Professor, CS&E, IIT Kharagpur
Animesh Kumar, Assistant Professor, EE, IIT Bombay
Animesh Mukherjee, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIT Kharagpur
Subhashis Banerjee, Professor, CSE, IIT Delhi
Shivaram Kalyanakrishnan, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIT Bombay
Saswat Chakrabarti, Professor, GSSST, IIT Kharagpur
H.Narayanan, Professor, EE, I.I.T Bombay
Vinayak Naik, Associate Professor, CSE, IIIT-Delhi
Aurobinda Routray, Professor, EE, IIT Kharagpur
Naveen Garg, Professor, CSE, IIT Delhi
Amarjeet Singh, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIIT-Delhi
Purushottam Kulkarni, Associate Professor, CSE, IIT Bombay
Supratik Chakraborty, Professor, CSE, IIT Bombay
Kavi Arya, Associate Professor, CSE, IIT Bombay
S. Akshay, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIT Bombay
Jyoti Sinha, Visiting Faculty, Robotics, IIIT Delhi
Joydeep Chandra, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIT Patna
Parag Chaudhuri, Associate Professor, CSE, IIT Bombay
Rajiv Raman, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIIT-Delhi
Mayank Vatsa, Associate Professor, CSE, IIIT-Delhi
Anirban Mukherjee, Associate Professor, EE, IIT Kharagpur
Pushpendra Singh, Associate Professor, CSE, IIIT-Delhi
Partha Pratim Das, Professor, CSE, IIT Kharagpur
Dheeraj Sanghi, Professor, CSE, IIIT Delhi
Karabi Biswas, Associate Professor, EE, IIT Kharagpur
Bikash Kumar Dey, Professor, EE, IIT Bombay
Mohammad Hashmi, Assistant Professor, ECE, IIIT Delhi
Venu Madhav Govindu, Assistant Professor, EE, IISc Bengaluru
Murali Krishna Ramanathan, Assistant Professor, CSA, IISc Bangalore
Sridhar Iyer, Professor, CSE, IIT Bombay
Sujay Deb, Assistant Professor, ECE, IIIT Delhi
Virendra Sule, Professor, EE, IIT Bombay
Om Damani, Associate Professor, CSE, IIT Bombay
V Rajbabu, Assistant Professor, EE, IIT Bombay
Hema Murthy, Professor, CSE, IIT Madras
Anupam Basu, Professor, CSE, IIT Kharagpur
Sriram Srinivasan, Adjunct Professor, CSE, IIT Bombay
K.V.S. Hari, Professor, ECE, IISc, Bengaluru
Shalabh Gupta, Associate Professor, EE, IIT Bombay
Suman Kumar Maji, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIT Patna
Udayan Ganguly, Associate Professor, EE, IIT Bombay
Rahul Banerjee, Professor, CSE, BITS Pilani
R K. Shevgaonkar, Professor, EE, IIT Bombay
S.C. Gupta, Visiting Faculty, CSE, IIT Delhi
Ashutosh Gupta, Reader, STCS, TIFR
V Krishna Nandivada, Associate Professor, CSE, IIT Madras
Ashutosh Trivedi, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIT Bombay
Ganesh Ramakrishnan, Associate Professor, CSE, IIT Bombay
Amit Patra, Professor, EE, IIT Kharagpur
Jayalal Sarma, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIT Madras
Rajesh Sundaresan, Associate Professor, ECE, IISc Bangalore
Deepak Khemani, Professor, CSE, IIT Madras
Vinod Prabhakaran, Reader, TCS, TIFR
Saroj Kaushik, Professor, CSE, IIT Delhi
Kumar Appaiah, Assistant Professor, EE, IIT Bombay
Bijendra N Jain, Professor, CSE, IIT Delhi
Aaditeshwar Seth, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIT Delhi
Nupur Dasgupta, Jadavpur University
C.Chandra Sekhar, Professor, CSE, IIT Madras
Pralay Mitra, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIT Kharagpur
Krishna Jagannathan, Assistant Professor, EE, IIT Madras
Venkatesh Tamarapalli, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIT Guwahati
Ajit Rajwade, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIT Bombay
D. Manjunath, Professor, EE, IIT Bombay
Subhasis Chaudhuri, EE, IIT Bombay
S. Arun-Kumar, Professor, CS&E, IIT Delhi
Alka Hingorani, Associate Professor, IIT Bombay
Swaroop Ganguly, Associate Professor, EE, IIT Bombay
Shishir K. Jha, Associate Professor, SJMSOM, IIT Bombay
Sabyasachi SenGupta, Professor, EE, IIT Kharagpur
Mythili Vutukuru, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIT Bombay
Harish Karnick, Professor, CSE, IIT Kanpur.
Piyush Rai, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIT Kanpur
Jayakrishnan Nair, Assistant Professor, EE, IIT Bombay
T.V.Prabhakar, Professor, CSE, IIT Kanpur
Nitin Saxena, Associate Professor, CSE, IIT Kanpur.
Sundar Viswanathan, Professor, CSE, IIT Bombay
Sushobhan Avasthi, Assistant Professor, CeNSE, IISc Bangalore
Sumit Darak, Assistant Professor, IIIT Delhi
Ajai Jain, Professor, CSE, IIT Kanpur
Indranil Saha, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIT Kanpur
Dipankar Sinha, ISI, Kolkata
Purushottam Kar, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIT Kanpur
Sandeep Kumar Shukla, Professor, CSE, IIT Kanpur
Surender Baswana, Associate Professor, CSE, IIT Kanpur
Soumyadip Bandyopadhayay, Visiting Faculty, CSE, BITS-Pilani Goa
Rogers Mathew, Asst. Professor, CSE, IIT Kharagpur.
Samit Bhattacharya, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIT Guwahati
Richa Singh, Associate Professor, CSE, IIIT Delhi
Raghavendra Rao B. V., Assistant Professor, IIT Madras.
Chandrashekar C.M., Assistant Professor, Theoretical Physics, IMSc Chennai.
Aditya Gopalan, Assistant Professor, ECE, IISc
Ritwik Kumar Layek, Assistant Professor, ECE, IIT Kharagpur
Madhavan Mukund, Professor, Chennai Mathematical Institute
Piyush P Kurur, Associate Professor, CSE, IIT Kanpur
Debajyoti Bera, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIIT-Delhi
Sudebkumar P Pal, Professor, CSE, IIT Kharagpur
Rajat Mittal, CSE, IIT Kanpur
Sandip Chakraborty, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIT Kharagpur
R. K. Ghosh, CSE, IIT Kanpur
Anuradha Sharma, Assistant Professor, Mathematics, IIT Delhi
Kannan Moudgalya, Professor, IIT Bombay
Saurabh Lodha, Associate Professor, EE, IIT Bombay
Ashutosh Mahajan, Assistant Professor, IEOR, IIT Bombay
S. C. Patel, Professor, IIT Bombay
P Sunthar, Associate Professor, Chemical Engg, IIT Bombay
Ateeque Malani, Assistant Professor, Chemical Engg, IIT Bombay
J. K. Verma, Professor, IIT Bombay
Rajendra M Sonar, Associate Professor, IIT Bombay
Ramkrishna Pasumarthy, Assistant Professor, EE, IIT Madras
Dipan K. Ghosh, Professor (Retd.) IIT Bombay
Vinish Kathuria, Professor, SJMSOM, IIT Bombay
Anirban Sain, Professor, Physics, IIT Bombay
S P Sukhatme, Professor Emeritus, Mech Engg, IIT Bombay
Ravi N Banavar, Professor, Systems and Control Engg, IIT Bombay
Shyam Karagadde, Assistant Professor, Mech Engg, IIT Bombay
Sourangshu Bhattacharya, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIT Kharagpur
Bhaskaran Muralidharan, Associate Professor, EE, IIT Bombay
Ravi Raghunathan, Associate Professor, Mathematics, IIT Bombay
Krishna Mohan Buddhiraju, Professor, CSRE, IIT Bombay
T T Niranjan, Assistant Professor, SJMSOM, IIT Bombay
Anurag Mittal, Associate Professor, CSE, IIT Madras
A.K. Suresh, Professor, Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay
Rowena Robinson, Professor, Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Bombay
Urjit Yajnik, Professor, Physics Department, IIT Bombay
Bharat Seth, ex-Professor, ME, IIT Bombay
Himanshu Bahirat, Assistant Professor, EE, IIT Bombay

Source: Reddit
*Parenthesis added

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