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> What is sad is that the previous governments had done a truly impressive job of threading the economic needle when it came to designing a telecom market with

> What is sad is that the previous governments had done a truly impressive job of threading the economic needle when it came to designing a telecom market with competition. I beg to differ. I do understand Jio was quite aggressive in expanding its services and TRAI should have been more vigilant. But that still doesn't prove that they were working together in order to establish a monopoly. The pre-Jio telecom market was good for the telecom companies but it was horrible for the end consumers. The data prices were simply too high.

intended 7y ago
I’m sorry, but the facts are that india has (had) a remarkable telecom sector at inception. The reason why I say this is because it’s VERY easy for the market structure to get flubbed and become only 2 or 3 firms which “compete”. (See america- invented the Internet, didn’t get the market right.) India has some of the lowest, if not the lowest ARPUs in the world. The Indian telecom sector invented the 0 cost phone call (you give a missed call to a phone number, people call you back with offers) Market structure is so important - you see it how the nascent Value added services market was destroyed by Indian telcos. Back in the day one new area of innovation was VAS- but telcos were able to dictate the profit spread to VAS firms once they realized VAS was profitable. This killed the industry. Telecoms tend towards rent seeking behavior (American telecoms say “this is the best service we can provide”, until google fibre turns up and magically those fibre installations get executed) Data prices being high ignores the cost of calls and of infra issues the telcos were facing. The spectrum auctions and the subsequent Supreme Court verdict destroyed our market - and there just isn’t the kind of market and economic acumen+Political power mix which will fix the market.
- intended 7y ago
  I wasn't confident in asserting data rates were low, but I've checked and Indian data rates, along with call rates are the lowest in the world.
- sbmthakur 7y ago
  > I’m sorry, but the facts are that india has (had) a remarkable telecom sector at inception. Maybe yes. But my previous point stands. What good is the sector when millions of Indians can't afford it? (from the perspective of data rates). Also the incumbents had all the time in the world to normalize data rates. But instead they chose to cartelize the industry and kept their profits up.
  - intended 7y ago
    Again that perspective is wrong, because India is literally among the cheapest and often the cheapest country to buy data. https://www.cable.co.uk/mobiles/worldwide-data-pricing/ https://www.cable.co.uk/mobiles/worldwide-data-pricing/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2019/03/05/the-cost-of-mobile-internet-around-the-world-infographic/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2019/03/05/the-co... So they didn't cartelize, and only recently after the insane noise over the 3g auction which fizzled out, did we lose that market. We've now essentially cartelized (all remaining firms raised rates in tandem), and the few players left are also teetering with Vodafone considering leaving. This means that we will likely see Jio, and Airtel left, with BSNL constantly being denuded. Their profits are terrible, and the debt burden because of arrears means they need a rescue, or the future situation will become - impressively - even worse.

intended 7y ago

I’m sorry, but the facts are that india has (had) a remarkable telecom sector at inception. The reason why I say this is because it’s VERY easy for the market structure to get flubbed and become only 2 or 3 firms which “compete”. (See america- invented the Internet, didn’t get the market right.) India has some of the lowest, if not the lowest ARPUs in the world. The Indian telecom sector invented the 0 cost phone call (you give a missed call to a phone number, people call you back with offers) Market structure is so important - you see it how the nascent Value added services market was destroyed by Indian telcos. Back in the day one new area of innovation was VAS- but telcos were able to dictate the profit spread to VAS firms once they realized VAS was profitable. This killed the industry. Telecoms tend towards rent seeking behavior (American telecoms say “this is the best service we can provide”, until google fibre turns up and magically those fibre installations get executed) Data prices being high ignores the cost of calls and of infra issues the telcos were facing. The spectrum auctions and the subsequent Supreme Court verdict destroyed our market - and there just isn’t the kind of market and economic acumen+Political power mix which will fix the market.

intended 7y ago
I wasn't confident in asserting data rates were low, but I've checked and Indian data rates, along with call rates are the lowest in the world.
sbmthakur 7y ago
> I’m sorry, but the facts are that india has (had) a remarkable telecom sector at inception. Maybe yes. But my previous point stands. What good is the sector when millions of Indians can't afford it? (from the perspective of data rates). Also the incumbents had all the time in the world to normalize data rates. But instead they chose to cartelize the industry and kept their profits up.
- intended 7y ago
  Again that perspective is wrong, because India is literally among the cheapest and often the cheapest country to buy data. https://www.cable.co.uk/mobiles/worldwide-data-pricing/ https://www.cable.co.uk/mobiles/worldwide-data-pricing/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2019/03/05/the-cost-of-mobile-internet-around-the-world-infographic/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2019/03/05/the-co... So they didn't cartelize, and only recently after the insane noise over the 3g auction which fizzled out, did we lose that market. We've now essentially cartelized (all remaining firms raised rates in tandem), and the few players left are also teetering with Vodafone considering leaving. This means that we will likely see Jio, and Airtel left, with BSNL constantly being denuded. Their profits are terrible, and the debt burden because of arrears means they need a rescue, or the future situation will become - impressively - even worse.