Yes the name of blog perfectly suits to mention the changes happened in Indian Telecommunication industry after "Modi" (BJP led NDA) government took charge in New Delhi. One can see clearly that each and every decision taken by government was towards bringing more transparency de-regularizing the market. Which is the unique style of Modi's running the government. I know some people say these decisions as pro-corporate but in my opinion in capitalistic or semi-capitalistic economy government should look for less controlling and regulating market and just ensure that everyone gets level playing field.
In below essays I have tried to summarize the major decision taken by government and how they have helped industry and common man. It all started with appointing the dedicated Information and Telecom minister. (when Modi took oath it was shared minister) He chose right person who is clean and can take firm and much needed decision which were pending since long due to anarchy government by UPA II in last two year of tenure and babu's sitting in Delhi.
First was about new guidelines for Mergers and Acquisition of Telecommunication companies. Due classic Red Tape policies and frequent changing ministers who were not having any interest in technology or Industries rapidly changing dynamics and needs. India was the only country with more than 14-15 cellular telecom service providers. World wide practice is every country have 4-5 operators. Which serve the good market competition and better customer experience. (How this happens is all together different subject,will discuss sometime later )
But in India after National NTP99 licenses were given first cum first serve basis without and pre qualification checks for almost 10 years with no review in policy, ministers were coming and going. This led to incompetent and inexperienced operators with huge money coming in for parking the surplus funds and to make some quick money buy selling spectrum's . However once they entered and got to know this business needs huge capital investment and ROI was very low as market was in still nascent stage so they soon started bleeding and wanted to exit. However as per governments age old policy there was no easy exit as this was very regulated market and government had so many restriction on closing, selling and acquiring the business. So these people kept running on losses and increasing the debt.
However with new policy for M &A industry already has already started consolidating. One of the small operator has closed operations by selling spectrum to other big player. One number 4 operator by subscriber has merged with other operator by taking controlling stake in it which will increase the customer base and making available additional frequency spectrum for later to give better customer experience.
Second was about spectrum and passive and active infrastructure sharing. As India is geographically very diverse country and its very difficult for any operator to build the state of art pan India telecom network which can serve 1.25 Billion people with good QoS. So there was obvious need where operators should share the resources to serve the remotest places in Indian geography. But earlier with lack of clear policies and restriction on frequency spectrum selling it was very difficult for operators to serve the rural areas. Even state run corporations also have struggled to put infrastructure in remote areas.
With new guidelines for spectrum sharing and active infrastructure sharing norms it has been new life line given to bleeding operators with debt ridden balance sheet. All big operators have started sharing the frequency spectrum in areas where they don't have or have weak network coverage with partner and vice-versa. this has led to win-win for all both operators and customers. Now even operators are tying up for sharing and optical and tower infrastructure which will further boost customer experience with less capital expenditure.
Third was about much discussed Vodafone double taxation case where government decided not to appeal in supreme court against Vodafone which had won the case in lower government. this was again peculiar bureaucratic rigidness shown by earlier government which had led to building India's very bad image in FDI aspects.( Where government policies were not clearly defined and governments not taking into account overall picture)
With this decision there was very good message sent to world that things are changing in India, people can come with new FDI.
Below are some more :
Government focusing of quality of service (QoS) received by end users and monitoring the industry happening around this closely. Call drop saga where PM Modi himself intervened.
Extremely transparent bidding of frequency spectrum last year for 3G and 4G airwaves which garnered huge sum for government.
and so many other decisions.
Telecom industry is highly evolving space developed markets have already started thinking beyond LTE. So we in India need to think and adept very fast if we want serve 1.25 Billion people with now a days basic need "CONNECTIVITY".
In below essays I have tried to summarize the major decision taken by government and how they have helped industry and common man. It all started with appointing the dedicated Information and Telecom minister. (when Modi took oath it was shared minister) He chose right person who is clean and can take firm and much needed decision which were pending since long due to anarchy government by UPA II in last two year of tenure and babu's sitting in Delhi.
First was about new guidelines for Mergers and Acquisition of Telecommunication companies. Due classic Red Tape policies and frequent changing ministers who were not having any interest in technology or Industries rapidly changing dynamics and needs. India was the only country with more than 14-15 cellular telecom service providers. World wide practice is every country have 4-5 operators. Which serve the good market competition and better customer experience. (How this happens is all together different subject,will discuss sometime later )
But in India after National NTP99 licenses were given first cum first serve basis without and pre qualification checks for almost 10 years with no review in policy, ministers were coming and going. This led to incompetent and inexperienced operators with huge money coming in for parking the surplus funds and to make some quick money buy selling spectrum's . However once they entered and got to know this business needs huge capital investment and ROI was very low as market was in still nascent stage so they soon started bleeding and wanted to exit. However as per governments age old policy there was no easy exit as this was very regulated market and government had so many restriction on closing, selling and acquiring the business. So these people kept running on losses and increasing the debt.
However with new policy for M &A industry already has already started consolidating. One of the small operator has closed operations by selling spectrum to other big player. One number 4 operator by subscriber has merged with other operator by taking controlling stake in it which will increase the customer base and making available additional frequency spectrum for later to give better customer experience.
Second was about spectrum and passive and active infrastructure sharing. As India is geographically very diverse country and its very difficult for any operator to build the state of art pan India telecom network which can serve 1.25 Billion people with good QoS. So there was obvious need where operators should share the resources to serve the remotest places in Indian geography. But earlier with lack of clear policies and restriction on frequency spectrum selling it was very difficult for operators to serve the rural areas. Even state run corporations also have struggled to put infrastructure in remote areas.
With new guidelines for spectrum sharing and active infrastructure sharing norms it has been new life line given to bleeding operators with debt ridden balance sheet. All big operators have started sharing the frequency spectrum in areas where they don't have or have weak network coverage with partner and vice-versa. this has led to win-win for all both operators and customers. Now even operators are tying up for sharing and optical and tower infrastructure which will further boost customer experience with less capital expenditure.
Third was about much discussed Vodafone double taxation case where government decided not to appeal in supreme court against Vodafone which had won the case in lower government. this was again peculiar bureaucratic rigidness shown by earlier government which had led to building India's very bad image in FDI aspects.( Where government policies were not clearly defined and governments not taking into account overall picture)
With this decision there was very good message sent to world that things are changing in India, people can come with new FDI.
Below are some more :
Government focusing of quality of service (QoS) received by end users and monitoring the industry happening around this closely. Call drop saga where PM Modi himself intervened.
Extremely transparent bidding of frequency spectrum last year for 3G and 4G airwaves which garnered huge sum for government.
and so many other decisions.
Telecom industry is highly evolving space developed markets have already started thinking beyond LTE. So we in India need to think and adept very fast if we want serve 1.25 Billion people with now a days basic need "CONNECTIVITY".
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