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TRAI Exposed
18th March 1999 Padam Jain @bom4.vsnl.net.in
The CAG reports on how the TRAI members were taking care of themselves whiled the telephone users in India were being sacrified. Why is it necessary to visit other countries every time some new tariff is to be established for our country ? Did the members also bring the know how on how to raise our income to the level of other countries? Or just had a pleasure trip ? Did they learn that in many countries there is a concept of a flat rate for domestic lines ? Did they find out in the US (or Germany or France ) why do we have a 5 mnts pulse rate for local calls ?( it is totally an Indian concept). All the statements made by the members of TRAI are extremely naive.For example increasing national integration.I live in Mumbai and I am now looking for a friend in Mizoram.Can any one help in finding a friend and funding the calls ? CAG should make public all the gory details of the trips made by the honorable members and how the members have claimed expenses incurred in the past also.
19th March 1999
Chief Access Facilitator @webindia.com
> Did they find out in the US (or Germany or France ) why do we have a 5 mnts > pulse rate for local calls ?( it is totally an Indian concept). SOme companies who have offices in different part of the city were misusing the flat call rate for local calls. They used to dial up the other office ifirst thing in the morning and disconnect only in the evening whn office closes using it as some sort of hotline. But India is the only place where we have to pay more for buying/using more. Maybe our belief that costly = high quality has led to this. R Krishnan CAF - Chief Access Facilitator WebIndia - Welcome to Business in India http://www.webindia.com/
20th March 1999
Hemant Gupta @giasdl01.vsnl.net.in
The attitude of TRAI oficials is typical of most Govt. Officials, who
just want to enjoy themselves at public expense.
Hemant.
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20th March 1999
Sudhir Gandotra @netshooter.com
these tactics are only excuses to increase rates. They have to increase
the rates all the times, because they want a bigger cut all the want.
Let's face it. we are paying for lining the pockets of agents and
politicians.
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Peace, Force & Joy!
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Sudhir Gandotra "mailto:[email protected]" ICQ-16733832
Phone : 91-11-5535770 / 5613992 / 98-101-20918
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28th March 1999
S.V.RAMANI" @md3.vsnl.net.in
Mr Sudhir ' mail justed exposed the tip of the ice berg---lot more is behind the TRAI action---first of all let us know one thing-- TRAI is NOT packed with lot of persons of great competence and reverence either in thier own fields or fields of any great significance to telecom administration in a country like ours where basic telenet work is a necessity to over come much of the increasing costs of personnal communication and travel. Sudhir could not have been more right. The whole of TRAI's exercise is being done under pressure from the USA based operators. Since the US has to pay to us for local connectivity access on the basis of our ISTD/STD rates, for the last three years the US companies have been lobbying hard to make VSNL cut the international access rates and the DOT the local STD rates. Due to higher VSNL access rates to USA the preference of large Indian community there is to call from the US to India. So when calls emenate from India for connectivity in US the VSNL pays to US on the basis US rates which are far cheaper. So US companies have been lobbying very hard to make VSNL cut its rates so that more and more of calls to US emerge from India and they get paid for connecitivity than the other way around. So simple is the logic that the TRAI is covering up this fact under its thick carpeted office floors. These US operators seem to have dug deep in to their very deep pockets this time in their lobbying to an extent that they are able to get even our govt appointed authorities fight the common sense of common people and the will of the people as all knows. The cut in VSNL rates is with the idea to surrender to the US demands and the cut in STD rates is further to satify their demand by making their payments to India cheaper. That simply means that TRAI had choosen to take our bread away and decided to give to the US operators buttering its both sides with the money from our pockets. All that talk about revenue and costs are just humbug. Today with the three tire system of STD pricing we do have a sensible system of pricing depending on the urgency and need and no body is complaining not even the service providers. The funniest thing is that one of the TRAI members said in the news conference the other day that only those who do not have telephones use STD booths in the urban area. I want to tell him that this simply tells how little indepth home work he had done in this matter. He seem to be ignorant of the simple factor that every subscriber is scared of having the STD option given the known fraud that goes on in the telephone exchanges. Only after the dynamic std facility is made available there is a preparedness to keep STD option at home. Even here many times people prefer to avoid possible mis use and prefer to use the STD booths even though most of them are as rigged as the autorickshaws of Chennai.(they are the limit!!) I cannot blame the TRAI official for his ignorance on this issue as perhaps he had always been given STD facilities at his home and paid for by the tax payer. One of the side clapping MTNL officials justified the hike in the local rates on the national TV network saying that many of his customers are only paying rental. Does not the st..d f..l under stand that these subscibers are paying for their calls and the rentals sensibly and are contributing to less traffic congetion on the routes , while the offcial of the MTNL does not even pay for his STD at his residence. The revenue of the telephone system can easily rise if all STD connections to all governent officials' residence particularly thsose in the MTNL,TRAI, DOT, VSNL etc and the local telephone officials is removed and these connections are made chargable beyond the min calls. ----these guys do so little work at office and so why do they need a public paid telephone at the residence_? They can always use the trunk call route in case of need( they would also get a taste of the efficiency of their colleagues). My friend, Indian have a high tolerance limit. The westerners know this -- they also know how easily we are taken for a big ride by our bureaucrats and their friends. That is why they hire high profile exbureaus as their hidden agents at premium price. There is another aspect to Indian--we watch meekly as we get robbed---as Robert Clive said of his march through Kawnpur!! The rest is history. If we let TRAI get away with this robbery we will loose a lot and lot more in the days to come--- best regards __ S.V.Ramani Chennai, India [email protected] [email protected]
