FASTER CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN TELECOM SECTOR
VITAL FOR GROWTH & EXPANSION
PRIVATE SECTOR
NEEDS TO PERFORM SOCIAL OBLIGATIONS IN TELECOM – SHRI MAHAJAN
SHRI MAHAJAN
RECEIVES ‘TELECOM MAN OF YEAR AWARD’ FROM PTC FOUNDATION
Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Communications&IT,
Shri Pramod Mahajan has said, for the Telecom Revolution to expand
further, become accessible and more customer oriented, it was
extremely important to expedite a process for faster conflict
resolution on issues in the telecom sector. The existing competitive
environment within, had created natural anomalies within the system,
the redressal of which required agencies which were faster in
resolving problems than the normal judicial channels. In the current
scenario, our experience had shown that no party was willing to
accept a lower Court’s decision on any given verdict. Hence, the
very issue of faster resolution of problems remained unsolved.
Shri Mahajan stated this in his address to the PTC Foundation
where he was conferred the ‘Telecom Man of the Year Award’ here
today.
The Minister in his address remarked that the
current market economy structure too had its limitations and that
a 100% market economy orientation was a misnomer. Within the system,
it was vital to locate the social obligation parameters and this
was equally true for the telecom sector. Over the years, it was
the Government’s experience that the areas/States/regions where
remunerations were poor, operators in the telecom sector were
reluctant to perform their social obligations. He called upon
the operators to fulfil their contractual obligations as per the
telecom policy towards social obligations that had been conferred
to them by the Government at the time of signing of licenses.
Shri Mahajan also emphasised that the opening
up of the Telecom sector had given rise to problems due to changing
technologies, increasing competition, changing laws and the drive
towards increasing profit margins. On the issue of technological
changes in telecom, Shri Mahajan said that changes in technology
had to be balanced with other nodal points within the telecom
sector. For e.g., Minister remarked that technological changes
had to be balanced with the letter and spirit of laws governing
the telecom structure. Giving an overview of the emerging scenario
in telecommunications, the Minister said that as everything today
was market driven, the bottomline being that there was no loyal
customer for any player in the sector.
Elaborating further, Shri Mahajan said in this
situation, it was important that Government players ought not
to be viewed as the ‘Elder Brother’ in telecom vis-à-vis
private players. Opportunities had to be given to all on an equal
footing. In this regard, the Minister remarked that on several
occasions whenever private operators indulged in aggressive pricing
and marketing on telecom services, it was viewed as ‘Customer
Oriented’. On the other hand, whenever the Government initiated
measures on similar lines, it was viewed as ‘Predatory’.
Speaking earlier on the occasion, Chairman, TRAI,
Shri J.S. Verma highlighted the issues concerning the telecom
sector and spoke of the need to strengthen areas necessary to
sustain the growth levels that had been achieved in the sector
over the years.
