This refers to ‘Raja ki aayegi baraat’, June 1. The column was well-written, but cynical and one-sided. Sunil Jain is right when he says that the booming market for mobile phone services means that companies will do anything to get spectrum and if, after spoiling the market for them, the minister makes it possible for them to buy the spectrum, they will cheer him. But does Jain deny the fact that favouritism happens everywhere in the world? Infrastructure is always a difficult area to deal with and technology changes make it all the more difficult. SMSs were not part of the licence for mobile phone players that Jain constantly defends, yet they’re one of the fastest-growing services that customers use. We can say that allowing CDMA fixed-line licences to be converted to mobile phone licences was unfair, but if technology allows this to happen, is the government supposed to refuse to allow this, citing an old telecom policy made at a time when no one thought this was possible? By the same token, should the government not allow VoIP services just because they hurt the business of the current incumbents? Only those who benefit from these decisions will lobby for them. Reliance benefitted from allowing CDMA-fixed to become CDMA-mobile and the ISPs benefit from VoIP. So you cannot say that all lobbying is bad. If, going by Jain’s prescription, the only sacrosanct piece of paper is a licence, why even have policymakers?
N Kumar, via email