Oct. 25, 2009 (The Hindu Business Line) --
every second...
Adith Charlie Recently in Geneva
That, coupled with the presence of numerous international organisations such as the United Nations and Red Cross, fascinates the travelling scribe and gives him a much needed respite from the frowning Mumbai sun.
And when you have a line-up of telecom representatives such as A Raja (Telecom Minister), Sunil Bharti Mittal (Chairman, Bharti Enterprises) and J.S. Sarma (Chairman - Telecom Regulatory Authority of India), camping in the ‘Peace Capital’ for the ITU Telecom World 2009, no business journalist would complain!
While the Regulator talked of changing the billing regime for mobile telephony providers, the telecom minister said that 3G auctions will spill into the next calendar year. On the other hand, Indian industry representatives were categorical in their request for a more supportive policy framework from the Government.
The TRAI Chairman, J.S. Sarma, had come into some disfavour with telecom investors and company officials after his comments on per second billing caused the scrips of major telecom companies such as Bharti Airtel, RCom and Idea Cellular (OOTC:IDEAF) to tank on the bourses.
(For the record, Sarma said that the regulator was planning to ask operators to shift to a per second billing model from the current per minute billing model so that consumers can enjoy the benefit of paying only for their usage).
Per second billing
Even though per second billing could eat into 10-15 per cent of the telecom industry’s revenues, as estimated by a study from HSBC (NYSE:HBC) Securities, per second billing seems to be the way forward.
Interestingly, the need to move towards this model per second billing has also been felt by Vodafone (NYSE:VOD) Essar, one of the well-entrenched players in the crowded Indian telephony space. The company is currently in the process of testing the model in Madhya Pradesh, a spokesperson for Vodafone said.
“At present, we are just in the process of testing out what kind of a customer proposition and response we would get,” the spokesperson said, without divulging further details.
