Raja's 2G Scam: A Good Thing?

Looking at the 3G rates announced by Tata Docomo, the first private operator to go third gen, raja's 2G scam seems to have happened for the greater good. Raja might have eaten a few thousand crore rupees by giving away spectrum at cheap rates, but that probably have resulted in less initial costs for the telecom companies. And the savings are further transferred to the aam aadmi, resulting in much low cost of mobile ownership.

Now that the govt has auctioned the 3G waves for a figure closer to Rs. 1 lakh crores, these telecoms have no option but to squeeze it from us. Bad news for the mobile broadband. While we enjoyed unlimited mobile internet for under Rs. 100/- per month on our mobiles, the just announced plans from Tata Docomo start at Rs. 350/-. The golden period of mobile internet in India just ended before it even started.

While we can starting playing guessing games on how our central government is going to misuse and mismanage these new crores that they got from the telecoms, we may have Raja to thank for the cheap 2G services we enjoyed for a while.

1 comment:

Onkar said...

You are completely wrong on your facts. There's no relation between companies (although not eligible) getting license at throwaway price and customer getting benefited. Reason is companies that got 2G licenses in turn sold them to other outside companies like Etisalat, Telenor, Docomo for 8-12 times the original price. This difference was the windfall profit that they made. Part of which went to politicians like Raja and others. Plus, companies like Etisalat/Telnor couldn't have gotten these licenses directly because they were "blacklisted" companies (due to national security concerns)
So, there is nothing good that Raja did for the country.