Telecom irritants

The widespread disruption caused to the long distance communication services

at the nation's busy business hubs of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore in

the last few days once again focuses on the need for increasing the competitive

forces in this vital sector.

The unannounced ‘work-to-rule’ launched by a section of the engineers at

the dominant national telecom carrier, the government owned BSNL, plugged the

phones off the long distance network. Customer only got to hear repeatedly the

not-so-sweet announcement ‘all lines on this route are busy, please try after

sometime’. However, for the well connected citizens and companies there were

alternatives available.

For cell phone users of big private networks such as Airtel, the connectivity

was available through the vast alternate telecom network. Despite the best

efforts of the ‘striking’ staff, the Internet connections were available

without too many disruptions. The popular instant messenger services of Yahoo!

and Microsoft kept the communication lines open for businesses nationwide.

However, this is certainly not the scenario the nation's key business

organizations look forward to. The fast-growing call center and BPO businesses,

apart from the software exports, are built on the foundations of strong global

telecom connectivity. These segments have taken root in India because of the

enhanced availability of high bandwidth telecom connectivity.

As the Airtel and the availability of telecom routes cushioned the adverse

impact of disruptions to some extent. Telecom Minister Pramod Mahajan, who also

wears the convergence hat as the IT Minister should give more attention to the

IT sector which is a major customer of telecom services and make life easy for

this segment. After all, we are moving towards the era where ‘customer is the

king’. And, a telecom service divorced from the interests of its core customer

will not go too far.

BSNL and its ‘striking’ staff should realize that such unannounced

disruptions of a vital service will not earn public sympathy and customer

loyalty. Technological advancements have ensured that alternate services are

available and determined managers can easily put the network back quickly. If

the ‘work to rule’ tactics go on for too long, or too often, one may reach a

situation where there will be no work to do, at least in such organizations.