Unethical Telecom Practices

Telecommunication industry

Current Scenario

The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 951.34 million at the end of Mar-12 to 965.52 million at the end of Jun-12, registering a growth of 1.49% over the previous quarter as against 2.68% during the QE Mar-12. This reflects year-on-year (Y-O-Y) growth of 8.98% over the same quarter of last year. The overall Tele-density in India has reached 79.58 as on 30th June, 2012.

Wireline subscriber base further declined from 32.17 million at the end of Mar-12 to 31.43 million at the end of Jun-12, bringing down the wireline Teledensity from 2.66 at the end of Mar-12 to 2.59 at the end of Jun-12.

Internet subscribers increased from 22.86 million at the end of Mar-12 to 23.01 million at the end of Jun-12, registering a quarterly growth rate of 0.66%. Top 10 ISPs together hold 94.72% of the total Internet subscriber base.

Broadband penetration received a boost from the auction of broadband spectrum. The network providers have stated that they would be looking at boosting the contribution of data to their revenues.

List of service providers

SL No | Service Provider | Area of Operation |

1 | Bharti | All India |

2 | Aircel Group | All India |

3 | Reliance Communications | All India (except Assam & NE) |

4 | Reliance Telecom | Kolkata, MP,WB,HP, Bihar ,OR, Assam & NE |

5 | Vodafone | All India |

6 | Tata Teleservices | All India |

7 | IDEA | All India |

8 | Sistema Shyam Telelink | All India |

9 | BSNL | All India (except Delhi & Mumbai) |

10 | MTNL | Delhi & Mumbai |

11 | Loop Mobile (India) Ltd | Mumbai |

12 | Quadrant (HFCL) | Punjab |

13 | Unitech Group | All India except Delhi |

14 | Videocon Telecommunications Ltd | All India (except Punjab, Delhi, Assam, NE, and J&K) |

Unethical Practices prevailing in the sector

Issue | Unethical Practices |

Tariff | Service providers market there tariff plans in a misleading manner. Their...