Dear Sir,
A small perspective on who I am before I share my opinion.
I am from the Communication/ Advertising Industry & work as Senior Planning Director in India's top advertising Agency. We also advertise for Telecom. I am also a MBA from India's premiere Communications Industry - MICA
I have had the privilege of viewing the consultation paper No. 2/ 2015 & the proposals. I think this needs to be squashed immediately.
The reasons are simple:
1. WHY THE REVENUES ARE ALREADY FACTORED IN THE CURRENT DATA PACKS
Telecom service providers make money on the data consumed. hence MORE DATA = MORE REVENUE (this is true in any form of data consumption.
For Ex: A skype call (which might substitute for a normal phone call) might consumer 200Mb of data and is therefore factored into the data pack. Similarly for other forms of interaction. A person who chooses to use a data pack of 200Mb will run out of it and repurchase a fresh one if necessary.
2. WHY THIS PROPOSAL IS VERY BAD FOR THE FUTURE OF TELECOM COMPANIES
Cheap telephony is the reason that penetration has improved radically since the 90s to what it is today.
Various studies show that 'HABITS' arent formed in a day. In fact European Journal of Psychology shows that it takes a minimum of 66 days of repeated use for basic actions to become habits. More difficult tasks such as exercising take over a year.
What does it mean? -> If people are concerned about money, they wont use the service. If they do not use the service of Internet they wont be exposed to new tools. Data Consumption as a result will drop & the habit of using Internet for high data consumption services will also drop. A viscous cycle that might make people permanently shift into other means of communication rather than the future of communication (Internet)
3. WHY THIS IS IN DIRECT CONTRADICTION TO THE REVENUE GROWTH BEING SEEN BY TELECOM COMPANIES
Data is quite simply the fastest growing revenue stream of telecom service providers. There is an old story, you try to get your golden eggs from by killing the golden goose/ golden hen too fast & you loose what you have left.
4. WHY THIS IMPINGES ON INDIA's RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH
The Supreme Court held that the freedom of speech and expression has no geographical limitation and it carries with it the right of a citizen to gather information and to exchange thought with others not only in India but abroad also. A Communication Service provider must deliver on this right when a customer buys into this - in this case a DATA PACK meets this need through INTERNET.
If you change it to make it selective access once one has already bought a DATA PACK then you go against this need.
5. WHY THIS IS THE WORST STEP FOR UPLIFTMENT OF PEOPLE(OPPOSITE TO UN PROGRAMMES/ MIT PROGRAMMES & GOOGLE PROGRAMMES)
Access to internet is being seen as easiest way to uplift people globally. Google & Facebook see it as the only way to expose and connect people to new ideas & people across the globe. the UN & MIT Media lab programmes of One LapTop per child has shown revolutionary progress & depends fundamentally on a continued growth of internet services. If you LIMIT access you LIMIT education & growth in rural india.
The above should suffice as reasons as to why TSPs should never implement it (with reference to question 13 in the consultation paper).
Regards,
Jit Lahiri