India's telecommunications industry : history, analysis, diagnosis / Ashok V. Desai.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Desai, Ashok V.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Telecommunication--India--History.

Telecommunication.

Telecommunication policy--India--History.

Telecommunication policy.

History.

India.

Physical Description:

293 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

New Delhi ; Thousand Oaks, Calif. ; London : Sage Publications, 2006.

Summary:

Since the 1980s, regulation has been a dominant mantra in economic reforms in developed countries. The Government of India (GoI) too, in the wake of reforms in the 1990s, zealously appointed regulators as an alternative to the direct control of industries-in telecommunications, banking, capital markets, insurance, hydrocarbons and electricity. But Indian regulatory authorities have by and large been ineffective.

In this pioneering study of India's telecom sector, Ashok Desai-eminent economist, former advisor to the Government of India on economic reforms and columnist-examines the reasons why regulation does not work in India. In doing so, he: challenges the use of naive indicators-like teledensity and the proportion of villages connected-to claim regulatory success; identifies systemic causes for the ineffectiveness of regulators in Indian conditions; argues that an independent regulator is incompatible with the government's ownership of operators and retention of a powerful executive department; and proposes, among other solutions, the opening up of industry to local competition by delicensing last-mile operations.

This is a meticulous account of the conflict between the regulator and the government, showing how the players in government and industry used red tape, political intrigue, and the courts to achieve their ends. Many of the lessons of this study are applicable to other industries and regulators.

Ashok Desai describes this epic fight in his trademark style-lucidly and with punch. This book is essential reading for policy-makers, economists and industry watchers. It will also be of interest to students of industrial economics and industrial management.

Contents:

The impact of technology 22

Regulated competition 28

The influence of financial markets 31

What follows 33

2 The incumbent 35

Reforms within a socialist framework 41

Private entrants as milch cows 45

Milking the cows 47

Defying the regulator 51

Taming the regulator 54

Internal reform 60

3 The new entrants 69

Defining boundary conditions 72

The bidding process 75

Financial failures 80

Migration to a new regime 84

Sources of finance 92

Foreign participation 97

4 The regulatory system 101

The design 104

Repairs to the tariff structure 106

A new, different TRAI 115

The judicial process 118

Interconnection 122

Cross-subsidies 125

Subsidizing rural connections 128

Licence unification 132

Tendencies within the present structure 143

Obsolete roles of the government 146

Public enterprises 148

Redefining public interest 152

Redefining the government's role 154

A new role for regulation 158

Application beyond telecommunications 159

1 A brief history of telecommunications 163

The optical telegraph 163

The electric telegraph 167

The telephone 175

New technologies and rebirth of competition 181

2 Business houses in telecommunications 184

3 Ownership and financing of private telecommunications companies 191

4 Foreign companies in Indian telecommunications 228.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [281]-286) and index.

ISBN:

817829575X

9788178295756

076193412X

9780761934127

OCLC:

63277568