"Telecom Companies Should Only Charge For Data" -Kapil Sibal

[Desmond]

Telecom minister Kapil Sibal today said the mobile phone operators must move from voice- based revenue model and customers should gradually be charged only for data services and not for making calls.

"At the moment, revenue of industry depends on voice, it is time that the industry decides to move in a direction where revenues come from data and not from voice," Sibal said while speaking at CII broadband summit.

He said the operators need to change their mindset by moving away from voice services to data.

"The mindset of industry must change. So far the telecom sector has been thinking in terms of earning revenues from voice connectivity (phone calls). If you ask me, and I hope secretary (telecom) agrees with me, that infact there should be no charge on voice," Sibal added.

"The industry must move in that direction (making voice free) so that in years to come, talking to each other should not be taxed. There should be no charge for talking to each other," he said.

Sibal said broadband is fundamental to people's needs and should be seen how it can contribute to empower their life.

"The real challenge is to help people, even those who are illiterate, to access information for their personal empowerment," he said.

The government is investing around Rs 35,000 crore on various broadband related projects which will create a secondary market of around Rs 3 lakh crore, Sibal added.

Talking about Rs 20,000 crore national broadband plan, Sibal said, "By December 2013 (optical) fibre cable will be laid".

He also said the DoT will soon approach Cabinet to seek approval for manufacturing five million 'Akash-2' tablets in the country.

Source

What do you guys think?

 

[rhitwick]

 

[Sarath]

Any thing that comes for free loses it's value. People will start overusing it and it will only lead to more congestion etc. The nominal charges we have as of now are more than adequate.

As for data is concerned, the prices really need to come down for that.

 

[abhinavmail1]

I agree with u @sarath .

 

[kg11sgbg]

Any thing that comes for free loses it's value. People will start overusing it and it will only lead to more congestion etc. The nominal charges we have as of now are more than adequate.

As for data is concerned, the prices really need to come down for that.

+1, @Sarath a good logical explanation.

Prices obviously should come down by 2020...!!!???

 

[theserpent]

Seriously whats wrong with this Sibal?

 

[thetechfreak]

The spam we receive via calls will increase 100 fold

 

[gameranand]

Charge for voice, Make data free.

 

[Skud]

I second that.

 

[theserpent]

Charge for voice, Make data free.

Yeahh! that would be awesome! then data will be misued. you wont get stable speeds in 3G

 

[Anorion]

long term planning
you can call it leap frog planning
it's a way of skipping over what everyone else is doing right now, and going directly to the next set of protocols and standards
might be waay too progressive for us, but it is a bold statement, at least that is what the telecom operators must be aiming for
for consumers, data problems will continue till the data and channels are controlled by groups of companies. the cable guys, the dth guys, the broadcast peeps, the movie guys, the music guys and the telecom operators should come together, decide what bandwidth to use on what channels (air, copper cables, fiber optic, satellites etc), only then will the consumers get the cheapest prices, over the most economical channels
the connection and bandwidth is not a problem, the problems are entirely cosmetic, because these people are holding out on the channels they have control over

 

[dan4u]

I don't think that's gonna happen in this decade or even the next, the number of subscribers using data is minuscule compared to voice usage. 10-15% use data the rest only use voice. first of all ask sibal to define broadband as 1mbps and above.

 

[MetalheadGautham]

I pay 1ps/2sec for all local calls and get 100 SMSes daily with no strings attached (like 1st call or 1st sms charged, etc). So I'm more than happy with the call rates today (I'm on aircel). But what is important is connectivity, signal quality and bandwitdh. These areas need improvement and I hope telecom companies focus on these areas.

 

[sukesh1090]

are yaar leave free calls and improvement in mobile internet speed first we want improvement in Broadband speeds.till what time we can live with these pathetic speeds.about those call prices, sarath was right.free calling dosn't makes sense, now we are getting good deal and we should enjoy it.looks like kapil sibal pays lots of phone bill thats why he is giving statement like these

 

[rijinpk1]

He wont actually pay for what he use. That is why these types of decisions even sees light.

 

[reniarahim1]

There should be a way to regulate the data charges. as of now they are charging a bomb for 3g and that too with crap FUP limits.

 

[Darth Vader]

are yaar leave free calls and improvement in mobile internet speed first we want improvement in broadband speeds.till what time we can live with these pathetic speeds.about those call prices, sarath was right.free calling dosn't makes sense, now we are getting good deal and we should enjoy it.looks like kapil sibal pays lots of phone bill thats why he is giving statement like these

^^ this.

 

[Incrediable]

Nor voice neither data should be free as they will surely in the long run will lead to an Paradoxical situation with no step back. however, In the Indian context, Telecom companies excluding minor one and CDMA based operator should lower their data charges as to maintain efficient equilibrium with the money we spend and the service they are providing.
also, Its been quite a time we have seen 3G Service covering major Indian cities and towns but STILL I'm yet to see any reduce in their 3G plans pricing model nor there are any UNLIMITED DATA PLAN for the same but traditional broadband speed which is lame to modern computing where there is a need of greater bandwidth we are still in someplace using dial up and mobile EDGE/GPRS to be honest. because an average individual cannot bother to pay higher price they set aside.

and now I hereby appeal to our Telecom Minister a.k.a. ex education minister to please ask operators to reduce the plan pricing on their Broadband and 3G models as It will help being India globalized in real sense.

Thanks for consideration

 

[Anorion]

3g lol, not required... cant think of a current mobile application that needs such kind of connectivity, streaming vids, music, multiplayer gaming, all work flawlessly without a 3g connection... thinking that we need such connectivity is part of the problem, 4G LTE is over the top brainless, preparation for services that are likely never to be introduced, say subscribing broadcast quality HBO with just your phone
this is for legal use, and not for files you may generate as part of your job obviously, which is a diff category of connectivity requirements, and should be addressed as such, otherwise these problems will continue forever
mostly all this 3D and high bandwidth and 4G is planning for 3dtv (and video) to become the de facto standard, which may never happen, people might just like good old non 3d television better, especially when they are barely looking at it

 

[raghupratap]

When will we reach this level?

These LTE speeds will make you cry | Dialed In - CNET Blogs