Telecom Regulatory Authority Of India Research Articles

Protecting digital rights of India: planning for succession at Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF)

Learning outcomes The learning objectives of this case study are based on Bloom’s taxonomy. Upon completion of the case study discussion and exercises, successful students will be able to design a leadership transition and succession plan for non-profit organisations; identify and evaluate critical skills and competencies required in leadership positions; and frame expectations and responsibilities for new and departing executives. Case overview/synopsis Apar Gupta co-founded Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), a digital rights organisation born out of SaveTheInternet – Net Neutrality movement of 2015, credited for urging the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to uphold net neutrality in India. And ban zero-cost internet services that promoted data discrimination in the country. After working on and winning the net neutrality movement, Gupta identified many areas in technology where democratic rights had not been identified or were yet to be clearly defined (like in the case of net neutrality). There was also a service gap between the existing internet volunteer groups and digital rights organisations, which could IFF fill. This was to provide objective clarity, stakeholder identification, handle policy discussions and, most importantly, arrange resources to support movements over the long term. This prompted him to co-found IFF in 2017, which he later joined as a full-time executive director in 2018. IFF worked at the intersection of technology, democratic rights and government policies and was comparable to some global organisations, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation in the USA and the Open Rights Group in the UK. Still, none existed in India at the time. After four years as a full-time executive director in 2022, he was convinced that it was finally time for him to act on the pre-defined strategic departure plan and work towards succession for the executive director position. While there were visible gaps in the system, Gupta’s leadership design and plans had helped IFF overcome existential challenges in the past. Also, while digital rights were still at a nascent stage in emerging economies, under Gupta’s leadership, IFF had delivered unmatched value to its beneficiaries in the world’s biggest digital consumer market. However, constant changes in regulations and continuing financial constraints made him nervous about the outcomes of the succession and the overall sustainability of IFF. Gupta wanted to ensure that this phased transition from executive director after two years and then trustee manager after the next four years are carefully communicated to reduce the likelihood of attrition and loss of trust. Being the co-founder and the first and only executive director IFF had seen, the organisation would also require significant skill and competency mapping to identify the new executive leadership. But with no clear internal successor in sight, the non-profit trust would also need a successor who not only was competent but also would share a passion for the type of work done by IFF, its unique delivery mode, and also would openly inherit its position in society. The other alternative strategic routes present were to look for dual leadership or interim leadership, but then there could be concerns about Gupta’s influence overshadowing any such alternative. In the case scenario, IFF is planning for succession while navigating the organisation through financial constraints and constant regulatory changes to ensure long- and short-term sustainability. Complexity academic level The case study has been written to gain insights into departure-defined successive planning in non-profit organisations. The case study can also be used to gain insights into innovative start-ups and innovative non-profit start-ups, as digital rights are still at nascent stages in emerging markets. The case study will be valuable for courses such as human resource management, strategic human resource management, social entrepreneurial leadership, leadership development, start-up environment, innovation and entrepreneurship, public policy, development studies, cyber security and information technology. The case study also allows students and young professionals to take the perspective of an innovative start-up founder and design a departure-defined succession plan. The case study can also be useful for senior students wanting to undertake an entrepreneurial career by starting or joining a non-profit organisation. While the case study is suitable for postgraduate- and executive-level courses, it can also be used for conducting entrepreneurial workshops and skill training. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Bridging Digital Divide in India : Positive Outlook Amid COVID-19

The digital divide is described as the gap in access to, knowledge of, use of, or ability to comprehend information and communication technology (ICT) between different societal groups. The digital divide can often give way to an upsurge in social inequalities. This study intended to comprehend the extent of the rural-urban digital divide in India regarding access to the internet and to analyze the increase or decrease in the same due to the global coronavirus pandemic. The analysis of the paper was primarily based on secondary data collected from the report on “The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators” issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India for June 2019 and June 2020. Percentage analysis was employed to comprehend the trend of the digital divide in terms of access for the years 2019 and 2020. The results disclosed that there was an increase in internet access in the rural population during the time frame of COVID-19, and this increase has led to a decrease in the digital divide in terms of access to the internet. Moreover, the study revealed that COVID-19, to some extent, has resulted in bridging the rural-urban digital divide in India in terms of access. The study further highlighted the importance of digital literacy and access to ICT, and suggested ways to improve digital literacy in India.

A Study on Factors Affecting Consumer Churn in The Indian Telecom Industry

Factors affecting consumer churn is important to study in order to reduce the consumer churn for a particular brand in telecom industry. As per research by Verint® Systems Inc with 34000 consumers would wide published in the Forbes 2019, consumer retention is on declining trend, study shows that two third of customers are willing to change the product and service, which may results in churn for existing company. In mobile industry as per data by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India for March’20, 5.74 Million unique porting requests has been generated by Indian mobile consumers which shows the consumer’s intention to change the existing mobile operator. Hence there is opportunity to review the factors affecting consumer churn. In the given paper author tried to find mobile consumer influencing factors that affects the churn and data analysis is done with exploratory factor analysis. Results showed that the Digital Experience, Service Delivery, Consumer interaction, Monitory benefits, and Product promotions significantly contributed in explaining consumer churn.

By The People: How ‘clicktivism’ helped shape net neutrality in India

In March 2015, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released a consultation paper inviting responses and comments from the public to recommendations that private telecom operators be allowed to charge extra for third-party internet-based applications and services. This was in response to certain telecom companies deciding to charge internet-based voice calls at the rate of voice calls, paving the way for differentiating between kinds of content transferred via the internet using mobile phones. In response, an unprecedented online movement inundated the TRAI website, seeking to overturn the recommendations, and laying the groundwork for what has come to be seen as robust net neutrality laws. The movement was magnified online by a group of artists, journalists, technologists, lawyers, and policy experts who came together under the Save The Internet campaign and encouraged internet users in India to take part in the consultation process. TRAI received over a million responses. It was this public outcry that defeated some of the most powerful players in the digital realm – from telecom companies to Facebook, leading to the net neutrality laws that now exist in India. This paper will attempt to chart the evolution of net neutrality in India, focusing on how the net neutrality regulations came to be. In so doing, the paper hopes to understand how a leaderless citizen movement helped shape policy within a highly technical space, normally considered the domain of ‘experts.’ As more and more ‘users’ of the internet are transformed into ‘consumers’ of internet-related products, the lines demarcating ‘consumers,’ ‘citizens,’ ‘users,’ and ‘data subjects’ are becoming increasingly blurred. In moments such as the public debate on net neutrality, not only did the ‘citizen’ aspect of internet users come to the fore, it also allowed for the observation of participatory democracy in action.

Transforming the Media and Entertainment Industry

Technology is the mast that keeps the flag of the entertainment industry flying high. As technology evolves and the mode and quality of entertainment changes vigorously, India represents one of the Top 5 Entertainment and Media markets across the world. The growing usage of 3G, 4G and portable devices, rising advertising revenues, growing consumer demand has resulted in the growth of the Indian media and entertainment industry at a CAGR of 10.9 percent from FY 17-18. Constant support from TRAI (Telecom Regulatory authority of India) and the Govt. of India has pushed the Indian Media and Entertainment(M&E) Industry on a progressive growth path. This manuscript traces the evolution of the M&E landscape and discusses specific cases from the M&E industry where social media has been instrumental in hugely impacting the consumption of the M&E content.

An assessment of the policy and regulatory outcome by the telecom services users: The emerging economy study

Outcome-based policy evaluation is an established practice in the distributive and redistributive public policies. Such practices are not evident for competitive regulatory policies of telecom, especially in India. This study bridges this research gap by carrying out an outcome-based evaluation of telecom policy and highlighting the importance of such evaluation. Using the methodological pluralism model from Schalock (2002), the outcome of India’s telecom policies was evaluated. Outcome measures from the vision statement of telecom policy were appraised by telecom users by responding to a structured questionnaire-based survey. Factor analysis confirmed that our survey instrument measured the identified policy outcomes. Regression analysis confirmed that users’ appraisal was based on their experiences of telecom services. Against five policy outcome measures, the survey respondents agreed on the achievement of affordability of services: 68.9% of the respondents found telecom services not secure; 74.7% of the survey respondents indicated an issue with quality; 55.6% of the respondents did not agree that the services are available anytime, anywhere. Outcome measures like telephone density (teledensity) as adopted by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and Department of Telecommunications (DoT) are not the true representative of policy outcome. A multistakeholder policy evaluation will reveal the actual policy outcomes. International Telecommunications Union (ITU) should establish a standardized framework for outcome-based policy evaluation to address such issues.

Managing natural monopolies: interplay of the regulator and telecom companies in India

Learning outcomes The learning outcomes of this paper are as follows: to understand the characteristics of a natural monopoly such as telecommunications sector and impact of “network externality”; to understand the role of a regulator in maintaining a balance between competition and consolidation of telecom sector; to understand the importance of first-mover advantage in telecom sector and coping mechanism of late entrants; to understand different pricing mechanisms of “natural monopolies” that can be adopted to remain profitable; to understand social cost of price floor in telecommunications sector. Case overview/synopsis Indian telecom sector is going through a downturn where most of the private sector telecom service providers have reported huge losses, failed to pay adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues and reported decline in average revenue per user over a period of 3–4 years. Fierce competition in the sector leads to rock bottom calling and data charges. Bharti Airtel benefitted for being the first mover in terms of market share but with entry of JIO in 2016, the service providers have entered a price war. As a result, service providers have requested Mr. R.S. Sharma, Chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to come up with a floor on calling charges and requested the government for a bailout package. Currently, Mr. R.S. Sharma, Chairman TRAI is facing a dilemma whether to regulate and come up with a floor on calling and data charges or leave the sector for market correction. Mr. Sharma can also recommend to amend the definition of AGR. Telecommunications sector exhibit the characteristics of a natural monopoly where there is a need of a regulator to introduce “competition for the sector” and “competition in the sector.” In India, TRAI is the regulatory body responsible for introducing “competition for the sector” by auction and “competition in the sector” by deregulating calling and data charges, maintaining at least three private and one public service provider, decreasing “switching cost” of the customers, etc. The case deals with the issues of why there is a need of a regulator in natural monopolies, how different chairmen of TRAI have successfully introduced competition “for” and “in” the sector, and how Indian telecom sector went through a downturn? What should TRAI do to maintain competition in the sector? Complexity academic level The case deals with the issue of managing telecommunications sector (a natural monopoly) by a regulator in the context of India. The regulator had successfully introduced “competition in the sector” and “competition for the sector.” This led to sharp increase in subscriber base and decrease in calling and data charges. Presently, fierce competition in the sector has left the service providers cash crunched. The case deals with the dilemma faced by the chairman of the regulatory body in India on whether the regulator should come up with a price floor or market correction. Study level: MBA, Executive MBA. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 10: Public sector management.

Jio Fiber: disrupting the digital market in India

ABSTRACT The case is about Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (Reliance Jio), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries in India, it discusses the positioning of Reliance Jio in the context of Indian Internet Space. The case specifically focuses on the strategy of the company to become the ace player in the Indian market. It discusses the noteworthy business scopes of Indian internet space, namely, application provisioning, cloud service provisioning, and over the top service provisioning (entertainment sector), with reference to the competitive landscape in each scope. It very aptly brings out the dilemma faced by the promoter of Reliance Jio Mr. Mukesh Ambani, in the context of the Indian regulatory bodies (with a special focus on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India), the competitive landscape, and the strategic plan of Reliance Jio. The challenges faced by Mr. Ambani in fulfilling the strategic plan are also highlighted in the case. These include the market dynamics e.g. consolidation initiatives by prominent players like Airtel, Tata Teleservices, Walmart, and raising the capital through a collection of small sums of money from a huge customer base. Comprehensive teaching notes are also appended which highlights the analysis points to be discussed in class along with the strategic plan of Reliance Jio discussed through the lens of Porter’s five forces model.

Mechanism for Resolving Jurisdictional Conflicts between Competition Commission & Sector Regulators by the Supreme Court of India in CCI v. Bharti Airtel: A Possible Approach for the Current EU cases in the Digital Sphere

The mandate of the Competition Commission of India (CCI)2 and certain sector regulators in India are overlapping to the extent that both the authorities are empowered to take measures to facilitate competition. Recently, the Supreme Court of India, while adjudicating on the issue of jurisdictional conflict between CCI and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), has held that insofar as issues that are regulated by TRAI Act are concerned, in the first instance, TRAI will decide these questions. Once that has been determined and TRAI has provided information that the particular act appears to be anticompetitive, only thereafter, CCI gets jurisdiction to go into the question of such anticompetitive practice.3 This approach by Supreme Court can be expected to be followed in subsequent cases relating to overlap of jurisdiction between CCI and other sector regulators in addition to TRAI. ... While the judgment has to be appreciated for clarifying the roles of both the authorities, it poses certain new problems that have not been taken into consideration by the court. The article looks at each of these problems individually and suggests that while the mechanism suggested by the Supreme Court gives an answer for the fact-specific situation, it still requires further elucidation in as much as it does not take into account all the case scenarios. The article further makes a comparison of the judgment with the Facebook case decided by the German competition authority, Federal Cartel Office (FCO)4 and how the mechanism proposed by Supreme Court can give way to a new approach to be followed in cases of overlap of jurisdiction between authorities.

Competition in Telecom Sector: The Jurisdictional Tussle between Competition Commission of India and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

From enjoying natural monopolies to witnessing tough competition for services, the telecom sector in India has come a long way. It is now characterized by one of the fastest-growing sectors of deploying the latest technology and driving the economic growth in India. With the rapid intervention of innovation and competition redefining the sector dynamics, there are new emerging challenges that force the telecom and competition authorities to rethink their role and function and adopt a collaborative approach in deciding intersecting issues. In 2017, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL), a new entrant in the telecommunications market approached Competition Commission of India (CCI) against the incumbents for forming a cartel to deny market entry. Prior to that, it approached the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) against the incumbents for denying adequate points of interconnection. CCI passed an order in favour of the informant, which was challenged in the Bombay High Court and later appeared in the Supreme Court of India. The case that breathed fresh air at every level of Court in the country is a landmark decision in settling the role of CCI with respect to telecom sectoral regulators, particularly in issues that simultaneously fall within the jurisdiction of both the bodies. The objectives of both legislation, when reading together, intend to create an environment that may facilitate fair competition. In fulfilling the concerned objective, the jurisdiction of TRAI and the CCI overlap. Although the watchdogs (CCI and TRAI) share a common goal, they differ in their mandate and approach. The difference in the approach adopted by the CCI and TRAI towards a similar objective leads to cases of jurisdictional conflicts. The Researcher aims to analyze the decision of the Supreme Court of India in terms of its far-reaching effects on CCI while touching base on developments in the case at every level of proceedings through the lens of optimal regulation and competition.

Procena nivoa svesti korisnika o indijskoj industriji telekomunikacija i njihova procena pristupačnosti telekomunikacionih usluga u Indiji

India announced its first National Telecom Policy in 1994 and since then its telecommunications Industry has witnessed tremendous growth. At a teledensity of 89.92% (TRAI 2019), it is the second largest telecom market in the world. The policy maker, Department of Telecommunication (DoT) and the regulator, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) have taken several initiatives to ensure affordable services to telecom users. TRAI also drives initiatives to increase the level of awareness about telecom industry among users. To analyse impact of these initiatives by TRAI and DoT, this study presents an objective assessment of user's awareness and their assessment of affordability of telecom services. A structured questionnaire is used to collect data by surveying a sample of 408 telecom users. It was found that half of the respondents were aware of DoT; more than half were aware of the regulator TRAI and Indian governments vision for telecommunications and 85% of survey respondents found telecom services affordable. The level of affordability varied across gender, age group and education levels. Through regression analysis, the study found that awareness about telecom industry influences users' assessment of service affordability. Hence, TRAI and DoT should take actions to increase the level of awareness, which will improve users' perception of affordability and may lead to increased adoption of telecom services. In addition, it is suggested that affordability of female users can be addressed through customized tariff plan and schemes.

A Consumer Complaints and Grievances Redressal System in Indian Telecom Sector

Purpose. The purpose of this research is to analyses current consumer complaints redressal mechanism adopted by Indian telecom operators and designed by telecom regulator in India. Design/ methodology/ approach. Systematic literature review of research papers, related documents, and consultation papers published by regulator, secondary research through articles, opinions and analysis of consumer complaints registered with Telecom Service Providers (TSP). The paper is based on secondary research through literature review of related journal papers, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) policy documents, consultation papers, news articles along with study of complaints registered with telecom service provides. Findings. The paper analyses the consumer complaint & grievance redressal system in telecom sector in India and imperative need to resolve grievances in a swift and clear manner to make sure continual growth for the telecom sector. The paper specifically analyses Indian telecom diaspora about complain resolution in relation to regulatory authority, existing systems, new developments along with study/interpretation of assimilated complaints to corroborate the research findings. Practical implications. The paper understands major issues which lead to consumer dissatisfaction about redressal mechanism in telecom sector. The paper also covers briefly no of complaints registered with TSPs and appeals accepted. The paper also tries to understand various consumer complaints registered with TSPs and their current status. However, paper is unable to add impact of recently announced telecom ombudsman because of very nascent stage. The study can help to understand what changes are required to make the redressal architecture more effective. Originality/value. This paper furthers understanding of how TRAI functions with respect to consumer redressal. And, it sheds light on current consumer redressal architecture and what changes are required to make architecture effective and more efficient

Design of Institutions for Spectrum Governance: Lessons from Spectrum Trading in India

Introduction: Since more than 80% of data usage and Internet access happens over mobiles in emerging economies, effective spectrum regulation is very critical for them. To facilitate spectrum availability, many developing countries are attempting to transition from a command and control mode to a more open approach by adopting instruments such as spectrum auctions, leasing and trading. The institutional environment in emerging economies is in its nascent stage, and is characterized by poor formalization of processes, institutional voids, and inadequate human resource capabilities. In this situation, adoption of new and flexible instruments associated with open regimes often leads to ineffective outcomes and poor spectrum governance (Jain and Dara, 2017; Minervini, 2014). In order to study the constituents for good institutional design, we select a case study of spectrum trading in India. This involved an incumbent operator RCom (seller) and a new disruptive player RJio (buyer). Despite the urgency and necessity for RCom and RJio to remain solvent and plan aggressive growth respectively, the deal did not go through. Not only did RCOM and RJio have to contend with the sectoral regulatory framework (through the Department of Telecommunications, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India), the suo moto cognizance of this transaction by the Competition Commission of India, led to the involvement of various appellate bodies and the Supreme Court causing delays. Subsequently, a modified spectrum regulatory regime emerged. Objectives: Our objective is to develop the framework for an effective institutional design for spectrum regulation, including trading. While there are many studies that cover developed economies (Anker, 2017, Jain and Dara, 2017), these are unable to account for the complexities in developing economies adequately. Our objective is to fill this gap. Methodology: We adopt the single case study approach ( Yin, 2009) exploring the spectrum trade deal between RCom and RJio in the context of spectrum regulation from 1994/95 to 2018. We use detailed available data from secondary sources. We shall adopt the theoretical lens of regulatory spaces, institutional environment, and regulatory capacity. We contextualize our study with examples from spectrum trading in other countries (USA, UK). Expected Outcomes: This paper identifies the underlying constituent elements of a robust institutional design using the lens of regulatory spaces. The paper extends it to an environment characterized by institutional voids, poor design/scope of the regulatory agencies and inadequate mechanism for harnessing dispersed regulatory resources. We show how an appropriate institutional design in the context of developing countries could support the public policy objectives and ensure harmonization between flexibility in instruments and coherence in institutional design, a useful contribution for policy makers.

An Integrated approach for performance measurement of Indian telecom service providers

The purpose of this research paper is to measure the operational performance of cellular mobile telephone service providers (CMTSP) in India. In this paper, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and preference ranking organisation method for enrichment evaluation (PROMETHEE) integrated approach are used to compare the operational performances of CMTSP. This analysis is based on the information gathered by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, for the duration of January-March 2016. Three major parameters covering eight criteria: network availability, connection accessibility, and connection retainability are incorporated in this analysis. On the basis of the analysis, it has been observed that Reliance Communication has the first ranking and MTNL has the last ranking. This paper may help the management in the creation of a plan of action to improve the performance of the company by benchmarking the operational parameters on the basis of this model.

Experiential learning: analyzing success and failures in Indian telecom sector

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study the self and vicarious learning patterns of organizations through operational success and benchmark failure experiences. The study is specific to the Indian telecom sector.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses published data of four major telecom firms in India reported by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and analyzed the influence of aspiration performance discrepancy on organizational learning by hypotheses testing. Feasible generalized least square model with year fixed effects is used to run panel data regression.FindingsIn the case of operating experience for performance above aspiration, firms fail to learn from their own experience as well as from others’ experiences. For benchmark failure experience under positive discrepancy, firms learn from their own experience. For performance below aspiration, no significant result was found. These insights allow managers to reconfigure their learning orientation and to develop an effective mechanism for absorbing crucial knowledge from themselves and peer firms.Practical implicationsPractitioners should take into account that their knowledge repertoire is essential for learning in good times. This study also motivates managers involved in operating activities to make use of publicly disclosed reports, engage in vicarious learning or form a coalition for developing coping mechanism under negative discrepancy scenarios.Originality/valueThis paper presents a unique context by studying operational success, and failure experiences of telecom sector in India wherein benchmark for failure was decided by the governing regulatory body, TRAI, unlike other studies where success and failures reference points are intrinsically selected.

Intuitionistic fuzzy divergence measure-based ELECTRE method for performance of cellular mobile telephone service providers

In India, Telecom sector has been enduring a massive growth for over two and half decades in the bandwidth, preference of services and depth of penetration in urban, semi-urban and rural areas. Exploring the service providers or selecting the best cellular mobile telephone service providers (CMTSPs/TSPs) according to operational performance parameter can help to achieve the goal of telecom service provider selection (TSPS). Here, this assessment generally comprises various TSPs alternatives and different operational performance criteria; therefore, TSPS could be considered as a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. The analytical data have been taken from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Jan–Mar 2017. Most of the data vary from 1 month to another. Thus, these small ranges of variation in the data are incorporated with the intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (IFNs). In this paper, we develop an outranking method, intuitionistic fuzzy ELECTRE (IF-ELECTRE), for MCDM problems. Proposed method is based on divergence measure, operators of IFNs, some modifications of classical ELECTRE method. In the MCDM, the criterion weight determination is a vital issue for the accuracy of evaluation results. In the process of calculation of criterion weight, concordance and discordance values, we propose new Jensen–Shannon divergence (JS-divergence) for IFSs to overcome the shortcoming of the existing ones and demonstrate different elegant properties of the proposed one. Since the uncertainty is an inevitable feature of MCDM problems, the proposed method can be a valuable tool for decision-making in an uncertain atmosphere to determine the partial-preference outranking order. To express the strength and reasonableness of the proposed method in the real-world MCDM problems, a TSPS problem is implemented. Using the proposed framework, a decision expert can make a strategy to improve the performance by benchmarking operational parameters. Finally, a comparison is discussed between the results of the proposed method and the existing ones for validating the proposed method. This analysis shows that the proposed method is efficient and well consistent with the other methods.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was created in the onrush of such agencies following the paradigm shift from Indian Socialism to business liberalism and globalisation in 1991. The study of its functioning shows it to be less than adequately autonomous and less than sufficiently overseen by the parliament and its committee system. As a regulatory mechanism for the information and communication technology sector, TRAI’s importance cannot ever be overstressed in the context of the gradual transformation of India’s industrial society into information and knowledge society. In a way, in the long trajectory of the transformation of the public sphere in the course of the transition from feudal oligarchy to bourgeois democracy, the telecom space can be seen as the new frontier to be explored and harnessed in expanding and deepening democracy. The existing structure of TRAI falls short on the parameters of transparency, efficiency, autonomy and accountability, calling for reforms.

Multi-criteria assessment of cellular mobile telephone service providers using intuitionistic fuzzy WASPAS method with similarity measures

The objective of this paper is to construct an outline to explore the performance of cellular mobile telephone service providers (TSPs) in the Madhya Pradesh (MP) (including CG) circle, India. The data for the analysis has been considered from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Jan–March 2017. Most of the data fluctuate from month by month. As a result, these small deviations in the data are integrated in the current research with the intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (IFNs). The present research employs an intuitionistic fuzzy Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (IF-WASPAS) method to compare the performance of TSPs. Proposed method is based on the IFSs operators, and a new method for calculation of criteria weights. For the computation of criteria weights, we aggregate the subjective weights articulated by the decision experts with the objective weights derived from similarity measure method to achieve more reasonable weights. To compute the objective weight, new similarity measures are developed for IFSs and demonstrated various elegant properties of the proposed similarity measures. Finally, to express the strength and applicability of the proposed method, a case study to compare the performance of TSPs is considered. Next, a sensitivity analysis with different criteria weights and various values of parameters is presented to illustrate the strength of the developed IF-WASPAS method. A comparison is discussed between the developed method and some existing ones for certifying the developed method. Present analysis demonstrates that aggregating the subjective and objective weights can facilitate to enhance the stability of the developed method with different criteria weights.

Responding to 4G telecom pricing war: ignore, accommodate or retaliate

Subject area Marketing, Pricing, Strategic marketing. Study level/applicability The case is developed for an MBA-level program. Case overview In May 2017, the telecom industry in India witnessed an intense price war over 4G (fourth generation) data prices. Gopal Vittal, CEO of Bharti Airtel was exploring various options on how best to respond to the situation. He had to take a final call regarding Bharti Airtel’s marketing team’s counter move to tackle this price war by Jio – should Bharti Airtel ignore it, accommodate it or retaliate with even lower prices? Bharti Airtel strongly believed that Jio pricing structure had violated “fair pricing” norms, and its pricing was anti-competitive. It had filed a case with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to restrain Jio from further giving “free” promotional offers and penalize it for it. Could the legal recourse by Bharti Airtel dampen Jio’s consistent subscriber growth rate? Expected learning outcomes The case provides the students with an insight into how the competition focused on pricing happens in the telecom industry. The pricing war affects the profit margin of all competing companies. It changes the customer reference point for evaluating the competing products and services. The students would also learn practical applications of positive-sum pricing, pricing war, fair pricing and legal aspects of pricing. This case provides the students with an opportunity to understand the pricing war and how to respond to it in a particular situation; understand positive-sum pricing and negative-sum pricing in telecom industry context; understand legal aspects of pricing; and how to leverage data for gaining newer customer insights. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 8: Marketing.

Internet Neutrality: A Battle Between Law and Ethics

In 2016, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India issued the Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services Regulations. It favours the principle of internet neutrality. This principle suggests that all data on the internet should be treated equally without discrimination by user, content, site, etc. The objective of this paper is to justify the idea that internet neutrality cannot ensure equality in the ethical sense. Net neutrality can only maintain technological equality. The author proposes the argument that technological equality is not the same as ethical equality. Treating all content, which is not homogenous, equally leads to unethical activities. It hampers an individual’s relationship with his or her society and, thereby, blocks the foundation for social justice. Accordingly, the neutrality principle ignores the idea of social justice and fails to protect human rights. Hence, it cannot be ethically justifiable in its present form.