Right Marketing & Correct Positing of Products – Key to Great Business When it comes to products or services, the first thing which drives the sales is marketing or the positioning of products and services. The only thing certain about market is its uncertainty, the complex nature which consists of consumers at the bottom, influencers who […]
Indian Telecom Industry 929 million – the number of subscribers, the Indian telecom sector has achieved to become one of the major indicators of and contributors to the economic growth of India. Indian telecom sector is one of the fastest growing telecom sectors in the world, with over 16 million subscribers being added every month. […]
Telecom Companies in India are in general an unscrupolous lot with the 2G Scam showing the whole telecom industry of India in a Bad Light.While a number of top executives of telecom companies spent time in jail,it seems that these companies have learned nothing.They continue to find loopholes to take both their customers and government for a ride.Indian Broadband and Telecom companies have made defrauding customers an art by illegally adding value added services and charging for them.They also burn millions of dollars in subsidized diesel to power their telecom towers since there is no restriction on that.Now these comapnies have been caught again in another manipulation trick in 3G services.
The Indian telecom industry is the world’s fastest growing industry with 792 million mobile phone subscribers as of February 2011. It is also the second largest telecommunication network in the world in terms of number of wireless connections after China. The industry will reach around $80 billion in revenues by next year showing an astounding CAGR of over 25% and will employ a stupendous 1 crore employees making it one of the biggest value creators in India in recent times. The introduction of mobile phones brought a major revolution in the industry. Mobile phones have become a modern day necessity. Be it a professional, a trader, a housewife or a student, everyone has one. The availability of cheap mobiles in the Indian market, is also a major factor in making it available & affordable to the common masses. Today’s mobile phone is not just a phone, it has a built in camera, music system, games & internet enabled networking. These facilities entertain you as well as make you available to work as & when required.
However analysts as they are wont are creatures of habit and don’t go out of their comfort zone.They try to stay in the territory of the obvious and don’t look at deeper problems.India has been rocked by a number of corruption scandals and telecom has been one of the biggest hit.Unitech Wireless one of the new operators is one the verge of having its properties attached by the Indian state while top executives on Reliance (ADAG) are in jail for colluding to defraud the Indian government of billions along with the former telecom minister Raja.While Airtel is not facing this problems,its insidious business practises are equally problematic if the come to light.In broadband companies in India,I wrote how service providers fleece and loot consumer through systematically fraudulent tactics.This is so widespread that I have no doubt that top management is aware if not actively promoting such activities.A refresher,telecom providers in India routinely activate value added services like ringtones (costing Rs 30/month) and other such services without the consumer’s consent.As the amount is small and most of the consumers are illiterate without having the knowledge of what’s happening ,these companies make a killing.Airtel is also doing this and making the biggest killing of the India consumer.Only a serious investigation on the lines of 2G telecom scam can uncover this corruption scam which goes on bringing hundreds of millions of illegal for these telecom companies.
The vendor choice itself shows total lack of judgment and good sense it seems and the contract law being what it is in India,any customer who goes to Sosasta is totally on his own if he wants to recover money which he has to pay upfront.I had personally applied to 2 vendors and nobody has been able to give the required service in the 2 months that had been alloted.After phoning Sosasta 3 times and mailing them twice I finally recieved the money back ,however in the case of the second service ,even after mailing them twice nothing has happened.On top of that the customer care phone numbers don’t pick up the phone.