Trai’s 5-year legacy: unforgettable and unforgivable

In the last five years, telecom revenues are down, debts are up; litigation is high, trust is low. The new leadership at Trai has to ensure all telcos are treated fairly and the sector is nursed back to sanity

Meant to regulate Indian telecom in a fair, equitable and predictable manner, Trai has been accused of bias and ad-hocism in the last five years

Either due to sheer ineptitude or incredible coincidences, many of Trai’s decisions have ended up benefitting just one company—Reliance Jio

Government’s earnings from the sector are down 18.8% in the last five years

Like 2G and 3G in the past, experts fear India could lag behind in 5G. Trai could have reduced the reserve price, but it has chosen not to

In August, India’s telecom regulator is all set for a change of guard. Never in its 23-year history has the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) been accused of playing by the rules of a zero-sum game. A game that has soiled the shiniest story of liberalisation in the country.

Two of India’s three private telecom operators, which together account for account for Mint Reliance Jio commands 33.47% wireless market share, while Airtel has 28.31% and Vodafone Idea 27.57% Read more 56% of mobile subscribers, reported Rs 40,393 crore ($5.4 billion) in quarterly losses last week.

AUTHOR

Seema Singh

Seema has over two decades of experience in journalism. Before starting The Ken, Seema wrote “Myth Breaker: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and the Story of Indian Biotech”, published by HarperCollins in May 2016. Prior to that, she was a senior editor and bureau chief for Bangalore with Forbes India, and before that she wrote for Mint. Seema has written for numerous international publications like IEEE-Spectrum, New Scientist, Cell and Newsweek. Seema is a Knight Science Journalism Fellow from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a MacArthur Foundation Research Grantee.

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