Call Drop Prasad and the Ineffectiveness of his Governance

Unlike several of his cabinet colleagues, the RSS-backed minister for Communications and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad, enjoys appearing on TV and talking up a storm on how dynamic his ministry is. It is a habit left over from his earlier Party Spokesperson avatar, when being inventive about everything regarding the BJP/NDA/RSS and broader Sangh Parivar fell to his lot, news channel after channel; night after night.

But even so, he offers little beyond bluster about taking ‘stern action’ – jowls a quiver, spectacles glinting mightily, saying “it is not my job to find towers.”

A Disconnected Minister

There is no case of ‘Call Drop Prasad’ informing the public on what he is doing to resolve the problem, apart from a lame TRAI plan to dock mobile operators, and crediting a few rupees to the afflicted users, three times or more, or Rs 3 a day at best. This, while it does nothing by way of solution, is nevertheless being stoutly and legally contested by the operators. The fact is, the operators, both in the private and public sectors, are finding it difficult to make money on ‘voice’, due to the competition, and the cost of putting up and maintaining communication towers across the country. With the steady increase in the use of smartphones and broadband, the advent of 4G, operators earn much more from their data services, including music, multimedia visuals/movies/Youtube etc. This, consumed over computers and smart phones, pays well.

The Call Drop Scandal

• Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has done little to resolve the call drop problem.
  
• Apart from a lame TRAI plan to impose fines on service providers, no government action has been taken yet.
  
• Operators, who don’t make money on voice calls have turned to streaming music, multimedia visuals which pay well on smartphones.
  
• Call drops can be solved with government help/incentives to private operators for more communication towers.
  
• The incentives should include offering them sites on government land and buildings.
  
• As many as 34,460 mobile tower sites, belonging to private service providers, have been found to be defective.
  

Incentives to Private Operators

The call drop problem can be solved with government help/incentives to private operators for more communication towers. This should include offering them sites on government land and buildings. Shouting “it isn’t my problem” is not good enough minister Prasad, because, in the end, it is. When it comes to government-owned MTNL and BSNL, both loss-making to the tune of some Rs 8,000 crore when this government took over, despite lower consumer prices, 4,144 new towers have been added between April-November 2015.

There is, of course, legitimate concern from people living near urban mobile tower sites, because of their propensity to spread cancer-causing radiation. Also, since historically many towers were put up to improve ‘coverage’ illegally, on private roof tops and the like, mainly by private operators in a quest for greater market share, they needed to be shut down.

Defective Towers

But even now, as many as 34,460 mobile tower sites belonging to the private service providers like Aircel, Idea, Vodafone, Airtel, Tata, Telenor, Reliance Communications, Videocon, Quadrant and Shyam Teleservices were found to be defective. And about half (16, 962) have been set right under the government’s watch. Another 17,498 await repair. This information was given by Call Drop Prasad in Parliament after opposition demands, but he did not think it necessary to tell the public. On TV, it is Prasad’s odd-syntax legalese, whether delivered in English or Hindi, always hovering on the edge of bombast, delivered with a sweet smile. And it is further leavened with his considerable Bihari political good sense. That he refuses to talk substance to the suffering public is probably because he thinks they won’t understand such complex matters. Still, Prasad seems well satisfied with himself, implying so are his other cabinet colleagues, and that is what matters to him.

Where’s Accountability?

It is perhaps symptomatic of this government that it feels no urge to be particularly accountable – certainly against any objective yardstick, comparing itself instead, every time, with how the UPA always did worse. Meanwhile, the janata around the country, and certainly in Delhi, can barely hear themselves talk. We all have arcane methods to find hotspots at home: on the veranda, kitchen, staircase, windowsill, toilet, sundry corners. From such hotspots, a call can go through and endure, provided you hold still, believing your phone is made of nitroglycerine, and speaking with great enunciation.

No Connectivity

Thank God, many think, for Whatsapp and text messaging/email, otherwise there would be little mobile telephonic communication. Inside moving cars, metro-platforms, tunnels and elevated sections, or buses; long stretches of dense cityscape, let alone the sparsely populated and the bucolic countryside, there is no connectivity at all. Not to worry, since there’s no hope. Go watch something on your phone perched near a hotspot, and make your operator happy. And don’t tell me what intend to watch. There are, believe it, statistics available about that.

(Gautam Mukherjee is a plugged-in commentator and instant analyser)