India Uncut
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Monday, February 07, 2005
Boston calling from Chennai
What does one make of the recent accusation by the government that Reliance Infocomm has been "illegally routing international calls as local ones to avoid payment of levies to the telecom PSUs"? Well, Gaurav Sabnis has reason to believe that the charges are justified. He writes:
Gaurav answers that question, and concludes that regardless of where the greater wrongdoing lies, with Reliance or the framers of those rules, it is we, the consumers, who will bear the cost. Read his full post.
I remember that a few months back when my friends in America had all gathered together during a long weekend, and called me up using the "extremely affordable" Reliance Calling Card. The number I received the call from was a Chennai Reliance number. Later when they called again, it was a Kolkatta Reliance number. In fact the first question I asked my friends was "You are in USA, right? Why is this showing an India number then?"
So there is no doubt that Reliance has done what it has been accused of.
But a question begs to be asked. While Reliance did break the rules, were the rules themselves fair?
Gaurav answers that question, and concludes that regardless of where the greater wrongdoing lies, with Reliance or the framers of those rules, it is we, the consumers, who will bear the cost. Read his full post.
