Recently, all the major telecom operators in the country have updated the rates of their prepaid and postpaid tariff plans, sparking controversy. In response to misleading claims regarding the recent mobile services tariff hike, the government stated the current mobile services market operates through the market forces of demand and supply.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has stated that the rates of telecommunication services are determined by market forces, within the regulatory framework set by the independent regulator.
“The government does not intervene in the free market decisions as the functionality is under the domain of TRAI and tariffs are under forbearance,” said the regulator. The TRAI said the telecom service providers (TSPs) have increased the prices of mobile services after more than two years.
“In the last two years, some of the TSPs have invested heavily in rolling out the 5G services across the country. This has resulted into a significant increase in median mobile speed to the level of 100 Mbps and jump in India’s international rank from 111, in October 2022, to 15 today,” the TRAI explained.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) emphasised the importance of ensuring the financial viability of the telecommunications sector while also safeguarding the interests of subscribers. This is essential for the orderly growth of the sector and for enabling investments in cutting-edge technologies such as 5G, 6G, and IoT/M2M for Industry 4.0.
Before the last 10 years, the telecommunications sector was rife with controversies, lack of transparency, and as a result, the growth of mobile services was stagnant.
“During the last 10 years, due to progressive policies of the government, the rates of telecommunication services be it voice or data, have fallen exponentially,” said the telecom regulatory body.
Meanwhile, according to its founders Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka, the Indian social media platform Koo is shutting down due to failed partnership talks and high technology costs. After drawing direct comparisons to Twitter and gaining traction when Elon Musk took over the micro-blogging site, the company began laying off a large portion of its workforce in April 2023.
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