Uncertainty compounded, as never before!

COVID cases in India are shooting through the roof, and the situation is becoming worse every day.

The India-China border clash is expected to play havoc with the telecom industry. The telecom ministry is planning to influence and perhaps make it mandatory that Chinese vendors are boycotted. BSNL already has. Do the Chinese vendors really have links with the PLA and the Chinese government? With tight controls and security protocols in place, or perhaps building an overlay secure virtual network, is it not possible to address this issue? Can we afford to be mistaken? At this stage, do we want to get entangled in settling dues, facing potential penalties, or getting into arbitration? Indian manufacturers, with neither the experience, nor comparable technology, nor competitive pricing, are being encouraged and being extended protective measures. And the weakening rupee is not helping. The Chinese mobile phone manufacturers who until very recently were being wooed are finding their manufacturing facilities pelted and abuses being hurled at. India seems to be quite off course as far as 5G services are concerned.

Jio’s equity divestment is nothing short of an amazing feat, especially when the economies world over are in a semi-paralyzed state. Bharti’s exercise to go debt-free too, and Google’s interest in Vodafone Idea need to be supported, in a business environment riddled with rigid judicial pronouncements, frequent policy changes, regressive taxation, deliberate misinterpretations of policy intent and unending bureaucratic asphyxiation. It would also give the telcos a relatively free hand with their CapEx plans.

Remote working has become the new normal as we attempt to recuperate from this pandemic. However, a dipstick survey shows that the executives across the country are struggling with internet speeds, insufficient bandwidth, and other network challenges. The switch in network usage to residential networks, as opposed to enterprise networks, which is technologically better configured for the high-load traffic, continues to present a set of challenges on managing network load.

The decoupling of various economies with respect to trade, supply chains, technology and investment in these uncertain times, is perhaps the only way to move forward!