[cr-india] "CRS adopt mobile technology to drive social change"

[Vickram Crishna]

Ram

You are of course correct. However, perhaps Justice Sawant forgot to mention the fine print: that beggars can't be choosers, or thought that was obvious.

What we have, widely reused, in the country today is mobile spectrum, so the question that faces the average Indian today – and much more sharply when there's no FM station around for love or fresh air – is not radio vs mobile, which is vastly more expensive, but simply mobile. And while it is widely reused, the actual consumption is probably a lot higher than it would be for the same level of service capability in terms of expenditure were a different service delivery structure, micro-grained, employed. Provided you trust your citizenry, of course, to do the right thing while providing easy spectrum for people to share knowledge.

As you probably know, there is no reason for us in this forum to get into this tangled mess at this level. The implementation of mobile via tiny local organised entities as against gigantic transnational operators (ah, what a word, in this context!) is technically feasible and has been proven. It immediately modifies the mobile spectrum reuse balance, for the better. But there's no mention of this possibility in the license, and the government plays populist when it tom-toms the factoid that mobile usage is the cheapest here. Some say that gold is the cheapest in Dubai, but that's still a metal with the tag 'precious' attached to it. Neither FM nor mobile spectrum needs the level of ration raj we face, so the problem must not be laid at the door of one technology or another, it is squarely policy.  Like it or not, the intent of using a shredder to apportion FM spectrum naturally favors the giant media house(s) that can sustain lengthy losses (yet
 seemingly yearn for FDI). Some of that expense doubtless includes the cost of an ear or two in Parliament etc, so it's all good, really.

Vickram
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