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Recent Events Held : REPORT ON SEMINAR ON “MOBILE PHONES SERVICES - Yeh Bill Mange More...” HELD ON DECEMBER 3, 2004 AT 6.30 P.M. At BABUBHAI CHINAI COMMITTEE ROOM OF IMC.
Mr. V. B. Haribhakti President,CFBP welcomed the gathering and presided the seminar. In his address he elaborated about series of programmes CFBP organizing during the year. He then congratulated Mr. Subash Chander Gogia, Chairman Programmes Committee for his commitment and dedication for organizing the seminars. He further elaborated about the multifarious activities of CFBP. He also stressed on the importance of Social Responsibilities of Business. The floral bouquets have been offered to the speakers as a token of appreciation from CFBP by the President and Vice President. Mr. Subash Chander Gogia, Hon. Secretary & Chairman Programmes Committee then introduced Mr. Achintya Mukherjee, a well known consumer Activist & Jt. Hon. Secretary, Bombay Telephone Users' Association, and requested him to enlighten the gathering on the issues related to Mobile Phone Services.
Mr. Mukherjee, in his address, elaborated about problems faced by the users / consumers, reasons of the problems and the possible steps to solve the problems. He further stated that one of the major problem consumers facing is "Call Dropping". On several occasions the signals are not available in various parts of the city, especially in the evening time due to heavy traffic, the network remains busy, and hence people do not get proper service. Several other problems are with respect to billing, which are non receipt of bills, excess billing, and difficulty in understanding the bills. Many a times the Tariff Rates are changed without prior information. The Rates are different for different regions. The website of the service providers contains misleading information relating to tariffs and are not updated periodically. Even Companies are not providing Tariff Cards giving details of the billing plans. Many a times people are not aware of the rates being charged to them. The Service Providers are not investing enough in improving infrastructure. Many service providers are advertising about the network efficiency, which is not seen in practice. The Mobile Phone Service Providers are not entertaining the consumer organizations. All these companies must co-operate and have periodical meetings with consumer organizations and come up with a charter. Such a Charter may contain following information:
Mr. Mukherjee then elaborated the grievances redressal mechanisms available to the consumers. He concluded by stating that the Law is not clear on certain issues. The Telegraph Act is obsolete, TRAI act is not specific on certain issues and the TDSAT can be approached by the Group of Consumers and not by individual consumers. Mr. Gogia then introduced Dr. Vinod Kumar, Head - Corporate Wireless, Reliance Infocom Ltd and requested him to enlighten the gathering about the service providers views on this topic. Dr. Vinod Kumar started his speech by stating the vision of the CFBP that "Business confidence is built through Best Business Practices and is fostered in an atmosphere of trust and respect between providers of goods and services and their users for the ultimate benefit of the Society and the nation." He then elaborated about the story of inception of the Reliance Infocom Limited. In January 2001 Mr. Dhirubhai Ambani asked Mr. Anil Ambani to enter in telecommunication sector only if the services of the long distance call can be provided at the cost less than a Post Card. Mr. Anil Ambani then started the Reliance Infocom Limited with 80,000 km fiber optic network, where cost reduction was the only aim behind its all activities to provide satisfactory services to the consumers. He then stated that initially the rate was Rs.16 per minute for the Mobile phone services, but reliance had offered at Rs. 0.40 per minute due to economies of scale. He further stated that Reliance Infocom is now aiming to cover 5,000 cities by the end of this year. He further stated that a new scheme has launched by Reliance where one can talk unlimited in Rs. 440/- within circle for any reliance to reliance mobile phones. He also stated that reliance is now providing more handsets at reasonable price with value added services like R-world. He then concluded his address by agreeing to work in association with consumer organizations to provide better services to the consumers. Mr. Arvind Dighe, Vice-Chairman, Mumbai Grahak Panchayat then informed the gathering about the redressal mechanism available with Mumbai Grahak Panchayat. Mr. Gogia then introduced Mr. Vivek Patki, well-known consumer activist and requested him to address the gathering with his view points on the issue. Mr. Patki has rightly pointed out important issues to be addressed in his brief address:
Mr. B. B. Choudhary, Dy. General Manager, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, then addressed the gathering on the issues related to Mobile phones. He stated that MTNL has now improved the capacity from 225k to 400k to provide value added services to consumers. He also stated that MTNL would provide the consumers with maximum benefits for the amount spent by them. Mr. Gogia then requested the gathering to raise queries and clarified that it is an educative seminar and being held for awareness of the consumers and not for confrontation. He then requested the gathering to send their grievances to CFBP for redressal. All the Speakers satisfactorily answered queries raised by the audience. Mr. Dinesh Parekh, Vice President, CFBP gave Vote of thanks and expressed his gratitude towards speakers, sponsors, representatives of various newspapers - News Channels and the distinguished audience for attending the seminar. He also assured the gathering to address their grievances by CFBP. An information booklet on Mobile Phones was distributed to the audience at the end of the seminar. The
next seminar will be held on issues related to EMI / Loans |
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