Cheap phones, another gimmick?

Mobile prices keep dropping, but customers remain unaware of the hidden costs in lucrative deals

Mobile Telephony is going all out to woo customers. A recent campaign by a mobile service provider talks of telephones that cost less than Rs1000, and will be available to the public at large. The ad campaign of the company mentions that the phone has a colour screen and all the minimum facilities (plus some more) that mobile phone users can hope for.

With the mobile phone industry picking up millions of new subscribers every month, this new scheme will lure even more people into the mobile net, making it possible for even the common man to purchase his own mobile phone. At the same time, with owning a mobile now being a status symbol, more persons in `vulnerable categories’ like students, retired persons and housewives will now demand and be able to purchase and access the benefits of a mobile phone.

Consumer bodies are however worried at some of the ‘adverse effects’ that this likely boom will cause to the economy and the social fabric of the country.

While owning a mobile is not by any means a harmful or dangerous activity, the insistence of this contraption for college students and those who live below the poverty line will be an additional burden, which not all will be able to afford.

While the instrument itself may be cheap, the recurrent expenses in the form of rentals, call charges, roaming charges, caller identification charges and the like, will make inroads into the budget of those families where making two ends meet is a difficult task.

There are several question marks about the instruments that will be supplied at low cost to all those who enroll for the new schemes, which will certainly be imitated and picked up by all the players in the mobile industry.

How good are these phones in the first place? Though electronic goods are mandated by law to be guaranteed for a minimum period of six months, will these phones conk out after a year or two? In that case, will the consumer - who will by then be used to a cell-phone - have to buy a new instrument? These questions may appear trivial in a scenario where everybody will be rejoicing at the possibility of getting a cheap phone and being mobile, but a huge burden will be enforced on all consumers who are at the lower end of the socio-economic ladder if they are forced to shell out money for buying instruments periodically.

The issues being framed as they are, this would be a good test case for the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to look into - the question of cheap phones in the larger consumer interest. TRAI must look into the schemes being offered with cheap phones, the quality of the phones themselves and more particularly their life when in use, and maybe insist on an ISI mark on telephone instruments to protect the interest of consumers.

Tariff Plans for cheap phone users should not be allowed to be more than what the average consumer pays for mobile services, as it is a well-known ply of mobile companies who will jack up rates for services, in an effort to make up for the loss of revenue involved in providing a subsidised handset to the consumer. Only then will the cheap phone be really cheap.