Excellent article on what’s up with India’s WLL rollouts:

So why have cellular operators been crying foul? … Because of the different government rules for the two services, which suddenly seem to be sharing the same playing field. The cellular companies paid as much as Rs 3,000 crore each to offer services in just one metro. Against this, fixed line WLL licences came for a measly Rs 495 crore. For the whole country. Cellular operators also pay — which means the customer pays — something called access charges to connect to a fixed phone network like BSNL’s or MTNL’s. … But a WLL operator does not need to pay any access charges.

I think the WLL operators have clearly demonstrated that the possibility of great consumer benefit exists (especially in a market as hyper-price-sensitive as India), if only because the government turned a blind eye to WLL technology in the 1999 Telecom Policy. It is significant that the WLL rollouts have not been stopped, because it will be difficult for the COAI to get courts or governments to get the paying public to abandon their WLL mobiles after widespread deployment.