B K Modi Elected New Coai Chief

B K Modi, chairman and president of Modicorp, was elected chairman of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) yesterday at the annual general meeting of the body. T V Ramachandran, director of Essar Cellphone, was elected vice-chairman of the association.

Former telecom secretary R K Takkar was inducted into COAI as it secretary general. He is expected to assume office next week. Modi, who is also the chairman of Modi Telstra, one of the cellular licensees in Calcutta, takes over from outgoing chairman Analjit Singh. Ramachandran replaces Sharad Gupta, chief executive officer of Usha Martin Telekom.

Addressing newspersons here immediately after the AGM, Modi said the challenge before the cellular operators was to achieve international service quality standards. It is important that we concentrate on satisfying the needs of our customers and shareholders. We should endeavour to provide service of the highest quality to our customers, he said.

 

Outgoing chairman Analjit Singh wanted DoT to play a more interactive role in matters relating to the industry. We are the largest partner of DoT and should work together. It should talk to us and listen to the industry view before taking decisions, he said.

On the DoT decision to withdraw its fixed-to-cellular tariff as ordered by the Telecom Regulat- ory Authority of India, Modi said.

, It is a positive development for the telecom sector... as the regulatory bodys position as an independent authority has been established.

The cellular operators have already made significant losses for the past couple of months due to a fall in overall talktime following the DoT order. Our main task now onwards will be to inform customers of the withdrawal of order and continue ongoing efforts to further improve the quality of service, he added.