Media turns anti-capitalist.

Yesterday I read something in TOI that made me wonder if our media is turning anti-capitalist if not downright socialist (Times Impact. RCOM reduces SMS to 1p, Nov 28).It was a self-congratulatory note on how TOI reports and intervention had led to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) start "looking" into the matter of why telcos were charging Re1 per sms when it costs them a fraction of 1p per sms. Why should the media be concerned about this? Let the free market forces play themselves out. Telecom tariffs in India are anyways lowest in the world. If consumers can afford to pay Re1 per sms then it is a great way to subsidise lower tariffs on voice calls. Its a win-win situation. With more number of competitors coming in, the Average Revenue Per User (ARPUs) are set to decline further and telcos will be under further pressure to reduce prices and increase service. Reducing a profitable revenue stream will mean a serious hit on the bottom line. As a consumer, of course I will be jubilant if sms becomes 1 paise or something like that ( reliance plans some ulimited sms plan at nominal cost). But we need to look beyond consumer happiness. Telecom has been our poster boy of success. It has been an integral part of our economic growth of the past decade in two ways - one through generation of employment and second through increasing efficiencies in the system through a robust communication system. By using such interfering tactics under the garb of consumer good, will only mean stymieing growth and killing a once profitable industry. The SMS move in itself may not be enough to kill the industry, but the question is where does the interference stop? Our government is anyways doing a great job of jacking up things by messing around with the 3G policy. We don't need help from the media to make things worse. Let Laissez-faire be the rule of the game. Regulators should limit themselves to ensuring a fair playing field for all providers and crack down on collusive tactics. Let companies decide what they want to price. Let consumers decide what they want to pay. Simple demand and supply.
Its disheartening that a publishing house like TOI should forget this.