Telecommunications: Regulatory Wild West?

Did India need an interventionist regulatory regime in telecommunications? Had there been no interventions then a number of operators would have wound up business due to the high licence fee they had quoted in 1995-96; tariffs would not have come down and most importantly the service would have been available only to the wealthy. All these factors would have combined to hold back telecom penetration. Interventions on the other hand have led to aggressive competition, reduction of tariffs and growth.