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Pvt operators gang up against BSNL

January 30, 2004 15:40 IST

Private telecom operators on Friday raised serious concerns over Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd's non-compliance with regard to implementation of interconnect user charge saying they (BSNL) were completely violating Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's regulations.

"BSNL follows one type of pulse rate for their billing towards us while different pulse rate for themselves. This has resulted in heavy losses to the private telecom operators," Cellular Operators Association of India director general T V Ramachandran told PTI in New Delhi.

He said the cumulative losses would be in the range of Rs 150 core (Rs 1.50 billion) to Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) since May last year and this is just one item where BSNL's discriminatory approach has caused so much of losses to the industry.

"This is a discriminatory practice of the incumbent operator and completely detrimental to the development of telecom services in the country," he added.

Trai had earlier said that revised IUC would be implemented with effect from February 1 and till now both -- private telecom operators and BSNL -- have been claiming that they were fully prepared for the new regime wherein inter-operator settlement of IUC has to be made on reciprocal basis.

According to industry sources, COAI and Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (formerly ABTO) have brought the matter to the notice of Trai.

Sources also said that both the organisations were contemplating approaching the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellete Tribunal over the issue but no decision has yet been taken.


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