Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Jun 05, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Jun 05, 2003 |
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Info-Tech
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Telecommunications `Caller party pays' not in line with tele-density goals — Basic players question TRAI tariffs G. Rambabu
NEW DELHI, June 4 THE basic operators have in a submission to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) stated that the access deficit charges (ADC) that have been put in place in the interconnection usage charge (IUC) regime are not compatible with the calling party pays (CPP) principle. Pointing out that the CPP regime which allows the cellular operators to make incoming calls free imposes an extra burden on the fixed line operators, they have said that this negates the objective of achieving tele-density targets set in the New Telecom Policy 99. The Authority in its explanatory memorandum to the tariff notification dated January 24, 2003 has given a detailed explanation on the ADC payable to the basic service operators, which they must get in order to keep the rental as well as local calls below cost and affordable. It has been indicated that ADC is assessed by fixing an affordable level for rentals/ local call charges, special concessionary local call charges in the rural areas, provision of free calls and any other below cost tariffs that the regulator may need to specify to make the basic telephone services affordable to the common man to promote universal service and universal access as per the new telecom policy 99. Below cost rentals which are to be compensated by ADC are applicable for basic services. For other services such as cellular mobile and limited mobility, the access charge is not applicable as rentals and call charges have not been kept below cost by regulation, as in the case of fixed local telephone service. "When the Authority is aware and understands the need for keeping the local call charges at affordable rates in order to provide affordable services to the basic service subscribers, it is strange that it has decided to impose extra burden on the basic telephone users for making a call to the cellular subscribers. On the one hand, the Authority fixes rental and call charges below cost for the basic service subscribers in order to achieve the NTP 99 targets of tele-density and providing affordable service to the masses; on the other hand it imposes extra burden on the basic service users for calling the cellular subscribers. This extra burden on the basic service users becomes a source of additional revenue to the cellular operators," the basic operators have said. If there is a justification for keeping the rentals and call charges below cost for the basic service users, it is contradictory for the Authority to conclude that extra burden of additional call charges can be imposed on the basic phone users, to compensate the cellular operators through CPP. The two concepts cannot go together and are in fact contradictory. "Thus the Authority's actions are not in line with the objectives of NTP 99 for increasing tele-density in the country and spread of telecom services in every nook and corner of the country," they added.
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