Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Saturday, May 18, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Saturday, May 18, 2002 |
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Info-Tech
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Telecommunications BSNL objects to Bharti ILD tariffs G. Rambabu
NEW DELHI, May 17 BHARAT Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has objected to the international long distance tariff structure of Bharti Telesonic Ltd, announced in end-April, which seeks to bring down the existing call rates by close to 40 per cent. According to informed sources, BSNL has written to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) noting that since it was not consulted before the tariff structure was announced, it may not be feasible to reach suitable interconnect agreements with the company. The sources noted that even Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) is toeing BSNL's line and is yet to reach any agreement with Bharti. This has put Bharti's ILD operations in a spot, since interconnect agreement with both the telecom majors would enable the company to reach out to subscribers across the country. As of now, it has reached agreements only with the cellular operators. In effect, Bharti would be able to offer its ILD services only for mobile-to-mobile calls at present, as is the case with its national long distance (NLD) services, which were launched in January this year. The sources said that over the past couple of days, both BSNL and Bharti have been in negotiations, but have been unable to reach an understanding. The major stumbling block is the revenue share between the companies for all ILD calls routed through the Bharti gateways by a BSNL subscriber. Bharti wants to keep 55 per cent of the revenue from such calls, while BSNL wants a larger share. BSNL has pointed out that Data Access (India) Ltd, yet another ILD operator waiting to launch its services, has reached an agreement, whereby it will get a larger revenue share. With call rates proposed to be slashed by a huge margin, the company has said that unless it can get to keep a higher proportion of the revenues, it makes no financial sense to allow its subscribers to utilise Bharti's ILD services. In fact, Bharti's NLD operations too have been stuck on this same issue of revenue-share. Another area of contention is that while Bharti wants to hand over STD calls of its subscribers to BSNL at the long distance charging area (LDCA), BSNL wants it to be done in the short distance charging area (SDCA). Since Bharti does not have points of presence all over the country, handing over such calls in the SDCA is virtually impossible. This has been hampering the company's plans to offer its NLD services to subscribers across the country. A similar scenario is now being recreated in the ILD sector, with the company's operations yet to take off. First it was scheduled to launch its services on April 14, it got postponed to May 1 and now again, company officials say it could be launched by end-May. The same is the case with Data Access. Both the companies are yet to get security clearances from various Government departments. The carrier access codes that the subscriber will have to dial to avail of the ILD services too have not been finalised. As a result, the consumer will have to wait a little longer to benefit from the promised price cuts for international calls.
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