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G. Rambabu

NEW DELHI, Jan. 28

BHARAT Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is making all-out efforts to woo the cellular operators who are negotiating with Bharti Telesonic Ltd (BTSOL) for routing all the default STD calls on its network.

According to industry sources, the top brass of BSNL had a meeting with cellular operators and offered them a higher revenue share (than the present five per cent) for not only mobile-to-mobile STD calls, but even on mobile to public switched telephone network (PSTN) STD calls.

This agreement, if agreed to by the cellular operators, would stand to their benefit, as BTSOL is currently offering a higher revenue share to them only on mobile-to-mobile STD calls.

Since a majority of the long distance calls on mobile phone are made to land lines, the cellular operators stand to benefit by any agreement, if reached.

When contacted, officials in BSNL refused to comment on the matter.

However, industry sources said that the cellular operators are still to reply to the offer.

There is no urgency in the matter, especially with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) stipulating, on an interim basis, that all default calls will have to be routed by the access providers on an alternate basis, between the existing two NLD operators.

The sources pointed out that the MoUs between cellular operators and BTSOL for routing of STD calls, announced on December 18, 2001 and submitted to TRAI, had to be withdrawn after BSNL slashed its long distance rates by close to 60 per cent.

They were officially withdrawn on January 23, after the expiry of the stipulated 45-day period, within which time they had agreed to sign definitive agreements.

As per the earlier agreement, the revenue sharing on such calls between both the groups was to be on a 30:40:30 basis, with the originating operator retaining 30 per cent, 40 per cent going to the carrier (BTSOL) and 30 per cent to the terminating operator.

Bharti is now understood to have reached agreements with a few cellular operators on a 25:50:25 revenue sharing basis.

In other words, while 25 per cent of all such revenue from mobile-to-mobile STD calls will be retained by the originating operator, 50 per cent will be handed over to BTSOL and 25 per cent to the terminating operator.

As for the remaining cellular operators, negotiations are in an advanced stage, the sources said.

However, not to be outdone, BSNL is now offering more attractive rates, not only on mobile-to-mobile STD calls, but also on mobile to landline calls. It remains to be seen what new turn the competition between the two NLD operators now takes.

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