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Kripa Raman

MUMBAI, Feb. 1

CELLULAR operators and basic private telephony operators have been asked to pay over Rs 25 crore to BSNL as arrears in port and access charges.

BSNL, having spotted a technical advantage in its favour, had for the last few weeks been issuing demand notes to these operators asking for arrears payments, said these access providers.

Cellular operators have protested this and taken the matter to the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT).

The issue goes back a bit into telecom history. In May 1999, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), in its earlier avatar, had reduced basic telephony tariff from Rs 1.40 to Rs 1.20 per three minutes. By virtue of this change, TRAI had also decided that these operators will pay BSNL 50 paise instead of 48 paise for every unit of long distance call made and 66 paise instead of 70 paise for every unit of international long distance call.

TRAI had then also decreased port charges to access providers (for connecting to BSNL lines), from Rs 50,000 to Rs 30,000 per port.

Coincidentally, in a separate issue, TRAI had also allowed the Calling Party Pays facility (where incoming calls are free) to cellular operators, which was contested by both BSNL and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd in the Delhi High Court. In this case, the Delhi High Court had ruled that TRAI did not have the powers to determine interconnection regulations between two operators.

Subsequently, the TRAI Act was amended and the modified Act came into force in January 2000 giving TRAI much augmented powers.

"Throughout this period and until recently, BSNL continued to charge us the lower rates," said Mr T.V. Ramachandran, Director-General, Cellular Operators Association of India. "Now, they have suddenly woken up to the Delhi High Court ruling which said that TRAI does not have the powers to decide on interconnection between parties, and want us to pay the earlier port charges of Rs 50,000 instead of Rs 30,000 with retrospective effect from May 1999."

The issue is being heard by TDSAT, which has for the present said that connections to the access providers cannot be cut for non-payment reasons for another four weeks. "We have not got a stay for not paying though," said a cellular company official.

In fact, he said, BSNL had now increased port charges (which allows cellular operators to connect to BSNL lines) to Rs 55,000, which was even higher than the earlier rates.

Basic operators said they too had been asked to pay up around Rs 25 crore cumulatively to BSNL as charges; BSNL wants them to pay the earlier rates of 50 paise and 70 paise (instead of 40 paise and 66 paise respectively) on national and international long distance calls.

"We are waiting to see what happens with the complaint made by the cellular operators," said a basic services official.

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Port and access charges -- BSNL asks operators to cough up dues

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