The Hindu Business Line : TRAI resumes consultations — Choice still eludes users on ISD/STD operators

EVEN as 18 months have passed since the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued a directive making it mandatory for all mobile and fixed-line service providers to enable their subscribers to choose the long-distance operator of their choice for making STD/ISD calls, customers continue to be deprived of this benefit. The service providers decide the telecom network through which the customers' STD/ISD calls will be routed.

On July 24, 2002, the authority had issued a directive making it mandatory for all basic and cellular operators to modify their networks to introduce carrier access codes (CAC), the code number that enables users to select the long-distance voice carrier of their choice. It had even set a time frame for the implementation of this system of between three months and 18 months depending on the type of network and areas they operate in.

This was supposed to give the subscribers a greater choice in routing their long-distance calls, since at present if a subscriber of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd wants to use the long-distance services offered by Bharti or if a Reliance Infocomm subscriber wants to use the services offered by Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL), he cannot do so. It is left to the service provider to decide how the call is routed depending on the business viability, rather than on the quality of service.

As of now, while Reliance, Bharti and VSNL offer both STD and ISD services, BSNL only STD services and Data Access only ISD services.

The authority in its directive had stipulated that for STD calls, mobile and fixed-line operators should introduce the CAC regime "within three months" and for ISD calls cellular operators should introduce it within six months and fixed-line operators within 18 months.

However, even as the outer deadline of 18 months has just passed, the system is yet to see the light of the day.

TRAI officials noted that the delay was on account of the apprehensions raised by certain operators like BSNL who stated that it would entail a huge amount of expenditure and also sought more time. It is for this reason that, even though the earlier directive was issued after year-long consultations, TRAI has once again started consultations on the issue.

They noted that because of the "genuine" problems that the different operators stated, the authority had decided to be a bit more lenient and come out with revised guidelines for the implementation of the system. It is not true that the operators had sidestepped the directive, because the postponement has been done with its consent. As a result, no penalty had also been imposed on them, the sources noted.

They expressed confidence that once the new guidelines are issued, all the operators will stick to the new time frame and the customer will finally be given a choice to choose his/her STD/ISD operator.

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