The Hindu Business Line : Govt not to make connectivity on `intelligent networks' mandatory

IF you are an Airtel pre-paid subscriber in Delhi, you will not be able to recharge your mobile if you are roaming on the Hutch network in Lucknow. And if you are with a small mobile phone operator, you cannot even avail of the roaming facility.

Despite demands from the industry, the Government has decided not to make inter-connection on Intelligent Network (IN) platforms mandatory for mobile telecom operators, which would mean that a host of facilities would continue to elude subscribers.

"As per the licence conditions, it is not mandatory to deploy an IN platform or offer pre-paid services. We found that inter-connection on different IN platforms is not always technically feasible and cannot be made mandatory," a senior Department of Telecommunications official told Business Line.

Moreover, the access provider has no means to find out the destination number dialled, which is necessary for sharing of revenues as per the inter-connect user charges (IUC) regime and for records reconciliation.

Similarly, the originating operator will not be able to provide details of the called party, which is required for monitoring purposes by the security agencies, he said.

While most leading operators, including Hutch, Bharti and BSNL, already have IN platforms to offer services like pre-paid and virtual calling card (VCC), the problem arises in inter-connection between the networks of different service providers, the official said.

"IN software is not an open architecture and is vendor-specific. Normally, these networks cannot be connected with each other. For instance, the Lucent platform of MTNL cannot connect with BSNL's Ericsson platform," the official said.

An industry source, however, said that the problem was not with different GSM networks, it was the inter-connection between GSM and CDMA network that posed a technical challenge.

"Many large operators have different systems already operating in different parts of the country and are still offering all such services. By refusing to consider inter-connection, the Government will only create a disparity among the smaller operators who cannot afford to put up IN platforms. These smaller players will not be able to offer even roaming facility to their subscribers," the industry source said.

On its part, the Government has informed the TRAI that inter-connection among IN platforms cannot be made mandatory and has to be left to the commercial decisions of individual operators.