Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Saturday, Apr 24, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Saturday, Apr 24, 2004 |
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Info-Tech
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Telecommunications Government - Politics Election calls `inconveniencing', says Mittal Our Bureau
New Delhi , April 23 IT is not as if only lesser mortals have been woken up at the dead of night by a phone call from Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee while roaming overseas. The Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd Chairman and Group Managing Director, Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal, was himself surprised with a phone call from the Prime Minister asking for votes for his party when he was in Dubai. The other mobile subscribers can take solace from the fact that even Mr Mittal had to pay roaming charges to listen to the recorded message, which, for most subscribers, only has nuisance value. "We understand that it is a problem, but we can do nothing about it. I have received many phone calls from our subscribers complaining about such calls. But it is an issue where only the Election Commission or the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) can come to the rescue of subscribers and impose curbs on political parties making mass phone calls to the common public," Mr Mittal said. Similarly, subscribers are routinely harassed by calls from companies selling auto loans, credit cards and other such products. As of now, only the BJP had resorted to making such calls, but in the future, other parties could also send out such messages, Mr Mittal said, admitting that it could "inconvenience" subscribers. He said that the operators could not cut off calls with suppressed caller line identification (CLI), as several small exchanges in the country are not CLI compatible. "There is no way that an operator can distinguish between suppressed CLI and non-CLI calls. Moreover, calls from the US also come without CLI. Under the law, we cannot cut off any calls," the Bharti chief said on the sidelines of a press conference to announce the company's annual results. Mr Mittal supported the views of the TRAI Chairman, Mr Pradip Baijal, that roaming on cellular phones should be made mandatory and urged the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd to enter into roaming agreements with private operators. "BSNL should open roaming. That would help in greater penetration of mobile phones and overall growth of the industry," he said a day after the TRAI chief said at a conference that roaming on cellular phones should be made mandatory. Mr Mittal said that the Bharti group was willing to share its infrastructure with its rivals, as that would bring down costs for the customers. He also said that BSNL's last mile network of copper cables should be offered to broadband players on a revenue share basis. "BSNL's network has been built with the tax-payer's money and is a national asset. We support unbundling on commercial terms. Not only will the operator (BSNL) get more revenues, the customers will get lower prices as the other operators will not have to duplicate work in laying cables all over again," Mr Mittal said.
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