The Hindu Business Line : VSNL told to stop selling international calling cards

THE Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has asked Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd to stop selling pre-paid international long distance calling cards in the country.

The order was passed on grounds that the calling card violated licence conditions, since VSNL, as an international long distance operator, did not have the permission to sell directly to the end-consumer.

TRAI has asked VSNL to show compliance with the order within three days. The regulator has also said that the calling cards violated the Access Deficit Charge and the Interconnect Usage Charges (IUC) norms. The notice was sent to VSNL on Monday.

TRAI had earlier issued a show-cause notice to the company but found VSNL's response "unsatisfactory."

In its response, VSNL said that it was not violating any licence norms since it was selling the cards through Tata Teleservices and not directly to the end-consumer.

"It is denied that the selling of international calling cards is not in consonance with the licence and IUC Regulations and it is further denied that there has been any violation of licence conditions of IUC regulations," VSNL's response to the show-cause notice said.

TRAI had also said that the calling cards posed security concerns since the called number could not be provided to the security agencies. Denying the allegation, VSNL said that it had to issue calling cards because TRAI had not enforced the Carrier Access Codes (CAC), which would have allowed the end-consumer to choose the long distance operator.

VSNL said that despite setting a deadline for the introduction of CAC, the regulator had not done enough to push through with the service. VSNL said that since there was no CAC, it had to foray into the market with calling cards to offer the consumers a choice.

VSNL sources said that TRAI order comes at a time when a few months back the regulator had refused to intervene in the case of long distance licence violations by Reliance Infocomm on grounds that it did not have enough powers.

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VSNL told to stop selling international calling cards