Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Nov 03, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Nov 03, 2005 |
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Info-Tech
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Telecommunications TRAI call to reduce congestion in mobile networks Our Bureau
New Delhi , Nov. 2 IN order to reduce congestion in mobile networks, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Wednesday called for the need to reduce the time taken to establish interconnection between networks of various telecom operators. Moreover, the regulator has blamed Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) more than the private operators for delaying provision of interconnection. To support the present growth rate of 2.5 - 3 million subscribers every month, the time period for provision of interconnection should be very minimum, TRAI said based on its study taken to highlight the reason "for the increasing frustration among the users of mobile services in getting through the calls". Blaming BSNL for delays in providing interconnection, the regulator said, "It appears that the private operators other than BSNL, have been quicker in responding to the interconnection needs though some of them have lately shown signs of congestion build up possibly due to the unexpectedly high growth rate. The problem is however extremely acute in interconnection with BSNL, whether it is interconnection to their fixed network or the mobile network." However, it added that there is heavy congestion in mobile-to-mobile calls between all operators. The magnitude of congestion is alarming and nowhere near the TRAI specified acceptable limit of 0.5 per cent, it said. The interconnection links of some operator or the other to BSNL's fixed network in 145 out of 323 long distance charging areas (LDCAs) have congestion while in 49 LDCAs, the congestion level is in the range of 40 per cent to 94.8 per cent, said TRAI. The study further says that to be able to cope with the growing rate without congestion in the network, there is a need to drastically curtail the time needed for providing the interconnection. On the other hand, if interconnection issues are left for mutual negotiations, the incumbent operator and operators with significant market power (operators with higher subscribers in any market) always try to delay interconnection to other players. This is evident from the recent dispute on interconnection between Reliance Infocom and Tata Teleservices where Reliance had delayed provision of interconnection to Tata Teleservices, TRAI pointed out.
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