Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Feb 24, 2006
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Feb 24, 2006 |
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Info-Tech
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Telecommunications Industry & Economy - Regulatory Bodies & Rulings Operators hail TRAI proposals — Hugely disappointed with ADC extension Our Bureau
New Delhi , Feb. 23 Even as telecom operators were pleased with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) overall thrust of the revised Access Deficit Charge (ADC) regime announced on Thursday, they said that some of their concerns had not been addressed. Operators said that the TRAI's decision to extend the subsidy till 2008-09 will disturb the level playing field with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), which is the major beneficiary of the money collected through ADC. "We wanted the ADC to be removed from this year itself, but now the telecom regulator has extended it till 2009, which we believe is unfair to private operators. While credit should be given to TRAI for bringing down the total subsidy, it would have been prudent if the regulator had also taken a decision on refunding the excess amount collected from us over the past year," said Mr S. C. Khanna, Association of Unified Service Providers of India (AUSPI). The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said that 1.5 per cent ADC charge would lead to a reduction in telecom tariffs across the board, but expressed disappointment for not getting a higher termination rate. "Although the regulator had noted that the mobile termination charges in India were 12-24 times lower than those prevailing in other countries, the Authority had not taken this opportunity to correct this anomaly and revise the charges upwards, at least for international incoming calls," said Mr T. V. Ramachandran, Director General, COAI. Carriage charges of 65 paise per minute are on the higher side, considering the 70 per cent reduction in the cost of domestic leased circuits, he added. A Reliance Infocomm spokesperson said, "We welcome the overall reduction in ADC by TRAI. We also welcome the reduction in ADC for inbound and outbound international long distance calls. This will lead to overall growth of the Indian telecom sector and contribute to acceleration of tele-usage." Mr R. S. P. Sinha, Chairman and Managing Director, MTNL, said the new ADC regime would have a positive impact on the company's profits. "I have not gone through the details but by and large, it is favourable to us. The lower carriage cost will help us in offering lower STD rates," Mr Sinha said. Maran happy
The Union Communication and IT Minister, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, said that moving to revenue-share based model was long overdue and the Department of Telecom had been in touch with TRAI over this for a long time. Mr Maran added that the reduction in the total amount would not have much of an impact on State-run BSNL. "BSNL was aware of all these consequences. They have taken all these things into account and have come out with OneIndia Plan. BSNL was ready to face this competition and One India tariff plan was a bold move from both State-owned telecom companies," the Minister said. He said that private operators should now be able to offer matching tariffs to consumers.
Related Stories: More Stories on : Telecommunications | Regulatory Bodies & Rulings
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