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Thomas K Thomas

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New Delhi, July 15 Paving the way for Reliance Communications to roll out its pan-India GSM cellular services, the telecom regulator has directed all existing mobile operators to provide inter-connectivity to the new entrant.

Existing GSM operators had refused to offer inter-connectivity to Reliance Communications on the grounds that the latter’s GSM network was part of a new licence and therefore it will have to negotiate fresh terms with the likes of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone.

TRAI has, however, held that Reliance’s GSM network was part of the unified access licence it already holds for offering CDMA-based mobile services and therefore there was no need for renegotiating the inter-onnection terms.

Without interconnection, Reliance Communications would not have been able to start services as it would have meant that a Reliance GSM subscriber would not be able to call any of the 200 million GSM subscribers belonging to the existing operators across the country.

Existing GSM operators had argued that since the Government’s decision to allow dual technology to RCom was under the scrutiny of the High Court, they were not under any compulsion to provide inter-connection till the matter was cleared.

Reliance Communications, on the other hand, said that its GSM roll-out was not a new licence and the Department of Telecom had permitted the company to offer dual technology under its existing licences. It alleged that GSM operators were using inter-connection to block its entry.

As per TRAI’s regulation, operators are required to offer inter-connection to each other on mutually agreed terms within a stipulated period of time. The regulator has now told the GSM players to comply with this regulation.

More Stories on : Telecommunications | Regulatory Bodies & Rulings | Corporate Disputes | Reliance Communications Ltd

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