The Hindu Business Line : Operators agree on interconnection issue

THE Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has said that there is not going to be any further postponement of the interconnection usage charge (IUC) regime, and it is to come into effect from May 1 as announced earlier.

The authority, which held a meeting with the basic service operators, cellular operators, national and international long-distance operators to sort out the technical difficulties in implementing the scheme, has decided that the reconciliation of data for this purpose is to be done by BSNL before the date.

The interim phase will end by March 31, 2004 with the implementation of CDR-based billing system by all operators including BSNL. The authority is also taking up with the licensor a related issue of standardisation of WLL (M) numbering for all BSOs, it has stated.

It may be recalled that some of the operators had informed TRAI that they face technical difficulties in implementation of the IUC Regulation. These include separate allocation of local SDCA numbers for fixed and WLL (M) sectors, increase in the depth of analysis in switches, increase in the number of records for routing and IUC computation in dynamic mode, need for CDR-based billing system, requirement of CLI information across networks, requirement of CCS7 signalling at POIs.

Based on the representations on the issue, TRAI had convened a meeting with the BSOs, cellular operators, national and international long-distance operators on April 7, so that a consolidated view could be taken to address the problems envisaged in implementation of the IUC. In the meeting, various options for the implementation of IUC regime were suggested by the operators.

It was decided that a committee be set up to explore all options on the issue of implementation aspects of IUC regime and suggest possible alternatives so that implementation of the IUC Regulation takes place from May 1. BSNL was made convenor of the committee.

The committee after detailed deliberations suggested four options in the implementation of IUC regime along with its strengths and weaknesses. As per the committee's report no single option was acceptable to all the stakeholders.

The authority felt that all the four options given in the report, including any amendments, needed to be discussed in the presence of TRAI officials so that an acceptable solution could emerge and accordingly a meeting was arranged on April 19 with all the stakeholders.

The options suggested by the committee and possible solutions were discussed with all the stakeholders on Saturday.

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