The rift between Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and private operators over payment of carriage charges has reached a flash point.
While the state-owned company has threatened to disconnect the links with all mobile operators if they do not clear the dues, private operators have joined ranks to defy the BSNL notice.
The Rajasthan and Maharashtra circles of the state-owned company have already issued notices asking all operators to pay up by September 14 or face disconnection.
If BSNL carries out its threat, then subscribers of private players will not be able to make calls to the PSU's fixed line telephone users and vice versa. While the immediate impact will be on 1.1 million fixed line and 30 million mobile subscribers in Rajasthan, telephone users in other circles will also get caught in the cross-fire if the private players refuse to comply with BSNL's diktat across the country.
Senior BSNL officials confirmed sending the notice in some circles including Rajasthan and said instructions have gone from the headquarters for similar action in other circles over the next few days.
“Private operators have not been paying us carriage charges for many months now which are in violation of interconnection regulations. The dues have run up to several hundred crores and we just cannot carry their calls anymore unless they pay up,” said a BSNL official.
Carrier charges are basically fees paid by mobile phone companies to fixed line operators for calls landing of the latter's network. BSNL and MTNL are currently the country's only two major fixed line telecom operators.
Private operators said that they are prepared to face disconnection as in this case it is the PSU that stands to lose more.
“The market situation has changed and BSNL does not command a high market share anymore. BSNL continues to charge us arbitrarily based on a 10-year-old agreement,” said a Delhi-based GSM player reflecting the change in market dynamics.
Eight years ago when MTNL had threatened to pull the plug, mobile operators panicked and sought the Government's intervention. But now with PSUs' market share at just around 20 per cent, private players are not too bothered about a disconnection.
“Even if they disconnect, it will be BSNL's own subscribers who will suffer and probably surrender their fixed lines. That will further add to their revenue loss,” said another operator.
Under the existing rules of the Department of Telecom, a telecom circle is divided into three parts: Short Distance Charging Area (SDCA), which is smaller than district, Long Distance Charging Area (LDCA), which is equivalent to the size of a district, and the telecom circle, which is equivalent to a State.
interconnection regulation
According to the interconnection regulation, private operators are not allowed to take a call directly to consumers at the SDCA level. The operator has to pass the call to BSNL at the LDCA exchange. From this exchange, telephone calls are routed to SDCA level to reach end consumer.
While private operators say that they are required to pay a flat rate of 15 paise as carriage charge, BSNL wants to impose a fee based on the distance it carries the traffic.
“We are ready to pay 15 paise but BSNL wants to apply rates applicable to STD calls even on intra circle calls. This increases the carriage charge from 15 paise to 35-60 paise,” said an industry representative.