Solve interconnect row, Indian mobile firms urge regulator

Wednesday, 15 January 2003, 20:30 IST
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Indian cellular providers Tuesday urged the telecom regulator to speedily solve a contentious interconnection row with companies that offer limited radius telephone services.

NEW DELHI: The cellular industry said that the order of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) directing mobile firms to connect with Wireless in Local Loop (WiLL) operators was "patently against the interest of 10 million cellular users". The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said the private mobile phone firms are ready to provide immediate interconnection to all WiLL operators based on "reciprocal commercial interconnect terms". Cell firms say it is unfair to charge them 1.20 when a call is made from a mobile phone to a WiLL phone network, whereas the WiLL operators pay no access charge for the call originating from their network to a private cellular network. "We are paying 1.20 to fixed-line phone operators for every call made from a cell phone which in turn is passed on to the customer, making cellular services expensive," said COAI chairman Rajeev Chandrashekhar. "We are ready to interconnect (with WiLL operators) provided this is on the same basis," Chandrashekhar contended at a press conference here. Private cellular operators met Tuesday to discuss the situation arising out of TRAI's directive to them to provide interconnection to the Tatas for completing calls on their WiLL network. Mobile operators say if the access charges of 1.20 were withdrawn, they would offer free incoming calls, besides cuts in airtime charges for outgoing calls. "Unless addressed in a just manner, it would cost cellular consumers in excess of 20 billion in the year 2003," said a statement issued by the private service providers. "By present standards, this nearly doubles the cost of an outgoing cellular call and prevents the cellular industry from moving to an incoming free regime," they added. They said due to the prevailing "regulatory advantages", the mobile firms could not bring down their tariff to match WiLL players. Panicky mobile phone operators sharply slashed the charges for long distance calls on January 2 after Reliance Infocomm announced the launch of its wireless telephony operations on December 27 at huge discounts. All private sector mobile service providers cut mobile-to-mobile domestic long-distance charges beyond 50 kilometres to 2.99 a minute from a current peak of 9 a minute. Reliance Infocomm, 45 percent owned by India's Reliance Industries, is offering a promotional three-year membership at 3,000, a free handset and a monthly payment of 600, which includes 400 minutes of talk time at 40 paise a minute. Incoming calls, voicemail, text messaging and Internet access would all be free on the Reliance network. Based on its pricing strategy Reliance hopes to grab a 15 to 20 percent share of India's mobile market by the end of 2004. Currently, Indian cellular companies charge a rupee a minute on an average for an outgoing call. The incoming calls are also charged. Reliance uses cheaper code division multiple access (CDMA) technology for offering mobile services within city limits. Other cellular operators offering unlimited mobility work on the rival global system for mobile communications (GSM) platform. Unlike cellular services on the GSM platform that can be used by customers when travelling, WiLL services on the CDMA platform are limited to a certain region, usually within the city area. India, one of the fastest growing telecom markets globally, has seen a sharp decline in cellular airtime tariffs and mobile handset prices in the last couple of years as competition soared with the entry of new players. The Indian cellular market has for the last few years been the most dynamic segment of the telecom industry and amongst the fastest growing. The country has about 10.5 million mobile phone users now and it is forecast to grow by a compounded 52.5 percent to 30.9 million subscribers through 2005.
Source: IANS