In a joint statement issued by the Cellular Operators Association of India and the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India on the recent carriage charges issue between Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and private operators, the industry bodies said, ?We wish to inform all the consumers/CAGs of Rajasthan, regarding the illegal and coercive activity of BSNL to attempt to disconnect interconnectivity between its network (both landline and mobile) and private mobile operators? network. This threat arises from illegal claims made by BSNL against private operators for delivery of its calls within the same circle/state of BSNL.?
?This is in clear violation of the TRAI Regulations of March 2009 as well as the TDSAT orders. The disconnection threats by BSNL, if carried out, would result in extreme hardship to consumers in various circles of all networks including that of BSNL.?
?According to TRAI’s Interconnect Usage Charges (Regulation 2009), a private operator is required to pay Re 0.15 per minute as carriage charges for a call to BSNL’s fixed line network within the state/circle. However BSNL is unfairly trying to charge a higher amount of Re 0.65 per minute for such calls from all the private operators.?
?This is contrary to TRAI’s IUC Regulation of March 2009. Private operators are not liable to pay this amount as wrongly claimed by BSNL. The TRAI IUC Regulation of March 2009 is still valid and subsisting.? BSNL has wrongly reported the entire issue and no amount is outstanding on this account to BSNL. On the contrary, the proposed coercive and unilateral action by BSNL to disconnect the private operators? interconnection is against consumer interest as it will cause undue hardship to consumers of not only all private operators but that of BSNL as well.?
?On behalf of the industry, we appeal to CMD, BSNL to withdraw these illegal demands. The disconnection will cause inconvenience to all the consumers all over country.?
