Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has told private telecom operators that it would disconnect the links between their networks if the operators did not pay the outstanding dues, to the tune of Rs 1.65 billion.
Prior to this, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and the Association of Unified Service Providers of India (AUSPI) had stated that BSNL had issued notices to the private players, asking them to pay about Rs 1.65 billion as interconnect usage charges (IUC).
IUC charges are paid by one operator to the other for using its network to complete calls and send SMSs.
Both the industry bodies had said that BSNL’s demand is “erroneous”, as it has asked for an increased IUC rate, which is yet to be decided by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
The associations said that TRAI’s Interconnect Usage Charges (Regulation 2009) mandates a private operator 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 allegedly trying to charge Re 0.65 per minute for such calls from all the private operators.
