BSNL Cuts Off Deals With Private Operators

BSNL escalated its long standing hostility with private carriers to disconnect Airtel, Idea and Vodofone customers from its network on Thursday, on account of huge outstanding of distance-based carriage charges to the tune of Rs 13 crore. BSNL said it had withdrawn connectivity after giving prior notice & sufficient time as per interconnect agreements with these operators.

This means that the customers of these three operators cannot connect with BSNL customers and vice versa. However, BSNL has allowed the customers of these private operators to make emergency calls to BSNL numbers 100, 101, 102 & 108. BSNL says pan-India carriage charges payable by private operators is Rs 126 crore while private operators say BSNL owes it Rs 256 crore. BSNL wants private operators to pay first.

However, BSNL said private operators are supposed to pay the Interconnect Usage Charges (IUC) as per IUC agreement and that "instead of clearing the dues, these operators are spreading false propaganda against BSNL.













State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) has disconnected links with private operators in Maharashtra and Goa in violation of a telecom tribunal order, a body representing GSM mobile operators in India said.Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said the public sector telco had snapped off points of interconnect with private telecom companies in Maharashtra and Goa last week, on the pretext that the telcos had not paid intra-circle carriage charges. Over the last month, BSNL has conducted a similar exercise in Punjab and Rajasthan regions.

Despite having faced public outrage in several areas recently on having disconnected emergency services causing harassment to the users and having to restore them thereafter; it is pretty disappointing to see BSNL resorting to the same coercive ways again showing complete disregard for both the customers and the TDSAT

BSNL's press statement did not specify which circles this pertained to but industry sources say this pertains to the Maharashtra circle. BSNL has already disconnected private operators in Punjab and Haryana. According to Rajan Mathews, director general of COAI, BSNL is violating both TDSAT and TRAI directives. The TDSAT has said it will rule on the matter of interconnect usage charges in November and private operators should continue to pay BSNL according to the benchmarks used since July 2010. On October 19, 2011, TRAI also directed BSNL to reconnect private operators in Punjab and Haryana in public interest.