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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Biddle who wrote (33016)	3/2/2003 7:55:17 PM
From: John Biddle	Respond to of 197271

BSNL Refuses To Toe Trai Line On Interconnect Charges To WLL Mamuni Das financialexpress.com New Delhi, March 2: Refusing to give the interconnect charges to the WLL-M operators as fixed by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has asked the regulator to either lower the fixed to WLL-M interconnect charges or allow forbearance on fixed line tariff. “We have requested the authority to either allow us to decide the fixed line to WLL-M call charges or bring down the access charges payable to the WLL M players to the same level as that payable to fixed line operators,” said a senior BSNL official. As per the interconnect usage charges (IUC) regulations announced by Trai in January this year, fixed line operators will have to shell out 40 paisa for every minute to terminate calls on WLL-M network in non-metro circles. While BSNL will get only Re 1 or Rs 1.20 for every two minute call or 50 to 60 paisa per minute (depending on the volume of calls) from its subscribers, it will be left only with 10 to 20 paisa after paying 40 paisa per minute as operators interconnect charges to WLL-M . However, since 60-65 per cent of the BSNL subscribers fall in the lower usage category, wherein the subscriber pays 50 paise per minute per call, BSNL would get to keep 10 paise for most of the calls. Moreover, BSNL will be incurring losses for each minute in case of calls made between two SDCA under 50 km distance from fixed line to WLL-M phones. BSNL is paid the local call charges for such calls by its customers but it will have to pay 20 paisa per minute to the transit or the long distance carrier in addition to 40 paisa to be paid to the WLL-M operators as termination charges. Another example was also stated by the official wherein a fixed line service provider would end up paying more than what it collects from a subscriber. If a call was to be made from a Gurgaon fixed line phone to a WLL M phone in Delhi, then majority of subscribers would pay 50 paise per minute. Now as per IUC regulations, out of the 50 paise collected, the fixed line operator would have to pay 40 paise to the WLL M player and 20 paise to the transit carrier or national long distance carrier on a per minute basis. Thus the fixed line player would have to pay a total of 60 paise as interconnect and termination charges, while it collects 50 paisa from a subscriber. “This is not economically feasible and is not acceptable to the organisation at all,” said the official. BSNL is yet to get any reply from the regulator on this issue. If this issue is not resolved, we have no option but to go to the court, said the official.