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India
Telecom
September 30, 2002
Cellular telcos, BSNL on collision course over numbering
plan
Rajendra Prabhu
NEW DELHI -- Private sector cell phone operators are
threatening to disconnect from Bharat Sanchar Nigam
Ltd (BSNL), protesting over the numbering plan allotted
to the government-owned carrier by the Department of
Telecommunications (DoT) for its cellular service that
is set to be launched on October 2. However, the BSNL
is not worried.
The allocation of an entirely new series "94"
to BSNL is being considered as "discriminatory"
as the government carrier would get capacity for 100
million connections, while the private telcos together
have been allotted the existing series of "98."
But that remains underutilized as the total cellular
subscriptions are not more than eight million right
now and are expected to go up to 45 million by mid-decade.
There is thus enough capacity in the existing 98 series
for all the four licensees. BSNL is the latest entrant.
BSNL's director (Finance) S.D. Saxena, said: "We
are for determining relationships on a long-term basis
with all competitors. If you are going to fight on every
issue, then the progress would be very difficult,"
he told Convergence Plus. The Cellular Operators Association
of India (COAI) did not respond to calls. However, sources
said private telcos had been pushed to the wall by the
government's decision and that they had no other way
but to protest.
BSNL sources said private telcos cannot disconnect with
BSNL without violating the regulatory mandate that says
that all service providers should not discriminate between
subscribers in extending their services. That means
the telcos cannot say that their subscribers will not
be enabled to talk to BSNL subscribers.
Even more important than the regulatory mandate is the
fact that BSNL has a landline connectivity of 99 percent
in basic telephony services. If private cellular telcos'
subscribers are unable to dial in to landline subscribers,
most cellular subscribers would have serious loss of
business and the industry would enter a crisis. The
disconnect between private cellular telcos and BSNL
would mean cellular subscribers would not be able to
talk to the large majority of landline telephone subscribers
and vice versa. It is unlikely that the cellular subscribers
would tolerate this situation.
The private cellular telcos are already in the court
over the BSNL/MTNL foray into mobile WLL. If these telcos
implement their reported threat to disconnect with BSNL
exchanges, it would be another issue that will likely
land up in the court or before the TRAI. The telcos
-- who have invested nearly Rs 25,000 crores in their
networks -- would come under severe strain. The bottom
could fall out of the telecom industry, already reeling
under what is considered predatory pricing in every
sector, wireless, national long distance and international
long distance.
The private cellular telcos and the government carriers
have had a long history of conflict of interests. It
started in 1966 soon after the telcos started their
cellular services when MTNL was given a license to enter
the field. While the matter came up before the TRAI
and then went to higher courts, the 1999 settlement
between the government and the p-telcos over the migration
from license fees to revenue share provided for p-telcos
withdrawing their objection to government-owned carriers
entering into cellular service as the third operator.
The entry of mobile WLL service again shattered the
fragile peace between the two and the dispute is now
before the Supreme Court. Private telcos fear that government-owned
carriers might use their enormous financial clout due
to their huge domination in basic services as a means
of subsidizing their cellular and mobile WLL services.
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