The Hindu : Business : Single all-India tariff opposed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 26, 2005

Business

Business

Single all-India tariff opposed

Cell operators want inter-circle connectivity

NEW DELHI: Cellular operators on Thursday said direct connectivity between circles was essential for the success of the proposed IndiaOne concept, even as they opposed a single all-India tariff.

"It may not be desirable to merge local call and long distance rates and have a single all India tariff... A single rate for intra and inter circle calls would mean higher intra-circle call rates in order to reduce the inter-circle rates, meaning that local calls will subsidise long distance calls,'' The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said in its submission to the Department of Telecom.

"This would not only contradict accepted practices but would also unfairly penalise the local call consumers. No measures should be taken that would raise these tariffs as this would be against the interests of consumers,'' it argued.

COAI said for the IndiaOne concept to become a success, permission for inter-circle connectivity across all service areas would be an absolute pre-requisite.

This, it said, would require that licences be reviewed and amended in a way so as to allow every service provider in each service area to terminate the inter-circle calls of all its subscribers through the necessary arrangements.

Need for review

Also, long distance/inter-circle tariffs cannot be brought down to the level of local call tariffs as this would be financially unfeasible and make the operations totally unviable, it said.

COAI said its understanding of IndiaOne was that this proposal would only deal with inter-circle long distance tariffs and facilitate simplicity, convenience and affordability of inter-circle long distance tariffs.

In respect of intra-circle calls/tariffs, however, it has already been submitted that these should not be touched and service providers should continue to have freedom to offer "on-net'' tariffs within their own network in the same service area, it said.

COAI has also opposed any move to increase the local call rates in the backdrop of introducing IndiaOne rates.

The association said the Mobile Termination Charges (MTC) prescribed were abysmally below cost. The charges also skewed the traffic towards more incoming calls. At present, around 70 per cent of the traffic was incoming calls from fixed phones. The low MTC compelled operators to charge a far higher origination charge to compensate for the below cost termination charges, it said, stressing the need for an urgent review of the InterConnect Usage regime. It also submitted that carriage charges might be forborne with a prescribed ceiling, adding that the carriage charges may be estimated as a weighted average carriage charge based on the minutes of usage, applicable for all calls. This should be prescribed/applied separately for intra-circle and inter-circle calls.

COAI wanted the Access Deficit Charge (if necessary) implemented as a hybrid revenue share regime, with incoming ILD calls bearing a higher ADC charge, which would devolve on the international operators.

It has also suggested merger of ADC straightaway with the USO. There must be a clear pre-defined sunset date by which the ADC regime will be phased out. — PTI

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